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Show BUILDING COMMUNITY IN OREM AND VINEYARD Orem U 1 Trn ai 1 QV-i GO 2a u I I I 0 N 50 CENTS THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2007 a SCHOOLS: Stallions pet fit in school's Walk-a-thon TOWfl HALL: Author stresses retirement planning SPORTS: Orem, MV soccer on top of regions "" BUSINESS FAMILY FINDS SUCCESS WITH MIRACLE BOWL re devastates em amiy y ?r; a1 - I I. rif K r mi Ti t r , a .mi imy1-- &w( ,4 Libi'r. v. & i r i I CI ,7 .. 'in i 1 5) photos by MIKE RIGERTNorth County The charred and water-soaked remains of the Riley's kitchen in their Orem home. Family buoyed by neighbors, community after blaze destroys their home Mike Rigert north county hough Orem's well-fitting moniker is Family City U.S.A., one family may be apt to rename the city Best Neighbors City USA. after neighbors, neigh-bors, friends and their church rallied around them when their home was destroyed by fire Saturday night. Tim Riley and his 17-year-old son Chris had just settled in the family's basement Saturday Sat-urday night to watch a movie and wife Glenda was taking a well-deserved nap after returning from a church retreat to Park City. Daughter Catherine Riley was away at college in California. Suddenly Riley and his son heard someone banging on their front door and rushed up the stairs to find next door neighbor John Burroughs with an alarmed expression expres-sion on his face. 1 l&M .. ..!. , -nit:, I ) f ... J - r The Riley family of Orem, Tim, his wife, Glenda, and son Chris, are appreciative of all the support they've received since their home was destroyed by fire Saturday night. I "JOHN SAID THERE WAS SMOKE coming out of the attic," Riley said. "I got Qenda up and we got out. Minutes later the fire was just raging." Though the family was able to move their cars out of the garage to clear the way for firefighters, they thought they'd be back in their beds later that night. Instead they barely bare-ly escaped with the clothes on their backs. Neighbor Jan Burroughs said Riley and his son were barefoot and somehow neighbors neigh-bors came up with a pair of size 14 shoes for Chris Riley and an equally large pair for his dad. "It went really fast from there," Jan Burroughs Bur-roughs said. "By the time police got there was thick, black smoke and flames when the fire trucks arrived." Within minutes, Riley said the home's roof came crashing down. "My wife was crying," he said. "I guess our lives changed a lot." Yet nearly from the second the unfathomable unfathom-able tragedy struck, the Riley's neighbors and members of their Christ Evangelical See FIRE, Page 2 Council to vote on CARE tax disbursement Reva Bowen NORTH COUNTY STAFF A statue of Jorgen Nielsen for Nielsen's Grove may be in, but banners for a cultural arts awareness aware-ness program may be out. The Orem City Council looked at those decisions and many others oth-ers as the group met in a work session Tuesday on how to disperse dis-perse the city's CARE (Cultural Arts and Recreation Enrichment) tax funds. The council will vote on the . final disbursement of funds following fol-lowing a public hearing at its Tuesday meeting. Those receiving receiv-ing grants will sign contracts with the city, then the funds will be available July 1. The $13,700 application from the Historic Preservation Commission Com-mission for a statue of Jorgen Nielsen, the Danish immigrant who founded the original Nielsen's Grove pioneer park, was deemed by Greg Stephens of the city's legal staff to be a legitimate use of CARE tax funds because of its permanence. But the banners requested by the Orem Arts Council for a cultural arts awareness campaign do not meet the legal definition of "facilities," "facili-ties," he said. It is estimated that the tax will bring in $1.8 million annually funds to be spent for recreation recre-ation and cultural arts in Orem. This year, the council has an additional ad-ditional $350,000 to work with, from the months of April, May, and June of 2006, when the tax was first collected, added to the annual July 1-June 30 fiscal year amount. As a beginning point, the council followed the lead of Mayor Washburn in outlining a long-term approach to the CARE tax allocations that divided the estimated $ 14.4 million in total revenues over the eight-year life of the tax into "buckets," or accounts. ac-counts. The "buckets" included: property, prop-erty, $3 million; recreation, $4 See CARE, Page 2 Briefing PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE FOR FUTURE 1-15 CORRIDOR CORRI-DOR EXPANSION, COMMUTER RAIL ALTERNATIVES ALTERNA-TIVES Orem and community residents are invited to one of four open house meetings being held by the Utah Department of Transportation and Utah Transit Authority to unveil study alternatives for future 1-15 expansion ex-pansion and commuter rail service in Orem and north Utah County. UDOT and UTA representatives will offer an overall presentation of the upcoming projects Wednesday, May 9, at 7 p.m. at Westmore Elementary School at 1150 S. Main Street, Orem. The meeting runs from 6 to 8 p.m. Maps and charts will illustrate a variety of options op-tions for 1-1 5 interchange designs and proposed commuter com-muter rail stations in Orem and Vineyard. For more information on the meetings and the 115 Corridor Environmental Impact Statement, visit www. udot.utah.gov. 800 NORTH CONSTRUCTION - The Utah Depart ment of Transportation advises motorists of the following fol-lowing lane restrictions due to construction work on 800 North: On May 1, after being closed for several weeks the left turn lanes from State Street onto 800 North will open to traffic. However, due to the road construction, all left turns from 800 North onto State Street will remain re-main closed until further notice. From May 2-6, the intersection of 100 West and 800 North will be closed for utility work. Motorists will need to use Main Street as an alternate. A shift and improvement in the area traffic control scheduled this week is anticipated to provide some congestion relief to the 800 North and State Street area. As soon as crews have utility lines installed across 800 North at 400 West and necessar y pavement pave-ment restoration can occur, traffic should be opened up to four lanes, two in each direction, along 800 North from 400 West to Main Street. Project updates can be found online at www.udot. utah.govorem800north. WWII VETS SOUGHT FOR THIS YEAR'S TRIP TO SEE NAT'L MEMORIAL - Now calling all Utah World War II veterans who have not had an opportunity opportuni-ty to see the National WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C: Hero Flight 2007 is now open for veteran and escort registration. The date for the trip this year is Friday, May 18, to Sunday, May 20. It is anticipated that this will fill up fast, so if you are interested in going please call the Veteran Registration number (801 ) 623-6988 as soon as possible. On last year's Hero Flight, organizers were able to accommodate 200 (including 120 veterans). They will either have the same number of seats on this flight or increase it to 250 if there are sufficient numbers to make it work. Organizers are asking that each veteran have someone accompany them on the trip. Hero Flight will cover the costs for each of the WWII veterans, but it is asked that escorts (except other WWII veterans) pay their own way ($900 all-inclusive). MAY BENEFIT CONCERT AT SCERA SHELL TO HELP MORE UTAH VETERANS SEE THE WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL The organization responsible for sending 120 Utah World War II veterans to Washington, Wash-ington, D.C, to see the National World War II Memorial have lined up a special concert at the SCERA Shell in Orem next month for a second trip this year for more aging veterans to experience the memorial. "The Price of Freedom" is a musical presentation composed by Rob Gardner that portrays young men going off to battle during the war. The concert is Saturday, May 26, at the Orem SCERA Shell. A preshow starts at 7 p.m. and "The Price of Freedom" begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 that night. Tickets may be purchased pur-chased by phone at (801 ) 386-5102 or (801 ) 773-1561 . A special "Gathering of Legends" book signing fundraiser on Saturday at Colonial Flag at 9390 S. 300 West in Sandy will feature four of Utah's most well-known well-known World War II legends. Proceeds from both fundraisers for Operation Hero Flight will help additional Utahns who served to see the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. 055 00050' NCUA JmffoKD ffkmp I 1 mcrmrsWaddi ami 3 mi mm tional rate information 0pen to all Utah County Residents. LENDER mmmmm . ;i in iit'iitifi OOB3 Copy |