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Show 1971 It 65.85 iBrlgham City, Utah , ' - L " In comparison) 1971 67.35 Tooele, Utah Municipal Expenditures plr person ffl'ISS ' T- ' PAGE' ARIZONA 1962 126 65 Administered by the INTERIOR DEPARTMENT 1963 135.78 ,9o4 184.65 1965 380.51 I 1966 283.28 I 1967 300.10 I 1968 290.87 I ;969 218.97 1970 274.78 I 1971 209.41 ' 1972 118.21 79 22 education costs . 974 75 22 J and capital investments excluded The Interior Colony: The Golden Beaver By Kenneth L. Gray, Ph.D. Some of the royalties and fees extracted from the interior interi-or colony are eventually returned to the West when reclamation projects, such as dams, are financed; with congressional approval, the Bureau of Reclamation sometime some-time uses the money to fund water resource developments. However, the investment is again returned to Washington, D.C. in the form of watec-use fees and electricity bills once the dams are completed. The Bureau of Reclamation (Bu-Rec) (Bu-Rec) is responsible for engineering engi-neering wonders such as Hoover Dam, Glen Canyon Dam, and Grand Coulee Dam; unfortunately their wastefulness wasteful-ness is also on a grand scale. Although the Bureau, of Reclamation had planned to build the Warner Valley Dam and Reservoir in southern Utah, this became one of their many projects which failed to materialize. Fearing that Bu-Rec Bu-Rec might never build this project, officials of the city of St. George retained a Utah based engineering firm to build the Warner Valley Dam for less than half the BuRec price tag. Waste on such a scale is typical of the Bureau of Reclamation, but intolerable under local and private control. con-trol. The Gunlock Dam in southern Utah is another example of a dam built at a cost far less than BuRec's estimate. BuRec abandoned the Gunlock Dam plan- as economically infeasible, yet it is now providing inexpensive water and recreational opportunities oppor-tunities for southern Utah residents. As if their wasteful record in dam building were not sufficient, suffici-ent, BuRec has also been in the business of building and operating a town. Page, Arizona (named by BuRec after their former director, John C. Page) was established in 1957 and remained under federal control until 1975. For this eighteen year period the Bureau of Reclamation regional region-al director, living and working in Salt Lake City, was nicknamed by his staff "the Mayor of Page." This "Mayor's" office was 350 miles from "his" city. There is reason to believe that funding to support Page was grossly mismanaged. Major Ma-jor discrepancies are obvious when Page expenditures are compared to locally controlled cities of similar size. Brigham City, Utah, for example, spent $65.85 per person on municipal munici-pal expenditures in 1971, and Tooele, Utah recorded a $67.35 per person expense. For the fifteen year period from 1960 to 1975, Page operation and maintenance expenses per person averaged $198.23 per year. (See figure above.) The high for one year was $380.51 per person. In most cities, when the population popula-tion fluctuates, municipal expenditures ex-penditures must also fluctuate to reflect the changing tax base. When the population of Page fluctuated, this was not reflected in municipal expenditures. expen-ditures. Furthermore, there is no evidence that these high expenses produced a superior city; the cost simply maintained maintain-ed an excessive number of employees. Since the Kaiparowits plateau pla-teau in Utah is only thirty miles from Page, the planned Kaiparowits coal mines and electricity plant could have helped Page citizens. However, How-ever, the Bureau of Land Management repeatedly delayed de-layed authorization of the project even while unemployed unemploy-ed construction workers in Page were waiting to begin work. As construction on the Navajo Coal-Fired Electricity Plant near Page was completed, complet-ed, the population of Page began to decrease. In April, 1975, for example, the population popula-tion of Page decreased by 813 persons, which represented a loss of nine percent of the entire population of the city in one month. Many of these workers had wished to remain in Page to work on the Kaiparowits Project, and others remained though unemployed. un-employed. The highest percentage per-centage of unemployed were from the nearby Navajo Indian Reservation. If the construction of the Navajo Plant and the Kaiparowits Kaiparo-wits Plant had been synchronized, synchro-nized, several undesirable impacts could have been avoided. The population of the area would have been more stable, thereby creating a sound base for urban economic growth; unemployment of the Navajos would have been lower; less government and private expense would have been required to train and recruit workers for the Kaiparowits Kaipar-owits Project, and social, economic, and psychological costs of uprooting families could have been avoided. Ironically, while the Bureau of Land Management was engrossed en-grossed in writing the Environmental Envir-onmental Impact Statement for the Kaiparowits Project, delays in development, which BLM caused, resulted in adverse social impacts. If unwarranted delays in development could result in reduction of adverse environmental environ-mental impacts, BLM actions Budget Meeting The Moab City Recreation Board will hold a public hearing next Monday evening at 7 p.m. in the County Courthouse to receive input regarding the next year's budget. Persons with suggestions sugges-tions pertaining to the funding of various City Recreation programs should plan to attend. would not be entirely unproductive; unpro-ductive; to the contrary, however, delay often causes adverse impacts, as the history of the Kaiparowits Project in relation to Page, Arizona reveals. Improvements in developmental de-velopmental planning and the elimination of wasteful practices prac-tices cannot be expected until political power is returned to the people and local representatives, represen-tatives, since they have the ' most to gain or lose. Whenever When-ever the people lose control of the public business, the cost of that business is likely to inflate, as agencies become more concerned with their own desires regardless of the needs of the communities and residents. Interior Department officials often allege that Interior Department agencies work closely to coordinate efforts. However, activities in and around Page, indicate that Interior Department mismanagement misman-agement is a critical problem. As each agency seeks its own well being and ignores the will of the people, lack of local control results in colossal waste and social problems, as is documented in the files of the Bureau of Reclamation and Bureau of Land Management. (Copyright, Kenneth L. Gray, 1976) Next week's article, "The Chain Gang," deals with BLM grazing administration and land management man-agement philosophy. -i. . .r. -f. .t. !.. i 1 t |