Conference center location announced

Uintah County’s proposed conference center will be built downtown just one block northwest of Western Park.

Plans are to construct the center on the block between 200-300 East and 100-200 South, according to County Commissioner Mike McKee.

Uintah County received partial funding for the center through the Community Impact Board, with additional monies for construction developed through a partnership with the Impact Mitigation district.

Paul Hacking, district manager, says the process has been in the planning for over a year and a half.

The logical thing, according to Hacking, was a partnership between the entities for the benefit of the area. He calls the center another piece of the puzzle in growing the Basin’s image.

Under the agreement, Impact Mitigation agrees to pay $3 million in cash toward the construction of the conference center.

Vernal City also has an interest in the building and plans to partner in its operation with the county. Vernal Express

Utes aim for economic, health boost

A vision that has been researched and refined will soon be reality. A chance to celebrate that reality will be from 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 28, at the Ute Plaza Supermarket and Health Food Store and Ute Lanes, when a grand re-opening will take place at both facilities.

Most of the activity will happen at plaza at the supermarket, with some activity also at the bowling alley and family fun center.

There will be an official ceremony starting at the market at 3 p.m., and at 6 p.m. live entertainment will begin with Dennis Yazzie and the Night Breeze Band from Thoreau, N.M.

It's an exciting milestone for Valentina Sireech, sales and marketing director for Ute Tribal Enterprises LLC, one of the driving forces behind the Ute Crossing revitalization efforts.  Uintah Basin Standard Online

Wildfires threaten summer Rocky Mountain tourism

Searing, record-setting heat in the interior West didn't loosen its grip on firefighters struggling to contain blazes in Colorado, Utah and other Rocky Mountain states.

Colorado has endured nearly a week of 100-plus degree days and low humidity, sapping moisture from timber and grass, creating a devastating formula for volatile wildfires across the state and punishing conditions for firefighters.

"When it's that hot, it just dries the fuels even more. That can make the fuels explosive," said Steve Segin, a fire spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Much of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado are under a red flag warning, meaning conditions are hot, dry and ripe for fires. CBS News

Gorge spring visitor counts up

“It is so beautiful up here.”

“I wish Germany had Utah’s deserts and mountains and sunshine.”

These comments are plentiful when talking to Flaming Gorge visitors and in this case two visitors from Germany, Torben Schipper and Kirstin Fuchs, who started a two-week vacation in Salt Lake after renting a motorhome and traveling through Bryce, Zions, Arches, Flaming Gorge and Yellowstone. And they like Flaming Gorge so much they returned there to finish off their vacation before returning to Germany. 

“The great thing about Utah is that there is so much to experience and the Flaming Gorge area offers much,” said Mark Wilson, president of Red Canyon Lodge. 

Wilson explained that so far this year the fishing attraction of Flaming Gorge has been great in attracting better than normal crowds to the lake and that they should see the same trend during the summer months when the family visitors come to the area.

“Whether you are a fisherman or you just want a great family vacation, then Flaming Gorge is the place to be,” said Wilson.  The Vernal Express

State offers webcast on tar sands project hearing

The Utah Department of Environmental Quality will provide a live webcast of a hearing on the PR Springs tar sands mining project in Uintah County Wednesday and Thursday.

An administrative law judge will hear evidence from the state Division of Water Quality, which has granted a permit for the project, and an environmental group appealing the permit, Moab-based Living Rivers. 

The DEQ has said the hearing involves only those officially involved in the dispute and is not a public meeting subject to the state Open and Public Meetings Act.

So, while the hearing itself will take place in an upstairs conference room at the Multi-Agency State Office Building, 1950 West 195 North, Salt Lake City, the public will be free to observe the broadcast in the DEQ Board Room on the first floor.

"The public is expected to be respectful to other members of the public and the facility during the hearing," says the state’s web page on the hearing. "DEQ reserves the right to remove individuals who are unable to respect these requirements."

The hearing takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. For a link to the webcast, go to: http://www.deq.utah.gov/Online_Services/deqwebcasts.htm. Salt Lake Tribune

Ceremony marks beginning of Utah Field House expansion

The fossils recovered from the area around Vernal have helped shape the field of paleontology and gave Dinosaurland its name. But without proper storage facilities, the community was in danger of losing its new fossils to other communities.

A new $1.5 million addition to the Utah Field House Museum of Natural History should fix that problem. 

On Wednesday, community leaders gathered to mark the beginning of an expansion to the museum. On tap is a large, modern facility that will allow for proper space and conditions to store the nearly 30,000 specimens housed by the museum, said Steve Sroka, park manager.  The Vernal Express

Dino treasures find new home in Vernal

Residents here created the Utah Field House of Natural History in the 1940s to stem the flow of fossils away from the Uinta Basin by providing space to store the ancient treasures and give locals a place to see artifacts of the dinosaurs that once roamed the region.

That collection, about 30,000 fossils, has been stored in an old building in Vernal since the Field House moved down the highway to new digs in 2004.

"We don’t want these fossils hopping on trains and going east," newly named Utah State Parks Director Fred Hayes told the crowd. "A lot of people and groups came together to keep what came from Utah in Utah."

The 11,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility is being funded largely by$1.5 million from the Uintah Impact Mitigation Special Service District. Salt Lake Tribune

No vacancy no more: Basin lodgings expand

Several area hotel and motel franchises are up and building, expanding their current offerings to keep up with demand, as well as improve the quality of a visitor's stay in the Basin. The following is a brief listing of upgrades expected this year.

Winterton Suites (Located at 1024 West Highway 40, west of Moon Lake Electric)

Winterton Suites has big plans for its Roosevelt and now Duchesne motel locations. The newest addition is in Duchesne at 75 South 100 West, south of Family Dollar, is expected to be open the first week in May. The two-story townhome-looking building will include six units with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, each with the ability to separate the units for individual night rentals, or for extended stay, but all of that is just one piece of the Winterton Suites grand plan.  Uintah Basin Standard Online

Dinosaur National Monument good for local economy

A National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 197,812 visitors spent $6,717,000 in Dinosaur National Monument and communities near the Monument in 2010. That spending supported 77 jobs in the local area.

Most of the spending/jobs are related to lodging, food, and beverage service (52 percent) followed by other retail (29 percent), entertainment/amusements (10 percent), gas and local transportation (7 percent) and groceries (2 percent).

The figures are based on $12 billion of direct spending by 281 million visitors in 394 national parks and nearby communities and are included in an annual, peer-reviewed, visitor spending analysis conducted by Dr. Daniel Stynes of Michigan State University for the National Park Service. National Park Service

National park visits boom amid recession

Despite the recession, or perhaps because of it, 286 million visitors flocked to national parks last year, an increase of 10 million people. Utah's national park units attracted just over 9 million visitors during the year, up by 300,000. In Utah, Zion National Park attracted the most visitors of any park unit in the state: 2.7 million, up by 45,000. That set a new all-time visitation record. Zion also ranked No. 7 in visitation among parks nationwide. Elsewhere in Utah, park visit increases and decreases varied widely. Remote Rainbow Bridge National Monument attracted the biggest increase by percentage — 18.7 percent, or a jump of nearly 18,000 visitors. The biggest decrease was at Cedar Breaks National Monument, where visitation dropped by 8.5 percent or by nearly 46,000 people. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Lake Powell) attracted the second-most visits of any park unit in the state: 1.96 million visitors, up just 13,000 from the previous year. Bryce Canyon National Park attracted 1.2 million, up by a booming 16.6 percent.Arches National Park attracted 996,312 visitors, up 7.3 percent; Capitol Reef National Park attracted 617,208 visitors, up 2 percent; Canyonlands National Park attracted 436,241, nearly unchanged from 2008; and Dinosaur National Monument attracted 203,862, up 1 percent. Also, Timpanogos Cave National Monument attracted 138,571 visitors, up 12 percent; Natural Bridges National Monument attracted 92,023, nearly unchanged from 2008; Golden Spike National Historic Site had 45,334. The Deseret News