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Show 'j the People May Know: response to the eld familiar uso, -v "How is business?" the Pub-er' Pub-er' ol The Pyramid was gree:ed ,nt h a s-nile at the County Court ' use Tuesday by the County Ccm-' Ccm-' icnErs and they proceeded to flf j: Tj,e Pyramid representative ' : ,ff business really u as. Tney into in-to us that a great many im-0W, im-0W, jvements nave been .made and rtsh, )cnditu.es in the administration lerv" affjirs nave been reduced. 1 " blowing issa summary of what "4 y gave us so the people may ,w what has been going cn in ! f conduct of county affairs: 'hree years ago in January the to nty offices were taken over by a t set of officers who upon en-8 en-8 ing upon their duties were con-off con-off ntoH with a laree cut in their pective budgels. They were re-r,1" re-r,1" red not only to give the public Icient service, but by force of lnst cumstance found it necessary to t'le -der such service at a, reduced 10 !t to the taxpayers. And, in the irse of the intervening thiee irs they found it necessary to ndle much extra work because of ; delinquent tax problem, since js well known that three years ,ry o a very small minority of the izens of Sanpete County were " le to pay even part of their ices. Day after' day the county officers .d to face Ihis problem, an idea the magnitude of which can be lined from the fact in a normal i ar the nurr.:ber of auditor's deeds sued was a: (proximately 75, .., rhereas in the year 1936 the coun-j coun-j cleik issued app oximately 1,275 ix deeds, and in the year 1937. he sued approximately 650 tax deeds. This, of course, called for much stra Work in the offices of the "" junty clerk, county treasurer, Jaunty treasurer, county attorney, , aunty assessor and county record- r. And it should perhaps be J tated in passing that in the year t 936 the county treasurer collected 1 louble the amount of taxes ever H jefoie collected in Sanpete County n one year. However, the increased volume of outine office matters handled by .he coun.y officers in the past hree years is enly part of the tory of accomplishment and progress. prog-ress. What was perhaps the most far reaching .and most urgent problems cf the county was that of re-em-jlcyment and the sponsoring of 'arious projects. In tuis respect Sanpete County has an excellent eccrd. Tl county has sponsored ,he New Sanpete County Court-louse, Court-louse, one of the outstanding proj-scts proj-scts cf this State. This building is low practically completed. It was xmstruc.ed at an estimated cost of 1150,000.00; and the county has ac-luired ac-luired this att.active building with- mt becoming indebted by reason )f the undertaking. The county has sponsored the Fairview-Fountain Green read, the Pleasant Creek read at Mt. Pleasant, Pleas-ant, the Mayfield road to the National Nat-ional Forest boundary, the Sevier River Bridge flroject, the Gunnison Gunni-son to Manti West Lane road, the Ephraim: West Lane road to Wales, the Scout' Lodge at Fountain Green and several other projects. The board of county commissioners commission-ers was instrumental in inducing the state road commission to take over the road from Mt. Pleasant to Maple Canyon, the Spring City road by way of Wales to Fountain Green and the road on Highway 89 by way of Mayfield to Gunnison, the road from Fairview north to Swen O. Nielson's ranch, thereby relieving the taxpayers of the cost cf upkeep and maintenance of these roads. Recently Sanpete County purchased purch-ased the fair grounds at Manti. thus giving the board of county coaimissicneis complete control of the County Fair, and laying the foundation for one of the best annual an-nual county fairs of the state. Notwithstanding this extensive building program and the sponsoring sponsor-ing of the foregoing and other Projects, which have provided employment em-ployment fcr many persons, the bonded indebtedness of the county was reduced by $31,000.00 in the year 1937. Moreover, by keeping the operating expense of the coun- cers have succeeded in effecting a substantial saving during three of 'he most st .enuous years in the history cf the county, as appears frorr. the following comparative statement: To al expenditures of the various offices in Sanpete County for the years 1931-32-33 as compared with the expenditures for the years 1935-36-37. The first row is for the expenditures ex-penditures of 1931 to 33, the second for expenditures 1935 to 37, and the last for the decrease: Commissioners, $4,917.70. $4,331.07 and $586.63. Clerk's office, $16,209.95, $12,531.50 and $3,678.45. Treasu er's office, $25,786.57; $23,-811.85; $23,-811.85; $1,974.72. Recorder's office, $13,060.64; $10,-279.89; $10,-279.89; $2,780.75. Assessor's office, $17,053.27; $14,-381.82; $14,-381.82; $2,671.45. Sheriff's office, $19,473.03; $15, 899.78; $3,573.25. Attorney's office, $4,698.40; $3,-593.35; $3,-593.35; $1,105.05. Surveyor's office, $1,556.28; $806.74 and $749.54. The total decrease is $17,119.84. The expenditures of the Commissioners Com-missioners are based upon the years 1931-1932 as ccmpa'.ed with the years 1935-1936. It will be observed from: the foregoing fore-going that in the cost of operation cf the county offices in tire pas: hree years there has been an actual jiving cf $17,119.84. This means t::at if the amcunt saved in the operation of the county offices in t:ie past three years were distributed distrib-uted to the inhabitants cf the county, each rr.ian. woman and child Aould receive $1.07. The county officers have been as-sited as-sited materially and much encouraged encour-aged in. their effc.ts by the fine c;irit of cocperation on the ylart cf the citizens generally. A county financial statement for t':.e year 1937 will soon be published publish-ed which to a limited extent reflects re-flects the v.'ovk done by the va'.ious departments cf the county govern ment; although it is apparent mat i.t is impossible in a financial statement state-ment to indicate the quali!y and kind of wcrk that has been handled by the several county officers. The taxpayer cf Sanpete County should know where his tax dollar goes; for tsat reason the following schedule is set out showing what became cf every $100.00 paid to the county fo- general property taxes fcr the year 1937. County General fund 7.04 County Poor Fund 69 Coun'y Road Fund 1.76 Old Age Pension 13.60 Des indent Mothers 3.51 Tntevest and Redemption of Road Bonds 5.28 County Fair 69 Court House 2.81 Sanpete School Districts 44.82 State School 19.80 Total $100.00 |