As a community, South Salt Lake has taken more than one for the team. Among the many public facilities in that city that serve the whole of Salt Lake County are two jails, a sewage treatment plant, bus barns and train sheds. It also hosts a snippet of the county's main commercial strip, State Street, and a snarl of highway interchanges.

But it is also a community that is home to some 24,000 mostly working-class souls, who have told their elected leaders that they could use something more uplifting and beautiful to be its city's heart.

So the South Salt Lake mayor and City Council have placed on the Nov. 8 ballot a proposal that, if passed, would authorize a $25 million bond issue to fund the purchase and upgrade of the late, lamented Granite High School at 500 East and 3300 South into a much-needed community center.

South Salt Lake voters should give their approval.

The idea of the Granite Community Bond campaign (www.graniterocks.org) is far more than just nostalgia for the century-old school. The vision is that the existing campus already includes many things that would be of use to the community — playing fields, a swimming pool, gym, theater, kitchen and rooms of many shapes and sizes that could be used by a long list of community groups.

City officials have calculated that the remodeling, which is to include proper seismic upgrades and energy efficiency improvements, would provide far more for the community, at a more affordable price, than would any attempt to build such facilities from scratch.

It would also preserve a total of 27 acres, much of it green space, in a city that is landlocked and built out. Without such a rescue of the facility, the school district would have little choice but to offer the property on the open market, probably to become a housing development or commercial tract that the community does not really need.

South Salt Lake currently carries no general obligation debt — a rarity for a community of its, or any, size. Approval of the 30-year bond would figure out to added property taxes of some $7 a month for the owner of a residential property appraised at $165,000. And the city has reasonable expectations that there would be offsetting rental income from the many community groups who have expressed eagerness to be a part of the project.

City officials feel confident that they have put together a plan their community wants and needs. Now it is up to the voters to confirm their leaders' vision.

The bond issue deserves approval.