The Salt Lake Tribune from Salt Lake City, Utah • 31

SUNDAYFebruary 8 1998 EheSattfokeSribune Section 0 Utah OBITUARIES Weber Davis Salt Lake Utah Red -Wood Burning Prohibited Yellow -Wood Burning Discouraged Green Wood Burning Allowed AIR QUALITY -533-7239 Page B-8 LEGISIATTRE OVERVIEW Leavitt Lawmakers Fight N-Waste i ur 11(S i Ji i rt Its Official Howick Gets Boot BY DAN HARRIE and JUDY FAHYS tfitfam approval to a bill aimed at granting a tax break to resi- THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Ex-Oquirrh Paik Boss Leaves Financial Chaos this project said House Speaker Mel Brown But that was not how the week began The House Transportation Committee on Monday threw a monkey wrench in Leavitts plan to take state control of a Tooele County-owned road the only paved route to the proposed nuclear storage site That move was aimed at dinging Leavitt for what some lawmakers felt was unilateral action a move lacking consultation with local officials The diversion drove Leavitt to make a rare appearance in Republican House and Senate caucuses to rally support The governor said he found it and then some This will have resounding support because the Legislature does not desire to have nuclear waste travel that road Leavitt said They have chosen to have a hearing and thats just fine Representatives returned the road-tak ing bill to the Transportation Committee with instructions that a full-blown public hearing be held Thursday I dont think theres any question the bill will pass Brown said Friday Democrats meantime continued a drumbeat of criticism on the $28 billion plan for funding a 19-year road-building plan including reconstruction of 1-15 Maybe its our role to point out the icebergs ahead of the Titanic said House Minority Leader Dave Jones In other action during the week lawmakers focused on smaller less splashy issues: threatening to cut several thousands of dollars from economic-development and crime-prevention agencies moving to make vehicle safety inspections a once-every-two-year requirement and entertaining elementary school children lobbying for safer crosswalks On Monday senators gave preliminary BY LINDA I AN I IN dents with a second home But the measure remained stalled later in the week as the bills sponsor waited for senate supporters to return from out-of-town trips And senators scrutinized reports that Sen Blaze Wharton was spreading himself a bit too thin as a legislator and a lobbyist for 25 clients But legislative leaders say Wharton appears to be breaking no laws or rules On Tuesday the issue of state vs federal power took center stage A bill that clarifies the responsibility and classification of law-enforcement officers also would let sheriffs choose what laws federal agents can enforce in their countries With Interstate 15 construction funding simmering on the Legislatures back burner another road controversy boiled over during the third week of the 1998 legislative session Gov Mike Leavitt and leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature ended the week proclaiming their unity in standing against a proposal to store high-level nuclear waste on the Goshute Reservation in western Utah I dont want it here andI dont think the people of our state want it here Leavitt said I dont think our congressional delegation wants it here I dont think our state Legislature wants it here The House and the Senate are in total unison with the governor on putting all the impediments we can in the way of THE SALT LAKE 1 lillit NF See GOVERNOR Page B-9 Brothers Plan To Bring TV Station to Provo i i ri '( 1 (f 1 1 KZAR Hopes to Be on Air by May With Focus on Utah County News BY PHIL MILLER THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE KEARNS It took four hours for trustees to question and finally fire David Howick from his cushy job as director of the Oquirrh Park Fitness Center But it will take months to sort out the financial mess he left behind Howick ends his 21 -year reign in the wake of audits accusing him of mismanaging the recreation complex and a massive expansion project under way at 5G24 4800 West He had been on paid leave since Jan 5 when a new three-member board took office Members of the Salt Lake County Regional Service Area Board did not deal with a three-year $250000 consulting contract that Howick negotiated as a severance package Doral Vance said he and other board members are waiting to see if Howick tries to enforce the deal before making any decisions Howick met with trustees behind closed doors declining to face his most vocal critics: the Kearns taxpayers who paid his salary and benefits which last year amounted to $125000 Mr Howick doesnt have anything to discuss with the public said his attorney Bob Wilde Howicks absence like his demise was no surprise The closed session was conducted mostly out of respect for Howicks years of service his fate sealed by the audits Nonetheless several residents stuck around to hear Howicks final whistle blow It is a sigh of relief for taxpayers that Howick is no longer managing the fitness center said Chuck Newton a Kearns resident who pushed for Howicks ouster Part of the problem was that Howick ran the board instead of the board running Howick No more During Saturdays marathon meeting newly elected board members tediously scrutinized bills and questioned construction change orders They spent 30 minutes reconsidering the need for $117000 in pool playground equipment nr A1 HartmannThe Salt Lake Tribune PROVO Whether its raiding video stores in American Fork picketing strippers at LeMars or removing Rodins at BYU the view of Utah County on commercial television news broadcasts is generally the same: a remote report from a seemingly distant location that often is lumped into the broad news category Outside the Valley Television here presents itself as hometown news stations says John Reim director of broadcast services at Brigham Young University And the hometown is Salt Lake City not Provo Oddly it may take an outsider to bring an insiders perspective to Utah Countys TV news Steve and Michael Roberts a pair of St Louis entrepreneurs plan to put their own station complete with a news organization on the air in Provo this spring KZAR a $7 million start-up venture will sign on with 25 million watts emanating from a West Moun- tain tower near Utah Lake by May if all goes according to the Roberts brothers plans And soon after that amid all the family-themed programming and sitcom reruns the new UHF Channel 16 hopes to inaugurate the first commercial newscast based in Utah County Its an area that is clearly underserved by existing stations says Steve Roberts president and chief operating officer of Roberts Broadcasting which owns stations in Kansas City Mo St Louis Albuquerque NM and Hartford Conn Its such a fastgrowing area we believe its worth giving more at- tention than other stations do and we want to do that- In part thats because mixed in among all those thousands of potential viewers there are plenty of potential advertisers too" And they might be eager to support a medium targeted specifically at their customers Thats a huge market that really hasnt been tapped Roberts says Its starting to change though KSL long has assigned a reporter to keep tabs on the county and last summer KUTV opened with great fanfare a three-person Utah County bureau that contributes at least a story a day to Channel 2s late-aftemoon newscasts Very few secrets are kept in this business Roberts shrugs For many years stations have ignored Utah County but we know they are beginning to sniff around But none contemplates anything like a 30-minute Provo-based newscast Channel 2 has found plenty of news to report on according to bureau chief Sandy Olney far more than just the high-profile headline stories that all stations chase But those daily three- or five-minute remotes are a lot different than filling a half-hour broadcast she says SA AHHH-SOME Ivan Lindgren demonstrates an in-mouth camera and the image on the monitor at right is a closeup of the gap between his teeth This was among the displays at the Utah Dental convention See stories B-6 See OQUIRRH Page B-9 Mammoth Jordan Apartment Complex Stands Out in Utah BY JON URE I Sieakdown of rental markets THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE which operates Sterling Village for Pegasus Development of Redwood City Calif Were going to contribute a lot to the South Jordan area Critics complain that the mammoth project will contribute too much too much traffic too much construction too much congestion Its ugly too says South Jordan resident Jan Tobias as she looks at the complex mushrooming near the Jordan River at 11000 South and 450 West They have made no attempt to beautify it and provide an atmosphere with a lot of open space The tenants of course disagree Its really nice very safe and very quiet says Patricia Henderson who moved to Sterling Village from Logan in October with husband Michael and their baby They pay $750 a month for their 920-square-foot one-bedroom apartment Their tiled kitchen has built-in appliances and a laundry room The bathroom boasts a garden tub and a large shower They also have a one-car garage The Hendersons love the amenities too One of three swimming pools is complete and the aerobics room entertainment center and an office with a computer printer copy machine and fax machine are free to tenants Multifamily-housing expert Mark Millburn also is impressed He calls Sterling Village the highest-quality apartment complex in Utah He should know For 25 years his firm Equi-Mark Properties has been involved in buying selling and investing in some 30000 apartments valued at more than $1 billion in the Salt Lake Valley and other US cities EquiMarks analysis of 1997 multi-family-housing units in the Salt Lake Valley shows there is an overall vacancy rate of 53 percent up from 43 percent in 1996 The market is considered full at 5 percent or less But with more vacancies some renters are starting to see perks free cable television for example Not all the news is good for tenants SOUTH JORDAN If bigger is better then Sterling Village someday will be the best apartment complex in Utah It certainly will be the biggest To some the upscale apartments are a symbol of an economic boom In the next few years Sterling Village is scheduled to swell to 880 units The owners are upbeat Sixty units in the first phase of 300 have been finished and 95 percent already are rented Another 300 units have been approved and plans for the final 280 are being drawn Were excited says Brian Gagan of Maxim Property Management See MULTIFAMILY Page B-4 See ROVO Page B-9 UTAH QUOTES I couldnt believe it I thought After all this Im going to be deported to Baghdad and be executed Mohammed Joudi Quaisar who fled Iraq for California stepped off a plane and was thrown behind bars "Its too damn bad it had to come to this But Im telling these people theyd better leave my work to me or get out of my county Millard County Sheriff Ed Phillips on what he views as overly nosy federal agents There are women available all the time if you pay Why would I choose a man? Qassim All Al-Raheemi who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for attempting to rape several men during separate attacks in Salt Lake City "The good news is Sait Lake is so far ahead of where Atlanta was The Atlanta team came to Barcelona to have a good time The Salt Lake team came to Nagano to work hard at understanding what the tone of the Games mil be John Krimsky US Olympic Committee marketing director Nobodys there to greet us to give us our stuff or tell us where were going The room was about as big as Juniors room I could turn the TV on with my toes Karl Malone on the less-than-ideal accommodations he experienced while in New York during the NBA All-Star Weekend fe0O GGd6s 0uQ0DGGd 00 mmrtmumw-' fr tO CA'cr XX mown vV 4 AU 1 to it tK'W 5 ImAOS Jb3wwi atiretfritt iV 'iNN' "ri Vv 5 4 Wii Auis 1 1 5- I I V' i copy''.