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Show New t'faft. American fork CrtwnLone Peak New Utah - Thursday, August 15, 2002 - Page 2 Opinion County fair has "If yw build it, they will tome," thfr Fit-Id of lrearn movie adage, hast proven itself true in north Utah (bounty. Instead of a corn farm, though, Thanksgiving I'oint Institute hat huilt a venue io the middle of what wast once a dairy farm and alfalfa field. The people came in drove, hoth out of curiosity and a deaire for a revived county fair, I5y the time Utah County Fair wa over, and if number determine an outcome, the event wast a Jtuccesjt, Attendance to the fair in 2001 wa l,f00. Attendance to the fair this year exceeded 23,000. (ounly resident and visitors from out-of-county journeyed to the Mecca to nee the "new" county coun-ty fair, For three days, more people peo-ple than live in the hoat city of l-ehi peruned the vendor booth, ate cotton candy and corn dog, enjoyed the activities and attended attend-ed the how and event. Fifteen year ago, many would have Hcoffed at the idea of uch a venue taking hold at thi end of the county. The population ha ah i fled in Utah County, though, and ThankHgiving I'oint i now xtrategically located and eaily acceHHihle to many Utah and Halt hake County rchident. What iihw! to he the remote northern end of the county ha now proven Tuns navs orice for Droeress O 1 J I NewUtah' Iehi Free Pre had a atory laal week about Tug, the mail dog, being grounded. In ciiae you missed the atory, Tugs, an Engliah Setter who gained national attention a few year ago for following a lehi mailman a far a 23 mile per day, wo finally picked up by the dog catcher (pardon me - Animal Control Officer; and hi day of running with the boy came to an end. It' too bad. Tug has been running run-ning the route for almost even yeiirs and, according to the mail carrier nhu accompanies, ha not been bothering man nor beast a she tailed him. Hut now it' over. lt' eay to get ticked off at the guy who made the collar (pun intended;, hut that would be turning turn-ing a blind eye to the real reason Tug wa finally grounded. Tug, like so many other quaint element that helped make mall town what they were, i the victim vic-tim of progress. For many Utah County town, parade used to include candy being thrown from flout and kids scrambling to grab it from the street before the next float came by. The practice ha already been stopped in many town in the valley val-ley out of fear of litigation involving involv-ing some injured child who got hit in the eye with a jelly bean. It wuh in small town you could leave your door unlocked, even when you weren't home, and not worry. It was in small towns that people peo-ple sat on their front porches in the early evening in the summer and viaitcd with the folks out for a Htroll. Progress, though, comes at a price. When Provo wa named the "most livable town in America" several year ago, many people cheered the honor, other rued the attention, fearing it would be the New Utah American Fork Cltkea, Pleasant Grove Review, Lehi llrce Pre, Undo New Utah, Lone Peak New Utah 59 W. Main American Fork, UT 84003 An edition of The Dally Herald, a Pulitzer, Inc. newspaper USPS 018-580 (ISSN: 1521-6845) NEWSSTAND PRICE: 50 cents SUBSCRIPTION RATE: 1 year - $26 (in county) $35 (out of county) (Thursday and Sunday plus Holiday deliveries) Holiday deliveric include delivery the week of tauter, Memorial, Independence, Pioneer, Lsbor, Thanksgiving, Chriitrruu & New Ycar'i, found a home to be an excellent site for such an event. Thanksgiving I'oint h& delivered deliv-ered what it promised a quality, quali-ty, yet modeat, fair. Those who remember what the Utah (bounty Fair once was at the Spanish Fork Fair Grounds may have been disappointed. Thanksgiving I'oint leader, however, said that this year's fair was just a beginning. The organization ha invested more than $7 million to build the Electric Park, the Show Barn and other facilities with the county fair and similar event in mind. Utah County (Jommisaioner and Thankagiving Point Institute board member should be congratulated con-gratulated for providing a venue that will give the county celebration celebra-tion a place to mature and grow. The five-year plan, however, i not yet complete. Now that the fair ha been established at the Thanksgiving I'oint Electric Park, organizer are considering a rodeo ground and animal facility for the Utah County Fair 2003. We applaud Thanksgiving I'oint leader for investing in an event which promise to unite the countywide community and promote wholesome activities for it resident at a time when many husinesae and organization organiza-tion are finding they are having to cut hack spending. The I'oint ha invested well. 1 lat nail in mall-town Provo' coffin. cof-fin. How right they seem to have been. Many of u dream of the small town where everybody know your name and dog trot unfettered through the street and life is simple sim-ple and Norman Kockwell would have loved to paint a scene downtown. down-town. That dream doesn't have room for Wal-Mart and SwitchPoint and eight-lane auper highways and acces to every convenience known to man. Those thing we call progress turn our small town into extension exten-sion of bigger town and often coat us some of our romantic notion. Like Tug chasing along behind the mail carrier on a lazy summer afternoon. See? There is another one. We lost our "mail men" in favor of "mail carrier" about the same time we began to discover "firefighters" "fire-fighters" and "department chairs." Should we fight the changesprogress? Well, we're less likely to have a kid's eye put out by candy flung off a float. There is less chance of Tugs getting distracted and biting some child who gets in her way one day. There's more chance women can earn salaries similar to their male counterparts, and a greater likelihood that someone with a dark ekin can become head coach at our high school. Sorry, Tug. I'll bet you could tag along with the postal worker in Henriville, but Lehi is consciously con-sciously moving forward and your unrestricted access to the town might just have to be one of the consequences. John Gholdaton can be reached at jghold8tonnewutah.com. We welcome news tips, Call 756-7669 to report a news tip or if you have a comment or a question. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must include the author's name (printed AND signed) and a telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, punctuation, taste and length. Letters are welcome on any topic. Published Thursdays by Pulitzer 84003. Periodicals to 59 West Main, American Fork, City should Just a the Old West was founded on water, the New West finds the item still extremely important. It's true. Without sufficient water, we could not live, let alone harvest crops or have green lawns. While those vary greatly in their importance impor-tance to the sustenance of life, they all contribute to the quality of life. Times have changed. Can you imagine what the early residents of this area would feel to see us with lush lawns, giving each other awards for the landscape efforts? It may seem incongruous to imagine the changes that have happened, but there is no denying deny-ing that they have taken place. With limited resources, we have two choice to meet continuing continu-ing change as growth stretches the capacity of the available water. We can better utilize the existing exist-ing water through conservation and different methods or we can convert our landscaping to low-maintenance low-maintenance varieties. Of course, there is also the possibility of combining the two. Firefighters concerned with station location Open letter to the citizens of American Amer-ican Fork: Members of the American Fork Fire Department are very concerned con-cerned about the actions the City Council is taking in regards to the new fireambulance station. After a year of "extensive study" to determine the best location for the new station, the City Council wisely selected the corner of Center Cen-ter Street and 100 North where the current station is located. Now, nearly a year later, they have suddenly ignored their own study and hastily moved the station to the corner of 300 East and Main Street. The only answer we have been able to get is that there is not enough parking downtown and so the station must be moved. We have expressed our concerns regarding the 300 East location several times. We strongly feel that the 300 East location does not meet the needs of the fire department. Our four most grievous concerns about the 300 East site are as follows: 1. Station Size. One of the biggest problems with our current station is that there is not enough space to do everything we need to do both within the building and on-site. We don't see the 300 East plans correcting this problem. There is not enough room to store the equipment we already have and there is no room for expansion. There is not a basement. Previous City Councils recognized this need and did an admirable job on the library and policecourts building to find a way to make sure they were sized correctly for now and the future. Why is this City Council Coun-cil so reluctant to do the same for us? 2. Property Size. The problems with the station DEADLINES Classified Advertising .Tuesday, noon Display Advertising Monday, 5 p.m. News . . . , .Monday, 2 p.m. Missionaries, Weddings Monday, 2 p.m. Sports, Letters to the Editor . . . . .Monday, 10 a.m. Community Calendar , . . ,' .Monday, 10 aon. Obituaries .Tuesday, 11 ajn. Newspapers, Inc., 59 West postage paid at American Fork, Utah, Postmaster: Send address changes UT 84003. Member: Audit Bureau of Circulations use caution, Technology also makes a great difference. Just as early settlers soon drilled wells and quit relying rely-ing on streams and rivers for their water supplies, people in our day have new options to provide pro-vide the necessities of life. In olden days the wells replaced water of questionable quality and unreliable supply; today pipes provide a system with purified water and a steady, always-available resource. In today's modern society, it seems strange that individuals have clung so vehemently to a system which requires them to get up in the middle of the night and stand in a foot of water in hip hoots to deliver water to maintain main-tain their yards. Yes, the source is more economical than other systems, sys-tems, but it also follows that an outhouse is less expensive than indoor plumbing, but how many of us would make that choice? Reader's Forum size are minimal in comparison to the problems we see with the size of the property. The 300 East location loca-tion does not provide any room on-site on-site to safely maneuver our existing exist-ing trucks. What are we supposed to do when we have larger trucks? There is no apron space in the front of the station. The apron area is very valuable in that it gives us some space to assess traffic, traf-fic, pedestrians and general street usage before we pull out into the street. With the 300 East design, we can't even pull out of the front doors without the truck hanging out into the street. We can't see up and down the sidewalk before we pull out to make sure some child isn't racing down the sidewalk. The potential for conflicts between the fire truck and the public is greatly increased without with-out the apron area. The reason these and other site problems occur is because the property size is too small to design the station layout correctly. 3. Access Routes. The preferred and safest travel routes which yield the best overall response times are those routes that utilize the major roadways through the city with traffic lights, not residential streets. The Center Street location is surrounded sur-rounded on all sides by the best access roads in the city for all directions of travel with signals at the major intersections. The 300 East location does not have any of these access route benefits. This means more difficult access both to the station and from the station to an incident. We will spend more' time on residential streets, more time waiting to try to get across major streets and more time using routes that are not conducive to quick and safe emergency vehicle travel. 4. Response Time. Every minute in an emergency is critical to a successful outcome. We are a volunteer department so there is no one at the station. Whenever an alarm is sounded, we must drop whatever we are doing and go to the station before Main, American Fork, Utah not emotion There is a question of health in, both situations and it is one which deserves to be addressed. For some reason, there is a mindset that keeps people clinging cling-ing to the tradition of individual water rights. The time has come for communities to provide the bask necessities and to include water along with roads and police and fire protection. Our elected officials are considering con-sidering spending money to provide pro-vide additional water for our future citizens. That could be accomplished by a pressurized irrigation system or expanding the existing culinary system. While it is a difficult decision, it should be made with a basis on fact, not emotion. Residents of a modern society deserve to have freedom from as many germs and other dangers as possible. A pressurized irrigation irriga-tion system is certainly a step forward from standing in ditches with water flowing around us at 4 a.m., but it is a step back from modernization. As we move into the 21st century, cen-tury, it is time to leave behind the technology that made history back in the 19th century. we can even respond to the incident. inci-dent. Because of the above access problems, our individual response times to the station will be much slower and more difficult. We don't have the benefit of sirens and loud horns in our personal vehicles to help us navigate on busy roads. We must rely on good access routes. Our slower response time to the station will mean an increase in response time to an incident and a decrease in our ability to serve those we protect. Also, there are fewer fighters who live or work near the 300 East location than the Center Street location. As firefighters, we are dedicated dedicat-ed to serving the citizens of American Amer-ican Fork and want to provide them with the best service we can. However, we don't think that the 300 East location allows us to do this. It seems that the City Council knows what is best for us, rather than listening to us - the everyday every-day users of the station and' providers of the service. Since we haven't had much luck with the City Council addressing our concerns, con-cerns, we plead with you, the citizens citi-zens of American Fork, to speak up regarding the new station. Contact your City Council representatives repre-sentatives and encourage them to make the correct decision. It's not too late. If a poor station design and J location are selected, it will be the ii citizens who suffer the consequences conse-quences more than the fire department. Thanks for your support. sup-port. -Lee Cabell and members of the American Fork Fire Department P.S. We have heard many comments com-ments regarding why we didn't sound our horns and sirens in the Steel Days Parade. For this year, we chose to run "silent" with lights only in memory of i and tribute to our fellow fire- T fighters involved in last year's 911 tragedy. Don't worry - we'll be back next year louder than ever! Subscriptions & Delivery Service . . . 375-5103 News & Advertising 756-7669 Fax 756-5274 E-mail nueditornewutah.com PG City Editor Cathy Allred Lehi City Editor.. Cathy Ailred AF City Editor . .Barbara Christiansen Lone Peak Editor .... .Beky Beaton Managing Editor John Gholdston J POGRC |