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Show 7t 1 C 0 0 5 UTAH 0 0 t There is not a right way to do a wrong thing. p PRESS ASSOCIATION 30 W . 200 S. SUITE 4006 SALT LAKE CITY. UT vi w..ah Basin 504 Westside schools restructured In Tuesday light of failitig test July 23. 2002 scores et their three westside schools, the Roosevelt, Utah Uintah School Board voted Vol. last week to restructure Todd and Lapoint elementary schools and www.ubstandard.cofn West Junior High, and bus some westside students to DOES ENGINEERING MAKE WOOD ACCEPTABLE? Vernal. 11 Seepage invites everyone to come and Altamont participate in their annual Longhorn Days, July 22 through July 27. The celebration will be The uae of plywood to construct cabins in a large subdivision east of Ducheane has coma under fire by Utah state building officials. Robert Downard, investigative non-grad- ed especially big this year with traditional and supervisor at the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, last week told Duchesne County Commissioners and Utah Mini Ranch developers Joe and Joan Steed that it ia unacceptable to construct their cabina with materials other than graded plywood, which ia By Lezlee E. Whiting and Therena Morrill activities! See page 9 J. i. . , , specifically called for in the state uniform building code. Duchesne County Building Inspector Karl Mott requested that state investigators meet with county commissioners to discuss specific issues relating to the development going on at Utah Mini Ranches because . C? v- Commissioner cited Duchesne County fined the by Utah Department of Commerce for hiring an unlicensed contractor to assist in building her home. See page 3 "r RoyBartley passed away quietly in his sleep last week, but thank to Mends and veteran's benefits the "man without a family" wont receive a pauper's Seepage f t 4 . 'W 16 . tr . i. jw pt. 1 7 WBBA baseball Roosevelt Bast earns third place by beating Duchesne. VemalRedtakes first Seepage : - burial. V I:' i 12 Cabins and SELLING QUICKLY subMini Ranch the at Utah property division east of Duchesne are luring retirees and families who want to get away from the city, but recently the quality of plywood being used on the cabins has come under scrutiny by state inspectors. Pictured at top are construction workers lay down flooring, in die picture below the roof is going on. Owner and developer Joe Steed maintains his construction practices ensure quality cabins. In fact, the for example, cabins arc over-bui- lt the roof has double the required insulation, said Steed. Its not unusual for folks to show up in rural Duchesne County with big ideas for land development, but no money to back them up, so when someone comes in with big ideas and big money, people listen. According to one Duchesne County developer, people particularly county officials not only start listening, but they also seem to start looking the other way more often when irregularities in land developing pop up. Wilbur Hammond is an old hand at taking large amounts of acreage and developing them. He has subdivided land from Maine to Washington and was the regional president of ; Are all developers treated equally? Patten Pacific Northwest, a New York Stock Exchange company. For the past eight years hes operated Best Western Land and the PX Ranch in Talmage. Hammond deals in the sale of rural and recreational properties, and has developed Mountain Home Ranches, Mountain Home Ridge, Mountain Home Heights, and Sundance West and many other small pnjects. A check of his performance record shows that he hasn't been cited for an infraction or a had a complaint while conductingaome 300 land sales in the area. Hell tell you he has a good working relationship with county building and planning and coning officials, but is becoming increasingly aware and concerned that the county's rules regarding land development and construction are not being enforced. There is a lack of enforcement County commissioners adopt regulations that I think are effective and not excessive. I think they have basic planning and coning ordinances to protect the safety and welfare of the reaidents of Duchesne County. I accept that, but if they aren't going to enforce them and back up their building inspectors then the only people who are going to abide by them are law abiding citisens, stated Hammond. Rules concerning the use of wood, allowing the sale of lots exceeding the number of culinary water hookups available, insufficient bonding for infrastructure, lack of adequate fire protection in subdivisions are all basic to good land development in the county, he said. If the rules arent followed the county ia put at substantial risk. According to Hammond, concerns over the development of the 6,000 acre Utah Mini Ranches are a prime example of the potential for problems. (See related story on this page.) Hammond said that from his ex- non-grad- ed Afteryears ofsteady drought, combined with a summer of record-hea- t, maity people in the Uintah Baain are looking for a solution to their water problems, and cloud seeding has emerged as a viable candidate. Last week, water commissions from both Duchesne and Uintah counties met in Roosevelt with state and private water experts to discuss the possibilities of fiiture cloud seeding projects in the Uintah Basin. A team from the Utah Division of Water Resources and a represents-tiv- e from North American Weather Consultants, oneoftwo licensed cloud seeding firms in the state, discussed the legid issues surrounding a cloud seeding project, as well as how such a pnject could be implemented in the Uintah Basin. In a recent study, Norman E. Stauffer Jr, of the Utah Division of Water Resources, said that evidence gathered from doud seeding projects in southern and central Utah coun fiiture. Stauffer's colleague, Todd Adams, agreed by saying that ony ten per- cent ofthe national air motaure in douds will ever reach the ground, but that if local weather systems were augmented with cloud seeding principles, local precipitation would increase by at least an additional ten percent. Don Griffeth, of Noth American Water Consultants, Inc., the firm responsible for all winter cloud seeding in Utah, said that drought conditions in the western states during the last four years can be linked to the LaNiiurphenomenan, in which ocean waters along the West Ckast are colder than normaL During La Nina there are fewer storm systems which approach the western United States from the southwest These are the storms that give the south slopes of the Uinta Moun- - said. According toinformation (Attained from Louisiana Pacific, salvage plywood can be purchased at approximately 90 percent less than the cost of graded plywood. la Commission Backing Build- ing Inspector? also told commissioners Downard he had received information that political pressure had been placed on Mott to approve the use of the ungraded plywood. I want you to understand were not trying to tell you what to do. You're the commission and you've got to make the decisions. But you've got to understand that the decisions you make will affect the people. Our position is do not rehabilitate that SEE PLYWOOD on page3 Cooperation also improves each countys chance to receive a larger portion of state funding for the project. tains the best snowfall, and the drought here in the Basin seems to correspond with the feet that there havent been many storms that have come from the southwest in recent years, he said. After hearing presentations from both Griffeth and Adams, Duchesne and Uintah county water district members discussed the possibility of working together on a doud seeding project. Both sides agreed that a cooperative project would be mutually beneficial, as wdl as more cost-effecti- North American Water Consultants offered a 26 percent reduction in the overall price of their services if wood structural panel products. Graded plywood means the manufacturing process and quality control of the product has bran monitored and ascertained by an approved, independent certification agency. The monitoring is the quality control, mechanism of the system. In the manufacturing of wood structural panels, veneer thickness, moisture control for veneer drying, and glue bonding are examples of the be of the grades specified in the Standard 23--2 or 23-- both of which call for 3, the use of stamped and graded ply- wood when constructing dwellings or buildings to be used for human occupancy, (See the Uniform Building Code 11997 Volume 2.) The only thing you would use ungraded plywood for is flimiture and other uses, said Tyree. How could you know the al structural strength characteristics various stages of manufacturing without this (the grading) informawhich are particularly important in tion?" quality control. According to Tyree, with ungraded Once a product has bran manuplywood, even a tear apart test factured, the plywood is stamped to sometimes performed by engineers verity to contractors and building to determine strength characterisinspectors that the manufacturer tics is not acceptable because the vouches for the strength qualities of quality and strength of the ungraded the plywood. plywood could vary from piece to Under the Uniform Building Code, piece. g SEE DEVELOPER on page 3 Cloud seeding options discussed ties during the last 20 years have shown that the pnjects have been effective, and then is no reason to believe that things will change in Die application of building materials, it still doesnt comply with the uniform building code. Downard said his investigators had looked at Steeds building materials and have photographs of plywood thats marked rejected written right on the face of the plywood from that project Steed denies having ever UBed any plywood or lumber that was rejected or salvage grade. Ifanyone says they have a picture from my project of reject lumber, they fabricated it he and Southwest Regional Manager of the American Wood Council, Colorado Springs, Colo. wood structural panels shall Plywood is now referred to as UINTAH fr DUCHESNE TO WORK TOGETHER Justin Pinegar, doesnt use graded plywood in that Response given by David Tyree, an engineer Developer says rules are rules and county should start enforcing them By Duchesne County building officials almost since construction began late last year. Property at Utah Mini Ranches ia being eagerly scooped up by people from outside the Basin or the state, who see it as an ideal and affordable location for retirement or a recreational retreat The cabins are built by contractors hired by the Steeda and are typically sold with the lot. Property owners can choose when they want to build, but it must be done within a certain time frame. The Steeds maintain that their engineering designs, done by Vernal engineer Troy Ostler, account for non --stamped the use of plywood and are more structurally sound than they would be if they were using graded plywood. In our floor system we use (ungraded plywood for the first layer, then we put down a tar paper water barrier, and then an OSB structural board, said Joe Steed. Its a very strong system. Vernal engineer Troy Ostler of The Engineering Group designs the cabins at the Utah Mini Ranches. He said he had no indication that the state was concerned with the quality of work being done. I designed the systems according to the materials on hand. If a design called for a certain grade of lumber, and a lower grade was used, I would go back and on-goin- g Plywood quality any difference? ' COUNTY IS AT RISK Ry Lexlra E. Whiting to be. But according to Downard, no amount of engineering can change the fact that unapproved wood used in building projects will ultimately fail the test of time. Its a public safety issue thats and a public welfare issue. The uniform building code calls for graded plywood. Period. End ofstory. the Steeds have threatened a law- Thats what it says, Downard told those in attendance at last Monday's suit. commission work session. You can Public Safety Iaaue The quality of wood used to build do all the engineering you want to do cabinain the Utah Mini Ranch pnject ... and even if its the best engineerhas been a point of discussion among ing fix in the world, if that engineer non-grade- d, Funeral for man without a family ' '$r rA Commission Chairperson Lome Stradinger has been evaluate to see ifthe lower grade was adequate. Sometimes things are ... stronger than they need over-design- ed State officials say plywood used at Utah Mini Ranches must be graded Longhorn Days Celebrate the 24 new 88, Number 30 both districts worked jointly, as opposed to framing individual cloud seeding projects. Cooperation aim improves each countys chance to receive a larger portion ofstate fending for the pnject Each county decided to discuss the issue privately before next months meeting, at which time they expect to make a tentative decision on the project Although most Utahns regard cloud seeding as a relatively recent issue, many Utah counties have been practicing the technique for over 60 years. Early doud seeding pnjects began in many western and states in the late 1940s, after the discoveiy of doud seeding principles. As Utah is the second driest state in the country, cloud seeding projects began within the state a few yean later. Although these pnjects were somewhat effective, they lasted only four years before they were shutdown after legislative pressure. In 1973, mid-weste- rn SEE SEEDING on page3 SUMMER CELEBRATION AUGUST 1- -3 UBIC booklet in this issue! The booklet contains a calendar Its that time of year again when Uintah Basin residents gear up for and schedule of all UBIC events, so UBIC (Uintah Basin In Celebration). youll want to hang onto it and use it Want to know about this years as your guide during the week of events? Look inside this issue for the Aug. 1. From pageants to parades, official UBIC events booklet, Tribfrom local talent to professional enute To Heroes, for a sneak preview tertainers, its all here! See you at on what to expect at the 2002 UBIC! SUMMER GIVE-AWA- Y! Free Lagoon tickets to lucky subscribers The Uintah Basin Standard will give away free Lagoon tickets each week to new subscribers, and to subscribers who renew their subscriptions. Five sets of two tickets will be given away each week from now until the end of July, totaling ten free tickets a week and 60 free tickets overall. Adrawingwill be held each week to determine the winners and the Uintah Basin Standard will print their names in the weekly edition of the newspaper. The winners must come in to our office at 268 S. 200 E. in Roosevelt by the Friday of that week to obtain their free tickets. Any unclaimed tickets will be added to the next week's drawing. Lucky winners this week are: Madeleine Henderson, Roosevelt; Charles Mackie, Duchesne; Shane Duncan, Roosevelt; Sheree Duncan, West Valley City; Charlotte Zufclt, Roosevelt. |