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Show Chamber Focuses Attention on Salt Lake Metropolitan Area Problem The Idea of tome kind of consolidation consolida-tion of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake ' county, to give the metropolitan area a more closely coordinated, more efficient and more economical administration, is not new. Many individuals have advocated ad-vocated It. It has been discussed in one or more of its many aspects by city and county officials. The Telegram has frequently editorialized on the question. But the project has never been given the recognition and the stimulus before which it has now received as the result of action by the board of governors of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce. Com-merce. This influential organization has now placed itself on record as favoring the extension of city boundaries in some manner to make a more extensive metropolitan metro-politan area. No tw who has watched the growth and development of this city and its metropolitan area through the years can doubt the need for some change In the present unwieldy and archaic governmental gov-ernmental administrative base. Present Salt Lake city limits, partic-"nlarly partic-"nlarly along the southern edge of the city, are not at all realistic. They do not limit the city as far as the reality of city living, metropolitan development and municipal problems go. They merely limit administrative jurisdiction. As a result there is much confusion of responsibility, overlapping of function, func-tion, duplication of service all of which leads to waste and inefficiency. Furthermore Further-more the arbitrary barriers place an obstacle in the way of planned metropolitan metro-politan development which at time is Insurmountable. Take for example the matter of consolidation con-solidation of city and county health services something which ought to be a simple matter to work out but which after years of effort has still not been achieved and gives no sign today of ever being achieved under the present system. Then there la the matter of a city-county city-county jail a project which makes sense to everyone, but which is just a dream under our present system of divided di-vided authority, Jurisdictional Jealousy and political retentiveness. We see presently the grave difficulties difficul-ties in the way of effective municipal administration in our metropolitan area when we attempt to deal with sewage disposal, as we have already seen similar simi-lar difficulties in the way of water supply and arterial street and highway construction. Arbitrary city limits have faced the metropolitan area with major health and safety problems from the standpoint of fire protection, sanitation, building restrictions and so on. It 4a the Salt Lake metropolitan area which is the reality of life. It is on an area basis that the problems of efficient municipal administration, residential and industrial development, ought to be dealt with but it Is Impossible under the present governmental system, which is a relic literally of the days of the horse-and-buggy before modern transportation transporta-tion methods made it possible for cities to burst their bounds. Certainly something ought to be done about it. tther large centers of population long ago discovered that. Many have taken effective action. Many more are in the process of taking it. It is high time that the Salt Lake metropolitan metro-politan area made a determined effort to solve the problem. We do not know what the best answer an-swer U. But we are glad to see the Salt Lake City chamber take an Interest in the problem. We hope the chamber will give the question . careful study and come up with a proposal that will win wide public support in the state aa a whole (because legislative approval will no doubt be required) as well as In the ! metropolitan area itself. |