Posted: Saturday, November 10, 2007 12:00 am
Area regains ambulance service
HANNA - The Interstate 80 corridor through eastern Carbon County and the surrounding communities will again have a locally based ambulance service to assist the traveling public and local residents with medical emergencies.
The ambulance will be stationed at the new fire station in Elk Mountain, just off I-80. The decision came at a special meeting called by the Carbon County Commission Thursday in Hanna.
Six months ago, the Hanna ambulance service that had served that area for years collapsed under the weight of local intergovernmental rivalry and internal bickering. As a result, the area north of I-80 was left with an on-again, off-again ambulance service provided by local volunteers as the Hanna Town Council struggled to rebuild the organization.
County Commissioner Terry Weickum and other county officials worked to find a solution before winter set in.
Patsy Carter, chief executive officer of Memorial Hospital of Carbon County, agreed to station two of the hospital's full-time EMTs in Elk Mountain along with an ambulance and other equipment for the next six months to provide temporary emergency medical care for the area. These full-time employees will be assisted by volunteer EMTs from the surrounding communities.
During this time, an effort will be made to establish an area-wide joint powers board as the permanent solution to providing emergency medical care and ambulance service to the northeastern portion of the county.
Carter estimated the plan would cost about $100,000. Weickum asked the area towns to assist in defraying the cost.
Inmates return to Utah jail
SALT LAKE CITY - Department of Corrections officials have returned 10 prison inmates to the Daggett County Jail after an escape raised concerns about the facility's security plans.
Corrections director Tom Patterson says jail officials have addressed security concerns raised in a state review. He says he can't talk about the lapses state investigators found, but says he's pleased with the changes county officials have made.
The state is providing training for the jail's correctional officers. The jail also has added officers and hired a new jail commander who is a former warden at the state prison in Gunnison.
Patterson says he plans to return as many 60 inmates to the jail over time. Eighty prisoners were being housed there before the Sept. 23 escape of two convicted murderers.
Danny Gallegos and Juan Diaz-Arevalo escaped from the medium-security jail in Manila through a broken door and over a fence. They were on the run six days before being caught in Wyoming. One jailer resigned after the escape.
Last month another state inmate slipped over a razor-wire fence and jumped off the roof of the county jail in Beaver. He was caught within about five hours.
None of those returned to the jail Thursday were convicted of violent offenses.
State inmates are housed in county jails across the state due to crowding at state prisons in Draper and Gunnison.