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83- 83ww WW Utah f'refiB heoc 3w7 West ftwB South itbtoWii Salt Lake City, U I 8 41 ft j. Mtn. View High School Honor Roll See page 5 Basketball Season Begins See pages 6-7 Purchasing a Chrsitmas Tree See page 1 0 4ktr Priceless gift brings early By Jeanne Thayne City Editor Sometimes seemingly unrelated unre-lated events come together to create cre-ate a miracle. That's what it seems like to Mike Tucker, 41, of Orem, who says, "I'm alive and it's just amazing. It's a miracle." Tucker received the ultimate gift, an organ transplant. It arrived ar-rived in time to pluck him from certain death and bring happy holidays to his family. The donor, tragically, was an 18-year-old, brain dead from an auto accident. Earlier, the young victim had told friends and family, fami-ly, quite adamantly, that if anything any-thing should ever happen to him he wanted his organs donated. "Five people were saved because be-cause of this young man," said Tucker. "Besides the liver for me, he gave his heart, both kidneys, and pancreas." 7 don't know why this happened to me, but it changed my life in a significant way.... Sometimes you have to face death in order to learn about life." Mike Tucker The Tucker family did not meet the donor's family, even though at one time they were in the emergency room together. But they are very grateful. First Presidency Christmas Devotional set for Dec. 5 The 1993 First Presidency Christmas Devotional of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Latter-day Saints is scheduled for Sunday, Sun-day, December 5, in the Taber- TIPS We want the scoop on what's happening in Orem. Call in news tips. Orem-Geneva Times 225-1340 Santa receives a rousing welcome by wide-eyed youngsters at the annual Chamber of CommerceCity tree-lighting ceremony held Monday at the City Center. CHANGED LIFE Mike can't talk about it without getting tearful. "I know I got a sissy liver," he says, "I cry about everything." They are tears of appreciation, apprecia-tion, gratitude, and a new perspective on life. "I don't know why this happened to me, but it has changed my life in a significant sig-nificant way.. .sometimes you have to face death in order to learn about life." "My dad's got a new life at 41," said his 9-year-old son Tyler. Tucker says it is a new life for him. The important things are not what he used to think about. "The important things are family, relationships, and a testimony. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to work. I just want to be with my family and do things with them." Sunday, Tucker even volunteered volun-teered to speak at Sunday School about his experiences, fearing he could not take the whole time, but managing to keep everyone listening lis-tening intently until the bell rang. It was a new experience for Mike Tucker. As some of his church friends noted, Mike was always an OK guy. Now he's really real-ly gung ho. Tucker's problems began over, a year ago. A financial planning instructor, he travels to many foreign countries to conduct seminars. semi-nars. He believes he picked up a parasite somewhere that lodged in his liver and slowly began destroying it. Scar tissue formed Continued on Page 11 nacle on Temple Square. Members of the First Presidency will deliver Christmas messages and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform during the program, which will be aired over, the Church's satellite television network. net-work. The network covers more than 3,000 locations in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and the West Indies. The program will be aired live over the satellite network at 6 p.m. and will be rebroadcast at 8 p.m. over KBYU, Channel 11, as well as the satellite network. 0 'A h its" 1 j fK!,-)?- - r , .,'.. i.s in -.. l0-x!B!i "" 1 - :-v j - if Kf' T1 v Mike and Ann Tucker, center, are surrounded by their children, Melissa and Jamie at their sides, and Natalie and Tyler in front. The season brings a renewal of faith and heightened awareness of blessings because of a rare and priceless gift. City Council turns By Jeanne Thayne . City Editor An Orem business renovating space in a building located in a redevelopment area will not receive redevelopment funding to help with costs. Council members felt development was proceeding in the area without the RDA Christmas to Orem boost. Instead council members are committed in concept to use available funding for State Street projects. Although the application was described as a "perfect RDA project," City council members voted 2-4 against a motion to provide pro-vide tax increment financing for Murdock-Gilbert and Associates, 373 W. 840 South, to complete a development project at the north-east north-east intersection of Orem Boulevard and 400 South. The applicant, Kurt Gilbert, in tow with Ott Dameron, a consultant consult-ant and former Public Works Director for Orem, requested approximately ap-proximately $42,650 to pay for additional landscaping exterior building upgrading and additional addition-al infrastructure. In reviewing the project, city staff determined the project would generate about $6,000 in tax increment per year over the next seven years. Mayor Stella Welsh said it seems unfair to use RDA funds for this project when several projects are already taking place in the area without using tax increment funding. Councilman Jim Evans said, "Orem needs to get the message out that small business can use RDA funds the same as big ones." Councilman Chris Yandow said he wanted to see this project go forward, "but what if every business wanted this." Dameron countered, "Then there is no purpose for RDA. This project fits the criteria." Gilbert added that his company com-pany expects to be doing business for many years and will be putting put-ting money back into the com down RDA fund munity. He reminded the council that a business across the street received $10,000 in RDA funds a few years ago and it helped a lot. City Manager Daryl Berlin pointed out to the council that the message is, maybe unintentional, don't bother coming to Orem. He said the law was created to promote development. "Under the new law, funds are divided between economic development-and development-and redevelopment. It never was illegal the way it has been used. The question is not one of Chamber of Commerce to host Cannon at Friday Forum . Joe Cannon, Chief Executive Officer of Geneva Steel, will speak to members of the ProvoOrem Chamber of Commerce Com-merce at the Chamber's monthly luncheon to be held Friday, December 3 at noon at the Provo Park Hotel. As the new owner of the Utah Business Magazine, Cannon will discuss the magazine's premier edition as well as the future of Geneva Steel. Chamber President Steve Densley notes, "Joe Cannon is considered a key executive in the Western United States. Cannon played a leading role in the purchase pur-chase of Geneva Steel from the USX Corporation and its re-opening in September, 1987. Speakingof his local influence, Densley add, "Joe has had a tremendous impact on the Utah Valley community in terms of jobs and his willingness to get involved in-volved in community affairs." family giveaways but, ao we want economic and viable development, develop-ment, and are we willing to use a tool to help." Councilman Keith Hunt agreed the message appears to be that Orem is not interested in helping small business. Both Yandow and Councilman Kelvin Clayton agreed funds should be allocated to State Street. Hunt moved to support the request re-quest for RDA funding. The motion mo-tion was seconded by Evans. Opposed Op-posed were Bell, Clayton, Yandow Yan-dow and Welsh. Interested members of the community are invited to attend. Please contact the Chamber at 379-2555 for further details and to RSVP for the event. JOE CANNON |
