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Show Farmington residents to consider two new bond proposals By DONETA GATHERUM FARMINGTON - In spite of concerns expressed by Mayor Robert Arbuckle that bonding for improvements would eventually lead to a tax increase, the Farmington Farm-ington City council Tuesday evening even-ing voted unanimously to hold a two-fold bond election on July 18. There will be one polling place, the Farmington City Hall, for this election. Farmington residents will consider con-sider two . separate proposals. The first bond issue is for $225,000. The money would be used to construct a new fire-police station. The second proposal is to bond up to $170,000 for major park improvements. im-provements. Much of this money would be spent to improve the Shepard Lane or North Park property proper-ty which is adjacent to Knowlton Elementary School. Mayor Arbuckle opened the discussion oh the bonding question by stating, ' "The direction the city is taking is towards tax increases. I am not convinced that bonding for parks is a good thing." Council members quickly responded to the mayor's statement by defending the need for money to support these two major city improvement im-provement projects. They pointed out that the bond election simply gives the city authorization to issue bonds over a ten year period. If money for the projects is made available through the sale of property proper-ty or increased tax revenues, then the city would not bond or would bond for a lesser amount Councilman : Don Redd said, "Politically and individually, we should never have a tax increase in Farmington. We will see many tough budgets but we will have to make cuts and sacrifice programs." Councilman Don White agreed that bonding cannot lead to a tax increase. in-crease. He said, "What leads to tax increase is poor long range planning. plan-ning. If ,we . wait , for these improvements, im-provements, 1 the burden y will become an overwhelming project when the improvements become absolutely necessary." After a discussion that lasted 45 minutes, the council agreed to accept ac-cept a compromise measure. The amount of the park improvement bond was reduced from $200,000 down to $170,000. . A public meeting to explain the bond proposals was set for July 5 as part of die next Farmington City council meeting. " |