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Show More LOCAL news than any other source! For subscription or delivery problems call 375-5103 or 756-7669 See our web site at www.newutahcom r 1 ' Chris Foot won three gold medals to help AF place 2nd at State. See p. 10. Vol. 23, No. 20 Wednesday, May 16,2001 50 cents a single copy Time to celebrate Ceremonies mark clock restoration Years of preparation have finally paid off. The historic clock on American Fork's Main Street has been restored and repaired and will now be formally recognized at ceremonies on Friday. Members of the city's Historic Preservation Committee have worked to bring the former landmark into operation again and have finally been rewarded with four lighted faces, hands running smoothly, and a clock chiming every quarter hour. Except for a brief period of time, the clock has not chimed or run since the mid-1940's. Experts estimate esti-mate the clock was put in place around the 1920's, although some indicate it may be older. Lloyd Larish, owner of the Minnesota company which recently completed the repair work, said he has a catalog with a similar clock dating from the 20's. He came to American Fork after the clock stopped working following extensive restoration and repair work. Committee members thought perhaps a power bump had damaged the master clock which is inside the building, upstairs in the offices of Noall Wootton. , fSmsm What; Ceremonies marking mark-ing clock restoration Where: Main and Center Streets, northeast corner When: Friday, May 18, 11:30 a.m. :"l I h Tv-.j ' ip H E Photo by Barbara Christiansen Prize winners Alisyn Hansen, Haylee Ferguson and Chelsey Barrett recently took fourth place in an International science fair. The three are students at American Fork High School. HS students win prestidious honor AF Three students from American Fork High School came to school Monday morning with matching shirts and new-style necklaces. They were not working to set a new trend, but instead displaying a prestigious award they received last week. With over 40 countries represented represent-ed at the International Science and Engineering Fair, the three took fourth place in the group division, in which there were 200 entries. Alisyn Hansen, Haylee Ferguson and Chelsey Barrett combined their efforts on a science project which passed several local and regional hurdles before reaching the fair, held in San Jose, Calif. Their entry was titled "Light responses in various Drosophila phenotypes," which translates to an analysis of how fruit flies respond to light and dark. They built a light and dark choice chamber and used a scanning electron elec-tron microscope at BYU to help in their research and study. Out of the many varieties of fruit flies, they selected 12 types and did studies of their preferences regarding regard-ing light. In addition, they took cross sections sec-tions of their eyes using a micro tome, to look at them under a light microscope. The conclusion demonstrated that there were physical differences in the types of flies regarding their behavior and light preferences. Don Bastian, AFHS science teacher who accompanied them on the trip, indicated their prize was prestigious. "It is the first time anyone' from our region has ever placed nationally national-ly or internationally" he said. All juniors, the three have set a goal to return to the international competition next year. It will be held in Louisville, Ky. -vv- : Former teacherpleads guilty to sex abuse charges Brent Whitlock, a former iAmerican Fork school teacher and Little League ; baseball coach, entered a guilty plea May 7 to two second degree felony counts -of sexual abuse of a child - He is scheduled to be sen- tenced on June 18. '. The charges resulted ! from a investigation by American Fork Police Department. Officers investigated incidents going back as far as 1978 and ending end-ing in tne fall of 2000. "We interviewed 21 potential victims, however, many of the incidents, occurred outside the statute of limitations," said Lt. Andrew Hale. "The inci dents were brought to light after two victims came forward for-ward and told their LDS bishops." The victims had been between 12 and 14 years of age at the time of the alleged crimes. Whitlock cooperated with investigators and gave officials offi-cials the additional names and circumstances surrounding sur-rounding each, Hale said. He had taught at Shelley Elementary School for almost 23 years. He resigned on Feb. 16, asking to be released from his contract. con-tract. Alpine District officials said they were unaware of this kind of problem. Am. Fork considers $28 million budget By BARBARA CHRISTIANSEN American Fork's budgetary budget-ary process has begun for the year. City Administrator Carl Wanlass last week gave his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year to the City Council. It remains in line with the current year's figures, with an overall revenue rev-enue of $28.2 million compared com-pared to $27 million this year. Expenditures will have increased from $20 million to $36 million. Most of those increases are related relat-ed to the construction of the police and courts building for which the bond monies were accounted in the current cur-rent budget year. Council members are reviewing Wanlass's proposal propos-al and will meet in work sessions to address the numbers before their adoption adop-tion scheduled for the council's coun-cil's June 12 meeting. There will be a public hearing for comments from the citizens on June 5. The proposal includes several increases, including a one percent raise in the Municipal Energy Sales and Use Tax, a $1 per month cellular phone tax, and an approximate 25 cents per month garbage rate increase. Wanlass has also recommended recom-mended the city hold a bohd election to finance improve ments to its parks. He and therefore be accomplished accom-plished with no property tax increase," he said. "Two other cost savings advantages advan-tages are that the current bond interest rates are low and by packaging the projects proj-ects for bidding purposes, the city would receive a significant sig-nificant cost savings," The city has had a park impact fee in place for years, but the monies derived from it have not been enough to make the improvements citizens expect. "In past years, the city has funded, on an annual basis, approximately $200,000 to $300,000 for park improvements and property acquisitions," he said. "Due to the significant costs associated with these types of improvements and the vast amount of improvements improve-ments that need to be accomplished, the city is going nowhere fast." The community is continuing contin-uing to grow, but is experiencing experi-encing what Wanlass termed a "softening of revenues." rev-enues." The growth brings an increase in demands for city services, making funding fund-ing sources "difficult to achieve," he said. One increase in expenditure expendi-ture the city has faced is an $80,000 raise in its liability insurance. Wanlass's proposal pro-posal includes a $1 per month cell phone tax to anticipatwL-that-the,$2 Jtq, fund that increase. $2.5 'iftiHIoft e4d r be "It is recognized that this financed without ' a tax is a controversial tax; some increase to the citizens. "I believe that, the debt service payments on the proposed bonds could be made from existing annual appropriations for parks cities have adopted this tax while other cities struggle with its merits," he said. Along with the increase See BUDGET on page 12 Alpine District voters approve $200 million school bond The Alpine School District $200 million bond was approved by a marginal 55.22 percent voting yes at the polls last week. A divided divid-ed issue, the bond election brought out just under 15 percent or 12,259 out of the 82,469 registered voters in the Alpine School District area to decide whether or not to pass the bond. With north Utah County, especially the Lehi area, garnering the most benefit from the bond with two new junior high schools, major renovations in other schools and possibly as many as eight new elementary schools, voters vot-ers in these areas turned out to the polls one-and-a-half times more than the Orem voter edging the approval by only 1,275 votes. Fifty-one percent of Orem voters voted against the bond. "Obviously, the board and administration are pleased with the results, with up to 10,000 students expected in the next five to seven years, I don't know what we would have done without the funds," district superintendent superinten-dent Vera Henshaw said. "We are very sensitive to the fact that all patrons, even those who voted against the bond, will shoulder the financial burden of taking care of our expanding student stu-dent enrollment. We pledge to use the money effectively and wisely to be as frugal as possible and to extend the period of the bond for as long as conditions allow." ASD board members had approved the architect for the new schools the day of the election. When asked about the new Eagle Mountain Elementary School, Kofford responded, "We're going to start on it tomorrow." See the bond result tally on page 12 Full circle AF man retires after j fulfilling experience in education By Linda Butler Principal Dan Adams has come : full circle. He attended Central School in Pleasant Grove lor tirst i i . .1. j i i mrougn sixtn graaes anu nas been the principal at Central School for the past five years. This June, after a career of 36 years in education, Dan Adams will retire. Adams, son of Gwen and the late K.V. Adams, was raised on a farm in the Manila area and attended Central Elementary, Pleasant Grove Junior High, and graduated from Pleasant Grove High School in 1959. After serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Latter-day Saints to the New England States, Adams attended Brigham Young University. He received his bachelor's degree in elementary education from BYU in 1965 and began teaching fifth grade at Lehi Elementary School. He received his master's in education educa-tion from the University of Utah in 1969. In 1977 he moved from the classroom into administration as the,.' principal of Forbes Elementary School in American Fork. The school was located behind Adams' home and Adams chuckles over a memory, "As principal, prin-cipal, my first act was to cut a hole in my fence and put in a gate so I There-will be a retirement open house for Dan Adams May 17 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Central Elementary School, 95 N. 400 East, Pleasant Grove. Everyone is invited to attend. could walk to school." After two years as principal at Forbes, he became principal of Highland Elementary for 11 years. He also served as principal at Sharon Elementary School and then as principal at Central. See ADAMS on page 12 1 y u'liiiPiHwmMMi usiv"im""' m......... Photo by Linda Butler Principal Dan Adams and student council members Amber Nielson, Jessica Green, and Michael Heder discuss a beautification project for the student body. |