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Show Recapping 1997's News We continue with our recap of 1997's most interesting stories: August Late afternoon heavy rains in Bryce Canyon National Park on Aug. 27 channeled floodwaters down through Campbell Canyon and washed out a temporary dike west of Tropic, allowing waters to flood down 1st South. Construction workers at the new high school used their big trackhoe to push a temporary channel through to reroute the floodwaters. Sixty people attended the sixth in a series of scheduled scoping workshops designed to gather input for planning on the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The meeting meet-ing was held in Tropic September The Panguitch Lions Club hosted the District 28T annual convention that included International Interna-tional Lions Club Director Robert Browning from Virginia. Flash floods ripped through Bryce Valley Sept. 6 creating havoc unparalleled in the memory of the valley's oldest residents. The powerful storm hit the north end of Bryce Canyon National Park with full impact, dumping floodwaters down Cope Canyon into the Paria River. The riverbed, already elevated from previous storms, failed to carry the enormous amounts of water and they quickly spread into adjacent "alfalfa fields. The storm, moving eastward, deposited depos-ited some four inches of hail at the top of North and Henderson Canyons, sending waters tumbling down to join the water from Cope Canyon racing toward downstream down-stream bridges. Floods continued to plague the area on almost a daily basis through Sept. 15. With the first sunny day coming the following day, Utah Department of Transportation Trans-portation workers began making inroads on damages caused along scenic Highway 12 largely concentrated con-centrated in the Bryce Valley area. In response to inquiries from Congressman Chris Cannon and 29 of his Congressional colleagues, col-leagues, the . Acting Comptroller General of the United States ruled that Secretary Bruce Babbitt could not administratively regulate regu-late or invalidate existing rights-of-way under RS2477 without prior pri-or approval of Congress. The Escalante LDS Stake celebrated Utah's Sesquicenten-nial Sesquicenten-nial year with two evenings of entertaining music in Tropic. Ever enthusiastic Helen Lyman, Ly-man, now in her seventies, was off and running with another year of full time volunteer teaching at Boulder Elementary. The recipient, recipi-ent, in May, of Utah's "Golden Apple" award, she focuses successfully suc-cessfully on helping her students excel in reading, writing, spelling, spell-ing, penmanship and math. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Majority Leader Dick Armey, and Majority Whip Tom DeLay joined Congressman John Peterson of Pennsylvania, Congresswoman Sue Kelly of New York, Congressman Con-gressman Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, Lou-isiana, Congressman Charles Bass of New Hampshire, Congressman Con-gressman Ralph Regula of Ohio, and Congressman George Radan-ovich Radan-ovich of California for a four-state "Legislative Roundup, working tour of western public lands issues. is-sues. The Western Congressional hosts for the trip included Congresswoman Helen Cheno-weth Cheno-weth of Idaho, Congressman Mike Crapo of Idaho, Congresswoman Barbara ' Cubin of Wyoming, Congressman Rick Hill of Montana, and Utah's Congressmen Congress-men Jim Hansen and Chris Cannon. The theme of their trip was "Finding Solutions That Work." Four more California condors were released atop the Vermillion Cliffs of northern Arizona on Sept. 25 to join the six females and five males earlier released. Utah Division of State History experts came Sept. 27 to Tropic to inspire, advise, demonstrate and motivate local entrepreneurs and wanna-be's on how to get started and find success with their heritage industry products. A face lift at Tom Best Springs put new life into the old pond. Division of Wildlife officers, Forest Service personnel, and local volunteers worked together to bring about the transformation guaranteed to make both fish and fowl happy. By a bi-partisan vote, the House Resources Committee agreed Sept. 24 that it would use the power of a Congressional subpoena to force the Administration to turn over documents relating to the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that they had thus far refused to release. Garkane Power Association board members, after an earlier unanimous vote to move the cooperative's main office from Richfield to a location on its own power system, faced some strong opppsition from its Richfield office employees at the company's regular monthly board meeting. October Representing Escalante City, Clerk Vickie Schulkoski presented presen-ted a plaque to 17-year-old Brandon Bran-don Haws at the city's regular council meeting in appreciation of his volunteer service with the community's law enforcement agency during the past summer. On Oct. 24, the Panguitch Department of Workforce Services Employment Center held an open house. The Panguitch facility is a part of a statewide system of 48 Employment Centers created from 106 existing offices of the agencies being consolidated into the department. Escalante 's chronicler Nathel-la Nathel-la Woolsey in her book, "The Escalante Story, " wrote, "if ever monuments are erected to unsung heroes, probably the tallest should go to those who brought the mail." On Oct. 25, the Escalante Daughters of the Utah Pioneers dedicated a marker to the Old EscalanteBoulder Mail Trail and its "unsung heroes." Hospital personnel were beginning begin-ning to get acquainted with Garfield Gar-field Memorial Hospital's new administrator ad-ministrator Eric Packer. The Pomona, Po-mona, Calif, native took over the reins full time on Oct. 27. |