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Show T T Up to $25,000 available Programs b Personnel May Be Cut School Board discusses their u5$$o$2E2$!!! a budget, building & policies mandate a The state a to By Susan Collier t Duchesne County School District Board recently approved their 2002--' 2003 budget based on the facts as they are now. However, they may have to revisit the issue in July due to the state budget deficit which will most ' likely result in less state money for school district coffers. We ended theyear in the black. It was great, almost a miracle, exclaimed Duchesne County School District Superintendent John Aland. However, Aland isnt as optimistic about the upcomingyear. Although he believes the budget cut could amount to a $170,000 shortfall for the school district he admits it could be as high as half a million and admits it would be wishAil thinking to think it would be zero. It almost has to boil down to (loss of ) personnel and programs, he predicted. Accordingto Aland, crewe havebeen working on the plumbing for the new UINTAH BASIN STANDARD- - June 25. 2002- - PaceJL ing, postage and handling to: Financial Assistance Network, Government P.O. Help Booklet Offer 25GH-061Box 60848, Washington DC 20039-084Consumers can also get information or by by calling do know not area residents that City this assistance is available or how to visiting Financial Assistance get it, says Edmund Billings, a re- Networks Internet web site: searcher at Financial Assistance Network. "Weve published a booklet that AssistanceNetwork.org. Duchesne High. It seems like its slow, but they tell me its only a week behind schedule," he said. When the plumbing is ready construction crews will pour the concrete slab for the gymnasium. After it drys they will pour the concrete walls in forms constructed on the slab. Crews then tilt up the concrete walls and hook them together to form the gymnasium, hence the term tilt up construction. Aland said the school district is pass ingapol icy to comply witha state law. The Internet Child Protection Act, that requires the district filter out inappropriate material on the Internet. "We will block visual depictions deemed obscene or pornographic in nature or deemed harmful to children or adults, Aland explained. A software program will filter the material which is monitored at two hubs, one in Heber City and one at the University ofUtah. Instructors, especially those supervising after school computer use, will also be instructed mateing when student downloaded rial protected by federal copyright laws. rehas new School select school each quiring Committee Council made up of principals, teachers, and parents or student guardians toaddress issues such as student intervention plansand staff development. The guardians will outnumber staff on each committee by one, thereby gamering a majority vote if no one is absent. The guardians will be voted onto the council. Schools have to adapt everything they do to these committees, explained Aland. to homeowners 4, for reducing energy bills Financial Assistance Network has published a booklet, How to Get Up To $25,000 of Government Money to Help Reduce Your Energy Bills. The booklet gives information on how and where Salt Lake City area homeowners can get government help to reduce their heating and cooling bills. The federal government has made available over two billion dollars in assistance to help people reduce their energy bills. This assistance is for home improvement loans for energy efficient heating, air conditioning, water heaters, windows, insulation, roofing, and skiing. Many Salt Lake 8. www. explains the program and tells homeowners where to apply for assistance in the Salt Lake City area. The booklet also has a special section to help people who are struggling to pay their soaring heating and coo lingbills regardless ofwhether or not they own Red Gold: The Epic Story ofBlood looks at world history from a truly unique perspective. The four-pamini-serieairing on KUED-- 7 Sun9 p.m., delves into . days, June 23-3facts and myths about human blood and its impact on everything from religion and medicine to commerce jmd popular culture throughout his- rt s, 0, toiy. Based on Douglas Starr's criti- cally acclaimed book Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce, Red Gold addresses the ways in which bloods function has been understood and misunderstood, its conversion into an international commodity and its global role over thousands of years. RedGold: The Epic Story ofBlood explores an array of related historical events, such as the racist theories that led to the Holocaust during World War II and, closer to home, the segregation of blood supplies in the UB. based on race. The series highlights the Spanish Civil War as a turning point in the use of blood as a lifesaving therapy, and documents ongoing attempts to make blood supplies safer. The fil m introduces a rich cast of characters, including: Galen, Roman physician to the gladiators; Denis, the French doctor who performed the first blood transfusions in 1667; Charles Drew, the American doctor who ran the Plasma for Britain campaign but was legally unable to donate his own blood because he was black; Janet Vaughan, a nurse who started the London Blood Transfusion Service, operating out ofa pub and milk wagons; and a contemporary cardiac surgeon in New York City. Ultimately, Red Gold is a detailed social history that connects suchaeem-ingi- y disparate occurrences as George Washingtons death, the battlefields of World War II and the AIDS crisis. Magic to Medicine (623, 8 p.m.) The first episode takes viewers from a Jean-Baptis- There may be a statewide drought, but in an area just southeast of Myton, MALLARD SPRINGS COMPLETED is in the the site theres so much water that process of becoming a vast wetland area for thousands of migrating water fowl. The completion of four ponds and dikes in the Mallard Spring Wildlife Management Area is expected to be a prime example of how a wildlife mitigation project is supposed to work. The Division of Wildlife Resources and the Duchesne County Water Conservancy District worked together on the project to replace habitat lost when the water district piped five open canals. The public is invited to pay a visit to the management area. te Story Ideas 7 See a story 7 See it in Pmt I CaB a home." Consumers can receive a copy by sending $5 to cover the cost of print Red Gold tells the story of blood when blood was time of ignorance viewed primarily as a key element or religious rituals and the stuffof myth totheendofthe 19thcentury,whcn blood transfusions f nally became safe and routine. Included are segments on William Harvey, who discovered that blood circulates through the body, a startling idea at the time, and Dr. Ernest Lands teiner, who discovered blood types; and hauntingaccountsof George Washington's death, wliich was hastened by overzealous blood-lettin- g Blood and War (623, 9 p.m.) The second episode looks at the First halfof the 20th century and blood's role in war, includingthe segregation of U.S. blood supplies for troops, based on race, and Nazi theories about blood that underpinned the Holocaust. Blood science was accelerated by the needs of the battlefield; Red Gold travels back to the Spanish Civil War, the first time blood was collected, refrigerated and carried onto the battlefield; and recalls World War II, when the expectation of tremendous casualties inspired a massive blood-driv- e effort. Tainted Blood (630, 8 p.m.) Planning for atomic war; an expiosior that left thousands injured; the introduction of open-hea- rt surgery; and the discovery that blood transfusions could help hemophiliacs public awareness of the need for a national blood supply. By the 1960s, a commercial branch of blood collection was boomingin the US. Indigent Financial us 722-613- 1 Americans many of whom were alcoholics, drug abusers or hepatitis flocked to be paid for the victims one thing they owned: blood. The result was the presence first of hepatitis, then a mysterious new disease called AIDS in some of the blood products provided to surgery patients and hemophiliacs. Red Gold's third episode devotes itself to this tragic chapter in the story of blood, an era in which the substance came to be viewed as a deadly toxin. New Blood (630, 9 p.m.) This program chronicles 15recent years in the history ofblood, assessing the current state ofblood safety. Red Gold's final episode spotlights scientists searching for reliable sufety measures; pluintiffs and defendants settling AIDS law suits in the U.S., Europe and Japan; and the status ofblood safety in developing nations like India, compared to the UnitedStates. New Blood" kxiksback at the earliest known transfusion, then moves forward with a look at the potential of Mod Cow disease to threaten the blood supply, the exclusion of European residents from the American blood supply and a costly effort underway to produce artificial human blood from cows' blood. Red Gold: The Epic Story of Blood airs on KUED-- 7 Sundays, June 23-3at 8 p.m. life-savi- blood-relate- d 0, Utah faces shortfall on mining revenues Last year, Utah received a record amount of money from the federal government in mineral lease revenues and bonus money that fluid millions of dollars in rural projects. This year, the state and local planners are facing the effects of a nationwide shutdown of the federal agency's computer resulting in estimated" payments that are running about half of what Utah received last year. In fiscal year 2001, Utah received more than $46 million from the federal government for its share of mineral revenues produced on federal lands. This year, for the same period, the figure is at $25.7 million, down 44 percent. Those suffering most from the flinding decline are rural counties and small communities statewide that rely on payments from Minerals Management Services, a branch of the UB. Department of Interior, for roads, sewer systems, ball fields and other costly infrastructure improvements. Its ridiculous the federal government has let it go this far, said Emery County recreation director Shannon Hiatt. They are paralyzing rural Utah. The shortfall has already derailed about $2.5 million intended for road pnyects in Uintah County alone, where money managers are dealing with late payments far short of what they received last year. Cheri McCurdy, the county's special service district's executive office manager, said the agency received $4 million hi mineral revenues last year and is down to $1.5 million for the fiscal year ending June 30. McCurdy said the shortfall forced the county to spend carryover money from last year and delay improveroads in the ments to energy-impaVernal area, which relies heavily on its oilfields. We have definitely Mated back several worthwhile projects and lost other prqjects we could have done. It makes it hard to plan, she said. Hiatt fears the worst if the short-fe- ll continues. Its huge. It has put us in a real bind. His tiny department survives on a quarter of million dollars a year, supporting softball fields, campgrounds, pavilions and other youth sports. This year's quarterly mineral payment is less than half of what it was in 2001, and the check due on May 1 still hasnt arrived. Hes tapped into reserve fluids, but doesnt know what will happen ifthe check doesnt come in soon. The problems began late last year, when the Interior Deportment voluntarily shut down its entire computer computer system after acourt-ordere- d hacker successfully breached the network three times. The hacker was asked to do the task by federal judge as part of a lawsuit claiming Interior has mismanaged billions of dollars held in trust for Indian tribes. In December, the Minerals Management Service started making its estimated payments, rather than actual payments, as a result ofthe com-pute- r shutdown that lasted from December to Mike Miller, chief financial accountant for the ageiuy , said the computer interruption meant the agency received no accurate data regarding mineral revenues. Because the agency doles out anywhere bum $40 million to $100 mil mid-Marc- h. lion a month to participating states, MMS officials had to make estimated payments. That, in turn, made everyone else have to estimate. But Miller doesnt believe the estimates are that for off. He considers the shortages in the payments more a symptom of declining market prices than of making guesses. It looks like we have been pretty close in our estimates, Miller said. We are looking at what has come in and giving them the same percentage of what we rave them last year. Hiatt isnt convinced the oil, gas or mineral markets have declined that fer. You can watch those coal trucks move down our highway every 30 seconds everyday, he said. There is no way it can go from the amount it has been to what it is now. Hiatt said hia first quarterly payments historically are $50,000 to $60,000. This years quarterly payment was $26,000. The federal payments are part of a complicated process that has become even more convoluted in part because of a pending lawsuit. Utah is among 32 states across the country that receive 50 percent of the money from their federal lands that produce mineral revenues. The majority of it comes from companies extracting oil, natural gas and coal. Those monies are disbursed by making the whole thing an accounting nightmare, she said. Miller said he hopes the agency will be able to start making actual payments byJuly or August, but offers no promises. Federal officials have to reconcile the records for the last seven months, making sure correct payments have been made to all the states. The state, in turn, has to make sure its estimated payments have been correct. And it goes on and on. Its all projections, one on down the line to the next, Hiatt said. You realize how much paperwork and correction it is going to take? And I'm just one little bitty fish out there. Theyve created a nightmare. BISHOPS STOREHOUSE- of Latter-da- y News From Your Local Telephone Company... MMS. Utah, in turn, dispenses 40 percent of its payment to the Utah Department of Transportation, which acts as a agency to dole it out to the counties where the revpass-throu- enues originated. Kathy Starks, UDOTs fiscal analyst, said she is forced to estimate this years percentages based on last year 's numbers and is unable to give any dear answers to counties scrambling to make financial forecasts. Theyve had a hard time budgeting and being able to plan for their relative community prqjects, she said. Ive had a lot ofcalls from people trying to do their forecasts, and it is just impossible. Starks said she'd like to get the numbers reconciled by the end of this fiscal year. If not, Its a big mess. Another pile of the federal money is managed by the states Permanent Community Impact Fund Board. It, too, makes the dollars available to local agencies through either grants or loans to pay for everything from fire stations to sewer system improve- ments. Its share, for example, was $22.3 million last year. So fer this year, the board has received just $11.3 million. We've gotten by OK, but if this keeps up we will not have enough money to address all the projects submitted from throughout the state, said Shirl Clark, the funds manager. Kimberley Brown Schmeling, the states liaison in charge of managing and analyzing mineral revenues, said one saving factor in the impact board's management of its own money i4hat it shaved down the amount it gives out in grants, instead choosing to offer Effective July 2, 2002, the monthly residential or single-lin- e business Subscriber Line Change appearing on your bill increases from $5.00 per line to $6.00 per line. The Subscriber Line Charge covers a portion of the costs of telephone lines connected to your home or place of business. This increase is a direct result of new pricing regulations put in place by the Federal Communications Commission. These regulations require local phone companies to lower their access charges to long distance phone companies, and recover an increased portion of the costs of telephone line connections directly from local service customers. If you have any questions regarding the Subscriber Line Charge Increase, please feel free to contact your local Customer Service Representative at . more loans. Were surviving on our loan repayments essentially, Schmeling And until the state knows for sure what the actual federal dollars are, ledgers are ftill of question marks. - This room in the new facility is where those whom bishops in (Ik Church of Jesus Christ Saints send to the storehouse receive food and other items at no cost to themselves. 622-500- 7. 211 E200N Roosevelt, UT 84066 W Main Vernal, UT 84078 609 Communications . |