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Show Escalante Center Marks Its First Year As Entity ESCALANTE The Escalante Center is celebrating its first anniversary. anni-versary. The facility is expected to bring benefits to the community, the partners of the Center, and visitors visi-tors to the area. Escalante High School students and teachers will benefit from new and expanded facilities fa-cilities and unique opportunities to work alongside and in conjunction with professional scientists and artists. Suzanne Winters, Governor Mike Leavitt's Science Advisor, is on loan to the Center to serve as its director for a two-year period. The Center is seeking volunteers to serve on three subcommittees, one for programs and events, one to address land ownership issues, and the third to identify artifacts in Escalante Es-calante for exhibit in the Last Wagon Museum. The Center is also planning a special festival for the end of May. Anyone interested in volunteering should call Winters at 435-826-4205. Since beginning full time operations opera-tions in August 1998, Winters has focused her efforts on procuring additional funds for the Center for development of a master plan for its campus, programming and operations. opera-tions. The U.S. Forest Service granted the Escalante Action Team funds for the Escalante Center and the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development granted funding through its Local Economic Eco-nomic Development Initiative. The Garfield County School District had already passed a bond for renovation renova-tion of the high school, the plans for which will be modified for compatibility with the Center project. proj-ect. Other funds have been and are currently being sought from both private and public sources. The Escalante Center is a nonprofit non-profit "corporation with goals of creating a learning environment for students, teachers, researchers, resi dents and visitors to the area; providing pro-viding an opportunity to present and preserve the rich and dignified history of Escalante; and providing real and sustainable economic benefits bene-fits to the local community. Master planning for the project, which will be state-of-the-art-designed to conserve water and energy, en-ergy, is expected to be completed by August. If a funding bill to be introduced this year in Congress by Utah's Senator Robert F. Bennett passes, construction could begin as early as November 2000. Winters emphasizes that the Center is not an "environmentalist" organization but an educational organization interested in providing (See CENTER on page 3-A) CENTER From Front Page information and educational opportunities oppor-tunities to local residents and visitors visi-tors to the area. The Center's first newsletter released re-leased in April said that the BLM is a partner in the center, having only one seat on its 1 1 -member board. Research to be conducted at the center will focus on the sciences mentioned in the President's Proclamation Proc-lamation when he created the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Those include geology, geol-ogy, paleontology, archeology and biology. Scientists, both BLM and those funded outside the BLM, will be able to work at the facilities, with specific obligations to the Center for public programs, particularly particu-larly field trips and lectures. High school students from Garfield County will be able to work in the labs of the scientists for experience and credit with a goal of motivating students to pursue careers in science and return to Escalante to work at the Center. All classes will be open enrollment. enroll-ment. Classes will be targeted for different age and education levels, however, many activities of the center will be specifically targeted for residents of Escalante and Garfield Gar-field County. Partners in the project are represented rep-resented on the board of directors by Kate Cannon (BLM), Richard Costigan (The Canyons Center), Richard Dotson (Southern Utah University), Quinn Griffin (Last Wagon Museum), Ron Hitchcock (Escalante High School), Dell LeFevre Le-Fevre (Garfield County School District). Dis-trict). Louise Liston (Garfield County), Dean Reeder (Utah Travel Council), and Jerry Roundy (Escalante City). |