OCR Text |
Show Pleasant GroveShouEd Make Another Surge Forward Says Nelson Dr. ELRoy Nelson, vice President and Economist First Security Corporation Cor-poration of Utah, was the guest speaker at a dinner meeting of the Associated Business Men of Pleasant Pleas-ant Grove last Thursday at the Alpine Villa Grill. Mr. Nelson is the former head of the University of Utah Economics Department and a native of Pleasant Grove. Dr. Nelson began his address with a humorous recount of his early experiences in Pleasant Grove relative to the activities of the basketball teams In his opening statement regarding regard-ing the need for the local highway Interchange and other State Road improvements in Utah, Dr. Nelson said, "When your committees approach ap-proach the State Road Commission Commiss-ion to ask for local consideration, be sure that you also have the interest of the other people of the state." In speaking of the excessivly high cost of highway construction Dr. Nelson recommended that Utah Ut-ah should have a revolving fund to purchase highway property far in advance of the construction program. pro-gram. As an example of the inflation infla-tion of property values in this area, he told of a farm in Manila that was purchased in 1857 for $92. It could now be sold for $90,000. Utah now needs about $192,000,000 to bring state highways high-ways up to a minimum standard, the speaker said. In projecting forward in the future of our community Dr. Nelson Nel-son said, "The time has come when Pleasant Grove should make another surge forward." This progressive pro-gressive surge should include the following, according to the speaker: speak-er: 1 Get rid of the near - slum houses and other unsightly and useless structures throughout the city. 2. Improve City Streets which lead to the shopping center. 3- Provide adequate and easily accesable parking areas for shoppers. shop-pers. 4 While we are at the prosperity prosper-ity peak in Pleasant Grove we should do everything possible to attract and hold the huge buying power of our wage earners. In commenting on current economic econ-omic trends, Dr. Nelson revealed the following interesting statistics : 1 Retail sales in Pleasant Grove totaled 2.2 million dollars during 1955. Of this amount $700,000 went for food and $340,000 for gasoline. gas-oline. 2 Last year in Utah, people spent $200,000,000 for new and used cars and $150,000,000 for food. 3 Utah's 1955 expenditures for new homes was $70,000,000. 4 People in Utah are saving only 4.5 percent of their incomes. 5 Last year the people of Utah saved only $32,000,000, but they went into debt $72,000,000. 6 Eastern financial institutions purchased $52,000,000 worth of Utah morgage paper in 1955. "We should save more or borrow less, Dr. Nelson said. Association President Junius A. West conducted the meeting and introduced the speaker. At the business meeting held in connection connec-tion with the dinner, a committee of three was appointed to cooperate cooper-ate with the State Road Commission Commiss-ion relative to plans for the proposed pro-posed Interchange. They were Le-Roy Le-Roy Ash, Harvey Smith and A. J. Meredith. |