Basin Now

Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires (followed by Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, and the day before Thanksgiving). In 2018, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 1,630 home cooking fires on Thanksgiving, the peak day for such fires.

Public input is invited as Ashley National Forest develops a management plan for the Ashley Karst National Recreation and Geologic Area (NRGA) in Uintah County. Back in March Ashley National Forest explained that while the exact boundaries were still being worked out, the NRGA will be located generally up Taylor Mountain Road to the summit of the mountains and then over to and down Whiterocks River.

2020 has been a difficult year for many but for one Roosevelt man the pandemic literally prolonged a nightmare situation by over 6 months. In early March of this year, Basin Now was among many news agencies to report that 25-year-old Jaden Cecil Priebe was facing felony charges after allegedly giving an STD to a minor girl.

Charges have been filed in Colorado’s 14th Judicial District in connection with a hunting death earlier this month in the Rifle area. According to the District Attorney’s Office, a single charge of Criminally Negligent Homicide, a class 5 felony, was filed against 52 year-old Harry Watkins on November 18th. The charge arises from the shooting death of 26-year-old Simon Howell on November 9th.

Sewage monitoring performed by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) reveals that Daggett County has COVID-19 present in the population of Manila and Dutch John. “Monitoring sewers for COVID-19 gives an indication of trends regarding viral activity in the community,” shares TriCounty Health in a Monday press release.

The Vernal Rotary Club is busy doing what they do best, serving the community! On Monday they announced that they had delivered another 100 dictionaries this time to Naples Elementary and Lapoint Elementary. Every year the Vernal Rotary Club fulfills their mission of promoting literacy by visiting local third grade classrooms and each third grader is given their own dictionary to keep.

The Utah Public Safety Department wants the public to know that November is the month with the highest number of wild animal-vehicle collisions in Utah. A researcher from Utah State University estimates that 6,000 to 10,000 mule deer are killed on Utah’s roads each year with more then 14,700 collisions causing more than $1500 dollars in damage.

TriCounty Health announced on Friday that the TriCounty Board of Health is now in search of a new Health Officer. The announcement shares that Jordan Mathis, the current Health Officer, is stepping down at the end of 2020, after serving for six years. Mathis has accepted an offer to be the Health Officer for the Bear River Health Department, serving Cache, Rich, and Box Elder Counties.

The Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in finding the family of a man found dead near Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The Sheriff’s Office announced in a press release on Friday that “On November 15th, sheriff's deputies were dispatched to a campsite near the Anvil Draw area of the reservoir after someone found a man dead in his camper.