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Show Recapping 1999 JULY County Celebrates July 4 All Garfield County communities commun-ities celebrated July 4. most beginning on Saturday, July 3 except the three Bryce Valley communities which kicked off their festivities with a Friday evening dinner and open air dance. Wilderness Reinventory Protest in Escalante Anti-wilderness protesters, over 200 strong, made their statement on the steps of the federal Tri-Agency building after local environmentalist environment-alist Patrick Diehl began a counter-demonstration counter-demonstration there joined by Tori Woodard and Juniper Allison, fellow fel-low members of the Escalante Wilderness Wil-derness Project, a new pro-wilderness pro-wilderness organization. New, Physician At Garfield Memorial Hospital Garfield Memorial Hospital gained a new physician and Garfield County gained a new basketball fan as Dr. Shaun Shurtliff joined the hospital staff. Salt Lake Anti-Wilderness Rally One Of Largest Ever Declaring "Utah Wants Access For All Not Wilderness For a Few." over 450 community leaders and residents from throughout the state of Utah joined together in a giant convoy converging on the State Capitol on July 10. San Juan County Commissioner Defies BLM When San Juan County officials in late June threatened to remove the Bureau of Land Management's signs on the county's RS2477 roads, the issue brought the two agencies to the bargaining table. Kanab Road Meet Draws Nearly 400 Kane County residents, 380 strong, met in a special meeting July 12 with all three Kane County commissioners Norm Carroll, Joe Judd and Steve Crosby over all-important all-important RS2477 roads. The turnout was one of the largest ever in Kane County. Utah Supreme Court Upholds Boulder Town The Utah Supreme Court on (See RECAPPING 1999 Page 7 A) RECAPPING 1999 From Page 5-A July 16 affirmed a Sixth District Court decision that upheld a 1995 decision by the Boulder Town Council denying Mark Austin, applying for Boulder Mountain Lodge, the local consent he was asking in his restaurant liquor license application. No RS2477 Roads Shown On BLM Maps None of Garfield County's RS2477 roads appeared on the official offi-cial map in the Bureau of Land Management's just-released Proposed Pro-posed Management Final Environmental Environ-mental Impact Statement for the Grand Staircase National Monument. Monu-ment. Bryce Canyon Gets New Fire Engine The Wildland Fire Crew at Bryce Canyon National Park celebrated the delivery of a new fire engine, a Becker Type 6 unit with a 280-gallon water tank and 10-gallon foam capacity. Monument Plan Will Limit ATV's, Bike Use The Bureau of Land Management's recently released Proposed Management Plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument had most recipients complaining that the document's 30-day deadline for comments was inadequate. ATV users also realized that use would be extremely limited under the plan. BoulderEscalante Fund Raisers Successful Joint fund raising efforts in boulder and Escalante yielded moneys for the Garfield Memorial Health Care Foundation and the area's Emergency Response Squad of Emergency Medical technicians. Stream Problems Addressed On Sevier River A Watershed Assessment Tour was conducted on a successful rangeriparian project sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management on Three Mile Creek. The show-me tour was organized by the Water Quality Technical Workgroup, one of the groups established following the previous November's Public Scoping Meeting to develop a Coordinated Resource Management Plan for the Upper Sevier River Watershed: ' AUGUST Inconsistent Policies On Hazardous Monument Roads Emergency help for motorists traveling the often dangerous roads in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument may depend upon who's giving the orders on any given day. Recently, two vehicles, one privately owned and the other owned by the Bureau of Land Management, were totaled within days of each other, each trapped in rushing flood waters. Rescue efforts for each were handled under conflicting orders from BLM officials who govern what takes place on GSENM roads and in Wilderness Study Areas in the monument under WSA Interim Management Policy. Municipal' Candidates With the close of city business on Aug. 19 in communities throughout the county, 27 residents had signed up for November's municipal elections. Babbitt and Rubin Fined ' A judge ordered the government yesterday to pay $625,000 for the "disobedience" of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin in withholding documents of a lawsuit involving Indian trust funds according to an article by Jerry Seper in the Washington Post. Kids Head Back to School Students, some for the first time in kindergarten and others entering their final year at high school, began school all over Garfield County on Aug. 25 . .' Judge Refuses To Dismiss County's Case Against GSENM i Garfield County Commissioners were elated to learn that U.S. District Judge Dee Benson refused to dismiss a lawsuit initiated by the Utah Association of Counties (UAC) and the Mountain States legal Foundation (MSLF) claiming President Bill Clinton exceeded his authority when he created the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) under the Antiquities Act. Panguitch High Students Stage Walkout Students at Panguitch High School staged a walkout Aug. 27 in a move that appeared to have been prompted by some of their teachers and principal. Estimates of the number of students involved ranged from "just a few" to nearly 200. |