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Show 1?, i Fountain Green Youth City Councilmembers sworn in Jan. 5 ; include: Jed Allred, Griffin Lund (youth mayor), Dustin Walker, 1 Scott Gilgen, Monica Nichols, Tara Olds, Melanie Johnson, and """"1 Joshua Rasmussen " MT. PLEASANT, UTAH 84647 - January 12, 1994 Volume 102 Number Two Price $.50 Moroni approves plans to acquire race track by Barbara Gordon MORONI Approval for the city attorney to proceed with the citys plan to declare the old racetrack property as imminent domain was given during the Dec. 8 city council meeting. by Donnell Blackham who represents the Historical Commission. According to the agreement, total purchase price for the property is $27,000, with no down-payme- nt required. The Moroni Heritage Development Commission will make The council also agreed to pay property shareholders their invested $100 per share. A copy of the agreement to purchase the old opera house from Roger Cook was presented semi-annu- al in- terest payments only, for the first two years with the first payment due six months after the date the contract is signed. The proposed interest rate is seven percent per annum. After the first two years, the Moroni Heritage Development will make payments of $3,246.75 until the full amount of the contract is satisfied (amortized over a period). Blackham says he feels good about having money available for the first couple of payments and that the commission could not go after any funding until the property contracts were signed, so this is a big step forward. Commission five-ye- semF-annu- al ar He reminded the council of the $2,000 that the city had pledged and asked if the Historical Commission could receive $1 ,000 out of this years budget and $1,000 out of last years. Councilwoman Harris sug- gested that the commission apply for centennial grant money that is available through the state for this project, also. The Senior Citizens Board met with the council regarding the verbal agreement between them and the city for use of the Senior Citizens building. President Lillian Rosier, who was unable to attend, had a written statement of what the senior citizens would like to have in a written agreement. The council will review the statement, include their own points of view and meet with the seniors to sign the agreement. Councilman Tracy Cook will look at property owned by Ida Donaldson in regard to a verbal agreement she has with the city to maintain her side of the fence and the roadway, including weed control, to the pumphouse. Cook suggested fencing it off so she could let animals eat off the pasture. Water Superintendent David Simmons and Roger Poulson discussed getting Well No. 2 going, which would cost $7,084 according to a bid Poulson presented. The bid was good for 30 Continued to page 2 Preliminary hearing set for Snow College student MANTI Nathan Alma 19, of Sandy, appeared in court last Wednesday to answer charges that, among other things, he set off three explosive devices on the Snow College campus in Ephraim, where he was a stuMec-ha- dent. The defendant did not enter a plea and was ordered to appear before Sixth District Court Judge Don Tibbs today, Jan. 12, at 8:30 a.m. for a preliminary hearing. An Information filed by County Attorney Ross C. Blackham on Jan. 4 charges the belief that the defendant committed the crimes of: Counts 1 , 2 and 3 - Damage Wed- 5 are pictured from left front: Councilmember Rowen Monsen, Councilmem- - Fountain Greens city government as of nesday, Jan. , ber Dan Naylor; from left back: Mayor Dean Hansen, Councilmember Lewis Rassmussen and Mark Coombs. or Destruction of Property by Explosives, a second degree felony, charging that on or about Nov. 28, and twice on Dec. 16, the defendant did willfully and maliciously damage or destroy a building, structure, equipment or other real or personal property owned by an institute of higher education, to wit: Snow College in Ephraim, by the use of explosives, in violation of Utah Code Annotated (U.C.A.) Count 4 - Possession of Stolen Property, a Class B misdemeanor, charging that on or about Jan. 3 the defendant did receive, retain or dispose of the property of another knowing that Continued to page 5. Sterling youth faces theft, burglary charges old SterMANT- I- A ChristenL. ling youth, Travis is being arraigned today on sen, three counts of felony burglary, felony theft, burglary of a vehicle, nine counts of theft (a Class B misdemeanor) and nine counts of criminal trespass. According to a Sheriffs Department spokesman, the youth is alleged to have committed numerous thefts of tools, gas and other items stored in sheds in farm areas west of Ephraim, in Manti, Sterling and Gunnison. He is also suspected of theft of items inside a vehicle. Bail of $41 ,400 was not posted as of Tuesday morning and 20-ye- ar Christensen was arrested Monday in Manti by the Sanpete County Sheriffs Department. Christensen was still m custody. Wildlife management: balancing resources , revenues first in a series of articles dealing with wildlife management in Sanpete County. It deals with general information about scheduling, funding and implementing local deer and elk hunts and proposed plans to Editors Note: the following is the manage existing herds. by Paula Brewer EPHRAIM Bruce Giunta, game manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, responded to a letter he received concerning the management of wildlife in Sanpete County. He met with local sportsmen and shared the following information. How hunts are made and implemented Public input and field data is collected by the Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) through surveys, letters, public meetings, etc. and through information collected by Utah Division of Wildlife Resource Biologists. This information is analyzed by three divisions: the Division of Wildlife Resources, United States Field Services and the Bureau of Land Management who make a determination of hunt recommendations based on conclusions of the field data and public input. They submit their hunt recommendations to the Board of Big Game consisting of one cattleman, one sheepman, one sportsman, one public landsman (United States Forest Service, USFS), and one Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR only votes in the case of a tie). The Big Game Board is appointed by the governor and is responsible for the harvest regulations. Facts about funding wildlife Every agency in the state of Utah had to contribute to the statewide communications upgrade. Every state agency had their communications fund paid for by the general fund except Wildlife Resources. Wildlife Resources spent $100,000 hunter dollars for communications. The State Land Board is about to propose that large blocks of State School Lands become use fee areas. Hunting charges of $500 for deer and $250 for bear, entry fees. Five-yeelk plan Ben Morris, Biologist for Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) said that 1,291 yearling bulls were unit. taken last year from the Manti-LaSMorris said 1,628 cow rifle permits were issued in 1993. When the number of muzzleloaders and archers are added to this number, it raises it to over 1,700 plus permits. This large number took a huge bite out of our elk population. The number of cow permits issued was a political decision not a biological decision. The same board that set the number of cow permits issued in 1992 will determine the future for our elk population on the Manti camping fees, etc., would be levied for general public use of state lands. The opening weekend of Utahs deer hunt generates $90,000,000 in the private sector. Utah Travel Council date shows the primary tourist attractions for Utah as follows: National parks, Wildlife and wildlife related activities, and Snow skiing. The Utah State Legislature approved: A $1,500,000 tax break for the snow ski industry; A $1,000,000 grant to the Heber Creeper Railroad; and Eliminated $1.7 million dollars in general monies from wildlife. ar al unit. fund Wildlife Resources pays over $12,000 (approximately double the private tax rate, using sportsman dollars) on properties purchased for game habitat and sport hunting in Sanpete County. If the DWR abandons those properties to private ownership, Sanpete County would lose over $6,000 in annual tax revenue. Except for $100,000 recently allocated, all general fund appropriations for Wildlife resources were halted by the Utah Legislature. Hunter dollars now carry the burden for e all activities, research that benefits other users and private lands game trespass. Depleting deer herds Giunta states that this area suffered a heavy loss to the deer population due to weather. Deep snow in the winter and dry, hot summers left the deer without food. He went on to state that hunting does not affect the deer population but it does affect the buck to doe ratio. He felt that if hunters passed up the small bucks and let them grow to larger bucks that the quality of our bucks would increase. 2 A new five-yeplan has been drafted by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the DWR. The management objectives of this bill should be to stabilize the herd at a level which will provide an annual general season harvest of 1,300 yearling bulls and a postseason winter count of 1 1 ,000. Both numbers are a reduction from the current plan that was jointly agreed upon and signed by the USFS, BLM and DWR. The main components of this plan are to increase the number of mature bulls; carefully monitoring range to assure early detection of change in range condition; and maintaining and improving elk habitat with emphasis on high use ar non-gam- - areas. Some problems or strategies that would be addressed by this bill are: 1) elk are not equally distributed across the unit, 2) depredation, 3) private landowners objections to elk numbers, 4) limit the number of mature bulls harvested annually, 5) illegal harvest of mature bulls, 6) increased hunter pressure on yearling bulls. 7) define and monitor high use range areas and 8) habitat loss to development and natural succession. Next week: How you influence the process. |
