WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate has passed a bill needed to transfer the ownership of Minersville State Park to Beaver County — and to allow selling some lands around the popular fishing hole in southern Utah to finance its maintenance.

"I have worked with Beaver County and the state for a long time to resolve this because we all agree that local officials are best equipped to manage the park," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who sponsored the bill with Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah.

In 2002, the state decided it could no longer afford to manage the 200-acre state park facilities around Minersville Reservoir, which the state had developed into a fishery over the 38 years that it had the site.

When the state decided to back away, Beaver County sought title to the park and indicated it might sell off parcels around the lake to finance park operations. That, however, would violate a 1964 agreement that transferred what was then federal land to the state for use as a state park.

The agreement said that ownership of the land would revert to the federal government if it was no longer used as a state park.