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Show 1 I t . 1 : Everybody knew it would j happen! The school was bound to change the time of the football game, the night before deer hunt. The game will start at 7:00 p jm. Many of us had planned j to attend the early part j of the State Highway Commission Com-mission Public Hearing or surfacing of U-153. It be- gins at 7:00 p.m. Thurs- i day (tonight), in Beaver. i Actually, we just want to voice our approval of the j proposal to surface two j lanes over the present I route to Puffer Lake. How- j ever, if that is all cut and i dried there is no need ' for our agreement or comment. com-ment. ; -o- ! We learned, however, that the State Land Board intends to push for a re- ! routing of U-153 through Mt. Holly, up over the j mountain, through For- j est Service land and UP&L ! land to the back side of Puffer Lake. This would seem to be j a last ditch effort by Kon- j rad Koning, Gov. Rampton j and his appointed bureaucrats, bureau-crats, to salvage their past mistakes at Mt. Holly, be- ' fore Rampton and his entourage en-tourage leave the state house. i -0- : This several million dollar dol-lar project would serve no I purpose except to line the pockets of Koning and those on his payroll. It would, however, cut deeply Into a number of other pocket-books. For instance, it would cut deep- : ly into state road funds, at a time when road im -provement and repair is being curtailed all over the state due to inflation. It would cut deeply into Beaver County taxpayers and the county road fund, since the abandoned portion por-tion of U-153 would then be returned to Beaver County for maintenance and repair. It would cut deeply into Puffer's Lake Resort. Bob and Marge Schramm have struggled many years on the mountain, and have brought a measure of prosperity pros-perity to the whole county, particularly the tourist oriented business on Beaver's Beav-er's Main Street. -O- In return, if successful, success-ful, the new routing would merely subsidize Koning-ville Koning-ville whose master plan calls for, besides condominiums, condo-miniums, year -around housing and a ski resort gas stations, groceries, a drug store, motels, etc. We've no quarrel with the ski resort. Our quarrel quar-rel is with it being subsidized sub-sidized by the State Highway High-way Commission.Our quar -rel is with turning our beautiful, fragile mountains moun-tains into a housing development, de-velopment, and thereby destroying the very thing that makes it beautiful. -0- If you agree with us, or whether you don't, you need not be atthemeetingThurs-day atthemeetingThurs-day to express yourself. You may write your comments com-ments to be included in the transcript of the meeting, meet-ing, and send them to the District Office, Utah Highway High-way Dept., 880 N. Main St., Cedar City, Utah 84720. The transcript will be kept open for ten (10) days. -0- With the bicentennial year, it's not hard to find good books about revolutionary revolu-tionary heroes. I believe that Benjamin Franklin is our favorite, though we can trace our ancestry back to George Washington's grandfather. He was also our great -great -greatgrandfather. We've been reading a recent edition of "Poor Richard's Almanac". Ben, we've come to the conclusion, conclu-sion, was lazy. He had only one deadline a year, with the almanac. No wonder he had time to go kite flying and discover electricity. He also spent a lot of time in England and France. In all the reading, we've never nev-er seen any evidence that he took his wife with him on these far-flung trips. (Continued on Page 2) wishes to make comment on the project to do so. We'll lend you our copies . to study so that you may become informed. We urge, however, that you consider the cost of delay to the company to Beaver County to the nation, who is dependent upon exports ex-ports for aluminum. We hope environmentalists environment-alists will weigh all factors, fac-tors, before they pull the plug on Beaver County alu-nite, alu-nite, as they did Kaiparo-wits Kaiparo-wits coal. -0- The largest pollution factor fac-tor is people. Projections show Milford to be a city somewhat smaller than Cedar City. A problem, somehow, we think we can live with. No longer will we fear consolidation of our schools. No longer must our children grow to adulthood, adult-hood, only to be forced to leave to find means of support. sup-port. No longer must we drive to Cedar City, Richfield, Rich-field, or Salt Lake for services ser-vices not available at home. The tax base would increase 500 percent. While the annual budget for county and city services ser-vices would be greatly increased, in-creased, the actual cost of property taxes to individuals in-dividuals should greatly decrease throughout the county. We think the project is a good one. We hope that by the time everyone is convinced of this the project is still economically economi-cally feasible. - HERE'S MORE ABOUT JUST BETWEEN Little wonder he was able to retain his quick wit, and manage to keep in the forefront fore-front of all the action. One of the signers and contributors to the constitution, con-stitution, Ben left us one legacy which he cannot be proud. He was the first Postmaster General. -0- We spent the weekend reading the Alunite Draft Environmental Statement. After perusing the D.E.S., as it's called, we discovered discover-ed we were learning a whole lot more about alunite than we really cared to know. Is it not ironic that just a few short years ago before OSHA.EPA.FCAG, ERDA, GEAP and the many others we could accept for face value a project, mine, or factory. Today, laymen, who have no knowledge of aluminum, mining or processing, must study these books to determine de-termine if it is good or bad. And the fate of the project lays In our hands. If we as a group determine deter-mine that we don't want the project, there is little doubt we could stop it. If others outside Beaver County determine that the project is bad for us they may very well stop It to protect us from ourselves. -6- On the other hand, if we determine that the project is a good one for Beaver County, that may very well not be enough. Certainly, It must also make a profit pro-fit for its investors. Markets Mar-kets must be readily available avail-able for its products. Many factors must work together togeth-er to make the project feasible. feas-ible. -0- In studying the DES, we found nothing that had not previously been discussed or included in the Socio-Economic Socio-Economic study and the Alunite Environmental Assessment. As-sessment. The only thing that has changed is that inflation has pushed the cost up approximately ap-proximately 200 million dollars since Milford was first approached about the project. At what point will the project no longer be feasible? We urge everyone who |