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Bryan County planning 2 new schools
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Crissie Elric
Correspondent
Updated: Apr 2, 2013, 5:34 PM
Published: Apr 1, 2013, 5:37 PM

The Bryan County Board of Education is moving forward with plans for new elementary schools in the north and south ends of the county.
During its regular meeting Thursday at Lanier Primary School, the BoE  unanimously approved an agreement with civil engineers Thomas and Hutton for surveying, drainage plans, wetlands determination and more regarding the two new school sites.
“We’re building two new schools and the architect uses Thomas and Hutton as their civil engineer,” Board Chairman Eddie Warren said Friday morning. “What we did was (we) went outside of that contract (with the architect) and contracted with Thomas and Hutton ourselves, which in turn saves the school board money.”
Warren said there is a separate contract with Thomas and Hutton for each school, but the total for the two is around $350,000. He added the contract with Thomas and Hutton is a “not to exceed” contract, meaning if the projects cost less than expected, the board will save money.
Additionally, Warren said Thomas and Hutton will provide landscape design services free of charge as part of the agreement. That alone would have cost more than $20,000 for both sites, he said.
The board also approved to enter into an agreement with the Bryan County Board of Commissioners for the construction of a new well that will service the South Bryan school site, Warren said.
“We’re trying to combine the resources of the public entity — which is the East Buckhead development — the county and school board all going together to complete the project versus each one of us doing our own project,” Warren said. “Had we put our own well in, it would have cost us $600,000. By doing all together, the school board probably saved $300,000 to $350,000.”
Warren noted once the school connects to the sewer system that runs to the wastewater treatment facility at WaterWays Township, the board will have to pay a separate sewer tap fee.
While Warren said he did not know when actual construction may begin on either school, he did say plans are already being drawn for both.
“We’re using the same building design so both schools will look exactly the same. But the one on the north end will be smaller because it will only be built for 600 students, while the one on south will be for 1,000 students,” he said.
The North Bryan elementary school is expected to be completed by March 2015, Warren said, while the South Bryan elementary school is expected to be complete by May 2015.
In other business:
• Kristi Cox with United Way was on hand to present some prizes for the board and schools’ participation in the annual United Way campaign. She awarded the “Caring Cup” to Crystal Morales, principal of Carver Elementary, for the school raising $2,300 during the campaign, the most money raised of all schools in the county.
• The board approved $1,600 in donations to Carver Elementary from DonorsChoose to help fund various activities.
• A donation of 150 tickets from the Atlanta Braves Reach Out program for fifth graders at Bryan County Elementary to attend a ballgame was approved.
• A donation of a previously used Rifton Prone Stander from Jason and Ashley Boland to Richmond Hill Primary School’s special education department was approved.
* A donation from the RHPS PTSO for $4,222 was approved to help fund field trips.

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Book review: Author digs into mining's complicated past and present in 'River of Lost Souls'
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Jonathan Thompson will speak about his book "River of Lost Souls" at the King's English Bookshop on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. - photo by Amanda Olson
Amanda Olson
Deseret News
Published: Mar 30, 2018, 7:39 AM
"RIVER OF LOST SOULS: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Spill," by Jonathan Thompson, Torrey House Press, 275 pages (nf)

Plenty has been written about the very small world of a mining town and the very broad reach of a beleaguered industry. From Loretta Lynns iconic song "Coal Miners Daughter," to the 2010 nail-biting coverage of 33 trapped Chilean miners, to the hit Broadway musicals "Paint Your Wagon" and "Billy Elliot," mining is a global story, and its one of heartbreak, hard work and hard times.

Jonathan Thompsons "River of Lost Souls" examines the many facets of risk involved in taking resources from below the earths surface. An environmental journalist, Thompson has reported on southwest Colorado for over 20 years. This book is special, however, because the Four Corners area of Colorado is his current and ancestral home. Thompson is writing about minings ecological, social, financial and political impact on his land, his landscape, his water, his people. That makes "River of Lost Souls" more than a regular reporting job.

Thompson begins with the Gold King Mine wastewater disaster of 2015, which the EPA caused while attempting to drain water near the mines entrance. The spill sent 3 million gallons of waste and tailings into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River watershed which drains into the Colorado, affecting the Utah, Colorado and New Mexico parts of that watershed as well as the Navajo Nation.

From there, Thompson jumps into far stretches of time to 1765, when a Spanish explorer named the Animas River; to 10,000 years earlier, when Paleo-Indians roamed the rivers valley; to the meridian of time, when the ancestors of the Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo people inhabited the land for 500 years; to the mid-1800s and the Swedes who came to Silverton, Colorado, to mine.

Its a grand scope, but telling any story of landscape is telling a very grand story.

It also makes a complex story difficult to follow. Thompsons time warps are important, but they are jarring. His time jumps need clear dates, and Thompson doesnt always make them available. A map would also be useful. Thompsons writing is good, but his sentences can be dense and require readers to do their own mining for the riches the writing embeds. The work is worthwhile, however, as there are many moving parts in any story about mines land, culture, policy, history, money, inevitable disaster and Thompson works to examine all of them.

"River of Lost Souls" is a thoughtful read, but not a quick one. Because Thompsons writings come from 20 years of his newspaper reports, the overall feeling can be disjointed and sparse, which is distracting if one is expecting to follow a tenable thread. This is not a typical narrative with a cast of characters and a traditional story arc. Readers should approach this text as the investigation it is: puzzle pieces of a larger-than-life story that is eons old. If you are the kind of reader who wants it laid out cleanly, this is not that book. But, to Thompsons point, nothing is clean about mining that has never been the case.

Thompsons best writing is in his descriptions of people and places. His telling of how he came to Silverton is familiar and engaging. If readers approach the book with care and attention, they will be rewarded with savoring these descriptive passages when they happen.
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