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Show Thursday, September 27, 2007 OREM TIMES 3 I ,! NTEWS AND NOTES TO KEEP YOU INFORMED AND INVOLVED 1 " " ' ( two Orem residents killed in accidents this week !! Michael Rigert ' NORTH COUNTY STAFF I; J It's been a deadly week in Orem with a husband and father (jf two children killed in a home fire on Sunday and a 61-year woman perishing in a traffic fatality fa-tality on 800 North on Tuesday. Kevin Eric Seipert, 36, was t,he only one home Sunday afternoon at his residence hear 80 S. 900 East when Orem firefighters were called to, a fire at his home, said Lt. ftoug Edwards, Orem's Public Safety Department spokesman. spokes-man. Despite finding the home f ngulfed in flames, firefighters attempted to enter the burning building to search for victims. The effort was thwarted when he roof collapsed. 1 After dousing the blaze, firefighters fire-fighters extracted Seipert from (he home and found he had suffered smoke inhalation. He was transported to a nearby hospital but pronounced dead upon arrival, Edwards said. ; Fire investigators are looking look-ing into whether burned food on a kitchen stove may have ignited the blaze. 'According to an obituary ih Wednesday's Daily Herald, Seipert is survived by his wife Catia, and their two daughters, Erica and Alexandra. He graduated grad-uated from Orem High School and later earned a nursing degree from Utah Valley State College. Employed by Niels Fu-gal Fu-gal and Sons, Seipert served in the LDS Lisbon Portugal South Honored Continued from Page 1 Women's Division and a longtime long-time friend who has herself participated in the Renstroms' plays. "I've gotten to know and appreciate her throughout through-out the years. She is a hard wprker, and when she makes a'commitment, she always follows fol-lows through. I have known her on both a professional and a personal level." The award originated some years ago, when Ruby Nicol, NorthCounty EWSPAPERS 399 E. State St. Pleasant Grove Marc Haddock 443 -3268 North County Editor mhaddock heraldextra .com Cathy Allred 443-3262 I Lehi, Saratoga Springs, PI. (trove s31lredheraldextra.com ? Barbara Christiansen 443 3264 tfcerican Fork, Alpine, Cedar Hills S$hrisTjansenheraldextra.com faike Rigert 443-3265 $errit'Vineyard 1 Ktigertheraldextra.com Ifcky Beaton 443 3267 feeatpiherajdextra.com alker 443-3260 ityvertising Account Executive 4jafker.hefaldextra.com Volume 134 otrti Times Daily Herald Edition. USPS 411-700. a weekly newspaper published at 399 E. State JtPteasant Grave. Utah 84063 Periodicals postage paid at Pleasant Grove. Utah 84062 and at actional mailing, otfices. Potmatr: Send address changes to Orem Times. P.O. Box 65, ' eifiryUtah 84059-0065 Published Thursdays by Lee Publications, which is a division of Lee ' M&rpnses, Inc. Mertibr: Audit Bureau of Circulations wHmS )W l mm - Mte. lVJAH cHOUbc I I j v Rlinrle SL Daint V No Interest Mission from 1990-1992. He enjoyed en-joyed wood working and made several pieces of furniture for the family's home. Funeral services for Seipert are scheduled for Friday at 1 p.m. in the Orem 5th Ward Chapel, 800 E. 590 South. Friends may call today from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sundberg-Olpin Mortuary, 495 S. State Street, Orem, and also Friday one hour prior to funeral services. A trust fund for the family has been set up in the name of Catia Seipert at Zions Bank branches, and condolences and remembrances can be sent to the family at www.sundbergol-pinmortuary.com. www.sundbergol-pinmortuary.com. Then on Tuesday morning, 61 -year-old Janet Shorten of Orem was killed after a dump truck ran a red light and hit her minivan, according to Orem police. Police said 51-year-old Miguel Hidalgo of Spanish Fork was driving west on 800 North in Orem in a Golden State Trucking dump truck when he ran a red light at Main Street. Hidalgo broad-sided broad-sided a minivan driven by Shorten, who died at the scene. The dump truck pushed the minivan across the intersection, hitting several eastbound vehicles ve-hicles that were stopped at the red light. Andrew Jacobs, 43, of Orem, was transported to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center for treatment of accident-related injuries after the dump truck pushed Shorten's minivan into then-president of the Women's Division, asked Renstrom if she would be a member of her board and direct the fashion show. Renstrom agreed, and proposed the name for the award, which was promptly accepted by the division leadership. lead-ership. "Jody is ageless, timeless, with a bubbly spirit, and enthusiasm especially for fashion. She loves tasteful fashion," said Leslie Stott, a friend. "... She has made a difference dif-ference in the Chamber and in the community giving Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 DAILT HERALD PUBLISHING CO. 3 Jennette Esplin 756 -7669 Office Manager Julia Fullmer 344 2570 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Megan Carleton 344-2570 DesignerCopy Editor Ashley Franscell 344-2589 Photographer Issue 89 iivbrid .mm, m m mm mm 1 wr" ' his vehicle. His injuries were not life threatening. Hidalgo was taken to a hospital hos-pital for a blood sample, which Edwards said is routine in such accidents. He was released without citations, Edwards said, though the incident is under un-der investigation. I Daily Herald reporters also contributed to this story. OREM BRIEFS Parking standard changed The parking standard for "group quarters" in the city was changed Sept. 25 by the Orem City Council from one stall for every four bedrooms, to one stall for every 2.5 beds. The "group quarters" category includes housing such as youth transitional homes, residential residen-tial facilities for the disabled, youth rehabilitation facilities, rooming and boarding houses, fraternity and sorority homes, and membership lodging. Development Services director direc-tor Stan Sainsbury said staff became uncomfortable with the existing parking standard because of proposals that have been coming to the city some for as many as eight people per bedroom. "We had never seen (proposals (pro-posals for) more than one or two beds per bedroom until recently," re-cently," Sainsbury said. "...We want to change (the standard) back to beds, from bedrooms." people who wouldn't have had the opportunity to do community commu-nity theater, and to use their talent." Jody and her husband, Keith, moved to Orem in 1969. Jody began investigating what opportunities there were in local theater, and discovered few options. "I was told that if you were really good, you could get into BYU's productions occasionally," Renstrom said. "That sounded too competitive. com-petitive. I wanted to do family theater like there was in Cali Its a rumor passing 0 rem City officials knew they had a public relations disaster on their hands as soon as they found out that 70-year-old Betty Perry was in the city hold ing cell, bloodied from an altercation with an Orem police officer. Damage control started then, but it was already too late. Nobody can help you when you start beating up little old ladies. Now if you look for Orem on Google News, the most prominent name you'll see is Betty Perry. And Orem has been labeled worldwide as the city that locks up old ladies for not watering their lawns. : It's a gross oversimplification, of course. Perry wasn't arrested for failing fail-ing to water her lawn, but for failing to identify herself to a police officer. He just wanted to know her name so he could fill out the ticket. She refused to tell him. Then a seemingly routine police stop, similar to issuing a speeding ticket, spiraled out of control. Depending on who is telling the story, the officer pushed Perry or she fell trying to get away from him. Either way, she suffered some minor injuries. Events escalated until the officer ended up cuffing Perry, putting her in his police car, driving her to the Orem Police Department and putting her in jail. Not many people thought this was a smart thing to do. As soon as city officers knew about the incident, in-cident, they released Perry, issued an official apology and sent her home. They took the officer of-ficer off the street until the incident could be investigated. Then they tried to explain it all to the public. pub-lic. In a press release, the police department spokesman allowed that the police officer had exercised bad judgment. He had overstepped the bounds of common sense, even though he was within his right as an officer of the law. There are other ways, they said, to get someone's name, and the officer should have pursued one of those. They went to a real effort from the outset to Shutters Honlypmb Shade! " 4 Residential building height increased A proposal to increase the maximum height for residential buildings from 35 feet above grade to 45 feet was approved Sept. 25 by the Orem City Council. The change applies only in the R 12 and R20 residential zones, which have at least 12,000 and 20,000-square-foot lots, respectively. Two additional requirements for the added height are that the area above 35 feet must be at least 50 feet from any property line, and the total area of the structure above .'35 feet cannot exceed 20 percent of the total roof area in a plan view format. The plan view is defined as "looking at the roof from a viewpoint directly above the structure or in front of the structure," according to background back-ground materials in the meeting meet-ing agenda. "We have some large homes in our city being built right now," said Development Services Ser-vices director Stan Sainsbury in introducing the item, noting that steeper roof pitches are a trend. Rather than having part of a roof cut off at the 35-foot level, the height change allows the pitch to continue at peaks, preserving architectural integrity. integ-rity. Councilwoman Karen Mc-Candless Mc-Candless was the only council member voting against the change, due to her concern with the citywide applicability of the ordinance. fornia, where opportunities were plentiful and there were a lot of theater groups. One day, I said to Keith, 'There really should be a family the- ater here, but who would do it?' A few days later, I said, 'Why don't we do it?' And he agreed." The Renstroms found 192 chairs at a thrift store and began looking for a building in Orem, but were unsuccessful. Finally, the store was unable to keep the chairs on hold any longer, and, needing a place to put the seating, Jody drove Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN 2" Woods & Faux "I'm concerned about the appropriate percentage threshold," thresh-old," McCandless said. "What is that number that we as a City Council say, 'No. That is not appropriate.' ap-propriate.' Or what lot size?" Councilwoman Margaret Black said there needs to be an understanding that 45 feet is the limit "in every circumstance." circum-stance." Special Improvement District Dis-trict Resolutions and an ordinance dealing with Special Improvement District 2004-1, 2004-1, for the Midtown Village development's parking garage construction, were approved by the Orem City Council Sept. 25. City manager Jim Reams said the special improvement district is a mechanism for the development to build the parking garage, and does not involve the use of taxpayer money. An interim warrant's maturity matu-rity date was extended from October 1, 2007, to October 1, 2008 to accommodate a completion com-pletion date. Assessments approved for capital and operation and maintenance main-tenance costs were $14,359 for residential units, and $18.33 per square foot for commercial establishments. As part of the ordinance, the City Council gave its OK to requiring re-quiring the assessments to be paid at the time the property is sold. If the properties are held by the owner, there is a provision provi-sion for 20-year payment. up and down the streets of Provo until she found the vacant va-cant building at 60 North 300 West that would become the theater's first home. The manager happened to be walking across the parking lot just as Renstrom drove up, and after agreeing to terms, Renstrom signed a five-year lease on the spot. In about seven weeks, the theater was ready to open, although some backtracking had to be done with Provo City in getting architectural plan approval. as news make it clear that the incident was an aberration. It is not, they said, Orem City policy to arrest anyone for not watering his or her lawn. It never has been. So why has Orem City become known as the town where they beat up little old ladies for not watering their lawn? Why do I have on my desk a nasty letter to the editor, too crude to print, calling me a jerk because I edit a newspaper in that town? The answer is very simple the story is too good to pass up, and too juicy to clutter with a lot of detail, especially when the detail clearly shows that the story just Isn't so. So that's the story that was printed in every major newspaper in the country. Versions of it have appeared overseas, as the story become more simplified and less accurate with each retelling. It's rumor passing itself off as news. And while Orem officials didn't try to defend the officer's action, they were helpless to defend de-fend their good names. Rumor is like that. They could have avoided the ensuing fire storm of public opinion if they had wanted to. All they had to do was dismiss the officer, dissociating dis-sociating the city from his actions, and dropped the charges, no matter how warranted. Heck, that's how it might have played out in many other cities, and it would have been the easy thing to do. Some might say it would have been the right thing to do. Certainly it would have helped make this story go away. Instead, Orem officials have chosen to take the tough course. In this case, that means standing by their police officer, who was found in an independent investigation to have acted within the law, and standing up for city ordinances ordi-nances designed to protect property values by holding residents to minimal standards of yard care. Some might say that's foolish, but I don't agree. I think it shows some major backbone in the face of ridicule based on news accounts that overlook the facts to tell a juicy story. For People Who Insist On The Best! n 1 Memorial Continued from Page J and wallets during Sunday's push to raise funds for the memorial. "We've formed a lot of friendships." he said of the bikers' support. Christ onsen's wife, Ko-zette Ko-zette Christensen. a memorial memo-rial project volunteer, said many bikers made donations on Sunday at the Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing Point Maverik convenience conve-nience store rallying point. Several businesses auctioned off items with the proceeds going to help fund the memorial. me-morial. An Orem business, Timpanogos Harley -Davidson, donated a new 1 larley-Davidson larley-Davidson XL1200R motorcycle motor-cycle to the cause in a raffle Sunday. General manager Rick Story said the dealership dealer-ship tries to help out law enforcement en-forcement whenever it can. "We just feel like if someone some-one is going to give of their life for the community, they should be remembered," he said. Most importantly, perhaps, per-haps, an Orem family who lost their son, Joseph D. Adams, a l,ehi police officer when he was shot and killed in August 2001 during a routine traffic stop, appreciates appreci-ates the public support of the memorial. Thad Adams, Joe Adams's father, said the family was very pleased with Sunday's response. "I think the memorial is a significant thing," he said. "I'm very appreciative that the community responded like they do and lend their supX)i1 ... I think our area is exemplary in that regard." Thad Adams said his grandchildren are seventh generation Orem residents and that his son Joe was a cadet in training with the Orem police before he got hired on with I.ehi. "They were very support sup-port ive of him when he was killed. The Orem police department de-partment and Orem Public Safety rallied around our family in such a remarkable way," he said. "Even though he wasn't an Orem police officer, you would have thought he was." Joe Adams's brother, Josh Adams, is an Orem police officer of-ficer with the division's K-9 unit. He wasn't surprised by Sunday's huge outpouring of support for the memo-rial memo-rial and the fallen officers ' "because it's always been there," he said. Josh Adams remembers gding to see the old memorial memo-rial plaque inside the State Capitol when hisbrother's name was added and then traveling to Washington, D.C., the following week to see the National Law Enforcement En-forcement Memorial. "It's comforting to know that there's a way these officers of-ficers are remembered," he said. "It's kind of an unusual way for these people to die, kind of an exclusive group of people." For him, the future Utah memorial will be a place not just to go and see his brother's broth-er's name but to remember and reflect on other Utah police officers he's known or worked with that have given the ultimate sacrifice. "Hopefully, it's not just a place for me and my children, chil-dren, but a place that people can take their kids and give them a practical illustration of what people do to help one another and what's at stake every day," Josh Adams said. For more information on the Utah Police Officers Memorial or to make a donation, dona-tion, go to www. utahf alien, org. www.heraldextra.com yellowpages WALLPAPERS & BORDERS No Pay oenjamin Moore mm . ii i wm ll'j - VX" h'v;ii rs-t -a. 3 -m-a s-M-r .m IIUHIi4flUUUUiUili- Rega( Taint VISA W Mm UKKilHr- i r "itfbj 2 5 OFF Copy A 1 t t L. 4. 1. A- I. A. 1. i 1 l A- I ' - '- - n -t - I. S. I. . fn 25 OFF 4-?! 11 |