Center Becomes ‘Tent City’ For Fire Fighters

Josie Luke

When a team from the National Interagency Fire Center was called in last week to assist with the Mathis fire which was threatening gas wells and a coal mine, they accepted an invitation to base their operations out of the College of Eastern Utah’s Western Energy Training Center located north of Helper.

The Mathis fire was the nation’s number one priority at one point during the week, so along with the team, four Interagency Hotshot crews, two additional crews, five helicopters, 14 engines, two bulldozers and more than 300 personnel were brought in to fight the blaze which eventually burned 1,892 acres before being contained Friday evening.

“I think that the BLM recognized that the fire was a potential threat and that outside help needed to be brought in to assess this fire. To me the whole concept of the incident management team locating itself here at this training center is quite exciting,” Sam Quigley, Industry Coordinator at WETC explained.

The team visited the WETC facilities on July 8 and had soon set up their base. “After they walked around they decided this was perfect and they immediately just started laying out a plan for how the base would be arranged here,” revealed Quigley. Staff from WETC and CEU moved around desks, set up offices, and even installed 27 new phone lines to accommodate the personnel who were fighting the fire.

Barbara Bassler, public information officer for the team, explained why the team was called in. “Usually a team is mobilized when the local unit has exhausted their resources,” she said, “When the team comes in they evaluate potential sites to operate from. This was just really accessible to the fire.”

She also said that they were glad to have the benefit of electricity and indoor plumbing. When the team, whose core has been together since ’92, was called in to Mississippi after hurricane Katrina, they set up in a huge cement bunker on a naval base.

The director of WETC, Steve Burge told of how the partnership had occurred. He said, “I called Jason Llewelyn (Carbon County Emergency Services Director), who was about to call me and said, ‘We’ve got everything they need’. He continued, “I guess what’s unique is that we actually did seek it out, we knew we had a resource that could benefit the community. We wanted to help the community above all else and recognized that we had the perfect facility to do it.”

Burge and Quigley were impressed with the professionalism of the team. Burge said, “These guys are models of how to operate in an emergency situation, how to organize, plan, execute [and] communicate. The core of the team has been together since ‘92. They developed a system of organization that the federal government copied after 9/11.

“Sometimes the federal government gets a bad rap for being poor planners; all I can say is that these guys are models. They ought to be recognized for their professionalism. This is a case where we can be proud that we have that team up [here].”

Quigley agreed, “I have learned a lot from them just being here. They have a very unique incident command process. They come in and they’re totally self contained.” He continued, “They analyzed every resource they had. They found out that I used to be the manager up there [Aberdeen mine] and they said, ‘Well do you know where all these facilities are that could be threatened,’ and late Sunday evening I was sitting at a desk putting things on maps to show them what facilities could be damaged.”

They were also impressed by those fighting the fires. “Those firefighters are dealing with extremely radical topography up there. The hillsides are steep and rocky, and on top of that it’s 100 degrees and there’s heat coming off of the fire. There’s no shade up there. It is a real privilege for us to have them here,” he stated.

Burge also illustrated this point, relating, “These people aren’t even from here, but somebody saw one of them and the guy was kind of lamenting that he couldn’t work anymore today, because he’d already worked his 16 hours. He had a project he wanted to finish.”

New E-911 System Comes With Sticker Shock

James L. Davis

The upgrading of emergency communications for Emery County to an enhanced 911 system has come with an enhanced price tag, leaving the county searching for a grant to help offset the cost.

The E-911 system, mandated by the state of Utah, replaces the old 911 system the county did use with a state of the art system that relays emergency calls to a server in the Salt Lake area. The old system relied on a server maintained in the county. The added expense comes in the way of mileage because the system requires dedicated phones lines from Emery Telcom and Qwest and the two telecommunications companies charge mileage for the dedicated use of the lines. Combined, the charges amount to $48,500 a year.

Prior to the implementation of the new E-911 system, the county was being charged roughly $800 per month to maintain the server for 911.

“We had no clue it was going to be this expensive,” said Brett Mills, communications specialist for Emery County. Mills pointed out that the decision to go to the E-911 system or not was not an option. “We didn’t have any choice in the matter,” he said.

The old 911 system only provided a direct point of contact to a public service department and the E-911 system goes further than that by providing the caller’s address and telephone of where the call originated from. Tracking emergency cell phone calls through E-911 will be possible and emergency response personnel will be able to see on a map where the call is coming from. The E-911 system is in place through much of the nation and Utah is lagging behind many states in its development.

While the benefits of an enhanced 911 system are obvious, especially with the prevalent use of cell phones, switching to the new system is proving to be taxing for rural areas such as Emery County. While a surtax is paid by every telephone customer, in Emery County that only amounts to roughly $28,000 a year, according to Mills. The money generated goes into a state fund.

The county drew from that fund when it acquired a $126,000 grant for the purchase of new equipment to make the switch to the E-911 system. The county in turn put up $80,000 for the purchase of the equipment, which was installed this spring.

With the mileage costs for the dedicated lines the county is left with no money from the surtax to pay for equipment costs, which is not an issue this year with new equipment, but will stat to become an issue in the next two to three years as equipment becomes outdated.

To pay the $48,500 this year the county has requested a grant from the same public safety fund that granted the money for the equipment upgrade.

“We’re pretty sure we’ll get the grant this year, but we have to do something that is a long term solution,” Mills said. “If we don’t get the grant I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Even though the state mandated the switch to an E-911 system, a switch was in the making due to the fact that the county’s old system was in poor condition, according to Mills.

“Our equipment was old. We only had one monitor running. We were on our last leg,” he said.
While the cost for the county is high, Emery County isn’t the alone in facing the mileage costs for the E-911 system.

“We’re all in the same boat. Grand County will be paying even more than we are. Something needs to be changed somewhere,” Mills said.

Mills said he believed there were some things that could be done to reduce the costs with technology if the state would allow it, including putting in its own infrastructure so it wouldn’t have to use dedicated lines from the phone companies.

“The state needs to step up to the base here. They’re the one that mandated that we do this,” he said.

Orangeville Residents Cautioned
to Observe Hours of Water Use

The Orangeville City Council discussed the status of secondary water usage thus far this year during the July 12 council meeting that was held in the new fire station due to renovation projects underway at city hall.

The Cottonwood Creek Irrigation Company had reported to councilman Jeff Tuttle that if water usage was managed carefully then there was a possibility of secondary water staying on in the city until the first of October, but if residents’ usage went up considerably then water would have to be shut off the first of September.

In the month of June Orangeville residents used a total of 176 acre feet of water, down from the June 2006 usage of 187 acre feet and considerably lower than the highest recorded year of 240.50 acre feet in 1986. With that said, the usage is higher than the average for June, which is 160.48 acre feet.

With a hot and dry summer the use of water during the hottest parts of the day was discussed by the council. Citizens have been asked to not water between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. but it was noted that there had been observed many instances where citizens were watering during those times, when much of the water is lost due to evaporation.

The council decided unanimously to post bulletins within the city asking residents again not to water during the heat of the day. If residents are found to be watering during those times they will be issued one warning and if found to be watering again between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. their secondary water will be turned off for the remainder of the season.

Cleveland Youth Has a Hog Wild Time at Livestock Show

James L. Davis

Standing in the pen with her hog, Bac’n Bits behind her you can detect that all of the hustle and bustle of the Southeastern Utah Junior Livestock Show has one of them more nervous than the other.

You might think that considering the surroundings Bac’n Bits might be the more nervous, but it seems that the shy smile of 10 year old Taylor Ewell betrays the fact that she is a tad more nervous than her hog. Not that you could tell by the performance Taylor and Bac’n Bits put on at the stock show.

In her first year at the junior livestock show Taylor proudly points out the blue ribbon she won in the Fitting and Showmanship category and the fact hasn’t completely sunk in just yet with her or her family.

“This is all new to me too. I never did this in school,” said Taylor’s father, Alvin.

Although the Ewell family from Cleveland have raised pigs before, this year marks the first time they have raised a pig for the stock show, which was Taylor’s idea. After getting little Bac’n Bits as a nursery pig from Bruce McMullin, Taylor started raising the pig with another pig the family had brought home that didn’t make the weight for the stock show.

Not completely new to the pig raising business, Taylor said her hog was friendly and there was only one part of the experience that made her nervous.

“Getting him out of the pen is scary. He doesn’t like to leave the pen,” she said.

Which brings to mind the intelligence of a pig, which the Ewell’s said surprised them.

“We didn’t realize how easy they are to train. They’re smarter than people give them credit for and it’s surprising how attached you can get to them,” said Taylor’s mother, Jamie.

The oldest of the three Ewell children, Taylor admits after a little prodding from her mother that her sister Brittney, 8, and Jacob, 4, did help her with taking care of Bac’n Bits and her mom said that Jacob particularly liked helping to bathe the hog.

On July 13 as Taylor nervously waited for her turn to show Bac’n Bits, she is confidant that her hog will do well in the judging for market hogs.

“She told me wouldn’t it be great if she got $3,000 at auction,” Jamie said.

And while a $3,000 sale at auction for Bac’n Bits may be a little out of reach and the title of grand champion may have slipped away, for Taylor Ewell she had no doubt as to whom she thought was the top hog.

“He’s grand champion either way,” she said.

Livestock Show Draws Crowds to Ferron

Courtney Reynolds

Ferron hosted the 69th Annual Southeastern Utah Junior Livestock Show July 11-14 and dedicated exhibitors came from around the state, including Logan, St. George, and Monticello.

Dennis Worwood, stock show committee member, said that this year’s show was a little bigger than last year’s, with many new exhibitors. He went on to say that visitors like coming to Ferron because it’s more laid back and relaxed. It’s more like a vacation.

This years big winners included the following; for hogs the Grand Champion went to Morgan Tolbert of Delta, and Reserve Champion went to Shaylee Oaks of Vernal. Alexis Stokes of Cleveland walked away with the prize for Grand Champion Lamb, the Reserve Champion went to Quaid Hanna of Price. The winner in the steers was Jarrett Webb of St. George, and Reserve Champion went to TJ Beck of Spanish Fork. Winners get to sell their animal first in the bidding and traditionally receive the largest amount of money. Overall there were 81 participants in the lamb division, 32 in the steers, and 74 in the hogs.

Although this year’s stock show was filled with dedicated exhibitors, perhaps none were quite as dedicated as Britni Maxfield of Castle Dale.

On July 10, the day before the stock show, Britni caught two of her fingers in a circular saw while helping to fix a camp trailer. Britni wanted to put a glove over her hand to hide the injury but not participating was never a thought. She likes competing. Britni ended up winning 8th overall in the gilt class, 5th in the senior division of showmanship and was part of the Emery team that took second in the judging contest. Keven Jensen, Sarah Jensen, and Alli Stokes were her teammates. Britni will be a senior at Emery High and is looking forward to next year’s stock show which will be her last year to participate