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Show Page Eight FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1975 Third Week Ends for House, Bill Calls for Public Info. Officer The NACo Task Force Names McClure those who purchase land for speculation, but wish to protect the farmers of our state, said Speaker Rencher. Habitual criminals were the subject of a bill sponsored by lt T. Quentin Cannon Lake). The bill would allow the court to determine if a person is a habitual criminal after two convictions, sentences, and :erms in prison for serious crimes. The person may be imprisoned for five years to life if he is determined to be a habitual criminal. One of the bills which will be considered by the House in the fourth week involves a Utah It Housing Finance Agency. is an exciting concept which will help families build homes especially low and middle insaid Speaker come families, Rencher. The basic idea is for the bonds agency to sell housrevenues for use and the ing loans. The incentive to buy the bonds is that the income would be exempt from taxation. This allows lower interest rates on the housing loans, explained Rencher. Another bill which is on its Speaker this agency is approved it If way to the Senate fro consider- could bring on a surge of new ation involves farmland assessbuilding in Utah. It would alment. low families to build homes who The bills basic intent is to are presently out of the market promote the use of land for ag- because of high interest rates. riculture in Utah. We are con- All of this would not drain state cerned about tax exemptions for funds. he said. The House of Representatives settled into the third week of the 41st session of the Utah Legislature. They considered 26 pieces of legislation with topics ranging from farmland to habitual criminals. One of the bills which passed the House provided for a public information officer for the Utah Legislature. Speaker Ronald L. Rencher explained, We feel that individual citizens should have access to information about specific bills which concern them in addition to the bills which are reported in the mass media because of their general interest. A legislative information officer can provide this service to the public. This session we have a public information officer and he is working hard to keep up on bills, committee meetings, and voting. This service has been greatly aided by a telephone which allows anyone in Utah to call him without charge for information, said Speaker Rencher. The number is (800) (D-Ogde- (R-Sa- n) low-intere- st 662-535- 0. Commissioner ttalpn McClure, chairman of the Salt Lake Ccun-t- y Board of Commissioners has been named chairman of the Growth Management Task Force of the Nationa Association of The announcement Counties. was made by Stanley M. Smoot, Davis County Commissioner and President of the National Association of Counties. The Growth Management Task Force will be composed of county officials nationwide concerned with federal, state and local policies and laws affecting the growth of our country. One of the goas of the task force will be to review and develop growth management techniques for county governments to utilize when dealing with population, land use, environment, energy, transportation and community development issues. The Task Force will consider these growth management concerns for both urban and rural communities. Membership for the Task Force wil come primarily from the standing NACo steering These committees. steering committees formulate national legislative policies for the National Association of Counties, the only organiation representing county government at the national level. The Task Force will hold its first meeting in Washington, D. C. at the NACo Legislative Conference, February 1975. Another meeting will be held to consider western growth issues at the NACo Western Region Conference in Abuquer-quNew Mexico, March 25-2- 7, e. Atty. Gen. Office Files for Funds For Campaign Anti-Shoplifti- ng (arrangement and display. The main objectives of the program are to reduce shoplifting by 25 per cent in the next 12 months and reduce the loss to merchants at least $2.5 million and increase the number of convictions at least 10 per cent. Mr. Hansen told the IRPA Director Robert Anderson that the program will educate the public on the seriousness of shoplifting as the fastest growing form of crime in the nation. The proposed law is now out of committee with the legislature and with a favorable en-- : dorsement will go before the current session of the Utah Legislature. j Attorney Gen. Vernon Romney The Utah Attorney Generals office this week has filed an amended application with the Law Enforcement Planning Agency seek $45,000 to aid in its campaign. Robert Hansen deputy Utah attorney general sent the amended application to the Planning agecy director in Utah. Mr. Hansen said that the total project cost for the campaign in the next 12 months is $60,000 with the LEPA providing 75 per cent of the financing. In the amended application Mr. Hansen said no educational efforts will be directed at merchants. The reason for this is that merchants arc already acutely aware of the shocking incidence and increasing rate and amount of shopliftif. They have already taken all the action generally available to them with respect to store security and mertha.idLc anti-shoplifti- Government Cited As Biggest Influence On Todays Physician ng I A University of Utah Medical Center educator said this week that the biggest influence on physicians today is the government. Dr. Thomas Caine assistant professor of internal medicine said, I just wish I could predict what tomorrow's going to bring. He said if Medical Center officials appear as though hey were totally at sea, not knowing what direction were headed, youre probably right. "!n med:cal education each day brings attempts to increase the influence of the federal government in dictating whats going to hoppen, he said. Major areas of legislative concern are limiting the number who can go into a particular specialty and correcting the geographic maldistribution of 19-2- ' Utah's School Food Supervisors To Meet Food Service SuperUtahs 40 school from visors districts will hold their annual Travel meeting at the Tri-Ar- c FebruLodge in Salt Lake City ary According to Mrs. Marietta Romero. Specialist, School Food Services, Office of the Utah State Board of Education, and chairman of the conference, the topics discussed will center around the efficient use of kitchen equipment. Also to be discussed wTill be the School Food Supervisors role in planning the school cafeteria. The first general session will begin at 9:00 a.m. on the 13th and will feature an address by Mr. Charles Tutt, School Food Supervisor for the Colorado The Springs School District. subject wil) be Management and Human Relations. Workshops and seminars will continue throughout the day. The evening session will be a banquet with Dr. Walter D. Talbot, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, as guest speaker. Dr. Talbot's topic will be School Feeding and Proper Nutrition." Workshops will again be the order of the day on Friday. Each participant will attend one workshop. At the conclusion of the workshop Miss Imogenc Hamilton, School Food Service Specialist, Office of the Utah State Board of Education, will present a summary of the workSchool 4. shops. It is expected that between 60 and 65 School Food Service Supervisors and Coordinators will be in attendance. do our we sometimes have to do best; whats required. Churchill. VMT LAKE TIMES Moss Announces Consolidation Dept. Agriculture Geometronics Senator Frank E. (Ted) Moss has been notified that the Department of Agriculture will consolidate its geometronics activities of the Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) and the Forest Service in the OgdenSalt Lake City area. On December 20 1974, Senator Moss j wrote to the Office of Management and Budget requesting $2 e startmillion for the costs for these up functions in the OgdenSalt This cost is Lake City area. quickly offset, however, by the over $1 milion that the U. S. Department of Agriculture will save annually from the consolidation, Kenneth E. Frick, Administrator, ASCS reported to one-tim- co-locati- ng Senator Moss. In reporting to Senator Moss. Mr. Frick included a copy of a letter to Elmer B. Staats, Comptroller General, highlighting the efficiencies and savings realized by consolidating the ASCS Forest Service aerial photography services, Consolidating the Asheville, North Carolina and the Salt Lake City ASCS aerial photo laboratories for surveying and mapping will result in an annual savings to Senator ASCS of $190,000, Moss noted. The consolidation effort is expected to be accomplished in two phases. The first will be to combine the North Carolina and Salt Lake City ASCS laboratory function which should be completed July 1, 1975 resulting in annual savings of $190,000 and the second will be of this major function with the Forest Service geometronics activities to be situated in the Ogden Salt Lake City area (location not yet defined) which should be accomplished in 1977 and will save $1 million annually. The agreement for these moves has been approved by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. "Bringing all these USDA facilities together in one place will result in a savings of over SI million annually to taxpayers, decreased unemployment, and more efficient operation of services . . . this makes good sense to me, the Senator concluded. The site for the combined ASCS Forest Service geometronics activities has not vet been determined, but is expected to be finalized before July, 1975. Geometronics. basically is a survey mapping used by the Department of Agriculture. co-locati- ng co-locati- on sys-jte- m Utah Highway Dept. Says It's Construction Subject to Inflation Inflation is often likened to a aid, together and Utah Highway Department officials feel the analogy is quite appropriate. In just the past fewr years, they have watched helplessly as the inflation monster stripped the flesh from Utahs once flourishing highway construction program, leaving nothing but bones. Just how monstrous the inflation has been may be seen from the Hihway Departments construction cost index. In just the last fiscal year, the price of construction asphalt has gone up from $47 to $93 a ton, structural steel has increased from $720 to $1,024 a ton, and reinforcing steel has gone from S392 to $728 a ton. As a result of these price increases in materials, and increased labor costs, the cost of surfacing highways has gone up 72 per cent, the cost of building bridges and other structures has gone up 50 per cent, and the cost of roadway excavation has gone up 54 per cent. The Highway Departments composite index of all construcion costs is standing 58 per cent above what it was last fiscal year. jTranslated into more graphic terms, the cost of constructing a monster" Its not enough that we F 1, 1975. 13-1- - mile of typical two-lan- e with about $9 mil- lion in required state matching funds, will virtually be the state's construction budget for the coming fiscal year. Utah Highway officials emphasize that the only state funds going into major highway construction are matching funds, required by law to match the states allocation of federal highway aid. They say the Department is simply too short of state revenue to support any major construction solely highway state funds. from Michael A. Wallace, son of Mr. and Mrs. Keith C. Wallace of 1977 Scenic Drive, recently completed a four wek U.S. Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps; field training encampment at McConnell AFB, Kansas. He is a student at the University of Utah. Butler rural 0 highway has gone up from $250.-00alto fiscal a mile last year most $400,000 a mile. Last fiscal year, ten million dollars would have bdilt 40 miles of This two-lan- e rural highway. 25 miles. build will only year, it Although construction costs dramatically. are increasing Utahs highway construction budget is not. The states funds for highway construction come principally from one source Utah the federal government. highway officials were recently informed that the Federal Highway Administration will release about the same amount of federal highway aid to Utah next .fiscal year as it did this one million Thn federal Several new Butler buildings from 2,400 thru 10,000 sq. ft., available immediately from stock. These buildings represent substantial cost savings. Phone Utah System Builders 322-130- 7 |