OCR Text |
Show County Planning Urged At ! Meeting Saturday Outstanding Leaders in This Field Explain Need For ! Planning As Protection Of County's Future j Declaring that the present sys-; sys-; tern in this state whereby SSO0 j is expended to educate a young person and then that young per-. i son is forced to go to another I state to find work, with Utah the loser, is all wrong. Director William Wil-liam Peterson of the Exetension sen-ice urged the complete use of our farming land through planning. plan-ning. Director Peterson was one of a group of outstanding men who spoke at the county planning meetings held in St. George on last Saturday, Dec. 29. In attendance at the meeting with Director Peterson were, Dr. O. J. Wheatley, extension economist; eco-nomist; Mrs. Rena B. Maycock, assistant director of home economics; eco-nomics; S. M. Chapman, Mary L. Bastow, assistant home furnishings furnish-ings specialist and Naomi Barlow, Bar-low, assistant foods specialist. Peterson Opens Meet In opening the meeting Director Peterson took a few minutes to explain the purpose of the county planning board and as to why an effort was being made at this particular time to get planning board members working on problems pro-blems in the counties. Director Peterson gave a picture pic-ture of the county and said: "If we analyze this, one of the first striking things we get is that we Continued on page eight) Planning Board (Continued from first page) i have not increased any farming land. We have been somewhat at j a standstill. Our people have been I increasing. Tells of Young People i "If we take the school census we find there are a little more than 2400 young people becoming j 21 years of age from rural dis-j dis-j tricts only, not the big cities. That ! means we have about 1200 boys j become the age of 21 years. If these people are going to live in i the rural districts, that means ! 100 new potential families to have I homes each year. If we are mak-, mak-, ing no expansion or increase of ' land, where are those homes to be found ? J "We have computed and find ' that per student who goes through ! the grade and high schools, we have invested $766.00 public money. About one-half of the tax in the state is put into these j schools for the education of the young people. "Are we doing the right thing 1 when we put nearly SS00.00 into , these young people and then at the time they are out of high schoool, we forget them ? Then they have to go somewhere else. We have carried them during the time until they reach the productive pro-ductive period and then let them go elsewhere. The state that gets them is $S00.00 better off." Xeed Inventory It was the object of Director Peterson to show that an inventory inven-tory should be made to see what might be done in the county to make a better place to live and give more security to the families who live here and that we might keep our young people at home. He indicated that the Extension Service was for service and they did not mean to come down and dictate but merely to help give analysis to this problem. Dr. O. J. Wheatley, next speaker commented on the very fine young people in Washington county. He also commented on the fact that we had lost a large number of young people, and what could be done to maintain a fine standard of living from the resources available avail-able in the county. Real Challenge "Seems to me the real challenge," chal-lenge," said Wheatley, "is to develop de-velop those resources and make the most effective use 'of them so that we can obtain a more adequate ade-quate income for the people we desire to have here." A discussion was held regard-in regard-in reservoir development in the county. Director Peterson gave the reported cost of reservoirs which had been surveyed by the county. Afternoon Meeting In the afternoon meeting, G. S. Quate, state correlator soil conservation, explained the soil conservation program of setting up districts throughout the county. The remainder of the time was given to a discussion of things which might be done to increase income in Washington county, and the proposed Dixie Project. ! Director Peterson emphasized the fact that a careful study ; should be made in order to determine deter-mine what crops, industries, etc., could be grown or started which would really pay. He commented on the fact that Washington County had a climate to be capitalized capi-talized on. Director Peterson rend excerpts from the engineer's report of the Dixie Project. He said if the people peo-ple of the county felt that they can pay for such an undertaking, they should study the possibilities very carefully. He emphasized the fact that the farm income must be increased greatly in order to pay for such a project. In the near future, under the direction of county agent, Anson B. Call Jr., the county planning board will be reorganized. W. O. Bent ley, chairman of the Washington County Planning Board, was in charge of the meetings. |