Elko Daily Free Press from Elko, Nevada • 1

mm 010199 43 Bav Microfilm! Inc. 1115 ARGUES AVfc SUNNYVALE. CA 94036-3909 S. ii, iwr 20 Pages Vol. 114 No.

9 Established Jan. 5, 1883 ELKO, ELKO COUNTY, NEVADA 50 CENTS lit it I II" V.V.V.V.V.V.. Indian casinos illegal, court rules SANTA FE (AP) A federal appe good faith negotiation between all in an appeal, but he said the likelihood and work this out, and I think the message is also that the clock is ticking," said Attorney General Tom UdalL VS. District Judge Martha Vazquez ruled in July in the case of nine tribes that the compacts were invalid because Johnson didnt consult the Legislature before he signed them. Two other federal judges in New Mexico later ruled the same way in separate cases.

The tribes countered on appeal that because the U.S. Secretary of Interior had approved the compacts, they were valid. volved parties." the appeals court said in a 32 page order. The order came in a case brought by nine pueblos, but the court made it clear the ruling affects all 11 tribes that operate casinos. The ruling included a stay "pending final resolution of this matter, either in this court or the United States Supreme Court." That effectively gives the casinos another 90 days of operation, said lawyer Richard Hughes, who argued the case for the tribes.

He said the tribes would discuss als court ruled Friday that New Mexico's Indian casinos are illegal but may remain open for a while. The 10th VS. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver affirmed a federal judge's ruling that 1995 state-tribal compacts are invalid. The ruling threw the fate of Indian gambling back into the political arena. The Legislature, which begins a 60-day session Jan.

21, will be asked to resolve the muddle by approving new compacts. "The only hope for a satisfactory solution is through dialogue and of the VS. Supreme Court's taking the case was "very smalL" "It means we focus on the Legislature all the more intently," Hughes said. VS. Attorney John Kelly said his office would ask the Denver appeals court next week to clarify what the stay means.

"Now there is an increased sense of urgency for some type of resolution from the Legislature," Gov. Gary Johnson said in a statement "The court is sending a strong message to all the parties to sit down Wfldlife board looks to revise buck ratios By Mark Waite Nevada Division of Wildlife Biologist Sid Eaton said now is the time for sportsmen to get involved in the process of establishing deer seasons and quotas, since county wildlife boards for the first time will have a range of options to consider to help establish the buck-to-doe ratios they want The targeted buck-to-doe ratio in this area of northeastern Nevada has been 23 bucks to every 77 does, members of the county wildlife board said. Larry Gilbertson, NDOW supervising game biologist, presented data that showed if the department wanted to achieve a herd consisting of 23 percent bucks last season, it would have issued 795 tags for the lSand Miller Krc Prcu) Elko County School District Superintendent Mania Bandera, left, welcomed new hoard members, from left, Georgeanna Smith, Ann Gustin and Gary Dennis to an orientation yesterday morning at the district's central office. Trustees, administrators gTTirre netrs summary: fighter jets help I rescue motorist II SIOUX FALLS, SD. (AP) F-16 jets with heat-sensing jij-jj: equipment helped rescuers find a woman who was stuck lijljlj: in a pickup for nearly 40 hours during a blizzard with wind-chill temperatures as low as 70 degrees below zero, jSK The fighter planes from Ellsworth Air Force Base passed over 51-year-old Karen Nelson at least three times before they were able to find her cell phone signal late yesterday, said Max Tite, general manger of a Watertown cellular phone company that had been working to find the woman.

"She's in good spirits and is warm, but is tired and cold," Tite said. Nelson slid off the road into a ditch Thursday morning ij iSij: near Webster, in the northwest corner of the state. Rescuers arrived by snowmobile, wrapped her in a llj! heavy blanket, put her on a sled and took her to an ambu- lance. A nurse at Lake Area Hospital said Nelson was in stable condition early today. Nelson had a sleeping bag, coats and a blanket but had been without heat since 4 p.m.

Thursday. The storm, expected to last through the weekend, has shut down almost the entire interstate highway system in South Dakota. Authorities recommend no travel. Nelson had called police with her cellular phone after jljiji she got stuck trying to get home to Webster from her job in Roslyn, 12 miles away. Police were in contact with Mrs.

Nelson every half hour giiji Thursday night But she was told to restrict her phone use yesterday to preserve the battery. Six At one point Friday, officials thought her car battery, which was running the phone, had gone dead after they temporarily lost the signal. But Tite said the battery was lijill still functioning and contact was re-established. Coroner outraged BOULDER, Colo. (AP) An outraged county coroner iiiiiij asked for an investigation into how six autopsy and crime scene photos from the killing of JonBenet Ramsey landed in a supermarket tabloid.

The photographs on the front page of the Globe show the garrote used to strangle the 6-year-old beauty queen ijljiil: as well as the hand of the child, which shows a rope mark on her wrist. "I'm probably as upset as I've been about any proce-j-gi dural matter in my office in the 10 years that I've been ipl coroner," Boulder County Coroner John Meyer said, jijxj: He said the unauthorized release of the photos could jeopardize the case and asked the sheriffs department investigate how the pictures were leaked. The Globe, a 1.3 million-circulation weekly magazine sold at supermarkets, is running the photos in editions iiSij hitting the stands Monday. i Media reports said JonBenet, the 1995 Little Miss Col-orado, had been sexually, Her skull was frac-, (continued on back page) Nevada news summary: Feds hand Nevada $5 million in relief CARSON CITY (AP) Nevada has been awarded $5 million in federal highway emergency relief funds to be-gin repairs on flood-damaged roads and bridges. ipi: The Department of Transportation announced yester- Ixil day that the money is part of $42 million in emergency re-lief funds awarded to five Western states.

The Federal Highway Administration Emergency Re-lief program made the money available after emergency proclamations were issued and each state filed prelimin-ary damage assessments. ipi; "I've seen first hand the devastation caused by the flood throughout Northern Nevada," said U.S. Sen. Ri-chard Bryan, D-Nev. "These funds will bring much- ijiji needed relief to begin repairs to vital highways and i bridges." ijijijij When the flood waters have receded entirely, the fed-Hi eral agency will assess damages again and may award ditional funding.

The funds are meant to reimburse the state for emergency work already completed and to provide fund-jiiijij: ing for other repairs. Repair work will include establish-ing emergency detours, removing debris, reconstructing bridges and pavement and replacing signs, lighting and li! rails- At least one Nevada highway has already undergone such work. Yesterday, Interstate 80 reopened east of Reno, almost a week after floods collapsed a section of the road. Flooding on 1-80 had created an acre-large, 100-foot-lf! deep hole that was filled with 125,000 cubic yards of dirt and rock. Granite Construction completed the $1.8 million repair job in 91 hours, four days ahead of schedule.

CP Also open are State Route 88 between the California state line and U.S. 395, and Muller Lane between U.S. 395 11 and Foothill Lane in Gardnerville. Second flood death attend all-day orientation Sandy School board to hold first meeting of 1997 Elko County School District trustees will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday inside the district conference room at 1092 Burns Road.

It will be the first official board meeting for new trustees Georgeanna Smith. Ann Gustin and Gary Dennis, although they gathered for an orientation session yesterday. First order of business will be reorganization of the Board of Trustees. The board will select a president, clerk, a representative to the Debt Management Commission and two representatives to the Nevada School Board Association. Also Tuesday, the board will review and possibly accept the 1995-96 audit conducted by Kafoury-Armstrong and Co.

and a revised kindergarten curriculum. Also on Tuesday's agenda, the board is scheduled to: 1 Review and possibly approve recommendations from the district's Alternative Education Program Committee. Hear a report on Great Basin College's survey of high school students who have taken the college's English and history classes. 100 spaces at Northside. "By following this plan and build rifle season in the Santa Rosa Range north of Winnemucca.

The division actually issued 609 tags for bucks and 59 for does. Gilbertson said as long as the buck-to-doe ratio is at least 15 percent the deer population will be in good shape for breeding. He suggested keeping the buck percentage between 20 and 30 percent "We've been between a rock and a hard place trying to decide what's fair," Gilbertson said. In 1988, he said, hunters bagged 18,801 bucks statewide, the highest number ever. In 1881, hunters had the highest success rate; 54 percent The average number of deer tags issued per year rose from 6,029 in the 1930s to a peak of 66,000 in 1963, Gilbertson said.

Gilbertson said about 3 percent of the deer killed have been does. That number could be increased to 10 percent he said. In other business, the county game board decided to recommend the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners close the bighorn sheep hunt in the Ruby Mountains because of a big die off attributed to pasturella. The hunt also should be closed in the Pilot Peak area if wildlife rangers don't spot enough sheep there, the board decided. Gil Hernandez, chairman of the county board, said he'd rather be too conservative in closing the season rather than allowing a hunt in an area with no animals, as happened this past season.

Gilbertson said there has never been a large survey of sheep on Pilot Peak. But he said 71 sheep were counted recently in the East Humboldt Range, on the other side of Secret Pass from the Ruby Mountains, that don't appear to have been affected by the die off. Eaton was enthusiastic about the release of wild Rio Grande turkeys on the Maggie Creek Ranch in Lamoille. But his supervisor, Gilbert-son, cautioned it was unknown how the birds would fare. Eaton said the turkeys were going to be released this past season, but it was held up by the winter snows.

The turkeys are doing well at other release sites in Nevada, such as Mason Valley, he said. "They're a real adaptable animal," Eaton said. "We've got plenty of other release sites. This just happens to be one of the better ones right now." "If it's a decent area, turkeys boom real quick. We've had a hunting season two or three years after release," he said.

There is more of a demand for tags to hunt wild turkeys than for bighorn sheep, cow elk and antelope, Eaton said. The turkeys could spread as far as Southfork Reservoir and Wells, he said. However, newly appointed board member Joe Ondreako complained the plan amounts to a private landowner package if the turkeys don't migrate. Maggie Creek does not allow hunting. Eaton said hunters would need a permission slip from the landowner before receiving their tags to hunt turkeys.

He said if the turkeys don't migrate, at least wildlife officials will be able to have a base turkey population that could be transplanted. "The hopes in doing this is they'll expand enough to get on public land," Gilbertson said. School Board Don Hewitt 738-9216 Ray Kendalls 738-8021 Lee Reierson 738-5251 Wilde Brough 752-3714 Georgeanna 738-8493 Ann Gary Dennis 7544217 Elko County School District trustees and administrators yesterday welcomed three new board members with a special all-day orientation in the district conference room. I'm excited," said Board President Don Hewitt. "They have new ideas and we have a lot of work to do." New board members Georgeanna Smith.

Ann Gustin and Gary Dennis spent the day learning about open meetings laws, legal roles and responsibilities of board members, school financing, district policies, curriculum and other things they will need to know as members of Elko County School Board. The district brought in Dr. Judith Williams, executive director of Nevada Rural School District Alliance at the University of Nevada, Reno, to give the board tips "on how to function more effectively as a team." The three new board members seemed enthusiastic about serving their first terms in public office. "As a public servant. I will do my best to represent my district and all of Elko County," said Dennis, a Car-lin resident and an employee at Newmont Gold Co.

Dennis will replace Sharon Rhoads in representing District 3, which includes Carlin, Lee, Jiggs and Tuscarora. He and his wife, Joane, have two sons who have attended Carlin schools. During his campaign, Dennis said he'd like to see "more communication between the parents, teachers and school board" and see schools give academics and the arts as much attention as they do athletics. He also said he'd like to see schools work more closely with law enforcement agencies to prevent drug and alcohol abuse among young people. He said although he believes there's a problem with drugs and alcohol among high school students, he doesn't see closed campuses as the answer.

"Closing a campus won't solve the problem of drugs and alcohol," Dennis said during his campaign. "We need new people and new ideas." Smith, director of the nursing department at Great Basin College, replaces Lyle Nutting in representing District 2, which includes most of the greater Elko area east of Fifth Street Smith moved to Elko when she was in sixth grade and graduated in 1965 from Elko High School. She holds a master's degrees in nursing and education. She and her husband, school psychologist Chad Smith, have two children who attend Elko schools. Smith said there are many things she'd like to do as a school board member and one of her priorities will be to help the district develop a building plan that won't be a further drain on taxpayers.

Smith was opposed to the district's $63 million construction plan defeated by voters in November and said she'd like to see the district stick with its current ing just one school, the City of Elko would have a new uncrowded high school, an uncrowded middle school, and we would have made available approximately 1,200 spaces for elementary students," Smith said. Smith's plan also calls for adding sixth graders to the roster at the new Spring Creek Junior High School, scheduled to open in the fall. She said this would free up 200 more spaces at Sage and Spring Creek Elementary Schools. Smith said she'd like to go back to the voters in 2000 and ask them to renew the PAYG system for another 10 years. She said she also supports legislation that would allow school districts to carry money over from year to year.

Such a bill is expected to be considered by the Nevada Legislature this year. Gustin, who with her husband. Gene, owns Gustin an exploration drilling company, is replacing Barbara Blackstock in representing District 4, which includes Spring Creek, Lamoille and Pleasant Valley. Gustin has been an active parent in Spring Creek schools where her two sons are enrolled. She's a firm believer in local control of schools and also opposed the recent school construction plan.

Gustin said she'd like to see "greater communication between parents and teachers and school administrators" and "more input from parents and taxpayers concerning decisions made by the school district." She said she'd also like to see "more local control in decisions made on the state and federal level which affect our local school district." "When you get involved, you find out what's happening and you get to know the teachers as people," Gustin said during her campaign. "What educates our children is the support of the parents, the attitude of the child and the teachers. 1 don't think it comes down to money. Sometimes, in the political process, we lose sight of what we need to do, which is educate the kids." pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system of funding construction. The advantage of the PAYG system is that schools are essentially paid for by the time they're built and, unlike bond issues, there are no interest payments and long-term debt to the taxpayers.

"We have an opportunity unique in Nevada with pay-as-you-go," Smith said. "I want to capitalize on that because it's a tax program that has the support of the people and not many tax programs do." Smith has submitted a plan to the district to ease crowding in Elko schools. Her plan calls for building a new high school for 2,000 students on the 80 acres of land the district owns on north Fifth Street, turning the current high school into a middle school for sixth through eighth graders and making the current junior high school another elementary school or a school for fourth and fifth graders. Smith said turning the junior high school into a school for fourth and fifth graders would bring students "together at an earlier age, thus promoting cohesiveness within the group" before they get to junior high school. Smith's plan also suggests moving the district's Early Childhood and Gifted and Talented programs from Northside Elementary to unused classrooms in the proposed high school, which would create another RENO (AP) The New Year's Day flood apparently has turned more deadly in Nevada.

Michael Snelling, 53, of Sun Valley hasn't been heard from since he drove to his workplace a week ago today af-81 vter telling his roommate he wanted to retrieve some items from the business on the raging Truckee River. The parking lot next to the building had been washed away but police fear that Snelling may have overlooked iPi that in the early morning darkness and driven into the river. The area had been evacuated and A section of the business fell into the river on Thursday jPi and two other vehicles reportedly were missing. No at-iiiiiii! tempt will be made to put divers in the water until the raging river subsides. iPi Meanwhile, rescuers resumed the search for a Gard-Pj; nerville man who disappeared into the flooded Carson River Jan.

2. Frederick Pinard, 59, was working on a front-end loader to build up a berm to prevent flooding of a mobile ipi home park when the ground gave way and the loader lili toppled into the water. Wi Water continued to subside throughout western Nevada iiii on yesterday, although flood warnings remained in effect (continued on back page) Ondreako, president of the local Nevada Sportsman's Association, was one of two new members named to the board..