This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The tragic Bear Lake boating accident on June 1 that left four dead and three injured apparently occurred on the Idaho side of the lake, but while Utah officials mounted a multiple-agency effort to find the missing boaters on the storm-ravaged waters, Idaho officials were not notified.
In response to a story last week in the local Rich Civic Times that chronicled the rescue efforts, Bear Lake State Park Manager Kirk Rich wrote that the call came through the Rich County, Utah, 911 system and nobody on the Utah side contacted Idaho rescue agencies.
"Since the boat was found on the Idaho side of the line, it can be assumed that the tragedy occurred in Idaho waters," Rich wrote to the Rich County-based newspaper. "However, Rich dispatch and Utah Parks treated it as a Utah emergency and chose not to contact Idaho State Parks and its marine deputies or Bear Lake County dispatch."
He added that Utah officials chose not to notify their Idaho counterparts "for reasons unknown" and Idaho agents only learned of the disaster when a Bear Lake County deputy stopped a Rich County deputy for speeding in the Fish Haven area. "He then informed the Bear Lake deputy of the Idaho emergency."
That was several hours after the search was launched, and by the time the Idaho folks got involved, the bodies and survivors had been found and the search was essentially over.
The Rich Civic Times reported that rescue efforts from the Utah side included two Utah State Parks boats, a late-dispatched Coast Guard boat berthed in Utah and manned by Utah rescue personnel, three smaller privately owned Utah boats, and three Rich County-based ambulances, as well as three Utah-based helicopters.
The tragedy claimed the life of a Utah father and his two daughters, along with a teenage friend of the family. The mother and two other teenagers in the group were rescued from the freezing waters.
Rich County Sheriff Dale Stacey said that he arrived at the scene late, and didn't realize the Idaho responders had not been notified.
"They should have been notified sooner," Stacey said. "We're taking steps to make sure this never happens again."
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Coincidental timing? • For 29 years Jeff Campbell has occupied a corner home on Emerson Avenue and Foothill Drive and was surprised to receive a menacing letter last week from Salt Lake City's Housing and Zoning office threatening fines and fees over the weeds on a narrow eight-inch strip of property between his fence and the city-owned sidewalk.
Campbell, 70, normally keeps the weeds cut down, but abundant spring rains led to a heavier-than-normal growth and he had not yet gotten around to the chore.
For nearly three decades in the home, the weeds had never attracted the attention of city zoning enforcers between cuttings.
But that was before he placed a 4-foot-by-4-foot "Jackie Biskupski for Mayor" sign on the fence.
The kicker? Campbell says that among the reasons he supports Biskupski over incumbent Mayor Ralph Becker is the administration's water conservation plan to halt maintenance and watering on 14.7 acres of the nearby Bonneville Golf Course, thus allowing some of the landscape to be taken over by weeds.
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Going around in circles • While state officials are touting their newly redesigned utah.gov website as a one-stop shop for obtaining information about government agencies and services, Pat Shea, attorney, college professor and former Democratic state chairman, found himself on a never-ending merry-go-round when he logged onto the site Tuesday.
When he tried to log on and enter his user name and password, he was told to do it again. And again. And again.
He clicked "Help" and he got "Gracie," a Utah version of the cyber character in the movie "Her."
Gracie: "Gracie from Utah.gov is here!"
Shea: "I have for two hours been trying to get on to the Board of Pardons and Parole. I have filled out each application for 'permission' to get on my state government's website, and each time I have been caught in a circular process with no exit. This is ridiculous to the extreme. How do I break out of the circle?"
No response.
Shea: "Hello, anyone home?"
Gracie : "We do not handle tech support for that particular site. However, if you are getting stuck in a loop, try clearing your browsing history, then re-entering the site."
That didn't work either.