OCR Text |
Show Petition will force Business Committee out by Tom Brennan or Some Ute Tribe constitkmal amendments along with removing the Tribal Business Committee members from office were discussed Thursday night at a special meeting in Fti. Duchesne. Ron Williams, Fort Duchesne community president, called the public making to dismiss alleged business coipmittee civil and criminal violations on members of the Utah Tribe. "The major concern is the' business committee has violated the constitution of the Tribe, Williams told the 65 attending. have to be .''Huy feel they don'tactions. responsible for their said the committee violated the constitution when it shut down the Tribal court Williams system 30 days ago, He said a person is not given a speedy trial, when held in jail for a long time. , , The business committee is creating a chaotic state, George Mangan, a Roosevelt attorney asked by Williams to answer questions on the Tribes constitution, said. "They have just disbanded the Tribal court. Williams asked Mangan to review a referendum Williams had drafted and circulated in the community forcing the business committee to comply with the constitution regarding the Tribal court system. Mangan said the committee cannot violate its own constitution. He said he is presently working on filing a suit in federal district court on behalf of Williams and some other Tribal members to force the committee to open up their court system and follow their constitution. They are going to find themselves in court, Mangan said. And the Tribe is going to find itself in a lot of trouble. Mangan along with Williams is contending the business committee are making themselves the judge, jury and execut- step in and take over the judicial proceedings," Mangan said. The committee allegedly dosed the Tribe court system because ioner. There is no separation of , they were unhappy with an powers," Williams said. There August ruling on the blood pro-has become an abusive use of centages of Tribal members who powers. There are no checks and j are eligible for federal money. The federal appealate court said the' balances there. " Ute Tribe's Constitution stipMangan said if the committee is forced into court, there will not ulates that any person living on be a positive light on the rest of the reservation ia eligible for federal money. the Ute members. It is not going to be very long Mangan- said the committee until the federal court will have to had wanted a more stringent 58 , - . . "The Major Concern is the Business . Committee has violated the Constitution of the Tribe. They Feet they don't have to bo Responsible for Their Actions. " Ron Williams, Fti Duchesne Community President. would like to eee. We want to remove the business committee out of office. A board would have to be set up to remove them, Williams said. When Tribal Business Committee Chairman Lester Chapoose was asked Friday hie opinion on being forced to leave hie position along with why the committee has oped to disobey the court order, he said, Well, on both issues, I don't believe it is none of your business. "Our people don't generally have to get information out of the media. Chapoose said. "Besides, it is printed to their (the medias) liking anyway." But in the upcoming Ute General Council session November 6, petitions will be circulated among Tribal members to remove the six business committee members, Williams said. He said in the petition it will ask the business committee Continued on page 3 percentage requirement for Ute Tribe membership. He said there is a possibility committee members will be put in jafi if they refuse to obey pending federal court dvil suit The committee is now being fined 1100 a day for of an order in that case. He said the fine may be increased. The attorney noted that there may be a new election of officers, directed blood by the Tribe's constitution. There would have to be a new election if they don't comply with the court order," Mangan said. "Also the Bureau of Indian Affaire Superintendent would have to step in temporarily. One Tribe membra told Williams he doea not look favorably on the superintendent taking such action. He told the meeting that Williams ia opening up a can of worms," end he cautioned him on what he ia doing. But the new election of officers is something Williams said he , 73rd Year Wednesday, November 5, 1986 No. 45 Roosevelt, Utah 18 Pages 50 Cents Teen pregnancy high in Uintah Basin I Uintah Basin teenage girls are finding themselves pregnant two times the national and one-ha- lf end Utah's rate, according to Juanita Allen, Ducheene community health nurse. Allen said a committee has been implemented and is presently working in the Vernal area to help educate the large number of teenage girls who wind up pregnant. She said the lack of communication between parents and teenagers along with parents 6 inability, to tap into their child's emotions have caused huge number of pregnancies. We started in Vernal but we have seen that it is an entire Basin problem, she said. United States teenage pregnancy average is 51.7 percent and Utahs is 53.0, while the Basin doubles those figures with 125.8 percent. The coat to taxpayers is $16 million end for each baby bom to a teenager it cost $15,620 per year. The savings if the mother is out of her teens is $6,2-1because of lees delivery complications. The age group studied is between "In the Basin we have had them as young as 12 years old, was reported Satur1 November , about 2 day, p.m. at the home of Allen A fire and Ulla Ames in Hancock Cove. The house is owned by Orio Spencer and has an estimated suffered $15,000 in damage from the fire, which started in the ceiling light over the kitchen sink. Because it was an attic fire which smoldered for several 15-1- 9. Alien along with six other people, is taking her idea for education into many facets of the community. Civic, school and church settings are being used for avenues of eduSo far the responses cation. have been good, she said. Ducheene and Uintah County Commissioners, Duchesne and Uintah County School Boards, interested before being hours reported by a passerby, holes had to be cut into roof amounts and large of " water pumped in to put out the fire. Water damage to the ceiling was one was though extensive. No injured even there were at Upper Country fire fighters have unique problems Upper Country Fire Department has to do sane unusual fire fighting, because of the oil production in the area, and the danger of oil well fine. But according to Craig Koelliker, volunteer fire department chief, they still do most of their training and actual fire fighting on atructure firea. In the past year the crew from Altamont fought about 13 structure firas and. only about 3 oil well related fires. Generally the avenge is about 90 percent atructure fires, KoeQiker said. The firemen received yearly training from Utah Technical College in fire fighting. They have also been given training in oil well fire fighting by Utex, and the Seagull Refinery. But they dont practice aa much on oil firea repre-sentative- ' as on structure fires. Koelliker said their fire fighting equipment isnt really capable of putting out a large oil well fire. They do have foam and are able to control a small fire, but for the larger firea they contact the oil company. Oil companies all have their own fire fighting crews, and are better equipped to handle the larger fires. However, he said he has been pleased with the way the, fire department has been able to put out the oil firea they have had. If they are able to get there early enough, they can usually control them. This ia one more reason they work ao hard to have a quick response time. Koelliker said moat of his crew lives right in Altamont and they are able to get a truck out and on 4 minutes of its way within 3 to an alarm. They are proud of their quick response time, and credit that with their ability to control many oil well related fires. When we crane up on oil well fire, we have to size it up before we fight it We have to know what were up against, he said. If the fire ia too big for them to control, they will just try to protect the surrounding area and wait for the crew from the oil company. The fire last spring in Upako was a tough one, Koelliker said. They couldn't figure out what was keeping it going. They finally found the valve that was feeding diesel into the fire. As soon aa they were able to get that valve dosed, they were able to put out the fire. . There are usually warning signs of an explosion that firemen watch for. One ia a whistling sound. When they hear that sound they dear the area. Koelliker said a person isn't safe within 2,000 yards of an explosion. A fire last year in a hot oil truck was a scary one because there was propane tank that could have exploded. Koelliker credits the dedication of the fire fighters with the departments success. There are fifteen men currently on the department Most of them live right ' in Altamont But those who live in outlying areas are also very quick to respond and help fight die firea. There are usually 10 or more men at every fire. Fire fighters indude Dee Continued on page 3 KNEU and the Roosevelt Police Department are piloting a citizen awareness project called "Chime Alert The program airs on KNEU radio (1250 AM) after each local newscast at 7:45 a.m., 12:15 and 5:15 p.m. All law p.m. enforcement agencies in the Basin have been invited to participate in the program, which is either a or a crime crime notice. One that was recently aired concerned a motorcycle that waa allegedly stolen from the 650 North area of Roosevelt The public was asked for their help in providing information about the incident. Program Director Tammy at KNEU, said the program has already provided information which helped in solving at least one case she knew Me-acha- of. Each day the facta of a case ia described by an officer handling the case, along with the request for information from the community. The purpose of the program ia two fold. First the community ia more aware of the crime trends and events and, second, it provides law enforcement agencies with information s, But some questions may have already been answered by school district teachers. Lloyd Burton, Duchesne County School District assistant superintendent, said some sex education ia presently being taught in the schools. We do teach some sex education but the reason why we dont teach more ia because the patrons of the schools would like to do that themselves, he said. Burton said the classes are not sex education" per se but are taught in conjunction with health classes in the 7th and 10th grades. Also, elementary students with their parents in attendance, are also taught sex education. But, the district ...receives those classes, mixed reviews on he said. helps citizens, cops PART ONE OF A SERIES The 17-2- 1 KNEU's 'Crime Alert' home in the basement at the time of the fire. children said. Allen, Vernal LDS Wards, Ladies Petroleum, Uintah County Search and Rescue, Young Mothers and Mothers of Twins, Lions Club and Chamber of Commerces are just few entities brought in to help with the problem. Duchesne and Uintah commissioners have selected November as Teen Pregnancy Prevention Awareness Week. Allen said the committee, which is comprised of school, church and mental health will be entering area high schools to educate teenagers with a program entitled If You Want to Dance. She said statistics will be discussed and questions will be answered. We are concentrating on the high schools because we can't do everyone, she said. sources not otherwise open to them. It has been discovered with TV and other radio programs like this that a citizen in the area will have seen something that the police could tie into an incident By recreating the events of a given case that person may make the connection and report the facta to the proper agency. Thereby furthering the investigation and aiding the police to conclude the incident sooner. If an area ia being hit with a aeries of crimes (burglaries, this program forgeries, break-ins- ) will enable citizens to be aware of what ia going on. This will also enable the citizens to prepare themselves to avoid becoming victims and could result in a quicker apprehension of the criminals involved. This program has already saved Roosevelt Police hours of followup investigation, a drain on police resources already hard pressed due to recent cutbacks. One accident, a hit and run, was solved due to facta derived from this program. A person heard the KNEU program about a small child being hit They contacted the Continued on page 3 |