Building or remodeling can be a dream come true…or your worst nightmare. With the start of spring and summer construction projects, the State of Utah Department of Commerce, Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing offers the following action tips to help you avoid the common problems that occur while building or remodeling a home:

1. Prepare detailed building plans. To ensure the end product complies with the building code and meets your expectations, investigate local building ordinances and regulations.
2. Obtain several bids for your project. Keep in mind that a high bid does not always represent a better product and that a very low bid could mean the contractor miscalculated or overlooked important items involved in the project.
3. Choose a contractor carefully. Utah state law requires all contractors and subcontractors who work in the state to be licensed by the Utah Department of Commerce. Therefore, it is important that you hire only licensed professionals to work on your building project. To do otherwise is a crime.
4. Search on-line to verify that the contractor has a current license. Do a licensee check and verification by accessing DOPL’s Web site: www.dopl.utah.gov. Click on “Licensing,” then “Verify a License.” You will be able to search by contractor name, business name, or license number. (Note: some contractors are licensed under the business name, rather than their individual name.)
5. Examine the license type. Be sure the contractor is licensed to do the specific type of work your project requires. For example, a roofing contractor may not be licensed to pour concrete.
6. Secure a written contract. Regardless of the size of your building project, secure the agreement in writing. Should a dispute arise, a contract verifies the terms and conditions of the project. (Be sure the contract includes any incidental changes to the order and related costs.)
7. Obtain a building permit. Do not allow the contractor to begin the building project before a building permit from your local city or county has been obtained. It is the contractor’s responsibility to obtain the permit. The permit is to ensure inspection of the project, for your own protection.
8. Obtain a signed lien release prior to payment. Ask all contractors, subcontractors and suppliers working on your project to sign lien releases prior to paying them for completed services.
9. Be CAUTIOUS of requests for a down payment in order to purchase materials or to “solidify” the contract. Most established contractors purchase the materials first and then present an invoice for reimbursement.
10. Be leery of contractors who use high-pressure sales tactics. If they want your business today, they’ll want your business tomorrow. Don’t cave in to a sales pitch requiring the work be done immediately and payment be made on the spot.

Make your next “dream come true” home building project a pleasant experience. Before hiring a contractor, spring into action and contact the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing. Save yourself time, money, and aggravation—go online at www.dopl.utah.gov and do a “licensee look-up and verification.”

7:41:46 AM    

VERNAL — When Dan Barnhurst, conservation officer for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, walked up to the young couple, he knew they would be unhappy. There were 61 bluegill spread all over the ice. The bluegill limit for Pelican Lake is 10 per angler.

"It was a costly mistake," Barnhurst said. "The young couple had 41 bluegill over the limit. They hadn't bothered to check the proclamation. There was another mistake as well; one angler was fishing with two poles. Two poles are legal on some warm-water fisheries, including Pelican, but you need to have a permit, and he didn't."

Not paying attention to the rules cost the couple $854.

"The Uinta Basin is rich in its diversity of fishing opportunities," Barnhurst said. "Within an hour's drive, Basin anglers can enjoy excellent fishing for bluegill, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, walleye, tiger muskie and five species of trout: rainbow, lake, brown trout, brook and the native Colorado River cutthroat, plus a hybrid or two.

"We want anglers to enjoy these exceptional opportunities without having bad experiences," he said. "The first step for doing that is to check the fishing proclamation."

Managing for quality fishing often takes special regulations. "Fishermen have the responsibility of knowing the regulations before they wet a line in an unfamiliar water," Barnhurst said. "Ignorance is not a valid excuse. Conservation officers have a saying * 'either they knew and didn't care or didn't care enough to know.'"

Increased opportunity means anglers need to consult the proclamation each year. Barnhurst offers some advice, as rules do change from year to year: In the front of the proclamation is a "changes" page that highlights some of the changes that affect anglers statewide. There is also an alphabetical list of waters with special regulations. Check the changes page, and then look up your favorite waters to see if there are any changes. Before driving to a water you're unfamiliar with, check the proclamation list to see if that water has a special regulation.

"We would prefer not to have to issue citations," Barnhurst said. "We would rather anglers learn and follow the rules. But when they know and don't care, or don't care enough to know, we need to send them a message."

Anglers, boaters and others out enjoying the outdoors can help. If you see a violation, please report it to the division's Help Stop Poaching Hotline: * DEER (3337) for cell phones or 1-800-662-DEER.

7:33:20 AM    

The Utah Film Commission will take new promotional tools to Los Angeles for the annual Locations Trade Show in Santa Monica, April 16-18, 2004. In addition to new film incentives to tout, the Utah Film Commission will premiere its digital photo library, which is located online at www.film.utah.gov.

"We are excited to bring this new location scouting product to the Locations Trade Show, said Leigh von der Esch, director of the Utah Film Commission. "About 5,000 production representatives will be stopping by over the three days of the show and we will have the technology online at our booth that will allow us to access Utah's locations, crew, talent and support services right there in LA and the global production industry will be able to access Utah sites 24/7 from anywhere in the world."

Utah Film Commission representatives will also have individual appointments with various production companies while in Los Angeles.

"We are fortunate that our support from the legislature will enable us to increase our marketing efforts this year," added von der Esch. "We will also be talking up our sales and use tax exemption legislation, other film incentives and the Legislative Motion Picture Task Force and what we see happening for the industry in Utah in the future."

7:20:14 AM    

St. George - Utah Gov. Olene Walker has designated four new Utah! Smart Sites in southern Utah. Ceremonies were held today at Steton Technology Group, one of the state's existing Smart Sites.

"The Smart Site program was designed to create quality jobs in rural Utah," said Walker. "The program is critical to Utah's efforts to grow our technology industry."

The new Smart Sites include:

• The Possibility Forge, Inc., a software development firm located in Hurricane. The firm's consultants have won international recognition for world-class engineering of enterprise data systems.
• Elite Publishing Services, a company that has been in the magazine business for more than 20 years and exclusively focused on the southern Utah community since 1995. Located in St. George and Toquerville, the company recently launched Elite Publishing Service's new Web department.
• Longs Digital Solutions, a Hurricane-based firm that offers businesses a full range of information technology (IT) solutions including full video production, commercials, and training videos.
• Eminence Management Consulting (EMC), a company located in the Tonaquint Center in St. George, serving the health care industry by offering innovative practice management consulting and solutions.

"The Smart Sites employ workers who use computers and the Internet to perform tasks for clients anywhere in the world," said Ed Meyer, director of the state's Smart Site program, which is part of the Division of Business and Economic Development.

Since the Smart Site program was launched more than two years ago, 750 jobs have been created at more than 40 Smart Site enterprises. For more information on the state's Smart Site program, visit http://smartsites.utah.gov or call the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development at (801) 538-8700.

7:16:23 AM