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Show TIMES Submit a Guest Editorial or Opinion at our office, locat & Opinion ed at Ooo ooum orare in Urem. Ueadlines are Monday 10:00 a.m. All submissions are subject to editing for length, and The Orem-Geneva Times reserves the right to publish or not to publish a submission. A2, Thursday, February 5, 2004 (Editorial) COMM Accessory apartments issue is a complicated one There must be times when members of the Orem City Council feel like seven Solomons sitting sit-ting in the Council Chambers. The elected body is called upon to make life-affecting decisions deci-sions that are not clearly black and white, but are very complex with pros and cons on both sides of the issue. In the famous scriptural case of the two mothers claiming the same baby, Solomon's inspiration to offer to cut the baby in half resulted in the actual mother offering offer-ing to give up claim to the infant to save its life. As a consequence, Solomon was able to give the baby to the correct person. City Council decisions are sometimes, but not always, so clear-cut no pun intended. Every once in a while, an issue comes along that truly tests the wisdom and foresight of the council and the city's professional staff. The issue of accessory apartments, apart-ments, now being revisited by the council, is such an issue. The council voted in its January 27 meeting to continue discussion to February 10, when the group will consider amending the city's laws on the apartments. An accessory apartment is one that is built into a single-family home. For about ten years, the city's law was that pretty much any home in the city could have a legal accessory accesso-ry apartment if one of the apartments in the home was owner-occupied, and if the accessory apartment met all building requirements require-ments and codes and was issued a permit. Two or three years ago, the issue of accessory apartments became a controversial con-troversial one in the city, as more and more apartments apart-ments many of them illegal accessory apartments apart-ments impacted neighborhoods neigh-borhoods throughout the city to the degree that citizens citi-zens were provoked and the matter carried over into the 2001 election as an important campaign issue. Well over a year ago, the council decided, in a close, 4-3 vote indicative of the controversy's complexity, to set a deadline for application appli-cation for accessory apartment apart-ment permits and a deadline dead-line for the accessory apartments to be completed. complet-ed. Basically, future accessory acces-sory apartments were outlawed out-lawed after what was deemed a reasonable time frame. This was after the city had attempted to educate edu-cate the public about the apartments and the law through all means of communication com-munication available including the newsletter sent out with utility bills. Now that the deadlines have passed, a variety of individual circumstances have been brought to the city's attention. What about individuals who were serving church missions mis-sions and were out of the country when the law was changed? What about those who were counting on income from an apartment apart-ment to supplement retirement income? What about those who were unaware of the changes or of the requirements for having a legal accessory apartment? What about those who thought their apartments were legal, but have discovered that they are not? What about those who have applied for the permits, but because of health problems, family crises, or construction delays, were unable to meet the completion deadline? dead-line? t The council instantly addressed that last "what about" by amending the law to allow the deadline for completion of the legal accessory apartments to be governed by the building build-ing permit rather than by the "arbitrary date" of February 12, 2004; That action, however, only satisfied satis-fied a few of the citizens who came to share their stories with the council. , Some citizens' concerns look unlikely to be assuaged. Some protested the cost estimated to be between $10,000 - $12,000 to remodel a home to install an apartment that meets code with regard to standards such as window size, fire walla, and a separate sepa-rate furnace. ; Council members emphasized that they cannot compromise safety standards that are set by law. The group also seemed unlikely to approve any program that would open up all homes in Orem as fair game for accessory ',. apartments again, since increased density den-sity and the negative impacts would be sure to increase. Will the council approve some sort of "amnesty" program that will enable owners of illegal accessory apartments to bring them up to code? Will other exceptions or accommodations accommoda-tions be made? What fate lies in store for those who continue to operate illegal accessory apartments? Time will tell, but some answers for at least the immediate future should come February 10th . Timpanogos Green The Orem-Geneva Times . 538 South State Street Orem, UT 84058 An edition of The Daily Herald, Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc. Subscriptions & Delivery 375-5103 News & Advertising 225-1340 Fax 2251341 E-mail oremtimesnetworld.com USPS 411-711. Published Thursdays by Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc., 538 South State Street, Orem, Utah 84058. Periodicals postage paid at Orem, Utah 84059. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 65, Orem, UT 84059. Member: Audit Bureau of Circulations NEWSSTAND PRICE $0.50 SUBSCRIPTION RATE 1 year-$36.40 (in county) (Sunday & Thursday plus Holiday deliveries) Holiday deliveries include delivery the week of Easter, Memorial, Independence, Pioneer, Labor, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. 1 year- $45.40 (out of county) NEWS We welcome news tips. Call 225-1340 to report news tips or if you have a comment or a question. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must include the author's name (printed AND signed) and a telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, punctuation, taste and length. Letters are welcome on any topic. COLUMBIA:Gem of the Skies February 1, 2003 "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean:" That song inspires America's devotion. Its verses sing America's proud story; Its music stuns the senses of the land. And so, they named the shuttle, sent to space, "Columbia " to stir the human race To vistas in the firmaments, unspanned. How many times, it blasted off to glory! How many times it plummeted, aloft, And landed, safe, on meadows, green and soft! How marvelous, those journeys to that place, Where some observed, they saw a holy face! How wonderful, the universe to scan; To visit vastnesses, as yet unseen! To probe! To feel the fingerprints of God! To memorize the mysteries; be awed! To make the calls for courage supervene, And carry out their most prodigious plan! How many stand in line to trek the stars? To memorize the moon; meander Mars? Disaster in the heavens placed a pall On flights, back when the Challenger did fall, Just ten miles up. Columbia was flown In 1981 -the first that flew Of twenty-eight successful, all but one: The craft and crew, most tragically undone! Yet, how can such a tragedy be true? How must survivors feel, left all alone? Two hundred thousand feet above the earth, The shuttle shed its engine, lost its girth! And still, the Nation mourns! The shuttles sleep, As seven families, now, grieve and weep. Now, seven sons' and daughters' spirits soar, And probe the promise of eternal life. The hearts of many kneel to share their pain, As many swear, they have not lived in vain. No longer mortal, free of earthly strife, Columbus-like, their challenge to explore, Now, catapults them into history. Creation cries to solve their mystery. Meanwhile, this dark disaster gives us pause, As gravity claims homage to its laws; While, heroines and heroes stand in line, To make their love of science match the test. Space pilots, engineering marvels, strive, As astronauts, determined to survive! They rise, like rockets, better than the best, And soar, like gods and goddesses, divine! May heaven host these angels in disguise: Columbia, the diamond of the skies! The year retreats. We strive to understand, How fresh the wounds of memory command uur senses. Hail Columbia! anew, And those, who perished in its tragic flight. Bring comfort, still, to those they left behind-Their behind-Their lives, heroic: never out of mind. Now, bless celestial travels that ignite The fires of exploration, we renew. The planet, Mars, still glitters in the skies. A new Columbia shall claim that prize! A : 4 ft Leslie Dunn The British entered World War II against the Germans two years before the United States declared war. In fact, many young American men, especially pilots, joined the Canadian or Royal Air Force beforel941, they were so eager to enter the fray. Young British subjects were drafted when Great Britain declared war, among them Orem resident Leslie Dunn. After I came home from an LDS mission in 1939 (I was the only Englishman on a mission at the time), war was imminent. I learned that a maintenance unit of the Royal Air Force was hiring just five miles out of my town, Kidderminster. I went and asked for a job, and was given one. I worked in an area where things were stored receiving and issuing items for the Royal Air Force. Because we knew that the Germans could bomb us, storehouse sites were scattered around on country roads. 1 was on site tour. Dons, who later became my wife, went to work on two site, only a mile from site four. She would meet me, and we would sit in a little dingle and eat lunch together. After a few months, right after war was declared, I was inducted into the air force. Because I was working for the RAF, I could choose the air force. Our site was camouflaged dark green to look like an ordinary field. One day, a German Junkers II, a German twin-engine plane, came over in the daylight. day-light. Two Spitfires went after it. Seeing that they were lost, and after a couple of shots went through the airplane, the Germans, who could speak English, said, "If you will let us land, we'll just land, and you can take over our airplane." When they landed, they were of course arrested. None of the crew were hurt. They were taken away to a prison camp. I got some pieces of a broken window, clear plastic, that shots had gone through. I found a way to polish it, so made a ring of it and sent it to my fiancee through the mail. Doris wore it out, and I have since had a duplicate ring made for her. I was given two days off to go home and be married. I got off one weekend and wrote Doris to tell her I would be coming home. After duty on Friday night, I went out onto the highway, in my uniform, and was picked up by a big lorry (truck), whose driver said he was going to Kidderminster. He dropped me off about five miles out of the town, so I could take a bus on into town. Pretty soon the bus came along. I climbed on and sat on the first empty seat. The conductor came and' I paid him my money. He had a little light on his chest, over the money changer. When I turned and looked at the back of the bus, there was my wife sitting there, four seats behind me. So I went back and sat with her. I don't know how to explain it the feeling was wonderful! We both got off the bus and walked the half mile to my home. One day at work, my supervisors came to me and said, "You're to be released. They say you're a minister" minis-ter" That was the first I knew anything about it. The acting mission president had arranged with the government gov-ernment to release some of the Mormon soldiers to return to their branches as lay leaders. Ministers of other churches were been deferred from the draft. I was set apart as second counselor in the Wolverhampton Branch, about twenty miles from Kidderminster. I remained in that office till the end of the war. I went back to work for the Air Ministry, in charge of modifications of Wellington bombers, and there were hundreds of modifications. I worked twelve hours a day, six days a week except eight hours on Saturday, but never on Sundays. The biggest modification modifi-cation occurred when Churchill decided that the British would have to land paratroopers in France. I worked to convert every Wellington into a troop carrier, car-rier, but I never installed one modification. The Americans had different ideas the D-Day invasion. I worked to salvage the plywood, nuts, bolts, screws, washers, hinges, etc., badly needed for post-war recovery. If you wish to help with the Orem Veterans Oral History Project, as an informant, interviewer, or transcriber, tran-scriber, phone Don Norton, 225-8050. POOR |