Negotiations continue to avoid miners’ strike

Kathy Ockey

The possibility of a miner’s strike is weighing heavily on the minds of many employees and their families at Deer Creek Coal Mine.

Energy West’s Deer Creek Coal Mine employees are members of the United Mine Workers Local 1769 and have been working under a contract that was adopted five years ago. This contract expired on Jan. 2 at midnight and the miners have been working under the expired contract while the UMWA Local 1769 officers and Energy West Mining management have been negotiating a new contract for the next five years. The new contract was presented to the miners and a vote to accept or reject the contract was held on Jan. 21.

The miners rejected the proposed contract by a small margin, but at this time the miners are still working and union and company officials are still negotiating the new contract.

The last contract to be rejected by the miners was in 1984 and subsequent contracts have been accepted up until this recent one. No information or contract details are available and it is not known why this contract was rejected.
Representatives of Energy West and the UMWA Local 1769 had no comment regarding the contract negotiations.
If the two parties cannot draft a contract that miners would accept the resulting strike would effect up to 350 local miners and company employees and impact the entire economy in the Castle Valley region.

Districts face budget crunch

Josie Luke

After a bill was passed by the Utah Legislature providing for a substantial increase in the amount of money coming into Emery County from mineral lease taxes, the county began the year expecting a windfall. They are now faced with a lack of funding for special service districts in the county because of a cap placed by an appropriations committee on the amount they can receive.

County Commissioner Drew Sitterud explained that mineral lease money comes from taxes paid by companies who produce natural gas, coal, oil, and other minerals from lands located in the county. Normally, the money produced is split, with the federal government receiving 52 percent, and the state receiving 48 percent, of which the county receives 40 percent. The county cannot accept the money outright, and so it is used to fund special service districts.

Emery County has six special service districts funded by this money: Emery County Special Service District #1, which is in charge of transportation and county roads; the Municipal Building Authority; Castle Valley Special Service District, which is in charge of water and city streets; North Emery Water Users District, which is over culinary water on the north end of the county; Fire Protection Special Service District, which is over fire and ambulance service; and the Recreation District.

The Utah State School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration also uses mineral lease money produced on state owned lands to fund schools. All of the money produced in these areas is kept by the state. With the creation of the Escalante National Monument, state land that was previously located in the monument was shifted to other areas of the state including Emery County.

According to Sitterud, the county was assured by Governor Mike Leavitt that if they would accept this, they would be “held harmless,” in that they would still receive the same percentage of the mineral lease money. The State Legislature did not follow through with the agreement, in fact the amount the county received was reduced to 15 percent, so a group was organized to address the issue with the legislature.

The resulting bill passed in the last legislative session made it so that 60 percent of the money would go to SITLA and roughly 40 percent would come to the county. Further, because the money came through SITLA, it could then be used directly by the county, instead of being assigned to the service districts.

Sitterud said that upon receiving the money for the first quarter, the Commission elected to give 15 percent to the service districts, expecting to receive a payment for each of the next three quarters. “What we didn’t know was that a senator from northern Utah had put a cap on it at the end of the session,” reveals the commissioner. It was not until a conversation was held with officials from Carbon County that they realized that there was in fact a cap on the amount they would receive.

The commissioner explains that the result is the districts are “in pretty rough shape right now.”

The counties involved, Emery, Carbon, Uintah, and Sevier are now attempting to free the cap on the money, with Patrick Payner, a representative from Nephi attempting to determine what has to be done. Fortunately, according to Sitterud, “We don’t think we have to open up the bill and redo legislation, we just have to go back through appropriations and unlock it.

“If the districts were not able to continue with their funding, the county would be forced to take up the slack. Right now we’re solvent, but we’ve got to get to work and get this solved,” Sitterud said.

“They told me that the money is sitting there. They just need the authority to open it up. Then everybody will be well again.”

Einstein the Cat Chasing Chicken

James L. Davis

When Myra Freeman’s son Wesston caught a chicken at the Castle Dale Kids’ Rodeo a few years back she found a way out of actually having to keep the chicken by finding it a new home. But when Wesston caught another chicken at the rodeo she realized she was going to have to either live with a chicken or find a way to slow down her son.

Two years later, the chicken so expertly caught by Wesston is still with the Freeman family. The chicken now has a name, a hen house friend and a home, none of which are exactly normal.

The Freeman’s named the hen Einstein. A buff laced polish chicken; she was named Einstein because the crazy cap of feathers on her head bear a resemblance to the famed scientist, not because the chicken is particularly brilliant. At least the Freeman’s haven’t seen any obvious sign of chicken brilliance. Myra readily admits that she has very little experience with chickens or any other farm animals, although she has sat down at the dinner table with a chicken a time or two over the years.

Einstein’s friend turns out to be the family cat, P.C., which shares the chicken’s house when it can’t find a way inside the family home. The chicken occasionally objects to a cat in her hen house and has been observed chasing the cat away.

As for a home, the chicken coop is the garage that was fenced in for the family dog and the hen house is a dog house with a shower curtain roof. “It’s a redneck chicken coop,” Myra said with a grin.

While Wesston seems to enjoy the fact that they kept the chicken, it is Myra who seems to enjoy having the chicken around, although she is fairly adamant about not wanting any more chickens.

“I never thought I’d own a chicken, let alone like one,” she said, bending down to offer Einstein food.

After almost two years of owning Einstein the cat chasing chicken, Myra said she has learned a thing or two about chickens, but not enough to call herself an expert. For instance, she knew that chickens molted, but was not aware that chickens would molt at a time of the year when you would think chickens would want to hang on to their feathers, so when Einstein started losing her feathers in the fall Myra became a little concerned that she may not be feeding the chicken right.

“Poor chicken,” Myra said, still offering Einstein food from her hand.

So as Einstein the cat chasing chicken is hand fed by her owner from a chicken coop that used to be a garage after sleeping in the dog’s house that she chases the family cat out of, it makes you wonder, maybe she was named Einstein for reasons other than her crazy cap of feathers.

Plan to pave road to Reeder Subdivision moves forward

Josie Luke

Emery County’s plan to pave a portion of Miller’s Flat Road near Joe’s Valley Reservoir that connects Highway 29 to the Reeder Subdivision is inching forward.

According to Commissioner Gary Kofford, the road was paved before, but was not maintained. The idea of paving it again was initially introduced in 1998, but until recently the idea had not moved forward. After a meeting between the county and the Forest Service on Jan. 23, Kofford said the county is now “tentatively on track to have permitting completed by August,” with construction beginning in the spring of 2009.

The Emery County Special Service District #1 is in charge of the project, with funds coming through mineral lease money, which fund the special service district in the county.

The county holds an easement on the road through the Forest Service from the point where the road begins to just beyond the fork to the Reeder Subdivision. The county plans to pave that part of the road, as well as the subdivision road up to the bridge.

In order to make these improvements some areas of the road will be straightened slightly. This, along with the improvement from gravel to an oil road, requires permits from the Forest Service. In order to grant the permits, the Forest Service requires both an archeological study and an environmental impact analysis on the area.

With the archaeological study completed, the Forest Service is now conducting the environmental analysis. Mesia Nyman explained that this includes “analyzing the effects of the proposal on all of the different resources,” including a biological assessment of the effects to the plant and animal life in the area, the cattle allotment and nearby streams, as well as the safety of traffic and the social and recreational effects.

She further explained that at this point they are trying to “refine the engineer’s design.”

They are attempting to “have the road be aesthetically pleasing.” One way they will attempt to accomplish this is by preserving the plant life along the road. For example, they are adjusting the design in order to save as many trees along the road as possible.

Nyman also said that there is a proposal through the Forest Service to construct a snowmobile parking lot in the area near the road which is now a gravel pit. This would allow snow mobile enthusiasts to still be able to ride in the area when the road would normally be inaccessible to traffic.

Sheriff investigates damage to Huntsman Autoplex

James L. Davis

The Emery County Sheriff’s Office is investigating damage caused to the Huntsman Autoplex on Jan. 17 from a shooter who took aim at the car dealer’s automobiles and building.

Sheriff Lamar Guymon said three glass windows in the new autoplex were shot and five vehicles were hit with 22 caliber rounds sometime during the evening of Jan. 17. No Huntsman employees were present on the facility when the gunfire occurred.

The damage to the vehicles and the building was not discovered until Huntsman employees arrived for work the next day. Deputy Shon Roper responded to investigate the scene.

The windows on the south side of the new building were shot and vehicles in the south lot were targeted. The shooter apparently took aim at the complex from the parking lot of the Castle Valley Co-op.

The crime is still under investigation by the sheriff’s office.