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Show Times Newspaper Thursday, May 30, 1996 Page 2 Council amends ordinance on off A number of revisions to Orem City's off-street parking requirements were approved by the city council in a 5-0 vote May 28. The Planning Commission revised the ordinance with the help of city staff, and commission commis-sion members Richard Steinkopf, LuAnn March, ReNae Brereton, and Lisa Deason were in attendance at the council meeting to present the changes and answer questions. ques-tions. City planner Bob Moore said the revisions were done because some of the parking ratios were not meeting the needs of the city, some requirements were unclear, un-clear, and some simply needed changing. A few of the major revisions outlined in agenda materials included: in-cluded: Increasing parking stall width from 8.5 feet to 9 feet; decreasing parking stall length from 20 feet to 18 feet. Specifyingin the ordinance dimensions for angled parking spaces and one-way and two-way two-way driveways. Requiring a minimum surfacing sur-facing standard to ensure parking park-ing lot durability. Revising and clarifying minimum parking ratios. These were generally increased. In some cases, provision was made for a different ratio for a use in a commercial zone compared to Council approves $31,000 grant application The Orem City Council authorized the submittal of a $31,000 grant application for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival May 28. Konrad Hildebrandt, Federal Programs director for Orem City, presented the proposal to the council. Application Applica-tion will be made for Utah County Coun-ty Community Activities Grant funding, extra money available ' from the restaurant tax imposed to finance the construction of the David O. McKay Events Center on the Utah Valley State College campus. The funding is earmarked ear-marked for projects that will increase in-crease tourism within Utah County. Hildebrandt said the festival has a total budget of $129,100. Approximately $80,000 in cash and services are donated for the festival from area businesses. The city's contribution, Hildebrandt Hil-debrandt said, is mainly in personnel per-sonnel and equipment. The Helping Hospitals Help Kids public service billboard campaign Merlin Olsen and patients from Primary Children's Medical Medi-cal Center, Tom Beckstead and Heather Ewell, unveiled a new public service billboard campaign cam-paign at Reagan Outdoor Advertising. Adver-tising. Every other year, the Outdoor Advertising Association Associa-tion of American (OAAA) mounts a national public service campaign to raise awareness for a prominent national charity. "This year, children's hospi-: hospi-: tals and Children's Miracle Net 7&-7720 Great Dinner Selections with a Full Dinner Menu ' 11-3 Mon-Fri 6-9 Mon-Thur 12-3 Saturday 5-10 Fri & Sat I fill 1 1 it 6? Hmiinff a Dartv or mUlti -Givius zoning - street parking the same use in a manufacturing zone. Permitting "double counting" count-ing" or sharingof parking spaces if the hours of operation for uses sharing the spaces do not overlap. over-lap. During discussion, Councilman Council-man Stephen Sandstrom asked if the commission had given any thought to breaking out the "professional" category to distinguish distin-guish between offices for doctors and dentists, where there would be more people coming and going, and an architectural firm or similar establishment, where there would be less traffic. Moore said it was felt that the standard applied should be across the board because two different dif-ferent uses may be permitted in the same zone. Otherwise, if office of-fice moves are made, changes can occur and create problems. Deason said many new offices of-fices are being built without knowing the specific future use, so the requirement of one space per 250 square feet of floor area was a good compromise. March said the commission members did go out into the community to see firsthand the various parking situations while the revision work was being done. Council vote was 5-0 in favor of amending the ordinance. Council members Judy Bell and Chris Yandow were not in attendance atten-dance at the meeting. $31,000 request represents less than 25 of the total actual budget. The Timpanogos Storytelling Storytell-ing Festival has "grown incrementally in-crementally every year", Hildebrandt Hil-debrandt said, and is expected to draw over 8,000 visitors this year, 800 of those from out of state. A new donated site at , Olmsted is being prepared. Any money received from the grant would be used for site preparation, prepara-tion, tents, stages, chairs, advertising, adver-tising, and other festival expenses. expen-ses. City council approval is one of the county requirements in applying for the grant money. Another condition is that there be no more than three applications applica-tions from each city. The festival application is the only one being made from Orem, but Hildebrandt Hil-debrandt acknowledged it is an optimistic request, since a total of $50,000 for the whole county is available through the grant. work were selected," says Merlin Mer-lin Olsen, national Co-host of Children's Miracle Network Telethon. Members of the OAAA have donated nearly 3,000 billboards throughout the nation na-tion to recognize the fundraising assistance Children's Miracle Network provides to children's hospitals. The fourteenth annual Telethon is scheduled for June 1 and 2 and will air on Channel 5. Lunch Buffet $525 Dinner Buffet $795 Take Out a call. X 40 DUlIL't Stltction$ - Both Hot A ANtiCod, including Shrimp k I stVH Stltctioni - Both H(4 & 11 SCERA makes annual report to the city NormNielsen, SCERA president, presi-dent, and Dean Dickerson, chairman of the SCERA Board, recently met with the Orem City Council to give a report of the organization's activities. Dickerson said the new Arts completion, and grand open-' ing events are a month or two away. The new theater has been operating since December. The City of Vineyard recently recent-ly demonstrated interest in and support of SCERA programs by making a $12,500 donation to the Arts Center, Dickcroon said. The SCERA Shell season has officially opened. Dickerson said the SCERA organization appreciates its association as-sociation with the city, and he invited council members to come and tour the new facility, reminding them that they are each voting members of the corporation. cor-poration. Nielsen said high schools from all over the state have been able to use the SCERA facilities for a film festival competition, where student-made videos are judged. The first SCERA Encore season was rated as successful at a little better than break even. Nielsen also expressed appreciation ap-preciation for the relationship between the SCERA and Orem City, terming it a "winwin" situation for both. Mayor Stella Welsh asked what some of the highlights of the new Shell season would be. . "Promised Valley" will be the first big stage production, Nielsen Niel-sen said, in keeping with this year's Centennial theme. Glen Campbell, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and a Beatles im- ? itation group will be sdme of the guest artists performing. . . A musical, "Robert and Elizabeth", the story of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Brown-ing, "might be the 'sleeper" of the schedule," Nielsen said. At $29.95 for a season ticket to all of the events, the Shell pass is still the best quality entertainment value around, Nielsen said. Welsh also asked about the landscaping around the new building if funds werein place to complete it. Nielsen said the funds were there, but the master plan on landscaping had been in process of being refined because of a proposal from CEDO (the Commission Com-mission for Economic Development Develop-ment in Orem) to purchase the old seminary building that has housed the CEDO offices. SCERA has started to field calls from citizens wondering about the pavers that they purchased, pur-chased, and Nielsen said that "should happen and be up and visible" in the near future. Councilman Chris Yandow asked if the opening of the Villa Theatre in Springville is expected ex-pected to affect business at the SCERA. Nielsen said the view is an "abundance mentality" the more there is going on in the business, the better it is for everybody. He said the SCERA is not protective or territorial. He also said the organization fills a particular niche in the community by creating opportunities oppor-tunities for education and training train-ing of young people, while maintaining main-taining first rate productions. "We think there's room for everybody," Nielsen said. Love is the only game lhat is nol called on account of darkness. M. HirschficM j County Home Loans Debbie S. Isaacs Branch Manager 1371 South State St. Orem, Utah 84058 Railroad tie cutting camp LaGtoadl "Goes Canyon east of Provo earned its name in this way. Springville and some of the other communities also had slides. It was a dangerous method for transporting transport-ing timber; logs would come whipping down the slopes, taking out everything in their path, and occasionally careening and flipping flip-ping out of control into the air. Obviously, procuring wood was not an occupation for the fainthearted. faint-hearted. 1 . ' The demand for timber greatly great-ly increased when the construction construc-tion crews for Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads arrived in Utah during 1867 and 1868. Many thousands of wooden ties were needed for anchoring the rails. Tie contractors sent their woodsmen onto the north slope of the Uinta Mountains. The easiest and most economical way to get the ties from the mountains to the construction camps was to utilize the Bear River. Trees were hacked hack-ed into ties which were piled up along the river banks. During the high water of spring run-off, the ties were driven down the river. The era of tie drives had begun. The clamor for ties to build the branch lines that fingered out from the main line gave birth to .. many tie contractors who sent crews into the mountains. Competition Com-petition was keen among these contractors. During the early 1870s as the Utah Southern line made its way into Utah Valley, the demand for ties was filled largely lar-gely on a cooperative basis under the direction of local Mormon Church leaders and businessmen. Crews made up of local men and boys went into the mountains, cutting and hauling the ties. Provo's Co-operative Store handled much of the tie business for the area. There were several thousand standard gauge ties left over when the extension of the Utah Southern was discontinued. discon-tinued. Another surge of construction activity occurred in 1878 with the development of coal mines in Carbon County. When mines were opened in Pleasant Valley, it became necessary to build a narrow gauge railroad from the mines through Spanish Fork Canyon to the markets in Utah and Salt Lake Valleys. Samuel S. Jones, early Provo businessman, saw the opportunity for a good profit. Jones had been one of the founders of the Provo Co-operative Store. When the building contractors of the Pleasant Valley Val-ley line advertised for ties, the dollar signs flashed in Jones' mind. The standard gauge ties that had been left over from the Co-op , contracts and which were lying useless at Provo and York represented repre-sented the break for which Jones was looking. He offered the Provo Co-operative $500 for the ties. When his offer was accepted, he launched a new enterprise. An unpublished biography of Jones at the Brigham Young University Library Archives tells the story. Jones cut two feet off all the ties and delivered them to George Goss who bought them for the narrow gauge line. Jones made a (801) 235-9762 (801) 235-9742 (Fax) (801) 351-0451 (Pager) (801) 368-6519 (Mobile) ' " . J k - J - 1 (Photo courtesy of Utah State tidy profit on the transaction, plus had enough two-foot ends to provide him with fuel for the winter. For a time, Jones was busy with the Co-operative and other business ventures, so he handled the tie contracts through his wife's business. However, the timber contracts became heavy and demanded more of his attention. atten-tion. By the early 1880s, he was not only supplying ties, he was also producing charcoal for smelters smel-ters from wood in Spanish Fork Canyon. The timber resources in Utah County became seriously depleted; trees were scarce. It was necessary to find new sources sour-ces of wood near the headquarters head-quarters of the Provo River in the Uinta Range. The tie drives down the Provo River were about to commence. Jones was not the first to consider con-sider transporting timber down the Provo River. As early as 1853, Archibald Gardner had explored the possibilities, had ruled out the Weber, and found the Provo River workable, but nothing came of his idea. However, the Smith family of Provo Bench built a sawmill near the mouth of Provo Canyon. Other Provo men also built sawmills in Provo and in the canyons. It was the Smith brothers who in 1883 conducted the first timber drive down the Provo River. The timber had beeri cut in Pine Valley in 1882 and 1883, floated down river, and landed at the sawmill. It was found that floating large, long logs was not very practical since they became easily lodged and blocked the stream. Yet smaller pieces could make their way down without much trouble. Ties would easily float down the river. It was probably 1884 that S.S. Jones used a tie drive while operating under a contract with the Denver Rio Grande Western. One hundred and forty thousand ties were to be delivered that season to points on the railroad between Provo and Price. During that summer the space along the railroad at Soldiers Summit was covered with ties that Jones had furnished. There were also other companies from Provo that were supplying ties on contract. The process of tie driving is well described by Charles Peterson Peter-son and Linda Speth in their History His-tory of the Wasatch-Cache National Na-tional Forest and by Albert Jones in his biography of his brother S.S. Jones. Companies of men would be sent to the headwaters of Provo River about 30 to 40 miles about Heber City. Strips of trees would be cut down and "hackers" would hack out and shape the ties. Then the men used draft animals to haul the ties to the river bank where they were stacked. Fall and winter was the prime time for cutting. Men were paid for each hand-hewn hand-hewn tie they cut; a man could do about 20 a day. They used broad axes, double-bitted axes, peelers, saws, and other tools of their own devising. Haulers moved about 200 ties to the river bank a day. Sometimes several outfits ' would be working in the same area, stacking their ties nearby. Then it was necessary to hack the ties in a special way or burn in a brand symbol. Ties would often become mixed in the river and these marks were essential to distinguish dis-tinguish which ties belonged to which company. Despite these precautions, ties from different operators became mixed, which sometimes led to lawsuits. At the camps, there was very little overhead for the company. The workers camped out and received their food and pay per Historical Society) continued from front page tie. S.S. Jones, like many other operators, had a store near his tie camps from which the men could buy supplies. Henry Goddard, in a written recollection located at the Utah State Historical Society, remembered that the choppers were paid 12.5 cents a piece for hewing or 25 cents for ties hauled to the river bank. The contractor would make 50 cents for first class ties, 40 cents for seconds and narrow gauge ties, and 30 cents for third class ties. The companies com-panies also had to pay a small "stumpage" fee to the government govern-ment after 1885. For the workmen, the wages seemed good since it was one of the few ways to make cash in an economy that was still based primarily on agriculture and the barter system. sys-tem. Men from towns along the river from Provo to Francis found work with the companies. " The drives had to be conducted con-ducted during the high water of spring runoff. According to Goddard, God-dard, a boom would be built at the junction of the north and south forks of the Provo River in Pine Valley so that the ties could be collected from the various tributaries. As early as possible, , a company of tie driverswould throw the thousands of ties from the stacks into the headwaters of the Provo River. As the snow melted, ties from Boulder Creek would flow downstream, joined by those from North Fork, then South Fork, the last to rise. When the water was high enough, the drive would commence down the main channel. To keep the ties from straying, side streams and canals had to be blocked off by men going in advance. Gangs would work for four or five miles in each direction on the river's banks, driving the ties down stream. A rear gang of 15 to 18 men cleaned up behind and moved along the ties that had become stranded or lodged against the banks or on rocks. Camp was moved a few miles every two or three days. Albert Jones indicated that it took "the bravest and nerviest" men to work the tie drives. If ties jammed, the men would sometimes some-times have to go into the water to dislodge them. The work was hazardous; haz-ardous; the men had to be fast and agile to reach shore safely. They used light poles topped with a sharp iron spike and hook to loosen the ties from a jam, yet there still were plenty of dunk-ings dunk-ings in the water and an unanticipated unan-ticipated swim. It was not unusual un-usual for men to be working in ice cold water up to their waists or even armpits. The area just above Bridal Veil Falls was jam prone. Sometimes the jams would be over a mile in length, so densely wedged together that a man with good balance could walk on them. . When the ties reached the mouth of Provo Canyon, the men had to make sure the ties did not go down irrigation ditches. Near the city a curb dam would be built to hold back the drive so the ties could be removed from the river, sorted, and hauled to the railroad depot in Provo for shipment to the construction camps. For this dangerous work, the tie drivers were paid from $3.50 to $5 a day. The drive from the forks in the Uintas to Provo took from 15 to 18 days, according to Goddard, which was just about as long as high water lasted. Lyndia Carter, a former teacher, is an independent researcher re-searcher and writer who lives in Springville. The writing of this article was commissioned through the Utah County Centennial Centen-nial Committee and is printed with the permission of the author. |