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Show 1 480 exDires 1313091 ' UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION r ; 467 EAST 3O0 SOUTH I j bhli iHKt CITY UT 64111 Serving American Fork, Alpine and Highland Vol. 12, No. 15 Wednesday, April 25, 1990 50 cents a single copy ( r'nrninr- KOUUULbUU tj '' 1 I '"' i AF makes pact for purchase of 3 wells Hospital personnel carry mock victims into Emergency Room at American Fork Hospital as part of emergency drill carried out Saturday. 'Disast3r' tests ability of local medical services It looked like the real thL g. Individuals appeared injured -. some seriously - dazed, and in need of immediate medical attention . Ambulances were seen rusl ing to the scene - Lehi, American Fork, Pleasant Grove - and the "what's happening" crowd mulled around. ;,' In reality, it was a disaster drill - preparing American Fork Hospital personnel and personnel from the three ambulance associations so they would be ready in the event the real thing should ever occur. The simulation took" place Sat urday morning - it was scheduled have occurred at the old Sugar Factory between American Fork and Pleasant Grove. ) There were 18 "victims" (actually (actu-ally members of the Lehi High School drama class and other volunteers) who were made up to appear as having "suffered" burns, fractures, open wounds, and exposure to carbon car-bon monoxide and other chemicals. Another group of students posed as "hystericarfriends and relatives of the group, beseiging the hospital with questions after "learning" of the disaster. Ambulances brought the students to the hospital where they were "treated" or sent on to other facilities. facili-ties. Directors of the drill said the students were made up to appear to have the various injuries. They were then triaged to determine the ex tent ot injury. A tag went with them to tell hospital personnel the preliminary pre-liminary diagnosis. , , ' . f - - i.ii A., .y v '-V J By BARBARA CHRISTIANSEN After five years of negotiations, American Fork City and the American Ameri-can Fork Irrigation Company have reached an agreement for the city to purchase three wells from the irrigation company. The accord was reached last week when members of both groups sat down and talked at a special spe-cial city council session. ses-sion. Priortothattime, negotiations were often conducted through representatives representa-tives from each body or through attorneys. The irrigation company had offered BSSS the wells to the city with a purchase price of $330,000. They had a certificated cer-tificated right to 3944 acre feet of water from the three wells. However, the state engineer was reluctant to transfer that amount to the city and reportedly was only willing to give 1000 acre feet with a change in use from irrigation water to culinary. Mayor B. Kay Hutchings said that the irrigation company was not willing to have the city "lose one cupful of water." Problems with maximizing the amount to be transferred stalled the talks, resulting in the withdrawal with-drawal of the offer in January. When it was reinstated soon after, the price had doubled. Councilman Fred England asked about the increase. "Why did the price go from $330,000 to $660,000," he asked. Farrell Larson, president of the irrigation company, explained. The price was $330,000 five years "No matter how much you pay for water, 10 years from now you are going to be glad you did it" "Wayne Hillier ago," he said. "A lot of things have gone up drastically since then. It is now costing us $20 per acre foot for water. Back then it was $7. "If you had bought this five years ago, we would have had the money and been earning interest since then." Wayne Hillier, who has been retained by the city as a water-rights water-rights consultant, said the money was a minimal concern. "No matter how much you pay for it," he said, "ten years from now you are going to be glad you did it." The two groups yoted to adjourn into executive session to discuss offers for the purchase. After they reconvened Mayor B. Kay Hutchings said the city was willing to pay $375,000 for the rights. Larson said the irrigation company com-pany would accept $550,000. More discussions ensued, and the price was finally agreed on to be $450,000. Hutchings said the purchase was a good one. "If we end up with 1000 acre feet," he said, "we are comfortable." He said that alternative sources for water included renting it from the Central Utah Project and that this outright purchase was a better deal. Orville Gunther agreed. "Future generations will look back," he said, "and thank you for having done it." Irrigation company representatives representa-tives indicated they were willing to rent the water back from the city which would help the new owners "proof up" the rights. Hillier indicated that municipalities municipali-ties did not have to prove the everyday every-day need for a certain amount of water, but they had not only the right but the duty to prepare for future expansion with extra water. Hillier also said that American Fork historically would be entitled to the ownership of water rights outside of the jurisdiction of the state engineer. This was based on court decisions deci-sions in the early 1900's which he said the state engineer's office had not been fully aware of until recently. Study says old junior high could still be put to good use By BARBARA CHRISTIANSEN , , . . including the Pageant of the Arts to vacate the prem The three-month long study is complete anahe "lses, Ron Berendson attends to two of the "wounded" at treatment area set up near Lehi Sugar Factory, site of staged "disaster." American Fork City Council will meet in special ses sion Wednesday evening, April 25, at 7 to discuss the Tesults and the possibilities for the future of the old junior high school. Funded by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the study was conducted by CooperRoberts Architects of Salt Lake City. Juel Belmont, chairman of the city's Historic Preservation Pres-ervation Committee, said she was pleased with the results of the study. "The report was very favorable," she said. "The conclusion was that the building could stand for another an-other 78 years and be useful to the citizens." CooperRoberts recommended that the upgrade of the building to a useful condition be done in two phases, the first on a limited budget and addressing immediate needs, the second to be conducted if and when a larger budget became available. They suggested restoring the original 1912 portion of the structure on the west end and either razing or mothballing the additions made in 1930, 1947 and 1952. "We have found enough interested tenants to occupy oc-cupy the entire 1912 building," they said. Earlier this year, the American Fork City Council voted to close the structure and ask the tenants, CooperRoberts noted that American Fork City did not seem interested in maintaining ownership of ihe structure, but that there was substantial community interest in keeping and reusing the building. "Since there is no other urgent demand for utilization utiliza-tion of the space, logic suggests that the city make the school complex available to others interested in owning own-ing and renovating it "In other similar instances, cities have either given low-cost, long leases or have sold such surplus properties proper-ties to interested parties. We recommend that the city issue a 'Request for Proposals' and dispose of the property to the group submitting the best proposal." The report said, "Since the responsibility to renovate reno-vate would be the new owners and not the city, and since there are interested parties willing to assume responsibility for the complex, there is no logic in razing the building at this time." It identified four advantages to renovation: The cost per square foot for renovation is 20 to 25 percent less than for new construction. The project can become a local arts, recreation and education center, with all of the related uses conveniently conven-iently located in one facility. The city would retain its landmark high school and See JR. HIGH on page 3 UTA eyes additional trips into North Utah County routes By MARC HADDOCK North Utah County residents will be getting more public transportation service, if proposed changes by the Utah Transit Authority are approved. A public hearing on those changes will be held Monday, May 21, at 6 p.m. in the Provo City Utilities Building auditorium, 251 W. 800 North, Provo. Proposed changes would including extending ex-tending 14 more trips into Lehi on Route 804 - the State Street local route. These 14 trips now end at Lindon. Route 807, which begins at the Senior Citizen center and runs through American and Pleasant Grove, would also have four more trips a day. These trips, which run in the middle of the day, now end at Lindon, as well. The third change is a in Route 810, the express route between Provo and Salt Lake City. The route now stops only at selected sites in American Fork and Lehi. The change would m ake the route express between Salt Lake and Lehi, and then the bus would stop at any regular bus stop between Lehi and Provo. Kip Billings, planner for the UTA, said the proposed changes are part of the fine-tuning fine-tuning process promised when local mass transit service was first introduced in the area. "As we anticipated, we are going through this august and makingrefinements in our service," Billing said. "We are getting a pretty good response from the North Utah County area." Billings said local bus use ballooned after the UTA mailed coupons to the area for free bus service to help local residents get acquainted with the bus system. "When we had the coupons out there, there were a couple of days when we had more people than we could handle on that route (7)," Billings said. "We had similar problems on both routes the last Saturday in March." The coupons expired the next day. Billings said bus service has stabilized since the coupons expired. According to preliminary figure, he estimated esti-mated that some 600 passengers from the area ride the bus each day. Overall, UTA ridership is up 20 percent this year. Girls take all posts r in studentbody election Pirates on the move By SCOTT SHEFFIELD Last Friday, American Fork High held its student elections for the "90-91 year. The winners were Jenny Dubois for president; Erica Miller for vice-president; Melissa Brooks for Secretary; Melinda Baxter for Business Manager, Janeen Saunders Saun-ders for Historian; and Thea Carter for Program Chairman. Interestingly Interest-ingly enough, all were girls. Jenny Dubois, the excited new president, tells her plans: "I want it to be the best year. I want to get everyone involved. Right now there aren't that many who care what A.F, is about. I want to make them care. Our spirit is dying out. I want to bring it back alive. 1 will try to represent the studeni body. I want what they want. See ELECTIONS on page 3 City flies Arbor Day flags The flags are up and flying. , The new green flags with white trees along Main Street are in anticipation of American Fork's Arbor Day celebration this Saturday with a tree-planting ceremony at Pioneer Park, 300 N. 100 East. With participants from the fifth grade at Greenwood School, the short program will begin at 10:30 a.m. Alan Christensen, landscape architect and member of the Beautifica-tion Beautifica-tion Committee, selected the variety and location of the trees to be planted in the park. 'i: The first 100 spectators will receive an evergreen seedling (limit one per family) and there will be "Love a Tree" buttons and planting, pruning and landscaping information and brochures available from the city's Beautification committee. The brochures are also available at City Hal) and the Public Works building. Frederic (Doug Jolley), the Pirate King, (Kevin Halladay) and Ruth (Melany Wilkins) prepare to go to battle in scene from the 'Pirates of Penzance " which will open tomorrow night (Thursday) at 7:30 in the American Fork High School Auditorium. The production of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic is sponsored by the American Fork Arts Council and will play this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday and May 3, 4 5 and 7. For ticket information call Jean North at 756-7092 L ,IBIMiiii if '" ,;i -3 ft |