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Show jfPiWW ywrywin npnw im mm u mix ""v 1 , v i I M ' " l l i I i : " , I "v. I 5 - ' v l ' f ; I i i k ; : l . y : i i ! ' ! ! t h iV M ... I i VIM!0 f x w ! -'I. f : j ; ! ; - i -V" - ' - I, ; ' ' . v i ', - : ' ,. '-' ; i Forest Service District Ranger Kevin Schulkoski watches Sid Moosman as work nears completion on new 8,000-square-foot federal inter-agency ESCALANTE Escalante's new 8000-square-foot inter-agency federal building is nearing completion, with employees of the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service looking forward to operations center set for May opening. Facility will also house an information center to handle burgeoning number of tourists visiting the area New Escalante Inter-Agency Building Nears Completion May and their anticipated move into the new $400,000 facility on Main Street. Focus at the new facility will be heavily on customer service says Kevin Schulkoski, district ranger at the present FS office in Escalante. Schulkoski will be one of the three unit managers making up the steering steer-ing team when the new office is opened. He will be joined by A.J. Martinez, area manager for the BLM and Jim Bowman, ranger with the Glen Canyon National Recreation Recre-ation Area who is stationed at Escalante. The 8,000-foot total is divided onto two floors, with 52 percent of the floor space allotted to Forest Service, 40 per cent to BLM and 8 percent to NPS. Shared space will include the visitor information center cen-ter of approximately 350 square feet and a conference room. The visitor center will sell interpretive materials materi-als and, down the line, will offer computer-enhanced interpretive equipment. The center will be operated op-erated by the Dixie Interpretive Association, As-sociation, a non-profit organization which administers information centers cen-ters at Red Canyon and Duck Creek. They will sell maps, books, photographs and other materials mate-rials depicting and explaining the unique areas administered by each of the three federal agencies. Expenses of operation at the new federal building will be divided partly on a one-third to each agency policy and partly on a percentage to each agency basis. Schulkoski said the building is being readied for state-of-the-art equipment, much of which will not be immediately installed but which, when funds become available in the tuture tor purcnase, win in mio place without additional expense of remodeling. He said the Forest Service currently has an extensive electronic mail system, and the other two agencies will be able to plug into it when the building is occupied. Future plans call for video-conferencing. The Forest Service, with 15 full time employees, expands by 40 or 50 seasonal employees. The BLM has eight regular employees and will add approximately 12 seasonal employees. The NPS adds one seasonal sea-sonal worker. The new facility is expected to generate two new jobs, both infor- ! mation specialists, one to be hired by the Forest Service and one by the NPS. The center will keep longer hours and will be open seven days a week for nine months of the year. V |