Uranium – It’s a “hot” topic

NORTHERN ELECTRIC
When folks ask me about La Sal, I say it is an old ranching and mining town.  For ranching it is feast and famine – leaning more toward famine.  Local mining is ebb and flow. 
When times get hard, ranchers hunker down and hang and rattle.  When the free market system and other factors affect mining, they tend to ebb and flow – flow right on out of the area to where folks can find mining jobs.
Any “energy” topic or provider is fraught with controversy.  Uranium is no exception.  Is it a clean, safe source of energy or a tool of the devil bring untold destruction upon our lives and environment?!
Of late, the sentiments tend toward clean energy sources, such as solar and wind, and away from consumptive and pollutive fossil fuels.  Solar and wind however are not without controversy – often hot, contentious controversy as I discover often in my day job.  There is a sentiment for clean energy such as solar and wind, but “not in my back yard”, or in my viewshed or anywhere akin to having wilderness characteristics.  Quite the dilemma – still.
Anyone who has moved to Sierra La in the past 60 or so years moved here with uranium mines firmly established in their “back yard”.  Truth be told, many of us probably have mine shafts under our yards.
Well, if you have an opinion on local uranium developments, a public meeting will be held this Thursday night, January 13, at the community center beginning at 7:30 p.m. 
Denison Mining, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management will inform the public of proposals to expand current mining shafts in our community.  This topic and meeting has garnered interest enough to have had an article in the Salt Lake Tribune last week.  Unfortunately, it was a very biased article, so if you have a strong opinion about what is to happen in your “back yard”, this is your opportunity to speak up.
Have you noticed the nice new sign on the community center advertising our nice new library?  Our local librarian has plans to expand services and activities at the La Sal library.  Thursday afternoons at 1 a.m. is the weekly story hour for preschool kids.
Future plans include possible computer classes on Tuesday nights for those who want to learn or hone their skills.  I, for one, want to learn to Facebook.  Family night activities are also in the works. Remember reading and chocolate night a few weeks ago?
Even though our library is little and a satellite of the bigger county libraries, it features the latest books by popular and favorite authors.  New books arrive weekly.  The audio library is also greatly expanding, a great feature for those who commute to work. 
Our area was graced once more with a January blizzard.  So much for January thaw!  This storm was more wind than snow. 
Thank goodness for the nice woodpiles stacked in finer days!