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The Marriott-Slaterville City History Collection was created by the residents of the town to document their history. The collection includes Autobiographies, Oral Histories, History of Marriott, History of Slaterville, and the History of the Merging Townships to create Marriott-Slaterville City. This information has left behind rich histories, stories and important information regarding the history of the Marriott-Slaterville area. |
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Show April 26, 1997 Deadline looms for township fight Legislators consider special session to quiet the controversy By MARINA O'NEILL_ Standard-Examiner staff SALT LAKE CITY - The clock is ticking for a handful of lawmakers and supporters who are working to buy more time for hard-won townships, now set to disappear at midnight on May 5. After months of petition drives, rallying voters and shouting matches, all sides are focusing on what may be a last chance to avoid being erased from existence. They are pushing for a legislative special session to temporarily grandfather in existing townships reversed by this year's changes to state law. House Budget Chairman Marty Ste-phens, the Farr West Republican who has applied his negotiator skills to telecommunications reform and the Legacy Highway Project, is attempting to broker an uneasy solution to the controversy. House Speaker Mel Brown sponsored this year's change to the townships law created in 1996. The new law will convert larger townships created last summer - such as Hooper, East Huntsville and Slaterville -into planning districts and erase the smaller townships of Reese, Warren, Marriott and Mutton Hollow from the political map. Stephens said he has pledged to ask Gov. Mike Leavitt for a brief special session in May or June, on days set aside for legislative committee meetings. "The only way I could support it would be if we could get the parties to agree to issues so that it wouldn't be a source of debate," Stephens said Friday. He has invited Brown and one organizer from each township to his home for a special meeting May 6. "I'm just going to get a white sheet of paper and write things down and see if we can come to an agreement," he said. "And if we can, I'd be willing to carry their water for them." Leavitt said Thursday he'd be willing to call the session, if assured it would not erupt into more of the heated controversy. "I don't think we're finished with that issue. I think there are people who feel very strongly about it," Leavitt said. "This bill is not, I think, a particularly good solution, but it is better than what we had in the first step." Deyonne Walker, from the East Huntsville Township Board, said legislators changed the law because they "received false information from county governments who felt afraid of townships." Walker said townships are not a threat to county governments. They mostly are formed to preserve rural communities from being annexed into municipal entities. Those geographical boundaries could be made flexible, she said, but township boards should be involved in the process. "To take away a form of government voted in by an overwhelming amount of people is heavy-handed," she said. "We need to get in a room to talk together and resolve the issue." Standard-Examiner reporter Jeffrey P. Haney contributed to this report. 75 |