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Show Offer withdrawn By JAMS CARTER Clipper Correspondent FRUIT HEIGHTS Bob Runnells withdrew his offer of a property trade with Fruit Heights at a public hearing held last Tuesday. The hearing, held at the inadequate inade-quate Rock Loft city offices, offered standing room only to citizens there to protest the Nicholls Park site. Even though the council had not voted on the proposition, Runnells got the feeling they were negative toward his plan. Therefore, he withdrew it, but at the same time made an alternate proposal. Runnells offered for sale to the city, property adjoining the already city-owned property by the water tower. Whereas Runnells is not willing to donate the property, he did hint at offering a very workable deal. At 1.2 acres of very narrow developable de-velopable property city-owned land, the mountain road site would not be a good choice for the city building. Runnells hoped that offering his piece would make it an ideal site. Most of the citizens at the meeting responded negatively to the Nicholls Park location, pointing out that once the park is gone, it is gone and it is such a congested area already during baseball season, why add more. Because there is still some uncertainty uncer-tainty about the future improvements im-provements to Highway 89, residents are concerned about the safety of putting a city building on the west side of 89 when most of the residents live on the east side. 4 'We cannot let Highway 89 paralyze how we move forward with our city," Mayor Blaine Nelson said. Nelson and the city council have studied all of the sites in detail and still feel the Park site is the best choice but they are not closed to other options. Many still want to pursue the Rock Loft site, but they did not realize real-ize the city had been rejected on their offer by the Rock Loft owner, Dale Jost. City officials said that, in addition addi-tion to the fair amount offered for the building and property, it would cost approximately $500,000 to renovote the Rock Loft. In the past 12 years the city has put aside about one quarter of a million dollars for a city hall. It is against going in debt and having to raise taxes to build it. Buying a new piece of property that would be accessible to all and in a good location was suggested even if the city had to go in debt for it or hold off on building for a few years. |