A Tooele man is facing 12 misdemeanor charges in connection with driving under the influence and assaulting medical staff following a rollover accident in Stockton.

Kevin Jay Stewart, 56, faces nine counts of assault, one count of driving under the influence, one count of threat of violence and one count of assault against a police officer.

Officers responded to reports of a vehicle rollover in Soldier Canyon near the water filtration plant on Monday around 12:30 p.m., according to Stockton police. When officers arrived on scene, they made contact with Stewart, who was the driver of the vehicle and he appeared to be intoxicated and smelled of alcohol.

Following discussions with witnesses and evidence gathering, Stewart was arrested for driving under the influence, a probable cause statement said. At the scene, a preliminary breath test performed on Stewart returned a blood alcohol content of 0.17.

As a result of the accident, Stewart was transported to Mountain West Medical Center for a medical precaution check prior to being booked into the Tooele County Detention Center, according to Stockton police. While on the way to the hospital, Stewart admitted to swallowing a controlled substance believed to be methamphetamine to avoid charges, the probable cause statement said.

Once he arrived at the hospital, Stewart began to hallucinate and assaulted nurses and doctors, as well as the arresting officer, according to Stockton police. Stewart punched, kicked, spat on and attempted to bite nine members of the medical staff, as well as threatening to kill and mutilate them.

After about 90 minutes, Stewart began to calm down and admitted he did not know what he was doing due to the drugs, according to the statement. A search warrant was obtained for a blood draw from Stewart.

Charges were filed against Stewart in 3rd District Court on Wednesday but no court date has been set as of press time.

A Pine Canyon man facing a felony assault charge made his first appearance in 3rd District Court on Monday.

Wayne Lee Morrison, 47, is charged with second-degree felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor counts of possession or use of a controlled substance, damage or interruption of a communication device and use or possession of drug paraphernalia.

Tooele County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Blue Peak Drive around 1 p.m. on Aug. 19 on reports of domestic violence, according to a probable cause statement. Three deputies arrived at the residence, with two going to the rear of the building where they encountered Morrison and the victim.

The deputies observed bruising on the victim and red marks on her neck, the statement said. The victim told deputies she had been involved in an argument with Morrison the previous night and he choked her until she was unconscious.

The victim also said Morrison took away her phone so she could not call the police, the probable cause statement said. Deputies observed the victim’s voice was raspy and she had a hemorrhage in her right eye common with choking.

The victim said they continued to argue into the next day and she was hit and choked, according to the probable cause statement. The deputy noted the marks were noticeable and an ambulance arrived to treat the victim and transport her to Mountain West Medical Center.

When questioned by police, Morrison said nothing happened and they were involved in an ATV accident, according to the statement.

Morrison was arrested and a subsequent search discovered three small plastic baggies with a white substance, which tested positive for methamphetamine, and a gold pipe, the probable cause statement said.

During his initial appearance in 3rd District Court, Judge Robert Adkins assigned bail at $15,000 and required Morrison have no contact with the victim. A roll call hearing was scheduled for Sept. 19 at 9 a.m. before Adkins.

A busy road construction season continues in Grantsville City, with repairs, new sidewalks and pedestrian enhancements complete or scheduled for completion this fall.

Grantsville City Mayor Brent Marshall gave the long list of projects the city is currently undertaking, or is scheduled to complete in the coming months. They include widening Durfee Street and repairing portions of both ends of Burmester Road. Road crews are also working on repairs to sections of Bowery, Cooley and Clark streets, as well as the south end of the Old Lincoln Highway.

A series of repairs were made to the roadway within the Grantsville Cemetery, Marshall said. Quirk Street is also being repaired between Cherry Street and Quirk Street.

Marshall said the city has spent about $580,000 on road repairs and the final cost will likely reach $600,000 by the end of the construction season.

Road construction caused some delays for parents dropping off students on the first day of school last week, due to projects on Apple and Cherry streets, as well as the intersection of Hale and Durfee streets, Marshall acknowledged.

The projects were slated for completion prior to the school year, but contractors for the project fell behind due to delays on other projects, he said.

The school district was informed of the delay on the projects near the elementary, middle and high schools, Marshall said. Work at the schools is nearly complete and the delay was not something wanted or intended, he said.

“We apologize for the inconvenience we caused anyone,” Marshall said.

In addition to repairs to roadways, Grantsville City will add new sections of sidewalk and will install two traffic-controlled crosswalks across Main Street with completion of all projects expected in October.

The new sidewalks will be added on South Center Street between Cherry and Durfee streets, on Durfee Street between Center and Park streets and along Quirk Street to provide a safe route to school for students and keep pedestrian traffic out of the roadway, according to Marshall.

The crosswalk on Main Street across from Grantsville Elementary School will be enhanced with new, pedestrian-activated lights, Marshall said. Located between Park and Center streets, there will be overhead lights that turn red when pedestrians are present, prompting traffic to stop.

Marshall said the crossing guard at the crosswalk will remain at the intersection during the same hours in addition to the new pedestrian crossing signal.

The other enhanced crosswalk will be located at the intersection of Hale and Main streets, which will have yellow flashing lights to indicate pedestrians plan to cross the street. Marshall said the lights work better to ensure pedestrian safety than orange crossing flags.

An equipment failure at a substation left more than 11,000 customers without power in Tooele County Sunday afternoon, according to Rocky Mountain Power.

The equipment problem at the Tooele substation on Canyon Road occurred at 4:24 p.m. and in the initial outage, 9,174 customers lost power, according to Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen. The Pine Canyon substation was affected at 4:27 p.m. by the equipment failure, causing an additional 181 customers to lose power.

At its peak, more than 11,100 customers were without power in Tooele County, Eskelsen said. Customers in Tooele City, Grantsville, Stansbury Park and other communities were affected by the outage.

The Tooele substation is a major point of interconnection and the equipment failure effected the local transmission system in the county, Eskelsen said. By 6:05 p.m., power was beginning to be restored to customers.

Eskelsen said crews were working to repair the equipment failure at the Tooele substation on Monday. While there was no available timetable, he said service would not be interrupted due to repairs.

When an equipment failure occurs, repairs crews attempt to isolate the damage and get customers back online before making permanent repairs, Eskelsen said. With different ways to route power through the substation, crews can make the necessary fixes after power has been restored, he said.

Charges were filed Wednesday in 3rd District Court against a Grantsville man after he was arrested in connection with possession of child pornography.

Charles Nicholas Whitman, 62, is charged with eight counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received several reports of child pornography uploaded to a Yahoo account between October 2016 and April 2017, according to a probable cause statement. The reports were assigned to the state Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

A court order showed the images connected to a Burmester Road address and investigators obtained a search warrant, the statement said. During the search, investigators located several electronic devices and searched, which returned more than 600 images of interest.

After reading Whitman his rights, he was interviewed by police, according to the probable cause statement. He admitted the Yahoo account belonged to him and the hard drive, which was found in his vehicle, was named after him.

Whitman denied, however, that he downloaded or uploaded any images of child pornography, according to the statement.

No court date was set in Whitman’s case as of press time on Thursday morning.

An assistant Tooele High School football coach will be terminated by the school district next week after he was arrested for patronizing a prostitute in Salt Lake City.

Mark Lyne Jackson, 39, of Tooele, was arrested by Salt Lake City police for patronizing a prostitute and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on Aug. 23.

The Salt Lake City Police Department was conducting a week-long prostitution sting to disrupt clients soliciting prostitutes, according to a department release. Patronizing a prostitute is a Class A misdemeanor and carries a fine of up to $2,500 and one year in jail.

Following his arrest last Wednesday, Jackson self-reported the incident to the Tooele County School District the next day, according to Marie Denson, the school district’s communications director. Jackson was required to self-report his arrest as part of school policy and state law.

Jackson was placed on administrative leave after he self-reported and was subsequently placed on unpaid administrative leave on Aug. 29, Denson said. Jackson, who was hired as an assistant football coach in 2011, will be officially terminated on Sept. 7. He does not work for the district in a teaching or classroom capacity.

Denson said the school district must follow the process outlined in its policies before terminating an employee, hence the delay between Jackson’s arrest and termination.

Denson said the school district performed a background check on Jackson through the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification and it came back with no prior arrests. Court records show Jackson pleaded guilty to three counts of misdemeanor lewdness in 2002 and no contest to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in 2004.

Denson said the school district will look into why the prior charges were not discovered in the background check.

Two other Tooele County School District football coaches have resigned or been terminated for alleged misconduct in the past year.

Former Tooele head football coach Kyle Brady resigned in January amid an investigation by the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission. Brady was under investigation by UPPAC for an alleged “boundary violation” of “inappropriate communication” with a female student.

Former Grantsville High head football coach Curtis Ware was arrested regarding alleged illegal sexual activity with two female students last September and the school board accepted his resignation at its Oct. 11 meeting.

Ware, 48, is charged with first-degree felony forcible sodomy, three counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor, four counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and four counts of misdemeanor lewdness.

Ware is also charged with third-degree felony tampering with a witness in a separate but related case.

A series of wildfires in Tooele County in the past couple of days serve as a reminder there are still dangerous fire conditions, according to Tooele County Fire Warden Daniel Walton.

A fire in Skull Valley west of Terra was sparked by lightning around 7 p.m. on Tuesday and quickly spread to more than 1,000 acres, Walton said. The fire didn’t threaten any structures and occurred mostly on Bureau of Land Management property, burning to a peak of 1,278 with 40 percent containment.

Walton said fire crews used a bulldozer to create a fire break and used engines to suppress the flames. Since it did not threaten structures, crews allowed the fire to burn itself out in some areas due to lack of fuel.

Fire crews from the BLM, state Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and Terra Fire Department battled the blaze, according to Walton. Terra Fire Department handled the initial attack on the fire.

Another wildfire sparked by lightning on Tuesday caused a precautionary early release of Ditto area employees at Dugway Proving Ground, according to a release from the military installation. Workers were released early to ensure commuters could leave the installation before smoke obscured the roadway.

The range fire, which grew to more than 450 acres, was 5 miles inside the main gate and Ditto employees were 5 miles or more from the fire.

Dugway Fire Department managed the fire and commenced back-burning to prevent the wildfire from spreading, the release said. As of Wednesday evening, Dugway Proving Ground Emergency Operations Center did not project the fire would impact normal operations on Thursday.

There was a small fire about 2 miles northeast of Terra, which  burned a few acres, Walton said. There was also a fire near Ibapah which was handled by Nevada fire crews, and a fire south of Vernon Reservoir, which was in Juab County but local fire units were dispatched to assist.

Tooele County was assigned a red flag warning from the National Weather Service on Wednesday due to a high risk of fire-causing conditions. Walton said the combination of hot temperatures, dry fuel, dry lightning and gusting winds created very extreme conditions for fire.

Vegetation below 6,500 feet in elevation are extremely dry and fire restrictions are expected to remain in place for the foreseeable future, Walton said.

Bryce Lloyd

Tooele City police arrested a suspect in an arson case Wednesday but are looking for the public’s help in solving previous arsons in the city this summer.

Officers were notified of a small grass fire in the area of 70 W. Drysdale at approximately 3 a.m. on Wednesday, according to a release from Tooele City police. Utility boxes in the field were damaged in addition to a small area of the field.

About one hour later, officers were called back to the area for a second fire, similar in size to the initial blaze, police said.

A citizen notified police of suspicious activity in the area and officers arrested Bryce Lloyd, 23, of Tooele, in connection with the fires. He was booked into the Tooele County Detention Center for aggravated arson.

The fires Wednesday morning follow a number of suspicious fires in Tooele City throughout the summer.

Tooele City police were called to Overlake Elementary School on reports the playground was on fire on June 1. The playground equipment suffered extensive damage and had to be replaced.

Witnesses told police a gray pickup truck with several occupants was seen leaving the area after the fire started, according to the Tooele City police release.

On Aug. 21, officers responded to a small grass fire at Peterson Industrial Depot. Within 20 minutes, two additional fires were reported in the area and Tooele City Fire Chief Bucky Whitehouse deemed the fires suspicious.

During the police investigation of the fires, detectives acquired video surveillance footage of a gray pickup truck in the area at the time of ignition, the release said. The pickup was described as a newer-model, four-door Chevrolet Silverado with a sliding rear window.

In the release, Tooele City police said there is no clear evidence relating Lloyd’s arrest Wednesday morning to the fires at Overlake Elementary School or the Peterson Industrial Depot. Police are still investigating the potential that the fires in Overlake and the depot are related.

Anyone with information on the suspicious fires is asked to contact the Tooele City Police Department’s investigations division at 435-882-8900.

Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series that explores the history, ecology and future of Stansbury Lake.

Stansbury Lake is a living ecosystem, from the water insects and crawfish living in the bottom to the pelicans fishing near its surface.

While the lake exhibits a diversity of life, including thousands of fish planted two years ago, the system can be fragile, according to Stansbury Park Service Agency Manager Randall Flynn. He has worked with the lake for more than 20 years and has seen the impact of human meddling firsthand.

“Any time you mess with an ecological system, there’s a domino effect,” Flynn said.

While some residents have become frustrated with unsightly weeds and algae blooms on the lake, Flynn said his focus is on striking a balance between aesthetics and the health of the lake.

The biggest challenges for Stansbury Lake are nutrient pollution and dissolved solids, which is the salt content in a body of water, according to Jake Vander Laan, lake assessment coordinator for the Utah Division of Water Quality.

Flynn said Stansbury Lake struggles with high phosphorus loading from external sources as more people have moved in around the lake.

“When this was first built and there were very few people here, there wasn’t a lot of nutrient loading from external sources taking place in this lake,” he said.

Human and animal waste, fertilizer, detergents and pesticides can all add phosphorus to the lake, according to Flynn. For example, if a resident uses granulized fertilizer on their yard and it rains, the fertilizer can be washed away into the community’s stormwater system and eventually the lake.

Nutrient pollution occurs when excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus are present in a body of water, according to the Utah Division of Environmental Quality. While both nutrients contribute to the growth of aquatic plants and algae, too much nitrogen and phosphorus can cause eutrophication, which can impair water quality, endanger aquatic life and reduce oxygen in the water.

But prior to the most significant development along the shores of Stansbury Lake, there was another issue beside widespread algae and weed growth, Flynn said. Lake weeds were a problem in the south side of the causeway, where the lake water was clear, but much of the lake was a milky green color and opaque due to suspended solids.

The service agency determined the source of the poor water clarity was bottom-feeding carp in the golf course ponds, Flynn said. The carp turned over the clay soils in the ponds, suspending solids in the water that flows into Stansbury Lake.

Since water in the golf course ponds could be isolated from the lake, the service agency decided to kill the carp using rotenone. Rotenone is a natural substance used as an insecticide and for fish eradication, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

“It had the effect we wanted — it killed the carp in the (ponds) and we did see an increase in water clarity in the big lake,” Flynn said.

Around the same time, the service agency acquired an old lake mower from Fish Lake, which had been used to cut weeds around the boat docks and marinas. After the mower was fixed, it was used by residents to cut the aquatic plants, which are predominantly sego pondweed.

Sego pondweed is a food source for ducks, geese and other aquatic birds, which is found throughout the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Flynn said the weeds, when cut by the mower, can release loose material like seed pods into the lake that can’t all be claimed by the boat.

The combination of improved water clarity and cut weed debris generated more weed growth and in more far-flung corners of the lake, Flynn said.

“We began to see weed growth in parts of the lake where there had never been weeds before,” he said.

As weeds continued to spread throughout the lake, which interfered with recreation and were not aesthetically pleasing, the service agency looked for a new solution. The service agency eventually settled on triploid grass carp, which eat water vegetation like sego pondweed, Flynn said.

The triploid grass carp don’t reproduce, can eat three times their weight in lake weed, and live about 20 years, according to Flynn. The service agency introduced 3,000 carp into Stansbury Lake over the course of two years.

At first, there wasn’t much reduction in weeds, which continued to spread to new corners of the lake, Flynn said. Eventually, however, the triploid grass carp began to do their job.

“We began … over the next four or five years, to see a decrease in the number of weeds around the lake,” Flynn said.

By the time the fish were introduced in the early 2000s, the service agency had a new lake mower that was more efficient and a full-time employee to man the boat. All the weeds on the lake were below the surface and not impacting water recreation, Flynn said.

What the service agency didn’t anticipate, however, was the carp would completely eradicate all the vegetation from the lake.

“The summer before the fish kill, there were no weeds in the lake,” Flynn said. “You couldn’t find a weed to save your life.”

With no weeds or other aquatic plants, the lake had lower oxygen content in its deeper reaches, Flynn said.

In the winter of 2012, Stansbury Lake froze over completely and remained that way for nearly five months, according to Flynn. Usually the lake will freeze and thaw several times during winter months, he said.

Below the ice, the fish were trapped between poorly oxygenated water and ammonia created by decomposing organic material on the bottom of the lake, Flynn said. The livable space continued to shrink, leading to the massive fish kill, which was revealed when the ice melted in spring 2013.

With all the carp in the lake dead, the weeds began to come back in and efforts to keep pace by mowing the weeds recommenced, Flynn said.

The service agency decided not to reintroduce the carp to see if it would restrict the spread of the weeds in the lake, according to Flynn. The carp ate the weeds but would defecate out seed pods all throughout the lake, further exacerbating the spread of weeds throughout the lake, he said.

In April 2015, a total of 15,000 fish were introduced into Stansbury Lake, including catfish, bluegill, large-mouth bass and crappie.

While the weeds have begun to choke out large swathes of the lake, Flynn said the service agency is looking to balance a healthy ecosystem with the recreational and aesthetic desires of residents.

“We have to be careful when we go after aesthetics because in the past we’ve caused problems trying to make it look better and we’ve actually caused the problem to grow,” he said.

The main culprit behind the excessive weed growth is the phosphorus introduced into the lake by external sources, like fertilizers, Flynn said. He said weed and algae growth in the lake will continue to be high if there is plenty nutrient pollution.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends homeowners take steps like cleaning up after their pets, use phosphate-free detergent, use water efficiently and not apply fertilizer on windy or rainy days to reduce nutrient pollution.

“We just have to rely on people, educate them the best we can, and hope that they will cooperate in their practices,” Flynn said.

A Tooele man accused of starting two fires in Tooele City last week faces felony arson charges in 3rd District Court.

Bryce Tucker Lloyd, 23, is charged with two counts of second-degree felony arson — property of another.

According to a probable cause statement, an officer spoke with and identified Lloyd at the scene of the initial fire near 1824 N. 120 West around 4:22 a.m. on Wednesday.

At the second fire, a witness told responding Tooele City police officers they observed a man in an orange shirt, with blue shorts and a dark baseball cap use what appeared to be a cigarette to light a field on fire, the probable cause statement said.

The witness said the man ran from the scene of the fire into a nearby apartment complex, the statement said.

When officers caught back up to Lloyd, he was not wearing clothes that matched the description given by the witness, the statement said. An officer identified Lloyd as the man he spoke with at the initial fire scene and Lloyd was asked if he changed his clothing.

While Lloyd initially denied changing his clothes, he later admitted to police he had, the probable cause statement said. He said the clothing, which matched the witness description, could be found at this apartment, where it was obtained after a search warrant was granted.

In a subsequent interview about the fires, Lloyd admitted to setting both fires and told police he did so “out of frustration,” the statement said.

Lloyd is scheduled to make his initial appearance in 3rd District Court on Wednesday at 7:58 a.m. before Judge Robert Adkins.

The Grantsville City Council agreed to set aside plans for a moratorium on approving major subdivisions during a work meeting on Aug. 29.

Grantsville City Mayor Brent Marshall said attorneys had cautioned the city against the moratorium due to the possibility of lawsuits. Also, Grantsville City Attorney Brett Coombs said he had received phone calls from developers asking how the possible moratorium could affect them.

“The moratorium — a developer is going to hook onto that and find some way to sue us,” Coombs said.

Marshall said the city had received an influx of subdivision plans from developers after they received news of a possible moratorium. He also outlined the financial impact of a moratorium, as the city collected $542,346 from April to June in fees, including plan check, impact and subdivision fees.

“I think we can do everything we need to do without doing a moratorium,” Marshall said.

The city council reviewed the possibility of a 90-day moratorium, allowing time to revise the city’s capital facilities plan and code to allow for wider streets, more green space, and other changes.

In lieu of a moratorium, the city council discussed limiting developments while a review of the city’s sewer flow is completed. Craig Neeley of Aqua Engineering, which provides the city’s engineering services, said Grantsville City has a plan to upgrade its sewer capacity but does not have current flow data.

Neeley said there were concerns about sewer capacity and how new development would impact existing customers.

“We have a plan to be not full, but it’s going to take some time,” he said.

Councilwoman Krista Sparks said it’s frustrating for the city to receive plans with little green space or tightly-packed housing, which doesn’t fit the character of the city or surrounding area.

“We have no leverage,” she said. “We can’t force them to do those things unless we set that up as a requirement.”

During the Aug. 29 meeting, the city council broadly discussed possible requirements for green space, including large developments ceding land to the city in lieu of park impact fees or charging a per-residence park impact fee for smaller developers.

Councilman Tom Tripp also proposed an ordinance to eliminate residential and rural residential roadways, instead using the wider local road designation for all streets in the city to allow safer on-street parking and more room for emergency vehicles.

Fire crews from around the county battled a fire at Fassio Egg Farms in Erda, which was sparked early Tuesday morning.

The fire was first reported around 7:30 a.m. when a supervisor observed smoke in one of the chicken coops, according to Corby Larsen, vice president of operations at Fassio Egg Farms.

As North Tooele Fire District was notified, employees were evacuated from the premises and everyone left safely, Larsen said.

The fire spread from the initial coop into another coop to its south, according to Ryan Willden, North Tooele Fire District public information officer. Both buildings are considered total losses.

The fire spread from the coop into the second coop through a connecting corridor, Willden said. At press time Tuesday, crews were working to prevent flames from spreading into additional structures.

Each coop houses about 120,000 to 150,000 chickens, according to Larsen. He said it’s possible the smoke or heat from the fire also affected chickens in nearby coops.

“Unfortunately, if the fires get in those, they move very quickly,” he said.

The chicken coops do not store feed or manure but both can be found in the coops from the daily activity of the birds, Larsen said.

The biggest challenge for fire crews was a shortage of water, Willden said. He said firefighting operations kept shutting down when water ran out, despite water tenders from every agency in the county ferrying water to the fire.

In addition to NTFD, fire crews from Tooele City, Grantsville City, Stockton and Tooele Army Depot fire departments were observed battling the blaze. The Salt Lake Airport and Utah Test and Training Range provided water tenders as well.

While the exact cause of the fire is unknown, Larsen said the fire was likely caused by electrical or mechanical equipment used in handling manure in the coops. The state fire marshal’s office will be investigating the fire, Willden said.

With the fire still burning in the background, Larsen said it was too early to determine the extent of damage and the possible impact on the business.

Willden said fire crews had mostly knocked down the flames by press time on Tuesday but there were multiple hot spots and firefighters were working to prevent further flare-ups or spread.

Bridge construction will cause closures on the bridge connecting state Route 36 and Interstate 80 over the weekend, according to the Utah Department of Transportation.

Work on the bridge is expected to begin Friday at 10 p.m. and continue through Sunday afternoon, according to UDOT.

The lane from northbound SR-36 to westbound I-80 will be closed throughout the construction. The exit from westbound I-80 to southbound SR-36 will be limited to a single lane from Friday at 10 p.m. until approximately 2 p.m. Saturday.

A detour will be set up on state Route 138 for traffic to westbound I-80.

There could be lane closures overnight on I-80 for full-depth pothole repair, UDOT said.

The bridge at Exit 99 was restricted to a single westbound lane for pothole repair on Jan. 31, causing traffic to back up for more than 7 miles and delaying the Monday evening commute by two to three hours.

A large fire started along state Route 36 burned more than 200 acres on Saturday, according to North Tooele Fire District.

NTFD crews were called to the fire on the east side of the state highway around 1:12 p.m., according to NTFD public information officer Ryan Willden. The fire spread through fields and did not threaten any structures, he said, though it did reach the property of Liddiard Home Furnishings on 2502 N. 400 East.

Tooele City Fire Department was also called to assist on the fire, which burned 209 acres, according to Willden. Fire crews took about two hours to knock down the field fire and remained on scene for a total of six hours, including monitoring and mop-up work.

Fire investigators could determine a point of origin along the roadway, Willden said. A federal Bureau of Land Management investigator was called to investigate the fire but no cause was determined, including whether the fire was set intentionally or not.

An 11-year-old Vernon girl died in a rollover accident on state Route 36 Tuesday morning, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

Troopers were called to a single-vehicle accident near milepost 11 on SR-36 involving a jeep with four passengers at 7:24 a.m. The occupants were siblings from Vernon heading to school, according to UHP Lt. Todd Royce.

The accident is still under investigation but Royce said a mechanical issue is the possible cause. The jeep was heading southbound when it left the roadway to the left and rolled.

Billie Jean Petersen, 11, was ejected from the vehicle during the accident and died at the scene, according to Royce. The other occupants of the vehicle, two males and a female, suffered minor injuries and one was transported to a local hospital by ambulance.

Following the accident, the northbound lane of SR-36 was closed for over an hour but the impact on traffic flow was minimal, Royce said.

Editor’s note: This is the final installment of a three-part series on the history, ecology and future of Stansbury Lake.

With extensive weed growth, waterfowl and thousands of fish, it can be easy to forget the dynamic ecosystem in Stansbury Lake is meticulously maintained and monitored over the course of the year.

The man-made lake doesn’t have a natural source like a stream or river, which requires the water level to be adjusted throughout the year, according to Stansbury Park Service Agency manager Randall Flynn.

In the winter, the lake level is lowered to allow it to freeze closer to the bottom, Flynn said. This is detrimental to the sago pondweed cluttering the lake and helps prevent damage through heaving ice along the shoreline, he said.

Flynn said maintaining the level in the lake takes constant attention. This year, the lake was high by an inch or two through May after a wet spring, but he said that quickly changed due to heat and dryness.

The water level took a brief drop when it was discovered the pump at the Mill Pond had been damaged, likely by a lightning strike, when the water was needed, Flynn said.

“It’s a daily thing,” he said. “We have to monitor the level of the lake and try to make adjustments ahead of what we see coming.”

Management of the lake’s water level involves watching upcoming temperature and precipitation, to keep the water high enough it flows over the weir, Flynn said. Keeping the water flowing improves clarity and reduces the load of dissolved solids in the lake, he said.

Like any other challenge on the lake, however, there is give and take on keeping the water moving, according to Flynn.

In past years, an aquatic dye was used to restrict photosynthesis and weed growth in the lake, Flynn said. The dye costs about $9,000 a treatment but quickly leaves a lake with moving water, usually within two to three weeks.

“So, we kind of have to make a choice: Do we want the dye and the effects we get there, or do we want the water quality improvement that we get from flowing the lake?” Flynn said.

The service agency manages more than just water depth, however, as lake weeds are mowed for about 6 months out of the year. Flynn said the service agency will ideally begin mowing in late March or early April and continue through October.

The lake mower works a consistent schedule across five zones each day of the week. Flynn said the mower hits the scheduled zone in the morning before addressing areas with excessive weed growth in the afternoon.

“You might see the boat mowing behind someone’s house more but that’s because there are more weeds there,” Flynn said. “We’re trying to be as efficient as we can.”

A copy of the service agency’s lake mowing schedule can be found on its website, stansburypark.org.

Once they are mowed and collected, the weeds are loaded into a trailer and transported to a pig farm in Erda, where they are used as feed. Flynn said about 3 tons of weeds are removed from the lake every other day throughout the course of the lake mowing season.

While the sago pondweed gets residents’ attention due to its prevalence, a pair of aquatic plant species that appear in the lake are a greater threat, Flynn said. Both tamarisk and phragmites can be found in the lake, and are considered noxious weeds by the state.

Tamarisk, also known as saltcedar, grows from 5 to 20 feet in height, and was originally introduced from Eurasia, according to the Utah Weed Control Association.

Phragmites is an invasive species that crowds out native species and inhibits water movement, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

Flynn said there was no phragmites in Stansbury Lake until about 5 or 6 years ago, when a resident brought it in and planted it behind their home. He said the noxious weed is sometimes confused with cattails.

“(Phragmites) has now spread to where if we weren’t actively controlling it, it would literally take over this lake and turn it into a swamp,” Flynn said.

The service agency will assist residents in identifying noxious weeds on their property, but Flynn said property owners are required to remove them. He said the service agency can also help residents identify the proper chemicals and get them in touch with the county’s weed division.

Phragmites is the only foreign species introduced to the lake, however, as Flynn said he sees turtles, fish and other fauna that don’t belong.

“Every year I’ll be out on the golf course and see a new crop of goldfish swimming around, or somebody’s koi,” he said.

Flynn said frogs were also introduced by a resident, which now populate the lake. The frogs serve as food source for wildlife, including herons and bass, but Flynn said even a seemingly beneficial addition can alter the lake.

“It’s never a good idea to randomly introduce new species into a new ecosystem, because then the ecosystem has to adjust,” he said.

While weeds and introduced wildlife are concerns for the service agency, Flynn said he fields the most complaints from residents about a different species — humans. Specifically, the use of the lake by non-residents.

“I have people complaining about non-resident use of the lake more than I have people complaining about the condition of the lake,” Flynn said.

Stansbury Lake is a private lake and the service agency maintains a permit, renewed every five years, for that designation. Flynn said he’s observed use by non-residents and said he believes most people using the lake are from outside the community, including visitors from Salt Lake County.

But the service agency, a public entity funded by taxpayer money, has not been aggressive enforcing the private status of the lake, Flynn said.

“Our policy is that the lake is private and for the use of residents only,” he said. “There’s some question as to whether we can do that and enforce that, so we’re looking into that for this fall as well.”

The lake is funded entirely by the Stanbury Park Service Agency, but the lakeshore takes a beating from heavy use, Flynn said. The number of people using the lake increased following a shoreline restoration project completed in 2016, he said.

Residents are concerned with preserving the quality of the lake, according to Flynn.

“It’s not that residents want to be exclusive,” he said. “It’s they want to maintain the integrity of the lake and the beauty of it so it will last for generations and not just get trashed.”

The SPSA board will review the future of the lake in the fall and decide on a plan and priorities for its preservation, Flynn said.

SPSA board chairman Neil Smart said his priority is creating an equilibrium between resident use of the lake and ensuring a healthy ecosystem.

“I’d like to have a good balance there, where the lake is healthy but people can recreate,” Smart said.

SPSA board member Gary Jensen said weeds on the lake are a primary concern for residents, based upon the past 6 months of meetings. He said he recognized worry about non-resident use of the lake, but viewed the care of the lake as the critical concern.

For Flynn, he said he’s lucky to live in a community with a unique feature like Stansbury Lake and said many residents feel the same way.

“They realize what they have and they know it’s a precious thing,” he said.

A day after a fire destroyed two chicken coops and killed as many as 300,000 chickens at Fassio Egg Farms in Erda, employees were beginning to clear debris.

“We’re cleaning up as best as we can,” said Corby Larsen, vice president of operations at Fassio Egg Farms.

The two chicken coops destroyed in the fire were connected to the additional coops and processing plant by a conveyer system, which transported the eggs, Larsen said. The fire used the conveyer system connection to spread from the initial coop into the second building.

Work to clean up the processing plant for operation was underway Wednesday but eggs laid by the farm’s approximately 600,000 remaining chickens are unable to get to refrigeration quickly enough without the conveyer system, Larsen said. As a result, all of the eggs produced since the fire must be disposed of, he said.

The conveyer system is a priority for the farm and Larsen said they hope to have some version of the system in place within the next couple of days. The farm is also looking to replace the chickens killed in the fire within the next few weeks.

Chickens in the adjacent coops are being monitored for effects from the fire and smoke, Larsen said.

While Larsen described Tuesday’s fire as a frightening experience, he said he doesn’t expect a major impact to operations at the egg farm once cleanup is complete and the conveyer system is repaired. He said the farm is focused on bouncing back.

“We’re continuing to reassure employees they have jobs,” Larsen said.

The state fire marshal’s office is investigating the blaze, which started Tuesday morning around 7:30 a.m., but no determination on cause has been made, according to Ryan Willden, North Tooele Fire District public information officer. Preliminary investigations indicate the fire may have been caused by an electrical problem, he said.

Access to sufficient water was a major concern for crews battling the fire, Willden said. Firefighting operations had to be stopped multiple times when crews ran out of water, he said.

“It’s just a scarce resource out here, but in a rural area that doesn’t have hydrants like this, it’s a big challenge,” Willden said.

Units from 10 different agencies provided water tenders, including water tank trucks from sod farms, according to Willden. Between 100,000 and 150,000 gallons of water were shuttled to the egg farm from around the county to fight the fire.

A helicopter dropped water onto the fire from above and fire suppression foam from a Salt Lake International Airport apparatus were also used to combat the fire, in addition to ladder trucks from Tooele City and Grantsville City fire departments.

While there were two large water tanks on site at the egg farm, the generator used to pump water from the tanks was incinerated in the fire, Willden said.

A Grantsville man is facing felony charges in connection to an assault that occurred late last month.

Donald Dean Nichols, 51, is charged with two counts of third-degree felony aggravated assault.

According to a probable cause statement, Grantsville City police were called to a residence on Maple Street on reports of an assault. When officers arrived, the victim said Nichols had been at his home to do yard work and during that time, money went missing from the victim’s home, and Nichols had entered the home several times.

The victim said he went to Nichol’s home and confronted him about the missing money, with the two exchanging words, according to the probable cause statement. Nichols approached the victim with a metal pipe and struck him in the head and arm, the victim said.

Police contacted Nichols and he admitted to the confrontation, the statement said. Nichols said it was possible he hit the victim in the head and arm, as the victim stated.

Nichols told police the metal pipe was the handle to a floor jack and admitted to having it with him during the physical confrontation, the probable cause statement said. A witness confirmed the events as stated by the victim, with Nichols possessing the metal pipe and swinging it at the victim.

Nichols’s bail was set at $10,000 bondable during his initial appearance in 3rd District Court on Monday. Judge Robert Adkins ordered Nichols have no contact with the victim in the case.

Nichols is scheduled to appear back in 3rd District Court on Sept. 26 at 9 a.m. before Adkins.

A Tooele man made his initial appearance in 3rd District Court for rape of a child charges on Monday.

Guy Asher Gabaldon, 43, is charged with six counts of first-degree felony rape of a child.

Gabaldon was interviewed by Tooele City police about sexual abuse and rape of a child on Sept. 5, according to a probable cause statement. After being read his Miranda rights, Gabaldon told police he knew why he was being interviewed.

Gabaldon told police he had sexual intercourse with a minor under 15 years old nine times over the span of one year and described two other incidents of sexual abuse, according to the probable cause statement. He told police the intercourse with the minor was consensual.

During his initial appearance in 3rd District Court on Monday, bail for Gabaldon was set at $100,000 bondable. 3rd District Court Judge Robert Adkins ordered Gabaldon to have no contact with the victim or the victim’s family.

Gabaldon is scheduled to appear in court for a roll call hearing on Oct. 10 at 9 a.m. before Adkins.

A family was displaced by a fire that spread into a home on Overland Road in Tooele City early Sunday morning.

Tooele City firefighters were called to an outside fire around 2:20 a.m., according to Tooele City Fire Chief Bucky Whitehouse. While many outside fires are in grass, this fire started in a wood pile adjacent to the residence, he said.

As the fire grew, it spread from the wood pile and into the residence, Whitehouse said.

“The fire found its way into the eaves and in the attic,” he said. “When (fire) finds the attic space, then it typically runs through the house.”

Tooele City firefighters knocked down the fire in about 15 minutes, using two engines and a ladder truck, Whitehouse said. The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time.

While the house suffered extensive damage, Whitehouse said he didn’t believe it was a total loss. The inhabitants of the home, however, were displaced because of the damage to the home.