Don't count out Cache cultural assetsAuthor(s): Section: Letter To The Editor |
To the editor:
In previous commentaries, I have argued that we need to take advantage of Cache Valley's physical, educational, and cultural assets and make the area more inviting. If we do this, tourists will put the valley on their "must see" list, visitors will return, more retirees living in hot climates like Phoenix will spend their summers here, and local citizens will take greater pride in where they live.
Dozens of cities in this country have populations and financial resources similar to Cache Valley's. However, to most of us, these communities are little more than names on a map with nothing to separate them from the ordinary. Smaller cities such as Ashland, Ore., and Cedar City, Utah, are known for their Shakespeare programs, and Pleasant Grove has plans for what the design team calls a "world-class," open-air retail market.
Cache Valley has three features of unusual acclaim. With proper leadership, it could make it a must-see destination. First is the valley's well recognized, majestic physical setting, and the second is a high-caliber university. The third factor, the valley's various arts programs, is the one most in jeopardy at this time. Currently, we have two art venues (Ellen Eccles Theatre and the Manon Caine Russell-Katherine Caine Wanlass University Performance Hall) that are unequalled in quality compared to those in cities of similar size west of the Mississippi. In addition, the programs of the Utah Festival Opera, Cache Valley Center for the Arts, Chamber Music Society of Logan, Lyric Theatre, and others offered through the university and elsewhere are highly regarded and on a par with comparable programs offered in much larger municipalities.
This is why I am dismayed that Logan city is set on reducing expenditures for maintaining the Ellen Eccles Theatre and its associated programs. I am surprised that Logan's elected officials (especially the mayor who is a businessman) seem to be concerned only with outgoing expenditures while ignoring incomes generated. During the Utah Festival Opera season it is difficult if not impossible to get a motel room and major restaurants are full. Last summer at the operas, I talked with a couple that came in a loaded bus from eastern Idaho, and I found far more attendees from Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Front than from here in the valley. In addition to the tax revenue generated, these programs produce what accountants call "goodwill," a boost to the valley's favorable reputation. I cannot understand why anyone would back off from the giant strides made in creating the top-notch facilities and programs that are gaining the valley recognition as a regional art Mecca. Surely Logan city does not want to see these slip into the cultural backwaters, especially when such programs significantly augment local tax revenues.
Howard Carlisle
Logan |