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Show j I AFOUT 5-DlGIT 84124 ! UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION 2 5121 E 3900'S 1 SALT LAKE CITY, UT B4124 L YOUR TOWN, lYOUR NEIGHBORS, YOUR NEWSPAPER i THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2004 50 CENTS VOL. 26 NO. 35 a 0- A O ft j It , i i (' , f w , 4 ' Jf Photo by Barbara Christiansen First day of school Breanna Thornton and her mom rush across the street with the help of crossing guard Carolyn Andersen. They were going to the first day of school Monday at Forbes Elementary School in American Fork. Principal Larry Dean commented that the weather was more like the end of school rather than the beginning, since it was raining. Cities consider new recreation and arts facility By Barbara Christiansen City Editor Today it's a vision. It may take a while before it becomes a plan, and longer than that to turn into a reality. But four north Utah County communities could band together to purchase property and build a cultural cultur-al arts and recreation center. cen-ter. American Fork mayor Ted Barratt explained the vision he had and presented it to representatives of Alpine, Highland and Cedar Hills. "I have a vision in my own mind," he said. "We could have an aquatic center cen-ter and cultural arts center. I am envisioning a fairly nice auditorium, small theater the-ater and hopefully an outdoor out-door stage." Other facilities could include tennis and soccer. He visualized the center could be built south of Lone Peak High School on property prop-erty presently under state ownership. "Right now everything is on hold until we get some type of direction from the state whether or not the property is for sale," said Barratt. "I will get with Governor Walker and see it she is interested in sifting the ground. Governor Leavitt wasn't interested in sell-ing. sell-ing. . If the land is for sale, another concern is the price. Barratt told American Ameri-can Fork's Arts Council that state law requires that property 6ales go through the legislature, and land must be sold at fair market value. , ' Another provision indicates indi-cates that when communities communi-ties buy land from the state, the purchase has a revision-ary revision-ary clause. If the property ceases to be used for the purpose the city said, in this case for cultural arts and recreation, the land would revert back to state ownership. owner-ship. A similar provision is See ARTS on page 3 American Fork to give money for oldrunused cars By Elisabeth Nardi Utah Valley staff .. - Some vehicles in American Ameri-can Fork are being used as lawn art and planter boxes rather than modes of transportation. trans-portation. These are the cars that Doug Bethers, head of the American Fork Beautification Committee, wants gone. He's slowly getting his wish, as the driveway derelicts dere-licts are. being towed away, one car at a time. "I do not benefit from people getting rid of junk . cars; my reward is helping people clean up their places," Bethers said. s Bethers is spearheading a program to get rid of cars that residents no longer use. The Junk Vehicle Reduction Drive started in May and was extended from July through the end of August so more people could have a chance to get rid of unused cars, he said. The program allows American Fork residents who want to get rid of a vehicle they no longer want especially one that does not run to be removed. Residents call Bethers, or he drops by, and then he sets up the removal. Each resident who gives a car away is entered into a $1,000 drawing to be held in September. Bethers did not want to comment on what company was donating donat-ing the money, but said the residents and the city do not pay a cent for the $1,000 will be awarded. award-ed. A drawing will be held Sept. 14 at a City Council meeting. Those who have donated a vehicle from May 15 to Aug. 31 may participate in the drawing. draw-ing. Contact Doug Bethers at 369-2769. removal. The cars are donated to various organizations, including the Kidney Foun- See VEHICLES on page 3 County Commission decides not to place district split on ballot By Amie Rose Utah Valley staff The Alpine School District will remain intact at least for now. Utah County commissioners voted 2-1 Tuesday against a proposal to carve out the Lehi High School area from the Alpine School District, into a district of its own. The school portion of property taxes was estimated estimat-ed to increase 40 percent in the proposed district dis-trict by 2010, if the split was approved. Last year, sponsors submitted a petition with more than 1,200 signatures of voters in the Lehi area who wanted the school district split The county appointed a committee to Btudy the feasibility of the district. The committee com-mittee finished its report recommending against the split in June. Then commissioners commis-sioners opened a 45-day public comment period, which ended more than a week ago. Tin happy and relieved," said Lehi resident resi-dent Michelle Kendall, who was one of only a handful of residents at the meeting Tuesday Tues-day morning. She has two children in elementary ele-mentary school and one in junior high school. See DISTRICT on page 3 Pay and perks City's wages and benefits have increased By Betty G. Spencer Having a job with American' Fork City has always been associated associ-ated with honor, stability and a degree of recognition. The downside down-side of the situation has been that wages and benefits of city employees employ-ees have not always kept up with those of the public sector. In the early 1930s, there were few employees, perhaps only 15 in alL The recorder', and treasurer! were part-time, as was a clerktypist in the City Hall. Fulltime Full-time were sexton, water manager, parks worker, heavy-duty equipment equip-ment operator, police officers, firemen fire-men (volunteers), streets and cemetery workers. The city attorney, attor-ney, physician, justice of the peace and stray pound keeper were part-time, as well as the single garbage collector. Today the number of city employees has increased just as the population of the community has grown with 102 full-time staff and 286 part-time employees. The city offers a comprehensive , benefits package with generous fringe benefits unknown to earlier employees who worked a 48-hour week with few benefits. Elected officials didn't do much better.- Before 1905 City Council members mem-bers were paid $1.50 for every City Council meeting attended. By December, 1944 this stipend had been raised to $20 per month for the mayor and $13.52 for members of the City Council. This amount was increased in 1950, providing mayor Willard C. Cleghorn with $25 per month and . councilmen $16.65 per month. Mayor and council monthly salaries were raised in 1951, by motion of councilman Jared D. Keller to $50 per month for the mayor and $35 per month for members of the City Council. The last published salary for the mayor (2003) was $1,800 per month, with members of the City Council receiving $1,000 monthly. It must be noted that earlier council members did not hold as many "work" sessions or extra meetings as are now routine. Earlier Ear-lier councils held committee meetings meet-ings to decide what needed to be done immediately. Wages did not advance much during the Great Depression. Salaries for 1932 were small. The yearly salary for the city marshall and the water and streets manager manag-er was $1,200. It required a change of the city personnel ordinance ordi-nance to give him and the other two named officials a $10-a-month raise. An increase was also made for common laborers from $2.50 to $3 per day and allowing 75 cents per hour for truck hire and $5 per day for team hire. This included the wage for the team driver. -to. t 7 Uj ) Karl H. Bennett, first City Clerk and first full-time employee at the American Fork City Hall. See PERKS on page 3 M '04 CHEVY SUBURBAN V0KTEC 14 0UAL At AUI0MAIK PWPl CO MILES flL TIUMUIH AU0Y WHULS H037I OKtG tlSP $43200 04 CHEVY AVE0 ll CONOIIIONING VVIIn MWSTjto.74iooK,iiisw$n,y J.L,, mlm.Ji,t n Ktm wvnm w i' i w iir'Wf down siw'tnaiiV th iw wwnv imnm win tm with t mil ucwr w im mamm wi if mm iwwtivk oi r irw m mm imiu wmim ji z i..- r. .i. ..m aai a HuTi. ... . vXTErjrrTT iwwwi zhtstftttts COPY fc-- )M -4k, ,A |