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Show Springville Joins In Plan To Secure Natural Gas For City Springville joined with other cities in Utah County tl us week to bring natural pas to central and southern Utah Co. .Kay Johnson of this city, a national director in the junior cnamDer oi commerce, was named a member of a committee to accomplish this purpose, and attended at-tended the group's first meeting earlier this week in Provo. Besides Be-sides Mr. Johnson, the committee includes Mayor Wallace Gardner of Spanish Fork. Mayor Mark Anderson An-derson of Provo, and L. B. Tack-ett, Tack-ett, E. D. Firmage and H. D. Shriver, also of Provo. The committee was unanimous in its opinions that this area needs natural gas, and decided to invite Payson and Orem to join the movement. The natural gas line of the Mountain Fuel Supply line now extends as far as Pleasant Grove, with a branch line to the Geneva plant. Provo, Springville and Spanish Span-ish Fork are served by the company com-pany through a system which gets artificial gas from the Ironton coke ovens. Payson at present has no gas service, but it is known that many Payson residents have desired de-sired it for some time. Springville residents are still keenly aware of the results of the last coal strike, which wiped out regular gas heating in this city, Provo and Spanish Fork. Schools closed in the three cities, and a total of 1300 homes in the three communities were deprived of their regular means of heat. It was decided at the meeting in Provo to retain George W. Worth-en. Worth-en. Provo attorney, as legal counsel coun-sel for the movement. The group instructed Mayor Anderson to arrange a meeting with the state public service commission commis-sion as soon as possible, and the problem will be laid before that body with request for immediate action. The committee was unanimous in its opinion that the present gas fuel system for this area has become be-come outmoded from the standpoint stand-point that the demand, in severely cold weather, has now exceeded the supply. This is a constant factor fac-tor which even maximum coal production pro-duction and a lack of strikes in the coal industry will not correct, it was pointed out . Officials of the Mountain Fuel Supply company com-pany have admitted that their system sys-tem in Provo, Springville and Spanish Fork has reached the saturation sat-uration stage in average 24-hour temperatures of around zero, to the point where large users will have to be curtailed if such temperatures tem-peratures are encountered. Business men on the committee revealed that the recent coal strike which wiped out gas heating in the three communities, resulted in a marked slump in retail business. They predicted that if it had extended ex-tended until Christmas or shortly before, merchants would have suffered suf-fered far greater losses than they did. It was also pointed out that industries in-dustries in this area are now denied de-nied gas service. New home domestic domes-tic users are being accepted, but large industrial users who wish either added gas facilities or who wish to install new gas service, aro turned down. |