Show the public forum I 1 may not agree with what you say but will fight to th death for your right to say it voltaire dear mr air editor I 1 am reluctant about writing you regarding the following for obvious reasons but I 1 can no longer remain quite when articles are appearing in the paper that seem to have a mighty low regard for peoples antell irence I 1 do believe in free speech or I 1 would not be writing you now but what excuse is there for the gen eral distribution of printed matter that is allowing prejudice to unbuckle reason your campaign against mr hurst is a good example does the public know of your disagreement over a business matter before these articles began to appear mr air editor a newspaper is a po tent influence on the thoughts of our today the saddest feature of this is that there are so many peo pie who ho no longer take the time to think calmly or read between the lines and are so easily stampeded by your I 1 have been informed or it was told to me I 1 am interpreting these the e phrases as direct charges otherwise there is no valid excuse for their appearance in print you are in a responsible position and each article you print should be a product of earnest thinking I 1 know what an unenviable job it is to serve the wishes of the public but we do need reli ances in which to place our trust no cause can be worth very much if it has to win its way by a campaign of willful defa matlon mation of a persons character do you have properly attested fac facts ts to warrent your charges 7 1 I 1 think it is of great importance that you an awer your charges with facts for if you cannot then I 1 personally feel that your value as a leader of peo pies ples thinking is questionable sincerely helen hurst dear editor since you have found it more con lenient to withhold the identity of your reported extremely reliable sources of information defered to in last weeks paper then I 1 am forced to assume that you have taken the position as spokesman for them wh ich to me is a violation of principal no 4 of your paper therefore I 1 have addressed this letter to you first of all printing rumor hear say and other matter with no recep table xe reference ference is classified in my book as hogwash and I 1 must ad mit that I 1 resent diverting my time tune from constructive projects to write a reply two years ago in january I 1 swore an oath to uphold he ordinances of the city of green river we of the city council have spent considerable time and city monies to prepare the new ordinances now in effect ordin ance no 71 deals with the water and sewer department of the city 1 I have enclosed a copy of same for you the basic provisions of this ordin ance were submitted to us by I 1 dale desham who is a city planner of some fifteen years experience in this field he was at this time em aloyed to assist in zoning and gen eral city planning here in green ri ver his outline was carefully ch decked with thoughts of rapid growth housing projects and cot well in mind the ordinance was adopted by unanimous vote may 4 1955 and we have since then relieved reci eved many favorable comments on its provis ions aiom experienced builders of other regions your second hand in formation regarding my arguing a the city attorney attorneys s interpret inter pre tation of the ordinance is basically correct I 1 have a great deal of re for mr hulsey s ability as an attorney but he as well as any other person could have been in error the ordinance covers the corpor ate limits of the city of green river whether sub divided or not sub div aided whether it be classified as ag ri cultural zone commercial zone or other please pay particular atten tion to section 33 it is clearly writ ten also check section 39 and then tell me what authority we have to deviate from section 33 yes mr air editor I 1 argued to uphold an ordin ance and if that be a crime then I 1 am guilty your suggestion that I 1 am against the project for personal or any other reason is completely unfounded may I 1 explain that the difference in cost between following the ordinance and malcolm jr s special re quest would be about 25 00 per unit or for the entire project about two tenths of one percent of the 00 figure mentioned in the january issue of the journal you may verify the cost figu es by consulting the supt bupt of water works the mayor councilman tidwell or councilman may as I 1 am sure these men have patiently estimated the cost both ways nelson lanite would also be a source of information pertaining to this subject the foll following I 1 make as a challen ge to you mr air editor and your ex reliable sources as I 1 ex hect you will try to pass the buck to them if you are so convinced that I 1 am incompetent unfit or a to the future growth of our city then please circulate a pc requesting jesting by resignation from froin the city council if you get oer 50 50 per cent of the registered voters of the last city election to sign I 1 will gladly resign otherwise I 1 am sure you can find something more constructive to do than print hearsay sincerely james hurst council man editors note if jim hurst feels that the journal has printed false reports about him let him bring liable suit against the paper according to legal priced ure unless this is done we assume that the newspaper is within its legal right and will continue to print the news as we see it and as it is reported to us |