facebook-pixel

Letter: City should look at moving the 4th Avenue Well

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) "I wanted to have a voice specifically for the trees," said Katie Pugh, who yarn bombed the trees in City Creek Park across from her home for the week to celebrate Earth Day and Arbor Day. "It's awesome that the park exists and its been unaltered for so long." Salt Lake City's Department of Public Utilities has proposed a series of upgrades for its Memory Grove, but neighborhood residents say a new pump house the city wants to build is too big, unsightly and threatens to take out several mature trees and ruin the aesthetics of the park.

On June 4, the Salt Lake City Council directed the city administration to prepare a set of three alternatives designs for the proposed 4th Avenue Well that would address concerns of the Memory Grove Residential Pocket residents.

On June 11, the Greater Avenues Community Council repeated it request that the local residents' desired alternative for moving the well to a new site by considered.

On July 30, the city Department of Public Utilities stated that was prepared three alternative designs for presentation this winter, none of which would include moving the well to a new site.

By this decision, the DPU is attempting to force a resolution where it gets only what it originally wanted by anchoring the debate to only solutions that the DPU has previously proposed and by ignoring residents’ repeated desired alternative.

This is amateurish political maneuvering by the DPU that will waste public monies on preparing more plans that with not resolve the matter.

It is time for the City Council to step back in and to order the DPU to include an alternative of moving the 4th Avenue Well to a new location.

Kurt A. Fisher, Salt Lake City

Submit a letter to the editor