I’m writing this letter after having attended what I think may have been my first city council / town hall meeting at the Mt. Pleasant City Hall Sept. 11.

The topic of discussion was predominantly the nuisance letters the City had mailed out earlier this summer. It was interesting and informative to watch democracy at work from my perch on the back row; although at one point the proceedings seemed to devolve into the rich and powerful interrogating the poor and the weak. (But not meek, I enjoyed what you had to say, Mary).

I thought Claudia brought up a good point. She had also received one of the letters and it alluded to her ” ’57 Chevy truck.” People who own antique vehicles don’t consider them to be “junk,” even ones that haven’t yet been restored.

The state of Utah classifies vehicles 40 years and older as “vintage vehicles.” If the city were to include an exemption for vintage vehicles in the city code, many individuals, including myself, would benefit. I’m just throwing this out there, it might be a nice little compromise.

But I really wanted to write to suggest something I’ve been thinking about for a few years now but seemed to somehow clarify in my mind last night. We obviously live in a desert, yet we insist on maintaining acres of green lawn at the cost of precious water resources, the burning of finite petroleum and creating what could be considered unnecessary air and noise pollution.

If the city were to legislate that desert landscaping be required within city limits, we might well all have sufficient water to drink in the future. It would not mean one could not have some lawn, the city would just have to set a square footage limit on grass that had to be artificially kept alive. Perhaps 200 square feet would be good. Gardens and flower beds should of course be exempted.

As I said, I’m just throwing this out there, trying to help keep the discussion going.

Chad Taylor,

Mt. Pleasant