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Show Deadline Change Noted Because the post office will be closed Thursday, Dec. 25th, we are publishing one day early. Our for deadline all and news will stories advertising be Monday, Dec. 22 at 3:00 p. m. tnts Home of the Mormon Miracle Pageant mw I mn oooe Volume tuUIUwa wMfcly tw 101 tUtOy flnlpt, tu OOmt W fffntfprl. Number 23 Iik. t Mali, Monti UTI444 tnd rloit pottag pold Send eddroes ettenges tot Monti MostongofSS I Main Monti UTI4441 ot Monti Utoh Feilmeetof 30 per copy MANTI, UTAH U6 42. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 18, 1986 Backing sought to support corrections facility Committee meets in Manti Senator Peterson stressed that such community support is critical to the success of the project. State BY PAT MELLOR Leaders of Sanpete Countys cities and towns and members of a countywide committee formed to actively seek the construction of a state satellite prison facility for Sanpete County met Tuesday morning with State Rep. Ray Nielsen and State Senator Cary Peterson to seek the assistance of area legislators in obtaining funds for a state corrections facility in Sanpete. Committee chairman Keith Kiesel, y Ephraim, who has a corrections of the possibility kept facility alive, presented the legislators with information packets containing a statistical summary of the area as well as letters of support for the proposed project. Representative Ray Nielsen, who serves on the legislative appropriations committee for Public Safety, said he would assist the Sanpete County communities to the utmost of his ability so far as finding funding for site selection and appropriations and support for the regional prison concept. "The coming of natural gas to the area will be a boon," Rep. Nielsen observed. In addition to our other selling points, we can now argue that such a facility can be heated economically. It gives us a selling point we otherwise wouldn't have had." single-handedl- Manti City signs gas franchise agreement BY PAT MELLOR With the agreement of the Manti City Council, Manti City Mayor May Peterson signed a franchise agree ment Wednesday night at council meeting which in effect conceded most of the points in the franchise agreement to Mountain Fuel Supply. Manti City was one of the last cities to agree to sign the franchise agreement. Two weeks ago the council admitted that the city was coming under fire from other communities in Sanpete for failing to immediately sign a contract with Mountain Fuel Supply. Manti City Recorder Bill Mickelson said that in essence the city had found itself forced to capitulate to the terms of the contract drawn up by Mountain Fuel Supply. The term of the franchise agreement will be 50 years, as the gas company desired, as opposed to the 25 years Manti City officials wanted. The city will not have the right of first refusal to purchase the Manti gas distribution system should Mountain Fuel divest itself of its holdings in Central and Southern Utah. The issue of the franchise fee vs franchise tax is still up in the air, according to Mr. Mickelson, and will be determined by ordinance at a later date. Mr. Mickelson said Mayor May Peterson participated in a conference call on Monday between members of coalition of central and a loosely-kni- t southern Utah cities along the route of the proposed gas pipeline.' The coalition members had hoped to be able to negotiate more favorable terms for their residents into the franchise agreements. But in the course of the conference call, Mayor Peterson said, it became apparent that the consensus of the coalition was that further delay in signing the agreements would serve no useful purpose and would not be in the best interests of the communities at this time. Mt. Pleasant Mayor Amoir Deuel and Richfield Mayor Sue Marie Young both said they would sign agreements on behalf of their cities in meetings held Tuesday evening, December 16. Mayor Peterson said Manti City, whose council had authorized her to sign the agreement if she deemed it advisable in their December 5 meeting, would sign their franchise agreement on Wednesday night. The remainder of the cities in the coalition were committed to sign their agreements either in December or the first of January, according to their meeting schedules. Mr. Mickelson said, and added that to his knowledge there were no holdouts and all parties appeared ready to sign, with the possible exception of Nephi, who is still negotiating with Mountain Fuel as well as with another potential gas (Continued on Page 6) Commissioners pare tax increase to 7.8 BY PAT MELLOR The Sanpete County budget for the coming calendar year underwent several changes on Tuesday this week, following a Monday budget hearing which left most of the countys earlier figures to be revised. commission the Ultimately, approved budgeted expenditures of for the an estimated, $3,517,41 are revenues total coming year; expected to be $2,791,718. Some funds from the countys cash surplus may be moved to make up the difference through the year. 1 The Sanpete County Commission had anticipated enacting a 9.7 tax increase but at the behest of citizens at the meeting, pared the actual increase down to 7.8. The net effect of this reduction will be minimal to the average property owner, because the State has ordered Sanpete to drop its assessed property valuations by 13. Ironically, part of the county budget for the coming year will be to pay for certified assessors to county property. In the long run, county residents will end up paying about what they have in the past year in county taxes, because of the mandated drop in valuations. A large budget item included in this years figures is a balloon payment of about $800,000 which will be made on the county buildings new addition. This payment is being made, say commissioners, to avoid paying about $1.5 million in interest payments over the next ten years. With this payment, the commission will retire a relatively high interest loan of over and will be left with lower interest payments on the remaining loans used to construct the 7.5, county complex. County employees took a cut their proposed commission The had salaries raising employees but slashed that figure to Sanpete's uphill battle, Rep. Nielsen feels, may be to credibility with the state in the aftermath of the previous furor which arose when a prison was proposed for the Ephraim area. raise. proposed by 1.5. 3, One department actually came out of the hearing with more money. At first, citizens piescnt at the meeting, many of them from unincorporated summer home areas on the north end law of the wanted county, enforcement and road budgets and services cut. However, the sheriff-eleDavid told the Bailey commission that he believed he could raise the county's revenues by ct in Privately, Rep. Nielsen said that he fears Sanpetes biggest obstacle to obtaining the regional prison facility, which could employ as many as 500 persons, is the memory many state legislators and corrections officials have of the communitys resistance to the regional prison concept a few We kept telling the years ago. legislature our economic conditions were terrible in Sanpete, and various legislators suggested that we put in a regional prison. I was all in favor of it, and I thought the idea was pretty well received by most other agencies, too. 1 was flabbergasted when we were shot dow n not by the state, but by our own local people." (Continued on Page 6 Following suggestions made by Senator Cary Peterson, and County Commissioner Keller Christenson, those present agreed that the next step would be to invite administrators from the Division of Corrections down to Sanpete to look over possible sites and to establish exactly what requirements such a facility would have in the way of power, water, acreage, sewage disposal, etc. After the county committee has developed some concrete site proposals, it was agreed, corrections officials would be advised and invited to return. Public hearings will also be held to make sure the communities support the proposed facility. statutes, Mr. Peterson says, require now that the state be invited to establish such a corrections facility not only by the county in which the facility is to be located, but also by the nearest city, even though the facility is not planned to be located within any city, but rather out in the county. Sanpete County Commissioner Keller Christenson said he felt the Senator could be assured that the proposed satellite prison has the support of county and city residents. No site has yet been selected for the proposed facility, and it is generally agreed even by the most optimistic of the prison's backers that such a facility is probably years away from actual construction. But 105 families moved out of Sanpete County last year, and the community leaders throughout the county say they expect more of the same along with unless rising unemployment rates something can be found to turn things around. Senator Peterson said he feels that while the state obviously will have no money budgeted for this type of facility in the coming years fiscal plans, there is the possibility that with the growing prison population at the Point of the Mountain and its attendant problems, the State may be wilting to bond for funds to construct the facility. Committee chairman Keith Kiesel, who now finds himself welcomed in the same communities which initially shunned his proposal when economic times were better, says that things are critical in Sanpete for many families who could use job opportunities provided by the correction center. Every industry weve imported into Ephraim in the last 75 vears has left," he observed. "We have nowhere to go, no straws to choose. Last June, in a county with a population of about 17,000, we had over 3,000 people on public assistance, most of them through no fault of their own. But government is an industry that grows. It doesnt grow fast, maybe, but it grows at a steady pace. When a person retires from government, we dont lose a paycheck." After hearing endorsements for the proposed prison from nearly every city and town in Sanpete, one participant at the T uesday morning meeting observed, "It appears that we in Sanpete County have reached a consensus on something. Whether we get the facility or not, that, in itself is remarkable. Following the selection of tentative sites, the county committee and other backers will join in an intensive lobbying effort, aided by Rep Nielsen and Senator Peterson. Hopefully. Sanpete County will be able to attract the one industry in the state that can assure continued growth and an increased demand for its services. Railroad dismantling provides temporary employment here BY BRUCE JENNINGS If Sanpete County residents could have had their druthers, they'd druther not have the instant industry that A & K Railroad Materials has brought to their valley. That industry involves the dismantling of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad's Marysvale Branch and its providing temporary employment for about 40 local people. And even though the work is in the open through the winter months and involves tasks like handling ice cold steel rails, the employees are glad for their jobs. "It's betteV than drawing rocking chair money, one of them said. Hes a construction worker whos often better than the rocking chair and the idiot box. Dennis Mortenson, one of the two foreman on the Marysvale Branch project, is glad for something, too, the open weather. That is enabling the work crews to move ahead on the dismantling at the rate of about a mile a day. A & K And a mile a day means that A & K should be able to finish the contract within the 18 allotted months. That involves removing over 450,000 ties and 28,000 tons of steel. The first step in the process has been completed: taking apart the track. That has required removing the spikes and unbolting the plates that held the rails to the ties. months. The workers are now pulling the rails and the ties away from the The rails are being hauled to a yard near Nephi and the The job, he says, doesnt pay as well as construction, but it's a lot ties to a yard at Milburn. There theyll go on sale. The rails unemployed during the winter right-of-wa- and other steel may go to another railroad, on another continent, or be sold as junk. The ties are often used in landscaping or in building other railroads if theyre of real quality. A & K has tie storage locations in almost every state and sales offices in several. We're having some trouble with people who are helping themselves to ties, Mr. Mortenson said. "Weve established a security watch and intend to prosecute offenders." Not much equipment the salvage operation: some hand tools, cats to pull the rails and the ties, trucks to haul the materials to storage areas. north and south from Manti. "Well be on the job all w inter if the weather stays the way it is," Mr. Mortenson said Tuesday. And what will happen to the when the ties and the rails have been hauled away? i v. 11V ment." He and Rocky Smith, the other foreman, have crews working both i y right-of-wa- Nobody apparently knows for sure. Some of the is owned by the Rio Grande, some is public land right-of-wa- y VM ,W !1 V and some the original owners gave the D&RG easements to cover the use of land. In some of those cases, the present owners may reclaim the land. right-of-wa- i . ' i i . - .' , ' -J .. 'V-- """T-- '' k1 vr: vw rf ,J. t " right-of-wa- y County recorder, said. In the meantime, some of the y may be used for grazing, some for stock driveways or city streets and some may gradually fade into the landscape. One intangible will, of course, remain though the years: nostalgia. . ( V - is the determined," Janet Lund, Sanpete of V i I It could be years before the title to some 1 x. is involved in "In addition to the payroll," Mr. Mortenson said, "the company is expending quite a bit in the area for supplies, lodging, fuel and equip- CY jh r, . . . ' - at AiK crew or procdlng to dlsmontl Marysvale taken as th crw was working west of Manti. lln. This plctur |