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Show ;._•?. • . - . - ( • » • - * - - AN E D I T I O N O F PRI DE & Utah Press Association Tear Sheets 1521 East 3900 South Suite 100 Salt Lake Citv. UT 84124 PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID SPANISH FORK, UTAH PERMIT NO. 2 The Spanish Fork News M VOL. 2 / NO. 25 1 O C A L L Y O W N E D A N D O P WEDNESDAY, E R A T JUNE E 20, D 2007 500 SPANISH FORK, UTAH Trailer park residents speak out Heather Campbell STAFF WRITER This is the third article in our series on the issues and developments surrounding North Park. MISSION REUNION: Dale Boman, right, and Brad Bangerter, left, were mission companions in Italy. Now they both sing in the Tabernacle Choir. Wes and Lois Matheson Courtesy photos Bruce Seely Local residents add to Tabernacle Choir Christy Hardman STAFF WRITER The Spanish Fork/Salem area has contributed many members to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir through the years. Some have been involved for many years, while some have just begun. Lois and Wes Matheson of Spanish Fork have had the privilege of singing in the Tabernacle choir together for many years. Lois has been singing with the choir as a first soprano for 19 years, and Wes sang as a first tenor for 16 years before moving on to the CD sales department where he works with their daughter, Cathy. One of the things that choir members have to do is dedicate a great deal of time to practices and performances. The choir meets at least 135 times a year, sometimes as much as 150 times. 'if someone had perfect attendance, which they couldn't possibly, and honestly, shouldn't have, they would be giving a third of their year," Lois said. 'it is a very heavy time commitment. See CHOIR • A8 DWR encourages 'bear awareness' Christy Hardman STAFF WRITER On Sunday, June 17, an 11 -year-old boy was sleeping in his tent with his family in American Fork Canyon. Late that night, a bear slashed through the tent, grabbed him, sleeping bag and all, and dragged him away. They found his body about 400 yards from the tent. The Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) killed the bear around 11:30 a.m. Monday. This has been the first fatality by a black bear in the state of Utah, and according to Scott Root of the DWR, an actual attack is extremely rare. Root said this has been an unusual year for bears. The DWR has had to put down four bears this month. In the last three weeks there have been more than a dozen reports of black bear sightings in Utah's central region. Three of the incidents have been in Woodland Hills. About two and a half weeks ago, a bear came into the yard of Michael and Ann Hook of Woodland Hills. She and her grandchildren it did not show any fear of watched it rummage in their humans. , garbage. The next day the Root said that in two bear was back. It had caught of the three incidents in a full-grown deer and Woodland Hills, the DWR slammed it against Hook's had to put the bear down. house. "We are not out to On June 11, 2007, kill bears," he said, "but Kenny Van Ausdal of sometimes we have to." Salem, and Andrew Clark Root said that any time of Woodland Hills were out a bear shows lack of fear four-wheeling, when the toward humans, it must wildlife patrol stopped them be put down. He said that and asked Clark, age 15, if the DWR was getting he would be willing to help some flack for that, but in them drag a dead bear from light of the American Fork where they had shot it. The bear was a cub, and had See BEARS • A6 had to be put down because It's no secret that when Allen Thomas decided to sell his trailer park to Spanish Fork City for the North Park Development, he made it known that his first priority was to take care of residents living there. With the help of the developer, Westfield Properties, Jim Kenyon of Kenyon Consulting was hired as a relocation specialist to help assist with the relocation process and make recommendations. Keystone said in a phone interview that Thomas is offering to help pay for 16 trailers to move, and, according to Keystone, "This is the first time I've ever been involved with a private deal where the buyer and seller are offering money," "to its tenants. Keystone commended the efforts made by Thomas to go above and beyond his legal obligations to the residents by not only offering to pay moving costs, but also considering other options for those whose trailers might not be able to be moved. According to Allen Thomas, while there are a couple of sites that won't work for certain people, they have essentially found 28 sites for 16 trailers from parks in Provo all the way to Santaquin. Thomas says that while it is up to the tenants to call and reserve their sites he hopes the different park options, "will give the residents some freedom to make choices about where they want to live." Thomas also said that should they be unable to move any of the trailers due to their condition, they had a contingency plan and would evaluate things on a step-bystep basis. According to Keystone, who is currently working with tenants, "Everyone is willing to look at different options, and there is a common logical progression to get everyone taken care of." While the situation is unfortunate for the trailer park residents, Thomas feels that he is doing the best he can to try and be accommodating. When asked if residents were angry with him over the situation he said that, "In the beginning, they wanted all the answers." And with the negotiation process still underway he was unable to say anything to them as he himself was still waiting to see what was coming. Many of them were hesitant about costs, he said, "but now that that is no longer an issue, it has set a lot of them down." Some residents frustrated with the situation may have "spoken out of turn," Thomas said, but all in all he felt like he was on good terms with most of the people in the park, and that they had been both understanding and appreciative of his help. While Thomas and his family have taken some heat from the community over how the situation was being handled, most of the tenants of the park seemed to speak highly of their landlord, despite the situation. Sharon Jensen and her husband purchased a trailer in the park in January of 2006. Since that time ihey have invested money into remodeling their trailer which included putting in new carpet and a new dishwasher. The Jensens say they will probably take a loss of about $8,000 on the trailer. The two are college students and Jensen says, "had I known this was going to happen, I would have never done this." Jensen and her husband, who is a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force, are moving to Panama City, Fla., where her husband will be stationed at" TyndaH'"Afr" Force Base. Jensen says she feels like one of the lucky ones because she is young and has a place to go, but says she worries about older residents or residents with more children and how they will afford the move. "People should care more about people in trailer parks," she said. "They are the ones who usually don't have anywhere else to go." Jensen, who lost a baby to SIDS in November, admits that this isn't the hardest thing she's been through, but says she's grateful to be moving on. And even after a year of losses and heartbreaks for her family, Jensen still defended her landlord saying, "I believe Allen Thomas is an upstanding man," and said she was more frustrated with the city and the way they have handled things. Cathy Adams, trailer park tenant, said that she felt like the city had really kept people in the dark about what was happening with North Park, and that the decision was made to go ahead with the development long before the community had a chance to comment. Adams said "If you [the city] want to keep your people happy, then you need to listen to your people." Adams also admitted that while Thomas was making a nice gesture, shehad been calling different parks and was having a hard time finding a spot that would take both her trailer and her pets. Trailer parktenantBrenda Vaifo'ou, also expressed frustration over the situation and said mat when she and the other tenants attended city council meetings, 'The decision was set in stone before we went" Vaifo'ou who has lived her for 20-plus years said this would be a whole change of lifestyle for her and admitte^ she was sad to be leaving her home after all these years. |