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Show Editorial Will They Make It Happen ? Garkane Power Association's fiscally fine performance that has allowed the company to reduce rates this past week reflects the wisdom of its board of directors, the skill and business acumen acu-men of its general manager, and the dedication of its Richfield headquarters employees and its many other employees scattered elsewhere throughout the system. However, after more than half a century in Richfield, it's time actually long past time to move the cooperative's headquarters head-quarters from Richfield into the area the company services with electricity. Garkane's board of directors recendy voted unanimously unani-mously to do just that, by deciding to relocate its headquarters to Hatch, nearly 100 miles south of Richfield, where the company was first established almost 60 years ago. It wasn't an easy decision for them to make. Beyond being a sensible business move, their decision seriously impacts the Richfield office employees, including the company's general manager, who will not lose their jobs but who will, from a practical standpoint, have to move to areas closer to the new office location. That the offices were ever located in Richfield to begin with seems almost inexplicable, but that decision, made by a different board of directors nearly 60 years ago, was surely made in the best interests of the cooperative at the time. Over the intervening years, however, Garkane has continued to pay property taxes on its Richfield office to Sevier County. It has paid its power bills to another power company. The company's com-pany's paychecks have gone to general managers and office employees em-ployees in the Richfield office who do not live on Garkane's system. They, too, pay their property taxes and fees to local governments that do not use Garkane's power. Those tax moneys have helped to support schools, develop waste collection collec-tion systems, build roads and maintain them, construct a new county courthouse, conduct weed control, develop tourism, maintain a swimming pool, and all other operations of Richfield City and Sevier County. Headquarters employees have spent their Garkane paychecks with grocery stores, service stations, restaurants, pharmacies, hospitals, rest homes, banks, building contractors, dentists, hairdressers, hair-dressers, nurseries and other businesses not located on Garkane's Gar-kane's system. Those tax moneys and paychecks have never contributed to the counties and communities which Garkane services and where its other employees and its consumer-members spend their money. Previous attempts by directors over the past 15 years to move the offices onto the system have failed for two principal reasons because the communities which Garkane serves could not agree on a single location for the headquarters, and because intense opposition from the Richfield staff has counted upon, and sometimes fanned the flames of, that competition among communities to prevent the move. Garkane's board of directors is acutely aware of its responsibility respon-sibility for accountability to its consumer-owners, its need to use wisdom in making decisions that will affect the company for many years to come, and its concerns about how those decisions will impact its employees. Certainly, the rapid growth taking place in southern Utah should give those directors confidence about the future of the company. Other service companies and tourism-related businesses busi-nesses in rural southern Utah have experienced enormous growth, and they have flourished despite the occasional challenges chal-lenges of their remote locations. People from all over the world visit the southern Utah area, and many would love to live here. Many, in fact, are moving here. Employees' lives throughout the nation are disrupted on a daily basis by corporate decisions that require moves to other locations and subsequent changes in their lives. Garkane has reassured its faithful and valued employees that their jobs are secure when it relocates its headquarters, and the company should endeavor to diminish the impact for them in whatever way it can, but the headquarters move must be made. Structural deficiencies and size limitations of the Richfield facility and the lack of parking space on the lot on which it is located are apparent and would require substantial investment if they could be rectified. As more years go by, it will become increasingly more difficult not easier to move the headquarters as the cooperative continues to expand. And whether the office is ultimately located in Hatch or elsewhere on the system, local communities cannot afford to become involved in the infighting that has taken place in the past which has traditionally prevented any move from taking place. In the end, the board of directors must base its final decision solely on what is best for the company and best for its consumer-owners. What's best for the company generally works out to be what's best for its employees, too. Since board members have promised to continue discussion of the subject, we hope that they can remain committed to the decision that was clearly theirs to make both by precedent and by the confidence members of the cooperative placed in them when they were elected. We salute them for once again trying to do what earlier boards have been unsuccessful in doing. We think they'll make it work this time. |