Show 109 M See the Home Show 17 MfK 'j h'( AM A ) ( 84 1()- - i77"i The Gunnison Holiday Home Show will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday December 9 & 10 from 5 to 9 pm Tickets are available from the area businesses and the high school Nine homeowners will be participating: Mike and Sherrie Crandall Carlyle and Louise Sorenson Blake and Karen Donaldson Ron and Kenna Marrelli Kim and Juilie Lund Mike and Jill Jensen David and Lorie Beck Kelly and Kathy Frandsen and Scott and Wendy Reid Remember to wear easily removable shoes Vol John Deere Day is today Gunnison Implement is holding their annual John Deere Day celebration today at 12 noon The even twill showcase the latest in John Deere equipment and technology according to Kim Pickett Lunch will be served and door prizes will given away to participants The annual even gives farmers and their families an opportunity to see the latest John Deere equipment in action Festival set The annual music event of the season The Festival of Carols is scheduled I for Sunday December 21 at 7 pm The concert of area music talent will be at the Gunnison Valley High School Auditorium and be free of charge City changes recreation leadership by Anita Lyons Staff writer In a special meeting November 25 the Gunnison City Council agreed to expand the city’s recreation program Rodney Taylor council member over the program commented that other communities are becoming more and more involved He asked that they be included in the leadership and planning of activities The council approved Taylor suggested the council choose a "committee of three people who will select the recreation committee Members of the recreation committee may be from any community in Gunnison valley They will serve at least one year and no more than two If anyone is interested in becoming volved with the recreation program please call Gunnison City Hall Also at the meeting the council approved splitting the vacant lot between Adrian Harwood and David Wilbur in half Each family requested the split in order to gain more acreage 76 Number 48 Gunnison Utah 84634 Wednesday 53 53 $ ® 53 53 53 9 Community Calendar-pa- ge 4& 5 Society News-pa- ge ge Off the 3 From the Publishers Deskpg 7 Legal Notices-pa- ge 10 ge Classified ge 3 Christmas tree Package wrap & ship tips-- pg 2 7 3 50 997 cents Compromise made with CUCF ©m sewer pomd issue “We’ve got to have communication" he by Anita Lyons Staff writer said and referred to the last time officials met The fighting spirit was left behind as “It got quite emotional" Gunnison and state officials worked towards that Pete llaun Byfield explained November 25 a compromise thedirector of corrections is looking at privaTuesday Gunnison officials came to the meeting hoptizing construction Haun also plans to sw itch ing to retrieve some of the estimated 24 milfrom building separate cells to a lion it’s going to cost to upgrade Gunnison's building Rather than a thousand beds sewer system to accommodate prison addibeing added in Gunnison over the next five tions years the plan now is to build two dormitoRichard By field who is over the Division ries adding only 576 beds of Facilities Construction and Management Byfield reviewed tw o options: for the state began the meeting by telling the Gunnison to help the city increase the sewer system council about the mood on state levels “The pacity to take care of future prison needs (an building board has listed this project with zero estimated 25 million) or for the state to build funding and the project does not appear in the its own sewage treatment plant on prison propGovernor’s budget” said Byfield erty (3 million) Both proposals at such a high One member of the building board was cost would be voted down said Byfield lie on the selection committee when Gunnison commented “I would not have the state in the was chosen as the location of the new prison believe that sewage treatment business and he believes Gunnison committed to suppanding one system will be cheaper on both ply the infrastructure when they won the bid our parts” for the prison said Byfield Byfield proposed a compromise AccordThe original plan was for a 2000 bed ing to CRS engineers Byfield said another 1700 beds could be added to Gunnison’s syscility and the current facility has 816 beds “There are people on the state’s part who be- tem before it needed to be modified-- if the lieve that’s what providing for 2000 beds prison is able to change or constrain the flow the commitment was” explained Byfield to avoid surges in the system Gunnison officials maintain that they promEngineer Tim Jones commented “That ised only to provide infrastructure for phase drastically changes the capacity of the collecone and that agreements were made for the tion line If you can live with constrained flow state to assist with infrastructure for future you’ve taken $800000 off the city’s need” additions Byfield commented “There are Jones pointed out that it wouldn’t change the different memories because there is not need for expansion of the lagoons The prison wilfentribute to a higher avenough in writing” He told the council he purposely came to erage flow and it will still cost over a million the meeting alone hoping that it would be a dollars to modify the lagoons Byfield asked constructive meeting where a compromise if there was a way to “scale down” the ponds could be reached rather than a “The lower can keep all expenditures the better it will be” meeting By Held told the council he hoped to be able to return with a figure between in hopes the Governor will include the item in his proposed budget he governor will teview the issues then “lie has to make a judgment call" said By Held If the governor includes the item in the budget and his budget is approved "We’ve solved the problem for the short term and have our toe in the water for the long term" said He inserted "It helps us both not By Held dealing in millions" State Repiesentative Brad Johnson said “I believe the state should support the city but getting it done is this way" Once the governor’s budget has been approved he said “It’s really easy to say here’s a precedence heie’" Mayor Steven Buchanan said “We If we wanted to come to some conclusion can get to a point that's going to woik and go it h it then so be n " By Held said "I he debate won’t end day"’ Engineer Jones wanted " There's a couple elements that need redundancy in those controls out there" He asked if a manual way to control flow ere in place in case the electric flow meter breaks "We can’t have a peak If we do we’re going to flood basements" he said (See Compromise on Page 11) of Medicare overpaid GVH nearly $845000 Stagg and Associates a CPA firm contracted to prepare the annual Gunnison Valley Hospital (GVH) Medicare Cost Report notified GVH Administration on November 12 1997 that Medicare had overpaid GVH on acute care patients since approximately April 1996 After GVH meeting with Stagg and Associates to confirm and understand the overpayment Administration and representatives from Stagg and Associates met with Medicare to alert them of the error The overpayment was caused by Medicare while updating payment factors for 53 December GVH in April 1996 Medicare is calculating the amount of overpayment However Stagg’s estimates show an overpayment of approx imately $ 90000 for fiscal year 996 $585000 are fiscal year 997 and $70000 for fiscal year 1998 Again these numbers are estimates and need confirmation from Medicare According to Greg Rosenvall GVH administrator the hospital has sufficient funds to pay back Medicare As to when the repayemt will be made is being negotiated He said that the hospital is working with Medicare but the hospital expects to make a lump some payemtn Operations of the hospital are expected to continue as normal However GVH management also acknowledges a need to develop better internal tracking procedures to verify payments from Medicare and other payers Ho Ho Ho More than 400 people stopped by the Gunnison Fire Station to say hello to the most famous elf in the world Santa Claus visited with children November 28 The Gunnison Lions Club sponsored the visit and fed donuts and hot chocolate to the patient people who waited up to 2 hours to see Santa Bags of candy and fruit donated by the Gunnison Businessmen's Association were given to the children Game wardens warn hunters against poaching by JoLyn Camp With the wildlife hunts largely closed is contrary to what some m ight expect it now that the game wardens get really busy What do they do? Watch for poachers Every year the wildlife mortality diminishes because of the illegal actions of some Poaching is bad enough and the value on game so great that it is a Class A Misdemeanor The guilty Darty is also charged restitution a fine and has his hunting license revoked All of which is based upon the severity of the crime Also there has been enough concern that the trdphy population is almost being eliminated the issue has been raised with the legislature The Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife lobbied and were successful in getting mandatory restitution for perpetrators who illegally kill trophy animals A trophy deer is considered to be one with a 24 inch spread or wider For elk it is one with six or more points The restitution for these two animals is $8000 There are also standards to the size and restitution set for other wild game such as big horn sheep and bear to name a few more In addition to the restitution those who take trophy animals illegally are charged with a third degree felony which will go on their record Add this to an additional fine and revocation of hunting and possibly fishing privileges for one to five years and it makes very risky business to poach “Coming up with the money and maybe getting a gun confiscated is the easy part for some but to have to sit out of the hunt for up to five years is when it gets hard" Pannunzio adds This has proven to be a bigger problem down on the Paunsaugunt between Kanab and Arizona This is one of the few places where there are any trophies left Another sad reality is that most poachers do not kill because they need the meat In fact according to Division of Wildlife Resources (DW R) officer Tred Pannunzio that is hardly ever the case “We are finding a lot ot animals lately that are just shot and left Nothing is taken” reports Pannunzio “These acts are simply malicious and unnecessary” he continues For hatever reason people are killing these an imals hether it be because they are mad at the way the DWR handles the game for the fun of it or w hatever they are stealing from everyone They are taking away privileges from those who enjoy wildlife in hunting to just looking at them During the winter these wild game animals are very vulnerable They are on their winter range and are "in the rut” or breeding This makes them so they are not in top condition and less on their guard for hunters Another problem for the wildlife that most people are not really aware of is harassment (Continued on page 12) |