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Show i- 370 -pi.es 013095 mtcoim MICROGRAPHICS 2712 SOUTH 3680 WEST E 84113 WEST VOLLEY CUT mnuw Vol. 16, No. 32 Wednesday, August 10, 1994 50 cents a single copy PG posts first property tax rate increase in 10 years For the first time in over 10 years, the Pleasant Grove City Council voted last week to increase the property tax rate in order to meet the needs of the 1994-95 fiscal budget. The city council held a public hearing on the matter and about 24 people attended to express their concerns about the tax increase in-crease or to just listen to the reasons for it. Mayor Lloyd Ash explained that the basic reason why the city was seeking this increase was because 10 years ago the state legislature passed a truth in taxation law which does not allow the city to collect more than it did at that time unless they hold a public hearing. Even with all the growth in the community, commu-nity, the city cannot collect more in taxes than it did 10 years ago. In fact the figure has actually gone down, it was noted. "Really, this is just an adjustment back to what it was in 1991," the mayor said. Councilman Richard Paulsen said that last year the city collected $524,000 in property taxes. In 1990-91 it collected $580,000 in property taxes, yet last year about 300 new homes were built in the city. The increase will amount to about $33 per year on a $75,000 home. Several residents told the council that they could not believe that with all the growth in the city, that the city was not collecting more in taxes. Most of those in attendance indicated that their taxes had gone up, not down. Councilman Paulsen said that in order for the formula which is used to calculate the tax to work, some people's taxes were going down while others went up, depending depend-ing on the assessed valuation of their property. prop-erty. He said that they had been trying to find out from the county just how this formula worked. They would like to know for themselves, them-selves, he added. Councilman Kent Fugal said that some residents had shown him that their taxes had gone down. The approved increase would make the tax rate, .003377. This will generate another anoth-er $190,000 for the city. Of this, $165,000 will go to raises for city employees. Mayor Ash noted that some of the city employees' salaries were so low that they qualified for welfare assistance. Councilman Paulsen had done a study of salary ranges for cities throughout the state and this was used as a guide line for putting the employees on a fair wage. The raises went from a low of four per cent to a high of about eight per cent. Mayor Ash also said that he does not believe the city employees should be overpaid over-paid or underpaid. He added that Pleasant Grove does not have as many police officers per capita as many of the surrounding communities. "We still have to fight the challenge of gangs," he noted. The mayor pointed out that they had built the library with cash and did not go to the people with a tax increase. He mentioned men-tioned the ways city services have an impact im-pact on people's lives such as with the libary, public safety, streets, water, etc. "We cannot continue to operate on a decreasingbudget," he said. "Thecity is not askingfor one dollar more than it needs. We h ave kept to a bare bones budget and maybe we cannot do this forever," he added. One resident told the council that some people are on a fixed income and do not get an 11 per cent increase. They cannot cover this in their budget and it might force them to h ave to go on welfare while the em ploy ees go off welfare. The mayor noted that he feels that the city does pretty good on what it has to work with when compared with other cities. Some residents wondered how other cities cit-ies work with this law which does not allow them to increase taxes without a public hearing. It was noted that they do what Pleasant Grove did. They advertise a planned increase in-crease and hold a public hearing and then raise the tax rate. Others make enough from sales taxes that they can support their budget with that. Mayor Ash added that the city will hold a bond election for a new swimming pool in the fall and urged residents to learn about the matter and study so that they can make a good decision. He said he would like to see 50 percent of the eligible voters turn out for the bond election. """"" uTL .... -Jm. T. t ftTHTT?- IT") vrf l?r f ' a.& d : X . 4, C 1 W Xi- ( 'Jo"" '- Rollover Photo by Marc Haddock M5 traffic was re-routed along State Street Tuesday when this gas tanker rolled over into the median, of the freeway. The Highway Patrol shut off freeway access between 500 East in American Fork and 1600 South in Orem, creating traffic jams along State Street for most of the afternoon. PG Jr. High earns Centennial School honors from Guv Scandinavian settlers held onto their culture Editor's note: This is the third of a three-part series about the history of little Denmark and Pleasant Grove's original Scandinavian settlers. set-tlers. By BETH OLSEN There were many practices that held the Scandinavian community closely bound and perpetuated their language and culture thus prolonging prolong-ing Americanization. Many original Scandinavian IDS converts went back to their native soil to share their religion with relatives and friends, or their sons were sent, often both served missions and some served several missions. Thus new an verts were trafficked through Pleasant Grove households as they were invited to Zion. Jens Monson, a Swede from the Northfields, partially financed and brought to Utah 32, letting them live in his home until they became established. This wenton until about 1920. Many became outstanding citizens citi-zens of Utah. Two he married in turn when his other wives passed away. The effect on his and other similar families was reestablishing old ways and native language into later generations. John Canute Swensen tells of his father Knud: In 1875, my father built a log cabin on the farm in the north fields a nd hereafter for many years, it was occupied by Mormon immigrants from Denmark. Working with these Danish peasants in my early youth I not only learned their language, but I admired their industrious and systematic way of working. The memory of these experiences have been a strong influence in broadening broaden-ing my sympathies with and my understandingofthecuUuresof other oth-er peoples, especially these rural peasants from Denmark. The frugality of these northern European people caused them to cling to their old ways of dressing. Almost all continued to wear their course homespun clothing. Chris Fugal, growing up at the end of the 1800s, was called the "homespun boy" by his school teacher, teach-er, his mother continued to dress him traditionally Scandinavian with rough woven materials of her own making. Another distinction was their carved and crafted wooden shoes. Many immigrants came from rural settings where wooden shoes were a necessity for tilling the soil and doing farm work. Since all became farmers here, these leather-trimmed leather-trimmed wooden shoes were usually usual-ly part of a Scandinavian's possessions. posses-sions. JeppaNelson sorrowfully relates that his new wooden shoes were washed overboard in a storm while he slept on the deck of the ship while crossing the ocean. When he reached Pleasant Grove, he began to make wooden shoes for others here to earn money. Fugal recalled, These were neatly neat-ly kept under a small bench out in the back porch. Whenever one of them had to go out in the yard for anything they would sit on the bench, take off their shoes and put on the wooden ones. All the outside dirt could be washed from the wooden wood-en shoes before they wereexchanged for the house shoes on the back porch. This way their house and street shoes were always neat and clean." In Sweden, compulsory elementary elemen-tary education was begun in 1842. Children were taught reading, writ-See writ-See DENMARK on Page 4 Pleasant Grove Jr. High School has been selected as one of Governor Gover-nor Mike Leavitt's Centennial Schools. As the only junior high selected within the Alpine School District, Pleasant Grove Jr. High will focus its efforts on building a strong afternoon after-noon activities and intramural program, pro-gram, computer, assisted geography geogra-phy classes, professional development develop-ment for staff and teachers, and increased work with student government, gov-ernment, character education, and a peer mediator program. On Aug. 18 the entire staff will meet to update strategic plans for the new school year and the centennial centen-nial program directions. School officials noted that public schools in the final years of this 20th century have a difficult calling. call-ing. They are expected to prepare children to contribute productively to today's high tech, fast paced society. soci-ety. New curriculum is necessary to keep up with the abundance of information in-formation available. New creations in technology provide educators with increasingly better teaching tools. Constant evaluation and adjustment adjust-ment are necessary to keep up with all this change. Governor Leavitt has taken a proactive role in identifying ways and means for local schools to restructure re-structure to meet their own changing chang-ing needs. The Governor's Centennial School program provides extra funding fund-ing for schools that take the initiative initia-tive in developing a strategic plan to guide them into the 21st century. In the fall of 1993, under the direction of Pleasant Grove Junior High Principal Kay E. Giles, a group of school administrators, teachers, students, parents and community leaders met to set specific educational educa-tional goals and formulate a plan of action. As the 1993-94 school year proceeded, pro-ceeded, the new goals began to materialize. ma-terialize. Strengths and weaknesses weakness-es were identified and the plans were refined. Last spring Vice Principal Prin-cipal Kay Smith prepared a 14 page Centennial School proposal and submitted it to the governor. The proposal included academic and behavioral expectations for students, stu-dents, curriculum revision includ-ingcharacter includ-ingcharacter education, implementation implemen-tation of technology, professional development for teachers and staff, new student government structure based on the federal government model and a peer mediator program. pro-gram. Over 150 schools throughout the state applied for Centennial School status. Only five Alpine District schools were awarded Centennial School recognition. The bulk of this year's funding will be used to build a strong afternoon after-noon activities and intramural program, pro-gram, which will involve students in service projects, provide instruction instruc-tion and transportation for bowling and golf leagues, as well as other sports. Funds will also be used to bring in speakers from the field of education educa-tion to keep the faculty abreast of current trends and available services servic-es for improving instruction. Centennial School awards are given for one year and must be renewed each year. Plans are already al-ready underway to perpetuate the partnership with community and . faculty. Concert to feature blue grass All you who love Blue Grass and Country Music be prepared for the Sunday Concert in the Park on Aug. 14 at 7 p.m. on the east side of the Community Center, 100 E. 200 South, Pleasant Grove. "Battlecreek," a blue grass and country group composed of several local musicians, will present this concert. They are very versatile and and present a full, excitement filled Lindon Days to be filled with many activities With the Lindon Days Horse Show already completed, the city i ready to begin the final city celebration celebra-tion activities which will get underway under-way Thursday with the singing contest con-test from 5 to 10 p jn. at the Lindon Park. Rules and regulations are available avail-able at the city offices. A lot of very nice prizes are being offered to the winners. . The Street Dance will be held on Friday, Aug. 12, with the musk of Shuffalo Bill and Country Crossover Cross-over at 8 p.m. on Main St. Afull slate of activities is planned for Saturday, Aug. 13. A flag cere mony will kick off the festivities at 7 sun., followed by a great breakfast. break-fast. The menu includes pancakes, scrambled eggs, hash brawns, sau- -sage, milk andonngejuke.Thisis for (2 for those 12 and older and $1 for inular 12 or 1 10 oer famflv. " Breakfast will be from 7. sua. to 9 -. The Lindon Days Dash wfllbegiii at 8 sub. at the city park. Entry forma are available at the city halL There will be musical program la the park from 11 aja. to 2 pjn. The pie eatingcontest is at 2 p.m. at the park. ' The finals of the singing contest will beheld at 2:30 p.m. at the park. The traditional water melon bust will be held at 2 p.m., also in the park. During all this, there will be a craft fair at the park from 11a.m. to 5 p.m. In the Lkxit Club building there will be a show of arts and crafts, needlework, quilting, clothing, fine arts, hobbies and photography, as well as fruits, vegetables and flowers. flow-ers. A historical display will also be available at the Lions Building. Children will enjoy the arcade games in the park between 11 ajn. and 3 p.m. The Arena Events will be held in the Lindon Arena from 7:30 p.m. to 9HQ p-m. Registration may be made at the Lmdo? City Hall until 5 p jn. on Aug. 12 for SO cents iper person per event but after that time the cost will jump to $2 per person per .Vent.-, .f ''-.,'.,;; : - 5.. The latest signups will be at the arena from 8 pm. ..to 6 pja. on. Saturday, Aug. 13. 1 Little IQn Lindon Royalty are, t to r, front second attendant Cari Schwartz, Little Miss Lindon Rebecca McCfeUan, first attendant Rebecca Man&banks; back row? th Ashley BusweU and fourth attendant Celeste Roberts. - program. Most of the artists in this group are young, so their friends and associates are certainly invited to attend. Bring your lawn chairs or blankets blan-kets and the entire family and enjoy this fine concert. It will be one which you will really want to attend. The concerts in the park are sponsored spon-sored by the Pleasant Grove Arts Council. Utah County Fair opens 1994 season The 1994 Utah County Fair opens tonight with ceremonies at 5 p.m. at the fairgrounds, 500 South Main, Spanish Fork. Built around the theme A Family Fam-ily Fair to Remember!" it concludes Saturday. Gates open Thursday through Saturday at 10 a.m. Included Includ-ed are displays of everything from home arts to flowers, dolls, taxidermy, taxider-my, hobby and crafts, 4-H projects, and livestock as Utah County residents resi-dents show off their skills and talents. tal-ents. A highlight of this years fair is the perform ance of Lee Green wood, popular recording artist, "Live in Concert" on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Greenwood is perhaps best known for his rendition of "God Bless the USA." Wednesday will be the Farm Bureau Talent Find competition. Thursday is Senior Citizens Day Friday is Sped si Events Day with a Dutch Oven Cook Offend Line Dancing. Danc-ing. Saturday is Children's Day with a children's parade at 8 S-m., a performance by Dale Nyberg, Utah's World Class Ye-ToChaapion, at 12 noon, a watermelon and bubbleblow-. bubbleblow-. ing contest Concluding the day wfll be line dancing at 7 patu - |