Salt Lake County islanders guard their unincorporated status jealously.
When Bob Staker -- an Island No. 21 resident -- learned Salt Lake County was offering Sandy city a contract to begin serving his and several dozen other unincorporated islands within the city, he began spoiling for a fight.Staker said he's worried he will have to to pay more for inferior service. And he wants to know why Salt Lake County presented Sandy city with a service contract before asking him and other islanders what they wanted.
"We weren't even given a choice," Staker said.
Staker and other islanders recently appeared before the County Commission to protest the proposal.
Recently, county leaders approached Sandy to see if city leaders wanted to enter into a contract and begin providing garbage, snowplow and other services to the unincorporated islands surrounded by the city.
(The White City and Granite neighbors are reportedly not included in the proposed contract, although several White City leaders still oppose the matter.)
The overture was led by Commission Chairwoman Mary Callaghan, who presides over the county's public works department. Callaghan is a big proponent of efficiency -- sometimes to the detriment of other considerations, her detractors say -- and she says it's simply more efficient for the city to service the isolated islands within Sandy.
"It's ridiculous for a county snowplow to have to pick up (its) blade, drive through the city, put it down for a block or two, then pick it up again," she said. "(The county is) paying for that driver, for the truck, for everything else, and yet Sandy's right there next door."
Sandy has not yet decided whether to accept the county's proposal, but several unincorporated islanders say the decision should be theirs -- pri- marily because the issue ultimately leads to control over the islands' unincorporated status.
In the early 1970s, the state's annexation statute was changed to disallow proposed annexations that would create unincorporated islands. Later, an amendment was passed that allowed a city to annex an island without the usual public referendum if it provided services there for a year.
"I think it certainly indicates that the Legislature wanted to make it easier to annex those areas," said Kent Lewis, a Salt Lake County deputy attorney.
With that in mind, Don Patocka, a White City Community Council member, said the service contract simply is the first step in an attempt to annex the unincorporated islands into the city without approval of island residents.
Sandy spokesman Rick Davis, however, said the city does not intend to take advantage of the law. He said Sandy would not benefit financially by absorbing the islands, "and the city will not move on any annexation unless people in the area are supportive."
Despite a budgetary back-step, providing services to the unincorporated islands "makes policy sense" for Sandy, Davis said.
Davis said that many services, like police and fire protection, are already being provided in the islands by Sandy, adding the city can provide better and less expensive service -- a claim challenged by contract opponents.
White City resident Paulina Flint is irked by a process she believes precluded the very people who would be affected.