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Show People, Politics & Policy Let's lean on ourselves Hy K. MAKK BKZZA.NT It is time we leaned on ourselves. Several months ago I gave a lesson to a group of distinguished men about community involvement. A list of items were placed on the board outlining ways folks could get involved in making Pleasant Grove a bet!r place to live. We got to the part about people cleaning up their places, painting their barns and repairing their fences, etc. I suggested that if the city enforced the ordinances that ; are presently on the books we would have a revolution on our hands; right here where over 90 percent of the people subscribe to a church which teaches that it is a persons religious obligation to care for their property and beautify it! After a bit of discussion one great man and stalwart in our community said, "You know I think the citizens would do more if the city did more to care for its properties." I could relate to what he was saying. The city properties should be free of weeds and debris. Even at that, citizens should not justify poor ! behavior based on what the city ! does or does not do with their properties. The Bratts have set a model for all of us to follow near the time- temperature sign coming into the downtown area. Lets hope that this year a goodly number of us will revaluate our position as it relates to properties we own or are responsible for. Lets clean them up, sell them, lease them, rent them, or whatever it takes to make this a model city. That won't take a dime of taxes if we do it ourselves. If the city has to get tough it will cost a bundle. In the meantime, I'll bet the city will take a second look at doing a better job of cleaning up the weeds around well houses, the industrial park, water tanks, city shops, etc. Donna Brock got us off to a good start by having a mower go up and down the streets. Then again, if everyone took care of their yards out to the pavement we could save enough to buy a lot of things we need like fire trucks, and ambulances, am-bulances, or implement the first response program. One thing the folks said on the survey I've talked so much about is that they think it is time the city gets tough on folks who let their places go, year in and year out. I would rather see as lean on ourselves our-selves and take a little bit of pride than to have the city get tough. Let's go for it. |