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Show On Feb. 12, 1980, they lost. They lost fair and square in a hard fought battle just like Dec. 30, 1949 when 896 voted for municipal power and 795 voted for the Southern Utah Power Company, forerunner of Cal-Pac. Again, their loss and your win gives you one more chance to get in on low cost Bureau Power and other energy developments while controlling your own rates rather than UP & L controlling con-trolling them. The vote outcome was right. , This was a very, very hard loss for the Cedar power interests and as before, they probably won't accept the mandate of majority rule. Watch the bleeding hearts and poor loosers come forth and complain now. I wonder who would have complained ' had UP & L won? Remember, believe it or not the majority vote for municipal power was ignored once before, now it's up ' to you to monitor their activities or it will be ignored again. Carl L. Palmer 0 Letters rffy&L ToThe lj Editor The editor welcomes letters to be written in this public forum, from any and all parties. Letters should be concise and to the point as possible. Type-written double-spaced letters are preferred but hand written letters will be accepted. All letters should be signed, but names will be withheld if a specified reason is stated. No unsigned letters will be published. Writers should keep all letters under 250 words if possible, longer letters will be subject to possible editing. In general, all letters will be published as they are written. No libelous, obscene or malicious copy will be accepted. CLEAR ABUSE (emphasis mine) the courts will sustain the exercise of such power." "So the courts are usually disinclined disin-clined to interfere with regulations adopted by school, boards and they 'will . not consider whether the regulations are wise or expedient, but merely whether they are a REASONABLE (emphasis mine) exercised of the power and discretion of . the board... The presumption is always in favor of the reasonableness and properiety of a rule or Regulation duly made." Additionally, "The school property is owned by the people of the community. com-munity. ..legislation permits its use under proper control and supervision, by the people of the district for all civic and community purposes, including in-cluding recreational activities." Here in Iron County we must address ad-dress ourselves to the following: Was the school board unreasonable in charging an "energy use" fee and in so doing abuse its discretionary powers; is the "Energy Use" fee an effort to discourage the use of school facilities, by citizens, people, community, com-munity, public-private groups; is the "energy use" fee contrary to and in conflict with the . Laws of ' IUtah 1923,c.l00 and the Comp. Laws Utah 1917 sections 4551 and 4552? To be continued next week. J. Cwik Girl Scouts Cedar City Editor: A big thanks to all the staff at the Valley View Medical Center for the fine care that I received as a patient. Thanks for your kind care and consideration. Budd Munford ' Editor: On Tuesday Feb. 19, 1980, the Iron County School Board decided to continue its new policy of charging fees to private groups wishing to use school facilities. Superintendent Morris defined private groups as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, folk dancing groups etc. Morris defined public groups to be election boards, state agencies holding hearings etc. He said public meetings for educational, political, economic, artistic, and the moral interest of the community had been allowed in public school buildings without charging energy fees. (Color Country Spectrum Feb. 20, 1980). The Board reviewed the policy concerning utilization of buildings by the public and decided that with adequate legal backing they would retain their policy as to utilization and fixed charges for various activities. (Iron County Record, Feb. 21, 1980.) In December 1932, the .Utah Supreme Court, in an appeals case, addressed itself to several issues and in part made the following observations: ob-servations: "By statute the Legislature has provided for the creation of County School Districts. The Board of Education of each district is a body corporate with powers to sue and be sued, to take, hold, lease, sell, and convey real and personal property as the interests of the school may require". "The powers of the board of education are statutory since the Legislature may authorize the governing -. authorities of school districts as the State's agents to do anything not prohibited by the Constitution. Con-stitution. "Laws of Utah 1923, c.JOO, authorizes cities, towns, counties, and school districts to acquire, maintain, and operate athletic fields, gymnasiums, gym-nasiums, and other recreational centers and facilities. By this act such local authorities are authorized to organize and conduct plays, games, sports, community music, clubs, socials and other forms of recreational activity that will employ the leisure time of the people in a constructive and wholesome manner." man-ner." ' I make no argument with the vast discretionary powers of the school board, and neither did the State Supreme Court. "The courts will not interfere with the exercised of discretion by school directors in matters confided by law to their judgvement, unless there is a CLEAR (emphasis mine) abuse of the discretion or a violaiton of law." "The court is not concerned with the policy, expediency, wisdom or justice of a ' legislative enactment conferring powers on boards of education of school districts, and where such authorities act within their powers, IN THE ABSENCE OF Editor: i As a tax paying land owner in Iron County, a contributor to the power feasibility study, and a power bill payer to CPN of around $800 per month in. pump bills during the summer months; I was interested in the outcome of the municipal power vote in Cedar City. I guess I'm just naive enough to believe that when professional and competent engineers, attornies and accountants determine a municipal power system is much better than UP & L, I believe them. For this reason I was quite disturbed when last week I read Councilman jack Carter's Letter to the Editor and County Commissioner Grant Seamsn's statement to the public. .both elected officials commenting on the municipal power vote on Feb. 12, in Cedar City. I might also include Mr. Holyoak since his cartoon suggests that SUSC students voting for municipal power was an exercise in vote manipulation. Since it appears that SUSC students being able to vote will be used as a scapegoat for UP & L's defeat, let's start out by reminding our readers of some UP & L campaign strategy and tactics. As you well know, UP & L championed cham-pioned their cause with full page ads in . the weekly and daily southern Utah newspapers. A five page fold-out detailing the itemized virtues of UP & L was sent first class- not to each resident- but to each electric meter. Therefore if a resident had two or three meters they received two or three fold-outs. Ever wondered who paid for all this? Radio stations played professional commercials every hour or more often alluding to increased benefits offered by UP & L; and plastic sacks containing flyers were hand delivered and hung on door knobs. Who was footing the bill? And you know about UP & L's victory dinner Tuesday night at the Sugar Loaf Cafe.. .don't know how many showed up but you've read recently how UP & L is hurting for bucks yet they can be in southern Utah offering $20 million for a $12 million valued electric system and guess who's picking up the tab? You're right, we as customers yoked to UP & L picked up the tab for their little exercise in futility. Now Mr. Holyoak, as a fair and objective journalist and cartoonist; how about next weeks cartoon depicting the paid people brought into Cedar City by UP & L to go door to door delivering flyers and crusading for UP & L. Be sure and include the report from some residents of threats being made to shut off lights or refusals to provide power if they voted for a municipal power system. Oh yes, and how about their exploitation ex-ploitation of a council member's CPN power bill payment record because they were agniast UP & L. I That's ok for UP &L. They are a big company and always have the right and best answers so it's ok. You better believe UP & L was not the answer and the vote went the best way possible. May be this kind of nonsense is the reason our UP & L power bills in Salt Lake are as high if not higher than CPN. Now Councilman Jack Carter I quote you... "About five or six months before the city election I indicated that I thought it would be better to go with the municipal system than to stay with CPNational thereby cutting out the middle man in the system." You further indicated that after UP & L came on the scene "...This looked like a much better way for us to go, rather than for Cedar City to get into the power business." If you'll send me a self addressed stamped envelope to 637 K St. .Salt Lake City, 84103, I'll send you a tape recording in your own voice where you and the new councilmen state one week before the election that "...After having listened to and considered UP & L we believe that a municipal system is the best way to go." By the way, I'll also enclose newspaper articles and minutes of the council meeting v where you commit yourself to municipal power over UP & L, and agree to abide by the vote of the majority of the people. This leads me to my last comment by my friend and former neighbor Commissioner Grant Seaman. I had to read his direct quote three or four times before I could believe what I was reading. His contention after numberous discussions is still apparent ap-parent failure to realize a municipal power system provides "in lieu of" k payments . to the county to more than offset the loss .of tax base. Nevertheless, Never-theless, here's the really disturbing quote. "The thing to do now is to hope that the Cedar City Council will not accept municipal power and will go with UP &L." I don't know about you but I've had friends who've shed blood on the battle field and given their all to protect this God given principal that in our society the majority rules. Are you, as a tried and true public official elected by majority vote, now advocating ad-vocating that this majority vote election, even though not binding, be ignored, especially after the city council voted to abide by it! .1 I'm sure the paper misquoted you Grant. In closing, let me remind the reader that the same people that ignored your vote to go municipal in Dec. of 1949, are the same people that sold you on California Pacific in June of 1958; they are the same people who lost your cheap Glen Canyon Power in August of 1969; are the same people who tried to protect their interests by attempting to sell you on UP & L in Feb. 1980. A fiasco about every 11 years. Editor: The MX project is needed, that fact is not disputed. Some of the residents of Cedar City don't want it in their community. I have noticed those who are opposed op-posed to it already have good paying, secure careers or are retired and won't profit at all from this. I. would like to speak for the majority of young adults in southern Utah whose's careers (if they are lucky enough to have them) don't pay enough to support growing families. We love Cedar City too, and are concerned for its future, but many of us are forced to leave the area or do without many necessities due to poor pay and high prices in the area. Many of us are just starting our married li ves and would like to see a little career security with adequate pay in southern Utah. Have you checked the unemployment unem-ployment rate in our area lately? Let's get some kind of industry in our area and provide jobs for our young people', who are your sons and daughters. Job security is not only profitable but also provides stronger family units. Every major project planned for this area: Kaiparowits, MX, etc., have been vetoed by environmental agencies and concerned citizens. Checking records I'm sure will reveal, not one of these supports were without a secure, well paying position. ' 5 Cedar will definately grow . but look around you - Cedar is growing anyway. It can't be helped. Why not EtdyVobs fr Ur ffwtagcom- Spokesperson for Young Adults of . . . Cedar City Joe Sobran: "In my opinion, drafting women may be a violation of genuine sexual equality. To draft them but spare them combat would be to imply that: a) we hold them to the same standards stan-dards we hold men to, but that b) of course we can't really expect them to measure up, now can we? That's rather insulting." Marianne Means; "Senator Kennedy Ken-nedy argues that gasoline rationing would demand a fair sacrifice from all Americans and also be the most effective way to cure our addiction to foreign oil. He is right. Rationing by price, which is what we have today, is inherently unfair since the poor bear a disproportionate share of the burden. Furthermore, spiraling prices do not guarantee conservation, since many people simply continue to pay for fuel and cut back in some other area if they must." Kevin Phillips: "Fifteen years ago, American young people rejected the policies and politicians of worn-out conservatism. Today, they're clearly rejecting the policies and politicians . of a worn-out liberalism -- and it's one of the most encouraging trends of these troubled times." |