SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Voters in the tiny town of Apple Valley, Utah, have voted down a measure that would have dissolved their government.
Preliminary results from Tuesday's voting show residents voting 167 to 115 against disbanding the town government.
Apple Valley became a town in 2004, and some residents say officials haven't adequately provided basic services.
But there are concerns in the town that dissolving local government could set the stage for a municipal takeover by neighboring Hildale - a town controlled by jailed polygamist Warren Jeffs. Jeff's Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has amassed lands in the southern part of Apple Valley and, in theory, could petition to be annexed by Hildale.
Longtime resident Marie McGowan says Apple Valley was organized as a town "because of fear" that polygamists could seize an opportunity to widen their municipal borders and "swallow us up."
But resident Debi Groves says the folks in Hildale have been "neighborly and help out in emergencies, but otherwise don't want anything to do with us."
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