I wanted to give everyone a report on what happened Friday at the Appropriations Committee Meeting.
In the appropriations Committee Meeting on Friday Feb. 6, 2015, Brian Cottam, Director for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, and did a very good job of glossing over the details. He presented a slide that said:
Sovereign Lands FY16 Building Blocks
Utah Lake
And then Mr. Cottam, said “We have within the Governor’s budget $1.5 million dollars for marina dredging. We have been having extensive conversation with State Parks, there’s 3 marinas that could use dredging, Antelope Island being the third which we are not considering right now, so it’s the Great Salt Lake Marina and Utah Lake State Park. From conversations with State Parks what we would recommend is to prioritize Utah Lake this year, with an understanding that we would come back next year most likely to make a request for Great Salt Lake Marina. If you would like more specific information there are folks from State Parks here that can speak to the dredging and the cost. From a Sovereign Lands perspective though, we believe this is a good use of the restricted account because going back to the public trusts, navigation, recreation, public safety, making sure our search and rescue vehicles and boats can get out of marinas that’s the public trust doctrine interest that we have, but we absolutely support State Parks interests in getting these marinas dredged and continuing to be useful as well.” (Emphasis added)
It is URGENT that we keep the pressure on. From what we saw on Friday it appears that the final decision lays in the hands of State Parks and is being supported by Mr. Cottam of the Utah Division of Forestry Fire and State Lands. However we still need to keep the pressure on the Appropriations Committee as well. WE NEED TO BE VERY VISIBLE.
Please contact Governor Herbert and voice your concerns about the State Parks decision to dredge Utah Lake instead of GSL Marina
http://www.utah.gov/governor/contact/index.html
Please also contact the following people and put the pressure on to dredge the GSL Marina
Brian Cottam, Director of Forestry Fire and State Lands
Tracy Dunford, Deputy Director of Forestry Fire and State Lands
Particularly start putting pressure on this man:
Fred M. Hayes
Utah Division of State Parks and Recreation
Deputy Director/Operations
1594 West North Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114
801-538-7435
I could not find his email but I assume it is fredhayes@utah.gov (If anyone finds a different email please let me know)
or use this link for State Parks http://stateparks.utah.gov/resources/about/contact
WE HAVE A VERY SHORT WINDOW OF TIME - please, please, please don't wait to contact these people. It might be helpful if you let them know whether or not you will be removing your boat from the marina this year if dredging is not done.
I am going to try to get appointments to have a meeting with Fred Hayes and Brian Cottam - I will keep you posted if I actually get those meetings scheduled.
Janet Robins
801-560-6097 cell