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Show Decision to deny the youth home herd to believe The recent decision by the Farmington City Council to deny the request for a sanctuary for teens who need help is hard to understand. It seems the city has made a statement about its place in the community, and we hope it is not a statement that most Farmington residents agree with. At one of the many meetings where the issue was discussed, one Farmington official said he might not mind having Farmington Farm-ington youth helped in Farmington, but he didn't want kids from other cities there. It's this attitude that makes one wonder why? Why would a home for run-away and abused children that could be centrally located be a problem. Arguments against the facility included such foolish statements as "It would bring down property values." The property in question is not more than 300 yards away from the county jail where 150 accused criminals reside. Anyone considering purchasing property would look at the proposed youth center as a kindergarten compared to the jail. And what's more important, the value of property or the value of a life of a child. Others have said, "The kids need room to roam about. They need a basketball court." Have these people ever heard of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? The most base of all human needs is the physiological need to satisfy hunger and thirst. A feeling of self-worth food and shelter is followed by safety. A need to feel secure and safe out of danger, which is followed by a need for belongingness and love. Basketball isn't mentioned. men-tioned. There were more than 2000 run-away youth in Davis County last year. These youth needed help, and there was very little help available in Davis County. As one local expert said, "These children need time out from their farnilies. In our society we have run-away kids and throw-away kids. Kids that parents no longer want in their homes. These children need alternatives." The proposed "rock hotel" as it has been referred re-ferred to, would have housed a maximum of 14 children who would have stayed for a maximum of 14 days until intervention interven-tion agencies could establish treatment for the youth and ' parenting classes if necessary for the parents of the youth. In Davis County, the Child Abuse Protection Team must often send Davis County youth to Salt Lake and Weber Counties for help. With the youth, go the Davis County United Way funds that could stay in the county to help our youth if we could pro-I pro-I vide services. The children who would have been helped at the rock hotel are not criminals. The main reason to establish a center for youth is to intervene before the youth get involved in the courts. The site in question is located near the school district which would have made it easy for case workers to evaluate a child's school progress, and to get the child the educational help needed. One property owner suggested that if the hotel were converted to a home for run-away youth there was no telling what might be there next. Any educated person laiows that when a city issues a conditional use permit for a piece of property that there can be no deviation from the use for which the permit is issued. It's interesting that in Wednesday's vote, the women on the city council voted for the proposal and all of the men voted against. Could it be that it is the women who are aware of how devastating problems with troubled teens can be to an entire family? It is hard to believe however that none of the men on the Farmington City Council, or the Mayor have never dealt with, or known of a child who needed help. This is a problem that nobody wants to own. But Farmington Farm-ington was not being asked to own the problem. It was being asked to allow the problem to be handled within its city boundaries. boun-daries. There seems to be a hysteria in Farmington about the fact that there are too many prisoners in close proximity, and a misunderstanding that approval of the home for run-away youths would have added just a few more prisoners to the population. There are incarcerated prisoners in Farmington, but those numbers do not compare to the thousands of residents in Farmington that are being held prisoner by pre-Victorian pre-Victorian thinking. |