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Bryan County weighs liquor by drink
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Denise Etheridge
Staff Writer
Updated: Apr 7, 2010, 6:56 PM
Published: Apr 7, 2010, 7:02 PM

Four restaurants currently located in unincorporated Bryan County could be allowed to sell liquor by the drink on Sunday if the Board of Commissioners and county voters okay it.
For this to become a reality the commission must first approve a proposed resolution placing the referendum on the July 24 primary and then voters must pass the referendum.
Commissioners discussed the resolution Tuesday. They will decide whether or not to give voters an opportunity to approve or reject a referendum amending the county’s alcohol sales ordinance at their May meeting.
The draft amendment, if approved by voters, would permit the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sundays in licensed establishments which derive at least 50 percent of their total annual gross sales from the sales of prepared meals or food or the rental of rooms for overnight lodging.

Bethel Baptist Church Pastor Carlton Cooper told commissioners he opposes the resolution and asked them to respect the Lord’s day. Bethel Baptist Church is located in Richmond Hill, which already allows Sunday liquor by the drink.
“All of us have to give Him an account of what we do,” Cooper said. He added there is an authority above the voters of Bryan County.
Lynda Morse said there are residents who would be opposed to amending the alcohol sales ordinance, even those who do not attend church.
“We already have a drug and alcohol problem,” Morse said. “We don’t need it (Sunday alcohol sales), there’s enough of it already.”

In other county business:
The commission tabled several proposed zoning ordinance amendments pertaining to commercial and non-commercial kennels, and animal shelters. The county planning and zoning department had attempted to reconcile the kennel ordinance to the animal control ordinance, Bryan County Administrator Phil Jones explained.
Bryan County Commissioner Rick Gardner opposed restricting the number of dogs allowed without requiring a license, saying the county is still mostly rural. The amended ordinance defines a non-commercial kennel as four or more adult dogs (or cats) kept for personal use. The animal control ordinance currently requires a kennel license for 10 or more dogs. If the minimum number is changed to four, county staffers said, then the county could keep a record of any person who owns four or more dogs. This could also help with tracking stray dogs, they said.
* Commissioners approved a request by Dunham Marsh Plantation developer Brett Turner to increase the number of lots allowed in the project's master plan. Originally, the county approved a maximum of 298 lots, but permitted 276 lots. With the approved change, the number of lots was increased by 16 to 295. Turner said smaller homes and lots would be more "saleable" given the current real estate market.
* The commission approved a resolution to name the Bryan County Fire Department training facility located at the Kilkenny Fire Station after the late Art Gautreau. Gautreau, a Richmond Hill resident and volunteer firefighter, died last month after reportedly crashing his vintage airplane in Savannah.

* Commissioners agreed another fire station is needed in north Bryan, and could be located on property the county owns on Belfast River Road. The commission authorized Jones to bid out construction costs on the proposed fire station. Jones told commissioners there are 460 homes located outside the five mile radius of fire stations 1, on Highway 144, and 2, on Daniel Siding. The estimated cost for the station is $138,000. Bryan County Commission Chairman Jimmy Burnsed said the money for the proposed fire station would have to be borrowed. "I have an aversion to debt, but not when it concerns (the safety) of 460 homes out there, Burnsed said.

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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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