The Salt Lake Tribune from Salt Lake City, Utah • 23

UTAH FliSAT I FOR THE RECORD C-2 STATE OF THE STATE C-6 POLITICAL CONFETTI B-9 AUGUST 13 1999 ROLLY WELLS Trees Are Gone With the Wind 700 City 1 1V Forester's low-ball estimate is $750000 BY JIM WOOLF THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Damage to publicly owned trees from the tornado that slashed through Salt Lake City was estimated Thursday at $750000 That's a conservative figure stressed city forester Bill Rutherford It was based on a "low-ball" estimate for the value of the approximately 700 trees on city-owned parking strips and in Memory Grove that were destroyed by Wednesday's tornado The city's loss figure does not include hundreds of other broken and uprooted trees on private property and the grounds of the state Capitol "It's just depressing" said Ty Harrison an associate professor of biology at Westminster College after viewing the downed trees on Capitol Hill and in Memory Grove He noted the fallen remains of what may have been Utah's largest ginko tree that used to shade the south lawn of the Capitol "I also went to the grove around the Mormon Battalion monument on the southeastern corner of the Capitol I can't describe how I felt when I saw it All of the trees were down around C-2 C-3 City waives fees Adjusters inspect area PAUL ROLLY and JOANN JACOBSEN-WELLS 1 999 The Salt Lake Tribune Tornado Frees Possible Traffic Misdemeanants When Salt Lake City prosecutors came to 3rd District Court Judge Sheila McLeve's Traffic Court on Wednesday to present misdemeanor cases for moving traffic violations none of the police officers who issued the citations in question were available as witnesses They all were tied up with emergency operations due to the tornado that swept through the city Prosecutors explained their absence But McLeve denied motions for continuance and dismissed the seven disputed cases ranging from speeding to driving on a suspended license to negligent collision Just in Time Gov Mike Leavitt returned home from the National Governor's Association's summer meeting in St Louis Tuesday night and was lunching the next day at downtown Republican State headquarters when the tornado hit He hiked up Capitol Hill hurdling uprooted trees to the Emergency Command Center in the basement of the State Office Building Had he dallied in St Louis a day longer he might have shared the frustration of a previous governor When the late Gov Scott Matheson was in Washington DC testifying before Congress on Jan 8 1981 a power outage blackened most of Utah and parts of Idaho and Wyoming for eight hours Leadership shifted to Secretary of State David Monson because the Constitution didn't recognize that a governor could exercise his duties from afar Later Matheson led a movement to change the Constitution allowing the governor to retain leadership duties when away He again was out of commission when a mudslide in Spanish Fork Canyon backed up the river which swallowed the tiny town of Thistle in 1983 Matheson was recuperating at home from a heart attack Photo by Paul FraughtonThe Salt Lake Tribune Biologist Ty Harrison bottom right surveys devastation to trees in Memory Grove many were over a hundred years old Beloved Grove Now Just a Memory Hundred-year-old trees and decades of volunteer labor gone in a puff of wind it" Harrison suggested Salt Lake City officials allocate part of any disaster-relief monies they receive to replanting the urban forest But he is not optimistic this will happen The city has some money for tree planting but not nearly enough to replace the hundreds of trees lost to the storm "In past catastrophic events people tended to step forward and ask how can I help" said Rutherford He hopes it will happen again At least some help is coming Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini announced Thursday that the US Department of Agriculture has expressed an interest in helping to re-forest the city The state is trying to find money to help replace the storm-ravaged trees said Tony Dietz urban forestry coordinator for the State Forester's Office whose annual tree-planting budget is only $18000 And TreeUtah a nonprofit group already is trying to organize individuals and groups in a campaign to replace the trees "Not only do we want to re-plant but we want to add trees to our urban environment" said TreeUtah Executive Di- See CITY TREES Page C-2 BY BRANDON LOOMIS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Like the veterans it commemorates Memory Grove Park as generations of Utahns have known it is just a memory The tornado that swept through downtown Salt Lake City on Wednesday crossed City Creek Canyon at exactly the wrong place if you ask the neighbors who have spent years of sweat and thousands of dollars beautifying the northern gem of the city's park system The storm snapped or uprooted every last tree that has matured since planting started in the park after World War I Only a couple of the smaller trees on the grassy area near the creek stayed upright though city foresters question whether any can be saved "The Grim Reaper definitely visited Memory Grove" said city forester Bill Rutherford A meditation chapel and stone monuments that offered visitors shady reflection now stand naked but undamaged in the sun The pond where City Creek is dammed is muddy and choked with woody debris Hundreds of pines and maples lie flat on the ground or snapped at half-staff A See GROVE Page C-2 yn Imp 0 Schoolchildren Find Talking Takes Terror Out of Twister Miraculously the school was only slightly damaged Several sections of awning were torn from the sides of the aging structure and a construction trailer at the back of the playground toppled So did portable toilets next to it Construction has begun on a new school behind the existing building- On Wednesday 525 students playing during lunch recess were engulfed in a cloud of dirt and debris so thick it obscured the doors leading back into the school A staff member grabbed 10-year-old Joshua See TALKING Page C-2 BY HILARY GROUTAGE and NORMA WAGNER THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Franklin Elementary Principal Dahlia Cordova had a hunch while driving to work Wednesday that it would be a good day to hold an emergency preparedness drill She even picked up additional walkie-talkies for her staff "I'm telling you someone higher up was looking out for us" she said Thursday from her school at 1100 400 South Salt Lake City Cordova still could feel the effects of dust and dirt inhaled during the tornado which passed within yards of the building Trees and branches litter the south lawn of the state Capitol after Wednesday's devastating tornado Salt Lake City's loss figure does not include hundreds of other broken and uprooted trees on private property and the grounds of the Capitol Faith Temple Church Founder to Be Exhumed Autopsy would end questions over 'Mama' Cosby's death argues daughter's lawyer Irreplaceable Loss Among the hundreds of trees uprooted by Wednesday's tornado were two large American Elms in front of the state Capitol They were planted as seedlings from American Elms on George Washington's estate at Mount Vernon Some Explaining to Do Jack Britton the new dean of the University of Utah School of Business was hired away from the University of Texas He persuaded his 7-year-old son to move by promising the boy who is terrified of tornados that Utah never has them Some Observed Heroics Patrons eating lunch in the ZCMI basement at the downtown store suddenly were in the dark when the lights were knocked out Immediately young ZCMI employees were everywhere with flashlights helping people up the stalled escalator and carrying packages for elderly customers while leading them to light Then management kept employees inside for three hours after customers were escorted out The phones were down so they could not contact worried relatives Tobias Blanchard of Portland Ore was in Temple Square when the tornado hit and tells us the sister missionaries whisked people into the visitor! center where they were safe from flying debris Cory Hollis a crane operator on the new LDS Assembly Hall project was on his crane when he saw the twister coming from the west He shouted at the other operators to turn their cranes to the east and yelled at about 50 workers on the roof His warnings gave people time to escape from precarious situations before the tornado passed through Jazzman Bryon Russell took 100 tickets to his Friday celebrity Softball tournament to the employee of LDS Hospital In thanks for their care of tornado victims Physician Sentenced On Narcotic Charge BY STEPHEN HUNT THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Before becoming addicted writing fraudulent prescriptions pleading guilty to a felony and losing his medical license physician Eric David Samen-bacher earned $7000 per month He now makes $212 per hour plus tips waiting tables at a downtown Salt Lake City restaurant while struggling to pay monthly child support and a $2000 fine imposed by the state's professional licensing board But on Thursday Sauzenbacher got break when 3rd District Judge Robert Hilder sentenced him to just 2 days in Jail followed by 88 days of electronic monitoring by ankle bracelet Prosecutors and the Utah Department of Corrections had recommended See DOCTOR Page C-11 Clarifications BY BOB M1MS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE A judge has ordered exhumation of the remains of Rosemary "Mama" Cosby finding sufficient cause to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of the Faith Temple Pentecostal Church founder's 1997 death Third District Judge William A Thome granted the petition by Rosalind Cazares a daughter of the deceased after hearing arguments from her attorney Nanci Bockelie and Bruce Reading the lawyer representing Mama Cosby'a husband and successor Bishop Robert Cosby Cosby who remains pastor of Faith Temple despite a split of its 400-member congregation over his leadership did not attend Wednesday's hearing He and Cats res also are engaged in a long-running probate battle punctuated by allegations of financial mismanagement and documents doctoring over Mama Cosby'a multimillion-dollar estate Bockelie said exhumation though 2V4 years after Mama Cosby succumbed was justified "becauM her death was unexpected sudden and unattended by anyone but ber husband" who ended up receiving full title to many of her properties under allegedly questionable circumstances "Any Issues regarding her death will put to rest one way or another" by an autopsy Bockelie said during the Wednesday bearing In a June petition tares argued that under the laws of Florida where her mother died purportedly of a heart attack on Jan 4 1997 an autopsy should have been performed Robert Cosby refused to give his per mission for one The Florida Medical Examiner's Office listed thi cause of death as "hypertensive cardiovascular disors der" apparently based on Robert Cosby's assertion that his wife had high blood pressure and had run out of ber medication However Cars res said her 65-year-old mother charismatic preacher and pillar in Salt Lake's African American community appeared to be in good health-before her death at the family' SL Goud Fla vacation home Police found several prescription medicines yft the home but none of them belonged to Mama Cosby Attorney Reading Implied that the exhumation and autopsy petition seemed to have been filed merely to satisfy Caxarea' curiosity cot for the "most compelling of reasons" as required by Isw "I don't think there's anything ber that rises to the standard of extretn circumstances" ha said "It) within the sole discretion of a medical examiner to decide" Thome was not convinced saying he would sign the order to exhume Mama Cosby's remains from a vault at the Salt Lake Mausoleum He give Bockelie until AttST 23 to select a private pathologist Reading will then hatf until the end of the month to accept the choice or nona nate a different pathologist In which case the two candi dates could select a third for the Utt ui Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney talked with a small group of Utah reporters Wediwsday about his first six months on the job A photo caption misrepresented the news media In Roily tt WelU wlcomt t-mail at rolylwtlll tribcom.