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Show .PAGE. 2 ... V k v . . 'i a S . .. : THE.ZEPHYR'JUNE .89 . . rf . J lV f 3 . not go to Zeohvr Interview, could not explain why some monies coujd Mark Walsh education. Still, he yielded to the consensus of opinion, mainly mineral lease those that using and the Association of Counties. They believe that the revenues for anything but roads could Jeopardize other funding federal government ... counties receive from the v. But where does this concern come from? According to Jimmie Walker, an in Washington, D.C. It was opinion was obtained from the Solicitors Office written by Thomas L Sansonetti, Associate Solicitor, Energy and Resources tor the Bureau of Land , Management A critical passage from the opinion page . Jim Stiles states:' mineral leasing money se or school goes to 'politically and financially independent'which are alone responsible districts created 'by virtue of state law and in services for providing the question." So why cant those revenues be used for other badly needed services? like Improved hospital facilities? like Improved facilities like education? to deal with our sudden tourist boom? If the Board commits future revenues to this project, It wont matter If later a broader Interpretation of the law Is accepted. The money will be gone. As for the road Itself, I have another concern. Its ogj about environmental Impacts.. It Is true that most of. the proposed highway alignment In fact, If people choose to take follows existing dirt and gravel roads. sides In this Issue, the lines should not be drawn between environmental and Instead, they should be drawn between fiscal groups. conservatives and those people who believe that any and all road projects are eventually a good Investment But specifically, I have doubts about the tourism advantages of this road. It has been stated that the highway will serve two purposes. First, It will benefit oil and gas companies by providing better access, and thus Second, It will provide a. new corridor to stimulating greater production. southern Utah from Vernal, Flaming Gorge, and Dinosaur National Monument It would, they say, funnel a stream of tourist traffic to the Canyonlands, all the way from Yellowstone. But because K Hes on the The fact is, the "corridor already exists. wrong side of a political boundary line, It Is being Ignored by the Grand Colorado County Road Board and the Utah Department of Transportation. Highway 139 lies Just across the State line and runs parallel to the border from Loma to Rangely. There It Junctions with Highway 64 to U.S. 40 and west to VemaL I Inquired about this road and OIDe Knutson and Dutch Zimmerman both Informed me that the highway was In terrible shape, that It was Impassible a good deal of the time. I did find I drove over to Colorado and took a look. myself getting delayed several times, but not for the reasons one might expect Colorado Is upgrading and repaving Highway 139. The southern half Is almost complete, although I was stopped by construction along seven miles of road Bids are soon going out for the northern section, with an expected completion time of sometime next year. So, by the autumn of 1990, a new, wide, highway will provide the very convenient access.to southern Utah that UDOT and the Road District claim we so badly need By working with the tourist and travel councils of Colorado, why cant we Jointly promote SblS highway as the north-sou- th And we save about link? Colorado benefits, Utah benefits. In a road. construction eventual redundant costs of $24,000,000 If we remove tourism as a benefit of construction, what does that leave? Obviously, It leaves access for energy companies that operate In the Book Cliffs. The Board says that exploration and development of resources are being stymied by a poor road system. They claim that If we take the mineral lease revenues paid by these companies, and build roads for them, It will generate more production and eventually more taxes. Tax revenues will "PILT payments to counties will In the last month or two, Jimmie Walker and have spent many hours a of about wilderness, bicycles, secret caves, variety talking subjects: and the Special Service Roads District and its major prospecting, the Book Cliffs Road. Sometimes we agree with each other; project sometimes we dont When It comes to the construction of a major highway from Vernal to Cisco, while I think he sincerely believes Its a good Idea, I choose to disagree. So far. Let me tell you why. The Special Service District was created last November by County Commissioners Jimmie Walker, Dutch Zimmerman and David Knutson. Three weeks earfler, Walker and Zimmerman were defeated for making the It Commission a lame-duno a held from mandate government body longer the citizens of Grand County. It appointed three Board members to the Special Service District, Dutch Zimmerman, OIDe Knutson (father of David) and Robert Shumway. They then appointed Jimmie Walker as Its administrator. These circumstances place the Board In a very unique position. The Board has an operating budget this year that exceeds $200,000. But they are not elected, nor were they appointed by a Commission that still held the confidence and support of tiie voters. They are In effect, responsible to no one. They are not, as for as I know, subject to referendum, and there Is no procedure In the State of Utah. In fact, as Jimmie pointed out In last month's story on the Road District, about the only legal way of challenging their actions Is through the courts, an oftentimes expensive, task. frustrating and But Jimmie Walker also said that the Board Is "accountable to the People of Utah, and I presume that Grand County residents would be of utmost concern. Because the Board has no mandate from the citizens, If they truly want to be responsible and responsive, they need to Involve the public In the decision-maki- ng process. They should be asking the citizens what they want from the Special Service District What are the Countys priorities? What do people want? At a workshop meeting of the Board a few weeks ago, I raised some questions about the proposed Book Cliffs project concerns that Ive had for quite some time. Dutch Zimmerman pointedly asked the question: , Are the people of Grand County against this road? I could only reply: I dont know to ask them. nobody bothered y And Its true. This road will constitute the biggest construction was built over the San Raphael SwelL since project In twenty years Yet Its being put together by Jimmie, Dutch, OMe and Robert In a small office on Main Street with little If any public Input Until tills month, public meetings were scheduled for 7:00 am. on Thursday mornings (monthly); now they have been changed to the third Saturday of each month at 8:00 ajn. Neither time Is very conducive to public participation. Two weeks ago, on May 8, another 7:00 bjil meeting was held at the Special Service District office. In addition to the Board and Its Administrator, Commissioner Merv Lawton attended the meeting, as cfld the engineering firm of Creamer and Noble. The meeting's Intent was to discuss the conditions of a $150,000 contract between the District and that firm. Creamer and Noble will do all the engineering work In Grand and Uintah County. According to Walker, Creamer and Noble stand to eventually earn $600,000 from, the Grand County project alone. This particular meeting was not even announced; there was no opportunity for Input, discussion or dissent On June 1, the Service District from both Grand and Uintah Counties will present their funding requests to the Community Impact Board (CIB) In Salt Lake City. Grand County, as Jimmie Walker stated last month, will request a $6,000,000 loan, to be paid back from future mineral lease revenues. It means that most If not all of those revenues may go to the repayment of that loan for the next 15 years. That Is a big commitment. My question Is: Whafs the hurry? Whafs the rush? There are major questions that need to be resolved before this project Is given the green light and construction beings. First of all, do we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this mineral lease revenue must be spent solely on roads? While the Board Is proceeding on the assumption that It must, no one has been able to explain .why, David Knutson, in last month's I re-elect- ion, ck re-c- all , time-consum-ing . 1- -70 . . low-inter- est -- THE CANYON COUNTRY ZEPHYR nsi be reduced If single-purpo- pro-develop- . -- re-alig- ned . , benefit us alL But If the potential Is great In the Book Cliffs, why dont these companies build the road themselves? When Exxon Installed their exploratory well In Gold Basin on the La Sal Mountains, Exxon paid to Improve the road. When oil was discovered In Alaska, a consortium of energy not the taxpayers. Right now, we are all companies financed the pIpeDne paying an extra twenty cents a gallon for gasoDne because of Exxons negfigence in the oil fouled waters of Alaska. In ' Grand County, Im not too fond of seeing all that revenue go exclusively to the companies that paid them. Imagine that every year we all paid our property taxes, and In return, we received from the government ttjgS exact amount In Improvements to our a new driveway, a roof, a second bathroom. It would be great, but homes Its unrealistic. We have a responsibility to the entire community, not just to ourselves. The same Is true of the energy companies that use our land. Its only fair. To me, all this makes good common sense. Some of you will feel the same way; others will strongly disagree. Thats OK. Thats exactly what we need. We need a frank, honest and broad based discussion by the citizens of tills community. The Special Service District needs to hear from us. Pont be a member cf tha Silent Majority. Thomas Jefferson once said: "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and If we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy Is not to take It from them, but to Inform their decision. Good words. Sound wisdom. for energy production . SUBSCRIBE NOW P.O.BOX 327 MOAB, UTAH 845.32 an annual subscription is only (801)259-777- 3 JIM STILES, PUBLISHER $12.00 Trish West local subscribers receive The Zephyr a day before it reaches newsstands. production manager contributing writers Audrey Graham, Jim Mattingly, Steve Mulligan, Lloyd Pierson Ken Sanders, John Sensenbrenner, Alan West, Terry Tempest Williams Grandma Sue & Grandpa Og name. THE CANYON COUNTRY address ZEPHYR 1989 The Canyon Country Zephyr aU rights reserved P.O.BOX 327 MOAB, UTAH 84532 mmm W I'illiMPJI' LLLlllli . .'MW |