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Show SJ Volume 94 HtivlCL. . , b Mu Call Jail Problem Under Study The Grand Ball - a Picture Story jj Colimtiy by Bruce Jennings The Sanpete County Commission is now grappling with a major problem that requires early action. The problem, in plain terms, is the county jail. The Sanpete County jail does not One of my New Years resolutions this year is to do something about some of the things which Ive just talked about in the past. As a starter. Ive been talking for a long time about enrolling in the Emergency Medical Technician training course. Not only is this a very necessary and vital service for our community, but Im sure it will be a valuable skill to have for my own personal use. So this week I took the plunge and filled out the application papers and committed myself to the necessary time to complete the course. Not only that, but I persuaded Lloyd to enroll also. The present EMT organization isn't just joking when they say that if they dont get some response from this course that the program will go belly-up- . It cant keep functioning as it is with such a few people doing all the work. I strongly urge many of you to take stock of your own situation and see if you cant find the time to perform this service. I doubt that any of you are more locked in on a time schedule that this fat printer. If I can do it, so can a lot of you. Manti and Ephraim cities have agreed to pay the tuition for selected participants who will obligate themselves to stay with the program for a year. It will seem strange for me to go back to school after 35 years, but Im game to Grand March at New Year's Eve Grand Ball featured many former church leaders and their ladies. City Officials Will Be Sworn in try. Another resolution I've made for this year is to be a bit more firm with Beth. I love her dearly, but I have to whip her into line and make her a little more worthy of that love. Lately she has a tendency to think she knows more than her husband, and I have to nip that in the bud. About the next thing she'll want is het own spending money and a day a month off! Ephraim and Manti will install new City Council members and Sterling two-neTown Board members at ceremonies in their city halls Monday at Still another resolution: I resolve to set the same impeccable example for 12 noon. my The Ephraim City Council will have with three new the largest turn-ovemembers replacing councilmen who were not candidates for Taking the oath will be Gwen Jacobson, a civic and church worker: Leon P. Olsen, a farmer and livestoekman who had previously served on the Council, and Keith C, Keisel, of Central Utah president and grandchildren as I have always done. And I'll make an honest attempt to keep Beth from spoiling them. As has always been my habit, I will refrain from bragging about them. Carl Purcell is one of the finest artists in the territory. He specializes in watercolors, landscapes, etc. having lived in the desert with all its intriguing artistic possibilities. But a strange thing happened to him a while back. A beautiful young socialite (not from Sanpete, however) offered him $5000 to paint her in the nude. He refused, explaining that it was against his principles. A week later, she called him and offered him $10,000. Again he refused. When she called him a third time and offered $25,000, he asked if he could think it over. The next day, he phoned her and said he'd do it, with one qualification. I'll have to wear socks,' he said. I need a place for my r, George Albert Smith and wife Jay and Janice Cluff, Coal Co. They replace Kay Willardson, Keith Beazer and Ralph Lund, who were not candidates for The Manti City Council will have only one new member. Jay Cluff, a partner in a local manufacturing company. Robert and Bryan McArthur, both completing their first terms on the council, were Sterling will install Orra Campbell and Lou Mills as board members in replacement of incumbents Max Otten and Douglas Ludvigson, whom they defeated in the November election. In an unusual action, the names of Mrs. Campbell and Mr. Mills were ordered placed on the official ballot by Judge Louis Tervort following their nomination by petition. Bessey brushes.' Since I got my dogs back, I've been now their bark is feeding them garlic worse than their bite. Not so trivial: If you have a weakness, and make It work for you as a strength U you have a strength, dont abase It into a weakness. Tax Notices 3 ieception line included Brigham Young and one of his wives Lee and !ella Rae Barton and John Taylor and wife Don and Marjorie Tibbs, Still Not in the Mail Gark. Porter Rockwell and his squaw Glen and Diane Bair, (more pictures on Page 2) around-the-cloc- k Association Favors New Communications System The Sanpete County Mayors and Commissioners Association has gone on record as favoring the establishment of a centralized communication system at the courthouse in Manti. The county now has pending applications with state and federal agencies for start-ufunds for the establishment of a centralized system, according to Manti Mayor Ben Kjar, chairman of the association. health, accident, law enforcement and similar problems. The present system, with emergency calls going through Richfield, has proved somewhat unsatisfactory from the Sanpete point of view, Mayor Kjar said, because of the confusion, the delays in getting calls through and the frequent slow response. We feel that a centralized system, located in the courthouse, with dispatchers on duty around the clock, would prove much more satisfactory to Sanpete County residents," Mayor Kjar said. He explained that another benefit, in addition to improved services, could be a reduction in fire insurance rates. The present system, he said, involves considerable expense to Sanpete County and to its cities and towns. We could even be better off financially with our own system," Mayor Kjar said. p He said that start-u- p funds would finance the initiation of a centralized system, but other means would then have to be found to continue its operation. A centralized system, Mayor Kjar said, would benefit county residents in several ways. For one thing it would insure immediate response in case of fire, year-by-ye- Busy Year BLM Reviews Activities of 1979 It was a busy year for the Bureau of Land Management in Utah which saw public interest and involvement in bureau programs such as energy devel- Sanpete County Treasurer Earl Clark said Wednesday that 1979 property tax notices should be in the mail no later than Jan. 20. They'll be due not later than 30 days from the mailing date, according to Mr. Accompanying the notices will be application blanks for the property tax refunds mandated by the State Legislature. These applications must also be submitted within 30 days. Were extremely sorry for the delay, Mr. Gark said, but its been beyond our control. We know many people have been concerned because of the flood of phone calls and other inquiries weve received. Television and radio announcements to the effect that refund applications were due no later than Dec. 31 have added to the confusion, Mr. Gark said. Sanpete and Sevier Counties were the last to have the State Tax Commission reappraisal programs completed, he explained, and the due date for taxes and refund applications was extended for that reason. Ctliij meet federal standards," Commission Chairman Newton Donaldson acknowledged. It probably wont meet the state standards now being developed. Chairman Donaldson said that in his opinion some of those standards are reasonable for instance, the one requiring that the jail have supervision by a qualified person. Jail fires that have resulted in loss of life, because prisoners could not be released from their cells, have focused attention on this requirement, Mr. Donaldson pointed out Another requirement, that male and female offenders be separated and that juveniles not be confined with adult prisoners, and the requirement that prisoners have some opportunities for recreation, the chairman also feels are reasonable, Mr. Donaldson questions the requirement that jails have an extensive legal library available to inmates. Sanpete County is now sending juveniles to a detention center in Provo, woman offenders to an facility and evert some male prisoners to jails outside the county, This involves Sanpete in substantial expense," Mr, Donaldson said. We pay $25 a day and sometimes even more to house prisoners outside the county. There are also the transportation costs, in taking prisoners back and forth, and the time spent by our officers." The complaint of a former Sanpete County prisoner, which reached the Ameritan Civil Liberties Union, about conditions at the jail, and resulted in a letter from the ACLU to the Commission requesting early action, has given additional impetus lu finding Some solution. We have realized for some time that our facility is in many ways unsatisfactory," Mr. Donaldson said. "We know that we must do something. What that something will be is now a subject for study and decision. One possibility is the development of a facility to serve the entire Six County area, Mr. Donaldson said. He added that an area facility would have a major advantage, in the sharing of costs, but disadvantages, like increased time and of money spent in transportation prisoners and the attendance of officers at hearings. Another possibility is the construction of a new county jail in Sanpete County. To meet the requirements for separate quarters for men, women and juveniles and the other standards would involve us in an expenditure of around $2,000,000, according to our estimates, Mr. Donaldson said. The Countys third option, according to the commissioner, would be to discontinue the use of the jail and send all offenders outside the county for incarceration. also Sheriff Kennard Anderson, concerned about the problem of the jail, said that one possibility might be to use the facility only as an over-niglockup if some provision can be made for supervision. Most rural cities and counties are facing the same problems," Mr. Donaldson concluded. On the one hand we have the ever higher requirements for services and on the other the matter of costs. Where is the money coming from?" County officers said that the jail is sometimes empty, and sometimes has as many as five or six occupants. One official estimated that on the average two or three inmates are confined there. "Its one of those problems that seem minor, looked at one way," he said, "hut ran become a major one when looked at from other points of view," opment, wilderness, and grazing reach a new high. The Bureau manages more than 22 million acres or approximately 42 percent of the states land area, according to Gary J. Wicks, BLM state director in Utah, as he summarized the years BLM activities. He became state director in September after Paul L. Howard's retirement. Approval for the Intermountain Power Project plant to be built near Lynndyl in Millard County was given in December by Secretary of Interior Cecil D. Andrus. The energy project was expedited through cooperation among the utility industry, local, state and federal agencies involved. A new federal coal management program was implemented by the Secretary of the Interior during the year with the publication of a final environmental statement. This involved the public in several meetings and hearings throughout the state. Public comment is currently being sought on the potential coal leasing tracts in the Utah portion of the Utah Federal Coal Production Region. A study of issues raised by potential mining and transportation of coal from the Kaiparowits Plateau in southern Utah was started by BLM in cooperation with other federal agencies and the state of Utah. The study is scheduled to be completed July 1980. One competitive oil and gas bid opening was held by the BLM on approximately 6,400 acres. The wilderness review program was in full swing throughout the year with the initial inventory being completed on more than 22 million acres of land in the state. BLM received 7,000 comments from 1,600 people on this phase of the wilderness program. There has been more public involvement and interest in this program than any other BLM program in the state. To date, approximately 16 million acres in Utah have been dropped from the wilderness program with six million acres still being reviewed. More than 130,000 mining claims were recorded with BLM in Utah during the year as required by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. This brought the total mining claims recorded by BLM in the state to more than 200,000 since passage of the Act in October, 1976. During 1979, checks totaling more . than $12.3 million were sent to the Utah Treasurer as the states share of funds received from public lands managed by BLM. Local governments in the state also received more than $8 million in lieu" payments from the BLM. These payments are made annually in lieu of property taxes which the federal government does not pay on its lands. Mr. Wicks noted that BLMs wild horse management program included roundups and trapping efforts that resulted in placing Utah wild horses in foster homes during the year. Nominations were received for multiple use advisory councils in each of the five BLM districts. These councils are expected to be established early in 1980. During the year final environmental statements were issued on three range management areas: Three Corners, Randolph and Parker Mtn. covering 544,000 acres in Utah. Final statements were also completed on the proposed Utah Power and Light Company's Hunter (Emery) power plant units 3 and 4, and the Intermountain Power Project. Work is continuing on the Allen Warner Valley energy system and in addition to starting four new statements, BLM personnel participated in completing (Continued on Page 2) |