CEDAR CITY (AP) -- The City Council here has voted to oppose a plan that would sell Iron County's share of the Utah State Correctional Facility to the state.

In its Wednesday night meeting, the council passed a resolution asking the state and county to leave things as they are, sending a message that Cedar City doesn't want the work-release programs a shift could bring."If we allow that, we'll have rapists and murderers picking up our garbage and weeds," Mayor Harold Shirley said. "If it came to that, I'd say let the garbage and weeds lay there."

The council voted unanimously to retain a conditional-use provision set in place when the jail was built in 1986. It specifically prevents work-release programs from being used for any inmates permanently housed in the Draper and Gunlock facilities. It does allow for work-release inmates to be housed at the jail temporarily.

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