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Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Thursday, August 17, 2006 lliJhej Pagt 2 F 1 3 "o NEWS AND NOTES TO KEEP YOU INFORMED AND INVOLVED PLAYING IT SAFE ArnV Aft f ittlpU j8on Olion'Daily Herald Orem police officer Jeff Long talks to a group of children about the safe way to cross the street during a Safety City session at the University Mall. Safety City will continue from 10 a m. to 5 p.m. through Saturday. Resident challenges planners' recommendation Barbara Christiansen The Planning and Zoning Commis-sion Commis-sion has recommended approval of a subdivision called Serene Meadows, at 171 S. 270 West Circle in American fork. One nearby resident, however, has asked the approval Ik- reversed. Jess Green, who lives on .300 West, submitted an appeal to the City Council on Aug. H "The Planning I)epartment said nothing noth-ing was taking place." he said. "We should have been informed" The mix-up may have occurred when Green asked the planning staff if there was an inner block development on the agenda. The item may have been overlooked, said planner Rod Despain, since it was a standard subdivision, not an inner block development. City Council members made no decision deci-sion whether to send the items back to the planners for further consideration. The subdivision would have included six single family homes and four twin home lots. Golf course report A study prepared for Pleasant Grove City has confirmed what American Fork and Lehi representatives to the Tri City Golf Course had reported to their communities. The course has had a profit in 2000 but recorded losses each subsequent year. In 2005 the loss was approximately approximate-ly $116,000, according to the report prepared for Pleasant Grove. Along with decreasing revenues, the costs have been increasing. "Much of this expense can be linked to the upkeep of the aging irrigation system," says the report. That was the request of head pro Rick Roberts who came to the three cities cit-ies in recent months, requesting funds to upgrade the irrigation equipment. The consulting firm suggested several sever-al directions the course could take. The report said that doing nothing would result in the loss of the course. Instead it recommended a new irrigation ir-rigation system and a schedule of increasing in-creasing fees and rates. Members of the Tri City Golf Committee Com-mittee will review the recommendations recommenda-tions prior to taking the issue back to the cities for financing. Councilman Shirl LeBaron who represents rep-resents American Fork on the panel, said he anticipated the group would approve ap-prove the changes. "I think they would support going forward on the irrigation and getting the engineering done," he said. "They will probably phase in the improvements in a two-to-five-year period." CITY BRIEFS I Annexations The City Council received re-ceived no protests about two potential annexations on Aug. 8. The Planning Commission will now begin review of the TattersaU Annexation, with 5.14 acres, at 660 W. 200 South, and the 2.85 acre-Williamson annexation, at 1125 S. 400 East. Resident urges railroad track upgrade Soren Sabey, a resident of American Fork for 50 years, asked the City Council Coun-cil on Aug. 8 for improvements to the railroad track crossing at 500 East. City officials said they would look into the issue, but were concerned the track was for a spur and was mostly unused. I Individuals or groups sought for service ser-vice projects Councilwoman Heidi Rodeback said the city is seeking individuals, indi-viduals, families or other groups to perform per-form service projects in city parks. Some of the service which is needed is to dig circles around trees, to keep the grass away from the trunks. That will allow less damage from mowers as they mow the grass in the parks. Anyone interested may contact the city offices at 763-3000. I Budget approved On Aug. 8, the American Fork City Council voted to approve the city's annual budget. The budget usually must be approved by the last meeting of the council in June, but when there is a tax increase, the budget may be approved later. Following the adoption of a certified tax rate, which included an increase of 20 percent, the council approved a $37.6 million budget. The budget includes in-cludes a loan to the broadband or the road projects and increases in payroll for city personnel and for funds for sidewalks and roads. I Zone change denied A zone change for a parcel of ground at 825 W. 700 North was denied by the City Council on Aug. 8. The Welch-Jensen property would have been changed from residential to the professional office zone, but the council denied the change. Councilman Shirl LeBaron voted nay, saying the issue is-sue should be referred back to the Planning Plan-ning Commission. Land use plan amended The City Council approved on Aug. 8 a change to the land use element of the general plan and a zone change for property at 360 E. 560 South. It was changed from design commercial to medium density residential. "Developer Dan Richards had this approved ap-proved for commercial," planner Rod Despain said. "He has come back and said he would prefer the residential." NorthCounty WSPAPERS 399 E State St Pleasant Grove Phone: 756-7609 Fax: 756-5274 Kirk Parkinson 433 3250 Vice PresidentPublisher kpa msonheraldextra com Marc Haddock 4 33 32G8 North County Editor mhaddocuShefaide! com Cathy Allred 433-3202 Lehi, Saratoga Springs. PI Grove callredfflneraldextra com DAILY HERALD PCBLIIBIMQ CO. Barbara Christiansen 433 3264 Jennette Esplin 756 American Fork, Alpine. Cedar Hills bchnstiansenheraldextra com Mike Rigert 433-3205 Orem, Vineyard mngertheraldextra com Beky Beaton 433 3267 Sports bbeatonheraldextra com 7669 Office Manager Erin Stewart 344 -2558 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Casey Rogers 344 2570 DesignerCopy Editor Chris Peterson 344 2570 ZSTwSEa DesignerCopy Editor Lane Dubois 756-7669 Advertising Account Executive lduboishera!de:tra com Jeremy Harmon 344 2585 Photographer NEWSSTAND PRICE: $0.50 SUBSCRIPTION RATE 1 year (in Utah County) - $36 40. Sunday, Thursday and holiday deliveries deliver-ies (which includes the week of Easter plus Memorial, Independence, Pioneer, Labor, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day). 1 year (outside Utah County) - $45 40 1 year (in Utah County - Thursday only) - $36 40 USPS 30 SOOIIS1SN: 1U1-OMB) tWMW Pl! Amif UtfH W0C3 fmnmm wt'aendndarwactanoBaioPQ BwZAimnm'Hift liT 84003 hjMshKlThgiKiwi by Im Kjracatons, wturn 6 a Ovwxi 'J Lttftxiws trie IWmiiiw: Aurtt Bua of ..mn Experience the lure of fishing I'm not the outdoorsy type, but during a recent vacation I spent a good part of the day on Strawberry Reservoir learning how to troll for cutthroat trout. Here are some of the things I learned: Fishing isn't worth it. At least, not if you are measuring your success by how much money you save catching fish. I had no pole, so I went to Cabe-la's Cabe-la's to get one. Wade, my son-in-law who had pushed for this experience, told me not to worry about lures. He would take care of that. I went for an inexpensive model. While poles can be very expensive, in my case, the fishing line cost about half as much as the pole. 1 bought a one-day license. Then we had to rent the boat. We got the smallest craft they rent at Strawberry a 14-foot, "five-roan" bare-bones aluminum boat. Wade, a starving college student, had spent $20 on each of the lures he hoped would deliver de-liver to us dozens of fish. So we were out a pretty nice chunk of change before we ever got on the water. Even if we caught our limit, each fish would cost a lot of money. Fishing is about limits. The limit at Strawberry Straw-berry is four fish each, and only two of those can be cutthroat trout. And we had to be careful, because if you catch a big cutthroat trout between 15 and 22 inches, you have to throw it back. If Wade was right and I had no reason to think he wasn't we would be hauling in a lot of fish, but letting most of them go, (So much for the old adage about solving the world's hunger problems by teaching people to fish.) Timing is everything. Wade insisted we arrive ar-rive early, so we got up at 5 a.m. so we could arrive at Strawberry at 6:30 a.m., the earliest we could get the boat. I hadn't seen a sunrise in a long time, and this one was spectacular, but it was really early. Apparently August isn't the best time for fishing at Strawberry, however. We were a j Hi Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN month too early. In August, the reservoir is full of algae and weeds that fouled our lines and lures, and only a few fish were biting. At one point, when I was fishing fish-ing with our only successful lure, I caught so much moss and weeds on my lure that the line broke and the lure was lost. We went home shortly after that. Always secure your pole. Wade's pole had been secured, sort of. It had been wedged between the side of the boat and the anchor while he worked with the boat's engine. He saw the pole jerk once, then it flew out of the boat. It was about 9 a.m. and the first strike of the day so much for our early Start. Wade considered jumping into the water to retrieve the pole, but he hesitated too long, and the pole with the fish and $20 lure was gone. This could have ruined the day, but we had three hours of rental time left, so the resourceful resource-ful lad tied a lure onto the line on the spool, and used that to fish. He caught two cutthroat that way, including one that was so large we had to throw it back. It was the largest cutthroat cut-throat he had ever caught. I caught one, as well, so we had two fish to take home to feed four of us. Fishing is worth it. Misadventures aside, many good things came from the trip. We weren't skunked. That would have been hard to take, given the buildup to the trip. Wade and I got to know each other a lot better. With just two of you out there floating on the lake, you pretty much have to talk to each other or not talk at all. And we had a great time. We spent six hours in that boat; it seemed more like two. And when we were done we had enjoyed a beautiful sunrise, had done battle with the elements el-ements and beasties, had overcome adversity and we had done it together. The memories of the trip will last a lifetime. life-time. And you can't put a price on that. Bell Continued from Page 1 cided to relocate the bell to the tower which was rebuilt and would be replaced atop City Hall. They anticipate a plaque will be put inside the building indicating the bell is a possession of the DUP. Juel Belmont of the city's Historic Preservation Commission Com-mission said it was helpful to be able to put the bell on City Hall instead of having to purchase a replica. "The shipping costs alone would have been a lot to ship it from Denmark," she said. Architect Mike Irishman Irish-man said the estimates to purchase a new bell were around $12,000 plus the shipping, and expressed appreciation ap-preciation to the DUP for allowing al-lowing the historic bell to be displayed at City Hall. Based on the size of the bell and its tones, he estimated esti-mated it weighed between 700 and 1200 pounds. "It is going to be really great to have the bell back to its original splendor," Leishman said. The rest of the renovations renova-tions to City Hall are moving ahead well, said Chief of Staff Melanie Marsh. "The tin ceiling is coming together so nicely," she said. "It is looking really, really good." When the company doing the renovation began removing remov-ing the suspended ceiling in the building, they discovered the original tin punch ceiling which had been hand created. creat-ed. Some of the original panels pan-els have been maintained; others have been replicated to project the historical nature na-ture of the building. Another historical feature fea-ture uncovered during the remodeling was the historic safe. Some of the original gold leaf letters could be seen on it. "A man is looking at it to see how to preserve some of the original safe," Marsh said. "If they cannot restore the lettering, they could repaint re-paint it." The second floor of the building is being made into one large room. It can be used for small Arts Council productions, recitals, speech contests and other events, along with City Council and Planning Commission meetings. meet-ings. An "L" shaped desk is being built to sit on a raised platform in one corner. The rest of the room will have moveable seating. For what the bell tolls Originally the bell was used to note various " occasions, depending on how the bell was rung Slow: Funeral cortege Mellow, even tones: Call to worship Livelier tone: Calling school children 9 p.m.: Curfew Staccato: Fire alarm Long ringing: Arrival of New Year or end of the war 900 West Continued from Page 1 which would bring revenue to the city. With that in mind, he was unsure why the Planning Plan-ning Commission would vote to keep residential zoning. "It is a goose with a golden egg and the Planning Commission Com-mission says, 'Thanks. We will eat chicken eggs,'" he said. One of the neighbors, Mark Harris, said the situation would be different, since Carson would sell the property and move away, leaving the neighbors with a commercial development next door. "One person gets the gold and the rest of us are going to get the goose," he said. David Rose, the developer, said the property was a logical logi-cal choice for commercial development. de-velopment. "This is the most no-brain-er piece of retail property in Utah." he said. The neighbors said the additional ad-ditional sales and property tax revenue should not be enough incentive for the city to make the change in zoning. Some had questions whether wheth-er anyone would want to purchase pur-chase a home in the area. POOI |