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Show ('!!' I ; H; Thml&ufood, thumb u impressive, but it is the lightning , n ur.V' Pur "it; i. .(u, ' I ..., l' r f UN ' C U,: ,Jf i . . Track athletes brve cold weather at local meet Jintah Basin "See page MjriTwain Serving the residents of Duchesne and Western Uintah Counties 101 Will County dissolve their " Solid Waste District Tuesday April 15, 1997 Roosevelt. Utah 84th Year No. 15 18 Pages ... f that does the work. see page 14 2 State museum to display Ioka woman's "brand quilt see page 11 50 COMPLETION DATES PUSHED BACK What comes next in plans for Wojf Creek Pass road project? By Lea lee E. Whiting Those who plan to drive scenic Wolf Creek Pass from the Uintah Basin to the Wasatch Front or vice versa will have to wait a little longer than initially anticipated to drive the road without delays. The completion date on the le 23-mi- includes gradlong prqject-whic- h ing, excavating, widening, renovating and paving - has been pushed back to 2001 or 2002, says Kim Martin, Uinta National Forest Service liaison to National Forest Highway Program. It . estimated that the work would he finished in 1998 or 1999. The WolfCreek Pass Road project begins 5 miles northwest of Hanna in Duchesne County and ends 6 miles east of Woodland in Summit County. When the road is completed it will provide a more direct and safer route for residents of Duchesne Countys east side to travel to the Wasatch Front, while allowing Wasatch Front recreatipnists coming to the county easier access to hunting, fishing and camping. When the weather allows phase NO TEETH TO CURRENT ORDINANCE ,vmf4 County to address illegal dumping - four of the project will get underway this spring, and once again work will be done on both ends of the road simultaneously, Martin detailed. a construe-- ' tion company out of Redding, Calif, has won the bid to do grading and , widening on the Summit County aide as well as laying asphalt for approximately 3 miles from where the pavement now ends cm the east portion of the road. On the Duchesne County side of the pass the road design is beingfinal-ize- d from the Uinta National Forest boundary to the Stockmoro Ranger ' Station. In addition, work will begin 2 miles west of the Mill Hollow turn-of- f on the west summit to stabilize a old landslide site. Federal funds are expected to be awarded soon so the bidcanbeletforworktobegininJune, according to Martin. The job will also includepavingabout2 12 miles ofthe Stimple-Wiebelhau- a, road. A temporary detour will be constructed around the stabilization work to allow motorists to pass with miniBy Dine Brown Oil, Gas andMiningto determine who mal delay. However, Martin points the responsible parties are. out that those who use Wolf Creek Duchesne County officials ere trying "Its not just soil thats from the Pass Road this summer still have to to establish a policy to put some clean up ofagns station or something. realize that traffic could be stopped teeth into the Its so saturated with oil fuel that between 20 to 30 minutes at the conofiI black yuck isjust running outon to the struction sites. During blasting opAccording to Solid Waste Director pound, said Adams. Clean up is on erations the road may be closed to hold until either the state or county public traffic for up to four hmirsaday Georg Adams, there is no can determine who may havedumped between 9 a.m. and 3 pm. The road place to enforce and penalize who illegally dispose of garbage. the materiaL closures will not be scheduled on weekWhen we are notified of a dump Adams sqys the waste does not pose ends or national holidays. site we investigate it, see if we can' a health or safety problem at this The Wolf Creek Pass project is a establish who is responsible for it time. joint effort of the UJS. Forest Service, then send them a letter telling them County commissioners and county Federal to dean it up, said Adams. But the attorney Herb Gillespie have been partment county cant prosecute those who wrestling with this issue for several throw their truh out on public or months and have yet to establish an million price tag, but UDOT will have private land, AdamsdiirioBefl because, enforcement policy. This issue has maintenance andjuriadiction over the been on the commissioners agenda for road which will be known as State truthfully, there is just teeth to the ordinance. several months; however, they are Road 35. " Plans to widen the narrow dirt and still waiting on a legal opinion. sites have been identified, the nujor-it- y of the problem has been road which traverses spectacuare located in the eastern part at created because people don't feel like pavel lar scenery actually began in 1982 the county. We have one site where they need to pqr to dispose of the when Wolf Creek Pass was nominated 16 truckloads of contaminated soil garbage, but the problem has been for A LOVELY SPRING DAY? The promise ofspring awaits, but last week in Uintah Canyon foe sound ofbirds and funding through theNationalFor-es- t have been dumped that we are inves- around for a while, said Adams. the smell of new grass still seemed to be far away. Highway Program. tigating; said Adams. The soil has Maybe if we can enforce the regulalost V been dumped in a gravel pit in east tions, are can get some people's attent? MONTHLY WAGE LOWER THAN STATE & U.S Other industries also experienced AVERAGES 7TrrTH Duchesne County and Adams is trying tion. sdedines around this time. These to work with the State Department of .services and manufac- not-muc- h me 6underagei9 d si ssm Wages in Duchesne County up Duchesne County has only slightly over the past decade younger population than State & U.S. The average monthly wage in Duchesne Countyin 1995 was $1,648 - noticeably lower than the state average of $1,937. According to figures re leased recently by the Utah Department ofEmpkyment Security, nominal wages inDuchesneCounty have risen by just $280 since 1983. Ifyou make adjustments for inflation and cosbof-livin-g the average monthly wage in the county has ectually fallen by 27 percent since 1983. taken from the 1990 census, show the county hasayounger population than Last year the population of the state average where those 19 and Duchesne County was estimated at under makeup40percentof the population. Similarly the county hasamuch 14,000, making it the 1 4 th most populated of Utahs 29 counties. Further- younger composition than the U.S. more, as the county begins to register average of29 percent for 19and under growth after population declines age group. When it comes toother demographstatiswhich began in the tics show that it boasts a very young ics gleaned from the 1990 census data Duchesne Countyspopulaiionofthose population. Information from the Utah De- 65 and older is less than both the state partment of Employment Security and national averages. About 8.4 percompiled in the April 1997 edition cent ofthe county'spopula tion is comDuchesne County, A Demographic prised of those 65 and older, comand Economic Profile," paints a pic- pared with 9 percent statewide and 13 percent nationally. ture of a young population and a Duchesne County compares favor7 years of and stagnant ably with the statewide average when economic conditions. itcomestothenumber ofresidents 25 Approximately 45.7 peroent of the and older with high school diplomas countys population is made up of SEE POPULATION on page 3 youth ages 19 and under. The figures, By Lezlee E. Whiting mid-198- 0s 85 percent of the state average. According to a report on Duchesne Countys wages and income published by the Utah Department of Employment Security, it appears the drop in wages does not correspond to the weakening of the oil industry as a major part of the countys economic base, but it does tie into other industries - such as the lack of mqjor projects in the construction sector. In the wages in construction in Duchesne County were extremely high." In fact, according to the report, construction wages paid in the county were 68 percent hitler than the state average in 1987. But by the next year a sharp decline occurred, dropping wages by a large amount and eventually falling below the state average. The drop appears to be the result of the OF completion ofRock Creek Dam,alarge federal government project which em- ployed a great number of workers at nigh wages. When the project was completed these high-wapositions were mid-198- 0s JUST 10 ge s. govemment-thelargestemplqyme- Sourcc: Utah DcpL of Employment Security nt sector in the county is $1,685. The trade sector averages the lowest monthly wage at $1,040. r 'v , COYOTE POPULATION TAKEN Commissioners discuss predator control with state officials Bv Dixie Brown Commissioners met last week with officials from the Utah Departmentof Natural Resources, the Utah Department of Agriculture, and groups rep- resenting area ranchers to discuss the impact ofthe new approach to predator controL Federal and State organizations have banded together to come up with a more integrated approach to controlling predators and feel like they are doing more than managingacri-sis- . According to Mike Bowdenchuck, Federal Liaison on Damage ControL agencies now have a better under-standinofwhat resource need to be protected and the best way to do it State agencies met three years ago to establishapolicy for controlling the predator population and it appears to be working. We don't want to eliminate predators, we just want to manage them," said newDWR Direcg HIS OWN BRAND OF PREDATOR CONTROL Upper Country rancher Kim Lindsay hangs dead coyotes on the fence in front of his house to make a statement about the lack of predator controL the state average, but they fell from 90 percent ofthe state average to the current 73 percent Service wages were inthe same boat falling from 86 peroent of the state average to just 63 percent in 1995. Manufacturing wages also took a hit at this time, felling from 123 percent of the state average to just 90 peroent However, manufacturing wages have since made a rebound in Duchesne County and an slightly above the current state average. Oil industry wages are lower than the state average teaching just 90 percentof the state average. Still, the oil industry pays the highest average wage in the county, at $2JS04 per mouth. The oil industry accounts for nearty 17 percent of all wages paid in the county. In terms of monthly wages the oil industry is followed closely by the manufacturing industry at $2,439 per month, and the TradeCommunica-tionUtilitie- s sector with $2,254 per month. The average monthly wage for low tor John KimoalL All parties agreed that there have been many positive changes in controlling the problem, but It will take a long term commitment from all involved and there still may never be a solution. Since chemicals have been banned weve had to look at other options for controlling the coyote population. Weve had good success with our helicopter program and other programs, but we are still taking leas than 10 percent ofthe coyotes. That includes Animal Damage ControL recreational hunters and private trappers, said Bowdenchuck. Sheep rancher Alton Moon, of Duchesne, told commissioners that this past year was much worse than previous years for death loss. Ilost 400 head of lambs last fall and I have had my own trapper hired for the past two years. He's trapped 106 or so coyotes in our lambing area." Other ranchers indicated thattheir loss might not have been as high but say that they have still seen a significant loss in deer herds that usually feed on their property. I know that a big Bon takes two deer a week in Mountain Home, said Fred Tew. In the past year in Duchesne and Uintah County combined ADC officers have taken 396 coyotes, 25 red fox and 1 mountain lion. Officers worked over one million acresutilising both a fixed wing aircraft and a helicopter. These numbers do not reflect the number of animals taken in the Book ClifT unit We've found that for every $1 we spendonahelioopter,$2.80aresaved in livestock, Bowdenchuck stated. Calf loss is up for the first time in several years, I'm sure that may bo more than that aren't reported to the agency, but we have confirmed eight losses this year. Duchesne County sheep ranchers have also lost 68 sheep during this reporting period, said Bowdenchuck- - |