FRONT PAGE A1 THURSDAY www.tooeletranscript.com TUESDAY TOOELE RANSCRIPT Sundance T Film Festival brings stars to Utah See A12 BULLETIN January 22, 2008 SERVING TOOELE COUNTY SINCE 1894 VOL. 114 NO. 71 50¢ Water, sewer top priorities for Stockton by Sarah Miley problems with drilling, that gency plan put in place for we try to keep the rural atmo- STAFF WRITER timetable has been pushed the residents of Stockton. sphere around Stockton, and back. “Recently we had the yet there are some that want Stockton Town Council The well will go down 650 power outage [during a to be annexed in that would members aim to tackle infra- feet, Durtschi said, though severe windstorm Jan. 4], change the whole nature of structure upgrades, emer- it has only been drilled to and in the past we’ve had our town,” Durtschi said. gency plans and an annexa- about 380 feet at present. It water shortages, so I’d like Powell said she would also tion policy for the fast-grow- will be 15 inches in diam- to have something in place like to see some progress ing town in 2008. eter. to make sure that the towns- toward a new sewer system Councilwoman Teresa “It could conceivably people are OK and that any and sewage treatment plant. Powell and Councilman give us enough water for problems they may face can Currently, the town relies on Donnie West — both of the whole town, if our main be met,” he said. septic systems. whom are newly elected water source — which is the Durtschi said he thinks the “The biggest problem as photography / Troy Boman — said they are excited for runoff down the canyon — biggest issue that many citi- far as the septic tanks and The Tooele County real estate market remains steady compared to national the opportunity to push the were to fail on us,” he said. zens have concerns about, leach fields would be aimed trends. Foreclosures during the last quarter of 2007 are up 7 percent from improvements on behalf of Powell, who spent four besides water, is the town’s at the older, smaller, under- the same time period compared to last year in Tooele County. National fore- closure rates rose 68 percent in the same period. residents. years on the town’s Planning annexation policy. sized lots that have been “I do really like the resi- and Zoning Board, said it’s “We have a policy, but absorbing waste for a very dents of this town and feel been about two years since it’s not workable to accept long time,” she said. “We honored that they have the well’s conception and annexations,” he said. “If need to be planning on a Foreclosures rising placed their trust in my deci- she’s also hoping it’s com- someone wants to annex system in case the ground sion making,” Powell said. “It pleted this year. into our town, we have to just cannot absorb it any- is my goal to make sure that “The single source of water have more stringent guide- more.” their voices and concerns are that we have at this point lines than what we currently She said a sewer system but not by much heard and acted upon.” could be in jeopardy depend- have.” would be beneficial to keep Completion of a well this ing on Mother Nature in the Durtschi would like to pace with future growth. by Doug Radunich year in Stockton is a top spring with snowmelt and make sure that when annex- “A sewer system would STAFF WRITER priority. Councilman David runoff,” Powell said. ation requests come in the also enable the town to have Durtschi said the well, which West said getting the well town knows the exact logis- some type of growth if the The local real estate market may be down but anecdotal will provide a secondary finished is his top priority. In tics of any new development citizens decide that is the evidence suggests Tooele County, unlike many parts of the water source to the town, addition, he will push to get — i.e., lot sizes, whether direction they would like to nation, is seeing only a modest rise in foreclosures. That’s left was originally slotted for some of the town’s old, out- curb and gutter are present, go,” she said. many agents and brokers feeling optimistic they may have completion before the spring dated equipment upgraded. and zoning designations. [email protected] dodged a bullet. runoff. However, because of He’d also like to see an emer- “That’s a big issue because Steve Griffith, associate broker for Prudential Utah Real Estate in Tooele, said he has noticed a few more foreclosures since the start of this year when compared with the same time last year, but the increase has been slight. CLEARING THE WAY “We haven’t really seen an increase in foreclosures like everyone predicted, but there have definitely been a few more than what we saw during this same time last year,” he said. “Still, it has been nothing like what people had anticipated.” The relatively low rate of foreclosures locally mirrors a statewide situation. According to a report done by RealtyTrac, Utah’s home foreclosure rate for the last quarter of 2007 increased 7 percent from the last quarter of 2006, while foreclosures rose nearly 68 percent nationally over the same period. A recent study done last month by the Mortgage Bankers Association found Utah ranked 47th in the nation for foreclosure rates. “Things are definitely not as heavy as people thought they were going to be at this time,” said Gina Garrison, manager and vice president for Equity Title Agency in Tooele. “People were looking at the national trend and seeing how lenders are now more leery and cautious about who they give out loans to.” Brad Sutton, branch broker for Coldwell Banker, said the local real estate market might still be better than the Wasatch Front’s. “We haven’t really seen any movement up or down in Tooele County with foreclosures that have actively hit the market,” he said. “My office even had a better December 2007 than the December before, and so far this January has been about even with January of last year. For the general market, based on numbers I’ve seen, the Salt Lake area is slower than Tooele County, and I’ve talked to agents about listings in Salt Lake and found that action there seems to be slower than here.” Sutton said lately he has seen more “short sales” instead of straight foreclosures. A short sale occurs when a bank or mortgage lender allows a property to be sold for less than the photography / Troy Boman amount owed on a mortgage — a practice used to prevent foreclosures. Sean Burns shovels his Stansbury Park sidewalk Monday with the help of his daughter, Keeli. Up to six inches of snow fell in the Banks will often choose to allow a short sale if they believe Tooele Valley over the weekend. Partly cloudy skies are forecasted for the remainder of the week with scattered snow showers through Thursday. SEE RISING PAGE A5 ➤ Menlove backing bill to make magnesium official state metal by Tim Gillie from the shores of the Great Salt Lake which she discovered the state had no STAFF WRITER for 35 years. official metal. “The bill is a great opportunity to Utah’s metal industry pumped $616 It’s silvery, light and strong — and call attention to industry in Tooele million into the state’s economy last not many people know what it’s used County,” said Menlove. “As I under- year, according to Utah Industries of for. That description of magnesium stand it, the US Magnesium plant is the Future. Production of copper, mag- could change however if state Rep. one of the few places left in America nesium, steel and zirconium account Ronda Menlove gets her way. where magnesium is produced.” for most of the metals produced in Menlove, who represents Tooele in The largest producer of magnesium Utah. Copper and magnesium are House District 1, is pushing to have worldwide is China. both manufactured from ores native magnesium officially declared the Tom Tripp, technical services man- to Utah, while steel and zirconium state metal of Utah during this year’s ager for US Magnesium, said few plac- production rely on ores imported to legislative session. Her House Bill es in the world are as good a source of Utah. 297 would put the little-known metal the metal as the Great Salt Lake. Magnesium appears the front-run- on equal footing with the California “The magnesium is already in solu- ner for state metal, as copper has seagull (state bird), the blue spruce tion and there are fewer impurities already won the designation of state (state tree) and the sego lily (state compared to mining the ore,” said mineral. flower). Tripp. Magnesium is the ninth most abun- The idea originated with US Menlove said she was approached dant element found on the Earth by photography / Maegan Burr Magnesium. The Rowley-based com- by US Magnesium about the designa- Bars of magnesium cool before they are packed at USMagnesium. State Rep. pany has extracted raw magnesium tion and did some research, during SEE METAL PAGE A6 ➤ Rhonda Menlove is pushing to have magnesium officially declared the state metal of Utah during this year’s Legislative session. WEATHER OPEN FORUM A4 HOMETOWN B1 INSIDE Scattered snow showers predicted OBITUARIES A7 BULLETIN BOARD A8 Native Argentine bakes treats through Thursday with highs in TV LISTINGS B2 CLASSIFIEDS B4 from her homeland the low to mid-30s.