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Show o 92nd Year No. 17 Price, Carbon County, Utah 10? Wednesday, March California By STEVE HEIDE Utah Utility Shareholders Utah Power & Light Co. wants to take its case to the public. The Utility Shareholders Association Monday asked the Utah Public Service Commission to drop its investigation into the controversy surrounding UP&Ls operation of five Emery County mines. UP&L entered the coal mining business in 1972 in a move designed to eliminate the companys dependence on an coal unstable 28-pa- Hollbrook, representing the shareholders group, said the evidence available to the PSC free-mark- et the investigation of UP&Ls mining operations was unwarranted, and called for the commission to dismiss the showed supply. carnival was a big success, according to Sister She said the activity over That was just about $53,000. grossed $2,000 short of last year. With the economy in such a slump. Sister e said she was surprised at the overwhelming fund-raisin- g Jo-Ann- e. y Jo-Ann- e, Jo-Ann- But in 1982, the Utah Committee on Consumer Services challenged the UP&L move, claiming the purchase of the Emery mines cost Utah ratepayers $88 million over a period. The CCS based its charges on a report prepared by .j Af,i -- '' vestigation is rN the costing in- UP&L shareholders and Utah ratepayers money they dont as long as he can And for taxes. the many Carbon County pay somewhat higher than were those taxes residents, the state average in 1982. According to a Utah Foundation report issued last week, property taxes on a house valued at $75,000 in Price would be around $604. The state average for a home of that value was $547. Other cities in Carbon County fared a little better than Price, but they were all over the state average. East Carbon, using the same home for comparison, came in at $576, while Helper drew a $557 figure. Wellington drew the second highest average, at $580. Only the unincorporated areas in the county were lower than the state figure, with an average of $472. Price wasnt first on the tax rolls last year, despite its high averages. The report said average property taxes on that same $75,000 house ranged from a low of $268 in the unincorporated South Summit School District to a high of $791 in the city of Draper. There were a number of reasons for the wide variance, according to the survey. County and local taxes and levies were the major reasons for the differences. While a state law requires that tax discrepencies between counties must be corrected at the end of each year, the report says the corrections will reduce the tax .1 - Hollbrook said need to spend. We have found the Siegel report to be without merit, Hollbrook said, and we feel the PSC should drop the case. It is costing everyone involved a great deal of money. The shareholders petition also claimed the study has caused adverse publicity for UP&L, and is undermining the confidence of investors that will drive the cost of UP&L capital up, and will directly injure UP&L shareholders. If there were problems with the UP&L mines, then that would be another story, Hollbrook said. But the evidence we have shows that isnt the case, and we feel the accusations of the Seigel study are unfounded. But UP&L officials say they are ready, willing and waiting for the April hearings. UP&L public relations manager Dave (Continued on Page ZA) Property taxes inch higher Photos by Steve Heiner y Single Copy 25t Exceed state average response. V case entirely. 10-ye- ar A , utilities analyst Sylvia M. Siegel. The Siegel report claimed UP&L could have saved its ratepayers millions of dollars by purchasing the coal for its power plants on the open market. PSC hearings into the allegations are scheduled to begin April 4. The Utility Shareholders petition group filed a with the PSC, claiming the Siegel report was prejudicial, wholly reckless, and unreliable. Attorney Donald B. Association, Everyone had a good time at the annual Notre Dame carnival last week, including cotton-candeating Sister above, principal of the school. And what carnival would be complete without a good game of bingo. Below, a carnival patron carefully covers the numbers in one of many rounds. The Pages UP&L sets sights on PSC hearings Staff Writer Contrary to a request from the Carnival capers 46 2, 1983 mans home is his castle even-number- ed burden on some property owners, but will not eliminate the differences. Those discrepencies caused a widely varied total in average assessments on improved property values throughout the state. The total levies ranged from a high of 20.29 percent in Piute County to a low of 12.04 percent in Juab County. "There is a bright spot for homeowners. The Utah Legislature passed a law some years ago that requires local property valuations be rolled back to 1978 levels for tax purposes. According to the Local Valuation Division of the State Tax Commission, property values have risen about 50 percent between 1978 and 1982. Thus, a home selling for $75,000 in 1982 would be valued at $50,000 after applying the roll back factor. In addition, legislation in effect last year provided d that valuations of property should be reduced by an additional 20 percent to allow for selling and related costs in disposing of property. In effect, the application of these two provisions resulted in residential property being valued for tax purposes at about 53.33 percent of current market value, the report noted. A home that sold for $75,000 in 1982, therefore, would show a listed market value of only $40,000 on the tax rolls. It then would be assessed at 20 percent of this figure locally-assesse- or $8,000. Computer boom hits CEU campus What can send letters at the speed of light, diagnose a sick an inpoodle, custom-tailo- r surance program in minutes and test recipes for ice cream? If you were one of the lucky ones that was not placed on a waiting list and registered for one of College of Eastern Utahs computer classes, then you would know the answers to the above questions. Weve offered computer classes at the college for the past decade, Dr. Lavell King said. But it was not until we purchased several last year that the computer boom hit CEU. According to King, the college has 10 microcomputers in its computer center and is applying for grant money that will purchase more so they can further expand their programs. What began as a simple curriculum expansion has exploded into computer classes being taught continuously from INSIDE: morning until night, King said. We found that learning to use a computer is a experience and have to ask the students to leave at the end of each class so another class can use them. The school district has joined CEUs computer class craze by registering 240 teachers, principals and staff in some of the computer classes. We applied for a block grant from the state to assist us in the inservice training of the district personnel on computers and to fund the purchase of some computers, said James Jen- sen, district elementary supervisor. By the end of February Jensen said each school will have at least two computers. Carbon High and East Carbon High have computers in their main offices that are programmed with the attendance and class rolls on . them, he said. The district has applied for a special grant, according to Jensen, that will furnish two schools with computer centers that can be used as demonstrator schools for educators in Emery, Grand and San Juan counties to learn how to operate computers. Jensen feels CEUs computer training program has been great in educating the district personnel in the computer field. We feel that the direction for inservice training that our people are engaged in is very successful and that our school district is ahead of most of the other school districts in the state in expanding the educational computer field, he said. The local educators are learning to program classroom management skills including their rolls, grading and testing in CEUs computer classes. Their teaching lessons are Keep the faith Faith and persistance have brought the Price Christian Bookstore through two years that have seen the small shop blossom into a operation. Marcheta Pierucci talks about the stores past and future. full-servi- ce See page 6A. programmed into the computers as well as educational games that teach the students while they have fun. When entering the class, the first exercise the teachers are given Ben is by who proudly displays his mastery of the computer. Thus far, Ben has learned the alphabet, numbers, spelling and math on his Torgerson, familys home computer. Bens dad, Robert Torgerson, is one of CEUs science faculty who is helping teach an overload of computer classes. We like to begin our classes with a child programming the computers so as not to intimidate people with the operations of a computer, Torgerson said. Children like to learn programming and they are good at it. They treat it as play, a secret skill, a challenge (Continued on Page ZA) Teachers in the Carbon School District are finding themselves in the classroom but as students, not inPhoto by 8tv Hainar structors. Fish tafes Fish in Utah arent safe in the winter neither are the fishing worms. Many diehard fishermen have taken to the ice, braving the cold winter winds. Steve Heiner visited Deer Creek Reservoir and discovered just how big the ice fishing craze has become. See page IB. 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