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KNEU 1250Tis’ the season for road construction and delays. The Utah Department of Transportation has started work on an 11-mile segment of Highway 40 east of Duchesne City. According to UDOT, the work extends from approximately 300 East in Duchesne to the bridge over Antelope Creek.
A man from White Rocks suffered fatal injuries in an accident that took place on Tuesday afternoonon Highway 40 in western Colorado. 36-year-old Jason Christenson lost control of the 2002 Chevy pickup he was driving and crashed into paving equipment that was parked on the shoulder of the road. The asphalt paving roller was unoccupied at the time of the crash and Christenson was reported to be traveling at a high rate of speed. Christenson was the only occupant in the vehicle and was not wearing a seatbelt. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The crash remains under investigation by the Colorado State Patrol. Tragically, a second fatal accident occurred in western Colorado Wednesday morning after a 27-year-old Colorado man lost control of his vehicle. This man was also not wearing his seatbelt and high speed and impaired driving have been stated as possible contributing factors in the crash.
Preliminary results are in for the Roosevelt City Primary Election held on August 15th. While they are not final until approved during the next Roosevelt City Council meeting, the tentative results were 193 votes for Wendy Nicholson, 238 votes for Dave Baird, 178 votes for Troy Rohrer, 247 votes for Steve Timothy, and 280 votes for Dustin White. The top four are eligible for November’s ballot, two per city council candidate opening. There were 601 ballots cast.
Many people have a soft spot for animals in need but one local radio personality is showing just how serious the cause is to her. KLCY morning host Amy Richards has set a goal of raising $5,000 dollars for both local animal shelters and the Ashley Valley Community Cats organization and needs more donations to reach her goal by the deadline of August 25th. The donations go towards animals like Cash, a kitten who had a rough start at life, having been shot that required surgery to remove the bullet fragments from his sinuses and skull. “Please find it in your budget to help,” shares Amy. “Funds have gone down but the medical needs have gone up [locally].” To add some extra motivation for those unsure about donating, Amy has made a unique promise. If the $5,000 dollar goal is hit by August 25th, Amy will be joining the Naples Police Department during a K9 training in which the K9s will practice their take down on Amy while she is wearing one of the bite suits. The video will be posted to Facebook. Anyone willing to help local neglected, injured, and abused animals are asked to donate at www.gofundme.com/amyspetcorner.
What would you do if you started getting an unusual amount of texts and calls from well meaning family and friends asking if everything was okay? How would you react when it comes out that you’ve been mistaken for a recently arrested criminal who lead police on a dangerous high speed chase with young kids in the car, ran out of gas and then fled on foot before being taken down and arrested? Oh and don’t forget there was meth found in the vehicle. 38-year-old Vernal resident Jason Carr can tell you first hand after a news story ran Monday out of Sweetwater County describing the criminal activity of 33-year-old Jason Carr of Marsing, Idaho. While the two men share the same name, any known similarities stop there. Local Jason Carr has lived in Vernal his whole life and says his life is simply not that wild. “I’ve been getting crazy amounts of phone calls and texts,” shares Carr, who also notes that his parents have been receiving gifts of cookies and warm wishes. While the situation as a whole has been viewed as humorous, Jason would also like to clear the air and let the community know, “It wasn’t me!” The clarification is a matter of practicality as Carr is preparing to start a business and would rather avoid any negative impact this could have. The lesson to the rest of us is clear: do some digging before assuming the worst!
A road construction project in Uintah County has become the site of an archeological dig after a construction worker uncovered something unexpected on Tuesday. While doing earthwork on the Woods Road project, a grader uncovered a possible historical burial site. The Uintah County Sheriff’s Office responded and secured the area where the site is located. Construction was immediately shut down and the state was called prompting a team from the Utah State Historical Preservation Office to travel out Wednesday. A complete archeological excavation of the site is being performed this week after which all items will be transported back to Salt Lake for analysis
More beds will be filled at the Uintah County Jail in the coming weeks meaning more income to the county for the facility’s operation. The Uintah County Commission approved a contract during Monday’s Commission meeting with Salt Lake County to take on inmates from the Wasatch Front. According to Uintah County Sheriff Vance Norton, Uintah County will initially take on 24 of Salt Lake County’s inmates at a time with the hope to get up to 48 inmates within several months. The Sheriff’s Office is now advertising to hire 3 new people as a direct result of the increase in inmates with the tentative plan to hire 3 more after the first of the year. While Salt Lake County may only need the contract for about a year, the state has made a deal to guarantee contracts to Uintah County when Salt Lake County no longer has the need. “The state prison will help fill that void of prisoners so we can hire people now and retain them,” shares Sheriff Norton. The increase in inmates brings additional revenue to the County and assists in the goal of putting more local citizens to work in solid careers.
Changes are in store for Utah’s waterfowl hunt this fall. DWR bird coordinator Blair Stringham listed the major changes in a press release but encourages all hunters to get the free guidebook for all the changes. The first major change is that Utah hunters can only take one pintail duck a day due to the fluctuating population of the pintail species. The second change is that Utah is now split into two duck hunting zones, each with its own season dates. The third major change is there are now four goose hunting zones in the state. The final major change is that those with smartphones and tablets can obtain their yearly Harvest Information Program on their device. Visit www.wildlife.utah.gov for more information.
One man is lucky to be alive after losing control of his motorcycle after failing to negotiate a curve on Mirror Lake Highway in Duchesne County. According to the Utah Highway Patrol, a man in his 60’s was traveling with a group of friends on Saturday near Milepost 30 on Highway 150 westbound when the motorcycle hit gravel on the shoulder and left the roadway to the right. “The male fell off the motorcycle towards the top of the hill but he fell approximately 150 feet,” shares the Highway Patrol. “The motorcycle continued to the bottom of the hill, approximately 200 feet.” The man did sustain various injuries but none were believed to be life-threatening. He was transported to University of Utah Hospital.
A bank robber that has hit banks in Utah and across Idaho over the last year was caught trying to leave the country. The FBI had been warning the public of this serial bank robber for months when he made the mistake on August 7th of attempting a cash exchange at an Idaho bank without wearing a disguise. The bank denied the request and provided photographs of the individual’s face and his vehicle to law enforcement. The vehicle was the same that was photographed during a robbery at a credit union earlier that day. The FBI made the photographs of the individual public and two people positively identified the man as Josue Daniel Alfaro, the Great Outdoors Bandit. On Sunday, August 13th, Alfaro was arrested, pursuant to an arrest warrant for bank robbery, at the Los Angeles International Airport while attempting to board a flight to Brussels, Belgium. According to his brother, Mr. Alfaro lived in California but would travel to the family’s Utah residence during the time of the robberies.
Moon Lake Electric crews were extra busy on Tuesday morning making repairs from a single car crash that hit a power pole in Roosevelt. According to Roosevelt Police Chief Rick Harrison, at about 4:30pm on Monday a black 2013 Infiniti SUV was traveling west on 200 North at about 1000 West in Roosevelt. The 16-year-old driver was distracted by an object that had fallen on the floor of the vehicle and swerved off the road to the right. The vehicle struck a telephone pole causing moderate to extensive damage to the pole. Thankfully, the driver and his younger brother, the passenger, were not injured. Both were wearing seatbelts. Moon Lake Electric had to turn off the power in the area while crews made repairs on Tuesday morning. The power was out for several hours and the outage affected around 10 homes in the area.
A court date has been set for the former Utah Highway Patrol trooper that has been charged with arson in the Maeser Highway Fire that started on June 9th and burned over 2,500 acres. On August 8th, the Utah Attorney General’s Office charged 37-year-old Rex Richard Olsen with one count of Second-Degree Felony Arson as well as a second charge for placing a lighted item on a highway/wildland area, a class B misdemeanor. According to the charging document, Olsen, who was a trooper at the time of starting the fire, “placed a lighted cigarette with matches just off the shoulder of a highway right of way.” Video evidence from a local gas station showed Olsen purchasing the type of cigarette used at the scene to start the fire and GPS based location data placed Olsen at the time and place of the fire. The damage caused to property, land and the expense of responding to and suppressing the fire is more than $800,000 dollars. Olsen is scheduled to make his initial appearance in 8th District Court on September 18th at 8:00am with Judge McClellan.