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Show Page 2 AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Thursday, July 10, 2008 NEWS AND NOTES TO KEEP YOU DUP puts Ba rbara Christiansen NORTH COUNTY STAFF American Fork's historic City Hall will soon be sporting a new plaque. It is to commemorate commem-orate the loan of the bell which graces the top of the hundred-plus hundred-plus year old structure. Members of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers offered to loan the bell to the city when they discovered both the city and the DUP had the same goal to preserve the bell. It was placed again on city hall when it was renovated in 2006. "According to our bylaws we don't return artifacts," said local representative Karen Adams. "Our international president, Mary Johnson, said we can relocate items, however. how-ever. I felt like it was meeting the same criteria, whether it was on top of City Hall or in the park." The bell was originally purchased pur-chased in 1887 for $211.17 and was in the tower of the old city hall at Main and Center Streets. The bell's long rope was pulled in times of sorrow, joy, disaster, emergency and to relay other messages. When the current city hall was built in 1903, the bell, weighing 1200 pounds, was placed on that building. The building was modernized in 1959 and workers work-ers found the bell supports were rotting and the belfry was removed at that time. City officials gave the bell to the American Fork camps of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Pio-neers to be preserved. They placed the bell on a monument in Robinson Park, north of the library, where it remained. When plans were made to restore city hall, some residents resi-dents called for the bell to be Water Continued from Page 1 water available for that testing. test-ing. "From here on out it will be faster," he said. Despite those snags, work is going well. Schiess said a new schedule, or distribution line, started Monday with more to come. "Another contractor is starting start-ing the following week on another an-other schedule," Schiess said. Denney said the projects were progressing smoothly. "We are really pleased," Denney said. "Things are close to schedule. Most contractors are putting in more pipe a day NorthCounty NEWSPAPERS ' 399 E. State St. Pleasant Grove Marc Haddock 443-3268 Wortn County Editor mhaddockheraldextra.com Cathy Alfred 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 Josh Walker 443-3260 Advertising Account Executive jwalkerheraldextra.com Volume 135 American Fork Gwen Dairy Herald Edition USPS 018 St., Peasant Grove, Utah 84063 Periodicals Postage mailing offices Poetnw: Send address ctw Fork. UT 84003 0007 Published Thursdays by Lee Member: AurJI Bureau of Circulations up plaque put on the renovated building. After the decision to relocate the bell was made, a crane lifted lift-ed the bell and the new cupola on Aug. 16, 2006 to place them atop city hall once more. "We were happy to have it come and go up there," Adams said. "It was exciting to see it go to the top of the building." Johnson attended the ceremonies cer-emonies during which the bell was placed on the city hall, and suggested there be some kind of recognition that the bell had been preserved by the DUP. Adams got some bids for the plaque and presented them to city officials. Chief of Staff Melanie Marsh called her and said the city had proceeded to order the plaque. Moving the bell to the top of City Hall has left the base on which the bell stood in Robinson Robin-son Park. Adams has hopes to put that to good use. "We hope to eventually have a bronze statue that would depict the wall of the city's original fort," she said. She said they had discovered that pedestal had been located by the remains of that fort wall. "For us to place a tribute to those pioneers will be an exciting excit-ing thing," she said. The DUP has also received a grant to digitize some of the stories behind the artifacts at its museum, which also stands in Robinson Park. "They will be explanations about the items, telling what they are and how they were used," she said. One story they will tell is about the Bible Joseph B. Forbes carried during dur-ing the Civil War. It includes an inscription from his mother and the book is said to have deflected de-flected a bullet, saving his life. The museum will be open than we thought they could." That efficiency in itself can create challenges. "We have having a little struggle, doing proper investigations inves-tigations before we let them start," Denney said. "We have to keep up with the services and repairs." "Our crews are going out and doing blue stakes," he said, referring to marking places where utilities are already in place. "We mark the power lines and laterals. That is not only for the city, but for gas, power, phone, cable and other services." As the pipes are laid, there can be interruptions to other lines, which need to be replaced re-placed or repaired, he said. Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 DAILY HERALD PUBLISHING CO. Jennette Esplin 756-7669 Office Manager Kira Johnson 344 2558 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Allison Davies 344-2570 DesignerCopy Editor Ashley Franscell 344 2585 Photographer Issue 28 - 680 a weekly newspaper published at 399 E State Paid at Pleasant Grove, Utah 84062 andadditional to the Arrienc Mr Citran.PO Box 7 American Pubburaons, which is a division of Lee Enterprises, Inc. mm INFORMED AND on American Fork's DUP representative Karen Adams Hall to commemorate the loan been placed on the city hall as Monday and Friday, from 1-5 p.m. In addition, it will be open for Utah Museum Day on Sept. 12. CpMMUNjTY NOTES New design cellular towers approved On July 2, the Planning and Zoning Commission Com-mission gave a conditional approval ap-proval to a relatively new style of cell phone tower. It will be placed on the top of the Central Utah Clinic building at 1175 E. 50 South. Planner Rod Despain said "We not only swamp our guys, but the gas company, telephone company and others," oth-ers," he said. J.H. Hadfield, with the city's Engineering Department, explained the scope of that impact. "In one area we had to relocate relo-cate everyone's gas service," he said. "We are now working work-ing with Questar. Last week we had all three of Questar's teams working in American Fork. They have to go back in the houses and relight their pilot lights." He said they are taking extra precautions after the Saratoga Springs explosion last year which claimed the life of one of their employees and the home's resident. Lost in the A.F. labyrinth f"" few years ago we 1 1 1 b011 a E31 f Laby- l rinth Jr" or the 8rand" t lm kids just one piece in f our on&omS campaign U Uto make ours the fun-nest fun-nest home ever. The game is built around a board that slides to and fro, so that the path your pieces must take is constantly changing. Now I feel like I'm having a Labyrinth Laby-rinth experience every time I drive home, thanks to American Fork's decision to build a pressurized irrigation irri-gation system. At some point over the next three years, every street in town will be torn up, pipe will be laid, and the pipe will be buried again. The pro cess goes fairly quickly. Every night new streets are dug up, new detour signs are set up, and the path from here to there changes, again. And we are all rats in a constantly changing maze, just trying to get to the cheese, which never moves. I understand the concept of extending the life of our municipal water supply by using untreated un-treated water on our lawns and gardens. And I know it's probably the only way these communities com-munities are going to be able to continue to grow. I just wish the process had started several sev-eral years ago, before we had so many streets to dig up and so many connections to make. And the real "fun" is just starting. The city will bring this water to your yard at some point over the next three years, including in-cluding digging a line from the new pipe onto your property. Once that line is available, culinary water rates will go up way up. So far up, that it will encourage almost everyone to activate their pressurized irrigation connection. connec-tion. A connection guide provided by the city lays out a six-step connection process that might have come from IKEA. Especially if you are home-improvement challenged, like me. (To be fair, they also list several plumbers who can do the work for you.) One thing the city wants is to make sure no one cross connects the culinary and secondary INVOLVED - y , :' ' ' ' . ' A V I ; . . 7Ay shows the plaque which will be of the bell by the Daughters of a loan from the DUP. there were three classes of cell towers monopole, wall mounted and roof mounted. "This may be our first roof mounted one," he said. The antenna will be screened with a stucco-like material, giving them the appearance of chimneys atop the building. "It is less intrusive than one large screened area, which would be taller," Despain said. Residents may comment on potential special services district dis-trict There will be a public hearing at 9 a.m. on July 15 regarding re-garding a potential special ser Hadfield said installing the transmission lines sometimes meant additional work. "Along 20Q East, there was an area where we had three water lines on the street the original six-inch, then a 12-inch, 12-inch, then a big line from the well. We took out the six-inch and put everyone on the 12-inch." 12-inch." There has to be separation separa-tion between the lines laid in the street, so it was best to have fewer pipes, he said. Denney explained that each of the areas was done with a separate bid and the prices added up to make a large expenditure. ex-penditure. "Each of those bids was over $2 million," he said. "We have at least $10 million in Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN City Hall BARBARA CHRISTIANSENNorth County placed on American Fork City Utah Pioneers. The bell has vices district for dispatching emergency calls for police, fire and medical services. Those services have been performed by the County Sheriff's office in the past. Cities have been growing and filling more of the territory previously in the county. Utah County is proposing propos-ing a special services district to be run by the cities which do not now have their own dispatch function. There would be a slight increase in property tax, which would tie offset by a similar reduction for the county services. contract activity going. We are monitoring and supervising, making sure it all gets done correctly." Financially, the project is doing do-ing well. "Everything has been coming com-ing in under budget so far," Schiess said. Tuesday the City Council awarded a bid to build the lower reservoir. The first take is to build a pad for the new horse stables, then demolition the existing stables, Denney said. Then the contractor will begin preparing the land for the reservoir. "That is the primary source for water for the lower parts of the system," Denney said. water systems. First, you must turn off the valve easy enough, I do this every winter. Then you have to cut and cap the old line from the valve to the rest of the sprinkler system. This is not so easy, as it involves in-volves a lot of digging. (I know because my valve wore out two years and we had to dig it up and replace it. In the process we nicked the main line, causing it to geyser like Old Faithful. Once repairs were made we had to have a plumber go through the house cleaning grit out of water lines, replacing re-placing gaskets, and repairing the toilets. We also had to repair our water softener valve, so a simple do-it-yourself lawn sprinkler repair turned into a fairly expensive enterprise.) en-terprise.) Capping the old line is not enough. You must then fill the pipe that accesses the stop-and-waste valve with concrete so you are never, ever tempted to use it again. Finally, you can connect your existing sprinkler system to the new water line, and include a new filter, if you are smart, because the PI water is not as clean as culinary water, and debris in the pipes could damage your valves and sprinklers. (See above.) All of the trenches that make this connection connec-tion must be left open until a city employee inspects the new line. Every home will have an independent inspection, and that will mean a lot of work for the Pressurized Irrigation police. It boggles the mind. It all looks very complicated to me, but then, I'm a simple man. Fortunately my home is in the last part of town to be connected, so I won't have to worry about all this until 2010. Still, I don't think most people understand that the inconvenience we are experiencing as we try to find today's route home is just the first step in a long and inconvenient project, albeit a necessary one. In the end, we'll have a fine system that will ensure enough drinking water for everyone and enough to keep our yards green, as well. Getting there, however, will prove to be a bumpy ride indeed. Adams Continued from Page I to give attention," she said. "He gives lots of hugs. He likes to be reassured that he is loved. He has always been that way, even when he was first born." Merkley, who has known the family for years, agreed. "Dean has always been affable, af-fable, gregarious, kind and considerate, Merkley said. "He was a great athlete as well, winning several gold medals as a Special Olympian. Olym-pian. Along with his education educa-tion at Peterson School, Dean received training at ATEC (Alpine Transition and Employment Em-ployment Center) where he received the 'Extra Miler' award and eventually graduated gradu-ated from Peterson School in May of 1989." It's not the obstacle, but the way Dean has worked to overcome it, Merkley said. "I guarantee you this," he wrote in the nomination, "if Dean Adams is chosen as Grand Marshal, we will never have a kinder, more thoughtful, more cheerful, more compassionate, more pure soul at the head of our parade." Adams said he was surprised sur-prised and happy to find out he was named grand marshal. mar-shal. Merkley told his family he had nominated him, but he didn't find out about being chosen until city and parade officials appeared at Albertson's Albert-son's with the news and a bouquet of flowers. After Dean Adams completed com-pleted his work at Peterson School, he attended ATEC in Lindon for a couple of years and worked in their program, his mother said. He did things like work in the laundry and carpentry shop. ATEC worked with the students, stu-dents, trying to place them in jobs where they could be productive. "One of the coaches took him, dressed him in a white shirt and tie," Marlene Adams Ad-ams said. "They went to Albertson's for an interview and they hired him." Store manager Dennis Jensen said he was glad the store hired Dean Adams. "Dean is a great employee," em-ployee," he said. "I think the world of him. I love his personality. He is a gentle person. I love him to death. He always has a smile on his face. At Christmastime he sings carols. I could not be prouder than I am right now. I am really tickled that he was chosen." Adams has been there ever since, working 30 hours a week. "Even when it is cold and snowy I do it anyway," he said. "It's just part of my job. I always try to smile." His mother said she appreciated appre-ciated the people at Albertson's Albert-son's giving him a chance. fifi Most people are nice to him, talk to him and say hi. The people of American Fork are very thoughtful thought-ful people. There couldn't be any better place to live." Marlene Adams DEAN'S MOTHER "That's what people need is a chance to prove themselves," them-selves," she said. "They need to be looked on as people that are worth something." The customers seem to appreciate ap-preciate his attitude. "Most people are nice to him, talk to him and say hi," Marlene Adams said. "The people of American Fork are very thoughtful people. There couldn't be any better place to live." When he's not at work, Dean Adams likes being with his family. He is a sports fan, and particularly enjoys the Utah Jazz. His favorite players play-ers have been Karl Malone, Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams. He also enjoys BYU basketball. If he could give a message to the people of American Fork, it would be to "work hard and like your city." |