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Show SEE-SAW Well, sir,, the on-again-off again antics preliminary to the widening of 21st South east of 13th East street are whirling as derv-ishly derv-ishly as a disc jockey's eyes. Everyone admits that unless the street is widened aways east of the intersection, a serious traffic snarl will be in prospect when the widening has been completed from 11th East to 13th East which is now underway. State Road Commission Chairman Chair-man D. H. Whittenburg, a fort- for the city to give any part of the prison property for an automobile automo-bile parking lot which would aid private business. Then someone saw the light, and Mayor Earl J. Glade engineered engi-neered a rescind order which preserved the property for the park. So Whittenburg, knowing full well the full cost of condemning the private property necessary for the widening, pulled in his horns and issued the following statement: night ago, allowed himself to be quoted that the easterly project would be undertaken at once while Gibbons & Reed, the contractors, are on the grounds completing the western job. But, at the same time, he put up a strong plea for Salt Lake City and County to slice off a portion por-tion of the old Utah state penitentiary peniten-tiary grounds for a parking lot to accommodate a food store that would lose eight parking places in the widening and incidentally, would hike up the toll Utah would have to pay for the necessary ground. Whittenburg even had a method of financing the extention of the widening project. But the city and county wisely refused to let even a single clod of that prison plot to be turned over to anything except the Sugar House park and school to which it is dedicated. So Whittenburg et al had to have an about face. But not until the city did.too. At first the city okehed moving back the prison property fence, letting a parking lot be planned to accommodate a private business. E. Ray Christensen, Salt Lake attorney, at-torney, ruled it would be illegal "PRESS RELEASE "A news release in the Deseret News on May 19, 1954, stated that Salt Lake City and the County Commission had approved our re- I quest to establish a small parking lot on the prison property on 21st South because it would effect a savings to the state on property damage for light of way purposes at that location. "We immediately started to obtain a work order with the existing ex-isting intersection of 13th East and 21st South. The reversal of this decision and the additional cost caused thereby will make it impossible for the state to undertake un-dertake this construction within the current season "The project between 11th East and 21st South for widening this road section was worked out on the request of the Sugar House chamber of commerce to relieve a bottleneck that hat existed for many years. It has been necessary to use 100 per cent state funds on account of the fact that all our federal aid funds have been committed, com-mitted, and this construction is not within the usual category of federal aid projects. "We regret this is necessary, but if traffic problems develop at this intersection, it may be necessary to take steps to direct excess traffic traf-fic over Foothill drive or other available streets; at least until this corner can be improved in the future. . "STATE ROAD COMMISSION OF UTAH "Signed D. H. Whittenburg." |