Q: Kansas?

A: Right. We used to travel to Canada one summer for our vacation and to Texas the next summer. Visit my family one summer and visit her family the next. Both of the about the same – flat. After we had been married for 2 years and I was drafted into the army. Luanne was born when I was in service. When I went into the service we didn’t have any kids. I was in Colorado.

Moab has certainly changed.

Q: In what respect?

A: In the business. When we first came, oil was dominant, mining was dominant. There was construction. They were in the process at Potash, the road, the tunnel, all that was done the first few years we were here.

Q: Does your son still have plenty of things to blast?

A: Not in Grand County, but Moab was the location of where they started and he travels to Colorado, Nevada. He’s on the road almost every week. The only reason they left the headquarters here is probably because they have an office here, storage magazine here and get out to all these places.

Q: They have a business in Moab that’s involved in outer lands, the blasting business.

A: When we were in business here, we would have been better served to have packed up and moved to Nevada where the activity was, but I liked Moab and didn’t want to leave so we kept our office here and did whatever it took to do to deliver the stuff. And it worked out good for us.

Q: Satisfied with business, family? What do you worry about?

A: I worry about our grandkids getting a good education. We’re hopefully involved with them.

End of tape

I worry about water for the golf course, water for the valley, it’s a big thing in the desert country where we have enough water to take care of things. We have a river that’s close by and all remember Lester Taylor saying, “You know, even an old dumb cow knows to go to the river to go get water. We don’t get any of our water out of the river.

Q: They’re talking about pumping water up to Ken’s Lake and exchanging it.

A: I don’t think that will ever happen, That’s too….

Q: At one time they talked about the golf course fertilizer getting into the culinary water.

A: The way we fertilize the golf course, that will never happen. It’s just a fact that they use a method there that the fertilizer is consumed; it gets used by the grass. The quantity that they put on for the grass is never going to go deep enough to get into the culinary water. And they test it on a regular basis.

Q: Does the golf course waste water – having a golf course.

A: Waste water? Yes. We waste water.

Q: Are you concerned about this?

A: Yes. What we try to do is to try not to water during the day because that’s when you lose water by evaporation. Pumps start at 7 at night and are off by 6 the next morning so there is never any during the day watering. It’s a concern. Water is a concern in the desert valley and you get more people and you need more water.

Q: The local paper has an article about the water and the overlapping agencies. Do you have thoughts on that?

A: I do, but I’m going to try to keep those quiet. Because if you get me started on there, you don’t want to tape that. I’ve noticed in the two articles that Lisa Church has written. Bless her heart, she does a good job. The only people she has quoted in those two articles that she has written has been Barbara Morra.

Q: She objects to the setup now?

A: I wish she would talk to some of the other people on those boards. There are some good sharp people on those boards. Gray Wilson is a water user but he is also a good sharp hand and knows what he’s talking about.

Q: A third article today, haven’t read it

A: I haven’t seen the paper today but that will be the last of three articles. I cut the first article out and saved the second one and I’ll save the third and then I’ll go through and read all three of them. Then I want to go to Sam Taylor and see if Sam will listen or maybe Sam will write an article about some of these things.

Q: A civic concern?

A: Exactly, because the golf course is a major user of Kens Lake, we own a lot of shares of water from Kens Lake.

Q; You use the irrigation water and not the culinary water?

A: We try to use 100% of the water from Ken’s Lake. But the City and the golf course has an agreement that goes back 20, 30 years whereby the golf course had wells on the course and the city took over those wells to pump into the city system and the city said that as long as we lease the golf course from the city and we will give you backup water when you need extra water. So we pump some water and pay the city for it. We have one of the old well out there that they let us pump out of.

Q: Near the George White wells?

A: Yes it’s across both Pack Creek and Mill Creek on the far side. And two of the city’s big wells are right there by the golf course and we have one of the old wells that the city doesn’t use anymore. When we need additional water then we pump out of that well into a pond.

Q: I suppose all of the water supply is dependent upon the population and population increases?

A: Well, sure. We have an aquifer here that will take care of the water needs of the valley as long as we can keep Ken’s Lake full so that the irrigators can use it. Last year we had a real problem because Ken’s Lake ran out of water and we had to pump some water into our lakes. We’re hurting this year to get it back green again because we lost a lot of grass out there last year. We lease the city from the city and run it for the city. They have a 7-member board that is non-profit – nobody gets paid. They just give of their time and their energy. We have some really good people on the golf board as well as they have really good people on those water boards. Lots of good fine people in this valley that give of their time and their energy to do that stuff. Same as right here on the Hospital and the museum boards. Takes an awful lot of time.