Opinion
Letter to the Editor: City spending needs to be questioned
Dear Editor,
My name is Kent Shepherd. I was raised in Lehi and graduated from Lehi High School class of 1955. I courted and fell in love with a beautiful young lady from Cedar Fort. She waited for me while I served an L.D.S. mission.
When I returned from missionary service we were married and raised our wonderful kids here in Lehi.
I served as a bishop and also served on the Lehi City Council.
My dear wife passed away a couple months ago and I miss her terribly. My family held a great birthday celebration last Sunday. It was my 85th. I enjoyed it immensely.
I should be satisfied and content in my old age, but life continues to confront me with problems and one of those is financial. With my wife’s passing, my expenses have increased but my income has gone down significantly. Thus, this letter to complain.
I am really upset with the seemingly endless ways that our city government is spending enormous sums of money. Untold millions tossed around like confetti; a police building that rivals the Taj Mahal, $69 million tax increase, $29 million proposed for a new city hall. What happens to the recently rebuilt city hall? Tear it down?
Mayor Johnson has said that another recently rebuilt building has to be torn down and that would be the library. What’s next—the iconic Hutchings Museum that houses natural history and pioneer relics? Maybe a stainless steel and glass building would be a nice waste of money. The gifting of $300,000 to Thanksgiving Point really has an illegal smell to it. Maybe as long as you’re tearing down, why not the “aging Legacy Center,” that just barely got paid for last year. Holy Smokes it all just makes me stare in disbelief.
Please pull back on the financial reins. I cannot afford it myself. I know my kids cannot afford it either. I really wonder if the rest of the town’s citizens can afford it. I would ask that you pay attention to some advice from President Gordon B. Hinckley, “Fix it up. Wear it out. Make do, or Do without.”
Please, I beg, be careful how you spend my (our) money. Remember we have to work for and earn every penny of the money you spend. You, Mister Mayor and City Council only have to vote for it. Slow down!
Kent Shepherd
Lehi, Utah
