Letter to the editor from Jon Pentz
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Editor:
My standpoint is that Evanston needs and deserves growth. People say the detention center will be an eyesore; Well, I say that the poverty and substance abuse is much harder to look at!
Nothing else is being proposed to come to our small 12K populated town, and the oilfield simply didn’t recover, and there is no need for me to explain the dire times that the miners’ families are about to endure. The jobs and the tax money that we will inherit will do amazing things for this community!
It will bring 260 Corecivic jobs starting at $52K a year and an additional 60 federal ICE jobs — that’s what is being proposed. How do we turn our backs on that? Another thing I learned is that everything will be in-house, such as court hearings. People will not be released into our population en masse, they will be taken back to where they came from. Since our detention center will be for the “Salt Lake sector,” most will return home to Utah or be deported based on their judgments at the in-house court.
People talk about the potential criminals who will be housed in said detention center, but you have to ask yourself why this concerns you now, when the state hospital houses similar people on Johnson hall as we speak.
These jobs will bring training and wonderful job opportunities to the youth of this town. Growth is good; growth brings many wonderful things, such as higher property values and other jobs, better roads and much needed upgrades to some of our facilities.
I was offered a job to leave this state and work elsewhere but no matter how much they paid, it was not enough for me to uproot my family, sell my home and leave a community that my family has contributed so much to.
Some minds will not be changed on this subject, and I respect that, but for the ones on the fence, please just ask questions, open your minds and ask yourself if this is a community that your kids will be able to stay and thrive in after their schooling is done because, at the moment, the amazing young talent is leaving for lack of good paying jobs and opportunities.
Jon Pentz
Evanston
