The Voice of Eldorado and Schleicher County Since 1901

Massive hoist going up at YFZ stone cutting area

Clearly visible from County Road 300, a huge hoist assembly is being erected at the rock cutting area near where a foundation stands ready to receive stone for what many FLDS observers say will be the group's first-ever temple.

DECEMBER 9, 2004
Construction continued this week at the YFZ Ranch with the erection of a large hoist, believed to be standing over the rock cutting area near where many believe the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saint plans to build its first-ever temple. The hoist, clearly visible from County Road 300, consists of four large I-beam trusses, connected down the sides by more large beams that carry the hoist. While the massive structure is built in such a way as to make it easy to enclose with metal or other siding, it is unclear if the workers at the ranch plan to do so.

A new gate has also been erected at the entrance to the property, several feet down a fenced lane from where the original gate stood near the roadway. The first gate was damaged, reportedly by a truck delivering construction material to the ranch.

In keeping with their policy of excluding outsiders from the property, YFZ officials have brought in their own propane truck from Utah. It is used to meet a local delivery truck at the county road where propane is transferred to the YFZ truck for transport into the ranch.

Back on the legal front
Utah authorities are still eager to hear from FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs. A second round of legal notices have been published in newspapers three states and one Canadian province, including here in The Eldorado Success (see notice on Page 6) in hopes of compelling Jeffs to respond to a civil lawsuit brought against him by his nephew Brent Jeffs. The younger Jeffs accuses his uncle of sexually abusing him when Warren Jeffs taught at the FLDS Alta Academy near Salt Lake City.

Thus far, efforts by Utah private investigator Sam Brower to serve Jeffs with notice of the lawsuit have failed leading Utah District Judge Stephen L. Henroid to determine that Jeffs is attempting to avoid service.

School problems
Meanwhile, things in Colorado City, AZ, the FLDS stronghold located on the Utah/Arizona border, are quickly heating up. Paychecks issued by the Colorado City Unified School Distinct began bouncing in October. Since that time more than sixty of the district's employees have gone without pay, according to numerous published reports. That condition was alleviated somewhat this week when the district began honoring its paychecks after receiving $750,000 in grant funds from the government.

A notice, published on the school's website (www.ccusd.net) indicates that a public hearing has been called for Monday, December 13, 2004, at the school district office where the board of trustees will consider a revised budget.

The school's recent financial problems, coupled with years of allegations about gross mismanagement of the school district prompted Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne on Monday of this week to ask the Arizona legislature for the authority to appoint a trustee or receiver over the dysfunctional district.

In 2001, Prophet Warren Jeffs ordered the FLDS to remove their children from the C-City school system and place them in one of several private schools located in the town. Since that time, the district's students have consisted primarily of children from Centennial Park, a neighboring community, whose residents broke away from the FLDS many years ago.

Interestingly, C-City USD Superintendent Alvin Barlow, is listed the agent for a Utah corporation named Hildale Educational Institute, that operates a private school in Hildale, UT. Other directors of the corporation are listed as Kevin J. Barlow and Fred Jessop, the 94-year-old patriarch of the FLDS who many church insiders say should have become the group's prophet when Warren Jeffs' father, Rulon Jeffs, passed away.

C-City and Hildale are actually a single town, formerly known as Short Creek, that straddles the Arizona/Utah border north of the Grand Canyon.

Chatwin update
Ross Chatwin, the C-City man who stood up to Prophet Warren Jeffs after being excommunicated from the FLDS church last year, has suffered a setback in his legal battle to keep his home. Mohave County Arizona Superior Court Judge James Chavez ruled last Friday that before Chatwin can evict his brother Stephen from the upper floor of his 2-story home, he must pay his brother some $23,000 for improvements made to the home. The ruling mirrors and earlier one the judge made when he said the FLDS church, or more accurately the United Effort Plan Trust, a trust fund controlled by the church, had to pay Ross Chatwin for improvements he made before it could evict him from his home which was built on UEP-owned land.

It is unknown if Chatwin will pay to have his brother move out. Stephen Chatwin reportedly took up residence the home at the direction of Warren Jeffs, after Ross Chatwin was excommunicated and after he refused to vacate the home.

Ross Chatwin, his wife Lori, and their daughter Kimberlina visited Eldorado in August of this year.

FLDS holiday schedule
Don't look for residents to be putting up any Christmas ornaments or hanging any tinsel during the conventional Christmas holiday season. The group believes that Jesus was born on April 6, and thirty-three years later was resurrected on the same day after being crucified.

The Eldorado Success invites Warren Jeffs and other leaders in the FLDS church to comment on this or any other story surrounding the FLDS and the YFZ Ranch.