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Show Ephraim Company Votes For Huge Expenditure to Build Irrigation Tunnel Ephraim Irrigation company shareholders last week voted at the ratio cf 3.536.72 shares to two shares In favor of incurring an indebtedness in-debtedness of not to exceed $254.00.1 with which to construct a tunn?l through the mountain-, east of Ephraim Eph-raim and build feeder cana!s to bring additicnal water to the west side of the mountain. The pro.inct, as approved by the P W A, calls for a tunnel, five feet wide, seven feet deep and 73.000 feet lon; a dam across Beck's creek, one canal about .6 of a mile long to bring water from Beck's creek, and another smaller canal 2.25 miles long to bring water from springs and snowbanks to the tunnel entrance. en-trance. The engineer's estimates allow $2,000 for preliminary work, $153,000 for tunnel construction and $18,000 for the total canals, a total of $173,-000, $173,-000, which is far below the amount made available by the P W A. It 1? believed, however, the total cost of the project will be well within the engineer's estimate. Open opposition to the project largely faded away following a mass meeting February 7, when the terms of the contract with the federal Government were fully explained. Not a protest was voiced publicly, either at the mass meeting, at the company's nnminl meeting Tuesday afternoon or at a special meeting at night, it is reported. A'l officers were reelected by u-nanimeus u-nanimeus vote for another two-year two-year term, as follows: Andrew Hansen, Han-sen, president; John C. Larsen, vice president: Joseph H. Thompson, George A. Jorgenson and Hans Christensen, directors; O. L. Hansen, Han-sen, secretary. Ephraim citizens believe this to be the real beginning of the "new deal" in their community. For years the town, like others in Sanpete, has suffered from a serious water shortage. Thousands of acres of "bottom" land, that once furnished nasture for great herds of livestock throughout he summer, have practically practi-cally dried up and produce only a scant amount of early spring grazing. graz-ing. Many cultivated farms have been abandoned with the diminishing water supply, and the water formerly form-erly used on them has been concentrated con-centrated on other fields. Crop failures fail-ures in whole or in part have been the rule instead of the exception for several years. The population ef the community also has declined in Ephraim as elsewhere in the county. Government engineers estimate the tunnel project will practically double the supply of water. An outstanding event of the annual an-nual meeting was a talk by Chris Larsen, who has spent a fortune in developing a water project which wi'l be . partly supplanted by the new project. He urged everyone to vote for the new project, as being vital to the welfare of the community commun-ity as a whole. |