Letter to the Editor: Need Smoke Stacks

By RUSSELL G. OAKESON Ferron

Dear Editor,
I am responding in regard to your article, Economic Summit Part IV. Could the comment by Mr. Truman in his involvement with trying to bring a Saturn car factory to Emery County, a plant that would employ 20,000 employees for our county, “have destroyed” what Emery County is all about?
Tell me, Mr. Truman, why did you move from here? Was it educational reasons? Employment advancement? Thirty years ago, when I moved to Emery County, I believe there were a few people who were not very excited about the smokestacks or the power plants, that are already here. I am not going to bad mouth small businesses, they do play a big part in our economic development; however, those stacks brought a lot of good people to the county and once the construction was done a whole lot of good people moved from our county seeking employment. I am one of those very few fortunate folks to earn good wages and to live in Emery County from having smokestacks. I don’t believe, however, I could stay here and live off what small business pays their employees. We need more smokestacks, because it would bring more business and certainly more people. It would spread out across our small communities, it would bring many good but also some bad consequences, we already have crime and drug problems. But I strongly believe more of our young people could come back and lead a good life here. Look at what tourism has done to other small rural areas of Utah. In my opinion, it has brought a lot of people, most of whom were temporary, and a lot of minimum wage jobs. In my opinion, it would be very nice to have access to hospitals, colleges, even some of the elements of business that are available in Price or Cedar City, right here in Emery County. We as Emery County citizens need to change our attitudes about growth. Please stop thinking about the bad sides of growth and think of all the good it could bring. We need to tap all of our human resources and reach for our potential by building more smokestacks. Smokestacks are the building blocks that will ensure the survival of our county and our communities.
My opinion on this whole subject is that the plants will not be here forever, and everyone cannot be ranchers or small business people. I would sure hate to see our communities end up in a future ghost town book.