Three generations of shot put athletes See B2 TOOELETRANSCRIPT S T C BULLETIN S THURSDAY May 16, 2019 www.TooeleOnline.com Vol. 125 No. 100 $1.00 Legislative Auditor finds fault with UMC sale But despite poor process, auditors found no conflict of interest or who they sold it to, or the decision to operate it during the interim time improper business dealings between Tooele County and UMC period,” said Ben Buys, audit manager. “Our concerns with the county’s sale TIM GILLIE Motorsports Campus during the com- was not who they sold it to, but rather EDITOR mittee’s meeting on Tuesday afternoon the process that they followed that Tooele County taxpayers may have in the House Building at the Utah State we feel left them with little to defend lost at least $11.1 million through the Capitol. themselves when the sales decision county’s mishandling of the sale of The audit was requested by Rep. was taken to court.” Utah Motorsports Campus. Doug Sagers, R-Tooele, and prepared Tooele County Commission That’s one of the findings of a per- by the Legislative Auditor General. Chairman Tom Tripp responded to the formance audit of the sale completed Tooele County not only mishan- audit report on behalf of the county. by the Office of the Legislative Auditor dled the sale of UMC, the auditors “Tooele County strives to be a General. also found that the Tooele County trusted steward of public resources FILE PHOTO The Audit Subcommittee of the Commission did not fulfill its responsi- and welcomes the audit recommen- Flags flying at the Utah Motorsports Campus to welcome race fans on Aug. 31, 2016. Legislative Management Committee bility to oversee the raceway’s finances. dations as a means of improving our The Utah Legislative Auditor General issued a report that was critical of the sale of heard a report on a performance audit “We don’t disagree with the the UMC and the county’s oversight of facility during the three years it was owned by of Tooele County’s sale of the Utah county’s decision to sell the property, SEE AUDITOR PAGE A4 ® the county. New water tanks installed in Rush Valley for fire suppression PHOTOS FRANCIE AUFDEMORTE STEVE HOWE STAFF WRITER One 5,000-gallon water tank was already in the ground when the second concrete tank arrived shortly after 2 p.m. on Wednesday. The tanks, installed behind the tennis courts at Rush Valley FRANCIE AUFDEMORTE/TTB PHOTO Town Hall, doubled the town’s Tooele County School District Superintendent Scott Rogers demonstrates a newly installed available water for fire sup- school security feature at Rose Spings Elementary School, Aug. 22, 2018. A survey of school district voters shows strong support for school safety improvements. pression. Connected to a gravi- ty-fed fire hydrant rated at 500 gallons per minute the tanks, are fed by a nearby spring, School board gets according to Weston Jensen of Utah Underground of Tooele. The $36,000 project was completed through a part- data on bond support nership between Shambip Conservation District, Rush Valley Water Conservation District and Utah Conservation from voter survey Commission, according to Alisa Meyer, a board member of the TIM GILLIE heard the results of a random sample Shambip Conservation District. EDITOR survey of 400 voters designed to The project to improve fire If a bond election were held today, a evaluate general perceptions about suppression capabilities was measure with a tax impact of up to $55 the school district and gauge support conceived about a year and a per year for the average home owner, for potential capital projects during its half ago, she said. it would receive a majority support. meeting Tuesday night at the school “A lot of these remote com- But, if lunchroom expansion and district office. munities don’t have a lot of artificial turf are priority projects, the The survey was conducted by Baker access to water, especially in school district would need to make a Tilly, a Chicago-based advisory, tax the winter time,” Meyer said. strong case to convince the electorate. and assurance firm. The poll was While fire departments may That’s the conclusion of a survey of designed to be representative of Tooele have access to irrigation lines Tooele County voters completed by a County voters with a margin of error of or reservoirs in the summer, consulting firm for the Tooele County plus or minus 4.9%, according to Don many of those sources are fro- School District in preparation for a Lifto, a director with Baker Tilly, who zen or unavailable in the win- possible November 2019 bond elec- specializes in helping school districts ter, Meyer said. tion. “In the winter we need a The Tooele County School Board SEE SURVEY PAGE A5 ® freeze-proof source of water that they can tap into to fight these mostly structural fires,” SEE TANK PAGE A5 ® City Council denies Utah Avenue rezone STEVE HOWE ted 7,000-square-foot minimum lots STAFF WRITER instead of 1 acre minimum lots. The A rezone for 16.4 acres of rural RR-1 zone also permits large animals, property along West Utah Avenue to which the R1-7 designation does not. R1-7 zoning was unanimously denied Angela Hill said she had concerns A 5,000-gallon water tank is lowered in place (top by the Tooele City Council during its about infrastructure, including add- and left) in Rush Valley on Wednesday. Loralie meeting Wednesday night. ing so many homes near Northlake Cox, Utah Department of Agriculture; Weston The rezone had been forwarded Elementary School, adjacent to the Jenson, Utah Underground; Darrell Johnson and to the City Council with a negative intersection of Coleman Street and Alisa Meyer, Shambip Conservation District board recommendation from the Tooele City Utah Avenue. Like others speaking at members; Ken McArthur, Tooele County assistant Planning Commission at its meeting Wednesday’s meeting, she also had fire warden; Jerry Caldwell, Utah Conservation last Wednesday. concerns about rezoning property with Commission; Dan Walton, Tooele County fire war- In a public hearing preceding the the rural designation. den and Kevin Russell, Rush Valley Fire Department chief (above). The installation of the water tank is City Council’s deciding vote, sev- “They talk about affordable housing an inter-agency cooperative effort for fire suppres- eral residents spoke out against the sion in Rush Valley. rezone, which would have permit- SEE REZONE PAGE A5 ® INSIDE BULLETIN BOARD A6 CLASSIFIEDS B6 State track School grading Clark signs HOMETOWN B2 preview policy approved with Western OBITUARIES A8 See A10 See A2 Nebraska SPORTS A10 See A10 A2 TOOELE TRANSCRIPT BULLETIN THURSDAY May 16, 2019 School board revises grading policy after one year of use TIM GILLIE guage clarifying that assess- in which it was assigned to ing the board meeting to limit EDITOR ment scores may come from within three weeks of its due retakes to a total of two. After one school year tests, projects, formal/infor- date with late work turned in When asked about teach- of application, the Tooele mal assessments, quizzes, later than three calendar days ers requiring evidence of County School Board has demonstrations, papers and before the end of the quarter learning effort prior to retak- adopted changes to its new portfolios. forfeits the opportunity for ing an assessment, Patricia district-wide grading policy. The policy already stated revisions due to quarter end Walker, director of teaching Changes to the district that final grade weighting deadlines. and learning for the school grading policy were approved is to include assessments, The grading policy allows district, said those type of by the school board at its homework, and classwork, for students to do “retakes” or requirements are more of a meeting held Tuesday night with assessment weighing in redo work to demonstrate an procedure than a policy and at the school district office. at no more than 50 percent increased proficiency of stan- allow flexibility for students. The approved revisions and homework at no more dards and/or objectives for Board member Melissa change the number of scores than 10 percent of the final the possibility of full credit, Rich said that the grad- on which grades are based grade. The balance of the barring late work. ing policy is a good thing, from a range of seven to nine grade is to come from class- Late work is discounted by but because it is so new, with three of those being work. a 10 percent reduction in the the board should consider assessments to at least seven The revision also changes score, according to the policy. reviewing the policy annu- with three assessments. TTB FILE PHOTO the deadline for late work The revision of the retakes ally. The revision includes lan- David Millward teaches math at Grantsville High School in 2013. from within the quarter term language was amended dur- [email protected] Tooele man pleads RUSHING WATER guilty to robbery, drug charges STEVE HOWE to buy marijuana, the prob- STAFF WRITER able cause statement said. A Tooele man pleaded guilty Following the assault, Moore to two felony charges in 3rd and the suspect allegedly took District Court on Tuesday, the victim’s cell phone and a receiving three years of proba- silver pendant on a chain neck- tion. lace. Mikhail B. Moore, 18, plead- During the investigation, ed guilty to an amended count officers reached out to Moore, of second-degree felony aggra- who agreed to meet with vated robbery and second- police at his home, the state- degree felony distribution of a ment said.