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Show Times Newspaper, Millennium Edition Milestones of the Twentieth Century Wednesday Jan. 5, 2000 Page 14 ! i i-- A L ! 1 Sterling Harding, Orem's first Chief of Police in 1948. J. Reed Brugener, Orem's Chief of Police in 1955. 2000 Mater expansion With the need for pure, safe culinary water, sparking the early movement which led to the incorporation incor-poration of the Town of Orem, back in 1919, as well as the continuing con-tinuing efforts of city officials to improve Orem's culinary water supplies over the years, it may be something less than remarkable to chronicle that Orem's last notable no-table event of the Century is centered cen-tered on another water project. After all, since Orem's growth is . continually dependent on its water wa-ter supplies, it would not be unexpected un-expected for an expansion of the Orem Water Treatment Plant to take place this year. Plans to increase in-crease the capacity of the Orem Water Treatment Plant by 56" have been completed, and Alder Construction Company of Salt Lake City has been awarded a S15.3-milIion contract on the construction. According to David Pitcher, the district chief engineer of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, the other bids on the project were received from Ames Construction, Construc-tion, Bodell Construction, Ellsworth Peck and Jacobson. The highest bid was $20.2 mil-ion. mil-ion. According to City Manager James Ream, "The expansion of the Water Treatment Plant will help ensure that we have an adequate ad-equate water supply for our growing city.' He said that the Orem Mayor and members of t he City Council are excited about the expansion project, which is crucial to the future water needs of the city. Construction on the project is expected to begin some time in April or May, 2000; ' 1999 Orem Public Safety Just about SO years from the time of the dedication of the Orem City Center, the Orem Department De-partment of Public Safety, which is housed there, is looking forward for-ward to moving into its own building. Construction is well underway on Orem's new Public Safety building, just east of the Orem City Center. For the past 30 years of Orem's growth, its Public Safety Department has experienced increasing difficulty in operating efficiently in its existing ex-isting space in the City Center. Top security will be a major consideration con-sideration in the new building. Access to rooms and doors will be controlled by electrical devices, de-vices, and every precaution will be taken in the handling and movement of prisoners throughout through-out the facility. Orem Public Safety Director Mike Larsen is looking forward to the completion comple-tion of the new building. In justifying jus-tifying the need for the new facility fa-cility to the Orem City Council, he had pointed out the inadequacies inadequa-cies in the present Orem City Center police facilities. Sometimes, Some-times, the interrogations of suspects sus-pects and witnesses have to take place in hallways or adjacent offices, of-fices, due to the unavailability of other police facilities. Consolidation Consoli-dation of all fire prevention and police administration in the new Public Safety Building is seen as an important advance in moving Orem's public safety facilities into the new millennium. With much of the exterior work now completed on the new building, completion of the structure is hpHn1pH for March 2000. Vineyard incorporates On Jan 23, 1989, the Vineyard community area west of Geneva Road filed with the Utah County Commission to incorporate as a town. On May 8 of the same year, the petition was accepted and Vineyard officially became a town. At the time, Homer Chandler, director of the Mountainland Association As-sociation of Governments suggested sug-gested the citizens investigate incorporation in-corporation with Orem City or the possibility of remaining part of the Utah County He warned of the many responsibilities involved in becoming a town, including forming form-ing a master plan and road plan, arranging for public safety and public work services and taking responsibility for the building and maintenance streets and roads. J. Rulon Gammon, the first mayor of Vineyard, said that the community wanted to have more control over its future, preserve a sense of community and have a greater voice n the development of the surrounding areas than they would have as part of the county or by becoming incorporated incorpo-rated by Orem. Serving on the first town cou n-cil n-cil with Gammon were Robert Holdaway, Grace Hoidaway, Morris Mor-ris Clegg and Stan Morris, r--: The incorporated town of Vineyard Vine-yard includes 2,805 acres, over half of which (1,460 acresis owned by Geneva Steel " 5 v-trft-r X V-P V-.f U-! p; y ."- . -w -ft ' jr 7, "V , . (. Police Force, 1965: Front row (L-R): Boyd Ward, LaVon Johansen, Fred Schwendiman, Keith Nielsen, Jean Mecham. Second row: Reed Burgener, George McKinney, toby Bath, Wayne shepherd, shep-herd, Byron Penrod, Larry Lunnen. Back row. Vera Steel, Gerald Nielsen, James Simmons, Ted Peacock, Leon Laws, Garth Wilkinson. (Courtesy of George McKinney). i. - v: I . f jm.m - - - -y V Orem city police chief Jim Simmons shows the new dispatch center to press in July of 1974. " - t u tein o, 1 irst wo On July 2, 1991, Joyce Johnson made history by becoming the first woman to hold the office of Mayor of Orem City. Johnson was elected by the City Council to serve as interim mayor until the November elections of that year after Mayor S. Blaine Willes, who had accepted a full-time full-time post with the State Tax Commission, Com-mission, resigned in June of 1991. At that time, there were 16 other women mayors in Utah and Orem, with a population of nearly 70,000 was the largest city to have a female at the helm. Johnson's selection was not without controversy, Willes had openly supported Johnson and others who also sought the position posi-tion questioned the fairness of the selection process. However, council coun-cil members were unanimous in their decision and defended their choice, saying that Johnson had not lobbied for the position. Another member of the council who had expressed interest in the interim mayor post, was Stella Welch. When election time came around Welch and Johnson found themselves in a hot battle to be the peoples' choice to fill the mayor's seat for the next four . years. By a surprisingly large margin of 6,577 to 5,166 votes,; Welch became the first woman to be elected mayor of Orem. " ' ' 5. Welch-jWon twice as many of Orem's consolidated districts ( oints, men elecfs, en mayors to 8) to earn the solid victory. Willes' term and was re-elected Welch served the final two for a four-year term after that, years of what would have been f V 1 .V-( : i Joyce Johnson was elected by a vote of the Orem City Council as the first woman Mayor of Orem ia July of 1991 ...in November of that same year, Stella Welch became the first woman to be elected as Mayor by the citizens citi-zens of Orem. Gall wl ta adoeniide in qua. next ecia! section 225-1340 Sp ---.The OremLindorr Times fii srtO ssiM bsaun |