A modern-day attempt to fortify the walls of Union met with defeat Tuesday.
Residents of the unincorporated community in Salt Lake County voted against incorporation. So ends a 21/2-year effort by The Committee to Incorporate Union to make the area a city and thus take control of the community's future.A majority of Union residents decided otherwise. According to final but unofficial results, voters cast 2,156 ballots against incorporation and 1,922 for the proposal.
Although now it's immaterial, residents gave preference to a council/mayor form of government for the not-to-be city. Voters cast 1,573 ballots for that option, compared to 788 for a city commission and 477 for a council/man- ager form of government.
A group of residents launched the drive in 1992 as a way to seize local autonomy. Gaining city status also would have prevented Union from being swallowed in whole or part by neighboring cities Sandy and Midvale.
The drive jelled in 1992 at a meeting some residents called to discuss annexation threats and protest what they perceived as Salt Lake County commissioners' indifference to their concerns. They also were critical of plans to expand the Family Center at Fort Union, a Hermes Associates project.
The expansion angered the residents because it encroached on the city's historic Union Fort site and required the removal of a pioneer home erected in 1849.
Principals of Hermes ended up being vocal opponents of the incorporation drive. They also donated $1,600 to Mary Callaghan, who unseated County Commissioner Jim Bradley in Tuesday's election.
Bradley voted against expansion of the Family Center.
"This whole thing started with the community council out there, which did a poll and asked people what they wanted," said Hermes spokesman Perry Vidalakis. "The majority of the people said they wanted to stay in the county. Despite that, those people pushed for a city."
Vidalakis said supporters of incorporation underestimated the number of people opposed to paying higher taxes just so Union could be a city.
Richard Walsh, who led the incorporation effort, said threats of higher taxes - which he labeled unfounded - eventually unraveled support for a Union city.
Proponents of incorporation tried to get out the message that the best way to control taxes was to incorporate, Walsh said.