Month: March 2020

It's time to say Yes to the Dress or rather say yes to a Uintah Winter Guard Prom Dress Collection Drive. The Uintah Winter Guard is gathering clean, gently used or new dresses, shoes, as well as suits for an upcoming free Prom dress event. They are also encouraging people to bring whatever accessories they might have to aid in bringing new life and new looks to the selection of dresses. Wendy Girot, the coach of the Uintah Winter Guard, shares that “last year the high school winter guard members had a blast participating with the prom dress drive.”

Utah State University Uintah Basin continues its celebration of the Year of the Woman with their event series. The topic for this next event is Self-Empowerment. The night will focus on learning how to become self-empowered, being in a state of mindfulness, and what it means to be involved in self-care. Also taking place that evening is a special screening of “Warrior Women”. This documentary focuses on American Indian Movement activists Madonna Thunder Hawk and her daughter Marcy Gilbert as they fought for civil rights in the 70’s.

The new Union High School Students of the Month are Freshman Eton Osborne, Sophomore Taiya Miles, Junior Halli Hales, and Senior Brookelyn Nielsen.

A local man’s family is asking for help after tragedy struck while on vacation. Ben Cluff is well known in the community having recently retired as the CEO of Ashley Regional Medical Center. Taking advantage of the freedom of retirement, Cluff was crossing off an item on his bucket list last week by taking a cruise through the Panama Canal with loved ones when he suffered a major heart attack. He was taken to a hospital in Costa Rica for treatment and it was originally hoped he could be flown back to the United States for treatment. Due to his serious condition it was determined he needed to have the surgery there.

Strata has had some great events unfolding including a significant amount of funds to help push the fiber-optic network to help reach even more rural areas. Luckily the good news keeps coming as they announced on March 6th that the infrastructure has been finished that will connect Manila High School and Uintah Basin Medical Center’s Manila Health Clinic to access gigabit internet speeds and includes the capacity to grow.

Roosevelt was host to a marvelous Easter kick-off experience. The Uintah Basin Interfaith Community productions of ‘Lamb of God’ were held at the Union High School auditorium on Sunday. This sacred work features choir, orchestra, and soloists performing music about the death and resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ. The special work brought talent from all over the Basin to help share its music and message. The choir had 121 members, including 13 soloists, and the orchestra had 55 musicians.

The Department of Workforce Services offered a recent local employment update. Blaine Roberts, DWS Workforce Development Specialist, presented this week at the Vernal Chamber luncheon. Roberts reported that 47 new job openings were listed on Monday in the Vernal area alone. The Census Bureau is among those looking for employees with Census 2020 gathering positions as well as regular long term employment positions with government benefits. The Census Bureau will be in Vernal on March 6th, 13th, and 19th.