Show C avi 0 open ae ft fettet there has been an event taking place in our community since last october that all of you are aware of the project to beautify and improve main street since this movement got underway I 1 have heard many arguments take place pro and con as to the necessity of such a project having been one of the proponents of improving the street and having served on every committee to get the project under way I 1 would 1 ke to air my views regard ng it seeing that we are the first city that tourists come through from the west into utah the mormon state I 1 have often wondered what they thought upon coming down our main street I 1 found out one day when a tourist stopped right in the middle of town and asked me where the ma n part of town was I 1 told him this was it and as he drove away I 1 heard h in mutter to his wife it looks like were we re in mormon country and this is a good example of their so call ed beautiful homes and streets maybe that man was mislead by some article he read but he didn dian t miss the mark very far so the project for improvement was introduced and following is the events that have taken place since that time the state road officials were in buted to a highway improvement meeting open to the public in the grantsville Grants ville high school auditorium in october of last year were you there no only thirty five people showed up then when the new city council took office they in cited the state road officials to a special city council meeting at that meeting meet irig was ray leavitt state road commissioner mr langford district engineer ray mccleese state road engineer and mr kay designing engineer mr P P mat of south willow irrigation company and the beautification comm atee it was promised by the state officials that if we would curb and gutter the street get th the I 1 and telephone poles off th the street or at least moved back they would surface seventy two feet of the street or in other words from curb to curb that was wonderful but where would the money come from to lay the curb and an attempt P people eople owning property stand the wis made to declare a special im provement pro d strict and have the cost some of the people on main s street treet went for th s but what of the people who owned enough footage that it would cost them a small fortune to assume their share at the estimated f gure of 2 00 per running foot including include ng the irrigation d on the north s de it would cost them anywhere from to if they c coulon couldn t pay cas cash h for this improve ment a I 1 en would be placed a their property 50 ft back from the side walk these people were will ng to pay within reason but they could not afford that high a cost it was then recommended that due to the fact that everyone in the town uses the main street for shopping picture shows bas netball games etc that the burden would be taken off a few and shar ed with the whole community now for some figures it was es timatea that 22 would be a necessary figure for the city s share of the project that would give us at per ft ft of curb and gutter or 5 ft on each side of the road j I 1 grantsville Grants ville city has a tax aaion of approximately which means an assessment of 2 00 per er thousand valuation would be placed on all property within the city for twenty years plus 4 per cent interest per annum for the bonds that would have to be bissu ed here s a good average of what mr grantsville Grants ville citizen would have to pay per year P property valuation 2 mill levy 1 00 3 86 00 00 4 00 8 69 12 00 25 77 15 00 of this 1 I st of valuations 9 99 per cent falls in the first three cata gones gories and the remaining ten per cent in the last three this taxable money would only be used to ex tend the carb line and all addi dional cost for driveways and waterways would be charged a the abutting property own ers on main street the city officials adopted this plan as a last straw measure rath er than lose the funds which the state had promised to them so we had our election on april and the final count showed for and against regardless of the fact that the opposition twisted the facts created doubt in the voters minds and shouted they I 1 cant can t do this to us it isn t fair in appraising the election we find a bout 50 ed voters on main street in the area to be improved so someone on the other streets gave us 77 votes now the lead ers of the opposition claim the vot ing procedure was not according to law and have engaged mr earl marshall of tooele thoele as their actor ney ey they will spend in trying to defeat this movement twice as much money as it will cost them to go along with us and improve the street that my friends is what you call civic pride in re verse and you who know the op position well know that they have fought against everything that has been a benefit to the city these people are self sufficient elent are sel fish and have no civic pride what if they are not this way lets see their hand of fellowship and cooperation in trying to get a good job ob done if this letter does not meet with the approval of the opposition which I 1 know it won t I 1 challenge them to open debate iri ir the grants ville high school at a time convenient to them in order to give the good people of this community a fair picture of the problems involved in such a project as this sincerely john W palmer |