Editor:

We are all proud residents of North Salt Lake, members of a strong, vibrant community which boasts of a healthy economic combination of industrial, commercial, and residential sectors. The people who live and work in North Salt Lake are among the very best in the State. We show stamina and strength, identity and integrity, resolve and reserve. Despite Mayor Rocky Anderson's efforts to ignore the county boundaries between Davis County and Salt Lake County and despite his sophistic manipulation of the property rights of the people of North Salt Lake, some members of the North Salt Lake City Council have a proposal.

The time has come for our fabulous city to have a proper name, rather than a directional, geographical marker for that city to the south. Have you ever described your place of residence in a conversation as "Bountiful" to avoid the hassle of explaining exactly where and what "North Salt Lake" city is?

Have you driven a delivery truck in locations on the north side of Salt Lake City only to realize you are searching for an address in a completely different city, not to mention county? Have you felt the need to explain that your city existed long before the gravel pits were dug or oil was refined?

Have you wondered why we cannot attract more retail establishments or cleaner industries? Have you known a city employee who must explain to the caller that she has telephoned the wrong city or place? Do you know that the Postmaster Russ Muir must frequently reroute mail to north Salt Lake City when correspondence includes the North Salt Lake name but has no zip code?

Let's begin today by putting some imagination in our image and developing our own sense of place. North Salt Lake is a great place to call home. But "that which we call a rose By any other name (please!) would smell as sweet,"or more accurately, sweet[er].

The North Salt Lake City Council has placed on its agenda for June 13, 2006 the subject of a name change for our city. North Salt Lake is considering changing its name to "Orchard Hills"? a name that better describes our beauty, our people, and our history.

Historically, you might find it interesting to note that our city was first called "South Bountiful." Shortly after the first settlers came to Salt Lake Valley in 1847, they were sent to surrounding areas, such as our hometown, to find range for grazing cattle and making settlements.

For those individuals moving just north of Salt Lake City, they encountered hot springs and lakes, which flowed westward into the Jordan River and the Great Salt Lake. Eastward, they noticed the land slowly climbing upward, revealing hillsides which were rocky and sandy, not suitable for cattle or crops.

Nonetheless, showing the pluck of our earliest residents, and thereby making use of the abundant water from mountain springs, early settlers such as horticulturist John Burtenshaw and Doc Mathis planted many orchards and locusts trees, on their own land and on their neighbors'.

Providing both shade and beauty, "these orchards produced hundreds of bushels of apples, peaches and pears that 'Doc' sold year round from his root cellar store next to his home," wrote Susan Day in her book about North Salt Lake, City of North Salt Lake: The History and Events of the Making of A City. Sadly, most of the these orchards are now only pockets of fruit trees, blossoming every spring in memory of those who created beauty amid hardship.

To put it simply, our city's name should clarify rather than confuse our identity, attract rather than deter newcomers who wish to stay, and show pride in our differences between Salt Lake County and Davis County. As a member of the City Council, I encourage you to come to our public hearing on June 13, 2006, as we discuss and possibly vote into ordinance a new name for an old rose.

Lisa Watts Baskin

North Salt Lake City Council