Goodbye to All That

"We're free, we're incorporated, and we're the eleventh largest city in the state of Washington," shouted the master of ceremonies one evening last week, as 2,000 residents of Richland (pop. 23,000) gathered to watch a simulated atomic explosion and a bonfire lit by an atomic fuse. Cause for celebration: after 15 years as a company town servicing the big-secret plutonium works known as the Hanford Atomic Project, Richland had voted itself out from under the paternalistic wings of the Atomic Energy Commission and General Electric, prime AEC contractor. And the vote had carried in the face of upcoming difficulties for the town.

Welfare's Cocoon. After the war, Richlanders, on the face of it, never had it so good. The city had no slums, no unemployment, no parking meters, no taxes. It boasted a shopping center, a hotel, nine schools, 28 churches, a library, a 109-bed hospital. Three-bedroom apartments rented for $35 a month, three-bedroom homes for $65. But gradually, townspeople sensed the tightness of their welfare-city cocoon. No family could own its home. Not general necessity but General Electric determined the site of stores and set their rents. Police, firemen, even the city librarian were G.E. employees. More and more, Richland residents began to move out to nearby Pasco and Kennewick to own their homes and chat over the fence with non-G.E. neighbors. But not everyone in Richland was inclined to make a break. In 1955 a petition for incorporation as an independent municipality lost 3 to 1.

The dogged one-fourth who wanted escape from the programed life, however expensive it might prove to be, stepped up their campaigning, got valuable assistance from their official landlords. When a federal law was passed allowing residents of the atomic cities of Richland and Oak Ridge, Tenn. to buy property, G.E. happily put 4,800 homes on the market, sold all but 600, followed up by selling commercial property also. After another petition for incorporation was circulated, Richlanders poured out last July to approve it, 5 to 1.

Beyond Taxation. Last week, watching the formal presentation of the city charter by Governor Albert Rosselini, Richlanders recognized that there was many a problem ahead. G.E. paid its city employees wages 30% to 40% higher than scales in neighboring communities; Richland must meet the rate or possibly lose them. Although the city is bond-free and takes title to debt-free city hall, sewage plant and waterworks, its tax yield at the start will be too small to meet expenses. The Hanford atomic plant is beyond city limits and untaxable; property, liquor and gasoline taxes will be $250,000 less than the $2,500,000 annual budget unless services are cut back or taxable new industry and homeowners arrive. Nevertheless, Richland is optimistic.

Explained Mrs. Pat Mettil, 35, mother of four, and elected by the new city council to be the first mayor of the city: "We always looked forward to self-government. We thought American citizens had a right to make their own mistakes."

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