Show XT STANDARD-EXAMINE- METRO EDITION R FRIDAY JUNE 22 19S0 CITY EDITOR: 625-4220 SPORTS BUSINESS wmaw SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Attorney General Paul Van Dam apparently is willing to allow the courts to test the constitutionality of a spouse abuse law says Legislative General Counsel Gay Taylor On Tuesday legislative leaders threatened to sue Van Dam over his opinion unless he sought a court ruling on the law enacted by the 1S90 Legislature Under the law a police officer investigating a domestic violence case can remove an alleged abusive spouse or live-i-n companion from a home for at least 24 hours or until the offender can appear before a judge In cases of a long holiday weekend the spouse could be ordered out of the home for up to 90 hours But on June 5 Van Dam issued an opinion holding that such an order would violate the subject’s constitutional right to due process and many prosecutors since have declined to enforce the law for fear of lawsuits In a meeting Tuesday legislative leaders agreed to talk to Van Dam before filing suit and to ask him to seek a day that Van Dam’s opinion amounted to a law has direct effect in dispute No-conta- ct ct pute but the deputies ordered Hughes By TIM GURRiSTER Standart&tamner staff OGDEN — Attorney General Paul Van Dam calls it unconstitutional And a local man would agree claiming that Utah’s new spouse abuse law has made him “suddenly a transient' sleeping on a couch at a friend’s business Weber County sheriffs deputies were called to a Taylor home last Friday evening to break up a domestic dispute between John Hughes and his girlfriend He had moved into her place about 18 months earlier The couple was quarreling and deputies were called at the culmination of a conflict Exactly what happened between the two is in dis no-cont- long-runni- declaratory judgment in the courts and Taylor said Wednesday that she had met with Van Dam and members of his staff on Wednesday “I think the attorney general’s office is applies to unmarried couples living together As of Thursday Hughes was still wearing the clothes he had on Friday w hen he was thrown out of the home The deputies and the girlfriend would not let him take anything with him he said so all his clothing his wallet and possessions were left behind When he called the girlfriend Monday he said he was told she’d gotten rid of all his things including safety equipment such as goggles and steel-toe- d boots required for his job loader at GSL operating a front-en- d Minerals and Chemicals Co ' n' unconstitutional local law enforcement agencies refuse to enforce the law so what the Legislature has dered through ee ney general’s office Taylor whose office worked closely with legislators in drafting the law and opined it was constitutional said Tues- - ' ? ' v ' ' ' v v ? ' '' V t t - Ban-gert- er signed the bill Van Dam’s office issued an informal letter saying the bill could have constitutional problems But Van Dam a Democrat didn’t recommend a veto Later Salt Lake County Attorney David Yocom acting as chairman of the Statewide Association of Prosecutors asked Van Dam for an official ruling and recommended that county prosecutors not enforce the law until the formal opinion was issued Legislative leaders also voted to create a subcommittee to pursue alternatives Later Tuesday Hughes was in 2nd District Court for a hearing in a custoover their dy battle with his EFFECT on 2S x' on is Van Dam Before Republican Gov Norm home" vx or- ignored" she said legislative general counsel or the attor- amenable to a declaratory judgment action being filed" to determine the constitutionality of the law she said However Taylor said it was not clear whether the suit would be filed by the f general says he believes some law is was fired for not having his safety equipment It wasn’t so much that he didn’t have the equipment — GSL could have provided some — but that he had worked the previous two days without the equipment and without telling his superiors “That was the last straw" said Vaughan Kester the GSL general foreman who fired Hughes “He’s been having a lot of attendance problems because of his persona! problems at ex-wi- fe " “The attorney Early Tuesday when he reported for work on the graveyard shift at GSL he to stay away from the residence under the new spouse abuse law which also Center honors native for life’s work “super-veto- r v rf X 4 ' 8y AMY JOI BRYSON Standard-Examine- c staff r OGDEN — Elizabeth S Stewart said she never anticipated e list of accomhaving a plishments to her name and having life turn out the way it did “Heavens no” she said force-- f illy “Never I would not have thought of such things I just think I was raised that way” That way — for the philanthropist — has meant donating thousands of hours in service in addition to making sizable financial contributions to a variety of community institutions The Ogden native was honored for her contributions Thursday evening at the Ogden Park Hotel Hosted by the Stewart Rehabilitation Center Women’s Council the affair raised funds for the center in addition to honoring the woman who is credited with helping to make the center what : it is today Stewart a daughter of Ambrose Amos and Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw is a granddaughter of Thomas D Dee and was bom in a home on Washington Boulevard and 14th Street The family heritage has been a gift and tradition Stewart said she has carried on to the best of her two-pag- Elizabeth 89-yar-o- !d devoted hti Cite to generation ar By DENNIS ROMBOY r staff OGDEN — The owner of a business abutting the proposed g site of the Olympic oval blasted the city council Thursday night for not taking public comment on the site change and asked the council to withdraw its sponsorship of the speed-skatin- proposal “How can the council vote on something without hearing public comment” said Jay Bla-mir- es owneroperator of Moore Nursery and Floral 4780 Old Post Road The day after Weber State College announced its intentions to propose land south of the Dee Events Center as a site for the oval the city council affirmed its support and voted to M ' ' her hospital’s Grandmother Program “Everybody likes that kind of job” she said -- Her civic contributions have included financial support for such community landmarks as the Stewart Bell Tower at Weber State College and the Dee Events Center A Weber State alumnus Stewart admits she has strong loyalV ties to the campus“I would recommend young person of mine to Weber State College Many people come from a long ways off to attend Weber yet many of the natives feel they have to go onto bigger schools where they end up a number in a classroom with a student substitute as a teacher” She said her role in establishing the Dee Events Center is the ac" complishment of which she is most proud “It turned out well — something the college and the community needed” Stewart also donated the funds for a therapy pool at the Stewart Rehabilitation Center which opened in 1980 “She is a very unpretentious generous person” said Dorothy Vemieu community relations coordinator for the center Vemieu said the council decided to honor Stewart because of her longtime support and friendship to the center “She has just done so much It is one way for us to express our appreciation” ri V 'Tt tr nvniih m rtirTTir Yir— Erin N CalmesStandard-Examme- sponsor the bid to the Utah Sports Authority The bid was delivered last Friday The volunteer Olympic booster group Weber County People for Jobs Opportunity and Olympics originally identified the parking lot at the Dee center as its No 1 choice That changed after the college offered a site between 4600 South and 4800 South east of Old Post Road The change was announced four days before bids were due to the sports authority Public meetings were held on the original site but other than a morning city council meeting to approve the change no public meetings about the new site were scheduled Blamires called on the council r Passing time Blair Hodges 8 (foreground) and Spencer Hodges 11 offer fresh cherries for sale to motorists near a Hooper railroad crossing Passing trains stopped vehicles lowing the pair to approach them with the fruit al- - ' Apartment owners Ogden City named in suit By TIM GURRISTER Standard-Examine- r staff OGDEN — Four couples who lost all their possessions in a fire last August that destroyed their apartment building have sued the owners of the apartments and Ogden City The suit filed in 2nd District Court Tuesday by Dennis and Annie McHenry Donald and Coziar Bob and Gwen Brady and Norman and Selma Faber alleges faulty construction of the Hunter Apartments in the 900 block of Henderson Drive re- - Re-n- ae Venue complaint leveled Standard-Examine- ? charity voluntoarism “My mother was one of six daughters of Thomas D Dee I was with them when the old Dee Hospital was built and it was there that I spent most of my as a time as a volunteer family member I thought it would be nice for me to do that” Stewart one of the first group of volunteers at the old Dee Hospital which was on Harrison Boulevard at 24th Street logged close to 8000 hours at the Dee and McKay-De- e hospitals Her service also includes a three-yeterm as president of the volunteer auxiliary and tak- ing care of newborns through the' second-- j Stewart vol-ujnte- er ability ip y to “consider the fact you made a mistake” and withdraw the bid He said the lack of meetings and public input has left many questions unanswered Said Councilman Bonnie McDonald “We’ve considered g venwho it (the ue) might help but we haven’t considered who it might hurt” Because concerns haven’t been fully addressed Blamires said the city should not support the venue proposal “Based on all this confusion you should recall this proposal” Blamires said Mayor Scott Sneddon told Blamires a public meeting should have been held but there was not sufficient time See OLYMPICS on 2B speed-skatin- The suit alleges faulty construction of the Hunter Apartments and negligence on the part of Ogden City garding fire safety The suit also alleges negligence on the part of Ogden City The suit claims a fire hydrant near the fire scene “did not have water in it as it should have” and “firefighters failed to respond quickly or use due care in extinguishing the fire” City Attorney Norm Ashton said the city would mount a “vigorous” defense of the suit the al- legations of which he categorically denied and further described as “baloney” “Defendants Brad Hunter and Hunter Apartments were negligent in that (the apartment build- - ing) among other things lacked proper fire stops to retard or prevent the fife from spreading throughout the building” the suit alleged' Efforts to contact Hunter for comment were unsuccessful Plaintiffs attorneys John Haseny-agand Jane Marquardt were out of town and unavailable for comment Dennis McHenry said the plaintiffs in the suit lost all their personal possessions to the blaze but he wouldn’t comment : er IRS commissioner visits Ogden 7 lot tax collection programs Thursday a center spokes-ma- n said Goldberg Goldberg the nation’s top tax collector since last July was at the Ogden facility from about 8:30 am to 3:30 pm spokesman Doug Green said At the commissioner’s request Green said the visit was not announced to the news media although it was previewed in the center employee newsletter “It was strictly an ‘innie’ and an ‘outie’ ” Green said It was Goldberg’s first trip to Ogden as commissioner Green said Goldberg talked to IRS workers using a pilot computer program for checking unreported income “We’ve been running the shakedown cruise so to speak” Green said of the Ogden center The program is to be adopted later by the whole IRS He said Goldberg also saw an- other technique the Ogden center is testing a system that gives auditors in the field access to a computer Green said it enables faster more accurate audits The spokesman said Goldberg said the Ogden IRS workers reminded him of the pioneer spirit Goldberg spoke to center managers and answered questions Green said One question was what kind of center image the commissioner thinks the IRS has with the public “He thinks the image is good but could be better” Green said of Goldberg He said the commissioner wants the IRS to admit its mistakes although sometimes it is hindered from telling its side by law The commissioner feels the IRS essentially has two tax collection programs Green said One achieves almost 100 percent compliance from wage earners he said Less successful are efforts to collect from some people who earn higher incomes from sources that are more difficult for the IRS to monitor Green said Goldberg’s goal is to achieve more equal treatment Goldberg was chief counsel for the agency from 1984 to 1986 He was assistant to the commissioner from 1981 to 1982 right-to-priva- 411 J |