Because Freedom Isn’t Free
Emery County prepares to dedicate
a monument to military veterans
James L. Davis
The soldier stands at the ready, rifle in hands, poised to defend, poised to protect, he is a symbol of every man and woman in Emery County who has served the country in a time of war. Beneath his feet are the words “Freedom isn’t free, it comes at a very high price,” and for those who have faced the horrors of the battlefield, the words echo with a devastating truth.
On Nov.12 the bronze by renowned sculpture Gary Prazen will be surrounded by dignitaries from every level of government, by business leaders, by members of the public, but most importantly by the veterans it was sculpted to represent at the Emery County Veterans Monument. The monument will be dedicated at what will prove to be a moving ceremony on Nov. 12 at 11 a.m. in front of the Museum of the San Rafael in Castle Dale.
Of course the solder is only one part of a monument that has been a long time in coming, a monument that many thought might never come. The soldier is the centerpiece of a monument meant to honor the veterans, living and dead of all of the United States wars of the 20th and now 21st century. Five marble walls behind the soldier depict the efforts of the men and women during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and Desert Storm and recent conflicts. In front of the soldier stands a cannon, the same cannon that for decades stood at the Huntington City Park, it has been refurbished and is now on loan at the monument until another cannon can be acquired from the military. Unfortunately, there are no spare cannons in the military’s arsenal at present.
Sitting on a park bench outside the perimeter of the monument, Ray Quinn is reflective as he takes in what he calls a “healing monument.”
“This monument was built for our veterans, not only for the dead, but for the living. This is a place to come to reflect,” said Quinn. Quinn serves as the Department of Utah District 5 Commander of the American Legion, which represents the counties of Emery, Carbon, Grand and San Juan. He is also the commander of Post 73 in Huntington and he has been a cheerleader, champion and at times an arm twister in the development of the monument.
After years of talk about the development of a veteran’s monument for the county, work began in earnest on a plan in 2005 when the Emery County Commission was approached about the subject. According to Quinn previous commissioner Ira Hatch encouraged the development of a monument and asked the legion to work together on an concept of what a it would look like.
The legion eventually chose a design by Owen Olsen of Cleveland and Worley Monument was asked to come up with something to represent each of the five wars depicted.
Although organizers of the monument had a model of what they expected the project to look like when complete, the end result was hard to imagine.
“It’s exceeded our expectations by far,” Quinn said. “When you put something down on paper you just can’t visualize the grand scheme of things.”
The fact that the monument is now a reality comes only after the support of a long list of organizations willing to help see the project through to completion, most importantly, the Emery County Commission.
“We can’t applaud them enough,” Quinn said. “Ira [Hatch] was the one who started it all off. He said OK.”
The county traded land from Castle Dale City to use for the monument adjacent to the museum and the county funded the project as well.
When the county applied to the federal government for a cannon and learned that a cannon would not be available, the American Legion talked to its members about loaning out the use of the cannon in Huntington for the monument. When they enthusiastically approved the idea, the legion went to Huntington City to ask for their support and it was likewise granted. The cannon, acquired by the American Legion decades ago, was built in 1941 in Colorado and used during World War II in the Pacific theater.
When the decision was made to move the cannon to the monument until a new cannon could be acquired, DNW Trucking and Tyler Wilstead transported the cannon to the Emery County Road Department for refurbishment and Quinn said he took an old ammo can to Spectrum Paint and asked them to match the paint color. They did and now the cannon once again is the color it was when in use in the military.
When the monument is dedicated next week it will serve as a focal point for the county to show its appreciation for the men and women of the military and the sacrifices they made in service to the country. Many believe it’s been a long time coming.
“We couldn’t have done this without the county commissioners. They told us they were going to do it and they did,” Quinn said.
Women’s Auxiliary send gifts of love to military
James L. Davis
When Veteran’s Day arrives on Nov. 11, the military members from the Emery and Carbon County area will know they are being thought of, prayed for and loved by those at home as they receive care packages packed to the point of breaking with little touches of home by the women of American Legion Auxiliary Unit 42 from Ferron.
The women of Unit 42 have been quietly sending packages to local military members serving in combat zones for the past four years and their effort, termed Operation Home Support, has given them more than one occasion to be proud of the military members sacrificing life and limb in war torn regions of the world and touched by the responses those military members have given to their simple gifts of love.
“On behalf of myself and the Marines in my platoon I say thank you. Not just for the package you sent, but for all of your hard work, dedication and sacrifice you have all made for our great nation. I take great pleasure and pride pinning up the letter you have sent. It shows everyone in my platoon that your unit is filled with pride and patriotism,” said Cpl. Mike Howes of Ferron in a 2005 email responding to the care package the women of Unit 42 had sent to him.
Letters such as those bring a smile to the lips and often a tear to the eye of Jan Hess, who started Operation Home Support when her own son was deployed to the Middle East. The packages of goodies, from cookies to beef jerky, went along with everything from antacid tablets to sanitary wipes and they were so appreciated that she thought there must be other military members who would appreciate care packages as well.
With care packages for Veterans Day already on their way, the auxiliary is preparing Thanksgiving cards with pictures of the members of the auxiliary to send out and getting ready for Christmas care packages.
For Veterans Day the auxiliary sent out eight care packages and since that time the number of military members in the field have more than doubled. Now the auxiliary is scrambling to find the resources to prepare 17 care packages to send out to local military for Christmas, which led Hess and Dixie Swasey, Auxiliary Unit 42 president, to ask the Emery County Commission for a donation to help buy items to put in the care packages. The commission approved the donation during its last meeting on Oct. 30. The auxiliary regularly holds fund raisers, from yard sales to bake sales to fund Operation Home Support.
In preparing the boxes to send out, Hess said they don’t put a piece of newspaper in the box for padding, if there is room in the box for one more item, they go out and get one more item for the box.
“It takes a lot of time, but time is nothing compared to what they are doing,” she said.
For the Christmas boxes the auxiliary is sending blankets, which Pat Behling of Pat’s Sew ‘N’ Stuff will embroider with the members’ name. The military members will also receive a fleece hat.
Since starting Operation Home Support the women of Unit 42 have provided care packages to 60 military members and 44 of them have returned home safe and sound and the rest are still serving in combat zones. Hess said that while the care packages haven’t had anything to do with the military members returning home safe, they have sent with those packages a great many prayers and a great deal of love.
Although they have only been able to send care packages to military members from the local area, the packages have been shared with troops from all over and have been answered with heartfelt gratitude.
In a letter to the auxiliary, Sergeant Rick “Doc” Kollar, whose mother, Cindy Brotherson, lives in Price, wrote: “I posted the pictures on my cork board in my office. As my soldiers came in and got some cookies they all thanked me for the cookies. I told them not to thank me; but to thank the fine women of the Ferron Auxiliary and I would point to your pictures. You ladies have certainly touched me and my 35 soldiers. We are grateful for your thoughts and prayers. It truly means a great deal to us to know that our fellow Americans, our communities back home, appreciate what we are doing and what we are trying to accomplish.”
The auxiliary had asked Kollar if he knew of any soldiers who seldom received mail and he had identified three soldiers that he knew of. From that time on they received mail from the women of the auxiliary.
Kollar will be leaving for his second tour in the combat zone at the end of November, approximately two weeks before the birth of his baby and it is that dedication to the mission and to the nation that brings tears to the eyes of Hess and motivates all of the women of Ferron Auxiliary Unit 42 to continue supporting their troops by gathering items from home and packaging them with care.
The American Legion Women’s Auxiliary Unit 42 is always in need to assistance in funding for their care packages for military members. If you would like to donate you may do so by mailing your donation, payable to the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 42, to P.O. Box 209, Ferron, UT. 84523.
Theft zaps production for company
James L. Davis
A late night tip led Emery County Sheriff deputies to the quick arrest of a Salt Lake area man suspected in the theft of electrical cables at a Nielson Construction crusher site in Ferron.
A caller to the sheriff’s office gave details of the theft and told deputies where they could locate the suspect. Upon investigation deputies discovered that all of the electrical wiring at the Nielson Construction crusher site in Ferron had been stolen. The wiring is valued for its copper.
Acting on tips of the caller investigating officers found a tent campsite near Millsite Reservoir and discovered the suspect, who had a large quantity of copper wiring in the back of his truck. Investigating officers were eventually directed to a Clawson storage shed, where more copper wiring was discovered.
The suspect, Matthew Jay Hull, was arrested and booked into the Emery County Jail.
Nielson Construction management was informed of the theft by the Emery County Sheriff’s Office and the cable, already cut into sections, was now useless to the company. Crusher maintenance crews and crusher operators scrambled for hours to rewire the crusher for operation. The construction company suffered a loss of approximately $84,000 due to the theft for 11 hours of lost production and approximately $18,000 to replace the electrical wiring.
This is the second such incident suffered by Nielson Construction this year. The first occurrence was earlier this summer when a crusher in Carbon County was similarly stripped of its electrical wiring. A company ATV was also stolen near the job site. Combined the two thefts have impacted the company to the tune of between $150,000 to $175,000 in replacement costs and lost production.
Emery County Sheriff Lamar Guymon indicated that a call had been placed to the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office to see if there was any link between the two crimes.
For Nielson Construction management, the thefts have spurred the creation of new security protocols for the company in an effort to prevent any further occurrences. Company personnel will make random patrols of company job sites and the Emery County Sheriff’s Office will step up patrols of the construction company’s remote job sites.
The thefts of electrical wiring at the crusher are not the only crimes plaguing the company. As the price of diesel has continued to rise the company has been plagued with thefts of diesel fuel from its heavy equipment parked at job sites.
According to Nielson Construction President Wayne Nielson, the company will step up the patrols of its job sites in coordination with law enforcement and will aggressively pursue the prosecution of those found stealing or vandalizing company equipment.
County finalizes CIB priority list
The Emery County Commission approved the Permanent Community Impact Board priority list during its Oct. 30 meeting.
The PCIB priority list is made of up county and city projects that will go before the CIB board for funding requests. There is a short term and medium term list submitted by each county agency and city. The funding request is broken down into requests for grants and loans.
For the short term list 30 projects will be considered by the CIB for Emery County next year. Each project is prioritized by the submitting agency and the final priority is determined by the county.
During the meeting Commissioner Drew Sitterud indicated that the planning grant for the assisted living center needed to be moved to the top of the priority list and his recommendation was adopted. Other CIB project funding requests that will go before the board in 2008 include:
Castle Valley Special Service District
The service district will request an $800,000 grant and $1,200,000 loan for a combined application for roads, drainage and curb and gutter projects; and a $150,000 grant request for an upgrade filter membrane at the Straight Canyon Water Plant. The funds will be added to $100,000 in local revenue.
Cleveland Town
Cleveland will request a $5,000 grant to purchase emergency response equipment.
Cleveland also will request $90,000 in grant money to purchase water shares, $150,000 in a grant for sidewalk construction, $140,000 in grant money for road improvement projects and a $350,000 grant and $150,000 loan for the construction of a new fire station.
Clawson Town
Clawson will request a $40,000 grant for ball field improvements next year.
Elmo Town
Elmo will request a $100,000 grant and $100,000 loan for sidewalk construction.
Emery County Municipal Building Authority
The building authority will request a $400,000 grant and $200,000 loan for new airport hangars; a $375,000 grant and $125,000 loan for the Children’s Justice Center; and a $1,500,000 grant and $500,000 loan for a weed and mosquito shop and storage.
Emery Town
Emery Town will request a $1,300,000 grant for the Muddy Creek diversion; and a $750,000 grant for the city hall and fire station.
Ferron City
Ferron will request a $60,000 grant for cemetery improvements; a $300,000 grant for sidewalk construction; a $250,000 grant for a recreation park; a $900,000 grant for fairground improvements; and a $20,000 grant for Mayor’s Park improvements.
Green River City
Green River will request a $1,000,000 grant for sewer and water line and equipment replacement; and a $500,000 grant for an emergency services building.
Huntington City
Huntington will request a $140,000 grant for rodeo ground improvements; an $85,000 grant for Lions Park improvements; a $280,000 grant for a skateboard park; and a $90,000 grant for new fire hydrants.
Orangeville City
Orangeville will request a $110,000 grant for the dredging of Adobe Wash; a $60,000 grant for cemetery improvements; a $100,000 grant and $40,000 loan for a skateboard park and a $70,000 grant for ball complex restroom improvements.
When considering the funding request the CIB can reject the projects, request additional information or offer a different mix of loans versus grants then originally requested.
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