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Show !- o70 expires 813096 1 ' nrurc Tlir. C WESTERN MICKUbKHKni- 00 4555 COMMERCE DKivt o.l. 84 107 SALT LAKE CITY u. O o Serving American Fork, Alpine and Highland Vol. 17, No. 36 Wednesday, September 6, 1995 50 cents a single copy To subscribe call 756-7669 AF residents want open space, survey says By BARBARA CHRISTIANSEN City Editor American Fork likes its semi-rural semi-rural atmosphere and wants to maintain the feeling. That's the result of a series of surveys taken recently by city officials, offi-cials, with the assistance of the consulting con-sulting firm, Bear West. Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission initiated the study, which included an open house, written comments, a visual preference survey at City Hall, and opinions offered in returned city bills. By far, the majority of those responding were in favor of creating creat-ing and maintaining open space within the community. Highland, Alpine meet to work out land issues Members of Alpine and Highland's Planning Commissions met recently to discuss what to do with the land that both cities are interested in annexing. The land in question is the 107 acres that Lehi agreed not to annex in an inter-city agreement that was reached last June. In exchange for this, Highland and Alpine agreed not to protest the annexation of the 833.5 acre Micron site into Lehi. Although Alpine was included in the agreement that was reached, Alpine's City Council had already voted to not protest Lehi's annexation. They had, however, voted to include the land between them and Lehi's proposed new border bor-der in their Annexation Declaration. The area had already been a part of Highland's Annexation Declaration for a number num-ber of years. Alpine's Planning Commission invited Highland's Planning Commission to meet with them in hopes that the two cities could work together peaceably and come up with a plan for the area according accord-ing to Alpine's Chairman Jannicke Brewer. Rob Bateman said the worst thing that could happen would be that developers play the two cities against each other. Randy Paul of Highland agreed. He said that it was important to give a unified front to developers. Members from both Planning Commissions agreed that Draper should also be included in the negotiations. It was decided that Draper will be approached after Highland and Alpine's City Council's co-ordinate a plan. Whether or not Draper will be a threat to Alpine and Highland's plans depends on if their attitude has changed according to Alpine's City Planner Rod Despain. "Draper is in Utah County because of an act of belligerence," he said. Both cities are interested in the land for potential tax base and are hoping for some industrial businesses busi-nesses to come in there. Adams moves to head of class By GARY HATCH Four years ago, Joyce Adams found herself in the position of having to provide for her five children chil-dren by herself, so she returned to BYU to complete her bachelor's degree in English. Little did she realize that this fall, four years later, she would be joining the faculty fac-ulty as a full-time instructor. Joyce had always loved reading, so it seemed natural to her to study English after graduating from Provo High School. She said, "Everybody always hates English. I wanted to prove to the world that we don't have to. Why should we hate English? It's something we use every day." When Joyce was a junior in college, col-lege, she dropped out of school to help her husband, Dale Summerix, graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design. The family moved to Michigan and later to Payson. Joyce spend the bulk of her time raising her young children. "It was nearly impossible to read and be a mother," she said. As the children grew, Joyce did find some time to take an occasional occasion-al class at BYU, many of them by independent study. She continued to take classes for about 10 years, but when she found herself on her own, having to provide for her fam- "Any open space will help," said one respondent. "We talk a lot about the quality of life in Utah, but with crowding houses on small lots, and using any open space to build on, we have already lost 90 percent of the joy of living in Utah forever. "I beg of you, stop this and think of what American Fork will look like in 20 years time. The developers develop-ers will leave when they have done their damage and we will be left with it. Open spaces please!" Rulon Dutson, of Bear West, presented pre-sented the results of the several aspects of the survey to a joint meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission. Those attending the open house "4''"-" ' rf7,-" 1 ''' '''' 01J 1 Photo by Marc Haddock Postal employee Leo Reimschussel operates automated carrier sequence mail sorters which have been installed in the post office as Postmaster Ken Jorgenson watches. Open house to fete new mail sorter system An open house will be held Saturday at the American Fork Post Office, 55 N. Merchant Street to introduce the public to the post offices new Carrier Sequence Bar Code Sorters (CSBCS) which were installed last week. The Open House will be Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Congressman Bill Orton will be on hand for the open house at around 1:30 p.m. The sorters are the first in Utah and can sort up to 90 percent per-cent of a given day's letter-sized mail into carrier route delivery order, a task that previously has been carried out by hand. The sorters can each handle 18 feet of mail (stacked sideways) at a time. It takes three passes to sort a car Citizens ily, she returned to BYU full-time. She was awarded a scholarship and had some help from her former husband to provide for the children. chil-dren. She studied English again, although she did feel some pressure pres-sure to study a subject thai would lead directly to a job. She said, "I struggled all along. I did feel a lot of pressure to study something practical, but English always seemed right.' After finishing her bachelor's degree in one year, Joyce went directly into the English master's degree program at BYU. She said, "I wanted to have enough education to determine what hours I worked. Teaching college col-lege would enable me to put my family first." As a graduate student, stu-dent, she could teach English 115, the introductory course in college reading and writing. She also prepared pre-pared to teach English 315, an advanced writing course for students stu-dents in the social sciences. Joyce excelled as a teacher. Her were asked to identify uses for open space in addition to the traditional parks, sports fields, golf courses and cemeteries. The majority of responses selected select-ed river and stream corridors, with agricultural fields, pastures and meadows, and hillsides close behind. Open space contributes greatly to the quality of life and community communi-ty character, according to the answers. "A community with open space creates the feeling of a 'well planned' community," said one. "Health is also a key element for a quality community and open space creates a healthy environment for living." 1 ". ' rier's route into walking sequence order in about 20 minutes. Postmaster Ken Jorgenson said the sorters are state-of-the-art postal equipment, and said American Fork is unusual in that it has three of the sorters. Days after installation of the new sorters was completed, postal workers from Seattle, Boise, Clearfield and Salt Lake City were in American Fork to be trained on the new system. Jorgenson said the sorters will be used for all north Utah County once the routes from Pleasant Grove and Lehi can be put in the computer. American Fork had several points in its favor when the Postal Service was looking for site for the new sorters. For one evaluation scores were always high, and she was a finalist for the English Department's graduate student teaching award. She said, "I loved teaching. I didn't anticipate the joy that would come with teaching." Many of her professors wondered how she managed man-aged to excel as a teacher and a student and raise five kids on her own. As she neared the end of her graduate studies, Joyce felt she should apply for a teaching job at Ricks College, but she was turned down. Then a one-year job opened at BYU. She said, "I so much wanted want-ed the position, and we didn't hear anything for so many weeks. I listened lis-tened to the job hotline everyday, just in case, to see if there were any secretarial or administrative jobs, but I never pursued anything. I felt confident that this job was supposed sup-posed to be." Joyce was chosen as a finalist for the job and went to Salt Lake City for an interview with Alexander B. Morrison, a General Authority of the LDS Church. She took her youngest son, Mark, with her, "I needed Mark's strength," she said. "Mark has such an endowment of spiritual strength, and I drew on it." See CITIZEN on Page 4 Another response also lauded open space. "Tailored open spaces speak of a comfortable civilized community, thoughtful people and culture," it said. Other benefits listed included: a place to relax, helping people not feel closed in, beautification, and lowered density. 'There isn't anyone who would not enjoy living adjacent to a park or golf course," said one response, "but instead must fence their yard from too-close neighbors in high density subdivisions." Neighborliness of a different kind was supported with open space. "It keeps all types of people with thing, the new post office has space for the sorters, where many post offices are too small. Also, American Fork was ready with the routes to be input into the system making it possible pos-sible to start sorting American Fork mail automatically the day after installation was complete. This is the first major change in carrier delivery in 80 years," Jorgenson said. That's when the Postal Service went from twice-a-day delivery to one time a day. Local residents will get to see the sorters in action at Saturday's open house, although the machines will be sorting sample sam-ple runs instead of actual mail, since mail delivery will be completed com-pleted by the time the open house opens. Joyce Adams, center, is surrounded by her children in this family photo. The children are, left and moving clockwise, Heather Sumerix, Jeremy Sumerix, Sandy Tippets, Jennifer Gallacher and Mark Sumerix. different backgrounds together," the response said, "instead of just having 'city folks' or 'country folks' in the town. The small town atmosphere atmos-phere is what drew us here in the first place." One of the most overwhelming responses was to the question whether the city should pursue a trails system. "There was not one 'No' response to that question," said Dutson. The most popular suggestions for the trail uses were for walking, jogging and bicycling. Respondents pointed to the Provo River Parkway and a trail system in Spanish Fork as examples exam-ples for American Fork to follow in creating trails. AF council member wins national service award American Fork's Ricky Storrs has been recognized as one of the top community leaders lead-ers in the nation. He was recently honored with the American Hometown Leaders Award, one of only 250 nationwide. The award is co-sponsored co-sponsored by Wal-Mart and the National Association of Towns and Townships. In his honor, American Fork will receive a $2,500 economic development grant. He was nominated by members mem-bers of the recently-formed American Fork Youth Court, which has also received national nation-al recognition. Storrs has been working with the Youth City Council and the Youth Court since his election to the City Council Teachers, district reach salary agreement Teachers in the Alpine School District reached a tentative agreement agree-ment with the district Aug. 21 --just --just short of the opening of class work on Aug. 23. The contract was later ratified by teachers but still has to be agreed to by members of the district board of education. This is expected at the Sept. 12 meeting of the board. Susan Stone, lead district nego Volunteers sought to uncover natural floor at Timp Cave Timpanogos Cave National Monument is looking for volunteers to help uncover the natural floor and formations in Hansen Cave - an area that has been buried for 57 years. Cave Superintendent Cordell Roy said the project involves removing tunnel blasting debris piled in the Hansen Cave Entrance Room in 1937; The project will require light to ii mi till ir mm ..i, - They also suggested using Orem's example of well-equipped and maintained facilities to enhance both future and existing parks. Those attending the open house and visiting City Hall were shown 12 photographs of local and surrounding sur-rounding area sites, with varying levels of open space. Respondents selected the Tri City Golf Course as highest in visual visu-al appeal. It was followed by an agricultural field next to Kmart, the mill pond, Mitchell Hollow, and the boat harbor. Considered one of the lowest in attractiveness was Country View Park, a small grassy area with only a few trees, located in a subdivision. nearly four years ago. He complimented the members mem-bers of the two groups for their involvement. "You have got to give credit to those people, too," he said. "You give them the support and they get the job done." He would like to see the Youth Court able to use the grant monies. "I would like to see them decide what to do with the grant," he said. In his work with the youth groups, Storrs spends countless hours teaching, encouraging and boosting the kids. "In an average week," said Youth Court advisor LaVon Laursen, "I bet Ricky spends as much time with meetings and See STORRS on Page 4 tiator and district director of personnel, per-sonnel, said the tentative accord was reached following a afternoon bargaining session on August 21. Contract terms will not be released until the agreement has been approved by both teachers and board members. Classified and administrative personnel had settled earlier this summer. moderate lifting, digging with tools and hauling. Work gloves, jacket, jack-et, and a flashlight are required. Interested individuals and groups are being scheduled between Sept. 12 and 28. The project will be conducted on week nights from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 30 p.m. Anyone interested in helping, contact con-tact the resource management specialist, spe-cialist, Rod Horrocks, at 756-6239. 1 ilin innlwifwiifliriimi f it it |