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Show Page 2 AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Thursday, April 24, 2008 r if 1 . NEWS AND NOTES TO KEEP YOU American Fork get trees ready for Arbor Day Barbara Christiansen NORTH COUNTY STAFF American Fork will have a new grove of Norway maple trees and two oaks planted in Rotary Park in Arbor Day ceremonies cer-emonies Friday. The public is invited to attend at-tend the short ceremonies, which will be at 8 a.m. in the park at 400 South and 200 East. Juel Belmont of the city's Beautification and Shade Tree Committee told about the plans. "At the south end of that old park, there were so many huge trees that have been cut down," she said. "There is lot of open space. Also above the big pavilion pavil-ion at the northeast side there is room for two trees there. We will plant Red Oaks." She said trees play an important impor-tant part in raising the quality of life. "It makes a huge difference in community life if you plant a tree," she said. "I would encourage anyone who to do something for yourself and the world plant a tree. The answer an-swer is trees plant a tree." Belmont said trees provide oxygen and save energy during dur-ing summer months because homeowners don't need to turn on their coolers as much. "It is 15 degrees cooler in the shade of a tree than it is standing stand-ing out in the sun," she said. "They can serve as a winter windbreak. Having trees also humanizes a community. Beautiful Beau-tiful communities and parks have a lot of trees." She said trees have been an important part in Utah since its early days. "The pioneers first planted crops, then planted trees," she said. American Fork City will also plant trees in Val Vista Park and Miller Park on May 3. . Elementary schools in American Fork joined others in having Arbor Day programs this week. One of the first was Legacy Elementary School, which hosted Smokey Bear Monday morning. Arts Council Continued from Page 1 locations for a center. Those may include an area near The Meadows or one in the city's center. They are looking at combining the purchase of existing buildings, such as the Apollo Dance Hall or former NorthCounty1 NEWSPAPERS ' 399 E. State St. Pleasant Grove Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 Marc Haddock 443-3268 North County Editor mhaddock heraldextra com 1 Cathy Alfred 443-3262 Lehi, Saratoga Springs, PI. Grove callredheraldextra.com Barbara Christiansen 443-3264 American Fork, Alpine, Cedar Hills bchristiansen heraldextra.com Mike Rigert 443-3265 Orem, Vineyard , ' mrigert heraldextra .com Beky Beaton 443-3267 Sports bbeatonheraldextra.com Josh Walker 443-3260 Advertising Account Executive jwalkerheraldextra.com Volume 135 American Fork Cituren Daily Herald Edition USPS 018-680 a weekly newspaper published at 399 E. State St., Pleasant Grow, Utah 84063 Periodicals Postage Paid at Pleasant Grow, Utah 84062 and additional , mailing offices. PmtmMtw: Send address changes to the American Fork Citran. P O Box 7 Amaru , Fork, UT 84003-0007. Published Thursdays by Lee : uon Bureau or urcuiations " " S til - 'h . - ? Smokey Bear gives Kylee Andrus Legacy Elementary School. The fourth grade students attended a meeting with Smokey and Karen Schaack, from the city's Beautification and Shade Tree Commission. Schaack asked the students about the usefulness of trees. They said they provided wood for building, held the ground in place during times of high wind, provided homes for animals and food for people, including in-cluding fruit and maple syrup. She told about the history of the holiday. The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska on April 10, 1872. It was started by J. Sterling Morton. Morton, a civic leader, agriculturist, and former newspaper editor, who urged Nebraskans to set aside one day to plant trees. Schaack told the students that one million trees were planted. By 1920, more than 45 states and U.S. territories annually Harrington School, wjth new construction. Another of the first-steps is to commission a survey by Dan Jones and Associates. It would be a randomized telephone survey sur-vey to determine resident interest in-terest and support for the arts. Those from north of lindon to the county line will be included in the survey. f t J! DAILY HERALD PUBLISHING CO. 11 Jennette Esplin 756-7669 Office Manager Julia Fullmer 344-2570 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Allison Daviets 344 2570 DesignerCopy Editor Ashley Franscell 344 2585 Photographer Issue 17 Publications, when is a division of Lee Enterprises, Inc INFORMED AND I V. a hug after she was announced as celebrated Arbor Day. Today, Arbor Day is observed in all 50 states and in many countries around the world. The state tree of Utah is the blue spruce, which was adopted adopt-ed in 1933. The blue spruce is widely used as an ornamental tree for its unique color, which is usually a silvery blue. Each of the students received re-ceived a blue spruce seedling to take home. Schaack encouraged encour-aged them to walk through their yards with their parents and decide where the tree would have the best impact. The students had written essays, titled "My Favorite Tree." A panel of judges awarded first, second and third places and some honorable honor-able mention awards at each school. IMFlash awarded savings bonds to the top three at each school $50 to third place, $75 to second place and t Councilwoman Heidi Ro-deback Ro-deback serves on the Arts Council's governing board and said the city would be hard-pressed hard-pressed to offer muchfinancial support. She said she felt there would be more support if the arts center were part of an economic stimulus program, which would be expected to draw customers and oth A disturbing plan for t takes about three hours to drive the 150 miles from American Fork to the shores of Bear Lake, if you don't stop for lunch or take time to pull off of U.S. 89 near the sum mit of Logan Canyon to admire the view. From that lookout, the lake sparkles spar-kles dark blue, like a sapphire set in the plain, brown dirt half in Utah and half in Idaho. I feel a special attachment to Bear Lake, having grown up in Montpe-lier Montpe-lier with the lake in my backyard. I'm not the only one. Many north Utah County residents make that trip each year. They go to lounge on the lake shore and Dlav in the cold, clear water. Many will have watched with interest as a group calling itself Symbiotics has announced plans to turn part of the east shore into a hydroelectric powerhouse. power-house. Symbiotics plans to turn Hook Canyon into a reservoir. The scheme works like this. The company would pump water uphill into the reservoir during the night, when the demand for power is low and the cost is cheap, and then return the water to Bear Lake during the day through a hydroelectric powerhouse, in the process generating 1,100 megawatts of peak -hour electricity daily. While the promoters say the proposal is a great one "This clever engineering would result in an extremely low installed capital cost, allowing savings to Utah rate payers compared to market purchases or alternative peaking generation choice's" not everyone is on board with the plan. For one thing, when that giant straw sucks water uphill, it will reduce the level of the lake by as much as three inches each night. During the day, that water will be restored. You can see-the details of the plan at the Symbiotics Web site, ww.symbioticsenergy. comprojectspumpedhookhook.html. They make it sound like a dream proposal, but I find it disturbing. Opponents of the plan say the fluctuating water level could prevent the lake from forming form-ing the ice sheet that covers it each winter. No only would that wreak havoc with the winter INVOLVED U'l LJ V" "m winning first place in the Arbor $100 to the first place winners. Schaack told the students the savings bonds were similar to trees. "You have to wait a while," she said. "They become more valuable as you wait." COMMUNITY NOTES Library receives grant The American Fork Public Library has received a $6,442 grant from Community Library Enhancement Funds. Library Director Sheena Parker said there were no matching funds required from the city and that the grant could be used for items including technology, collection development or library li-brary programs. Hospital receives award Volunteer programs at American Ameri-can Fork Hospital, plus ones at Orem Community Hospital and ers into an area, perhaps the downtown. When the board determines the direction they would like to go with the arts facility, members mem-bers would approach potential investors for financial support. Ripplinger suggested trying to raise enough money to create cre-ate an endowment that would create sufficient interest to Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN I I f .ml " 1 J BARBARA CHRISTIANSENNorth County Day writing contest at Utah Valley Regional Medical Medi-cal Center, received national recognition at the American Hospital Association's recent annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The volunteer efforts were honored for promoting dental health among school children at Title I schools in Utah and Idaho. American Fork Hospital partnered with Greenwood Elementary School in American Fork, sponsoring dental education for both children chil-dren and adults. Correction The American Fork Symphony Salute to Youth Night is Monday, April 28, not what was previously reported. The Edna Birk Memorial Me-morial Visual Arts Scholarship will be presented at that concert con-cert to Ashley Lawrence. The concert will be at American Fork High School, 510 N. 600 East, American Fork. support and sustain the project. He said that would be at least $10 million. He had high hopes for a concert con-cert hall facility. "We could build something the likes of which are nowhere else in the country," he said. Bear Lake ice fishing (no more cisco!), but it could also wreak havoc with the lake's ecosystem and nobody knows what that could mean. One thing it could mean is that moving all that water back and forth could stir up the sediments in the lake, which could rob Bear Lake of its famous blue hue. Another concern is that the plan could threaten the four fishes found in Bear Lake and nowhere else the Bear Lake cisco, the Bear Lake sculpin, the Bear Lake white fish and the Bonneville white fish. (Not to mention the elusive Bear Lake Monster.) The developers say the environ mental concerns are unfounded, but it sounds like it might be akin to dealing with the June sucker times four. And that's been monumental. In this case, however, the endemic fishes could be considered a blessing, not a curse, since they might bring the project to a standstill stand-still before it ever gets started. I don't know how Utah County folks who love the lake feel about the project, but I called my brother, who still lives in Montpelier and is the Bear Lake County clerk, to find out how the county residents feel about it. The answer was no surprise. "Local reaction is 100 percent negative," he told me. "There's not one vibe of anyone who thinks it is reasonable at all." So far local groups weighing in against Hook Canyon include the Bear Lake County Commission, the Montpelier City Council and the Bear Lake Commission, "It's the most universally opposed thing I've ever seen," Kerry said. "This one's just a no brainer." But the promise of cheap electrical power continues to encourage Symbiotics, who are working through the seven- to 10-year process pro-cess required to push a complicated plan like this through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. You can bet the residents of Bear Lake Valley, Val-ley, on both the Utah and Idaho sides, will be kicking all the way. And many of us who don't live there but love the lake will join them. Flooding Continued from Page 1 2005 and 2006 had their peak melt times happen in early to mid-May, which is a little later lat-er than average. Both those years had snowpack of 178 percent of average, higher than the current year. "If it goes like 2005 we could potentially have water out of the banks of the rivers," riv-ers," Denney said. "However, "How-ever, we don't have the same snowpack." Whenever the high water occurs, there are some safety tips that will help prevent tragedies. "The charts are all telling us there will be high water in the river," he said. "Don't let kids play in the river. Don't let someone slip in the stream and get carried down. Let's not have people do inner tubing." tub-ing." Before the water levels increase, there are things the residents can do to help ensure en-sure the water remains in the river banks. "What we need to do is take our crews down and do some cleaning," Denney said. "We would appreciate help from the residents in keeping the creek clean. If they see trees growing in the river or piled in there they may cut them down or notify the public works at 763-3060. No rocks, grass clippings, tree limbs or other materials should be dumped in the riverbed, riv-erbed, he said. Denney described the best scenario for controlled runoff. "Warm days and cool nights is the best to keep things slow and fairly regular," regu-lar," he said. There is nearly a 12-hour lag time between the hottest temperatures of the day and the highest levels of the river in the city limits, he said. "The highest water here is usually from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.," he said. "When it is hot here, we will have lower flows." Enforcement Continued from Page 1 bined with 'do we really need to be that nit picky?" he said. "The answer to that is 'Yes.' That is why we are there." Baldwin said the commissioners, commis-sioners, a board of volunteers, volun-teers, took their duties seriously seri-ously and wanted to protect the residents. "We try to consider the things that could go wrong," he said. "I think we actually try to be conscientious how we spent out time and effort." Both he and Woff inden cited an example of a project which they considered had not followed the planners' requirements. "There are three homes on 100 East, north of the Star Mill," Baldwin said. "We told them that because they are close to a busy intersection they should put in hammerheads." hammer-heads." Those drives usually have a turning spot so vehicles ve-hicles may exit the property going forward, which is usually usu-ally considered safer. Baldwin Bald-win said the requirement had been ignored. "It is just as though we hadn't said a word," he said. Dave Cottle of Patterson Homes, which built the residences, resi-dences, differed. "There is plenty of room for a vehicle to back around so they can exit going forward," for-ward," he said in a phone interview. "We actually made a wider RV pad so that people could back and turn." Baldwin said he chose American Fork for his home because of the look of the community and that he wanted want-ed it to remain. "I live in American Fork because I like the general feeling of it," he said. "They control developers." He outlined the role of the Planning Commission in that regard. "The Planning Commission doesn't want to rule the city," he said. "Part of our job is to see that regulations are kept, even if that make us unpopular unpopu-lar with developers." He suggested an intermediate interme-diate step to making sure that ordinances are followed is communication. "We should have the City Council recognize where they need to spend money on certain things," he said. "We didn't have quite as much problem when we had a City Council member on the Planning Plan-ning Commissioa It isolated us one more step when that stopped." i iiNniil il Hun mi,,. WJ |