HURRICANE, Utah (ABC4) — With Summer in full swing, more people are heading to Utah’s lakes and reservoirs to cool off. However, with more water-related deaths across the state this year, officials are reminding people that using a life jacket often makes the difference.

As temperatures climb, Sand Hollow State Park is filled with boaters, paddleboarders and swimmers looking to cool off. With more people hitting the water, natural resource officers are reminding visitors to know the rules and make safety a priority.

“This year is looking like one of the deadliest,” resource officer Chris Nelson told ABC4.com. “If you look back far enough, not so far ago, having five fatalities was a whole summer’s worth across multiple different fields of recreation, from hiking and search and rescue operations to OHV and boating, and we’re looking at that now just from boating, and it’s the beginning of June. Not a great start.”

“Every kid 12 and under does have to be wearing a life jacket at all times,” natural resource officer Chad Tarr added. “There needs to be a life jacket for everyone accounted on board of a paddle craft or a vessel at all times as well.”

For Rex Johnson, a local in Southern Utah, life jackets aren’t just for people. He and his wife visit Sand Hollow several times a week and ensure their two dogs wear jackets every time they hit the water, too.

“We were out here one day, and there were a lot of waves, and so she went after a Frisbee but couldn’t see it, and she just kept circling and circling, and it made me nervous. I didn’t know how long she could just circle, so we decided at that point to get them life jackets,” he recounted.

Johnson added that he wishes more people had the same approach. “What I noticed is the people that are out here on the stand up paddleboard, they rarely wear a life jacket. So that kind of makes me nervous,” he said.

Shelly Mackun teaches diving classes at Sand Hollow and said even the most experienced swimmers can find themselves in trouble in the water.

“You get out, and it’s a hundred degrees outside, and you jump in the water, and the water right now is about 74-ish. That’s considered cold water, and especially when your body is overheated, and you jump in, you’re likely to gasp, and as you do that, you’re going to swallow some water,” Mackun said.

She added, “I always have some flotation on because it’s not always just about you that other things can happen. You can get knocked in the head. You can buy a paddle from somebody paddleboarding. You can slip off your paddleboard and fall in the water, and again, that hot air temperature with the cold water temperature can be a deadly mix.”

State officials said that most of this year’s drowning victims were not wearing life jackets and hope more people will make them a normal part of their time on the water this Summer.

WASHINGTON TERRACE, Weber County — A new cemetery for military veterans, just the second in Utah, is coming to an undeveloped parcel in Washington Terrace, with work to start as early as next year.

“It’s a beautiful location for a cemetery. There’s some very big bluffs where the main cemetery will be built,” said Jeff Hanson, a deputy commissioner with the Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs who focuses on facilities. Expansion areas extend to lower bluffs, he said, “but the view is incredible.”

The first phase of the project along 5800 South west of South 500 East calls for roads, an administration building, a committal shelter, a flag plaza, columbarium walls for cremated remains and the initial crypt field. Design work is to be done by September, he said, and the first phase of the cemetery work will then be put out for bids.

Development could begin in 2027, he estimates, with the first phase work to take perhaps a year. A federal grant will cover the estimated $14 million price tag of the first phase, and the state will handle subsequent maintenance and upkeep.

The development is significant for veterans in Weber and Davis counties and the rest of northern Utah because it gives them a more feasible option for burial in a veterans cemetery. The only other state facility for veterans is the Utah State Veterans Cemetery and Memorial Park north of Camp Williams in Bluffdale while the only federal cemetery with open burial space is the Southern Utah National Cemetery in Cedar City.

“Having a veterans cemetery in northern Utah, veterans can consider that option, and it’s a good option because a veteran can receive a free plot and a free marker,” Hanson said. “Not only that, but it’s just going to be an extremely beautiful cemetery based on its location. … I think there’ll be a lot of interest for veterans to be interred at the facility.”

Beyond that, he said the facility, overlooking the Weber River and I-84 to the south, would be an apt location for Veterans Day and Memorial Day events, with the planned flag plaza expected to be able to accommodate around 200 people. The project area sits at the largely undeveloped southern end of Washington Terrace, across the Weber River from the northern end of Hill Air Force Base in adjacent Davis County.

The project has been in the works for years, and the 102-acre parcel of land for the cemetery was donated from a private landowner. Last week, the Washington Terrace City Council amended the zoning of the project area to allow for cemetery development. The parcel size allows for expansion in the years and decades to come.

“We think it’s a wonderful addition to our community and the region,” said Washington Terrace City Manager Tom Hanson. “We have all the confidence that it’ll be a wonderful neighbor and a benefit to the veterans, particularly in our area.”

Terry Schow, an advocate for veterans in northern Utah and the former executive director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs, before its name change, said there are around 18,000 military veterans living in Davis County and 17,000 or 18,000 in Weber County. Another 4,500 or so live in Box Elder and Cache counties more to the north.

“From a veteran standpoint, obviously we’re happy to have something up here in northern Utah. You got Hill Air Force Base up here, a lot of military people here,” he said.

Whether the Utah Jazz wanted it to or not, the rebuild would end this upcoming season. The Jaren Jackson Jr. trade last season was a clear sign that the Jazz would be a competitive team. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was worried that the Jazz might not lose enough games once they had Jaren Jackson Jr. Luckily, the Jazz were willing to do everything it took to lose enough games, including receiving a hefty fine, to both trade for JJJ and, hopefully, draft in the top three in this upcoming vaunted NBA Draft.

On May 10th, that’s exactly what happened, and it was a massive exclamation point to the end of the Utah Jazz rebuild.

It’s a truly massive way to end the rebuild. When this all started, the Jazz were surely hoping that at least one of these four seasons they would get lucky and jump into the top four of the draft. Last season, when the Jazz didn’t jump into the lottery, even with the worst record in the league, it felt like a huge letdown. That said, the Jazz did end up getting a prospect with incredible upside in Ace Bailey. Bailey has shown fantastic signs, but there’s still a lot of growth and consistency needed. Utah, knowing that they still needed to keep their pick, took one last shot at winning the lottery. That win could not have been sweeter with everything on the line.

Had Utah not won the lottery, you can bet they would likely have been making some sort of trade to improve the team. But now, with this upcoming draft, Utah will select a player who can be the cornerstone of an elite, winning basketball team.

Whether it’s AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, or Cam Boozer, Utah is going to have the second choice among those three players, and that player joins a core that’s already playoff-caliber. But now that they have this tier-1 prospect, the trades they make will be to mold the roster rather than try to get a cornerstone player. That means that Utah is looking to improve weaknesses rather than accumulating whatever talent they can, kind of like what happened with the Jaren Jackson Jr. trade. Jaren Jackson didn’t necessarily fit perfectly with the roster Utah had, but that wasn’t the point, they were trying to take advantage of a potential trade opportunity. But with either AJ Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson on the roster, they are now able to evolve the roster throughout the career of their young core.

With how everything ended this season, even the most pessimistic have to be excited about what is certainly looking like the beginning of an incredible chapter in Jazz history.