This has been a summer of Town Halls. The nation has been reenergized about what is going on around them.

The Town of Eureka is one place that the "vote" and the "town hall" is very dear to them. The Town has a population of just over 700 including children. Out of that some 400 are registered voters. In many cases across the country 30 percent of the registered voters may come out on any "off year" election but Eureka will see 50 to 60 percent turn out.

In 1979Eureka was placed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Tintic Mining District Multiple Resource

Area, recognizing the importance of remaining buildings and sites. That not only included the "downtown" area but the entire city. All buildings, mining areas and even the drainage built by the Civil Conservation Corp in the mid 1930s.

A town hall meeting was held on September 14, 2009 where the City office was filled to "Standing room Only" with some forty citizens attending.

This was only the third time in the last year that such a crowd packed the small building and could have been the largest in recent memory.

What excited such an attendance was a new ordinance that had, in short form the following components that concerned, aggravated, frightened and frustrated the township.

The meeting was held due to concern over a proposal to allow, what one citizen referred to as "a land grab."

The crux of the proposal was that the "Eureka City Corporation" could declare any property in the town unfit. Then allow the owner(s) to correct it within 30 days.

If the corrections were not made then the Mayor could charge the owner(s) with a crime, a class B misdemeanor, then start fining them $150 a day.

A real strong part of the ordinance that put a scare into the public was that the "Eureka City Corporation" would be able to put a lien on the property if the corrections to the building and fines were not paid in "a timely manner". That was the portent of a ghost but the real frightener was that they wanted to put liens on any other properties that were owned by that same person(s) within the city limits. When the liens were mentioned, the Mayor and the City Council acted as though they had no idea as to that section even being in the ordinance.

The Mayor presented this ordinance and made statements that "this was very clear to us". Or on the fine, "It didn't have to be $150 per day, the Judge could make it three cents a day."

This town hall is posted on YouTube, search Eureka Town Hall. The posting is in four parts.

The inherent attitude was that the people want to keep the city "like is was" but that would have been at a time of 20 to 30 years ago before trees began to grow inside the "old" buildings. Structurally, due to the root systems that have developed and the extreme degradation of the walls and caved in roofs, these "landmarks" have lost all structural integrity. That would mean that most would have to be rebuilt from the ground, "foundation", up and repair is not really an option. The facades could be copied in the new buildings to keep the ambiance of the town generally intact but that would be all.

An interview with Verl Wilkey, State Building Inspector, he stated that, as an example, "When any new construction is started and a foundation is pored, they have to get a permit to pore it then I have to inspect it before any other construction can be done."

As was mentioned by one of the attendees at the town hall, "These buildings were built by just people. They didn't have building codes. They just built buildings. So how could anyone ever afford to remodel a building that would probably never pass building codes?"

Another commented that it "would take tens of millions to redo the city."

The end of the meeting had two agreements. 1. "The preservation of this Historic Town needs to be done and as quick as possible."

2. "That we need to take the time to do it right and within the law and make sure what that law is."

Ending with a quote from someone: "Return to the good old future and have small remembrances of the past. Keep your heritage

but have children to pass it to. Learn to move on." Ordinances about that could never be written.