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Show We've Made A Difference I would like to reminisce about the last four years I have served on the Panguitch City Council. Lately there has been a lot of ill-founded rumors and 'half-truths on what is going on with the city. The problem, is that we only average one citizen at each of our meetings and the people of Panguitch are not getting get-ting the information on what goes on. I am hoping that this letter will clear up some of your fears. A lot of the projects that I am telling you about were started years before, but were completed complet-ed during the last four years. We have a new sewer system, natural gas, refurbished the outside out-side of the Social Hall, installed a very good workout gym upstairs, a new fire station, baseball base-ball complex, running track, prison and a new indoor rodeo arena. A couple of other pluses: we have a new bike trail in Red Canyon and an ATV hookup with the Fremont Trail. All of these will benefit Panguitch in one way or another. We all remember the purple ugly eyesore that was the old Social Hall. The fire station was even in worse condition, with the ceilings caving in, the floor was giving way and there was only one door to get out of the building. The kids had to go to Piute to run on their running track because ours was unusuable. Teams refused to play in town because our baseball base-ball diamond was in the middle of the running track. Many homes, like mine, were on a ;cesspool that was draining into pur water system. Hauling wood was the pits for older people. peo-ple. I know that you may never walk a lap, or watch a kid play ball, or ride a horse. But it's awfully nice to know that you won't have to have your septic lank pumped in the middle of 'winter or worry about whether your wood is wet from the snow. Now the really good part, the fire station, the finest in all of Utah, was paid for through grants, donations and using local labor. The Social Hall refurbishing was paid for with donations of bricks from the . townspeople to replace the worn out bricks on the side and money from the tourist tax. The running track is paid for, thanks ;to a lot of volunteer labor and ;donations. The baseball complex, com-plex, which is the finest in Southern Utah, is paid for through grants and volunteer labor. The prison, which is run ;by the county, has been giving Jjobs to 17 local employees and . !is paying for itself. The Triple C Arena is also a first class facility. facili-ty. The County and City have made this a joint project. The County has paid off their half of the higher cost bonds, leaving the city with the low interest loans. This was a savings of over a million dollars. The tourist business the last three years has been decreasing world wide. The council realizes real-izes this as a problem and has planned for the future with these facilities. Granted it is not going to happen over night, as some had hoped, but it will happen. hap-pen. More has been done in Panguitch this last four years that benefits the majority of the town than in all of the rest of its history. Another plus: we have increased our reserve fund by 25 percent. Is Panguitch going broke? No way. We are better off financially now than ever before. The one cent tourist tax costs the average household, if they spend $200 a month in town, $24 dollars a year. Eighty percent per-cent of the tax is paid for by the tourists. The one motel owner who is looking for a government handout, is collecting, not paying pay-ing on his rooms, all of 40 cents towards this tax. Failures in life often try to blame others or governments gov-ernments for their problems. Sometimes all it takes is looking in the mirror for what is wrong. We still need to replace our antiquated water system, some of our pipes are 80 years old and need to be replaced. There is grant money available at this time and we will be holding open meetings in the near (See LETTERS on page 6-A) Letters To The Editor From Page 2-A future, please come out to these meetings so you can be informed on the problems with the water system and our storage tanks. In the first two years, council members Jolene Smith and Craig Twitchell were very important in bringing about many of these projects. Craig spent hundreds of hours of his own time chasing all over the state bringing in the natural gas, never giving up, when we kept getting turned down, he just kept plugging along. Mayor Jon Torgerson did the same, using his vacation and comp time going all over in his quiet way, on behalf of the town. A good example of this dedication, dedi-cation, on Friday, Mayor Torgerson and City Manager Allen Henrie went clear over to Moab for a water district meeting, meet-ing, spoke for five minutes and came back. This is the 12th year that Jon has served as mayor, serving two earlier terms. When you see Jon, a thank you would be appropriate. Janet Oldham has been on the council for six years. She is a very successful business owner, because she has worked very hard to get there. I can't remember when the last time was she missed a council meeting and really knows what is going on in the city. She will get my vote for mayor in November. Our city workers are all first class employees, who are willing will-ing to go out of their way to help anyone who has a problem. It is hard to believe some of the terrible terri-ble working conditions that they are forced to put up with, especially espe-cially in the winter. I hope this letter has cleared up some of your questions. This has been a real pleasure working for the people of Panguitch. The people whot have served the city in elected positions, . all take their responsibility very serious, and I have really enjoyed being involved. I know we have made a difference. Mack Oetting Panguitch |