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Show iaity$Hcralf AM EDITION Or THE A YOUR TOWN, YOUR NEIGHBORS, YOUR NEWSPAPER THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2004 50 CENTS VOL. 26 NO. 14 A. M A. JT. JF . JT T, Till iT I 1 :t J 1111 m, w j w f Mr. Judge dismisses suit against publisher By Tammy McPherson Utah Vauiy SWf A 4 th District judge ruled Friday to dismiss a four-year lawsuit against the former publisher of the American Fork Citizen newspaper. Judge Lynn W. Davis dismissed dis-missed the lawsuit under Utah's Anti-SLAPP (Strategic (Strate-gic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) statute, which is meant to protect citizens' participation in government, and awarded Brett Bezzant, the publisher, partial attorneys attor-neys fees and court costs associated with the suit Defense attorney JefT Hunt said this is the first case in Utah where a court has dismissed a lawsuit against a newspaper using the Anti-SLAPP Anti-SLAPP statute, and it is possibly pos-sibly the first case where Anti-SLAPP has been used by Utah courts to dismiss any lawsuit in the state. "It's a victory for smalltown small-town newspapers and a victory victo-ry for political speech Hunt said. In Davis written ruling, he stated the primary purpose of the man who filed the lawsuit, law-suit, William Jacob, was to "prevent or chill" the newspaper's newspa-per's proper participation in the process of government. "It was political speech and the judge recognized that, Hunt said. Not quite a week before the municipal elections in ' 1999, Jacob paid for a political politi-cal advertisement to be published pub-lished in the community newspaper. The ad was attributed to a Nonpartisan Citizen's Group and said two of the candidates for City Council were not qualified to run for office because of a conflict con-flict of interest with the city. One candidate was a part-time part-time EMT. ambulance employee and the other acted as an independent insurance broker for the city employee's benefits packages. The ad did not state Jacob's name. Because the American Fork Citizen is a weekly newspaper and was printed See LAWSUIT on page 3 K AF Ojt -C ?-H LOTC-O07 UTAH PF'Z'ZS Af;.-Or.I.vriON i 207 w 200 s r rr: aoo6 SAlT lACE CI P. i IT 64101-1277 r ) 1 " iveloper seeks stponement After over a year of asking for action, developer of senior housing project asks city to wait Tawny Haggard demonstrate! her form. Photo by Ben Bartholomew Dancer earns top honor By Barbara Christiansen City Editor American Fork High School senior Tawny Huggard has been named the state Deseret News Sterling Scholar in dance. She is the daughter of Gary and Carma Huggard of American Fork and enjoys many styles of dance, particularly modern and Irish, both soft, and hard shoe technique. tech-nique. She said she was surprise to receive the honor. "I had no idea I would be picked," she said. "It was a shock to me, but it was really real-ly exhilarating," Dancing to her is not just a class, but a part of her life. "I am really passionate about dance," she said. "I love being able to move. Not everyone can So that" and I. feel very blessed. It is a huge outlet for me in my daily life. I love challenging myself academically aca-demically and In movement." Those academic challenges have resulted result-ed in a 3.951 grade point average and ranking 24th in her class. She credits her parents with giving her the love of hard work. "My parents instilled in me as a child to See SCHOLAR on page 3 Quilt project helps alleviate suffering As Utahns enjoy the arrival of spring, the Southern South-ern Hemisphere is heading into its winter season. In some locations, people have frozen to death because of the lack of warm bedding. Humanitarian aid, through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is helping to alleviate allevi-ate that concern. Members of the American Ameri-can Fork LDS Stake set the goal of creating 1,000 quilts to help the cause. They exceeded that goal, with a total of 1,359 quilts. Some were crafted by individuals and donated; most were made by approximately 500 volunteers during the two and a half week period. Project coordinators thank all who helped, either with volunteer labor or donation of fabric. By Barbara Christiansen City Editor After repeatedly asking American Fork City to take action, Patterson Construction asked the Planning and Zoning Commission not to make a decision on a proposed senior housing project northeast of the Mount -Timpanogos LDS Temple. Engineer Steve Sowby was one who asked for the postponement of a. decision, deci-sion, based on indications the conclusion would be to deny the request. Deed restrictions were placed on the property when it was sold by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have been in question for several months, but a recent contact indicated the project proposed would not fit the guidelines. guide-lines. Planner Rod Despain reported on a contact the church had made with him regarding the proposal. propos-al. "At this point in time the LDS Church fully intends to retain the deed restrictions that were there," he said. Those restrictions included a provision that only single-family single-family housing would be permitted within 477 feet of the west side of Mount Timpanogos Blvd. Sowby and attorney Dan Van Woerkom said they had met with several groups in the church, and had another meeting scheduled, but that it was a private meeting. They asked for the commission's decision to be made following fol-lowing that meeting. "Wait," said Van Woerkom. "We are happy to meet with whoever they want us to meet with." Sowby showed a group of neighboring residents in the audience their new plan, which moved the commercial aspect of the senior project out of the restricted zone. It also included one fourplex, two threeplexes, 28 single-family single-family homes and 28 twin homes (with 56 units). To be able to construct the project with multiple-family multiple-family housing, the developers devel-opers would need not only the deed restrictions to be lifted, they would need a change in zoning from the Rl-9,000 to the PRl-9,000 zone. The neighbors, many from the nearby Val Vista development, encouraged the planners, to create a zone for upscule housing in the area. "We seem to have fewer and fewer placed to develop devel-op upscale housing," said See WAIT on page 3 Annual egg hunt is set for Saturday American Fork City will have its annual Easter Egg Hunt at 9 a.m. sharp on Saturday, April 10. It will be in Rotary Park, 250 E. 400 South. Children 11 and under are invited to attend and are asked to bring their own baskets or bags for the candy and toys. They will be divided into age groups and are urged to be on time. The first 500 children to attend will receive a bag of candy. 'Milk White eggs were big business f By Bctty G. SffNCM One of the most unique landmark land-mark in American Fork from 1930 until the early 1990s was the Utah Poultry Producers Cooperative Association. ,lt was an effort to enlarge the growing poultry production In the city, which began in 1913 with Jesse M. Walker setting up the first egg production business. His first ship- merit consisted of 500 white leghorn baby cluck from Petaluma, Calif. His success encouraged others to enter the "chicken business" and Rotarrt L Ashby received his first shipment of day-old chick. The poultry business grew quick- NO YOLK ry, since H required little space and a small investment. City officials were so pleased with the new income-producing industry that they allowed local poultry raisers to take a small mount of running water from the city water system without charge, to maintain the supply of fresh water vital to the industry. Tli Utah Poultry Producers' Cooperative Association began processing pro-cessing and sliipping the local eggs in 1923, working out of the Chip-man Chip-man Warehouse, In 1927 they moved their operation to 50 N, First East into a new commercial building. build-ing. The plant processed thousand of cases of eggs at a good price. The Poultry Co-Op, as It was commonly com-monly known, sold feed to the poultry poul-try producers, purchased their eggs for processing and marketing, Tlte plant required about 30 persons to operate the business. For a number of years Walter StefTen was; plant manager, I During World War 11 the entire output of the plant was sold to the United States Government as part of the food provided for the enlarged military. Most was sold to the United Unit-ed States Army. Th eggs , were gathered and cleaned by the resolutive poultry raisers. They would also pack the eggs in crates, with cardboard dividers between layers. The Co-Op charged 15 cents per crate to go the grower and pick up the cases. Many small producers preferred to bring their own egg to the plant, where they would lie unloaded on the large dock on the front of the building. The eggs were then cleaned, can- -,0.- z4 :l 0 S'Sl . 1 ""T- l! ;S 1 J . ! V sr.. H - -As, "- J 'i 1M Plioto courtesy Las Spencer, IntermounlcHn Farmor'i Association (IFA) Utah Poultry Producers Cooperative Association building at 50 North during th mid-1930s. died through a light machine to check for Tjloodeggs" or "cracks." See EGGS on page 8 mmt top mum cm axrimit vtzo rrxrai duusuvp tnun ru0t tmumt tam? war ro it tm.nn MKM tUTlfllM MAIM) rum HtKtunt Ain COPY if j |