A Bright New Hope Grave concern of community members continued to arise in recent years about the residents' dwindling influence on growth and use issues within the unincorporated areas of Marriott and Slaterville. By 1992 Farr West City moved to annex land in the northeast part of Slaterville including Mulligan's Golf Course and other potential commercial areas. In June 1993 a Rap Concert (Lollapalooza) at the Weber County Fairgrounds saw roads clogged with parked cars to the point residents could not leave their property for up to 14 hours. Streets and surrounding land was covered with garbage, and trespassers ignored private property boundaries. In addition, people for miles in the quiet residential neighborhood were forced to listen for hours to the unending and deafening noise and offending lyrics of the performers. A huge fire on July 2, 1996, at a business located on 17th Street in Marriott burned for days and threatened homes. A sewer line for a Weber County approved subdivision in Slaterville required tearing up roads and the building of a lift station in that community. These incidents, documented in this history, and other equally disturbing events, exacerbated residents' concerns. However, their options were severely limited with no real control over our affairs. Then came a bright ray of hope with the late-session passage in the 1996 State Legislature of a Township Bill, sponsored by Representative Sue Lockman, a first term Republican from the Kearns District. This allowed communities to form townships whereby they would keep county services but would get their own seven-member planning and zoning board for controlling those activities. A township would establish legal borders, and could stop annexation of areas within those borders. Also, it designated an official recognized name for the defined area. Citizens seized this opportunity to control their community's future, without the necessity of incorporating. Marriott was the first community to turn in a township petition to the Weber County Clerk, Linda Lunceford, on June 18, 1996. Slaterville followed their example on July 2, 1996. The petitions required signatures of at least 25 percent of all votes cast in the voting area in the last congressional election. The petition drives were coordinated by the community's planning advisory groups. In Slaterville, not one person asked to sign the petition declined to do so. After the signatures were checked by the County Clerk's office, the petition went to the county commissioners. They put both the Marriott and Slaterville township proposals on the November 1996 general election ballots. Six communities in Weber County eventually voted on township status on that date. By election time, county commissioners were warning these communities that they would still be part of Weber County and should not expect complete control of their area. On November 5, 1996, residents in both Marriott and Slaterville overwhelmingly voted in favor of townships, and elected thee members for the planning and zoning board. Winners in Marriott were Gerald Bischoff, Delbert Hodson, and William M. Morris. Slaterville elected Keith Butler, Orvil Holley and Kim Slater. In late December county commissioners appointed Barbara K. Brown, Steven L. Mecham and Randy D. Phipps to the Marriott Board. Slaterville appointees were Keith Slater, Carolyn B. Deru, and Rob Smout. The seventh member of each board was appointed in January 1997, selected jointly by the commissioners and board members. Carl Hodson was selected for Marriott, and Carl Parker for Slaterville. Ominous Times Ahead The scene was early 1997; the cast was comprised of Township Planning and Zoning Boards. Grateful for the new opportunities for guiding the communities' future now afforded them, members of the boards met, received training, and proceeded in high hopes to look at issues confronting them. However, unknown to them, disappointment and disaster already waited in the wings, in the form of Mel Brown, Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives. His role, filled with determination, was to revoke the Township Law enacted the year before 50