OCR Text |
Show PAGE 4 THE ZEPHYR APRIL 1990 one on one a conversation with David Knutson Commission Salaries unless the Commissioners Zephyr: First I heard you wouldnt run for got a pay raise. Is that true? Dave: Thats not exactly true, but Its close. What I was saying was, I want to run for but I'm not willing to do It for $500 a month for another 4 years. The Commissioners have the authority to give themselves a pay raise, and I have very seriously contemplated doing that If I win. Zephyr: How much time do you put In to this lob? Dave: Im putting In an average, a minimum of 5 hours a day. Sometimes Ill put In a 10-hour day. I don't mind doing It, but I cant do It for $500 a month. I cant Zephyr: Doing some quick calculating that s a 100 hours a month for $500 - thats five bucks an hour, big wages In this town. Dave: Do most people have 4 kids? And taxes to pay? Right here, we're paying a $3000 year In taxes. Ive got overhead on my business and I'm letting It go. I'm not complaining, but for me, I cant do It for that If the voters want to take a look at that and say, Is he worth K, thats fine. re-elec- tion 15 perhaps that and a loan. We might be able to take part of that loan and bond on It Zephyr: How many times can Grand Countv keep going to the CIB before they sav. you've run us drv? Dave: Basically, they've told us that already. Theres still the distinct possibility that we cant afford to do this, and we might have to scrap It We dont know yet Zephyr: In the last Interview. Merv Insisted that we HAVE to do something. So how Is scrapping the prolect possible? do you do piecemeal repairs? Dave: I dont know ... then I resign and let somebody else worry about It? A lot of It doesnt make a lot of sense to me. The state mandates us to do certain things, but wont help us do them. I cant change the laws; I have to live within what they give us. Changes In Moab Zephyr: Right now. Moab Is changing drastically. The economy Is moving toward tourism. One concern Ive heard from almost all segments of the population Is the Influx of money, and what Its going to do to the community. You said a while ago, you want to get rich people to move Into Moab and buv expensive lots so they pay a lot of taxes. But weve also talked about preserving our life style. How do you keep the old and welcome the new at the same time? Dave: I dont know that you can. You have to sit down and ask yourself what we really want For every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction. If we want to the citizens and progress, or even maintain, we're going to need a way to make money the county. Im not sure we can preserve a lot of the old. It's gone, really. So we're In that transition from the old to the new, and I don't know If I like It yet I dont think anybody wants to become a Park City or Telluride or St George. But on the other hand, If we want to survive, we have to adapt What concerns me most Is this: what got us Into this situation now, going from ranching and mining to tourism, Is we based our entire economy on mining and oil and gas. They went down the toilet Now we're basing our entire economy on another single Industry, tourism. Were setting ourselves up for the same thing all over again. You would have thought wed learned, but I guess not Zephyr: Do you think Moab will end up like Park City or Telluride? Dave: I dont think so... I hope not I think we are first of all limited by the small amount of private land available. Were surrounded by public land. Six percent of Grand County Is private. I think were also limited by water. Were a desert here. I can remember as a kid the mayor would drive up Main Street with a loudspeaker, telling which side of the street could water that day. I guess we Just ride this out, and see where It takes us. In ways, weve brought this down upon ourselves because what we did was, say to everyone: hey, we've got this beautiful country. Why dont you come down and see It? They do, and It Is beautiful. Then they say, we need to save this country before you people rape, and pillage and destroy It Why do they think that? The large percentage of people who live here, love the land and would never destroy It Second, those few who would want to destroy would have already done It by new. Its very difficult and not very profitable, or It would have been done. I admit It may have been saved because It wasnt economically feasible, but now the environmental concerns are that enough people dont want to do that anymore. I do believe this, that man was put here for a puipose. One of the purposes was to make this a better place to live, and we can do that In two ways. We can make ourselves better people. When you have a baby, you don't let them run wild, you don't ust let them be natural. You teach and train them. You make them Into better people. You send them to school. You teach them to become doctors. Id say lawyers and bankers, too, but Im not too hot on lawyers and bankers right now. Engineers, mechanics, good people. We can also cultivate the land to be better than It was. Natural does not necessarily mean better for the best And I think our obligation Is, when It's proper, to make the land better than It was before. Zephyr: The key word there Is proper.' I mean vou could fill Death Valiev with com fields If you really wanted to. Dave: And that would be OK If It was economically feasible. Proper use of the land under mans hand Is good. I Just came back from Dead Horse Point and you probably hate It but I'm amazed. I think Its beautiful. I think It's great Zephyr: You wont like mv editorial. Dave: I wouldnt want to see that done to every single road In the country. Zephyr: Which ones would vou not like to see. What's left? Dave: Theres 5000 miles of road In Grand County. Zephyr: Im talking about little paved roads that are narrow and winding. Dave: I dont know. Ive got to say the changes here come where they're needed. If the road was good enough to be paved to begin with, I don't have a problem going In there and Improving It Coming down the River Road, I'd like to see that widened. The tourists have placed extra demands on that road. It was never built for the traffic weve got So do we not Invite people down, or do we expand to accommodate? out-of-to- Courthouse Plans Zephyr: Talking about money and not having It since our last Interview, plans for Courthouse AnnexJall keep changing Where do we stand now? the Dave: We've come around the circle about three times. First of all, most of us are not going to benefit directly from the Jail and courthouse. So I was trying to find a way that we could benefit the community In other ways. So In this $4 million project If we could obtain some property and add a ball diamond and tennis courts or have room for a civic center It would benefit more people. That's why I thought about moving It to the golf course. The reason we put the golf course out there wasnt so local people would have a place to golf, It was so we could entice people with money to buy the lots that surround the golf course at a high value and be then able to derive taxes that theyd generate. Rich people come In, buy that property, and then we want to tax the snot out of them. I dont want to tax me and you; I want to tax someone with money. One of the reasons the golf course Is not being developed Is it lacks Infrastructure. Putting the courthouse out there would have provided that te But In these last meetings, It's been made clear that building Is no longer te an option. So were back to again. That was all for nothing. Zephyr: Are we still locked Into that design that swallows up the courtyard and off-si- on-si- trees? Ive talked to the architect and he's looking at scrapping that original plan and seeing what else we can do, so we can save the park. Im also on the agenda for the School District about that property behind the courthouse. I dont know what theyre Dave: No. willing to do. Zephyr: But again, how do you plan to oav for It? At all levels of government we continue to see government proposing to spend money when we slmolv don't have It Dave: Right now, this Is how we're proposing to pay for it Nothing Is set In concrete. We dont have a total cost Itll be a combination of a tax Increase, worse case scenario - an 18 property tax Increase. That' too grievous for me really. Were hoping for a 6 Increase. There will be revenues from the courts and from the state for housing prisoners, but that's still not enough. Were going to try to go to the Community Impact n, Board (CIB) and ask them for a combination of things; one, an Interest or buy-dow- ATTORNEYS TITLE Lynda Stocks, manager William L. Benge, licensed agent Locally Operated land title insurance title searches Real Estate Closings wn well-balanc- ed the only place to get the fresh roadkill of the day WELCOME JEEPERS FINEST FAMILY RESTAURANT OPEN 6 am. 259-835- 2 COME IN FOR THE BEST HOME COOKED MEALS 1075 So. Hwy 191 |