Pat Brady takes office as new mayor

James L. Davis

The Green River City Council voted on a candidate for mayor to serve the remaining two years of Mayor Ed Bentley’s term during the Feb. 12 city council meeting. Bentley resigned as mayor on Jan. 31 and the city solicited interested citizens to serve out the remainder of his term.

Four Green River residents expressed an interest in the position of mayor: Elaine Antinarelli, Pat Brady, Dan Harrison and Dale Johnson submitted paperwork to the city expressing their interest in the position. Harrison, a city councilman, withdrew his application at the start of the city council meeting, prior to voting on the candidate for mayor.

Brady, also a council member, was not present at the council meeting due to a family illness. The four council members present at the meeting voted for their applicant of choice and Brady received a unanimous vote to be appointed to serve out the remainder of Mayor Bentley’s term.

One of Mayor Brady’s first duties as mayor will be to determine council assignments. Mayor Bentley resigned before assigning departments to the council members, so all positions are currently the responsibility of the mayor until he makes a determination on who he wants to serve in individual departments.

Guitar Heroes

Josie Luke

From 8:57 to 9:48 a.m. Monday through Thursday, a novel sound can be heard in the halls at Green River High School. The sound drifts from Burke Simmons’ classroom where he teaches a class of high school students how to play guitar.

Though the class admits that they aren’t “rock stars” yet, Simmons reveals that he has received a number of compliments from the community on their performances. The class has already performed twice, including being invited to play the national anthem at the school’s homecoming game on Jan. 25.

When Simmons accepted his job, he knew he would be teaching a variety of classes, but didn’t expect to be teaching a guitar class. He revealed that just before he started his first year at Green River High School, Principal Nolan Johnson told him that he would be teaching the guitar class instead of elementary band.

Simmons played guitar in high school and college and sees it as bonus to get to teach the class. “It’s a blast,” he revealed, “getting to play the guitar and get paid for it.” He enjoys teaching the students and in turn the students expressed that he was their favorite part of the class.

The students’ experience on guitar varies, with one student playing for four years, and others only starting in January. At the beginning of the year, there were only four students in the class, but as the class has grown in popularity the total has risen to16 students.

It is also popular with faculty who are working to ensure that the class will continue next year. “All the faculty wants it because it’s good for the kids. A lot of them that would never do music will take it because playing the guitar is cool,” said Secretary Sheri Vetere.

She further supports the class saying that it has been “good for the kids morale” and that some students are more likely to come to school, “because they like the class.”

As with many high school students, the class overwhelmingly expressed that they liked to play rock or alternative rock music and so would love to play electric guitar, but in class they play acoustic. Most of the students bring their own guitars, but the school provides a small number.

Students in the class are: Kasey Ambrose, Marvin Arnold, Richard Dean, Ashley Derossett-Larsen, Josh Downard, Greg Gelster, Daniel Hales, Kelly Larsen, Alex Leon, Hunter Maldonado, Kayden Mecham, Danielle Monroe, Blair Vetere, Brandi Webster, Caleb White and David Wilson.

Landfill suffering budget woes

Green River City’s landfill is suffering a shortage of funds and the city council was cautioned by its auditors, Smuin, Rich and Marsing during the Feb. 12 city council meeting that something needed to be done to address the shortfall in the landfill’s budget.

Green River City contracts with City Sanitation for the collection of garbage in the city and charges city residents $2.50 per monthly billing cycle for garbage pickup. According to city officials the goal of the landfill budget is not to make a profit, only to break even with costs.

It is believed that the shortfall in the budget comes from the operation of the waste transfer station compactor that City Sanitation also services. The transfer station allows for residents and others to dispose of bulk waste, but no fee is charged for the service. The city council will have to decide whether to begin charging for the service for transfer money from the general fund to accommodate the shortage in the landfill fund. The fund shortage was not an action item on the agenda, so no decision on how to address the budget was reached.

City prepares to update sewer and water lines

Green River City is preparing to make a rapid leap forward in the quality of the services it can provide to residents as a project to upgrade sewer and water lines within the city receives the green light to move forward.

The city received a $1.3 million grant from the Permanent Community Impact Fund Board for the replacement of water and sewer lines throughout the city. The lines currently providing service for the city are outdated, unreliable and have needed replacement for years.

Work on the project is expected to begin this Spring and when complete it will open the way for other improvement projects that have been in a hold status pending the replacement of the lines. The Utah Department of Transportation is planning on a resurfacing of Main Street when the water and sewer lines are in place and the city is looking at funding avenues to improve side streets throughout the city.

Green River Airport management
decision up in the air, for now

The Green River City Airport is currently without management and city leadership is considering possibilities on how to best manage the facility.

Trent Fluckey did have the contract to manage the airport, but he has moved to Nevada, leaving the airport without a manager. According to Conae Black, city recorder, the airport is designed to be self operating, but it currently has no fuel available for pilots wanting to land there.

During the Feb. 12 city council meeting Leon Defriez of Castle Dale urged the council to not do anything that would result in the closure of the airport, stating that business development for the city would be dependant on the availability of an airport. Defriez recently developed a limited liability company that manages the operation of the Huntington Airport and he indicated during the meeting that he would be interested in helping Green River set up something similar for the management of its airport, if city leadership was interested.

No decision on the management of the airport was made during the meeting.

City leadership provides grant for diversion dam

The Green River City Council voted to grant $5,000 toward a feasibility study on the repair or replacement of the Green River Diversion Dam.

The grant will go toward the $100,000 geological study of the diversion dam. During the study four bore holes will be drilled into the dam to determine if the dam is repairable or even in a suitable location. The dam is more than 100 years old and has been added to numerous times over the decades.

With the planned feasibility study, no improvements to Green River canals are being planned for the year pending the outcome of the study. The study could take up to a year to complete.

Green River prepares for disaster exercise

James L. Davis

A simulated disaster exercise is set to descend on the city of Green River Feb. 29 and organizers hope it will prove a wake up call for residents to prepare for the real thing.

Karen Smith, Emergency Program Manager for Green River, said that plans have been underway for the exercise for almost a year.

Originally the exercise was going to include a rail car as part of the simulation, but Union Pacific has since said one will not be available. Undaunted, organizers plan to go ahead with the exercise, which will be centered around the old railroad station and will include up to 100 people, including representatives of Emery and Carbon County emergency response teams, local emergency response volunteers and members of the 85th National Guard Unit.
Smith said the exercise is so important to Green River because all of its emergency services are under contract from the county and in the event of a disaster, city residents will need to know how to respond and survive until help arrives.

“Think of how many semis come through town with hazardous chemicals on board. We once counted 40 rail cars in a row with hazardous materials in them. We’re sitting ducks out here,” she said.

During the exercise the city alert notification system will be tested, as will resident’s response to the alert. The old civil defense siren will be used to alert residents to the simulated disaster. For this exercise residents will be alerted to take shelter in their homes and remain in place until the all clear signal is given. The siren will sound in a continuing up and down wail. The all clear signal will come as an up and down siren played once. Although it is not planned to be used for this exercise, a long, steady tone from the civil defense siren would alert residents to evacuate the city.

Smith hopes when the exercise comes that residents will remember what they are supposed to do.

“They’ve been told but I don’t know how many have listened,” she said.

Work continues on new senior center

Josie Luke

Despite winter weather, construction continues on the Green River Senior Citizens’ Center located at 355 East 175 South.

Commissioner Gary Kofford revealed that they are “shooting for the middle of June” as the time for the completion of the project which began in September. When it is completed, the building will be over 4500 square feet, which is bigger than the old Green River building and is comparable to the Senior Citizen’s Center in Ferron in size.

Plans for the center started years ago when it was decided that the “old structure was fairly antiquated and needed a lot of repairs.” The center also posed parking problems and after studying the issue, it was determined that, “it was cheaper to build a new one than to remodel.”

The project is funded through the Community Impact Board and the Municipal Building Authority and will serve the Senior Citizens in Green River, as well as the community as a whole. Like other centers in the county, it will be available for parties, weddings, reunions and other activities.

According to Kofford, the center may also serve as a meeting place. “It’s going to be a beautiful building and Green River is a good location for Southeastern Utah to have a central place for San Juan, Moab, Carbon and Emery County to head to, so there are a lot of governmental meetings that take place there,” he said, and continued, “ They use the city hall quite a bit, and this could be another facility that could be used.

The majority of the land where the center is located was purchased from Malcolm Palitano. Land was also donated by the Jim Vetere Family and the Arden Sherrill Family.