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Show We Need a State Park A FEW days ago a woman was neard to ask someone if there were any good arguments in favor of the use of the ENTIRE prison site as a state park. The woman had heard so much from the Salt Lake City school board about the need of a high school there, that she had begun to wonder won-der if the state park backers really had any points in their favor. For her sake and for its information value iThe Bulletin would like to print a summary of the reasons in favor of a state park for the entire 184 acres of the prison ground. First of all, let's get rid of an old bugaboo. The state park plan backers are very much in favor of a high school for the Southeast area, but not on the prison site. There are other locations which have been pointed out in the Southeast area which are actually better (in the eyes of city ' planners) than the prison site. Therefore, let it be clear that no one wants to impede the building of a big high school In the Southeast area. Secondly, if a high school were placed on the easternmost eastern-most 30 acres of the prison site, it would render the rest of the area almost totally valueless (for a state park development. develop-ment. Most likely, the remaining area would go on the auction auc-tion block to land-hungry profiteers. And then we could all write off the books the last remaining valuable park site in this part of the valley. It would not only be a loss to the city and county, but to the whole state. Our tourist industry, still so miserably small, would be impeded from the great growth which a state park would stimulate. Another question which many individuals ask with considerable con-siderable concern is: "Who's going to pay for a state park development? "No, folks, it's not going to add a heavy tax burden. bur-den. Organizations like the Sons of Utah Pioneers, sportsmen's sports-men's groups, the Sugar House Chamber of Comrnerce, the Salt Lake Theatre, Inc., the Utah Associated Garden Clubs, the Associated Civic Clubs of Southern and Eastern Utah (to name a few), have already taken on specific phases of the development- Aifter it is gotten under way, there are several sev-eral workable plans for getting the state park on a self-paying basis, too. Do we need a state park? We most assuredly do. We need it as a tourist orientation center. We need it as a recreation recrea-tion area (with its spacious play areas and its huge auditorium). audito-rium). We need it as a cultural center. And we need it to provide "breathing space" for a rapidly growing metropolitan area. |