The line that divides this city and its Nevada twin is imaginary, but it is the cause of some very real problems.
Now residents on the Utah side appear divided over a proposal some say is no more likely to materialize than that invisible state border.Annexing this city into neighboring West Wendover, Nev. - a dramatic step that would change the states' borders and require an act of Congress - is not a viable solution to this city's economic woes, some residents said Tuesday night. And such talk, they argued, will only assure defeat of an upcoming school bond issue that would fund a sorely needed elementary school.
A representative of Gov. Mike Leavitt's office and an entourage of state and Tooele County officials came here to listen to what they thought would be a variety of complaints about government services, and perhaps a request for annexation into Nevada.
They left saying they still want to hear residents' opinion on annexation - as soon as the city figures out what that is.
"You people, as a community, have to find some mechanism to send the right signal to the state of Utah as to whether you want (annexation into Nevada)," said Bob Linnell, deputy of governmental relations for Leavitt. "We at the governor's office are not going to lead the parade."
Wendover Mayor Brenda Morgan, a proponent of annexation, said the city hopes to put a non-binding resolution on either the June primary or November general election ballot asking residents how they feel about annexation. The City Council hasn't reached a consensus, and it was obvious from Tuesday's meeting that residents still are making up their minds.
The visiting public officials did receive one clear message - the city wants the new school and wants it now. The discussion on annexation was peripheral and strongly influenced by residents' desire for the new building.
"If we wanted to live in Nevada, we'd move over there," said Gertrude Tripp, a 40-year resident who chided Tooele County Board of Education representatives for what she described as years of neglect. "We have fought for years with the School Board and the people of Wendover are tired of it. We don't trust the School Board, and we don't trust the superintendent anymore."
The city's elementary school pupils are to be taught in mobile classrooms next fall when a 10-year agreement with Elko County, Nev., schools comes to an end. Under the agreement, elementary pupils from both cities were schooled at West Wendover Elementary while secondary students from both sides attended Wendover High School in Utah. But Elko County school officials decided to build a new high school, to open this fall, and terminate the agreement.
The Tooele School Board will ask voters to approve a bond issue, probably in the November election, to pay for the planned $4.4 million elementary school. But residents fear it won't pass and their kids will be stuck in trailers for the next decade.
"We asked for this annexation five, six years ago and I think we basically got laughed at," Greg Mascaro, a member of the Wend-over Parents Committee, told the public officials. "This (talk of annexation) couldn't have come at a worse time. . . . I think this has really skirted the (school) issue very badly."
Mascaro and other speakers said Tooele County voters would be less likely to approve the bond issue if they thought the city, the new school and their tax money would eventually be lost to Nevada. And since annexation is unlikely to succeed, he said, Wendover would be worse off than it is now.
Linnell said residents shouldn't believe a spokesman for Nevada Gov. Bob Miller, who told the Utah media last week his state has no interest in annexing Wendover.
"I do know that both governors are wide open on that . . . more open-minded than what you're reading in the papers," he said.
A handful of Wendover High School students stood outside the Wendover Community Building with signs opposing annexation. They said the entire student body had planned to walk out of school Tuesday to protest the annexation effort but backed off when advised by an American Civil Liberties Union attorney that wouldn't be a good idea.
Back inside, a longtime West Wendover resident who recently moved to the Utah side called for unity.
"We need to pull together, make this one town like it should be . . . for the betterment of all," Norvin Kemp told the panel.
Sen. George Mantes, D-Tooele, echoed that statement, encouraging residents to "step back" from the school issue and focus on long-term cooperation between the two Wendovers.
About 140 people, some of them residents from the Nevada side, turned out for the meeting. More than twice that many packed the Wendover High School gym last month when the School Board agreed to hold the bond election. At that meeting, parents asked the board to continue sending their 300 elementary pupils to school in Nevada, at a cost of $600,000 per year, until the new Utah school is built. The board said it could not afford to do so.