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Show BUILDING COMMUNITY IN OREM AND VINEYARD Ore' -w LA V JUL.JA AK-JS tmb EDITION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2006 50 CENTS SCHOOLS: Bonneville students learn to poll TOWN HALL: UCHD Employee of the Quarter SPORTS: A look inside prep volleyball IP mm Business MAKE EASY MEALS WITH DREAM DINNERS H ! s i-i i' if ! IMF if k ' J i : -to ' " ' : " MARIO RUIZ Daily Herald Paul and Cynthia Halliday sit in front of their home that has been contaminated with methamphetamine 70 times in excess of safety standards. The Hallidays lost all their possessions, including irreplaceable family heirlooms, due to the contamination. ome buyers devastated by meth contamination Michael Rigert ' NORTH COUNTY STAFF In the wake of a nightmarish experience purchasing a home in Orem, a young couple is encouraging encour-aging home buyers to have any prospective purchase tested for methamphetamine. After the home tested positive for methamphetamine contamination contami-nation at 70 times in excess of safe levels in July, owners Paul and Cynthia Halliday are suing the previous owners, the real estate agent and the real estate company, claiming they should have disclosed that the house contained hazardous materials. The Hallidays hired Provo-based Provo-based attorney Trent Sutton and on Aug. 16, he filed a lawsuit in 4th District Court on their behalf naming Osmond Real Estate Inc., real estate agent Fay Jones, and the home's previous owners as defendants. Cynthia said the suit is claiming claim-ing the owners, Jones and her real estate agency failed to disclose that the property was contaminated with hazardous materials. They're seeking a rescission of the home purchase contract, $200,000 in damages and any other damages as determined by the court. Mark J. Williams of the law firm Jones, Waldo, Holbrook and McDonough represents Osmond Real Estate and Fay Jones in the suit, which he said is just in its beginning stages. "Generally based on all the information I've received, it doesn't appear Osmond Real Estate Es-tate or Fay Jones had any knowledge knowl-edge or had any reason to believe there was any methamphetamine activity in the house," he said. , The Hallidays began house ' hunting in December and by February Feb-ruary had found an older house they believed would be a great starter home. The newlyweds thought they had covered all the bases, including includ-ing having a private home inspector in-spector go over the house at 628 E. 1600 South, Cynthia said. After closing on the home in late February and prior to moving mov-ing in, Paul spent three weeks fixing up the place, painting the rooms and reconditioning the wood floors. Yet in July, Paul learned some disturbing news from a neighbor. Cynthia said the man told her See METH, Page 2 Council approves group home ordinance Reva Bowen NORTH COUNTY STAFF The creation of a new category cat-egory of group home a "youth transitional home" to serve juveniles was approved ap-proved by the Orem City Council Coun-cil Tuesday. City staff brought back to the council a retooled ordinance or-dinance dealing with group Jiomes that was originally presented in June. At the time, changes in the city's law being contemplated by the council would have prohibited new, small transitional treatment homes run by companies like Timpanogos Family Services and Telos. At the direction of the City Council, staff reviewed the ordinance to see how it could be adapted to allow those fa- See ORDINANCE, Page 2 New school dealing with after-school traffic Michael Rigert NORTH COUNTY STAFF Like any new school getting settled in, Noah Webster Academy Acad-emy in Orem has experienced some hiccups in the first few weeks of school with sorting out its after-school traffic congestion. Due to its location on 400 South and only a few hundred feet from busy State Street, parents picking pick-ing up their children after school were clogging the street and backing up traffic to Orem's main drag. LuAnn Septon, a nearby resident, was driving her son to marching band practice at Orem High School last week and discovered dis-covered eastbound traffic was backed up from State Street to 400 East. She said young children were running across the street only a half block from State Street in the absence of any crosswalk cross-walk or crossing guard. "This looks like a disaster waiting wait-ing to happen," Septon said. Lt. Doug Edwards, spokesman for Orem's Department of Public Safety, said police are aware of the traffic snarls associated with the new charter school. He said it's largely a planning issue. 1111?'" """a-. 1 ' . ., mmtm!J: . MIKE RIQERTDaily Herald Noah Webster Academy has organized a curpuoling system to alleviate traffic congestion after school lets out. "That's a school problem," he said. "It was poorly planned for traffic." Noah Webster Academy founder and administrator Sharon Sha-ron Moss said though traffic management man-agement during the first week of school wasn't without some turbulence, tur-bulence, the situation has steadily improved. With no public busing, 90 percent per-cent of the charter school's 500 students in kindergarten through sixth grade depend on parents and carpools to get to and from campus. See CARPOOL, Page 2 i M II I I u. .1 1 if I Briefing EMINENT DOMAIN PROCEEDINGS OK'D - The use of eminent domain proceedings to facilitate the Sandhill Road widening and improvement project was approved by the Orem City Council on Tuesday. After two separate appraisals were made, the city offered KSP Investments I.C. $253,000 for property at 1834 S. Sandhill Road that has an existing house being used as a youth rehabilitation facility, Project Ascent. A counter offer of $380,000 by the owner was deemed "way beyond what is fair and reasonable" by the city, said Steve Earl of Orem's legal department. "We don't want this particular piece to hold up the (Sandhill Road) project," said Earl. "In case we can't reach a deal, we want to have this to proceed." Councilwoman Karen McCandless said that she does not like eminent domain as an official or as a citizen, but that councilmembers are "stewards of taxpayer tax-payer money." Mayor Jerry Washburn said that if negotiations are not successful in reaching an agreement, there is an unbiased evaluator in the court to determine fair value. Earl said the city has "gone out of its way" to make a fair offer, and has been willing to pay a price comparable to reappraisals of other properties that have come because of a "hot" real estate market in the area since January of this year. Councilman Stephen Sandstrom said he was not in favor of the "condemnation abuses you hear about throughout the country," but said this case was for public safety to "solve a dangerous problem or, Sandhill Road." ' . . tt L r -t - L. MARIO RUIZDaily Herald Hundreds of customers arrived early Saturday morning to be the first to enter the new Macy's ut University Mall in Orem on Saturday. MACY'S UNVEILED AT UNIVERSITY MALL - In the wee hours Saturday, more than 1,000 die-hard shoppers stood in line at Macy's at University Mall for free $10 gift cards, chocolate, cake and other giveaways. give-aways. -, The occasion: the 9 a.m. public unveiling of the new Macy's store in Orem. The grand opening of Macy's is the final symbolic move in Federated Department Stores Inc.'s $17 billion bil-lion purchase last year of its rival May Department Stores Co., which owned Meier & Frank since 1966. Eight Meier & Frank stores in Utah, including the Orem store, were among 400-plus May stores nationwide nation-wide that were converted to Macy's on Saturday. Federated Fed-erated now owns more than 800 stores nationwide. "This is a historical day in retailing where 400 regional re-gional stores will convert to Macy's, joining our family of 800 stores," said Jack Arndt, vice president of marketing mar-keting and sales for Macy's in Seattle and New York at Saturday's grand opening festivities. Orem Mayor Pro Tern Charice Thurston, who spoke at Saturday's festivities, said she was excited about the new fashion lines carried by Macy's. "It's not just about doing business here. Macy's is also committed to the community and have social programs that their employees volunteer for and are part of," she said. MEET THE MAYOR - A "Meet the Mayor" Day, is scheduled at Orchard Park Care Center, 740 N. 300 East on Sept. 27 at 1 :30 p.m. The meeting will feature Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn. Lindsy Boulton, patient care liaison with the center, said that a resident of Orchard Park wrote Washburn a letter, which prompted the mayor to arrange the visit. Boulton said the community is invited to come as well, and refreshments will be served. Washburn is expected to present information on UDOT's 800 North widening project, and to answer questions from his audience. "We're very excited," Boulton said. "This will be somewhat of a rare opportunity. Our residents will be thrilled especially our long-term patients." 6 m,61055 00050"" 8 L WWW.HERALDEXTRA.COMNORTHCOUNTY CALL 375-5103 TO SUBSCRIBE JNEj Home, Auto, & Personal Loam 0pm to all of Utah County: Once a member, always a member -no matter where you go. CM 3D COPY |