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Show 0 1 tJg HjJUUM f 'mi tutt tfiWU, t - J- - ..-- tt sfer 'c ., 1J & r 9 l'Vl ' M f'i'i H M day v S i 7 it r ge A7 Master craftsman. See Page B1 v Single Copy 50$ ji Wednesday, December 17, 2003 fEsam Vernal, Utah 84078 1 1 1th Year No. 51 20 Pages D SUPPORT OUR TROOPS Express online: www.vernal.com State agrees: problem occurred with mineral funding By Steven R. Wallis Express Editor State officials agreed, during a meeting with county officials in Price last Thursday, that there was a problem in the distribution of mineral lease money to counties in Utah from December 2001 to June 2(X)2. Chieftain Salmon Airs Piper vice president Utah Airline Operation for Salmon PA-3- 1 Mew aSir begin to provide air service between Vernal and Salt Lake City March Air, and Thom Wardell, Vernal Airport manager, inspect the aircraft. will Its not what county and city lead- ers wanted, but the much smaller Piper Chieftain will be Salt the right direction going Lake City International Airport. Salmon Air will begin providing essential air service (EAS) from Vernal to ,Salt Lake City next March. To introduce officials to the new service,' Stan DeLong, vice president for Salmon Air, flew one aircraft to Vernal of the Tuesday. The flight was at the same time as the arrival of the Great aircraft. Lakes the Salmon aircraft was shorter in length and noticeable the but plane had ample leg height, room for passengers. We want people to see that this is not a bad airplane, said Uintah Side-by-si- Mike Commissioner County McKee, after inspecting the plane. Airport Manager Thom Wardell noted that Vernal has never filled Great Lake Plane the which makes daily flights from Vernal to Denver. On good days, there could be up to 8 passengers on the plane to Denver!, Wardell saidL, Vemal has never met the 11 per day average required by federal law to allow communities to be served by larger aircrafts. Salmon Air is planning two flights t Vemal daily, Monday through Friday: departures from Vemal to Salt Lake City at 7 a m. and at 4:30 p.m. The final flight schedule will depend on public input, DeLong said. Salmon Air started up in 1981 with what DeLong said was assenger $29.5 million budget gets county approval Uintah County Commissioners unanimously approved the proposed $29,568,940 budget for 2004 at their weekly meeting Tuesday, Dec. 16. Uintah County Clerk-AuditMichael Wilkins presented the budget for approval. Commissioners cited a 2.3 percent cost of living increase for county employees and elected officials, a $250,000 increase for TriCounty Health Department, and an additional $700,000 in the Western Park 2004 budget as the contributors to major $1,230,450 increase over last year's budget. Those wishing to view the approved budget may do so at the County Commission office. Ed Zuburchan was the only citizen asking for a clarification of die increased expenditures. In other business. Commissioner Dave Haslem presented two memorandums of between the Bureau of Land Management and Uintah County. This represents that the process is started, said Commissioner Jim Abegglen of the memorandum representing a resource management plan and the memorandum representing day to day operations of the BLM and the county. Commissioner Mike McKee underscored the importance of discussions between the U.S. Forest Service and the county for similar understanding. The memorandum were both unanimously approved. Randy Simmons presented commissioners with updated and corrected Vehicle Transportation System maps for both B and D roads in the county. B roads are paved and improved, and D roads are unimproved roads. Noting that the maps are subject to future amendments and updating, both maps were approved. The Western Park Board received approval to Garth Horrocks and Mike Goddard. Del Brady and David Webster received Commission approval to be to the Planning and Zoning Board. on-goi- of Department Transportation (DOT) approved the Salmon proposal for EAS for The $80,000 in parts. Salmon Air provides scheduled service between Boise, McCall and Salmon, Idaho. The company plans to have one of the airplanes stationed in Vemal flight along with a crew. They also plan to purchase g fuel and service locally. We plan to give back to the community as much as possible, DeLong said. That way we can support each other. - , Salmon Air was awarded the EAS contracHog both Vemal and Moab. If there are mor$ than on a flight, an aircraft will be station at Salt Lake City to take the other passengers. We can more than make up for concerns about the smaller airplane in the quality of service, DeLong said. three-memb- Federal Vemal and Moab, from proposals by four other air services, because it was the lowest federal subsidy $198 per passenger from Vemal. er proposals were made by Great Lakes Aviation. Air Midwest, Scenic Arizona and Express Other Airlines Ine- rThe , Piper PA-3- 1 meets DOT standards if the aircraft does not regularly exceed 8.000 feet. The transfer of sen ice from Great Lakes to Salmon Air will take place during February 2004 and will be complete by March 1 f . vt tod R ' A ? r ' i 7 3 Mineral lease payments to Uintah County dropped drastically from December 2001 to June 2002 Graph shows average gas prices increasing from Dec. 2001 to June 2002. Gas production makes up about 85 percent of all mineral lease money In Uintah County. funds. In Uintah County, mineral lease money goes to build and maintain roads through the l'intah Special Service District, recreation and Utah State to scholarships and l'intah Basin University Applied College Technology l'intah Basin campuses. l'intah County commissioners have been wotking for over a year to bring the shortfall problem to the attention of state officials. Haslem agreed that the meetings with state officials may be the breakthrough Uintah County has been wanting. Board waits on eligibility Members of the l'intah School District Board of Education unanimously approved waiting to make final decisions on the pending updated eligibility for participation ill an extracurricular activities policy. thus allowing newly appointed Board member Jennifer Foley time to become acquainted with the issue. The Board discussed concerns over the policy and plans to read and approve it during the January' business meetings of the Board. The first business meeting to review the policy will be Tuesday, Jan 13, and the final reading and vote will be Tuesday, Jan. 27. Public review of the proposals may be made at the Board office, or online at www uintah net. then district info, then policies, then drafts and then elieibilitv. Breakfast with Santa is community success The Vemal Elks Lodge was a busy place Saturday morning from a m. as 763 people enjoyed a free pancake breakfast and Christmas entertainment at the second annual B'.akfast with Santa. Families of all ages received a pancake and egg breakfast with the most popular person during the Christmas season Santa Claus. Children had their picture taken with Santa and received coloring sheets, bingo games and a bag of candy provided by the Current Topics Club. Entertainment was scheduled by the Uintah Arts Council. Christmas were performances provided the morning by local throughout artists Wendy Long on her guitar, Brian Litton on the piano, and vocal performances by Blain Pierce, Nikell Eaton, Dianne Morton, and Kaylyn Sheffer. The morning ended over at True Value parking lot with the annual Chamber of Commerce turkey drawing. There was also the raffle drawing for prizes that helped raise funds for 2004 Breakfast with Santa. Dr. Terrell Seager won the Dale Murphy autographed baseball, and Vemal City Uintah County firemen. Dale Allred (left), and Ed Bulloch, participate in the Breakfast with Santa events Saturday along with volunteers, businesses, law enforcement, Uintah Parks and -- Recreation and others. See Santa on A2 R COPY Stan DeLong, 1 . seirvBce tiooadhies down) Service to begin March 1, 2004 By Steven R. Wallis Express Editor Uintah County Commissioner Dave llaslem believes the loss could be $1 million to over $4 million for Uintah County alone. During the period in question, mineral lease distributions, were estimated with the promise that there would he an adjustment once the computers used to make the estimates were allowed to be used. The computer system was taken offline because of a lawsuit contending misuse of federal funds belonging to Native American Tribes. Once the computer system came back online, mineral lease payment to Uintah County began to increase. The payment to Uintah County for the down time was less than $9(X).(XK). llaslem said the meetings with state officials were very interesting" and agreed that the county is making some headway in receiving the mineral lease money it lost in 2(X)I and 2(XJ2. The state agreed that mineral lease money will no longer be disTax the tributed State by Commission. The money will be go to the State Auditor's Office lor distribution to the counties. Also, the state agreed that there should be an audit on the distribution of mineral lease during 2X)I and 2(X)2. The state also agreed that the nine mineral producing counties in Utah would be included in the process of finding the mineral lease money that was lost So many times people in governmental positions have tunnel vision," llaslem said. "If some would have looked to the left or right, they would have realized a was lot earlier that something wrong." The stale will begin to determine the amount of funding that was lost in every affected county. "Not all counties were affected to the degree Uintah County was, said llaslem. "I think people dont realize the amount of money lost, llaslem said. "1 or the State of Utah. $3 to $4 million might not mean a lot, but it does for l'intah County." Randy Johnson, a former county commissioner who works for the has been assigned state, by Governor Olene Walker to head the investigation into the missing i i |