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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- The Utah Attorney General's Office denies being told of -- let alone approving -- the Kane County officials' plan to remove road signs from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Earlier this month, Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw and Sheriff Lamont Smith removed 31 road markers that the Bureau of Land Management had placed on routes within the monument.
The signs indicated route numbers and prohibited off-highway-vehicle use.
Smith told The Salt Lake Tribune last week that he believed the issue had been vetted with the attorney general's office by Habbeshaw.
Boyden and Assistant Attorney General Mark Ward said yesterday that they spoke with Habbeshaw about the dispute over the road signs, but that Habbeshaw never asked them whether it would be legal or appropriate for the county to uproot the signs.
Habbeshaw said, "We felt that was a county decision to protect a county right, so we didn't think it was necessary to consult with a state attorney."
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
