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Show Don't give up land Editor: : On February 26, 1 attended a hearim sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management ; to receive commend about the adequacy of the draft environmental en-vironmental assessment on the proposed ski development in Cedai Canyon. There were revelations, to say the least, not all of them pertaining to the purpose of the hearing. Th . chairman of the Cedar City Board Realtors told us how much the value of our property would appreciate if the project were built; those of us lucky enough to own land adjacent to Black r Mountain. And the president of the Cedar City Motel Owners Association told us about all the dollars it would bring in and, yes, they were for it "provided only phase I were built, thus i '- insuring that all those skiiers stay in town and not in the condos and hotels .that phases II and III would provide on the mountain. -The College Ranch was assembled . from a number of properties into a single 2800-acrt parcel in the late 19401 . after years 6f negotiations. As every . .realtor around here knows, looked al '.,frpm all anglesas a piece of real estate, there isn't, and never will be again a property like that for sale at any price. Twenty-eight hundred acres of nearly untouched land of enormous variety, full . of wildlife, huge trees, open meadows, unpolluted streams and magnificent views of Cedar Breaks. The very heart of the whole thing is Mfy'Coww "Craakii Nw( land belonging to SUSC is needed for a road, power lines, septic tanks and parking for the proposed ski development. And where is it all to go? On Mary Gower Creek. All of it. And as any responsible realtor knows, you don't give away the heart of an incomparable piece of property for any purpose, especially this purpose. . ' ; "I wonder -what the trade is. I heard . 30 scholarships. One thousand would be too cheap. If this scheme goes through I will lobby hard to change the name of SUSC to CCCC (Cedar City Community College) and award every one of those scholarships to majors in the Department Depart-ment of Miniscule Ideas. I live most of the year in the area in question. I moved there 10 years ago ' because it offered : things I sought as an artist: solitude and a great view. Now I'm threatened with a parking lot and road and power lines across the " middle of the view and the end to any : "flegree of solitude. And this purveyor of clear thinking from the Ceadr City Board of . Realtors tells us how much more valuable our property is going to be. If self-interest is our motivation . let's just say it boils down to whose self-interest self-interest is bigger: ours, because we already have a vested interest in Cedar -Canyon, in some eases going back for generations, or their's because God made Black Mountain for skiiers. If the Engen Mountain Ski Development isn't built the only thing really lost will be Georg Hartlmaier's dream. But it's a dream built on the acquisition of land that should never ' : have been thought of as available to begin with. Not by him or Iron County or SUSC. Jim Jones Cedar City |