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Show y r'r ryuj Sail i'akr (Tribune Saturday Morning, June Nretion 28, 1980 11 IilgC OlIC Rock Springs Nicer After Its Cleaning By Dennis E. Curran Associated Press Writer Rock SPRINGS, Wyo. Springs may not have shed completely its image as one of the nastiest towns in the West, but it has cleaned up its act considerably. Just two years ago, this energy boomtown was branded as a wide open place where anything went drugs, sex for sale, gambling, murder. Its police were reputed to be on the take, city officials were presumed corrupt or incompetent, and rumors had the Mafia running the dusty, treeless city of 26,000 sprawled on the high desert of southwestern Wyoming. In scenes that played like gradc-Westerns, the citys top police official shot and killed an undercover narcotics agent outside a bar. CBS television crews filmed prosUtutes flagging down johns on city streets, and photo graphers lurked behind bushes to photograph Paul Wataha, mayor of Rock Springs for 21 years. A state grand jury launched an investigation into the allegations of vice - ROCK B Regional Briefs Suspect Pleads Guilty in Hostage Case Special to The Tribune A Weber County man has OGDEN pleaded guilty in 2nd District Court to two felony charges stemming from a hostage incident last March, while two other felony charges against him were dismissed. Gary Dean Womack, 29, Roy, entered guilty pleas before Judge Ronald 0. Hyde to counts of attempted criminal homicide and aggravated robbery. Sentencing was set for July 11. On a motion by James Davis, deputy Weber County attorney, two charges of aggravated kidnapping were dismissed by Hyde. Davis said one of the victims. Womacks former wife, was reluctant to testify. The other victim was a neighbor boy, Eric Gray. Wool Permits Soou Wood cutting permits PROVO (AP) for the Uinta National Forest will be available soon at U.S. Forest Service ranger district offices in Heber City, Spanish Fork and Pleasant Grove, the forest service has announced. The y permits allow Utah residents to cut up to five cords of firewood on public land. A forest service spokesman said permits will be available at the Spanish Fork and Heber City offices July 1. and at the Pleasant Grove office Aug. 1. Spark arresters are required on all power saws to prevent fires, the spokesman said. Witnesses Neutral OGDEN (AP) Jehovahs Witnesses voted to remain politically neutral in a resolution passed at their regional conference at Weber State College Friday. Some 5.000 Witnesses from Utah. atWyoming. Nevada and Idaho are tending the conference, which concludes Sunday. L. K. Greenlees of New York City told the audience Friday that there is a real government in heaven that will soon administer affairs on earth. He warned the audience that "the earth is being ruined today and is in danger of being ruined to a horrifying extent." He said that the time is near "when God should do his cleansing work "As the world sows, it now reaps rotten fruitage." Greenlees said Taxes, Wages Up and corruption, and the Rock Springs took out paid advertisements to insist its city wasn't really as bad as it seemed. City Council Definitely not happy days for Rock Springs, but times have changed. The state grand jury completed its prol e without indicting any public officials, though it was critical of some, and a new city administration was swept into office. Public Safety Director Ed Cantrell, who shot and killed undercover officer Michael Rosa in July 1978, was acquite ted of murder last November. The jury concluded Cantrell shot and killed Rosa in when Rosa tried to draw a gun. Cantrell, hired nine months before the shooting to clean up Rock Springs, still lives in the city, but the new city leaders abolished his job, and he has been unable to find another in law enforcement. More Discreet Gambling, if it exists at all, is well hidden. Drug dealing is more discreet in the wake of repeated crackdowns, and most of the streetwalkers of K Street are gone. Earl Dotseys afterhours club, the reputed center of Rock Springs unsavory nightlife, was closed about a year ago, and Dotsey died earlier this year. We still have problems," says Mayor Keith West, a respected gasoline distributor who took office last year after winning an election which most candidates ran on reform tickets. first-degre- self-defen- 1 lule and blue Inin! i"-- ' c ; Approved $500, 000 for completing the enlargement and repair of the Woodruff Narrows Dam m Rich Countv: Also granted $233, (MR) to the Pine Valley Irrigation Co to construct a gravity pressure pipeline and sprinkler irrigation system in Washington County, partly because loss of water in ditches is estimated at "Hoorn Town Syndrome RONCOE. the Center for EnvironPRICE (AP) mental Problem Solving in Boulder, Colo., will study the effects of the "boom town syndrome" on Carbon and Emery counties, where coal will be mined for the Intermountain Power Project. The object is to see bow undesirable boom town effects can be mitigated before they occur elsewhere where large energy developments are planned about 40 percent ; And approved a $36,000 application by the Ogden River Water Users Association to repair a canal because flooding resulted in damage and filling the canal with debris. Set the next meeting of the State Board of Water Resources for Aug. 1 in Sait Lake City. "Where did you get the sign and what have vou done with Father?" Wiiix's Hijjltl to Jury PROVO (API Kelvin .1 Crane waived his rigid to a jury Friday in his second-degremurder trial fur the shooting of a Brigham Young University student. Crane, 26, is accused of murdering his roommate, Jon Deardeuff, 23. Deardouff was found shot to death in his Provo apartment in January 1979 A jury trial had been set for Aug 7 before II h District Judge David Sam But a hearing is now needed to determine if the jury waiver will change that date, said defense attorney Robert Schumacher e ONE DAY ONLY Some, like former Mayor Wataha, maintain Rock Springs problems never were as serious as the media made out. "They castigated an entire city, its public officials, its police officers," he says. They did a hatchet job. I felt I had given 21 years for nothing." But West felt some changes sir ' SATURDAY JUNE wore needed. 28th . New Police v One of West's first actions was to hire a new police chief and rebuild the police department. The department was reorganized and brought up to full strength for the first time in years, and Chief Russell Hawk launched a training program he hopes will he a model for the state. "We fully intend to make this the best department in the country," Hawk says. "But we need the support of the community. Were only going to be as good as the support we get." Hawk, who has led undercover drug investigations himself, has become one of Rock Springs biggest boosters, wooing recruits by talking about the lack of big city problems and abundant outdoor recreation. Such pitches come naturally to Hawk, who moved to Wyoming from Riverside, Calif , because I wanted to get out of the smog and the traffic." No Criticism Diplomatically, Hawk refuses to criticize the department he inherited, saving some problems were caused by its being painfully and others by inexperience "It was one of those things where they couldn't do anything right for awhile." he says Since Hawk's arrival, the department has launched major crackdowns on drugs and prostitution, but the chief and mayor are quick to concede they have not wiped out either. short-hande- 1 1 "Its an ongoing problem, West says "Prostitution is going to exist anyplace there are hocks in the pockets." Rock Springs and Sweetwater County have plenty of bucks, because of the continued boom in coal, oil and natural gas development, but there is more stability, too The community nearly tripled its population during the 1970s and still grows at better than 10 percent a year, but young, unmarried construction "boomers" have been replaced by more permanent residents with families. "Now theyve got their wives with 'em, so they cant play anymore," says Kaiser F.lich, owner a bar on K street "The booms still here, but not for the pn'i i lir i it s l.ii ill tied Ullage :00 A.M. SHARP UNTIL 80 Down Filled Sofa with motrhing Mr. On & of Many to (hooM Roqtimc Automated Player Piano Playt 10 Timm per flail Contain Player piono with 0 roll iponl frame and roil qlockorHpirl tambourine, snare drum ban drum with two tympnt boater) and eva with coin brott op plate Intricotoly Corvotf Mr. Chair. fnj'n PARTIAL LISTING OF THE UNIQUE TONS OF AMERICAN OAK AND UNUSUAL ANTIQUES Very unique carved bookcase with full body carvings (very rare) French bedroom 10-pie- e Several sec. Several round tables with claw feet en- sidc-by-sid- .rir.'v Marquetry 1760 , dining reflectory 10-pie- room group Ships captain sink Rock front Dutch Set circa salon One-of-a-ki- set with most unusual carvings (this set is of museum quality) 1 4 'S.. Victorian parlor set Victorian parlor Oak Hall Tree group Organ Olympia music box with 40 Triple door cherry wood bookcase Complete set sterling silver flatware Solid cherry dental (model C with morning glory horn) 2 Slot Machines Unusual banquet lamp Hanging kerosine lamps T cabinet clock Large bow front china cabinet Several rockers Unusual slave couch in mint cylinder phonograph . S' r French Beveled Glass Bronze Overlay Jewelry Case v grandfather ay (i pattern back clocks discs Edison oak of chairs Several chests and dressers bedroom sets Lamp tables with large claw and ball feet Raised panel partners desk Several wall and mantle Bombay inlayed desk Roll-to- p semble d i i hydro-electri- state-funde- condition H Very ornate side board Large lawyers cabinet 36" BRONZE "END OF TRAIL" 24" MARBLt BASE r jT ONE DAY ONLY SATURDAY VMf JUNE 28, 1980 11:00 mi by Preview Saturday Morning Before the Sale!! 1 u.i.rrd other action, the board Philip Knight. Provo, cli.urm.ui for a y car. and Bill Gibson. Vernal, v ice chairman Toured the site of the promised $8 million plant for the already operating Long Park Dam atxiut nine miles southwest of Manila, Daggett County Earlier at the meeting, the board considered, but did not act, on the suggestion that the Sheep Creek Irrigation Co fund the project, since state funds are not a tillable Heard Dan Lawrence, Salt Lake City, director of the State Division of Water Resources, describe the electric project at Umg Park Dam as "a good project I feel we must consider the alternative of the (Sheep Creek) irrigation company building it Approved funding requests, all subject to availability of money, including $194.ixni to enlarge the capacity of the Haights Creek Irrigation Co pond in Davis County from 13 acre feet to 6(1 acre feet In Special to The Tribune VERNAL Plans for the states proposed $25 million White River Dam project 40 miles southeast of here disclosed Friday would result in an earthen dam 129 feet high and a reservoir stretching miles, possibly as early as July or August of 1983 Staff members of the State Division of Water Resources outlined the project, to he mostly during a Vernal meeting of the State Board of Water Resources Bingham Engineering, Salt Lake City, is preparing plans. They are expected to be finished by April 1981, about the same target date for completion of an environmental impact statement by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Officials explained that some federal funding is anticipated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the Cte Indian Tribe. Review time on the project should put the start of two years of construction by next summer "We're getting our house in order as far as city government is concerned, and people are starting to say Rock Springs is a neat place to live, he says. The City Council has TRICE (AP) increased property taxes and city salaries, cut seven city jobs and announced future water and electrical increases in approving p $6 4 million girls." budget for next year. Few Remain Also, at the request of Mayor Walt who banned prostitutes from was Elich. Axlcgard, the mayors salary his bar, remembers when construction increased $10(1 to $600 a month of a huge power plant lured thousands Councilman Mark Hanson blamed of construction workers to Rock 3 null for the revenues declining Springs, and the prostitutes and pimps inerease in the property tax levy, and followed But ho savs now only a few for future mereases in water and regulars remain "They're very nice eleetrieal rates. girls," he "says "1 mean they won't The mill levy increase will cost the hustle you owner of a $50,ono home an average of According to West, housing now is Hie $6 more a year in property taxes citys No problem The city, which has been purchasing Some days in Rock Springs there is power from Utah Power A Light Co at not a single apartment (or rent. In wholesale rates and selling it to city addition to aggressively promoting users, will now charge rates comparaprivate home development, the city ble to what UPAE charges residential hopes to sell bonds to raise money for li w interest home loans customers, Hanson said Bock Springs also needs more sew-- i roads anil planning, and there are Jr-It W; I Puinliti" till some lingering problems in the The Assort, tied police department, most notably a BOISE. Idaho iAIi feud between Hawk and Press incorrccth irpoitrd June 13 that .mouldering the union police an Idaho, draped Sen Frank Church, But ttu Bock Springs City Council no menean Flag around lus shmildei s at to-Hie material ,e 111 ,i news conference per feds tin1 need to take out ads to 1! lulm Water Resource Panel Hears Plan On White River Dam Building 3 -- A.M. SHARP V Bronze Mahogany French Mantel Set Signed by Lcnzkrich 093000 i Carved Marble Top Lamp Table 33 Ml Y UNTIL ? J Fraiir s. BRONZES by uith ortl$!i Raminqion, W |
