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Show American Fork Citizen New Utah - Thursday, February 5, 2003 - Page 2 Opinion Partnership can be success Pleasant Grove is commended commend-ed for considering an agreement agree-ment for its hoped-for new recreational center with the Alpine School District. The district has offered approximately five acres of land on its Pleasant Grove High School campus for a city-built city-built recreational center in exchange for its use by the high school. Agreements of this type to share a community recreational center have been successfully drafted before in several cities including Orem, Provo, Springville and Spanish Fork. Mountain View High School and Orem City's recreation center cen-ter is an example of one such successful agreement. American Fork, within the same school district, also attempted a cooperative agreement agree-ment in 1974 that was not nearly as successful. One of several problems was that in trying to save costs, funding for a dehumidifier and adequate ventilation was cut and consequently the roof beams became rusted and the bolts holding the beams were rusted completely through. Prior to launching the swimming swim-ming pool project at American Fork Junior High School, proper prop-er funding, thorough research, detailed planning and a well- Memorably It didn't take long for everyone every-one to know what Dean had done during the morning recess. News swept through Valley View Elementary School like Popeye swept through spinach. "Dean jumped off the top of the monkey bars into the snow!" It was a significant accomplishment accom-plishment - never mind that the "storm of the decade" had prompted school custodians to shovel huge piles of snow to within a few feet of the monkey bar apparatus. The monkey bars were still the tallest structure on the playground (not counting the swing set, but even Superman Super-man wouldn't dare to leap off the top of the swing set). For a few hours Dean was the coolest of the cool. Everyone was talking about his leap into the snow - until lunch recess, when Joe L. one-upped him by somehow some-how pulling himself close to the top of the swing set and then dropping into a pile of snow below. This was mind-boggling, even with snow piled six feet high. Dean's feat paled by comparison, compari-son, and he faded from our collective col-lective consciousness like the guy who played the oldest son on "Bonanza" until he got too big for his black britches and left the show. Whoever he was. Joe L. was now officially the Lord of the Swings, which was a little problematic for me. Not only was Joe L. the second biggest guy in the school (behind me), but it was widely believed that he was probably tougher than I was and therefore there-fore more worthy of respect. And then there was the whole name thing. For years I had been "Joe" and he had been "Joe L." or "the other Joe." But unless I did something dramatic to take him down a peg or two, I ran a serious seri-ous risk of becoming "Joe W." Or - horrors! - "the other Joe." I plotted with my two best friends to come up with a stunt that would be bigger, better and more outrageous than Joe L.'h swing drop. Albert suggested that I jump from the school's roof. I rejected that possibility because: 1) I didn't know how to get up to the roof, and 2) the fall would most likely kill me. "Well, maybe "Albert allowed. "But it would sure be cool!" 2 developed contract may have at the very least prevented many of the problems that were encountered and ultimately caused shutting down the facility. facil-ity. Several items Pleasant Grove leaders must consider before finalizing an agreement of cooperation with the school district include the city's future expectations of maintenance, scheduling and staffing. After the facility is built, there will still be a need to use school gyms for the city's Junior Jazz and other programs. pro-grams. As part of the mutual agreement, they need to include mutually beneficial charges for facility rentals. The Pleasant Grove Recreation Recre-ation Program has been using a building that is nearly 100 years old and while a historical structure, it has far out-lived its practical use as a central recreational facility for a city of 26,000. Not only are more gyms needed, there is a need for office space, meeting rooms, an indoor track and other amenities ameni-ties so widely used in large communities. With exercised caution, a partnership for a new recreation recre-ation and community facility can become a successful venture. ven-ture. outrageous George then came up with a suitable alternative. Valley View had wide, covered outdoor stairs on the south end of the school. The custodians had piled the biggest pile of snow against the south end of the building, and I could probably reach it if I climbed over the railing and pushed off from the second floor landing with all my strength. Probably. Since I couldn't come up with a better idea, and since the afternoon recess bell was about to ring, I decided to go for it. Thanks to George and Albert, a small crowd quickly gathered to watch. I climbed carefully over the rail and hung precariously from the edge as I looked out toward the snow pile, which suddenly seemed so far away. In the distance I could see the recess supervisor hustling toward me. I needed to act quickly or risk becoming "the other Joe." I leaned out over the edge as my friends urged me to jump. My hand slipped on the cold metal rail. I leaned . . . and leaned . . . and was about to leap when it suddenly occurred to me that what I was about to do wasn't was-n't outrageous - it was stupid. Even if I hit the snow it was still going to hurt. And how cool would that be - especially if I cried or something? As my classmates booed and catcalled, I climbed back to the second floor landing. I got plenty plen-ty of teasing plus three days of detention for climbing over the rail, but it could have been worse. The next day a fifth-grader tried to leap from the landing - and missed. He ended up with a broken leg, I think - I don't really remember for sure. I don't even remember his name. And it seems to me that that's the risk of being outrageous. While your behavior may be notoriously memorable, you may be overshadowed by your own outrageousness - and forgotten. Are you listening, Justin and Janet? ttE33& I! i Some anticipation is OK, but They say anticipation is what makes any event or change have a great impact and be more interesting. inter-esting. I'm getting to be an expert on the topic. A couple of months ago, the monitor of my computer started giving us fits. Every once in a while it would go completely blank. It wasn't the same type of blank as with a screen saver, where you could just wiggle the mouse or hit a key and it would come back. It was really blank. Being the computer whiz that I am, it didn't take me long to determine that I could just turn the monitor off and back on again and merrily go my way. Problems arose when it went to the blank screen more and more often. At the later stages, I couldn't could-n't even finish a game of Free Cell (whoops, I mean a story) before it faded away three or four times. It called for drastic measures. So I called my son. Before Christmas there were a lot of sales on computer systems. We thought about biting the bul- Citizens disappointed with decision Editor As life-long residents of the community of American Fork, we would like to voice our sincere disapproval of the release of Carl Wan-lass Wan-lass as the city administrator. adminis-trator. It is very difficult to understand why a man with the professional integrity and skills that Carl Wanlass has would be dismissed so quickly. ALPINE A Family Focus Program will be sponsored by Alpine City April 23 and 24. Council member Kent Hastings Hast-ings had proposed the event to the council earlier and has planned the event. The scheduled two-evening event is being established to encourage parents and families to engage in activities and learning opportunities to strengthen their family and interpersonal relationships, relation-ships, according to the council. The event is intended for all members of the community and will include and essay contest and guest speakers. More information will be available soon. ALPINE Alpine Elementary School enjoyed a patriotic assembly hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4918 and its Ladies Auxiliary on Jan. 27. This was a culmination of many hours of classroom instruction instruc-tion on patriotism, citizenship and flag appreciation. Over 420 certificates certifi-cates were handed cut for kindergarten, kinder-garten, second grade and third grade students who memorized the Pledge of Allegiance. CEDAR HILLS Decisions 2004 continues in Cedar Hills in three steps. Neighborhood Neigh-borhood meetings will be held Feb. 24 at 6, 7 and 8 p.m. in the Public Safety Bldg. Random telephone surveys will then be conducted, and a survey done of the City Council and City Staff. Cedar Hills. needs input from all residents, and encourages encour-ages all to be involved. CEDAR VALLEY The third and final self-reliance fair in a personal preparedness series hosted by the Eagle Mountain Moun-tain West Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be held Saturday, Feb.7, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Stake Center, 1300 E. Ira Hodges Way in Eagle Mountain. The entire community is invited to come enjoy displays and classes on cooking with wheat, menu planning, gardening, land (MM " ,mmmmmmwm ii . mi let and buying a new one, which would have taken care of both the errant monitor and fickle printer which we were facing. A friend heard my plight and gave me a printer which her family fam-ily had declared surplus. It was really exciting and we were able to print out the documents we needed. But the donation reduced the financial benefit we could see from purchasing a new computer system. It became harder to justify justi-fy our wishes with necessity when it was only a monitor we actually lacked. My son heard about our newer plight and followed the example of my friend. He and his wife had purchased a new computer and therefore had a spare monitor just waiting for us. The anticipation began. Reader's Forum Mr. LeBaron is new to the council, yet speaks as one with the "voice of authority" on a matter which Mayor Ten Bar-ratt Bar-ratt counseled would require "time to understand under-stand the magnitude of this job." Juel Belmont felt that the position was "so huge, so large a position posi-tion which had in her opinion increased in power over the past few years." If this were truly the case, then common sense would dictate that guidelines guide-lines needed to be in place for the job itself a matter that requires time, commitment, and perception of the needs of our growing community communi-ty not an abrupt dismissal dis-missal with no plan to resolve in mind. Possibly other positions should have been created to assist in meeting the "magnitude of the job." Certainly the words of Mayor Ted Barratt are prophetic - "The city is going to be set back a long ways. This was not in the best interest of the community." We have long known Carl Wanlass as a friend, neighbor and a public scaping, sewing, quilting, home repair, money management, career development, first aid, mental health and physical fitness. Children Chil-dren over three can learn about personal per-sonal safety in a class especially for the youngsters. HIGHLAND Trucks tracking mud onto city streets is already a finable offense in Highland. 'Dirt leaches the oil from the asphalt and causes it to break down," said Mayor Jess Adamson. However, the problem is actually catching the perpetrator. City administrator Barry Edwards explained. "By the time the mud is found the truck is long gone," he said. An amendment to the development devel-opment code presented to the Highland High-land Planning Commission meeting on the Jan. 27 would give the city an extra tool to combat the problem. It would require contractors to construct con-struct and park on either a gravel or concrete driveway. Truck drivers are also required to clean the mud from their vehicle before it is driven onto the street. The amendment was recommended to the City Council by unanimous vote. HIGHLAND An amendment to give the city the latitude to accept or reject existing exist-ing trees as part of the landscaping requirement in an open space development was discussed at the Highland Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 27. "Some of the trees coming to us are in less-than-adequate condition," said assistant director of zoning Lonnie Crowell. The landscape ordinance requires newly planted trees to be under warrantee for a year. This amendment amend-ment would give us the authority to require the developer to replace existing trees." The amendment was recommended to the City Council by unanimous vote. LEHI Lehi City annexed 140.12 acres in 2003 and issued 1,014 building permits. The number of permits is a record breaker. The department not too much Between schedule conflicts, snowstorms, sick kids and extra responsibilities, it 'was a while before we could finally get together togeth-er to make the exchange. The event was planned for our grandson's birthday and we anxiously anx-iously awaited the time when we could actually see what we had written on the computer. What a concept. We arrived at the birthday party a little early and quickly put the monitor in the car so we . wouldn't forget to take it with us because of all the celebration and confusion expected for the rest of the day. At the last minute my daughter came from Ogden to join in the birthday party. We talked about challenges we were facing, including includ-ing getting four cars safety inspected during the same month. One of those vehicles was assigned to her and we offered to take care of the inspection. You guessed it. We traded vehicles vehi-cles and off my monitor went to Ogden for a week. That was a little too much anticipation. servant. We have benefited bene-fited from his professional profession-al skills in different matters, mat-ters, completely trust his judgment as an accountant account-ant and administrator, and question highly the reasons for his dismissal. dis-missal. We looked to the City Council for decisions that were for the welfare of our community and on this matter are sincerely disappointed. Respectfully submitted, submit-ted, LeGrande and Marcia Smith Jerry and Janette Birrell also conducted 14,582 inspections. "It represents a totafof $164 million valuation of new construction in the city," said Clint Carter, building inspections superintendent. To compensate for the added work load with the construction boom, the city has hired two part-time building inspectors and a part-time worker to help with scanning and inspection scheduling. LINDON Lindon council member Lindsey Bayless gave the City Council heads up Jan. 20 about plans to widen 1-1 5. Bayless said that any plans for 200 South to cross the widened freeway have to be on the city's master plan before UDOT begins the widening or they won't consider or include the street. The street is the only east-west east-west street going from one end of town to the other, is a natural border between Orem and Lindon, and provides pro-vides access to the landfill and the boat harbor. PLEASANT GROVE A new basement at the Jacobs Senior Center will increase the size and usability of the Pleasant Grove facility with funds provided by the city that donated $28,000, and through a $51,000 community development grant recently awarded award-ed the center. SARATOGA SPRINGS Saratoga Springs' Civic Event's Consultant Allana Fagergren talked about 2004's city events. The annual Easter Egg Hunt will be in March; more details and location will be announced soon. The Splash in June is to be held Friday, June 18, and Saturday, June 19; a fireman's breakfast, golfing and possibly events on the marina would follow. The Farmer's Market would be included for the whole month of June with activities for Wildlife and Habitat. October would end with the Harvest Festival. If there are resources people have or for those willing to volunteer, please contact Fagergren at 768-4083. |