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Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Thursday, July 5, 2007 i 1 1 i - Page 2 JEWS AND NOTES TO KEEP YOU Utah Heritage Foundation honors renovation efforts Barbara Christiansen American Fork City Hull has bt-en returned to some of its former grandeur, and that has caught the eye of some officials. Renovations to the building were complete late last year and the city was recently re-cently honored for its efforts to preserve its heritage. The Utah Heritage Foundation Founda-tion named the project one of nine I leritage Awards recipients recipi-ents for the year. One of the more conspicuous of the renovations was building build-ing a replacement bell tower for the building, which was constructed in YMl. The original origi-nal tower was removed in 1959 to allow air conditioning in the building. There had been a suspended ceiling added to the building. When it was removed, the workers discovered much of the original tin-punch ceiling still remained. They used the pieces which were in good enough condition and recreated recre-ated more to match. Juel Belmont, former coun-cilwoman coun-cilwoman and member of the Historic Preservation Committee, Commit-tee, was one intensely involved in the project. She said it was important the effort was made. "If you don't understand your past, how can you know what to do in the future," she said. She also mentioned a financial fi-nancial benefit. "Charm sells," she said. "Of the places that people go, the second most popular destinations destina-tions are historical towns and sites. The beach is number one. People like charming places. "It is our history, for heaven's heav-en's sake. It is what has been left to us as stewards to take Theater Continued from Page 1 it in front of a crowd." She said that the kids grow so much in their skills by being in the program. "It is a fun thing to see them develop and share their talents and it is important to see them Recreation Continued from Page 1 vestment. We ought to finish what we have." Rykert suggested the city acquire property on the south side of the freeway for a future fu-ture sports complex. He also NorthCounty mm mm wmm naskvm NEWSPAPERS 399 E State St Pleasant Grove Marc Haddock 443 3268 North County Editor mhaddockheraldextra.com Cathy Allred 443 3262 Lehi, Saratoga Springs. PI. Grove callredheraldextra.com Barbara Christiansen 443 -3264 American Fork, Alpine, Cedar Hills bchristiansenheraldextra.com Mike Rigert 443 3265 Orem, Vineyard mrigertheraldextra.com Beky Beaton 443-3267 Sports bbeatonheraldextra.com mJmwI Lane Dubois 756 -7669 Advertising Account Executive lduboisheraldextra.com Volume 134 AmenamFort CllBeoDHelEOlUSM01B-B80avnevwpulWla39E Sute Si . P1earl Grave. Utah M0C:J Penal. Postage h-d Plariit Grave Udh 840i2 arid additonal mairig onVen Postmaster SxJ drklress change tt Ainencan Fort Citirtwi, PO Box 7. Amencan Fa UT84003 000 ttlJtt)l&tMjma.MvGir!rjrm(imlmi Inc : Auttt Bureau ol CraiJtions "-m 1 ' f v s i i LX til r: i-J Juel Belmont on the luilder leading to the hell tower at the recently renovated American Fork City Hall. She was honored by the Utah Heritage Foundation for the effort. care of." Gxjper, Roberts, Simonsen Architects did the planning for the project. Steve Moon was the project manager. The project proj-ect had a $1.6 million budget. Representatives from the two companies met weekly with city officials. "We were meeting every week for a while," Belmont said. They met on the site, where they could visualize the plans they made and do inspections. inspec-tions. "We were sitting in the rubble." One of the items they pondered pon-dered during those meetings know that they have abilities and share them with the community," com-munity," she said. The 52 young actors presenting present-ing the production have been attending the Musical Theater Camp every weekday since June 18, practicing their production pro-duction for two hours every day. Ten-year-old Brandon Root- expressed the wish for completing com-pleting the parks task force recommendations and' building build-ing tennis courts. Longer-term plans, for six to 10 years, included building a sports complex on the city's south side, plus building an indoor fieldhouse and a rock climbing facility. Rykert sug Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 DAILY HERALD PUBLISHING CO. Jennette Esplin 756-7669 Office Manager Erin Stewart 344 2558 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Julia Fullmer 344 2570 DesignerCopy Editor Jeremy Harmon 344-2585 Photographer Issue 78 INFORMED AND was how to put a bell atop the structure. The original bell had been donated to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and that group's bylaws did not allow them to return such a gift. They did, however, determine that it would be possible to keep the bell, but relocate it to the historic city hall. Otherwise it would have cost nearly $50,000 for the city to purchase a bell and have it shipped. Belmont said the city planned on putting a bronze plaque on the building to indicate to the public about the bell's history. saert, who will play a munch-kin munch-kin and a fire monkey in the play, said that memorizing the lines was the hardest part of the practices. "It is fun," Rootsaert said. "Last year I did "HONK," and got a T-shirt. I think it was really fun to get better in our singing skills. I really like it." Rootsaert's 7-year-old sister, gested an ice rink for public skating, hockey and figure skating. He also said the city could use another pool. Rykert said he felt there was room for improvements to several city departments. "I believe there is room for balance in our city and opportunity oppor-tunity to provide a vast array Hopping "'il he baby robin hopped out of our yard and out of our lives last week, flanked by nervous parents Watching the bird hatch J and grow has been an education. edu-cation. Robins first built a nest in our yard last year, in the top of a fairly tail maple tree we had planted the previous previ-ous autumn. And while the would-be parents kept a careful watch in our yard, as best we could tell, there were no chicks, and the adult birds abandoned aban-doned the empty nest. This spring, a robin's nest turned up in our flowering plum tree, much lower to the ground. We watched again as the mother and father robins rob-ins gathered the straw and grass and mud to make a temporary home where they could hatch their young. Then we kept a careful eye on the nest. We assumed there were eggs, because the mother robin took up residence. We would get a nervous glance from her when we peeked in from a reasonable distance, dis-tance, but she never abandoned her post. And the daddy robin kept a careful and concerned watch from our roof or a nearby tree. We were thrilled to have a nursery filled with baby-blue eggs, even if we never actually saw them. Mom was very careful and the nest was well hidden. Dad stayed near the nest as well, standing on our fence or the rooftop. We were quite excited when that pattern changed, and the parents started coming and going to the nest. One of the parent birds, a worm dangling from its beak, would fly into the tree to feed the baby birds, and the other would fly out, going in search of more worms. Apparently it takes teamwork to raise baby robins. The chicks, for their part, were very noisy, especially at feeding time. At least it sounded as if there was more than one chick in the nest and we thought we saw three tiny beaks stick ing straight up in the air, opening INVOLVED BARBARA CHRISTIANSENNorth County COMMUNITY NOTES I Budget revised The American Fork City Council approved a $1.4 million adjustment adjust-ment to its general fund budget for the fiscal year completed at the end of June. Most of the change was based on the city have received more revenues than anticipated. antici-pated. That came from sources which included taxes, recreational recre-ational fees, donations, and the sale of the history book, "The Growing Years." Adjustments in the expen Natalie, is in the American Fork Youth Theater for the first time this year. "I get to be the same thing as my brother," said Natalie, who will also play a munchkin and a monkey. Eight-year-old Kamryn Welling Well-ing has participated for three years in the American Fork Youth Theater. of opportunity, whether it be the fitness center, recreation, arts or the library. I don't want to take away from the arts. I think each department needs to have a view what they think needs to happen." In a related issue, Rykert addressed the need for more parking at the center. around but there' it Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN for so long. But and closing, sometimes hoping is the best you can do. ditures varied between the departments some higher and some lower than anticipated, antici-pated, but one of the major changes was transferring $2 million into other funds. That included putting aside funds for future capital improvements, improve-ments, which include road construction. Making adjustments to the budget at the end of the fiscal year is a standard procedure. I Employee of the Month Austin Miller of the American Ameri-can Fork FireRescue Department Depart-ment was named as the city's Employee of the Month for June. Miller was involved in an effort to correct addresses for a portion of 50 South where they had not be assigned in the correct order. "Austin put in many hours typing letters, gathering code information, buying the correct cor-rect numbers and distributing them to each resident needing an address change," his nomination nomi-nation says. "Also, Austin always al-ways helps with typing duties at the station and has created numerous computer programs that help the department function func-tion smoothly." "Austin always makes the patients and members of the fire department feel comfortable comfort-able and gives 110 percent on the job." I Correction A story last week mentioning the Husband & Wife Intimacy Boutique had some incorrect information. informa-tion. The store will display lingerie on mannequins, but will not show photographic images with models. Its slogan is "Strengthening marriages through encouraging intimacy." "It's fun getting to know new friends and get to be in the play with friends from other years," Welling said. "It is exciting saying my lines and watching people laugh." The group will perform at the Veteran's Hall at 53 N. Center Cen-ter St. on July 12 at 1:30, 3 and 5:30 p.m. and on July 13 at 1:30, 3 and 6 p.m. "Parking will be an ongoing ongo-ing struggle," he said. "We encourage people to use the south parking lot. The other entrance (from that lot) is open from noon to 8 p.m." That entrance is open during the summer months when the bubble has been removed. demanding one more bite of partially chewed worm. But one day the mom and dad were gone from the nest, and standing stand-ing on the edge was a speckled breasted, tremendously homely robin chick just one clearly making some attempts to leave the nest. Mother and father were nearby, but they didn't try to get in the nest. If there were other chicks, we saw no more evidence of them, just this one bird. Each day it was noticeably larger and looked more like an adult robin. The growth was so startling it was hard to believe from day to day that it was the same bird. And then it was gone from the nest and hopping around the back yard. The'mother and father robins continued to attend to the smaller bird's needs, following it around the yard. We figured it was safe from predators in the back yard. We do get an occasional cat climbing climb-ing the fence, but we figured the parents could take care of that. Then last Friday morning I was watering the garden, and watched as the young, still flightless flight-less robin hopped along the fence and through the gate. Being in the front yard exposed the young robin to all kinds of dangers. The parent birds were still watching, but they were in way over their heads "out there." I ran around to the front and encouraged the bird to hop back through the gate to safety, but there was no stopping it now. By afternoon it was gone for good. I hope it is OK. I hope it has learned to fly. I hope the time invested by painstaking parents for the bird's well-being wasn't in vain. Raising kids is a bit like that, only more so. Parents do their best, but eventually the kids head out to fend for themselves. And as we have seen over the last few weeks, there are lots of dangers out there, waiting to claim young lives. You can only keep that intense, close watch once the chick leaves the nest, Harvey Continued from Page 1 sure it runs. I have to pretty well be in all of it. Sales takes the most time, though." One of the things he has been most pleased with through the years has been the reputation the firm has developed for being honest and fair. The reputation and philosophy phi-losophy have extended to the employees as well. "We are like a family," Harvey said. "We have two people who have been here over 30 years, six more than 25 and five more than 20. We treat them fairly and are concerned about their well- . being." Chris Bassett of the service department has been with the company 32 years. He told what he likes best about Harvey. "I have never heard him cuss in 32 years," he said. "I have seen him upset, but he still never reduced himself to cussing. He is an inspiring leader. You don't work for him as much for the wage as you don't want to disappoint him. It has been wonderful working for him. He is a good communicator and an even better listener." ;"s t I have never worked for a more truly genuine person. KenChristofferson GENE HARVEY EMPLOYEE Finance manager Ken Christofferson agreed. "He is as nice as he looks," he said. I have never worked for a more truly genuine person. per-son. He is almost like a father figure to me. He is very loving lov-ing and caring and a wonderful wonder-ful family man." Liz Gaudia has been with the company 15 years. "He is one of the reasons I have stayed her as long as I have," she said. "He does a lot of things behind the scenes anonymously like helping out families. He doesn't want accolades." ac-colades." Helping people is what Harvey enjoys the most about the business. "One of the best things is that you deal with the people and make a lot of friends," he said. "For a lot of people this is one of the biggest purchases purchas-es they make. It is satisfying to help them. It is also exciting excit-ing to see the new models and changes. The reason I am still here is that I enjoy the business busi-ness so much that I would really re-ally miss it." He has served as president of the Chamber of Commerce and has belonged to the Ki-wanis Ki-wanis and Jaycees Clubs. He enjoys golfing and still is active ac-tive in the sport. Harvey has been involved with selling vehicles longer than his 50 years he recently marked. "I actually started out selling Fords," he said. In 1949 he started selling Fords at Alpine Motor Company, then became the Ford dealer in 1954. In 1957, he bought into the Chevrolet dealership, Timpanogos Motor Company. "I built this place in 1965," he said of the dealership at its current location on 500 East. He has seen many changes in the business since he started. "The number of cars is a big difference," he said. "We used to have three or four models, in the deluxe and standard versions, plus half and three-quarter ton trucks. We used to stock 25 to 30 vehicles. ve-hicles. Now we stock 200 and another 100 in used." Another change is the proportion pro-portion of vehicle styles. "Seventy-five percent of our sales are trucks, including includ-ing SUVs like Suburbans and Tahoes," he said. "Twenty-five "Twenty-five percent are cars. That is about exactly the opposite of a few years back. It used to be farmers and sheepherders who bought trucks." The vehicles themselves have changed, too. "The trucks drive like a car, ride nice and have nice interiors," Harvey said. He said people sometimes say they wish they made vehicles like they used to, but Harvey disagrees. "It used to be that tires had to be replaced around 15,000 miles," he said. "Now tires run about 50,000 miles and cars are good for abut 150,000 miles. |