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Show 11 IffilE TO the PEOPLE of ST. GEORGE t-. r m 1 wgKBVi Ml concerning the future of St George Following a meeting with certain City Officials, a group of St. George citizens have' made application with the City Recorder for petition copies of an initiative petition for the purpose of transmitting to the City Council an ordinance providing for the building of a municipal power plant. These petition copies will undoubtedly un-doubtedly be circulated here within the next few days. The instigators of this method of procedure were a small group of St. George and outside persons who are attempting to construct a power plant under the Bletzacker and Burton proposals and contracts. To accomplish ac-complish this it became necessary to secure local sponsors to initiate the power plant ordinance as the City Administration could not construct a power plant under the Granger Act because they had signed a bond contract with the Edward L. Burton company without public bidding as required by that act. The above is not meant as a criticism of, or reflection on the ten local citizens who were requested to sponsor the Ordinance and who agreed to do so. Undoubtedly their motives were entirely sincere and there can be no question as to the legality of their action. It is doubtful, however, if these local sponsors were informed of the provisions of law which govern the procedure of a city in undertaking the construction of a muncipal power plant. The initiative procedure was apparently inspired by two urgent needs: ET Or ' I THE NEED of evading the laws of the State of tTtah incorporated in the f J Industrial Recovery Act generally known as the "Granger Act" passed in A . KJ M. 1933 and amende(j i 1935. This law was set up to provide an orderly means of constructing municipal power plants through the issuance of revenue bonds. Briefly defined, it provides that the city should engage a disinterested and competent engineer to make a comprehensive com-prehensive estimate of construction and operation costs and net operating revenues. It further provides for the issuance of revenue bonds only after the proposed bonding has been open for competitive com-petitive bids. It also provides a procedure for submitting a municipal plant proposal to the qualified quali-fied voters of the city. In a word, the law sets up many safeguards of the rights of the citizens and of the city, as well as the rights of the utility that is serving the city or town. The pro- visions of this law have been ignored in several basic respects by the officials of the City of St. George. - The initiative petition is, in fact, designed to evade this law. Of f T r THE NEED to evade the prudent request of another group of peti-jMwlJtJt'ione'rs peti-jMwlJtJt'ione'rs 454 of them that the city employ an unbiased engineer to study the municipal plant proposal before calling an election on an issue so vital to the future welfare of every citizen of the City of St. George. To ignore these petitioners and thus incur their ill-will or to grant their request for the investigation by an unbiased un-biased engineer, with the possibility of a report adverse to the Bletzacker proposal here was an embarrassing dilema ! Investigate Before You Sign The time to investigate this power plant proposal is before further commitments are made. Once the city is authorized to build the Bletzacker-Bond House plant it will be too late to turn back. Then if the plant is not profitable the city would have to raise electric rates as the Bletzacker-Bond House ordinance provides that the city must charge whatever rates are necessary to repay the $300,000.00 of bonds plus interest of from 4 to 5y2 within seventeen years. Then, when the plant proves to be too small, there will be no alternative but to issue more bonds to enlarge the plant. We believe that the voters have the right to decide the power plant question on its merits. This means that you are entitled to facts and figures not rosy generalities. This further means that you should have the whole power plant question before you when you make your decision. The Question Before St. George Voters . The question before you is not an abstract question of municipal power versus private company power. The contracts which have already been signed by City Officials have made the question definite. Because of these contracts the question has become "Do you approve the Bletzacker-Bond House proposals and contracts?" If you do, you should support the Bletzacker-Bond House Ordinance. If you do not approve these proposals and contracts you should oppose the Bletzacker-Bond House Ordinance whether or not you believe in the principle of municipal ownership. If you believe in the Hurricane Project or Boulder Dam power, you should also oppose the Bletzacker-Bond House Ordinance as the passage of that Ordinance will handicap future City Officials from taking advantage of these low cost sources of power when they become available. Another group of fair-minded citizens, who believe that the whole power problem should be put before you at one election, are sponsoring an initiative ordinance proposing a franchise to Southern Utah Power company which contains many benefits to St. George residents. In the near future a petition will be circulated in order that the voters may chose between the Bletzacker-Bond House plant and a new franchise to our company A Fair and Square Proposal To the end of enabling you to later vote on this issue safely and intelligently, we propose that the sponsors of the franchise ordinance and the sponsors of the proposed Bletzacker plant conduct their educational edu-cational campaigns in accordance with these simple rules: 1 That full and complete information be made public regarding power plant specifications, investment, in-vestment, and operating and maintenance costs. That estimated plant revenues and expenses ex-penses covering the life of the bonds be published. That proposed rate schedules covering both city and public use of electricity be furnished the voters. And also that explanations be given regarding the Bletzacker contract, the Bletzacker plant proposal, the Bukon bond proposal, and the Burton contract in connection with the proposed City Ordinance g oriuTatce eXplanatin made "Sn the provisions of the proposed fran- 3 That statements and discussions by both sides be confined to the specific issues at stake andthat unsupported claims and persona, attacks designed to create be y fi 4 That both sides confine their discussions of the success or fJh.r tu , , , , to examples that are comparable that is, towTtt 1 in T f munlcilal size, industry, type of planfand fuel coste " f c""tions as to g WUhOUt """ ta Uteld rs to confuse or m- The SOUTHERN UTAH POWER COMPANY pledges itself to a clean, straightforward and aggressive campaign and gives you the assurance that all the facts in our possession vviii ,! rTt and aggress v to any resident of the City of St. George. possession will be cheerfully made available SOUTHERN UTAH POWER COMPANY |