A Heber City man charged in the alleged rape of a Tooele teen made his initial appearance in 3rd District Court on Monday. 

Ruben Armando Flores, 20, is charged with two counts of first-degree felony rape and one count of forcible sodomy. 

A Tooele City police officer was dispatched to an area hospital in regard to a rape on Aug. 15, according to a probable cause statement. The responding officer spoke with the 17-year-old victim, who said she met Flores on Facebook and agreed to go on a date with him.

The victim said Flores picked her up from her home to go to a nearby park where they agreed they could talk and get to know each other, the statement said. When they reached a nearby power maintenance building, the victim said Flores told her to face the wall, then pulled down her pants and underwear and raped her. 

The victim said she told Flores she didn’t want to have sex and he said, “We will see about that,” the probable cause statement said. She said she was in shock and did not fight Flores off. 

Afterward, the victim said she was afraid of Flores and went with him to eat dinner, the statement said. The victim said after dinner, they drove to a gate near a canyon and Flores parked the vehicle and asked her to give him oral sex, which she told him she didn’t want to do. 

Flores then forced her to give him oral sex and then he raped her again, the victim told police, according to the probable cause statement. 

On Aug. 19, Tooele City police interviewed Flores and he told investigators the victim had told him she didn’t want to have sex prior to the alleged rape and he admitted to pulling down her pants and underwear. He said the rest of what happened was consensual. 

The responding officer did a criminal history search on Flores on Aug. 21 and found Flores had been convicted of rape in 2016, when he would have been 17 or 18 years old. 

During his initial appearance in court on Monday, bail was set at $250,000 for Flores, who hired a private attorney. He was ordered to have no contact with the victim. 

Flores is scheduled to return to 3rd District Court on Sept. 10 at 9 a.m. before Judge Matthew Bates for a scheduling conference and bail hearing.

Anyone looking for a final taste of summer can come to Tooele City’s Aquatic Center Park for a free musical festival on Labor Day. 

The family-friendly event is now in its third year, according to Tooele Arts Council director Holly Tippetts. Three local bands will perform and there will be food trucks for the festival, which kicks off at 5 p.m. 

While Tooele City’s Fridays on Vine concert series wrapped up on Aug. 16, it served as the inspiration for the Arts Council’s Labor Day Music Festival, Tippetts said. 

“Everyone loves Fridays on Vine, so we thought, ‘Let’s do something for Labor Day,’” she said. 

The Superintendents of Rock, featuring Tooele County School District Superintendent Dr. Scott Rogers, will perform first at the festival, from 5 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. In addition to Rogers, the band includes Steve Carlsen, superintendent of Box Elder School District; Kodey Hughes, superintendent of Tintic School District; and Dr. Scott Crane, executive director of the Southeast Service Center. 

Following the Superintendents of Rock performance, local balloon artist the Balloonatic will take the stage during the intermission. 

After the Balloonatic wraps up her act, Bent Fender will perform next from 6:15 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Utah band specializes in ‘60s and ‘70s rock and roll, with Rick Blake and Randy Heyborne on guitar and vocals, Vince Vargas on bass and vocals, Dave Neria on drums and Ben Blake on keyboard and vocals. 

There will be a short intermission, featuring an encore performance by the Balloonatic, then Party Rock Project will hit the Aquatic Center Park stage at 7:30 p.m. for an hour-long performance. The Wasatch Front-based group, which features Nate Davis on acoustic guitar, Bre Walsh on vocals and Quinn Dietien on keyboard and vocals, plays a mix of music in interactive performances. 

With so much entertainment set for the festival, attendees are likely to work up an appetite and Tippetts said there should be several food trucks at the music festival, including Black Knight’s Bar Be Que. 

Pratt Aquatic Center Park is located at 55 N. 200 West. Attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket or lawn chair.

A Grantsville man facing a total of 24 felony charges related to the sexual abuse of children harmed himself in the Tooele County Detention Center, but was treated and returned to custody, according to the Tooele County Sheriff’s Office. 

Mark A. Swan, 48, used a razor to self-mutilate on Sunday, according to Tooele County Sheriff Lt. Ray Clinton. He was transported to the hospital for treatment and returned to the Tooele County jail on Monday. 

Patient privacy protections under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mean the sheriff’s office cannot release details on the nature or extent of the injuries Swan suffered, Clinton said. 

Swan appeared in 3rd District Court on Tuesday for a scheduling conference in both cases, which were continued at the request of his counsel for settlement negotiations. If there is no resolution at the next hearing, the case will be set for a preliminary hearing, according to court records. 

Swan is charged with four counts of first-degree felony sodomy on a child, four counts of first-degree felony object rape of a child, two counts of first-degree felony aggravated kidnapping, and three counts of third-degree felony attempted sex abuse of a child in one case filed July 22.

In a second case, filed July 26, Swan is charged with two counts of first-degree felony rape of a child, one count of first-degree felony object rape of a child, three counts of first-degree felony sodomy of a child, two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, and three counts of second-degree felony sex abuse of a child. 

Swan was arrested on July 19 after a parent of three children reported a man in the neighborhood had “inappropriately touched their children,” according to a probable cause statement from Grantsville City police. During an interview with investigators, the alleged victims, aged 7 to 13 years old, identified Swan as the perpetrator. 

In the second case, a child under the age of 14 told investigators she had been consistently sexually abused for the last two years by Swan, according to the probable cause statement. The victim indicated the abuse happened more times than they could recount but went into detail on several of the instances. 

Another victim, also under the age of 14, was interviewed by investigators and indicated Swan touched them inappropriately over their clothing on three of the five times they visited his house. 

Swan is scheduled to return to 3rd District Court for scheduling conferences in both cases on Sept. 10 at 9 a.m. before Judge Matthew Bates.

A Taylorsville woman has been charged with a pair of felonies in 3rd District Court after she was allegedly found in possession of heroin by Stockton police.

Riley Catherine Nicholson, 23, is charged with two counts of second-degree felony possession with intent to distribute a Class C substance. 

A Stockton police officer responded to the area of milepost 49 on state Route 36 on a report of a suspicious vehicle at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a probable cause statement. When the officer arrived and located the vehicle, it was unoccupied. 

The officer recognized the vehicle from earlier in the day, with a female driver, the statement said. When the officer searched the area, they located the suspect, later identified as Nicholson, walking back toward the vehicle. 

Nicholson told the officer she was looking for her cell phone in the hills, according to the probable cause statement. After gathering her information, the officer found she had multiple warrants out for her arrest totaling $60,000. 

After Nicholson was placed under arrest, the officer determined the vehicle she was driving did not have valid or current insurance, the statement said. While the vehicle was inventoried for a hold for the owner, the officer located a golf ball-sized amount of heroin in a backpack, as well as a white, rock-like substance. 

A Facebook post from the Stockton Police Department claimed the contents of the car included a half pound of heroin, a quarter pound of methamphetamine, several individual baggies of both substances, hundreds of dollars in cash, pipes and needles. 

The officer also located a large amount of money next to the bag containing the suspected drugs, the statement said. Nicholson also admitted to police she had smoked a controlled substance earlier prior to driving.

When Sept. 11 comes again this year, it will have been 18 years since the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. 

The first group of children who were born following the events of 9/11 are reaching adulthood this year. The passage of time, and the promise to never forget, motivated Dennis Tracey to host a special remembrance on Sunday, Sept. 8 during the 11 a.m. service at the Tooele United Methodist Church.  

“I believe in this, that our youth have to have a sense of history,” Tracey said. “We have a whole generation now that has grown up since 9/11.”

The 9/11 remembrance will include relevant music and a talk by Tracey, which will feature a strong visual representation of the death toll in armed conflicts since the terrorist attacks. Tracey said he will drop a penny into a bowl for each of the U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq War. 

A total of 2,977 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, excluding the 19 hijackers. In just the initial operations of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, there were 4,432 and 2,353 total deaths, respectively.  

“It’s now been 18 years since 9/11 took place and we still have men and women dying in Afghanistan,” said Tracey, a Vietnam War veteran. 

Tracey was working at the satellite operation center at the U.S. Army’s Fort Detrick in Maryland when 9/11 occurred. 

“I watched 18,19, 20-year-old kids turn into soldiers in just a moment’s time,” he said. 

While the ensuing wars will be part of the Sept. 8 service, Tracey said he will also focus on the first responders on 9/11. In the attack on the World Trade Centers, there were 343 New York City firefighters, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority officers among those killed. 

“I don’t think our first responders get near the credit that they deserve,” Tracey said. 

An American flag that Tracey will have with him for the remembrance includes the names of everyone who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

“All of the people who died on 9/11 are in the stripes of that flag,” he said. 

Part of the message of the service will be Christians are all first responders if they see something wrong or someone hurting, Tracey said. 

The Tooele United Methodist Church is located at 78 E. Utah Ave. and holds regular Sunday services at 11 a.m. Both the church and the special remembrance are open to the public.

A section of Durfee Street will be closed to through traffic for two weeks beginning Tuesday while construction crews install a main sewer line, officials announced at a meeting this week. 

The section of Durfee is from Willow Street to Worthington Street and access will be limited to homeowners in the area.

Grantsville Public Works crews will also be removing several trees along Durfee to allow crews from Whitaker Construction to bring in heavy pieces of equipment to install the sewer line, according to James Waltz, the city’s public works director.

Some school bus routes along the section of Durfee will be diverted during the next two weeks, and two school bus stops there will be adjusted during the same time.

The public can receive updated information on construction plans by calling 1-877-495-4240.

Also on Tuesday, all of Church Street will be closed for sewer connections to the main line, according to Mayor Brent Marshall’s September newsletter.

Whittaker Construction will also start connecting sewer laterals to homes on Hale Street north of Clark Street on Tuesday.

North Hale Street will be opened and closed throughout the day. Residents along this section of the street are encouraged to temporarily access North Hale Street from Vegas Street. North Hale Street has been graded for access.

Nearly all of the main waterline and sewer line installations along Grantsville’s Main Street are completed with the main focus now on Durfee Street, according to construction manager Rod Erickson.

It still won’t be clear sailing for motorists along Grantsville’s Main Street with crews from the Utah Department of Transportation set to repave the street this month.

Preliminary plans are for crews to mill out a 3-inch layer on Main and then start repaving.

Crews will begin with the outside lanes first and then finish in the middle of the street, according to information provided by the City.

Mayor Brent Marshall said UDOT already has installed pedestrian ramps in some areas of Main Street and will work on storm drain projects along the street as part of the paving project.

Approximately on Sept. 16, water connections to businesses and homes on Main Street will begin. A vacuum-type machine and not backhoes, will be used to excavate for the water connections. There will be disruption of park strips and property, but the contractor will come in and restore the property, both in front and behind the sidewalk. There may be temporary disruption of water services, according to the newsletter.

Some of the work may interrupt water service to Grantsville Elementary.

Grantsville High School’s Homecoming Parade will not be held on Main Street this year because of construction. School officials will plan an alternate parade route.

The mayor said Grantsville City has been planning for the $10 million water-sewer project for five years.

“There has been a lot of disruption but the end is in sight,” Marshall said. “If we hadn’t completed this project we would have had some major problems — on the brink of disaster.”

The letter was posted on a gate blocking a road that takes off from the Jacob City Loop Trail.

The letter was from a Salt Lake City-based law firm that represents Tooele County.

The letter demanded that the lock on the gate be removed by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

But the letter was addressed to the wrong people, according to Tooele County Commissioner Kendall Thomas.

The letter was addressed to Leonard and Julie Ault in Grantsville. Leonard passed away two years ago. His wife, is Judy, not Julie. 

But the error was not discovered until after the letter was posted on the gate and after a photograph of it was circulated on social media.

“Because the letter had my dad’s name on it and my mom’s address,  my mother and my family have been the subject of harassing posts on Facebook, phone calls, and my children have even been asked about it at school,” said Wayne Ault, a son of Leonard and Judy Ault who lives in Grantsville.

While Leonard Ault shares a common ancestor with the Leo H. Ault family, which is involved in the battle over public and private roads in Ophir Canyon, Wayne Ault said neither he, his mother, nor any members of his family are involved in putting up gates, closing roads, or anything else to do with the current dispute over roads in Ophir Canyon.

Tooele County Commissioner Kendall Thomas has publicly apologized to Wayne Ault for the error.

“The county apologizes to the family of Leonard and Judy Ault for this mistake, and the confusion and stress it may have caused,” he said.

However, the county property records show that the parcel of property where the gate in question is standing does belong to Leonard and Judy Ault, according to County Attorney Scott Broadhead.

“Sometime property gets transferred to trusts or heirs,” Broadhead said. “If this property has changed hands it has not been recorded.”

Gates blocking Chandler Road in Ophir Canyon and a trail accessed from the Jacob City Loop trail remained locked yesterday despite posted letters demanding that the locks on the gates be removed.

The letters, prepared by a hired attorney working for Tooele County, informed the property owners that the roads blocked by their gates have “been dedicated as a public road by virtue of public use under Utah Code Section 72-5-104.”

The letter demanded that the locks preventing public access to the roads be removed by 5 p.m. on Wednesday with the warning: “If you continue to restrict access to this public road, we have been authorized to take further additional steps to restore the public’s access.”

According to the family that one of the letters was addressed to, their family neither owns the property in question nor did they erect a gate anywhere in Ophir Canyon. (see related story)

The Jacob Loop Trail itself remains open, but a representative of the property owner of the gate blocking a trail that departs from the Jacob City Loop Trail said the property owner has no intention of removing the lock on the gate.

“That road is not a public access road,” the representative said. “It is part of the Bald Mountain Loop Road that  was vacated as part of the 2009 agreement with Tooele County.”

Meanwhile, the county has no immediate plans to cut locks off or force gates open, according to Tooele County Commission Chairman Tom Tripp.

“We have reached out to the property owners and will sit down with them and see if we can work something out without heading to court,” he said. “We already have a conference set up with one of the property owners.”

The County Commission is united in the resolve to get the public access to the roads they have always had access to, according to Tripp.

“There should be absolutely no doubt that we want those gates open,” he said.

If the county can not reach an agreement with the property owners, then the county will pursue legal action, according to Tripp.

“We will go to court with our evidence that these are public roads and ask for an order requiring the gates to be opened,” said Commissioner Kendall Thomas. “We want to do this right and have the court behind us when we open those gates.”

Thomas asked for the public to be patient and not try to remove the locks or to forcibly open the gates while the commissioners work on opening the gates.

Collectively the budgets for 2020 discretionary spending presented to the Tooele County Commission during a special meeting on Wednesday night at the County Building total 3.7% more than 2019’s budget requests.

The requests from all departments discretionary spending for 2020 totaled $24.1 million, $857,000 more than the 2019 total discretionary budget of $23.3 million.  

Department heads were requested to prepare budgets with a 1.5% decrease in discretionary spending — spending not including salaries and benefits, according to Tooele County Auditor Alison McCoy.

The requests presented Wednesday night included several proposed long term capital projects that drove some departments over their 2019 spending request.

The largest request increase was an additional $605,183, a 45.9% increase, from the facilities department. The request included $24.8 million in proposed capital projects for asphalt and concrete repair, boiler repairs or replacements, and building maintenance, according to facilities director Mark McKendrick.

On the other end of the scale, the largest decrease in spending came from the road department with decrease of $294,523, a 12.2% decrease.

The decrease in the road department budget request was due to fewer road projects planned for 2020, according to roads department director Rod Thompson.

The County Commission decreased their budget by $43,100, a 14% reduction.

Overall, 25 out of 40 budget accounts decreased their budget requests for 2020 from their 2019 budget with 23 of those requests meeting or exceeding the 1.5% reduction goal.

The County Commission did not look at projected revenue or salary and benefits for county employees during Wednesday night’s work session.

“This is an earlier start than we have ever had on the budget,” said Commissioner Shawn Milne. “This initial process went very well with department heads taking ownership and accountability for their budgets.”

Tooele County Auditor Alison McCoy said a draft proposed budget should be ready for the public in October with a final proposed budget ready in November.

I could hear and feel the linoleum tile floor squeak underneath my crocs up to the moment the sound became insignificant. It wasn’t that the sound dissipated. My attention was highjacked by a miraculous sight.

Carol Grimm was walking up the hallway just ahead of me. That alone was enough to get my attention. Just a few weeks ago, a doctor told Carol that she would likely not be able to walk again.

What else caught my attention?: the look on her face. It was of single-minded determination.

When I came up to meet her face-to-face, she yielded her focus just enough to greet me by name. Her eyes were bright and her smile radiant.

“Never tell a woman she can’t do something!” she said with a lot of jalapeno in her voice.

Carol had fallen in her home recently. For many people her age, such a fall can be a death sentence. It would have been easy for Carol to simply listen to the medical naysayers, become discouraged, and give up. After all, she had faced extraordinary health challenges over the past few years. Trials enough that she and her husband Jim moved to Utah so they could be close to caring members of their immediate family.

Now, she was walking, with help from those wings of love, toward a physical therapy room. Carol kindly invited me to come along. We talked and walked the whole last leg toward the beginning point of her exercise station. When we arrived, she asked me to stay and sit for a while.

I sat. She worked. I marveled. She progressed. We conversed.

I could hear her voice in my head as I left and began to walk down the hall. I could hear and feel the linoleum tile floor squeak underneath my crocs again until the sound disappeared. But the sound of Carol’s voice hasn’t dissipated, nor the miraculous sight of seeing her walk again with inspiring determination!

Lynn Butterfield lives in Erda and is a managing broker for a real estate company.

Thursday night’s volleyball match between longtime rivals Tooele and Grantsville could have gone either way — and, on several occasions, it almost did.

Grantsville sent the home crowd into a frenzy when the Cowboys thought they had the match won late in the fifth set, only to have Maison White’s would-be game-clinching kill reversed by a net violation. Tooele responded with two straight points to give the Buffaloes a match point, but White came up with a kill that counted to keep the Cowboys in it.

Eventually, it was the Cowboys who prevailed in front of a loud crowd at Grantsville High School, outlasting the Buffs 25-23, 18-25, 23-25, 25-16, 18-16 for their first victory of the season.

“They’ve been working really hard the past couple weeks, and they were able to play strong that whole fifth set without being tired,” Grantsville coach Kelbey Fisher said. “Once they relaxed and just focused on that first pass, they were fine. They didn’t worry about anything outside the court — they just played for each other.”

Grantsville (1-1) got off to a quick start in the opening set, taking a 5-1 lead on a block from Kylee Broadhead and a kill by Halle Bartley. Tooele (0-2), which had struggled in its season-opening match against South Summit two days earlier, came storming back to grab a 14-12 lead, led by senior Alli Miles and junior Aysha Lewis.

The Buffs led 19-16 before a 7-1 Grantsville run put the Cowboys up 23-20, and Grantsville held on to win the set.

But Tooele coach Kristi Brown was encouraged by what she saw early on, and the Buffs seemed to carry that momentum through the next two sets.

“We came in here and we were much more focused,” Brown said. “We played a much smoother game. I’m really proud of them, because they really stepped up. A lot of girls stepped up into positions that they didn’t expect to have to play. It was great.”

In the second set, it was Tooele that used a big run to gain control. The Buffs led 14-12 before an 8-2 burst that included an ace from Gracee Dalton, a block by Lewis and a kill by Miles stretched the lead to 22-14. Lewis punctuated the set with an ace of her own. 

Grantsville opened the third set with an 8-4 lead, thanks to aces by Bartley and Jupatcha Intaratat as well as a kill by White, but another 8-2 Tooele run with a pair of kills by Miles helped the Buffs take an 18-15 lead. Grantsville clawed back to forge a 23-23 tie, but Tooele’s Brinley Smith served up an ace on set point to give the Buffs a 2-1 lead in the match.

However, Grantsville still had plenty left in the tank. Another quick start saw the Cowboys grab a 9-4 lead, with Bartley, White and Sydney Killian all picking up kills and Bartley adding an ace. Tooele closed the gap to 14-13, but a 9-1 Grantsville run with aces from Broadhead and Hillary Cloward made it 23-14 and enabled the Cowboys to force a fifth set.

“They started out strong — the first set was good, but then they got nervous again,” Fisher said of his team. “They started not focusing on the simple things, like passing and serving. Tooele got the momentum, but we made some rotation changes to help where we needed some strength at.”

Neither team could pull away in the final set, as the biggest lead the Cowboys had was three points and Tooele never led by more than one. Miles, Dalton and Lewis were standouts for the Buffs, while Killian, White and Bartley came up big for Grantsville down the stretch. The atmosphere, with both student sections encouraging their respective teams, only added to the tension.

“This week, we played Stansbury (on the road) and Tooele, and those could be our two loudest gyms because we had two student sections, whereas the rest of the season, we’ll probably only have one,” Fisher said.

Grantsville’s official statistics were not available at press time. Lewis, Miles and Smith each had nine kills to lead Tooele, with Smith also adding five aces and 10 digs. Dalton and Breanna Beer had two service aces each, and Lewis, Beer, Grace Prescott and Alexis Grgich each had two blocks.

Dalton had a team-high 14 digs, and Beer added 25 assists.

“I think they kind of thrive in this kind of environment,” Brown said. “They actually play up. They’ve got the support of their family, and, of course, their friends are here. Yes, (Grantsville’s) a rival court, but it’s almost like home, too, because we’ve been playing here for so long and we’re used to it. We wish it had gone the other way, but that’s how the game goes.”

The Buffaloes opened Region 10 play Tuesday night at Stansbury in a match that was not complete at press time. Grantsville plays host to Mountain Crest in a non-region match Thursday.

Popular Utah composer, pianist and teacher Jerald Simon will conduct a free workshop Thursday at 10 a.m. at Tooele Valley Academy of Dance at 287 N. Main in Tooele.

The event is sponsored by the Tooele Valley Music Teachers Association.

“Piano students, parents of piano students, and anyone interested in learning jazz would really enjoy this presentation,” said Jenean Christensen, a member of the association.

Simon refers to himself as a Music Mentor — a piano teacher who teaches more than dots on a page.

“For everyone who attends the free workshop, I hope to instill a love and excitement for learning and playing the piano,” Simon wrote in an email. “It takes persistence to learn to play the piano. It takes effort, practice, dedication, and hard work. But I believe it can and should be a FUN and enjoyable process!”

Simon has composed what has become known as COOL SONGS — original piano compositions initially composed for his own piano students to help teach music theory the fun way. The piano pieces range in styles and genres from classical to new age, pop, rock, techno, jazz, blues, boogie-woogie, hymn arrangements, and more. The books from Simon’s Music Motivation Series are being used all over the world, according musicmotivation.com.

Simon said piano instruction should be geared a bit differently for each student.

“There are many methods in teaching the piano. Each piano student, young or old, are unique and each learns differently,” Simon wrote.

“There is no one method for learning the piano that can reach every learner out there because some individuals learn better by ear. Other piano students learn better by rote and others learn better by note,” he wrote. “Some students are more visual in their learning style while others are more focused on audio or kinesthetics. The key is to adapt to teach each individual student at their level according to how they best learn.”

Simon has published a list of 20 ideas to motivate piano students of all ages to be excited about playing the piano — especially during their teenage years.

Teachers can receive details of the 20 ideas by emailing Simon at jeraldsimon@musicmotivation.com.

A teenager struck by a passenger car on Main Street in Grantsville Sunday is now in stable condition and doing well, according to the Grantsville City Police Department. 

Grantsville City police were dispatched to a traffic accident involving a pedestrian at the intersection of Willow and Main streets at 5:41 p.m., according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. When officers arrived on scene, they found a 14-year-old child had been struck by a vehicle while using a crosswalk. 

The victim was in critical condition and transported by University of Utah AirMed helicopter, the post said. To land the helicopter, Main Street was closed in the area in both directions for approximately 45 minutes. 

Charges for the driver of the vehicle are pending, according to Grantsville City Police Sgt. Lydon Allred. 

A citizen present at the accident who was an EMT was able to provide aid to the injured child, according to the police department’s post. Also responding to the accident were the Grantsville City Fire Department, Tooele County Sheriff’s Office and Mountain West Ambulance.

The public is invited to take a bite of Tooele County on Sept. 11 at the Benson Gristmill.

The Tooele County Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Taste of Our County and Business and Career Expo at the gristmill in Stansbury Park from 4-8 p.m.

Included in the Taste of Our County will be 15 local restaurants, delis, and food trucks, serving up samples of their food for $5 a plate. Tickets will be sold at the event.

A business booth area will offer up a slice of local business as Tooele County businesses will be on display to show the public the variety of work being done in the county.

For people looking for work, The Taste of Our County includes a career area where local businesses with current employment opportunities will meet with people visiting the event.

The Taste of Our County includes games and prizes.

“Find out in one stop all the ways to live, eat, play, shop, and work right here in Tooele County,” said Jared Hamner, the Chamber’s executive director.

Sponsors of the Taste of Our County include: America United Federal Credit Union, EnergySolutions, Skull Valley Health Clinic, Tate Mortuary, Cargill Salt, CityWide Home Loans, Granger Medical, H&R Block, Tooele Technical College and the Small Business Development Center, Chartway Federal Credit Union, the Farm Bureau, Insurance Network, Tooele Roxberry, Tooele County Realtors Association and Symphony Medical Spa.

A review of evidence storage in Utah’s district and juvenile courts, released by the state Auditor’s Office last Wednesday, found a number of problems, including inadequate evidence management and insufficient controls on sensitive or valuable evidence like firearms and drugs. 

“The Court System’s current tools and evidence management practices are not adequate to implement the needed level of evidence security,” said State Auditor John Dougall. “Inadequate oversight of evidence increases the risk that evidence could be lost, stolen, damaged, or tampered with.”

Utah statute allows law enforcement officers to take possession of property in different ways, including seizing property related to a crime, such as money, firearms or drug paraphernalia. To ensure the evidence is secure, the Utah Judicial Council and the Administrative Office of the Courts are required to establish appropriate management controls and procedures, which include documenting and auditing evidence inventory, the audit report said.  

In the audit, six unidentified district courts and three juvenile courts were selected. The auditor’s office reviewed controls, best practices, and procedures for compliance with state code. 

The audit discovered problems out of the gate when it attempted to review the number of missing items by completing an inventory of the items held by the various courts. 

“However, due to the inadequacy of the courts’ evidence management practices, we were unable to conduct an inventory,” the audit report said. 

Best practices from the International Association for Property and Evidence include having an inventory conducted annually or whenever there is a change in evidence room personnel. 

“None of the clerks or exhibit managers we interviewed had knowledge of an evidence inventory, a self-audit, or an independent audit ever being performed,” the state auditor’s report said. 

Some court clerks and exhibit managers used features of their case management systems to record an evidentiary item when it was admitted during a court hearing, as well as indicate where it’s being stored and its final disposition, the audit said. The system doesn’t allow the creation of an inventory list, however, so the clerks and exhibit managers don’t know what items should be in the evidence room. 

Other exhibit managers used handwritten logs, notes or index cards to help document, track and locate evidence. The audit described these methods as tedious to search, which introduce additional human error and can easily be lost or destroyed. 

Each clerk seemed to have their own method of managing evidence, the audit said. 

To deal with the issues, the audit recommended using modern evidence management systems instead of handwritten methods, implementing management practices to allow clerks and exhibit managers to create inventory lists, require regular inventories of evidence and annual audits, and ensure court supervisors regularly inspect the evidence function. 

The audit also discovered either weak or lacking controls over evidence storage. None of the sampled courts maintained an access log for the evidence storage rooms, while five didn’t have multiple requirements to enter the room, such as a personnel card, biometric identification or hard key. 

Three of the courts allowed other people beside the exhibit manager and supervisor to access the evidence room. Four of the rooms had only a hard key for access, with no trail that could be audited. 

None of the courts reviewed in the audit had an alarm system for their evidence room, while only two had cameras near the door to the evidence room, according to the audit report. 

One of the evidence rooms had water leaking into it, which was dampening the carpet. This issue persisted when auditors returned 16 weeks later. 

 The audit report recommended requiring anyone who is not the exhibit manager or supervisor to sign and date an access log before entering the evidence room, supervisors should review access logs and keycard access at least monthly, and cameras and perimeter alarms should be installed. 

Auditors also found issues with inadequate documentation for the disposal of vulnerable evidence, including one case in which a previous exhibit manager “disposed of ‘a lot of firearms and narcotics’ by returning them to different police agencies by ‘loading a truck full of weapons and then returning them to the agencies.’”

In a letter attached to the released audit, State Court Administrator Judge Mary T. Noonan said steps are already being taken to address some of the issues from the audit report, including the creation of a baseline inventory in all district and juvenile courts, drafting detailed evidence and inventory policies, and generating a plan to train court clerks and evidence managers on how to effectively apply the evidence and inventory policies and procedures.

Agriculture takes the biggest swallow of Utah’s water, but more water will be needed for the 2.8 million new residents that Utah expects by 2065, according to a Utah Foundation report. 

The Utah Foundation released a research report in August that covered Utah’s water supply and future demand and how the state finances water development.

Titled “High and Dry: Water Supply Management, and Funding in Utah,” the report claims that as one of the driest states, water has helped mold Utah’s growth patterns.

Sustaining the state’s projected growth rate of 1.3% per year puts a focus on ensuring that future residents will have enough water, according to the report.

Like the state, Tooele County also anticipates growth with concerns about water, according to the county’s general plan.

 “With the improving economy and increasing growth pressures, the need to address development and growth is imminent, as it places constraints on limited resources in Tooele Valley, especially water,” states the county’s 2016 update to the general plan.  

The general plan’s population projections show Tooele County’s population growing from 67,782 in 2015 to 127,340 in 2040. The majority of that growth is expected to be in Tooele Valley. The valley’s population is expected to grow by 53,835 new residents, accounting for 90% of the total growth projected for the county by 2040.

Long-term average precipitation drops 61.5 million acre-feet of water on the state each year, according to the foundation report.

An acre-foot is the amount of water it takes to cover one acre of ground with one foot of water, which is 325,851 gallons or roughly one half the volume of an Olympic-size swimming pool.

Out of the 61.5 million acre-feet of precipitation annually, 53.8 million acre-feet, or 88% of the total precipitation, stays in what the report calls the “natural system” and is consumed through evapotranspiration — largely evaporation from plants.

A net of about 0.4 million acre-feet, or 0.6%  of Utah’s precipitation, ends up in other states. That leaves 7.3 million acre-feet of water to enter the state’s ground and surface water supply system.

Of that 7.3 million acre-feet of water, 3 million acre-feet evaporates from the Great Salt Lake annually. Another 1 million acre-feet evaporates annually from other streams and lakes in Utah.

At the end there is 3.3 million acre-feet, or 5.4% of the total precipitation, left for use by municipal, private and industrial use.

Some used water is passed on for future reuse. For example, water running down a sink drain or down a shower drain ends up back in the water system and is used again.

While there is 3.3 million acre-feet of available water annually in Utah, 2.6 million acre-feet of that water is consumed to the point that it no longer stays in the water system, according to the foundation report. 

However, Utah water users divert, or remove from the ground or streams for use, 5.2 million acre-feet of water annually, because they reuse some of the 2.6 million acre-feet of consumed water before it is finally depleted from further use.

The largest part of the 5.2 million acre-feet of diverted water, around 4.2 million acre-feet are used in agriculture. That’s 81% of the 5.2 million acre-feet.

Of the remaining 0.95 million acre-feet, 0.72 million acre-feet, or 14% of the 5.2 million acre-feet, are used by public community water systems, 0.22 million acre-feet are used by public non-community water systems, and 0.02 million acre-feet are used by domestic wells.

Out of the 0.72 million acre-feet used by municipal water systems, 0.178 million acre-feet are used for residential indoor use, and 0.331 million acre-feet are used for residential outdoor use, according to the foundation report.

The balance of the public community water system use, 0.208 million acre-feet, is used for industrial, commercial and institutional use.

At 0.178 million acre-feet of water for indoor residential use, 0.29% of the original 61.5 million acre-feet of  annual precipitation ends up used indoors for residential purposes.

Tooele County’s water use follows a similar pattern, but with a higher percentage of water used by agriculture.

A total of 89% of the freshwater used in Tooele County in 2015 was used for irrigation and livestock, 10% was used for residential use, and 1% for commercial and industrial, according to data from the United States Geological Survey.

In 2015, the per capita use of water from public supplies in Tooele County was 257 gallons per person per day. 

With 53,835 new people expected in Tooele Valley by 2040, at the rate of 257 gallons/person/day, water providers in the county will need to develop the capacity to deliver an additional 16.13 million gallons per day. In 2015 the public water supply was 13.8 million gallons per day.

Some of that water could come from converting agricultural water to residential water, if irrigated land is converted to residential use. In 2015 irrigation use in Tooele County averaged 83.2 million gallons per day, according to the USGS.

Some of the water could come from existing unused groundwater. In October 2018 an engineer with the Utah Division of Water Rights estimated that around 48,600 acre-feet of Tooele Valley’s estimated annual 67,000 acre-feet of recharge water, or water flowing annually into the valley, was currently being used.

The August report from the Utah Foundation is one of four reports the foundation plans on water and water development. The next three reports will focus on methods of financing water development.

According to the August report, the next three reports will “dive deeper into how using property taxes and water rates to fund water development and delivery can affect key priorities, including conservation, fairness, fiscal health, transparency and representation.”

The Utah Foundation is a non-profit organization. Its mission is “to produce objective, thorough and well-reasoned research and analysis that promotes the effective use of public resources, a thriving economy, a well-prepared workforce and a high quality of life for Utahns.”

After two years of planning and preparation, construction began on an underpass below state Route 138 near Porter Way Park on Wednesday. 

During the Stansbury Service Agency meeting on Wednesday night, manager Gary Jensen said ground was broken on the project, beginning with utility work. The company doing boring work finished with CenturyLink earlier in the day, Jensen said. 

Other utilities followed suit, moving their lines below 20 to 25 feet and underneath the bottom of the prefabricated underpass when it’s installed, according to Jensen. Dominion Energy will move its gas line in the area to avoid having to drop it to the depth required with the underpass. 

Jensen said the total cost of the project, including utility work and construction, will be approximately $1 million. The underpass would provide safe pedestrian access under SR-138 at Porter Way Park and connect the trail system and parks on either side of the highway.

Last September, the service agency received two bids on the project — $943,775 from Stapp Construction in North Salt Lake and $986,898 from Probuild Construction of Salt Lake City. Jensen said the cost of the utility work would be added to the accepted bid price from Stapp Construction. 

At the same meeting the bids were received, board chairman Neil Smart said the service agency will receive $650,000 in grant money for the underpass project, including $400,000 from the Utah Department of Transportation, $150,000 from a Utah Outdoor Recreation Grant through the state Office of Outdoor Recreation, and $100,000 from the Tooele County Health Department.

The gate to a road in Ophir Canyon closed by a court order was torn down during Labor Day weekend, according to owners of the property traversed by the controversial road.

The upper gate on Serviceberry Canyon Road, which marks where only non-motorized travel is permitted on the road, according to the Tooele County Trail Map, was torn down sometime during holiday weekend, according to a representative of the Leo Ault family.

“This is the second time this summer the top gate has been ripped out on Serviceberry,” said the representative. “They tore it right off the post and then drove on top of it.”

There are side-by-side tracks on the back of the sign that says “Hikers and horsemen only” and the gate was bent, the Leo Ault family told the Transcript Bulletin.

A copy of the court order closing Serviceberry Canyon Road affixed to the gate post was also removed, according to the property owners.

In August 2018, the Tooele County Commission voted to order the road be open to all forms of traffic as a public road. But only days after the order, the Leo Ault family filed a suit in the 3rd District Court challenging the order by the County Commission.

Pending a court decision, the Leo Ault family either owns Serviceberry Canyon Road as a private road or it is a public road running through the Leo Ault family’s property.

The Leo Ault family was also successful in getting 3rd District Court Judge Matthew Bates to issue a restraining order staying the County Commission’s decision and requiring Serviceberry Canyon Road to be closed to all but foot and horse traffic until he holds a hearing on the dispute.

The Leo Ault family claims that the road has always been private. 

The family further claims the county agreed to keep Serviceberry Canyon Road closed to all but foot and horse traffic as part of a 2009 agreement reached with the county to end years of dispute over roads in Ophir Canyon, and to make way for the county’s system of trail loops in the area. 

But the 2009 agreement has been questioned by some members of the public, including ATV riders and organizations, because the closure of Serviceberry Canyon Road and other roads and trails were not included in the resolution nor the minutes of the County Commission meeting when the deal was approved. 

Two years after the agreement was approved, then Tooele County Commissioner Jerry Hurst recorded a map that showed the closure of Serviceberry Canyon Road, which he claimed should have been included in the original documentation of the agreement with the Leo Ault family.

Hurst also sent a letter to Leo Ault stating that the road was being managed as a limited access trail.

Serviceberry Canyon Road is popular with ATV riders because it allows access to both the Jacob City Loop and Lion Hill Loop trails from the county’s campground in Ophir Canyon.

The county does not expect a court hearing on the road until August 2020, according to Tooele County Commissioner Kendall Thomas.

The Tooele County School District Board of Education is taking its case for a $190 million bond to the public this month.

The school district will hold three community meetings on its bond proposal during the month of September. The meetings will be held on Sept. 16 at Stansbury High School, on Sept. 26 at Grantsville High School and on Sept. 30 at Tooele High School. Each meeting will start at 6:30 p.m.

The school board is asking voters to support a $190 million bond during the Nov. 5 election to build a new high school in Overlake, a new junior high school in Stansbury Park, a new  elementary school in Grantsville, and to pay for security upgrades for existing school buildings.

The new schools are needed because existing buildings are already filled beyond capacity and the school district’s enrollment is expected to increase by more than 3,000 students in the next five years, according to the school district’s argument for the bonds posted on its website.

“The District has worked to make effective use of existing classrooms and added portables to schools which are already filled beyond capacity. … Currently, we have multiple schools in high-growth areas that are beyond the ideal capacity for student enrollment,” reads the school district’s argument.

The ballot language, as required by state law, states that without regard to any levies for current bonds that may decrease over time, the property tax impact of $190 million in new bonds over a 20-year period for the current average home valued at $250,000 would be $346 annually. The cost for a business property of the same value would be $630 annually.

However, the school district does have payments for current bonds that will be reduced over time, resulting in a net annual property tax impact of $128 for the owner of a $250,000 home. The net annual property tax impact for a business of the same value would be $233, according to the ballot language included in the resolution.

The school district purchased property for the new high school and the new junior high school with funds from bonds approved by voters in 2015. The new elementary school will be built in the Grantsville area. The location has not yet been determined.

If the bond passes, work on the new high school will start next summer. Construction of the new junior high will begin in the spring of 2022 and work on the new elementary school will begin in the summer of 2022. The high school will be completed by spring 2023. The elementary school will be completed by the summer of 2023. The junior high school will be completed by the spring of 2024. Safety and security upgrades for existing schools will be completed by the summer of 2023.

The community meetings on the school bond will be held on Sept. 16 at Stansbury High School at 5300 Aberdeen Lane in Stansbury in the school’s auditorium, on Sept. 26 at Grantsville High School at 55 E. Cherry Street in Grantsville in the lunchroom, and on Sept. 30 at Tooele High School at 301 W. Vine Street in Tooele in the auditorium. Each meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.