Dear Editor, I have been a resident of Riverton Utah for the last 9 years, an active user of the park, and as of recent a very concerned citizen. I feel that Mayor Applegarth, the City Council, City Planners and Sheril Garn, head of Parks and Public works has not given a whole hearted effort in alerting, surveying and collecting valuable input from the citizens of Riverton on the and for the renovation and the untimely demolition of the main City Park. The information for this $19 million project was suppose to be collected by a Citizens committee that would have citizen representation from all Riverton Districts, as well as, two appointed members. The members of this committee were supposed to make themselves available to talk with citizens, as well as, actively seek the input from them. The citizens committee was actually made up of only 2 people Sheril Garn and Shirley Newman. The first time the citizens of Riverton found out about who was on this committee, was after they received the information by GRAMA request (which is something you must file with the city for them to give you records) and after the July 16, 2013 City Council meeting. All of the information they submitted to the City Council to vote on and that was unveiled at the July 4th town days was taken from a survey that was done in 2003. This does not qualify as a fully publicized committee or as collecting recent input from the residents of Riverton. Since the citizens found out about the park renovation hundreds of residents attended the city council meeting on July 16, 2013 asking the Mayor and Council to consider alternate options of the park that all of Riverton could vote on. After, our wishes as citizens fell of deaf ears we had only 6 days left out of the 30 allotted to launch a petition and find 4000 signatures to force a public vote. Even though we filed almost 1500 signatures in those 6 days we fell short of our goal due to time restraints. The Mayor talked with my good friend Heidi Christensen, and told her that he would welcome alternate plans from the citizens. He asked us to send him and the City Council a proposal. It has been a week since we have dropped of the proposals, we have received confirmation that each person has received them and will look them over. We have yet to hear anything. I hope this wasn’t just lip service from the Mayor and Councilmen. The citizens are doing everything they can to get them to Re-evaluate the plans they were given by the “citizens committee of 2” and accept alternate plans from the actual citizens of Riverton that wants a park that represents Riverton as a whole. My hope is that the community will continue to call the Mayor and City Councilmen and urge them to do the right thing for Riverton and represent what the people really want. Teveka Melanson
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 20:41:03 +0000
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