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Show 2 October 13,2010 ;: h .,1. ,.,,.,,- - 4 r in m- i- J Zv Marcella Walker One of the things I have done a lot of over the past 35 years is to attend Pleasant Grove City Council meetings and a good number of Lindon City Council meetings when I was covering Lindon, too. Most city council meetings have one thing in common, they lire usually on the boring side. TTiat is just because running a city, though sometimes interest-in- , g, is not usually very exciting as far as real excitement goes. Once in a while an issue conies up which gets citizens exci ted and they may actually atten'd a city council meeting. If they ,are brave they may actually speak to the council during the open session. Recently there was a public hearing regarding the proposed rate increases for city services. The meeting was held at Pleas-ant Grove Jr. High as it has a large auditorium. At this meet-ing then; was a large number of citizens in attendance. Ev-eryone who wanted to address the city council was given an opportunity to do so and many people took the opportunity to speak out about their opinions on the subject. The meeting began at 6 p.m. and continued until nearly 10 p.m. Many opinions were given. Many questions were asked. It was an open meet-ing, and I mean "open" in the sense that the council was open in answering questions and the audience was open in asking questions and listening to the responses from the city council. I felt that a lot was gained during the exchange of opinions at the meeting. How it will all turn out in the end is anyone's guess. However, I will assure everyone that the city council will give it the' best they have got and do it in the easiest way possible but there is no doubt that the city services have to be paid for by the users and the city has to charge the amount required to meet the obligations for these services. No one wants to pay higher prices for government services but the city has to pay it some-how and we as citizens use the services. We cannot live very well without water, sewer, storm drains, etc., so we have to pay the price. It is just like we have to pay for our electricity, our natural gas, and other services to the power company and the gas company. Their prices go up pe-riodically, also. We don't have a choice even though we are al-lowed to speak our mind to the companies if we want to. Oh, I guess we do have a choice, we can go without those services, but life would not be comfort-able without them. The same is true with the city services. We need them. We have sailed along over the past few years without a payment increase and now it has become necessary to make big jumps in a short pe-riod of time, comparatively. My husband and I have to pay these same raises in charg-es, too, and we are retired with a limited income, but we'll do it because the city really has no choice. Perhaps we should thank the city council for allowing these extra years without rais-ing fees and now accept the in-evitable like good citizens. r r iuu r : ' ' ( - . ' .... . . listen. I know I have been at times. But, when I really let them in, let them help, and hear them out, I am a better person because of it. I have more of a knowledge and life is more ful-filling. I also get to hear what others believe in more fully, and even, if you are set in what you believe, it helps you realize other sides and other ways to look at it. More often than not it helps in either strengthening your testimony of those things or helping you see more clearly flaws in your thinking. It opens up horizons and makes the sky more beautiful. I'm so grateful for the op-portunities we have to grow and progress. How beautiful it truly is. It is a gift and something I do not take for granted. So next by Mariss.a Walker I have found such strength in living what I believe. When you take a moment to share what you believe with others it only helps what you already feel to be strengthened. I have found such happiness in being able to talk openly about those things and also in hearing what others have to say. A lot of the time it only helps me to decipher, learn, and understand more fully. It's so great when you use those things you believe strong-ly in and those things you love to help others. I recently had an experience in which I got the opportunity to do this. It was not only uplifting for me, but for the other person involved also. : ' It was such an eye opener and strengthening experience for me as well as for her. We are all here to help one another. We are here to uplift, strengthen, encourage, and do everything we can to help those in need, whether it be physi-cally, emotionally, or mentally. Serving others is one way to really help you build character and find those things you want to live for, those things you be-lieve in. Life is tough on every-one. It is easy to forget things .you once learned. It is easy to get down. But there are people sent here just for you. They are there to help you remember, to help you up. Don't slap their hand away. Being open minded helps with this. Some people tend to be stubborn and not really , time you are given a chance to talk about something you love, do so with an open heart and open mind. Be able to see how you can help one another and you will richly be blessed! Thoughts From The Garden... by Tonya LeMone "Ifnothing changes, nothing changes! Think about it! " - Anonymous Change is a peculiar thing. Often it is regarded as being quite negative, but as I have researched the reasons and effects of change, it has started to change my thinking about change. If we don't change, we don't progress... or so the world says. But. then I think back on some changes taking place and find myself quite content without change. For me the only changes I like are to change my sheets or to change a piece of furniture in our house or change a shrub or garden in some little way, but the changes am seeing lately are really hard for me. The changes in the economy, the changes in the integrity of men of importance, even the changes in the weather are somewhat concerning to me. Recently a major change for me was the closing of the little Smith's Market in downtown Pleasant Grove. I didn't frequent the store on a weekly basis but did frequent it on a monthly basis to purchase my meat. I cannot find another meat market to compare with the personal attention or the quality of the meat that little market gave to all that came in. I still remember its unique smell when I would walk through the doors. It wasn't a negative thing. It was very positive because it took me back to our little neighborhood market in Oregon that never changed, never needed to and no one wanted it to change. We were all happy to have it just the way it was. When we first moved to our new neighborhood in Oregon, Eastmoreland, it was our first family home. It was a beautiful tudor style home with one bathroom and three bedrooms but it was in a neighborhood that had a school and a church at the center of its streets. We knew this neighborhood had values when they so designed this neighborhood to make the church and the school the very center of their lives, not only in thought, but physically the center of their lives. The streets of our new neighborhood were all tree-line- d with sidewalks and in the summer, the trees would grow together touching to form i tunnel to walk and drive under. This was a walking neighborhood. Every evening people of all ages would walk with their children or walk their dogs or just stroll on a warm summer evening. We had only one car so having the ability to walk to school and to the grocery store became a necessity not only for us, but so many others who shopped and attended church and schools in their neighborhood. After a few days in our new neighborhood, we discovered the "little store," only three blocks away from our home, again in the center of the neighborhood activities. The first time I walked into the little store I was warmly greeted by the cashier who immediately inquired of my name and where we lived and whose home we bought. Upon entering I also heard the doors creak and the floors squeak and the sounds of neighbors visiting and that new smell which now, after 30 years, continues to remind me of the little store whenever I have the delightful opportunity to experience it, and even to this day, it takes me back to a time in my life that was sometimes difficult but a very happy time for our family. It was a time of much more innocence and with little or no change. The biggest change was the changing of the leaves on those tree-line- d streets. We have gone back to visit this little store after so many years and things are very much the same. Neighbors still gather to visit, children are still buying their penny candy and charging it on their parent's account, and we were again greeted by the cashier with the same inquiring question of where we lived and whose house we purchased. Things didn't seem to change much except for the table and chairs outside which allowed their valued customers to sit and visit a while. Recently, in Lindon we had a huge change take place that has affected so many of us, the closing of Allen's Grocery Store. We didn't see it coming anymore than the employees did. I can't help but think of what more I could have done to keep that store open just as the closing of Smith's grocery in Pleasant Grove made me regret not patronizing both more. I had planned in my later years of always having Allen's grocery available to be able to walk to if I was no longer able to drive. These kinds of changes do not send me the message of progress, they are sent to me with a bit of fear attached. So, if the world says change has to take place in order to progress, I think I prefer not to progress in that way. I loved being greeted with a hello and called by name at the little store. I loved that my children could walk safely to the little store to buy penny candy and put it on the LeMone account. I loved that every Christmas we had a Christmas home tour in our neighborhood to raise thousands of dollars for the PTA and did so without fear. I loved that we could walk as a family with our dog along the tree-line- d streets and not worry. I loved that our children could safely walk to school and home. I loved that our neighbors attended church every Sunday willingly. This is what the lack of change did for our family. "UCCU and Brad Norton" buildings had just one heater in each building. Later a new campus was built in Provo on 13 acres and the school became the Utah Technical College or the "Tech". The college first had just a few hundred students but grew in popularity until portable units on the Provo campus were filled to the brim and the college was landlocked. President Wilson Sorenson began looking for a new site so the college could grow. When he found 185 acres on the sand hills of Orem, people thought he was crazy. The site was more than 10 times larger than the existing campus and no one believed they would need that much land but Wilson was a determined man and just before the deadline, he showed up with a check to pay for the property. Most thought they would be lucky if the expanded school would even house a couple of thousand students. BYU was meeting most of the traditional higher education needs of the community, but that all changed as the LDS church continued to grow and the decision was made not to build any more LDS owned colleges or universities. Enrollment at BYU was capped and Utah County continued to grow rapidly. People needed a place to attend college and so UTC became a community college and offered general education classes in addition to the traditional trades programs. For 13 years UVCC was the fastest growing college west of the Mississippi river. In response, UVCC became UVSC and started offering four-ye- ar degrees. A beautiful events center was built and a most generous donation by Word Perfect founders Alan and Karen Ashton gave them the right to put the name of Alan's grandfather, David O McKay, on the events building. As the years came and went it became obvious that some events in the David O McKay Center, such as rock concerts, did not reflect the dignity of the man and modern prophet. Discussions were held about putting the McKay name on another building and renaming the events center. Utah Community Credit Union (UCCU) had formed a strong partnership with the CollegeUniversity under the leadership of Brad Norton from our community, who was also the Vice President of Marketing at UCCU. Most people in our community had seen Brad in his role with the Boy Scouts of America. He and his family were a hit every year at the BSA Mountain Man Yukon Rendezvous, which was a winter camp for the Varsity Scouts. Brad and his family all dressed up in their mountain man outfits and let the Scouts shoot muzzleloader rifles. For years I had no idea that Brad was a big shot at UCCU. He was so humble and always dressed in a mountain man outfit with a muzzleloader in hand. Much to my surprise, I saw him in a starched shirt and beautiful suit on the college campus representing UCCU. Their credit union had been doing a lot with BYU and I suggested to Brad that the "Tech" was destined to be the largest university in Utah one day and it would be a smart thing for them to do more with "Bezzant" continued on page 3 by Mark Bezzant Since 1941 citizens in our part of Utah County have been attending what has affectionately been called the "Tech". At first it was Central Utah Vocational School where classes were held at what they called the old Fair Grounds in Provo. Classes were literally held in the barn used to show cows and livestock during the county fair. Some classes were held in adjacent barracks left over from the CCC following the great depression. At first the barn had a dirt floor. The other - - ; TXMPADXKISTIMES SUBSCRIPTION i , Name: Check Check amount: i . Make check payable to "Timpanogos Times" 1 i Mailing Address: CC - 1 1 year $40 2 year $77 3 year $113 4 year $152 Exp. 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