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Show Give It Some Serious Thought First What was once a good plan for a historic Escalante Museum has, in my opinion, gotten way out of hand and blown clear out of proportion in the name of the new Escalante Center. If I were to venture a guess, I would say that three-quarters of Escalante residents, who will be residents until the day they die, do not want the Escalante Center built on the proposed site adjacent to our high school. And that they would not object to the center itself so much if it were to be built in another location like out on the monument where the government would have to provide funding for water development, sewer lagoons, streets, utilities and security. How long has it been since your water and sewer rates were raised because the burden has been placed upon our city to build new sewer lagoons? Off and on since 1984 we have had water moratoriums on our city water. We have had a water moratorium all winter because we were unable to provide our families and new home builders with new water connects. Now we are expected to provide these same necessities for a big, new Escalante Center? The Escalante Center Board is proposing to build a wetland between the school and the sewer lagoons to help with sewer problems. It is my understanding that in most places, permits for this type of construction are being eliminated. Folks, go to the meetings being held regarding this new center. You may be surprised when you see that most of the people there, doing all the planning, are people who will more than likely not be living here 10 years from now! They will move on and once again history will repeat itself and the homegrown home-grown native people will be left to live with the consequences. It is against the law to intermingle church and school, but we are looking at the prospect of having the BLM offices, a government entity, right next door to our high school. Who will be the dominating force in a few years? Those of you who are my age, will remember when the state came in and wanted to make a state park at our reservior. We were promised that we, as Escalante residents, would be able to use the facilities for day use, any time we wanted to, free of charge. How long did that last? Two years? And that's stretching it! We chose the location for our new high school so our students would have more room, a baseball park, a football field, etc. Do you want to now fill that land with everything from a government office to living quarters for V.I.P.'s? Another Escalante Center meeting is scheduled for March 22nd. Put that on your calendar. You are being invited for your input. Go ... and tell them how you feel. Let them know what your objections are. At least you can say you tried. And while you are at it, let your school board know what your feelings are on the subject. Do you really want this complex built on school property? Our kids aren't suffering too badly from lack of education. Even though that is one of the arguments in favor of the center. We have some pretty important, well educated, brilliant people out in the world who are graduates of Escalante High School. Let's give some serious thought to the Escalante High School campus environment for our future generations. Marlene M. Haws Escalante, Utah |