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Show Enoch qme;& itiomLg fire bill, says country should pay ENOCH By now it is probably all settled, at least in the opinion of the Enoch City Council. The result: if Cedar City feels it is being short changed on fire protection costs, it should take up the matter with Iron County. The Enoch City Council met last night after the Record went to press to discuss Cedar City's $20,697 billing of Enoch for fire protection and its threats to cut off protection if the bill isn't paid, but the evidence to support its position was all collected before the meeting, with the council and the mayor, along with most of the residents of the community, agreeing that Enoch has and does pay its way, contrary to what the Cedar City Council has said over the past few weeks. There are basically three points that the Enoch Council members and Mayor Worth Grimshaw discussed with the Record during interviews this week. First, Enoch, in one way or another, has a contract with Iron County for fire protection. Documents and newspaper clippings collected over the past few days show that the county, at least in principle, agreed to provide the protection in return for Enoch taking care of the water problems of Garden Park, Spanish Trails and Cottonwood subdivisions, according to Grimshaw and Council ma. n Dennis Ayers. "I don't fe si it u's Enoch's problem to battle with Cet dar City or anybody else," said Gitrin ishaw. He referred to meetings in 198C when an agreement was hammere d oi it between Enoch City and Iron Coui lty. At that time, th e three subdivisions listed above were part of Iron County. When the states of Utah said that the water systems wer e unacceptable, the problem was th e county's, said Grimshaw. Enoch helped it out by annexing the proble m areas, in return for certain servia ?s, including fire protection. "We spent $50,COC 1 to upgrade their water system," sai d Grimshaw. "It would have taken tl hem (the county) half a million doll ar s to do the same thing." Thus far nobody ha. s been able to find a signed agreemen t, 1 Jut minutes of the Nov. 12, 1980, meoth ig of the County Commission say t he agreement was approved. Robert Blattner, wh o was the Enoch councilman who r legotiated the agreement, said hie remembers an agreement being re. acl led. Also a story in the A Vug ? 7, 1980, edition of the Iron County Re ;cord discusses what it termed jan "approved" agreement: "Basically the agreement provides that Iron Cou nt, y shall provide road maintenance; fii "e protection, including a new fire ho use near the north, interchange of 1-1 15; and police protection. The agree ;m ent will terminate ter-minate in five years." County Commissions ?r Dee Cowan also remembers . that th e agreement was reached, and he felt th at the county would honor it. ENOCH its police, its recreation and its fires, especially its fires have been the topic recently in Cedar City Council meetings. However, Enoch claims it owes no additional money to Cedar because it has a fire-protection contract with Iron County. He also had a few harsh words for the Cedar City Council's action. "It's not fair, and I think its more of an attention-getter." The second point that Mayor Grimshaw made during the interview was .. that, contrary to what has been published in the past few weeks, he has not yet been contacted by anyone from Cedar City concerning the problem. There have been no phone calls, and the only correspondence has been the bill from Cedar City which was mailed to Enoch. Furthermore, he said, he did not like the threatening tone that Cedar City and Mayor Robert Linford have used, especially threatening to cut off fire protection. "I'm not sure that I'm willing to be threatened, particularly when we've done what we agreed to do." "I don't particularly want to start a full-fledged war with Cedar City, but I am getting tired of the bad press they're giving us," he continued. "As far as I'm concerned we haven't taken any advantage of anybody." Finally, said Grimshaw and Ayers, Cedar City needs to step back and admit that Enoch residents bring a number of economic benefits to Cedar City, including a large amount of sales taxes and business dollars. One businessman said that his business spent nearly $200,000 in Cedar City last year, and that it, by far, is not the largest business in Enoch. Almost all businesses purchase nearly ex-. ex-. clusively in Cedar City, and nearly every family does the majority of its shopping there, he said. "There are literally dozens of people out here who are employed in Cedar City and employ people in Cedar City," added Ayers. Both Ayers and Grimshaw said that communication on the matter is definitely needed, and Grimshaw said the council would probably approach the county first and then Cedar City to resolve any misunderstandings, and to plan for the future. The future, they said, is uncertain. With Enoch's limited tax base (if taxes were doubled, the city would only have a $90,000 budget), they feel that the alternatives are limited. However, they do include continuing with some type of agreement with the county, forming an Enoch volunteer fire department or disincorporating, which would put the entire problem back in the lap of Iron County. |