THIS year marks the 250th anniversary of the adoption of The Declaration of Independence. To celebrate, West Valley City and Salt Lake County have hosted various events to celebrate democracy. One of these events was 72 Voices 72 Votes held at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center at the end of March. At this event, a few things took place. First, a wide variety of city officials spoke. This included Craig Thomas, the head of the new “Community Engagement & Culture” department for West Valley, as well as West Valley City Mayor Karen Lang.
They both spoke about the history of West Valley City and the importance of democracy. They shared the story of the city’s incorporation, which was controversial because of infighting between the County and the people on the Hunter-Granger improvement board who were trying to incorporate WVC. Because of the controversy, West Valley barely scraped by to become a city by a slim 72-vote margin, hence the name of the event. It was not easy for WVC in its early days; they were too poor to fund the new WVC Police Department. Because of this, before the Manager-Council form of government was adopted, WVC’s first Mayor, Hank Price, and the first two commissioners (Renee Mackay and Jerry Wagstaff) had to pay for the police cruiser’s gas themselves. Also, Hank brought in a sketchy friend to handle the city’s accounting. Unfortunately, he did a poor job and bankrupted the city. But after the new council and manager took office the following year, a new accountant was appointed, and they were able to build West Valley into what it is today.
After the officials concluded their talks, the audience was adjourned to walk around the exhibit. The exhibit had lots of amazing things to look at. There were hundreds of antiques from the early days of WVC, including old ballots, political cartoons, paintings, and other memorabilia. Also, there were interactive elements that would tell people about the history of elections in the United States. At the back of the room, in a case, was a collection of buttons from various presidential candidates, dating from the early 1800s to the present.
The crown jewel of the event was “America250” by Shu Yamamoto; it is a series of paintings based on classical American paintings from the Revolution. The key difference is that instead of people like Washington or Jefferson, it was CATS. All the historical figures in the painting were replaced with kitties.
A few days later, at the Cultural Center, WVC also hosted its first-ever town hall. During the town hall, city residents had the opportunity to ask questions of state Senators and Representatives who represent the WVC area. The mayor gave a few words, and free WVC pins and pens were given out. WVC plans to make this a yearly event!
