The
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Serving Wayne & Garfield Counties, Utah
LOA • FREmONT • LYmAN • BICkNELL • TEASDALE • TORREY • GROvER • FRUITA • CAINEvILLE • HANkSvILLE PANGUITCH • PANGUITCH LAkE • HATCH • ANTImONY • BRYCE • TROPIC • HENRIEvILLE • CANNONvILLE • ESCALANTE • BOULDER
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Southern Utah University Receives Awards for New Community Programs CEDAR CITY - Southern Utah University recently returned from the 2019 Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Awards - Las Vegas Valley Chapter for its work in local community and public relations. Garnering recognition from judges were the popular SUU Community Education and Community on the Go Travel programs. The SUU Community and Academic Enrichment (CAE) programs are designed to enrich the lives of others in the southern Utah community, and to equip working adults with professional advantage. The SUU CAE office was recognized, along with some of the biggest public relations operations in southern Nevada, northern Arizona, and southern Utah on November 7, 2019 in Las Vegas. SUU’s first award of the evening was the highly coveted PRSA Pinnacle Award in Community Relations for their public relations campaign entitled “Be Wise. Keep Learning. SUU Community Community Education Cont'd on page 2
Issue # 1340
December 2019 Marks the 22nd Local Christmas Bird Count in Escalante and the 120th, Overall
courteSy WiKipedia
Ten Western Bluebirds were spotted during the 2019 Christmas Bird Count in Escalante. ESCALANTE - This year birders everywhere are celebrating the 120th anniversary of the first Christmas Bird Count. On December 16th in Escalante, 31 people participated in the 22nd local count. Fortified by Terry’s life-giving doughnuts, twenty-five braved near-arctic conditions in the field, while six other, smarter folks censused their
Entrada Celebrates Wayne County Heritage of Sheep and Needlecraft
uSed by permiSSion, uintah county regional hiStory center. all rightS reServed.
Boy Displays Sheep at County Fair, 1929. WAYNE COUNTY From sheep wagons and spinning wool to sewing and knitting, sheep, wool, and needlecraft have a long tradition in Wayne County. Sheep arrived in Rabbit Valley along with the early settlers. Some families owned both sheep and cattle. Early sheep ranching families had names that are still familiar in Wayne County including John Burr, Beason Lewis, Isaac J. Riddle, James Polk Sampson, William DeLeeuw, Willard Pace, Urban V. Stewart, and David Coombs (Aldus Chappell, 1975).
Young people in grades three and above are invited to participate in the Spark Squad 4-H club. After-school events will take place at the Loa Civic Center from 3-5 PM Tuesday, January 14, Thursday, January 16, Tuesday, January 21, and Thursday, January 23. Youth will explore the role of sheep, wool, and needlecraft in local history. They'll also make needlecraft products using techniques such as knitting, cross-stitch, embroidery, crochet, sewing, and more. Sheep
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REGIONAL WEATHER FORECAST FOR SOME BUT NOT ALL REGIONS REPRESENTED IN OUR NEWSPAPER COVERAGE AREA
THURS. JANUARY 2 - WED. JANUARY 8
Some clouds this week, but mostly sunny. Highs in the 30s, low 40s over the weekend; lows range from the teens to the low 20s. 10-20% chance of precip, mostly around the weekend. Winds variable from 7 to 15 mph.
feeders and yards. As a group, we spent 21.5 hours driving 248 miles, 9.5 hours walking 12 miles and 24.5 hours observing feeders. We managed to find representatives of 66 species and 3814 individual birds, the fewest since the early days of the count when there was only a handful of us. One new species was added to our cumulative list, which
$4.6 Million for Utah in Federal Ballot Security Funding
SALT LAKE CITY Tucked inside the trilliondollar budget approved by Congress in December 2019 is a measure allocating $425 million to states for election security. The line item will provide grant funds to all 50 states to protect against the types of interference caused by cyber-attacks during the 2016 election. Utah is expected to get $4.6 million, but the state hasn't indicated how the money will be spent. Patrick Thompson, technology director with the government watchdog group Alliance for a Better Utah, said because a majority of Utah's ballots are cast by mail, there are fewer opportunities for voting data to be hacked. "The way the majority of voters in Utah vote is through mail-in ballots. Ballots are sent out X number of days before the election and voters can make their choices," Thompson said. "They can consult the internet, they can think about it and then, mail the ballot back in and it's tabulated." Utah officials have previously used ballot security Ballot Security Cont'd on page 7
now stands at 128. The open water at Wide Hollow, the sewer ponds and the gravel pit produced a wide variety of waterfowl. Among the three hundred and thirtythree Canada Geese was one seldom-seen Snow Goose. Expected ducks included 80 Mallard, 20 American Wigeon, and 43 Ring-necked Duck, but there were also 12
Gadwall, 54 Green-winged Teal, 8 Redhead, 42 Lesser Scaup and 17 Common Goldeneye. Ruddy Duck was present (twenty), as were nine Bufflehead (the cutest ever ducks) and a single Hooded Merganser. Other water-related birds included three hun-
Seven Ice Fishing Tournaments and Events to Check Out in 2020
SALT LAKE CITY - If you want to add an extra challenge to your ice fishing this winter, a tournament may be just the thing. Plus, you can help many of our fisheries and often win prizes! The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Utah State Parks will be sponsoring or hosting several ice fishing tournaments in January and February around the state. A valid Utah fishing license is required for anyone over 12 years old to fish in any of the events. Anyone participating should be familiar with the ice safety recommendations on the Utah State Parks website. Here are a few tournaments to check out: Rockport State Park Tagged Fishing Classic This fishing contest will take place from Jan. 1 to Feb. 29 at Rockport State Park in Summit County. Over 100 fish in the reservoir have been tagged and anyone who catches one and turns it in during that time frame can win a prize. Find more contest details on the Rockport State Park website or by calling
Christmas Bird Count
Ice Fishing
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Panguitch City Culinary Water Springs Rehabilitation Project by Kim Soper, mayor of panguitch city
courteSy Kim Soper
The above photo shows a direct hit of flooding debris due to a major flash flood that severely damaged the spring collection box that allowed contaminated water into the Panguitch City culinary water system. As a result of the damage, Panguitch City was forced to go into a "no drinking of culinary water" order. PANGUITCH - The Brian Head Fire began on June 17, 2017. Over the course of the fire, approximately 71,672 acres burned. The fire was started by Robert Ray Lyman, a cabin owner in the Brian Head area. The Brian Head Fire cost more than $35 million to fight, forced 1,500 people to evacuate, burned 21 buildings (including 13 destroyed residences), and heav-
Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. —Oprah Winfrey
ily damaged the Panguitch City culinary water system watershed and infrastructure. Burn severity of the fire included a high soil erosion hazard characterized with hydrophobic soil. Hydrophobic soil—soil that tends to fail to mix with water—causes water to collect on the soil surface rather than infiltrate into the ground. Wild fires generally cause soils to be hydrophobic
temporarily, which increases water repellency, surface runoff and erosion in postburn sites. The hydrophobic soil conditions contributed greatly to increased run-off and erosion in the Panguitch City culinary water spring developments in the Delong and Indian Hollow waterRehabilitation Project
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BOXHOLDER
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PRE-SORT STANDARD PAID RICHFIELD, UTAH PERMIT No. 122