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John Daley ReportingVoters go to polls tomorrow to weigh in on a variety of issues, including whether or not to raise their own taxes for schools in Provo. If passed, money would go to address a major danger, damage to school buildings if an earthquake strikes.
For years, researchers have warned the Wasatch Front is overdue for The Big One. At many schools, like Salt Lake's Bennion Elementary, they dive under desks in earthquake drills. But the Salt Lake District is a rarity; most of its schools are retrofitted to make them quake resistant.
Not so elsewhere, like Utah County for instance, where a school like Timpanogos Elementary is considered at risk to collapse in even a moderate earthquake. An earthquake-resistant school should look more like Orem's Mountain View High, where steel braces are prominent inside and out.
Tomorrow, voters go to the polls to decide a 35-miilion dollar ballot issue, which in part would get schools ready for a potential rumble.
Carolyn Wright, Member, Provo School Board: "We're not like 'the sky is falling, the sky is falling,' but it's something we seriously should move to prepare for. We should do everything we can in a prudent, but earnest manner."
While advocates for the tax increase say it's needed for school safety and other school improvements, not everyone is happy about it. The usual complaint is it raises taxes too much. But a coalition called "Save All From Earthquakes”, or SAFE, says a dollar in prevention could save millions later.
Gary Wallace, SAFE: "So this bracing costs them an extra thousands of dollars. It's going to save millions of dollars. And the skin on this school is like an airplane fuselage. It's steel. I mean you can sit there and you can kick it and it's fine. And you can sit there in an earthquake and it's just like an airplane, it'll flex."
A "yes" vote for earthquake safety might also be a bit of political earthquake. The district's last voter approved tax hike was 20 years ago.
One estimate found if a magnitude 7 quake hit Salt Lake County, there would be 90-thousand casualties, 13-thousand of them school students; 750 would die.
As far as the tax increase goes, on a one-hundred thousand dollar home, it will mean a 65 dollar annual tax increase.
