Tracie Sullivan

tracie@thespectrum.com

PAROWAN – Parowan City council members are quickly losing patience with representatives from the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after waiting for them for nearly 8 months to make a decision whether they’re going to cover the costs of rebuilding the city park bathrooms they tore down two years ago.

The council met with the LDS representatives in June to try and resolve the issue that has been brewing since the first of the year when it was revealed that the church had torn down the bathrooms that the church initially claimed were on its property.

It started two years ago when the church began building a chapel and went to the city with land plats and surveys that showed the property where the bathrooms were located belonged to the church.

A title search a year and a half later, however, proved otherwise, prompting the city to send a letter to the church asking for it to cover the costs of rebuilding the bathrooms.

The church’s response remained minimal until June when church officials sent representatives to speak to the council – both sides agreed to gather bids on the project.

City Manager Shayne Scott said he has tried emailing and calling the church since that meeting but to no avail.

“I don’t know if it’s an issue of out of sight, out of mind or they’re doing it on purpose and stonewalling us or what but it really is getting past ridiculous,” Scott said.

City Councilman Troy Houston said Friday that he felt the issue had been dragged on long enough and wants an answer.

“I want them to come to the table,” he said. “I think they think we’re not going to do anything so what does it matter if they don’t talk to us or give us an answer.”

Houston believes church officials are acting like “bullies” and argues that if this incident had occurred in Salt Lake City, the result would be different.

“It would draw a lot more media attention up there so the church would be more likely to have given us an answer not wanting the negative public perception,” Houston said.

Council Steve Weston doesn’t believe the church has done this on purpose and would like to see the city council try and approach it a different way.

“The representative we’ve been working with is new and I think we just need to find someone else to work with on this and let them know what’s going on,” he said.

While Houston said he doesn’t want to take any drastic measures he’s willing to do so if necessary.

“They have their storage building on our property and some of their parking lot. I think they keep their chairs and tables and stuff in that building and I don’t know if we’ll have to tear it but we might have to put a chain around it and lock it up. They just shouldn’t have done this and they need to make it right,” he said.

Scott said he’s going to continue trying to find someone else to speak with about the issue but said he also feels the church needs to do something towards making things right.

In a previous interview, Scott said the value of the .15 acre property together with the bathrooms would appraise for around $25,000.

He estimated at the time the cost of building new bathrooms would come with a price tag of around $75,000.

The church previously paid the city $9,000 for bricks it had promised to give back, but somehow lost when the church tore down the old bathroom.

City officials said they would consider that money partial payment toward the new building.

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