Show Serving Utah’s Great Pahvant Valley Copy 50c USPS 349 - 52Q VoL 81 No 5 August 16 199Q Smithsonian tapes gem story Hinckley Post Hinckley Post Office Office then now Hinckley Post Office moves Hinckley post office boxholders began turning in their keys Monday August 13 as the old office prepared to dose- - eta ihtww'nniry"W‘as prepared to open the next day Construction of the new post office started in October 1989lt was just completed Postmaster Clark Hinckley Hardy said the old office on the town's Main Street has been in use for “close to 50 years" It was not the original post office in Hinckley however Hardy said the new building sits on a site once occupied by an older one “Whether that was the original one I don’t know" Hardy said “I would presume it was the original but I’m not sure” H ardy has been Postmaster for 4 years A “Postmaster’s Relief Replacement" (someone to take over when Hardy is on vacation) is the only other employeeof the Hinckley post office The old office covers about 450 "sqnhfe' feet Hardy did 'not know what plans are being made for the old building's future The new building located on the other side of the street just a few hundred feet south of the old building has about 600 interior square feet plus a large parking lot There were 278 boxes in the old office and 350 in the new one with space for expansion Hinckley has 000 residents almost A contract route serves outlying residents in nearby Abraham and other rural routes but H inckley residents proper get their mail at the post office No formal dedication ceremonies were undertaken for the new post office which opened for business Tuesday August 14 Mother Nature limits water available for generating station leasing program By Betsy Grubbs (Editor’s note: the following story appeared In the July 1990 edition of Network” Power “Intermountain which is published by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power It was published under the above title It is reprinted here with permission) The Sevier River is the lifeblood of many communities in the southern part of Utah providing water for irrigation power and various other uses Water river are highly rights to this valued and heavily regulated by state agencies The Sevier River also provides the surface water for the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) At the time the plant was conceived most of the water rights in the area were owned by five Intermajor irrigation companies The mountain Power Agency (IPA) which owns IPP negotiated with the shareholders in these five companies and purchased a minimum firm yield of 39600 acres of surface water The water purchased by IPA includes storage rights in the Sevier Bridge Reservoir so that water can be stored there for future use IPP is a zero discharge plant meaning that all of the water used by the project must be totally consumed It r can’t be returned to the river or Instead the water must be re and eventually evaporated cycled through six evaporation ponds at the site Each year the water supply fluctuates depending upon Mother Nature The were the wettest years on record providing more than the required water needed to run the project During those years it was decided that the excess water would be rented out to the local farmers on an annual basis Those who had originally sold IPA their See WATER page 2 Clarification This is to clarify the misconception Fillmore residents had after reading Ken Rand's report of the Utah Central Gas proposal Please put it on the front page I would like to clarify to the citizens of Fillmore the Mayor’s and City Council’s position on natural gas service coming to our area We are definitely in favor of bringing natural gas to Fillmore as soon as possible The fact that we did not enter into a franchise agreement with Central Utah Gas Co does not mean we have abandoned finding a way for this service to come to our area We are investigating other options and hope to have more answers in the very near future Keith LGlI1Ins Mayor of Fillmore by Ken Rand A video tape crew was in Delta last weekend to film a documentary on valuable gems for the Smithsonian Institute The video company Creative Visions from Salt Lake City visited the area Friday and Saturday August 0 and 11 They filmed at Tina’s Jewelry in Delta and at the Rex Harris and Ted Harris red beryl mine in the Wah Wah Mountains 120 miles southwest of Delta or 35 miles southwest of Milford The West Desert segment is one of six gemstone locations in the US to be Others depicted in the documentary include the sunstone gem location in Oregon and the Yogo Gulch sapphire in Montana The company intends to sell rights to the final product to the Discovery Channel and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) A third tape will be made for home video outlets The final version should be available for airing in October or November although final plans are not known SysSkaggs Telecommunications tem financed the project for Creative Visions The final product will likely be a one hour documentary “Probably so" Rex Harris said “That doesn’t seem long enough what with the time they spent with us They're going to really have to edit it down” The crew filmed Harris and son Gary arriving at the mine and watched as they set up to blast a vein They filmed the blasting and recorded the recovery by hand of gems from the blasted seam The film crew started the project in Delta because Harris is on friendly terms with John White Smithsonian curator “He had suggested they start with us" he said “because he knew we’d cooperate at least as good as anybody else” The technical name of the gem taken from the Harris mines is red beryl but it is marketed as "red emerald" “We sell them mostly to Japan now" Tina Nielson owner of Tina’s Jewelry said "and they like that name" The Japanese see red emeralds and green A emeralds as jeweled representations of “yin and yang" the oriental philosophical concept of opposing but complimentary passive and active forces in nature Harris said 80 percent of red emerald wholesale buyers are Japanese He said his gems are sold through Equatorian Imports the major emerald dealer in the US A gem’s value is based on several factors Generally red emerald is about as valuable as a diamond "Ruby is the highest priced gem" Hams said “(Green) emerald is the next highest and then diamonds On the little stones we exceed emeralds and on some of the big stones emerald beats us” Harris said a quality large red emerald could bring about S6000 producer powders Ted Harris' nose during video taping at Tina's Jewelry Tina Nielson looks on Deer meeting brings many officials few sportsmen by Ken Rand officials than More government sportsmen attended a meeting to discuss issues held in deer management Fillmore last week The meeting was held at the Millard High School gym at 7:30 pm Thursday August 9 “Mule Deer Management of the ’90s” was coordinated by the Slate Division of Wildlife Resources and the Utah Wildlife Federation Federation member Abe Johnson was strumental in preparing the meeting DWR Conservation Officer Dave Smith said purpose of the meeting was to allow sportsmen to tell his agency what they want from the deer hunt “For the last few years" he said "sportsmen have not been real happy with what’s been going on with deer management in the state Everybody has their own definition of what a quality hunt is We’re supposed to be able to manage our deer herds where 200000 people can go out on opening day and t buck beeverybody shoot a fore 10:30” Smith called the situation “a nightmare” He said some people want DWR to manage deer for trophy hunting while others are happy to have an opportunity to appreciate wildlife in the wilderness “We’ve got to do something" he said “We’ve got to figure out some way to satisfy the deer hunter in this state” Unfortunately government officials “who came to listen” Smith said outnumbered hunters at the meeting Officials included administrators managers biologists conservation and law enforcement officers and others from the Forest Service Bureau of Land Management and Division of Wildlife Resources They came from throughout south centra and western Utah "We wanted to hear what the public wanted to say" Smith said "but the public wasn't there to say it" Representatives from wildlife fed erations on hand included one from Sevier County and the East Millard County Federation “We had guys come from Vemal" Smith said “We had three guys from St George" Smith said fewer people are hunting deer in Utah He said the average used to be about 185000 a year “and I think we’re down to about 172000" He said the figures include new year old hunters “We added two new cohorts" he said “and the number of our deer hunters didn't rise" The problem is that deer management costs such as payments to farmers and ranchers from wildlife damage to hay and crops (S500000 a year) must come from licenses and fees charged the declining hunter base Smith said "When we have a decrease in the number of deer hunters" he said “we have fewer people paying that bill Money is coming from olhcT programs to cover for us" The deer hunt in Utah is worth about million each year Smith said DWR deer management options discussed at the meeting cluded limited access limited entry and split season “We’ve talked about putting a ceiling on the number of deer hunters" he said "like cutting it off at 150000 people" With few sportsmen attending the meeting failed in its main goal of getting information from the public to help rect deer management in the future “I’d love to give these guys another chance" Smith said but he said he knew of no plans for future meetings Still those who attended benefited by access to the government officials he said “The people who showed up were very receptive They had some good They had their questions questions answered and I figure they were satisfied with it" The meeting lasted until pm West Millard County firefighting crews record busy week by Ken Rand Firefighters Sheriff s deputies and other emergency responders in west Millard County were busy last week with a propane spill and a bam fire in Delta and a home fire in Lynndyl Millard County Sheriff Department dispatcher Diane Peterson said liquid propane spilled at Petrolane Gas Service in Delta Tuesday August 7 She said it happened at 6:10 pm at about 680 West 100 North A Delta man was trying to load a thousand gallon propane tank containing 300 gallons of propane onto a trailer A liquid discharge valve at the tank's bottom snagged on a concrete wall and opened Liquid propane escaped “At the time they thought the valve had broken off" Peterson said Delta volunteer firefighters and sheriffs deputies in the area responded A large area almost a square block was cordoned off and evacuated while the tank was allowed to bleed empty The Delta Fire Department maintained water spray to dissipate the vapors "If anybody dropped a match or caused a spark or anything" Peterson said "it could have been really bad" It took about two and a half hours to control the incident There was no fire and no injuries Deputy Sheriff Forrest Roper said there were “only three or four houses in He said the immediate vicinity" “maybe 10 or 15 people" were evacuated Also in Delta fire destroyed property belonging to Tom Watson at about 400 South 400 West The fire occurred Thursday afternoon August 9 at about 4:45 pm Watson lost some recently cut hay a bam a shop a storage shed animal pens corrals and a loading chute One estimate put the total lost at about S20000 but the figure is preliminary Lynn Ashby Assistant Chief for the Delta Fire Department said the fire started when a “microburst of wind" moved embers from a nearby controlled ditch fire into a hay stack "There was a little tiny bit of hay on fire" Ashby said "and he dug that out and watered it down Then he turned and walked away and looked back and a different stack was going up" There were no injuries in the fire and no homes were threatened “The wind wu blowing real hard to the north" Ashby said He said it took about two and a half hours to control the fire A trailer house some sheds and other property burned in Lynndyl at about 3 pm Saturday August 11 The fire was on property owned by Clair Ovcrson “It was kind of a travel trailer converted into a home" Lynndyl volunteer firefighter Connie Best said The trailer was occupied by Berry Ovcrson at the time He escaped without injury There were no injuries in the fire Best said damage is estimated at “around $5000" In addition to Lynndyl responders firefighters came from Leamington and Delta The fire was controlled in about two hours “Child’s curiosity with fire" was noted as cause of the fire in the official report |