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Show Advantage For Both Sides? Editor: I would like to respond to last week's article regarding the Garfield County and Panguitch Police merger. Mergers usually are made to give both sides added advantages. Sheriff Vic MidcQeton was ready with a proposed contract which set forth "services which the county would provide to Panguitch upon adoption." Foremost among those services, "the county would provide four officers for normal duty to Panguitch . . ." "The officers would cover a ten-mile radius of Panguitch City, except in extreme emergencies . '.' The article stated this proposal to be "the biggest selling item as far as Panguitch City is concerned". Certainly no one can fault the Panguitch City Council for liking this aspect of the merger. Panguitch presently has two officers; they stand to gain two additional officers at no cost to them. However, this would mean committing two of Garfield County's three deputies to Panguitch, leaving one deputy to cover the entire county (excluding Panguitch and its 10-mile radius), including nine other communities who presently have no full-time law enforcement. Sheriff Middleton said he could see nothing to be gained by waiting until the conclusion of 1982 to address the consolidation issue. He said both Panguitch City and Garfield County can see the benefits to be gained in terms of better protection of the Panguitch Area. Where coverage is being duplicated now with both a sheriffs deputy and a city police officer covering the same area at the same time. Garfield County should be asking why isn't its deputies patroling the resort areas of Panguitch Lake, Mammoth Creek, Old town, south of Hatch, and other tax-paying communities instead of duplicating shifts inside Panguitch. There are thousands of dollars in property taxes being collected each year from these resorts, notwithstanding what the other residents pay, which are used for County salaries, and the least that we could expect would be Sheriffs Department patroling the County. Although the article focuses on the county receiving in return two officers and equipment, how can this be any advantage when they are committed to the polijWgJWWIM get baBHWffl rest of tHHHfflBilf A newHJHHHUSai different nHRHBHH ThomaHflH |