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Show FORTHERECORD LOTTERY REVIEWS Farmington, N.M., a Navajo, attends the HeberValley Powwow on Saturday. B-2 B-2 B-4,5 OBITUARIES ii 0 Stephen Charle of The Salt LakeTribune SUNDAY JUNE 30, 2002 B4 Health Care For Needy Shifts Focus Some funds go to new plan includingfoot carefor diabetes By’TROY GOODMAN ‘THESALTLAKETRIBUNE He is betweenjobs andlives with Rick Egan/TheSalt LakeTribune Andrew and AmandaGarcia andtheir children were amongthe canoeists last week at Fort Buenaventura State Parkin Ogden. On Monday,the park will be turned over to Weber County andwill be fundedbythe city, county andstate. Holding the Fort said Gary Laird, Weber County's opera- to own Fort Buenaventura. Weber County will get the deed to a 45-acre wooded oasis in the center of Og- tura. me ‘=a ve < A «© “* Goodyear and his Ute wife demonstrated that crops could grow in theSalt Lake Valley, but after the Mormonpioneersarrived the next year, he sold the fort to James Brown, who had been sent to Ogden by Brigham Young. confluence of the Weber and Ogdenrivers in 1846 as a supply depotfor explorers and late 1970s. The deed will be given to Weber County on Monday, and a ceremonyto markthe change in ownership — with music, storytelling and an Indian pipe ceremony — is planned at 4:30 p.m. BY STEPHEN HUNT several times because he ae wasn’t right there” when Si- ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE A weekafter 4-year-old Simon Kofford wandered from a family picnic andfell into Little Cottonwood Creek, the boy’s uncle discovered the boy's body and his father pulled it from the icy, rushing monfell in, Marilyn Kofford said of her son. Salt Lake County Sheriff Aaron Kennard said the body was foundat 3:30 p.m., about 1,000 yards below the Tanners Flat Campground, from where the boy disappeared water. Recovering Simon's body last Sunday. Saturday afternoon was “a greatrelief,”said the victim's Pomona Marilyn Kof- Andit was“a blessing,” she said, that Greg Kofford was there to bring his son out of the water. “He's beat himself up walk,” Coult said of his recurring heel sores and fungus, a complicationof his diabetes. He is already mourning the elimination starting Tuesday of Medicaid’s podiatry services, C aid ca her family’s problems will lighten Monday as thestate Department of Health offers her a low-cost insurance plan something the departmentis doing for about 23,000 other uninsured Utahns. Coult and Chriss represent the dilemma created by the new health plan, dubbed the Primary Care Network. To pay for it, state health officers shifted some needy patients into a more efficient public: insurance program, found cost See MEDICAL,Page B-5 Buenaventura became one of three picked for closure. Last month, Weber County negotiated ifor the state to chip in $35,000 the first year, $25,000 the second and $15,000 the third year to help the county run the park. Beaver Countyis set to take over Min- ~ersville State Park on Monday. Thestate is still negotiating with Salt Lake City to take over Jordan River State Park. “T still don’t agree that it ought to come over to a county responsibility,” Burton said. “But in this case, it is an See OGDEN,Page B-6 Uncle Finds Boy’s Body After 6-Day Search *.. they are on fire. I can’t even laid-off husband. health The Legislature lopped $500,000 out of the state parks budget, and Fort UnionPacific Railroad owned the land later, but turned it overto the state in the pioneers. “Sometimes myfeet feel like afford to buy health coverage for herself and her recently sionerGlen Burtonsaid. ‘The Salt Lake Tribune Miles Goodyear,a fur trader who saw that era passing, built the fort near the Innamingit, he used the Spanish word for good road, or good trip, Buenaven- care is most scarce for those withouta lot of cash andtalks about the unfairness of dimin- mother of two runs travel agencyfrom her homebut, for various incomereasons, can’t “We get very nervous when the state wants to give us things,” Weber Commis- original, a fishing and canoeing pond, a log cabin visitor center,trails and one of the last great stands of cottonwood trees in Utah. oud of the hospital. He says medical aid because she has a job. The torunit. den, sandwiched between rail yards and the WeberRiver. Thesite of thefirst permanent white settlement in the Great Basin,it has fort re-created to match the will plan Fort Buenaventura’s future. “When you're there, you leave civilization behind. You cannotsee it, hear it, smell it.It is absolutely gone.” assistance andtries.to stay out Salt Lake City is not on Medic- tions director whowill managethe park. That was not always the thinking. Whenthestate proposedclosing the park last winter, 150 residents protested at a public hearing. Ogden was notinterested in taking over the fort, and the county was wary sinceit had budgeted no money But come Monday, when the state ee over whathas beena state park for 22 years, county residents and leaders yl consider their good fortune. “It is an absolute emerald jewel in the middle of the city,” said Sue Barker, a memberof the citizens committee that a icy for the needy. “In the long run, it’s going to be a boost for Ogden economically and for the fort,” OGDEN — WeberCounty did not want in icaid, the state-run health pol- atthefort. THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE girlfriend ishing coverage through Med- Weber County, Ogden have high hopes for Buenaventura BY KRISTEN MOULTON his government-subsidized apart. ment in Salt LakeCity. The tenuous living arrangement troubles Joseph Coult, 40, because he wishes for greater financial security. But until he finds a new employer, especially one offering a companybought health plan, the diabetic Coult pays his bills with public patients, and reeling from the program’s dental service cuts enacted a monthago. Bycontrast, Lisa Chriss of downtosee a plastic Gatorade bottle spinning in an eddy. Reschke reached down and tried to flip the bottle out, but hold their son and say good. ye, e, said Marilyn Kofford. “That helps with closure,” she said, A funeral is tentatively planned for Wednesday. In Church’s perpetual education Phil Reschke, the uncle whofound Simon, was among about 200 people searching the water and banks ofthe checkthis out,” said Kofford. “Then he reached downinto the water and got Simon’slittle hand.” Family member David Ri chards, who is a Utah County search and rescue volunteer, stream Saturday. yelled to the boy’s father, who Moments before discover- freed the boy from betweena rock and atree limb. Richards and the boy's fa ther carried the body to shore, wherethe parents were able to lieu of flowers, mourners are asked to donate to the LDS fund in Simon Kofford’s name. “Simonlovedtolearn,” his grandmothersaid. Last Sunday, Simon's par: ents and five siblings attended church, then headed up the canyon toescapetheheat, the grandmother The boy disappeared while his Tragic Handcart Account Evolved Over the Years BY CHRISTOPHER SMITH THE S BU LERETRIEUNE Fresh from an Atlantic crossing, the Martin and Willie fam: ily was picnicking See BOY, Page B-6 And in the past year, the story has gotten broader na when they struck out in thelate tional attention throughfed erallegislation, backed byRep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, tosell what now is called Martin's Cove to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. summerof 1856 to cross the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountainsandsettle in Mor: Burton told a House subcom mittee last month that church monism’s handcart companies believed it kept floating back. After five attempts at removing the bottle, Reschke said to himself, “I've got to ing the body, Reschke had stepped up on a rock and said a prayer, according to Marilyn Kofford. Then he looked FranciscoKjolseth/Th A monumentin Temple Square paystribute to the Mormonpioneers who hauled their belongings acrossthe wilderness. they were salvation-bound Presiding Bishop H. David of ownership would preserve the Zion. site andeducatevisitors about Thestory of how as manyas ‘Sper. 150 English immigr single event in Mormon pio new kingdom what hecalled “the most heroie ished in a fierce fall storm in neer experience of the 19th Wyoming, and the valiant res: century, cue of about 25 survivors by rs in Salt Lake But the pushto memor'itigg trademiare example of the sac rifice Mormons made in the eal is a far cry from what Mormon “ pursuit ofreligious freedom See HANDCART, Page B-2 eat ey fs aad fei (eh ~ Missing Children Reveal Subtleties ofShrouded Human Emotions t cleaves yourheart, the image of Greg Kofford in a wet suit and helmet, clinging toa rockin the roiling waters of Little Cottonwood Creek andsearchingforhislittle boy, Simon.The 4-year-old wandered off from a family picnic last Sunday. His body was recovered Saturday afternoon from the creek. Against the advice of canyon search andres someothers have been thinking if this search * disappearanceordeath counts as muc! other's, Weeks havepassed since ibeth’s ab: human,” duction, Wee darkerside, The Smarts have wealth and a mo: dicumof community influence, Bothare rela tive. Afterall, theyare not the Hun re now grinding into a month thing wrong?” she asked tearfully, “{Elizabeth} Meantime,childrenall ac this country have beenshot and beatento death. The haveover dosed ondrugs, run awayfromabusive homes Smart has been missing andbeen snatched up by noncustodial for more than 20 days; Simonhas only been HOLLY MULLEN mentsearchefforts, They felt that once Simon was presumed dead, the work had suddenly gonefor four.” ‘Theansweris, nooneis in the wrong. The Black children, white children, brownchildren. Citykids, countrykids, Rich and poor. Noone diminishestheselosses, But the Smart case features certain subtleties that re Koffords hadto get Simon back. The Smarts veal thelight and shadow in all of us. R COPY, It has broughtout the best in us, or as author the emphasis ofone going on 20 miles to the taken to combing the creek themselves late last week,In their agony, the Koffords had misgivings about Salt Lake County Sheriff's Departdown.Onthe contrary, said county officials,it is the creek thatcalls the shots. High runoff requires extreme caution and the search is best done whenthe wateris lowest early in the day evenfor trainedprofessionals, “I've got to find my son,” Kofford told The Salt Lake Tribune, and he waded into the raging stream. Looking on was Simon's grandmother, MarilynKofford. She wondered aloud what blue ribbons to their lapels. grief. Onthe score card of humanity, one child's north, “Have wedonesome: cue experts, members of the Kofford family had Adifferent storyof loss; a similar crushof did not deserve someof must have Elizabeth, “IT don't truly know what the Koffords are feel- ing, butit would be devastating not to know where my child's body is, and with the Smarts, to not know whether their daughteris alive or has passed on,” says Terri Hartlauer, a Murray motherof five. Her two sons, Christopher,17, and ‘Travis, 15, were killedin a can accidentin 1997, parents, Bernard Malamud once put it, “what it means Consider, though, what brought out the the Hinckleys, But neither arethey s out a living and sleeping in a two-bedroom apartment. The continuous video loop of the Smarts’ expansive home tucked agai Lake foothills orofElizabeth, v ped in velvet and taffeta and plucking the strings of her harp, rakes up powerful emotions “search envy” Werecognizethis crime completely possi. ble. Wethought she wassafe, we realizeit could happento anyof andit shakes usto ourtoe: nails, Elizabethis beautiful, so accomplished, nearly perfect. Easytolove, evenfora million tention than others, We nery about that. Orwe canret ecept it and move on toward solving eachofthem, oneata time. strangers. So swarms ofvolunteers turn out to search, There are candlelight vigils, pre vices, Cash donatioys flow in. People pin baby: Hoily Mullen welcomes e-mail at hmullen asitrib.com notthe least of them, No question, one ca rnering more at J | |
