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Show Page 2 AMERICA'N FORK CITIZEN Thursday, May 3, 2007 1 ' i NEWS AND NOTES TO KEEP YOU UDOT announces 3 alternatives for Mtn. View Corridor Barbara Christiansen NOC'H ' O'JNt MAIF No decision has been made, but UIXT is looking toward preserving the area for the potential Mountain View Cor-ridor. Cor-ridor. Teri Newell, project manager man-ager for the Mountain View Corridor which Ls planned to relieve north-south traffic on 1-15 from Salt Lake to Utah County, presented three alternatives alter-natives to the American Fork City Council at a work session on April 26. She stressed no decision had been made. "We are not talking about a preference at this point," she said. From Interstate W) at about 5H(X) West, the road would carry traffic to Utah County. UIXT is looking at several alternatives to get that traffic back to 1-15. One is the southern freeway alternative, which goes south past SR-73 then heads east toward to-ward the Pleasant Grove interchange, inter-change, paralleling Utah Lake. Another swings traffic toward the freeway in the vicinity of Lehi's 2100 North, near Camp Williams. The third uses a combination of three arterial roads one in south Salt Lake County, 2100 North and 1900 South, along the lake to carry the traffic. Those roads would be seven lanes. In the initial studies, the UDOT officials looked at the traffic and transportation impacts, im-pacts, property impacts, wetlands wet-lands and construction costs. They considered the projections projec-tions for 2030. Delays on 1-15 would be greater with the 2100 North alternative, simply because the traffic would be put back on the freeway farther north and have a longer time on that road. The engineers also studied the potential impact on Lehi's Main Street. With the south freeway and 2100 North alternatives, alter-natives, Main Street would be an improvement from today's conditions, but not as much as if the three arterial roads were constructed. Riddle Continued from Page 1 Riddle said she hopes the group at the U. will get larger and may work in conjunction with the Salt Lake area group to sponsor events. "Next semester there is a NorthCounty NIWSPAPIRS ' 399 E. State St. Pleasant Grove Marc Haddock 443 -3268 North County Editor mhaddockheraldextra.com Cathy Allred 443 3262 Lehi, Saratoga Springs, PI. Grove callred heraldextra . com Barbara Christiansen 443-3264 American Fork, Alpine, Cedar Hills bchristiansenheraldextra.com Mike Rigert 443 3265 Oram, Vineyard mrigertheraldextra.com Beky Beaton 443 3267 Sports bbeatonheraldextra.com Lane Dubois 756 -7669 Advertising Account Executive lduboisheraldextra.com Volume 134 American fcrt Orar Doly Herald Ecttior U8P 01S - Si. ReaaantGnve. Utah 84063 Penodcate Postage maangoNicea- Pinuimwr Send adetBsactMnamc the American Fort; Oteen. PO Bw 7. American Fork. UT 84003-0007 Pubtehed Thusdays by Lee w. AurJt Bureau ot CreuWiona When the officials coasid-ered coasid-ered the impact to property, there was a pronounced difference. differ-ence. The 2100 North alternative alterna-tive would mean relocating 29 homes, compared to 127 and 72 for the southern freeway and arterial alternatives. The difference dif-ference was less, but in similar proportions for relocations of businesses and historic properties. proper-ties. The anticipated impact on wetlands would be similar. Those lands were measured in the number of acres that the federal government would mandate must be replaced in a different location if the road were built. The 2100 North alternative al-ternative would impact fewer than 15 acres, while the southern south-ern freeway would be 78 and the arterials would be nearly 53 acres. Cost estimates for the 2100 North options are $540 million, while the southern freeway would be $690 and the arterials are $640 million. Newell summed up the findings. find-ings. "The 2100 North alternative has the least impacts overall," she said. Funding for the Mountain View Corridor has not been put in place, but Newell said it was important to get the facts and make a decision. "Corridor preservation is an important part," she said. "If the funding were available, dirt could fly in 2009. The road could be completed in 2012 or 2013." COMMUNITY NOTES I Employee of the Month Officer Russell Bishop was named the American Fork City April employee of the month. American Fork City honored Bishop with the award for his work ethic that goes above and beyond the call of duty. As an American Fork police po-lice officer, Bishop's work in traffic specifically in traffic accidents was what got him noticed as a nominee for the award. In the nomination letter, let-ter, Bishop was recognized benefit concert scheduled," she said. Riddle said she has always "had a soft spot for those in trouble. "1 do feel bad for the underdog under-dog a lot," she said. She said women and children are often the most affected by the conflict. con-flict. Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 DAILY BBSALD PUBLISHING OO. L1LUI Jennette Esplin 756-7669 Office Manager Erin Stewart 344-2558 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Julia Fullmer 344-2570 DesignerCopy Editor Jeremy Harmon 344-2585 Photographer Issue 69 S80 a vV nwvspaper pubksiied 399 E State Pad at Pleasant Gro Utah 84062 anrjadrttional PubteeGcns, iMnch b a dMscn of Lee EmBrpraes. Inci 'isi- -taw-, 5 INFORMED AND ARBOR DAY 1 f i ..- :W :.-. js t J J v I w?i?m - i CATHY AUREDNoith County Students Rebecca Kitchen and Michelle Thorsen look at some of the 635 trees donated to Forbes Elementary. Each student got to take one of the evergreens home on April 27 to plant. as an officer of diligence and authority who always shows his seriousness in difficult situations situ-ations like traffic accidents. The letter also said that Bishop truly demonstrated law and order for those in the community. com-munity. "He is really a great officer," said Lance Call, American Fork Police Chief. "If we could clone him and create an entire police force, we would be glad to do it." I Hybrid Wolf ordinance With the possibility of an She related the story of a women with four children who were fleeting the Arab militia. "One child was thrown into a burning hut, but the mother just had to keep going," she said. "Another child was shot, but they had to keep running. It is a very hard life." She said the reaction of peo Tough situation, tough woman Last week was about as tough as it gets, and in the middle of it all, I talked to someone who remembered Kari from high school "Your daughter is kind of a fragile girl, isn't she?" she asked. No, ma'am. If we've learned anything any-thing over the last few months, and especially the last few days, it's that Kari is anything but fragile. There's been a lifetime of hurt in those months, and Kari has seen her way through it with a toughness that surprised us all. We were so excited when Kari and her husband, Wade, announced they were going to have their second child. Their daughter is a constant source . of delieht and we were anxious to meet the next addition. There's always room for more grandkids. But early in the pregnancy, they learned that the baby had a congenital condition that could be a problem and could require some prenatal care. Everyone hoped the second examination would find the baby's condition improving. In fact, we just took it for granted that everything would work out. But with each ultrasound, and each visit to the doctor, the situation became more serious. The condition made it difficult for the baby's lungs to develop, and something had to be done soon to give him a chance to live. There was a procedure, we were told, that could mean the difference between life and death, but it would mean major sacrifice, including two in vitro operations, a six-week stay in San Francisco where the operations would take place. Kari wouldn't be able to travel between the operations. opera-tions. It was all relatively new, but had been quite successful, the doctor told us. So we started making plans to spend some time in California, and hoping that a subsequent examination would find this child a prime candidate candi-date for the procedure. That didn't happen. Instead, the doctors found that problems with the developing fetus' lungs and heart which ruled out this procedure, or any other procedure. INVOLVED American Fork city ordinance that would ban hybrid wolves within city boundaries, hybrid wolf owner Troy Bentley approached ap-proached the City Council explaining his beliefs about the animals. Bentley said that while some may see his animals ani-mals as a threat, they are very highly supervised animals that do not pose a danger to the community. The possibility of an ordinance ordi-nance came from concern from American Fork animal control officer Jim Hardy, who said that with hybrid wolves it ple to the informational booths they have put up has had the impact they sought. "People who stopped by the booth for awareness were horrified," she said. "Many people have a tendency to do something to help, even if it is something small." Marc Haddock THE EDITOR COLUMN xt From that point, we all started preparing, pre-paring, emotionally and otherwise, for a birth and then a funeral. We were all sad, but none as sad as Kari and Wade, as they grieved the death of their baby for months before he was born. It all ended last week, when John William Gardiner was born and died within the space of a precious 12 minutes, all of them spent in the arms of his mother and father, with grandparents grandpar-ents and family members gathered outside the hospital room. I don't think I've ever seen anyone sadder than those two kids after John had died. Over the next two days they made preparations for the funeral, which included a visit to the mortuary mortu-ary to dress the baby's 3xund 8-ounce body, and place him in a casket the size of shoe box. Family members crowded the mortuary for the funeral, and after a couple of brief speakers, according to the parents' wishes, the microphone micro-phone was turned over to the group. After remarks from parents and grandparents, grandpar-ents, Kari got up and talked to us about her son, and how grateful she was for those precious 12 minutes. She told us how the experience had strengthened her faith. Wade followed, and we all received a lesson in true maturity. A fragile girl? Hardly. The person we saw Saturday was a woman, and a tough one at that. is difficult to trust their character. char-acter. Bentley also informed the City Council that his 10 years of training have made him personally responsible enough to handle the animals, and that they were like children to him. Mayor Heber Thompson and the American Fork City Council welcomed Bentley's information and said that they would organize a meeting for him to discuss his beliefs about the animals in more depth with members of the City Council and city staff. STAND More information about STAND is available at www. savedarfur.org and www. standnow.org. The news was devastating. As long as the fetus remained in the womb the most effective life support system known to man he could survive and develop, growing 10 fingers and 10 toes and looking, on the outside, to be a normal, happy baby. Oiice he left that environment, he could not survive. His lungs and heart couldn't make the transition. As one member of the Primary Children's Medical Center palliative team put it, "What we have here is a baby who has a 100 percent incompatibility incom-patibility with life." The best the young parents could hope for was a few minutes with their babv. Freeway Continued from Page I said would be more efficient, would ruin their businesses. Two of the businesses are Best Vinyl, which is already on the site, and Value Place Hotel, scheduled to start construction con-struction within the month. Scott Peterson of Best Vinyl said it would hurt his business. ' "It would be a business killer," he said. "The diffef-ence diffef-ence between profit and loss is narrow." He said he selected select-ed the site for the business because of the access and changing the interchange would affect that negatively. "We could have built anywhere any-where along the corridor and paid significantly less," he said. Peterson said losing that ready access would ruin the business. UDOT officials presented several alternative routes to get to the business from the proposed interchange, inter-change, but they were each more than one mile long. Shelli Swan, manager of development services for Value Place, agreed. "Alternative B would be a detriment to our business," she said. "We are getting ready for construction in three weeks. If this takes place we will not develop. We are getting ready for a $6 million deal." Larry Finch, the owner of property in the vicinity, also agreed. "We have been talking to restaurants," he said. "It is a deal killer. Who would ever think Main Street would be dead ended?" Jolley told the business people their concerns were valid. "I know that business access ac-cess is a huge question," he said. "We are not in this to hurt business." Jolley said there had been a similar question of access to businesses busi-nesses at the 106th South interchange. "The accesses are circuitous, circu-itous, but it is thriving today," to-day," he said. Jolley said it would be fall before the decision is made about the type of interchange. Arbor Day Continued from Page 1 Tree Committee as well as councilwoman Rodeback met with Utah State Forester Scott Zeidler to discuss the steps the city needed to take to become a Tree City USA. Zeidler also gave advice on the trees located on Main Street that are in serious need of care. "His information was very helpful," Rodeback said. "He even went up to Davis and Salt Lake Counties and sent us pictures of successful success-ful planter boxes from those areas." The city also sponsored an Arbor Day assembly at Forbes Elementary School where Paul Strong, American Ameri-can Fork beautification chair, made a presentation to more than 600 students to instruct them on proper planting and care of trees. I Each child also received a blue spruce seedling to take home to plant. They were supplied in part by Daniel Copper and in part by the Beautification and Shade Tree committee. "The kids were so excited about their trees," Rodeback said. "They gave us a warm reception and every one of them left with a tree in their hand to plant at home." Each year, at their Arbor Day celebration, the Beautification Beau-tification and Shade Tree Committee chooses a park to plant as many new trees as the budget permits. This year, five new trees were planted at historic Robinson Park by tree supplier, Kent Gunderson. Gunderson, specialist in mature transplants from Alpine, planted a mix of 15-yearold Norway and Rubrum maples in the city's park. Rodeback said that while the day's activities helped them fulfill the Tree City USA program, it also helped the city. "The day's activities helped us with our public image," Rodeback said. "When potential po-tential business and residents see our city, we want to send a message of beauty with our trees." |