Thanks for the overwhelming support

I have been overwhelmed with the offers of support since I have announced my candidacy for city council. It was not my intent to run this time, but since my good friend, Carl Hernandez, decided not to run, I have decided to add my voice to debate. There are many issues facing the city that will add a great dynamic to this election.

         One of these issues is the current debate surrounding the Center for the Story/The Cultural Art Center. Many years ago when the initial cultural arts study was presented to the city council, I was very supportive of the revenue being funneled towards the Scera, Hale Center Theatre, and Orem Recreation. The issue that is currently facing the city council is whether or not to build the Center for the Story adjacent to the current Orem City Library. The current issue before the city council seems to be problematic at best. I hope that the current city council members are taking into consideration a few very important issues.

Issue number one- the current size of the building and construction plans call for the use of multiple parking areas in the city. Potentially people attending programs at the new center would have to park almost a block to the east at the Orem Friendship Center. This is unrealistic and a more likely scenario would be vehicles inundating the surrounding neighborhood. I believe this would present a very difficult problem to the Sharon neighborhood directly north of the city center. To alleviate these problems a potential future solution would be to pave over two of the existing ballparks now at the city center. This solution would be unacceptable to me. I would never want to forfeit those baseball diamonds in favor of additional parking.

Issue number two- there is only so much fundraising ability in this community. Should the arts center be built at the proposed location this would require an on going fundraising commitment from the story telling festival and the Arts Center. I believe that this would put considerable pressure on the fundraising ability of the Scera and the Hale Center Theatre.

Issue number three- How do we justify the consumption of open space on state street when the arts center of the city should be centered around the Scera Theatre or the Hale Center Theatre.

Issue number four- I also believe that there is a real possibility that the citizens of Orem will not renew the CARE Tax when it again comes to a vote in a few years. If the voters do not renew it, how is an additional arts center going to be funded?

I hope that the city council will take these questions into consideration for a future discussion.

Please feel free to leave a comment or ask me questions to be answered in future blog posts.