Show Jack-Straws By Jack Wallis war between Vernal City and County over annexation and Vernal Ashley Valley Water and Sewer Improvement District and Maeser Water Improvement District was magnified Wednesday of last week with the of a petition by members of the Ashley Valley District board for the incorporation of a new city called Ashley The signed by over Ashley Valley property proposes to incorporate everything in Ashley Valley not presently incorporated by Vernal City and also excluding the area contained in Maeser water The area is 11 miles in distance in all four directions in Maeser Water District is following suit by getting petitions signed to file a request for incorporation of its If Ashley Valley City and Maeser property owners approve of incorporating in an it will mean that Vernal City will be land-locked on all four sides with no place to go for The Ashley Valley incorporation petition even if the lawsuit goes in favor of Uintah the controversial east Highway area now under Over a year a Ballard representative group filed for incorporation shutting off the possible growth of Roosevelt City into Uintah County on the Ballard City and a group from Roosevelt fought a battle to shake the growth area lock-up Ballard The Maeser area has already experienced the change of incorporating and then The reasons Maeser leaders gave for falling out of love with incorporation were the extra expense and responsibilities which it This will be a second love affair for Maeser with incorporation if the move We wonder if Ashley Valley and Maeser are really serious about wanting to This move could be part of their strategy to get back at Ver-nal City and also Uintah County in the fight over growth If Ashley Valley and Maeser it will mean they will build and provide their own water and sewer police and fire garbage lighting and all the other services the valley residents have become accustomed to being furnished for Just keeping up the road business is enough to break an Uintah County spends nearly a million dollars every year on Even with the use of its own asphalt road building and maintenance are And what about other How much does a well-trained and capable police force How about the cost of fire Also there are the legal requirements of legal annual state audit accountability for use of public Are the areas wishing incorporation strong enough economically to supply and support the needed Evidently the local area is no different from many other areas in the state in its fight over annexation and In the current session of the Legislature is a bill that would try and work out some of these wars by forming a boundary committee who would step in when such problems We don't understand how the boundary committee would be set up in the individual areas or how it would settle the but the idea sounds like a good Someone does need to put a lid on the boiling pot and cool it The local area is what it is today because of concentrated efforts and planning by many Much good planning has been done with future growth in Is incorporating the circumference of Vernal City an efficient way to Or will it rob one area in an effort to build up If the Uintah County Commissioners accept the proposed Incorporation petition and elections are we predict that the present conflicts are minor in comparison to those that will come as the issues continue to heat up and the lid blows Maybe the Utah Legislature can come up with something to solve the boundary war but right now it looks like there is one boiling In Ashley Let's make every effort to cool it work out our problems |