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Show Yf K h yra n i f l I I I l I i li II la.ll II I l I I 11 f l if J J EDITION Till A II s. if 7 t A ; 'O ana. vs- i -V b. .... ? V .. , .. S -Iff . HURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2008 50 CENTS VOL 120 NO. 34 . HEB.IP ' KEEP TOOH See pages 1, 2 & 3 Besoite lack of buildin ademv-nas CP 9 x V (PIPIT first d .ay of .school Christi C. Babbitt SPRINGVILLE HERALD Despite the lack of a building where they could hold classes, staff members of the new Merit College Preparatory Academy forged ahead on Monday with their first day of school as students stu-dents met under blue skies at Rotary Park in Hobble Creek Canyon. "We decided to take the kids up the canyon," said Paul Baltes, director of the new Springville charter school. The original plan was to have portable buildings set up for students stu-dents on the first day of school at the site of the school's future building, which will be located at 1440 W. Center in Springville. However, there was a desire to have students do service projects proj-ects during the first week, and not placing the portables this week allowed some aspects of construction to continue unheeded, unheed-ed, Baltes said. Delaying set-up of the portables also saved the school money and kept students away from construction dust, he said; all these reasons led the school to decide to spend first several days of school in Hobble Creek Canyon. Students sat on chairs in the park Monday while Baltes ex plained the school's philosophy and described what students can expect to learn through their studies. Meanwhile, school staff put up cabanas to provide shade for classes later in the day. The students were scheduled to perform per-form service projects in the canyon can-yon Tuesday through Thursday including mulching trees, painting paint-ing pavillions and washing fences. fenc-es. On Friday, students will be taken on field trips. Next week, the students will begin class in the portables. . Merit Academy is the second charter school to open in Springville Spring-ville and will eventually be located lo-cated at 1440 W. Center. Unlike Springville's other charter school Reagan Academy, which educates edu-cates elementary-aged students up to eighth grade, Merit Academy Acad-emy is a charter high school, accommodating ac-commodating ninth through 12th grades. Merit Academy's building is in the earliest stages of construc-See construc-See MERIT ACADEMY on page 8 " 4 ,rzXr I ,A - 0 ) i I . -i . i: a. -i. m A itiiA: f nflaiA Dranarafnru draHnmu hpfri thir first day of class Monday at Rotary Park in Hobble Creek Canyon. The new charter school, which serves ninth- through 12th-graders, 12th-graders, is being built at 1440 W. Center in Springville. School has started, please drive safely It is that time of year again, when parents bundle up the children chil-dren and send them off to school. It is also that time of year when police officers become concerned about the safety ot those same children as they walk to and from school. Drivers are cautioned to be extra careful as the children are usually a bit more careless when the school year begins. This year Springville will be working hard to monitor and enforce en-force traffic laws in and around our schools. Remember to yield to persons (especially students) who are crossing the street, to stop for the crossing guards and allow the children and the crossing guard to completely clear the crosswalk, to slow down when driving near schools and school crossings, and to stop for the flashing lights on school buses. n . "Safety for our children is a vital concern for all of us. said traffic officer Ron Mitchell "We will be responding to complaints from the schools and parents, and aggressively increasing our efforts ef-forts to make sure they get to and from school safely." Mapleton showhugt water bills t Debra Wells , SPRINGVILLE HERALD "We screwed up," admitted Mayor Laurel Brady at the Aug. 6 Mapleton City Council meeting. meet-ing. "We screwed up and need to apologize to the people," said City Council member Mike Cobia. The issue was water rates and the council room was packed with citizens anxious to voice their concerns con-cerns at water bills that suddenly showed a huge increase. The mayor opened the discussion discus-sion on water rates with an explanation ex-planation of the reasons for the rate increase. "The city is required to supply the essential service of water to the residents," she said. "You are required to pay the cost of it. We have not been receiving enough revenue to pay the cost. We have not adjusted water rates for at least 10 years and all of you know what's happened in those 10 years, how much growth we've had." "We cannot achieves affordable water, protect culinary resources and conserve water (as per the state mandated water conservation conserva-tion policies) without putting in I ; I klt L-'"-!M . - B 'i ii j - : -r J 1 ' r .... J l 4 1 1 1 ' . . Photo by Marcia HarrisThe Springville Herald Ea wW not disDointed at this year's first ever Demolition Derby held in conjunction with the Utah County Fair in Spanish Fork. Women competing in S3XJSE but quickly gamed momentum when car 300. shown above, t-boned another car fhppmg .t over onto if s top. Rescue personel are also shown here rushing to the aid of the trapped driver who was uninjured. . the pressurized irrigation system. Part of the increase in costs goes to that, part goes to make up the deficits because we have not been charging enough." "We believed the rate increase would put the rate at about $60 a month per household, but we realize re-alize it had a huge impact, more than we had anticipated." The council had previously decided de-cided to apply new water rates to the city water bills, and the July bills were the first to reflect the new rates. Base rates increased and a new "tiered structure" was added that increased rates for higher water usage. Citizens with large lots and larger larg-er water needs were reporting July bills of up to $600. Mayor Brady explained that $20 million will be required to build the pressurized water system sys-tem and that an average increase of $37 per household was needed to make those expenses. The new rate structure was supposed to accomplish ac-complish that average increase but contrary to expectations seemed to hit some citizens hard. The council passed a motion to re-do the tiered structure for water wa-ter rates, reconsider the base rate and allow for a rate adjustment for those people hit hard by the July bill. Another agenda item, a re-zone of property at 1590 West 2000 North from professional office to high density housing also attracted attract-ed the participation of anxious citizens, citi-zens, most of them neighbors to See MAPLETON WATER on page 2 Pill 61055 00050"" 8 mm nn nn ra n ni n n ' iis point inspection ' ' . - ol mv Price Guarantee 4 oNo Hassle Buying 1 4 oCarfax Certified Dealer wvv.SmartpriccautoSxorn - 5ce dealer for details. |