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Show Thursday, May 19, 2005 Page 2 OREM GENEVA TIMES JVJ . i few rt foists,. . NEWS A fJ D NOTES OREM NOTES Orem seeking new police service dog Clyde E. Weeks Jr. The cily of Orem ls looking for a (Jog-Not (Jog-Not just any dog, mind you. 'ITus dog must have very special characteristics and training that qualify it to become a valuable member of the ( )rem Department Depart-ment of Public Safety. IX. Img Kdwards said Orem Ls requesting proposals from firms or individuals for the purchase of tins special canine, which will augment the city's present cadre of three xilice service dogs. 'Hie specific breed Ls a Belgian MalinoLS, titled: KNVP, MM and 11 1 2 certified, with narcotics detection training optional. I iopefully such a dog does exist and will be made available to the city during the coming week. lYojxwaLs will fx? received by the Office of furcfutsing, 5 North State Street, Orem, Utah, K40.r7, until 3 p.m. Wednesday. Owners of dogs meeting these requirements will need to make them available to the Orem Department De-partment of I'ublic Safety for evaluation. Then the dog will join the three other young Belgian Mali-nois Mali-nois police service dogs, which are used almost daily in locating hidden drugs in cars, homes and on suspects. Orem's canine unit Ls relatively relative-ly new, having been organized in 2002 with a single animal, Rico, who was acquired from the Utah County Task Force. The dog's handler was Officer Art bipez, an Orem native, who lias Ix-en an Orem police officer for nearly eight years. ju-7. underwent special training in handling police service ser-vice dogs two years ago, after Orem acquired the dog. Since the key to working with a police service dog involves establishing establish-ing a close relationship with the animal, Rico Ixx'ame the family dog of Art Lopez's wife and four children Rico undergoes a regular training program of one hour per day with Lopez. A playful animal, Rico, uses his keen sease of smell and inquisit iveness to ferret out the odors of illegal drugs from some of the most unlikely of places. 1 Airing their unusual relationship. relation-ship. Art lvopez and Rico have established a model of genuine trust and af feci ion. Watching the two of them, cavorting and playing the rather serious game of "Drugs, drugs, who's got the drugs," one may not suspect the NorthCounty NEWSPAPERS 59 West Mam American Fork Kirk Parkinson 75 6 7669 Vice lycsidentfblislic parV insone5 heraldetra corn Marc Haddock 756 7669 North County Editor mhaddocV KOheraldextra com Cathy Allred 756 7669 Leru. Saratoga Springs. Pt Grove callredheraldextra com Barbara Christiansen 756 7669 American Fori., Alpine. Cedar Hills bchristiansenhefaldextra com Landon Olson 2251340 Orem. Vineyard klsonheraldextra com Beky Beaton 756 7669 Sports bbeatonheraldextra com Lane Dubois 756 7669 Advertising Account Executive IduboisQheraldextra com NEWSSTAND PRICE: $0.50 SUBSCRIPTION RATE 1 yesr (in Utah County) - $36 40. Sunday, Thursday and holiday deliveries (which includes the week of Easter plus Memonal, Independence, Pioneer, Labor, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day). 1 year (outsid Utah County) - $45.40 1 year ( in Utah County - Thunday only) - $36 40 411711 fwvug(w0m TO KEEP YOU INFORMED AND INVOLVED SI I H f Installation Kay Bradford, 83, of Orem, center, receives a hug from Jerry Cook, left, following the installation of Yesharah in Orem. Cook will act as president and Bradford president-elect. Yesharah is a group of ramifications of their mutual training program. But it gets serious when Orem police officers are on the street and encounter drivers whom they suspect are hiding illegal drugs. One night Rico was working with Orem police officers and found met hamphet amines in cars on two different stops. One drug bust was in the area of 20 West and 1200 South in Orem on a traffic stop by Officer Offi-cer Ryan Irter. Rico indicated something was on the front seat of the car, where officers found some methamphetamines, a meth pipe and some marijuana. The driver, who was also driving on a suspended driver's Phone:756 - 7669 Fax:756-5274 DAILY HERALD FUBLISHIMQ CO. rnjn Jannette Esplin 756 -7669 Office Manager John Taylor 756 7669 Graphic Designer Landon Olson 344 2558 DesignerCopy Editor Mark LaRocco 344 2570 DesignerCopy Editor Leah L Culler 344-2561 DesignerCopy Editor Kent Davis 756 7669 Photo Technician in-849 PottmaaUt. 'Mrtt Hill"1'" i t F, v celebration licease, went to jail. Rick also found methamphetamines methamphet-amines in Springville on a car stopped by members of the Utah County Task Force. The early success of the Orem Canine Unit led to its expansion two years ago, when two more dogs and officers were added. Police service dogs live at the officer's home with the officer's family. Specialized training is required re-quired for both handler and dog to function together as a team. Police service dogs are trained to search for drugs and explosives, explo-sives, missing children and hiding hid-ing suspects. They protect their handlers and, when necessary, they may be used as a less-than Time for a " ill f r ' ' - 4 "... ;v;y h-.,.o f " ' '' " elieve it or not, some people , .in Summit County think three I ' county commissioners aren't " - " enough to handle the needs of the rapidly growing county. s This is interesting because at least one of the people who feel this way is a Summit County Commissioner. Com-missioner. He is uncomfortable that the executive and legislative powers are wielded by the same organization. The system lacks the usual checks and balances found in most elective offices in the United States, and consolidates consoli-dates too much power in too few hands. Now that's something you don't see very often politicians looking to reduce their individual influence in government. gov-ernment. While some folks in Utah County also think this county has outgrown the three-commissioner form of government, govern-ment, our commissioners don't echo that concern. In a recent public meet ing, two of the commissioners said-they would listen to a proposal for such a change, but they don't encourage or necessarily support it. So I thought it would be interesting to compare the two counties. According to the 2003 population estimates of the U.S.: I Summit County has a population of just over 33,000, while Utah County's is almost 400,000. I Summit County grew by 11 percent since 2000 that's pretty high, an increase of 3,284. Utah County grew by 8 percent since 2000 although less than Summit County by percentage, it represents repre-sents almost 30,000 people. In other words, in the last three years, Utah County has increased by the entire population of Summit County. In fairness, it should be noted that 18,000 of the residents in Summit County live in the unincorporated unincorpo-rated part of the county, and the county commission commis-sion is their only elected governing body. In Utah County, about 12,000 residents live in the unincorporated areas, and most of these are rural But still, Utah's County Commission is responsible respon-sible for more than 10 times the population of Summit County. After all, commissioners represent repre-sent everyone in every area of the county, incorporated incor-porated or not. t lethal option when making arrests ar-rests on violent, fleeing or hidden hid-den suspects. Today, Orem's canine unit is comprised of Lopez and Zorro; Officer B.J. Robinson and Tiko; and Officer Josh Adams and Max. Frequently, police officers from other cities call on an Orem canine team to assist them search cars and homes for drugs. These requests are honored, whenever possible, since drugs and the people who use them do not recognize city boundaries. Drugs being used in some other city today can be easily moved to the city of Orem tomorrow. government change? i m Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN ft (V ; J BRIAN WAGNERNorth County officers for the Utah County returned LDS missionaries. OREM BRIEFS I Memorial Day services planned Orem war veterans veter-ans will be at a Memorial Day program on May 30 at 9 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial in the Orem City Cemetery at 1520 N. 800 East. The ceremonies cer-emonies will feature musical performances by Mountain View High School students, the Timpanogos High School Chorus, both accompanied by the Orem High School Band. Mayor Jerry Washburn will conduct the recognition ceremony. cer-emony. The program will end with a 21-gun salute at 9:45 a.m. Everyone is invited. So if members of the Summit County Commission Commis-sion are considering adopting a more representative representa-tive form of government either a larger commission com-mission or a mayor-council form of government it shouldn't be surprising that some in this county are looking at a similar change. It wouldn't be the first time. In the 1980s, there was widespread dissatisfaction with our three-person county commission . There was a perceived lack of representation rep-resentation of the people, and a sense that the commission was being run as a good ol' boys club. Also there was some frustration that a supposed "gentleman's agreement" to spread out geographical representation representa-tion on the commission was not being f ollowed. The agreement was supposed to make sure representatives from the rural north and even more rural south of the county had a commission seat. So a panel was formed to look at making county government more representative. Wilson Sorensen, a longtime president at the school that eventually became UVSC, headed up the committee that included in-cluded representatives from all over the county. Malcolm Beck, the then-mayor of American Fork, was on the committee, which had lukewarm luke-warm support from the public, and lip service from the sitting commission. The group met once or twice, but without support sup-port from the elected county officials, nothing much happened. Beck was elected to the commission, commis-sion, and north Utah County had representation again. And the panel went away. That was more than 20 years ago. The county has grown a lot since then. The old geographical ties have become less important. Agriculture has become less of a factor in the community, and in many cases, our rural lifestyle isn't so rural anymore. Perhaps these changes are part of the engine that's driving a new effort to re-examine the county's coun-ty's threecommissioner form of government. Still, it's going to take a groundswell of popular popu-lar opinion to force a major change in county government, and, as was seen in the '80s, it's pretty hard to maintain that kind of effort long enough to make a real difference. Super fan Continued from Page 1 every year by the Utah High School Activities Association. Cottam won it for the 4A division. Cottam has received several smaller awards over the years sweatshirts, hats, candy bars but nothing like the Super Su-per Fan Award. Oddly, he said many of the players this year don't know him as well as players play-ers have in years past. "This year I could not attend at-tend as much as I would have liked to," he said. In fact, in 2004 he missed his first state track meet in 14 years because his wife, who sometimes went with him to sporting events, was sick. She died a few months ago. Cottam doesn't talk much about his wife. But he smiles as he talks of his many memories of past games and athletes. When he spoke of past Mountain View girls' teams, his eyes were wet. "Everyone of the varsity came out, everyone of the JV came out, everyone of the sophomore team came out and hugged me right midcourt. "I felt kind of foolish because be-cause I'm holding up the game, and every doggone one of them came out and hugged me." He had several cards and letters from different athletes and teams. Cottam didn't argue with the statement that he has touched many lives. He simply sim-ply said, "A lot of lives have touched me, too." The imprints of those lives could be heard when he spoke. He had a hard time going go-ing a few minutes without tell ing a story about an athlete he knew. He related a story. One time he said a woman came up to him and called him "Grandpa Cottam." She was a player who had remembered him from a few years before. It's clear that Cottam meant it when he said, "I've made a lot of friends." Building Continued from Page 1 day. The foundation takes them through the end of September, Sep-tember, when they begin the framing of the house. After Christmas break they begin roofing and drywall, and by the end of March they have finished with the carpentry. car-pentry. By the first week of May, the project should be essentially es-sentially completed, and the students can add the finishing touches during the last few weeks of class. The house the students built looks like a home, furnished fur-nished for show as part of the Utah Valley Parade of Homes. There is no charge to view the home built by the students, and it will be open ' until 6 p.m. every day this week and from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday. For the students, the house holds countless memories of its construction. The students eagerly point out the window well that another student fell out of, the roof that a student was too scared to get off of and love to tell the story of how their instructor accidentally acciden-tally shot another student with a nail gun. "It's way better than going to school," said Brogan Crane. Stories Continued from Page 1 that "safe stranger" the child can confide in. "After five minutes, they are not strangers anymore," Park said. "They're best friends." During the next two weeks, the creative writers writ-ers are given class time to complete the assignment of writing and illustrating the hardbound, blank books. Park said that many students spend 10 to 30 hours of their own time on the project "because they want to make it perfect, because this little child has made such an impression im-pression on them" When the books are delivered, deliv-ered, each author reads their story to the class, with the little star perched nearby. "The kids just sit there and beam," Park said. "Here they are, the hero, coming out victorious." As a final touch, Park takes a picture of the two together that is used on an "About the Author" page, which gives biographical information, and a place for the book to be autographed. POO |