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Show Meredith Explains New Monument Planning Process To Travel Council BRYCE Grand Staircase-Escalante Staircase-Escalante Monument Interim Manager Mana-ger Jerry Meredith made it clear as he spoke with 15 members of the Garfield Travel Council that the chances of a commissioner from either Garfield or Kane Counties serving on the committee planning for the new monument are slim to none. Meredith was introduced by Travel Tra-vel Council Executive Director Bruce Fullmer. The new monument monu-ment interim director is well familiar famil-iar with the southern Utah area, having spent many years in public relations and, most recently, assigned as district manager in the Cedar City office of the Bureau of Land Management. He spent more than two hours explaining and answering questions about the nature of his new role, the job ahead of him, and the current status of the three-year planning period for the new monument that is just now getting off the ground. Meredith told the travel council that the current official staff consists of two people himself and Pete Wilkins. He said that from his perspective, he had moved into a smaller job, not a larger one. As district manager in Cedar City, he had responsibility for prairie dogs in Cedar City, desert tortoises in St. George, major wild fires in Beaver County, as well all BLM lands in Kane County and those in Garfield County west of Capitol Reef. Now his area of responsibility responsi-bility is confined solely to the new monument itself. Meredith pointed out that the BLM still has offices in Kanab and Escalante which, for the short term, will be brbught up to "minimum staffing levels that have been projected pro-jected for years" for which money had never been available. The BLM has committed, he said, to adding a few people this year at each office to meet that goal. He said the two offices will continue under the same supervision super-vision as before, Greg Christensen in Escalante and Verlyn Smith, BLM area manager in Kanab. Both will also assist and will be kept fully informed about planning progress, he said. The planning team itself will be located in Cedar City because the necessary 6,000 square feet of office space and temporary housing for 15 families is not readily available elsewhere. Meredith said that it would not be feasible for either Kane County Commissioner Joe Judd or Garfield County Commissioner Louise Liston Lis-ton to serve on the planning team, even though both had requested a seat. The 15-member team will be working eight-hour days, five days a week for the next two and one- half to three years, he said. Each team member will be a technical specialist in a particular field. There will be paleontologists, archeologists, geologists, ecolo-gists, ecolo-gists, historians and others. Selections are pending on four positions posi-tions which have been advertised. They include a botanist, an arche-ologist, arche-ologist, an outdoor recreation planner plan-ner and a range ecologist. He told the group that the Governmental Personnel Action Act additionally allows federal, state and local agencies agen-cies to exchange people. Meredith said he would be meeting meet-ing with Gov. Mike Leavitt and the Department of Interior at the end of the week to discuss tourism, recreation recre-ation and community development. Actual planning is set to begin in March with a core staff of planners. A series of scoping meetings for the public will follow. In the meantime, Meredith said, they are obtaining office space in Cedar City, installing telephones, purchasing vehicles, computers and other equipment. He said he will arrange opportunities for briefing organizations and groups with a particular interest in the planning progress. In answer to Fullmer's question, Meredith said there will be a recreation recre-ation specialist and an historian on the planning team who will deal with visitation at places such as Paria and Old Ghost Town and others. An interpretation position is included for setting up trails, visitor centers, etc. "We intend to work closely with the travel councils coun-cils in both counties and with the state travel council,' he said. In lieu of a completely staffed team, Meredith said he and Wilkins have a "little informal implementation implemen-tation team of BLM professionals to get the things done that the BLM has to do" in the interim. He said, "There are a couple of people in Salt Lake City, a couple of people in BLM headquarters in Washington D.C. and a couple of people out of the Department of Interior in Washington D.C," Meredith said. They have been obtaining vehicles, making contact with U.S.G.S., setting set-ting up a personnel system, arranging arrang-ing for signing, etc. He said one of the Salt Lake people is Don Banks, external affairs director for the BLM. When Panguitch businessman John Trout asked the source of funding for these activities, Meredith Mere-dith said the cost is coming out of the BLM budget. He said additional costs are probably about one-third (See Planning Process For New Monument Explained On Page 3A) Planning Process For New Monument Explained At Travel Council Meeting From Page 1 more because the same people and facilities that are already in place are being used to move the project forward. "Of the first five positions we're getting for the planning team, three of them were already working for Utah BLM and being paid out of our budget," he said. "It's just a redistribution of resources within the agency." He said federal agencies found themselves with carryover moneys from last year, and the BLM had taken its surplus to use for Utah's new monument.. He said they had not yet discussed charging fees to come into the area. "Time is running" said Meredith, Mere-dith, since the Sept. 18 creation of the monument and the three years allowed for planning. "We do have an advantage," he said, "and that is that offices in Kanab and Escalante about three years ago started on a fairly lengthy and involved planning plan-ning process which is almost the exact same area. "The difference is that Long Valley Val-ley and the Panguitch area were included in that initial planning effort. But it covered all the monument monu-ment plus some. And so they've got a lot of what takes time, and that's data-gathering, already done and already digitized and put into computers on GIS systems. So we've got a big head start," he said. Meredith said differing factions have already brought division, with environmentalists wanting a "glass dome" over the area with no development, devel-opment, "and there are others who would like to pave every road out there and make it a Yellowstone or Grand Teton or Zion." Fullmer said that at a recent travel show in Anaheim he, Jean Seiler and Bob Syrett had all been asked about the monument. He said the county's newest brochure includes a reference to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Monu-ment with an Escalante BLM number num-ber to call for information and that the travel council office in Panguitch Pan-guitch has had calls for information. informa-tion. . "How many come over the years will depend upon how you deal with them and how we deal with them," Meredith said. He said that he had given his people a deadline of April 1 for installation of signs on Highway 12, the Burr Trail, U.S. 89 the major travel routes with smaller entry signs at Cottonwood Cotton-wood below Kodachrome and other places. He said they are working on a "flagship" brochure, to be printed in large quantities between 100,000 and 300,000 for the monument with a map showing things to see and do with cautions about the nature of the country. Meredith said that the BLM recognizes that the "roads that are out there are out there" and that "nobody is going to go out and close the roads. But we're not going to be authorizing things like turning the Skutumpah Road ... into a four-lane paved highways in the interim either until some decisions are made about what management man-agement is going to be out there for the long term . . . "... Part of how you determine how many people you're going to do is by how big the roads are and how many parking lots you make Meredith said. "So in the interim, we're going to look for basically a status quo . . . ," Meredith said. "Which means that we ought to tell people that if you want to go on the Smokey Mountain Road, you better have the right kind of equipment, you better go prepared and you better watch the weather and you better check in before you go out there. I mean, we even get our own people stranded stran-ded out there, let alone visitors in their Winnebagos and rented sedans." Meredith said that large wall maps, created by the USGS, the government's official map-maker, have been received and are available locally. Meredith said, "We had no idea this the monument was coming." He said that on Sept. 18, he was out on Smokey Mountain in his vehicle and had no idea he would be appointed as interim manager. When Fullmer asked if the travel council could be involved with the BLM brochure for consistency with what the council is doing, Meredith replied that he didn't have a personal problem with it but " ... if I do that, then I have to if the state wants to play, if Kane County wants to play, I've got to let thern play. If SUWA wants to play I can't treat one organization different than another." Meredith did offer to allow the travel council to review the draft form of the proposed brochure, which will be contracted out, when it is ready. Fullmer said they would like to take the completed brochures to travel shows where they have had many questions about the monument. monu-ment. Meredith said the BLM has had "calls galore," along with the state travel council, Glen Canyon Recreation Area, etc. Christensen said that at the Escalante Tri-Agency they are receiving up to five calls an hour inquiring about visiting the monument, monu-ment, as well as other calls from people seeking work there. Also, a web site is being created by the BLM for the monument. Jose Noriega, Powell District, USFS, asked if a project that had been well underway when the monument was. created will be on permanent hold and Meredith said (See Planning Process For New Monument Explained On Page 4A) Planning Process For New Monument Explained At Travel Council Meeting From Page 3A he didn't see why such a project couldn't move forward, and that regular maintenance continue on roads with no substantial changes. Meredith said that with almost every move they make on public lands, "we're getting beat about the head and shoulders." Nancy Twitchell, Garfield County News, asked why the local government agencies, Garfield County and Kane County, could not be included on the planning team when both counties are so heavily impacted by the creation of the monument and must provide law enforcement, medical services, refuse disposal and other services because of that impact. Meredith replied that the team is made up of professional technicians. techni-cians. "You know," he said," I told Louise Liston last night, 'Louise, are you looking for an eight hour, five days a week, three-year job setting at a computer writing a plan?'" Twitchell said, "I think their the commissioners' concern is that the typical government planning team is already basically environmentally environ-mentally inclined and ..." Meredith : "That's a matter of opinion. That's fine; if that's their opinion. " Twitchell said " ... I think what they are looking for is a voice of local concern." Meredith: "What they really want is, how do we influence decisions." deci-sions." Twitchell: "Exactly. That's exactly what they want." Meredith: "There are two ways, can do that." And Meredith outlined out-lined them naming first the planning plan-ning process which he said is an open process allowing for input from the public, and "if people provide good information, if they provide good suggestions, good inpuj, that's all considered. "Now that area is a difficult area because if, when the decision is made, it isn't what you wanted, the typical reaction is, well, you didn't listen to me. "Well I heard Louise at the last SUPAC meeting stand up and say, 'There were a lot of people in our county who didn't like our county master plan. They didn't think it was tough enough.' Well, does that mean she didn't listen to them? No, that doesn't mean that at all, but when everybody gets an equal input, you know it's probably not going to be the way you want it. So there is an input." Meredith went on to describe the process, saying that input will be received at public meetings and on the BLM's web site for the entire three-year period He said the counties were offered money to help them prepare their input. Secondly, Meredith said that under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, (FLPMA) the county would have an opportunity for a "consistency review" conducted con-ducted through the governor's office. He said the BLM's plans have to be consistent with officially adopted state and local plans as long as those plans are not contradictory to federal laws or regulations. Thirdly, Meredith said he had told the commission that the planning team would be "more than happy" to provide briefings and updates and that their comments would be welcome. He said, "And the decisionmaking decision-making authority on this one, the final decision, rests with the Secretary of the Interior and it's a government plan. They the Garfield County Commission wouldn't want me to have a veto on their county master plan. I mean, they just wouldn't agree to that they wouldn't agree to let the governor have a veto on their county master plan." "I don't think they are asking for a veto, " Twitchell said. "There is a difference between local public input and having a' voice on the planning team. Anytime they the county do put together a master plan or anything for the county, they try to include the federal and state government entities. I think they are feeling totally axed out not to have a voice on the monument monu-ment planning team. There's a difference dif-ference between a voting representation represen-tation and just merely input." Noriega said, "... there's a federal fed-eral law that mandates that we can't have outside members of the team that are from non-federal agencies." Trout said, "... original and different is the fact that you've got four established towns in this monument ... they were there first, before they decided to make this a national monument." Meredith; "Except the public land was there first. I think the thing the people need to understand, and I'm not here to defend the monument ... the fact is, the government gov-ernment didn't have to lease coal out there, that's totally discretionary. discretion-ary. The President, by making this a monument doesn't mean we do or we don't lease coal. That was a sub set of the decision to make it a monument. We always had the authority to say we're not going to lease coal. We're not going to lease oil and gas. We're not going to allow mineral exploration. I mean, we can do that on any public land anywhere. The process, I mean for oil and gas and coal, there's not even a process. We just don't have to lease it if we don't want to." Trout: "Who do you mean 'we'?" Meredith: "The federal government, govern-ment, the administration, whoever is in power to make policy decisions. The administration. They always have had the authority to say, 'We're not going to lease coal ana meres no process 10 go through.'" Trout: "You can't do that." Meredith: "No, they just don't have to offer it. See, it's an offer. There is no process to come to us and say I want to lease this coal. We hold lease sales and put out what we want." Trout said he was not talking about coal, he was talking about participating in the planning, where there are four towns that will be heavily impacted, "and they've got to have some say." Meredith assured Trout that they will have, through the federal process. "The law is very clear," said Meredith. "FLPMA is very clear that we can't, other than the ! consistency review process, give preferential treatment to anyone because this is federal land. It was purchased from Mexico by the United States government, not using state of Utah money, before there was a state of Utah, it was purchased by the United States and it belongs to all the people." I (See Planning Process For New j Monument Explained On Page 6A) Planning Process For Monument Explained At Travel Council From Page 4A Meredith said that public hearings hear-ings to receive public input should start in April. He said while the law that allows creating a national monument has been on the books for 90 years, it was used for the one-hundredth time in creating the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Meredith said federal employees are accustomed to being in the middle. "It doesn't scare us," he said, "I mean, we have people saying say-ing we want to develop the whole world and people saying we want to protect the whole world all the time. That's just business as usual for us." He said he encourages people to look at the proclamation to see what the monument was designated for. Businessman Kenny Miller asked Meredith who put together the money that the counties were offered to participate in planning and who put together all the guidelines that caused Garfield County to say "No" to that money. "Your county never even saw guidelines before they said 'No,'" Meredith responded. "The guidelines guide-lines were developed after the money was accepted in principle and then Kane County sent some people to Washington plus they hired a lobbyist and they met with Congressman Bill Orton's staff, Dave Lemmon specifically, and with representatives of the Department Depart-ment of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management and worked through the guidelines on what that money could be spent for and those guidelines were totally agreed to by the county and the federal government before the agreement agree-ment was formally signed. "But the guidelines weren't even started to be developed until after the agreement had been reached to take the money. Miller: "So if they didn't have the guidelines developed, why did they come out with the guidelines later. I mean, you surely don't offer someone money and then say take this money, now here's the guidelines guide-lines to go with it." Meredith: "What we said was, 'Are you interested in having some money to help you do, to help you participate in the planning? If you are, we're willing to sit down and negotiate what that money can be spent for.' Garfield County said they were not interested. Kane County said they were. So we sat down and between the county and the federal government, we worked out the guidelines. And I think if you'll ask Jim Maxim who is the project manager for Kane County, he'll tell you they're a piece of cake." Miller: "But this was after they accepted the money?" Meredith: "Well, it was after they agreed in principle that they would accept money to participate in planning." Meredith said that the money was governed by a grant, with laws that control how the money is spent. He said it was "an assistance agreement," a very short document routinely used between the federal government and other government agencies." |