LETTER: Vote No on Providence Proposition 1

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Eck family has reached out to Cache Valley Daily to refute the claims made by Mr. Gardner in the following letter. Randy Eck works for a construction company but is not employed by Visionary Homes. Kristina Eck also claims that she has never sold a home in the Vineyard neighborhood.

Good Residents of Providence,

By now, you should have received your official voting ballots from the county. One of the big issues Providence residents must consider is whether to vote for or against Proposition 1. Voting FOR the ballot question will allow the completion of the controversial Vineyard community. Voting AGAINST will prevent the completion of the large high density project.

I’m against Proposition 1 and write this letter to provide some guidance on how to cast your vote for mayor and city council in a way to help prevent more low income, high density housing in Providence in the future. In short, I encourage you to withhold your vote for unopposed mayoral candidate Kathleen Alder and to support Jeff Nebeker and Jeanell Sealy for city council.

Here are my brief observations after attending the “Meet the Candidates” night on Monday, October 11. Mayoral candidate Kathleen Alder and city council candidates Kristina Eck and Ryan Moeller are dead-set on bringing in more low income and high density housing to Providence. Ms. Eck has two serious, serious conflicts of interest with this issue. First, she is a local real estate agent. Her push for low income and high density housing is at least partially driven by her desire for more sales and commissions. Second, her husband Randy Eck works for Visionary Homes, the development company building the Vineyard community. Mr. Moeller seems to be driven by his personal desire for government mandated equality. I wish he were more interested enacting the will of the voters rather than re-creating Providence with his own political philosophy.

Jeanell Sealy seems proud of her work with City Council to bring in high density housing to Providence, but does seem willing to listen to and represent the will of the voters. Mr. Nebeker seems to be against high density housing in Providence and is very interested in enacting policies consistent with the will of the electorate. I’m completely baffled as to why the elected leadership of Providence City is so interested in bringing high density and low income housing to our small town (pop. 8000).

Can anyone find an example of another small city with high property values where the residents said “Let’s bring our property values down and overcrowd our schools and roads!” No.

The citizens work to protect the structure of the city and the property values. When I listened to the candidates and listen to friends and acquaintances in favor of high density and low income housing, they say something like, “Where will our kids and grand-kids live?” Maybe I’m being heartless but I just don’t see the importance of people living in the same 3.9 square mile city in which they grew up.

This is a big county, state, and region of the country. Residents’ home values should not be reduced, the roads more clogged, and the schools overcrowded because people don’t want to drive 10 minutes to a couple of hours to see mom and dad or grandma or grandpa.

Providence is great, but there are many great places! Don’t limit yourself or your kids to four square miles in Northern Utah.

Tim Gardner
Providence, UT


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Letters to the Editor are received from the public and are not the product of Cache Valley Daily, its editors, staff or contributors. The matters stated and opinions given are strictly the responsibility of the person submitting them; they do not reflect the product or opinion of Cache Valley Daily.

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1 Comment

  • Burt Maklin October 15, 2021 at 11:25 pm Reply

    Don’t tell me what to do

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