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Show The Salt Lake Tribune Utah THURSDAY/September 25, 1997 HOT SPOTS Page D-2 ROBERT KIRBY West Jordan. Cops? Chiefs Chief Reason You couldn't pay me enough to bea police officer. Given the risks of law enforcement, this aversion comes naturally to most people. Being a slow learner,it took me 11 years of police work to figureit out. I am not complaining, though. After all, there is ample proof that I am one of the smarter Kirbys around. Both my brothers arestill cops. Section D BUSINESS Page D-4 Fish Disease Whirling On Stretch of Redwood Road MayHave to Be Redone A 2,000-foot stretch of concrete pouredlast spring may have to be ripped up along Redwood Road in What Stresses 2 State Agencies Argue County Over WhoIs to Blame For Contaminated Fish raised questions BY DAN HARRIEand State highway inspectors have discovered a roadbuilder's nightmare. The northbound lanes immediately north of 7800 South are infused with balls of clay, ranging from golf-ball size to 5 inches in diameter. That is not good. If left uncorrected, the road before long will start to break under the pressure of TOM WHARTON gravated a long-standing feud be tween the Agriculture Department Fish Health Board with increased representation from the DWR. While the restructuring proposal and the Division of Wildlife sources (DWR) est whirling-diseaseflap has given it fish-mutating whirling disease from a Goede, statefish pathologist Gov. Mike Leavitt Nearly a year after whirling dis. ease was discovered at the Leavitts' Road Creek Ranch trout farmin Loa. stateofficials have yet to test for the parasite at a private pond near Provo tureoffi trout farm owned bythe family of ‘This episode only reconfirms the absolute necessity of increasing the Division of Wildlife Resources’ presence in the wholeprocess,” said state commercial fish industry — “arenot — who oversee Utah's atural Resources Director Ted Stewart concerning themselves with wild [fish] populations.” cials haveagreed“in principle” to the Stewart said top agriculture offi- ation. e state's last fish regulatory State Veterinarian Michael Mar- ed fish Another private fishing pond that 16 months ago bought Road Creek shall heads animal industry programs for the Department of Agriculture Hepoints out that whirling disease shake-up was in 1994, when the responsibility was moved from DWR to was first discovered in Utah in 1991 ‘under the DWR’s watch.” marked theend of tough enforcement Agriculture — a shift critics said of fish-protection laws “['m not the kind of person who Ranchfish tested positive for whirl- The recent shooting of two momentum. Goede chargedthat state Agricul that purchased possibly contaminat- See REDWOODROAD,Page D-3 has beenexplored for months, the lat- Re- All the whirling disease in Utah can, in onewayor theother. betied to private aquaculture,” said Ron ELmonths SRTicUlLilve oraEnAVE: taken to trackpinsDecl the spread of “You can see pocketsofclayballs on the surface,” said materials engineer Darrell Giannonatti of the Utah Department of Transportation. “It’s like an iceberg. Whatyousee on the surfaceis only a small partof the problem.”” Giannonatti said repairs have to be made, even if that means making the contractor rip out and replace the concrete. It would take two weeksto remove the rubble and 10 more days to repour. dedofficials to draft legislation that would improve cooperation in a new about the state's fish-health oversight system and ag- THESALT LAKE TRIBUNE traffic. The interagency friction has prod- The long delays in testing have ing disease this summer, The Hidden wants to get into a skunk contest. But Springs pond is about a mile from a state-run trout hatchery in Sanpete facts.” said Marshall. Twoyears earlier. the Leavitt fam- sometimes weneedtostick upforthe See FISH. Page D-3 Salt Lake County police officershighlights the fact that law enforcementis a highly stressful job. But not just because you might get shot. You might also get nit-picked to death. Oddly enough, the cops making the mostnoise today about the dangers of police work aren't the ones getting shot. They are the onessick of being supervised. Proofis the squab- ble between Salt Lake City Po- lice Chief Ruben Ortega and his boys andgirls in blue. If you had to choose, what would you say stresses a street cop the most? Possible death? Getting hurt in a fight? Low pay? Lousy courts? Talking to “60 Minutes’? If your knowledgeof police administration stems primarily from “Baywatch” and brief conversations with your Uncle Ned, whoseson’s best friend is a deputy sheriff in North Dakota, the truth might surprise you. It may even surprise some policechiefs. Survey Says: A few years ago, John M. Violanti, a criminal-justice professor at the a i isi Rick Egan The Salt LakeTribune RochesterInstitute of Technol- NO HARM DONE ogy in New York, surveyed thousandsof officers to find out what stressed them most. Violanti discovered that while all of the above-mentioned factors are stressful, they were not evenlisted in the top-20 police-stress factors. He also found something that surprised me Having to kill someone in the line of duty was the leading cause of stress in police work. (This may explain why I wasn't cut out to be a cop. I operated on the selfish premise that getting killed would be worse than me killing someone.) Dealing with battered chil- dren was No, 3 on Violanti’s list of stuff that ruins a cop’s day. No surprise here. Nothing tends to light you up more than a hurt kid. High-speed pursuits came in at No. 5. Meanwhile,felony-in- progress calls ranked 13, Oddly enough, racial conflict came in deadlast at 60, below a cop's fear of minor physical injury. Bad Bosses: What didn't surprise me was that of the top-20 things that bug cops, seven were caused by police administrations. Somebody go get Ruben. Morethana third of the top20 thingsthat tear up the lining in cops’ stomachs come from policechiefs, not dirt bags. For example, inadequate department support wasfound to be the eighth largest stresscausing factor, ranking above family fights (one of this country’s biggest killing fields for policeofficers), significant injury, aggressive crowds, exposure to pain and suffering and public apathy. Excessive discipline by su- pervisors ranked 14th, bother- ing law officers more than low pay, making arrests alone, stupid decisions by judges and bad press coverage. And get this: Because of the paperwork A Frontier Boeing 737 is hauled back onto the runway at Salt Lake City International Airport Wednesday. When the plane's instrumentsindicated hydraulic problems shortly afterits 11 a.m. takeoff, the pilot of Flight 205, a nonstop to Denver, asked to return to the airport for an emergencylanding. The plane,its 61 passengersand five crew members were unharmedas the plane skiddedto a standstill, but the airport had to close the runway, leaving just one open. S.L. County Officials Rewriting Purchasing Rules Morris Will Commissioners Want Auditor, Attorney to Be Less Involved THESALT Li KE TRIBUNE Watery Wallop BY MIKE GORRELL THESALTLAKE TRIBUNE Here comes Nora. Rain generated by that hurri- cane, which was about to make landfall at press time Wednesday night along Mexico's Pacific coast, should spread into south- western Utah today —not that the desert needs more rain In the past seven weeks, Kanab has received 11.43 inchesofrain. The Kane County town normally gets 13.31 inches in a year And now the National Weather Service is predicting Kanab and other areas of Utah can expect 1 than wreck their patrol cars. some spots — by Saturday. to 2 inches of rain — and morein ever does, | hope he doesn't Robert Kirby welcomes e- emergency-operations Director Dave Owens preparing for another bout with high water, the likes mail at rkirby@itsnet,com ' -*? Age) Cote | ae We pes \ MEXICO Gay, Gullo 1 Awe Nc . Pacific Ocean > a | oe 14" ja! pat toe! Source: Accu: WeatherIn \~ Me} WF memberseeing before. “By today we'll have 11,000 sandbags handedout or in supply added. "I've been emer- rations director for eight years now and thes: are the first onesI've ever used Thoughts turned to sandbags ditches that had never been used We had whole streets full of this weekend." The forecast has Kane County talk to any chiefs I worked for Moving W at 10 mph to go hiking in narrow canyons produce flooding in Utah's canyon country, "It’s not a good idea causepolice chiefs stress, If he Position 26.5 .N, 114.8 W er Ed Carle warned that big rains hook, nor does it keep Ruben. Ortega on it. After all, Violanti hasn't studied the things that of which no one in Kanabcan re- Togetherthetwohavecreatedabottleneck in what used to be a smooth operation, said Mar shall, the commission'spolicy adviser. “Theauditoris referring things to the attor- ney and questioning if it is legal orif it is a good idea,” Marshall said. “Everyone has. water. On Sunday, we hadwater same intensity. Both of these in the sameplaces but not to the See HURRICANE, Page D-3 THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Unless somemajor airlines re- verse their decision to reduce commissions, at least one Utah eney says it may soon arge customers booking fees tostay in business Salt Lake City-based Morris Travel said Wednesday it has not yet decided what to charge or whenit wouldbegin, But the com- Boy Rides to D.C. on Mower panyclaims it has no choice, given the projectedloss of income from theairlines Morris’ announcement came the same day two more U.S. airlines — Northwest and US Air- But Clinton Just Says No ed, Delta and Americanincutting travel-agency commissions from See COMMISSIONERS, PageD-3 Executive Committee Chairman David Mar. Punta Sanlo Tomas Gusts at 105 mph Hurricane warning <a Alt? 4 z 1 Projected &\ ct Projected here,’ he ditor Craig Sorenson has refused to endorse anycontract that does not have Short’s bless- tionsatall. Bhd ig MDT Wednesday BY JAY BALTEZORE ort of trumping up reasons tostall or rej contracts that or his part, Auhe o pposes philosophical] own power, Short said , therewill beno restric- Hurricane Nora ee lega 1 of thetaxpayers of Salt Lake County. If it is up to commissioners to restrict their after a Sept. 4 storm dropped2.81 inches of precipitation in little more than an hour. That downpour filled “storm drains and Weather Service lead forecast- Commissionersaccuse § sion, andit certainlyis not in thebest interest. The revisions now under review by the county's executive committee also make it unnecessary for the auditor to guarantee the county has enough money to cover purchases ahead of time. That responsibility would fall Is Packing a cials, who in turn abused those privileges. checkson its power, andthe result couldput thecountyat significant legal risk “We'll never see the contracts they don’t want us to see. They'll be done in a back room,” Short said, “This is not a rational deci view on contracts of more than $25,000. Hurricane Nora certain contract-review duties to other offi- commission's motive is to eliminate any county commission could sidestep legal re- D-3 shall counteredthat commissioners delegated But County Attorney Doug Short said the tracts — those worth $7,500 or less — would no longer require the attorney's OK. And the - Pass Fee on To Customer @ Documents reveallitle icy decisions. Officials are revamping Salt Lake County's purchasing ordinance to bypass the county attorney and auditor in the approval process. Under the proposed changes, speedy con- involved, most officers would rather get hurt themselves Of course, none of this lets Salt Lake City cops off the to department heads. The county commissioners — Brent Overson, Randy Horiuchi and MaryCallaghan — believe the changes arenec ry to eliminate delays in day-to-day business and to prevent the twoelected officials from meddling in pol- THESALT LAKE TRIBUNE Tall sprigs of grass grow after officials learned Tripp in in Oakwood, Md., a highwayhamlet just a few miles from the Susque hanna River. But Ryan Tripp of Beaver Utah, didn’t stop there Going south onstate Route 1 medians of grass dot the road through Baltimore. Tripp passed by those, too See, Tripp said nograss is more cherished than the blue-green lawnat the White House. tended to raise money for 2 month-old Whitnie Pender, a Bea ver girl in need of a_ liver transplant Tripp has rolled through 20 states — with his father and ndparents driving in front and back — and used 300 gallons of gas on his way to a dream date with the White H But on We ton’s back yard was declared off limits in fairness to other would stopped on Wednesday after be grass groomers “They think they let one person in to dothis, they haveto let ev erybody,” said Paul Smith, 3,034 miles But barring some unforesee- Orrin Hatch. “[But] | mean who the heck’s going to be coming with another lawn mower? “T'mstill hoping that we can mowthere,” near College said the 12-year-old k, Md., where he eclipsing a mark set in 1989 for the longest lawn-mower ride — ablenational policy change, Tripp ington, D.C., spokesmanfor § Instead, Tripp will clip. the will rumble past the president's grass at the US. on his way to a ceremonyon the west lawnof the Capitol Since Aug. 15, when he rolled coln Memorial quarters todayjust before 9 a.m awayfrom the Utah State Capitol ‘Tripp has averaged about 10 mph aboard a 20-horse power lawn i Capitol, on a strip of lawn shadowed by the Washington Monument and Lin “It's been a long dista we did everything we can said they wouldjoin Unit- 10 percent to 8 percent mower, The mower was donated by the Walker Manufacturing Co BY GREG BURTON ways — ToddTripp, 36, Ryan's dad ready to mow somebody's lawn If I were going to absorb the loss, I would have to lay off 50 percent of mypeople. And I cannot do that and still serve our customers,” said Mark SI dent of Morris operates 50 branchesins ern states and is Utah’s largest travel-agency company But Slack, who anticipates his company will lose $2.7 million a year in airline commissions, said his companywill not impose fees beforetalking with customers In the meantime, Morris has droppedan earlierplan to boycott United Airlines, thefirst carrier to cut commissions. Because United, Delta and American comprise95 percent of Morris’ airline-ticket sales, said k, his company cannot boy- colt all airlines that have reduced commissions and remain in business Some other Utah travel agen- cies have not decided — orarenot revealing — what they will do to make up for lost airline income. Murdock Travel, based in Murray, said it had no comment. See MORRIS, Page D-3 d |
