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Show L SALT 'f 1 k m. i Vol. 19, No. 14 Wednesday, April 9, 1997 50 cents a single copy To subscribe call 756-766- 9 Lehi council to consider action to restore legal ads to Free Press By MARC HADDOCK Managing Editor The Lehi expected to City Council was its legal advertising in the Lehi Free Press at last night's city council meet- ing. The would have come in the form of a statement of the Lehi City Council and Administration rescinding action taken by the council two weeks ago when the city pulled its legal notice advertising to protest an editorial and column which appeared on the newspaper's editorial page. The proposed statement was r Press our frustration with their editorial position. We realize now mm 111 h,:::Z, If reviewed by Brett Bezzant, publisher of the Lehi Free Press, prior to the council vote. Whether or not the action was approved by the Lehi City Council was unknown at press time. In addition to restoring legal advertising, the statement admits the city made a mistake when it withdrew the legal notices. In part, the proposed statement reads: "We are prepared to acknowledge that we have erred in this matter. We considered our decision the only means by which we could express to the Lehi Free ii fli! , j - , that we are not permitted to make the same decisions that a dissatisfied customer is able to make and while we are still frustrated by our relationship with the Lehi Free Press, we are willing to admit that we were wrong. The retaliatory nature of our decision was the result of haste and high emotion and we recant." The city listed three reasons for recanting the decisions to pull the legal advertising. 1. The difficulty of defending the decision "in the presence of case law that contravenes our position. 2. The fact that pricing for legal Vfi i" i""uiu Tl iuiiiiw'i v"imm lV5-- 1 kkvlwr, ads is established by the state code. 3. "The administrative nature of the decision. Bezzant said he was happy the issue could be resolved without spending any of the taxpayers' money. "We will be relieved when Lehi approves the statement," Bezzant said. "We are looking forward to getting back to business as usual." Earlier in the day, Jeffrey J. Hunt, a Salt Lake attorney who specializes in media law representing the Lehi Free Press, sent a letter to Lehi City outlining the constitutional issues involved in H. S-t'z- pulling legal notices from a news- paper. In the letter. Hunt wrote: "The applicable federal case law makes clear that while the Free Press has no legal right to receive the City's legal advertising, the City may not withhold such advertising in retaliation for the Free Press' exercise of its First Amendment rights." "I have not seen a more clear-cu- t case of liability for violation for First Amendment rights ... than this one," Hunt wrote. The controversy began when the Lehi City Council unanimously adopted a measure instructing developer returned to planning officials for clarification regarding his project. a Mel Frandsen requested review of his Carlson Heights project at 2400 N. 1200 East after receiving conflicting directions from a member of the Lelii City Council. "After the annexation was approved, Dee Russon, who is in charge of parks and recreation, though we should have a park." Frandsen told the commissioners. "Dee Russon wants a park up there." He passed out a sketch of the development without a park and said that was the one he was committed to, although he said he anticipated "some disagreements at the council level." "Out of fairness, I believe we should go with what was recommended at first," Councilmember Robert Fox told the commissioners. Commission chairman Reldon Barnes polled each commission member, who were unanimous in making that recommendation to the Lehi City Council. in that area do not "The citi;:i--iwant a park in that area," said Carma Johnson, who had been involved in the discussions up to n , ,s if t-- wjcM f-i- r i y ? Photo by Russ Daly About 300 Lehi area citizens attended a recent meeting with the Public Service Commission to express support for Extended Area Service (EAS) from Lehi to Salt Lake telephone exchanges. 300 turn out to support EAS to SLC By RUSS DALY City Editor Public support was evident at a hearing for telephone service to Salt Lake City, but the Public service Commission needs to hear that from Salt Lake as well. Steve Mecham, chairman of the Public Service Commission, and Larry Fuller, of the Division of Consumer Services, attended a meeting called by telephone sub- scribers interested in having Extended Area Service (EAS) to provide flat-rat- e calling from Lehi to Salt Lake exchanges. Organizers planned the meeting to show the consumer advocates that there is support for such a move; over 300 Lehi area residents attended the meeting to ask questions and voice support for the move. "We question whether you have a 'community of interest,'" Fuller told the audience, explaining that, although citizens had met the first requirement of a specified number of signatures on a petition, they did not meet the numbers of a traffic study. Of the 6,674 subscribers in Lehi, 21 percent made one call per month to Salt Lake City, and only seven percent made more than five calls during the study, which included the last five months of 1995 and the first two months of 1996. He said that only calls made to the main Salt Lake exchange were high enough to qualify; extending service to that area alone would mean bypassing clos such as Draper, Riverton, Midvale and Murray, a move that the phone company does not like to make. The two officials said that there is a waiver process, where become leaders community involved by saying there is "an interest that is immeasurable." In introducing the speakers, Lehi Mayor Bill Gibbs presented the officials with signed documents er exchanges indicating that interest. According to Marsha Paskett, an organizer of the effort to obtain EAS to Salt Lake, the signatures included that of the mayor and a majority of the councilmembers, as well as state legislative representative Chris Fox and officials from the Lehi Chamber of Commerce. The officials announced, however, that when such a request crosses a county line, the peti- Salt the Dumpster Days, the annual cleanup days provided by Lehi City, will be held on Friday and Saturday, April 11 and 12, from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Three dumpsters will be provided for citizens to rid their yards of debris and trash. The dumpsters will be placed at the following locations: 170 N. Center St. 2350 N. 300 West. Lake exchanges. After that, another survey will be taken to determine if subscribers are still willing to pay the proposed additional costs to service. implement the flat-rat- in parks. We feel like the smaller lots would be a drastic shock to the area." She also said that Frandsen had "tried to work with the citizens up there and he's done a good job." Rik Nelson, another area resident, said that approximately 100 families had been contacted to provide a list of what they wanted to see in a neighboring development. The group gave the list to Frandsen, whom Nelson said addressed those desires. "They were good enough to do what we asked them to do," said Nelson. "Needless to say, they were pretty shocked that one councilman would go behind their backs. Was it the city council or was it one councilman'.'" "I think the thing we need to take into consideration is that we've had a lot of public input in this issue." said Fox. "The law does not dictate that we have to have a park. This is exactly the opposite of what the citizens want." "We've had a lot of people riding our backs about wanting parks for their cliildren,"said Councilmember Frances Comer, who attended the Planning Commission meeting. "I hope none of you people will come back to us in two years and say'Gee, we don't have a park up there.'" 11-1- 2 Commission will order US West to determine what the costs will be to implement EAS between and that point. "We're opposed to the element that is starting to congregate Dumpster Days will be April tioners must have signatures from the neighboring county commissioners. Paskett said that if she had known that before the meeting, she would have been prepared with those signatures. If the additional signatures are obtained, the Public Service Lehi condemned Lehi CitvV actions. Park request muddles Carlson Heights okay By RUSS DALY City Editor Just when citizens thought they had achieved what they wanted, a x; city employees to seek alternative publications in which to run the city's legal notice advertising immediately after council member Frances Comer read a letter condemning the editorial and column which appeared in the March 12 issue ot the Free Press. The text of the statement was printed in last week's Free Press. The incident has received wide coverage, as a news story by Dennis Romboy in the April 2 Deseret News was picked up by the Associated Press wire and distributed nationally. A subsequent editorial in the April 4 Deseret News e 1450 N. 400 East. No tires, hazardous waste, chemicals, oil or paint may be dumped. Green waste and bushes, as well as brick and concrete, should be taken to the 300 West site. In addition, dump passes for the Orem Landfill are available at the city offices, 153 N. 100 East, and burning permits are available from the Fire Department, 768-713- Jan Felix sees world of hope in today's young people By RUSS DALY City Editor From sea to shining sea, finally settling down in Lehi, Jan Felix has seen a world of hope with the young people of today. Now the director of the Orem Institute of Religion, Felix has had the opportunity to serve in a variety of places, with many different types of people. A native of Springville, Felix lcnew he wanted to teach seminary. He attended Brigham Young University for a year prior to his mission to New Zealand, then returned to BYU to complete his studies in sociology and education. He did his student teaching at Provo High School and LDS Seminary, then began his career at the seminary at Davis High School. While he was there, he met his future wife, Becky, on a blind date. Being the Vietnam era, after a year at Davis Seminary, he was drafted into the army for two years. He served at the Pentagon, working with the Officer Personnel Director in data processing. His office was responsible for assigning all of the officers in all of the branches of the army. "The fun part of it was that I was dealing with all of these colonels," he said, "and I was a private first class." , After he was discharged, he returned to Davis Seminary for another two years of teaching. He then accepted an assignment with the Church Educational System in New York as a coordinator for seminaries and institutes in New York City, Long Island and the state of New Jersey. During his three years there, he also taught some institute classes. Returning to Utah, Felix then became involved with some special needs seminary classes at the Salt Lake County Detention Center, and started an institute program at the Salt Lake County Jail. Since then, the church has organized branches at the jail and has constructed a chapel. When Jan and Becky came back to Utah from New York City, they selected Lehi as their new home. "We wanted a smaller town and we didn't want to live in Salt Lake City," he said. "That's how we got to Lehi." He started developing special needs programs in Utah Valley, and he was transferred to an office at the Utah State Developmental Center. He was instrumental in starting programs for unwed mothers and students at alternative high schools, and also supervised the institute program at the Developmental Center, which was already in place. "Even though there were programs for the handicapped," he said, "we found there were a lot of other problems." One of those other problems was that of functional illiteracy. He and his col leagues discovered that some students might not be doing well in seminary because they could not understand the scriptures. Utilizing new simplified materials that were being developed by the church, he tackled those problems. His next assignment took them to Hilo, Hawaii for three years, where he coordinated the seminary and institute programs on the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Molokai and Lanai. He also taught institute classes at the local branch of the University of Hawaii. When he returned to Utah, he was assigned to the Orem Institute of Religion, where he has served for the last 14 years. Among the classes that he and the other teachers offer, Felix specializes in dating and courtship classes. In addition to serving as director of the institute, he also supervises the Latter-daSaints Student Association, the student leadership program. He said that many of the students involved in institute leadership go on to become student leaders at the college. y "The kids I see are phenomenal," he said. "They are heads and shoulders above you and me. There's great hope for the future with our young people." Despite the typical problems of drug use and depression, Felix said that young people are more devoted to studying the gospel and wanting to be good. See FELIX on Page 13 aiwri'i'fiif"ii i - ,. Photo courtesy Jan Felix Jan Felix, center, director of the Orem Institute of Religion, shares a scripture with Ryan Carman of Heber City, left, and Joe Haughey from Dallas, Texas. |