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Show Thursday, August 21, 2008 Page 2 AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN t J- L Jq J Lry Lr Lrj lHJ3 p" NEWS AND NOTES TO KEEP, YOU Council sets fees for secondary water system Barbara Christiansen NORTH COUNTY STAFF With detour signs and roads torn up in many American Fork locations, it may be hard to realize that some areas of town have had their pressurized pressur-ized irrigation system installed and the homes have been receiving re-ceiving the secondary water, The City Council on Aug. 12 passed two resolutions setting down plans and provisions for use of the system. One set the fees, which are the same as what was proposed when the system was first planned. There are changes to the culinary cu-linary water rates and new secondary water rates. The other resolution set the rules and regulations for the secondary second-ary system. The secondary base fee for residential users is $14 a month. That is the rate for lots under 9,000 square feet. The actual costs for larger ones will be calculated on the square footage of each lot and the price for each square foot over the base is $.00175. For example, ex-ample, a 10,000 square foot lot would be charged $15.75 per month for the secondary water. wa-ter. Those rates are paid year round, in order to avoid billing spikes during summer usage. Those who own shares of the American Fork Irrigation Company, and let that water be used in the system, will be assessed half the base rate and half the additional charge per square foot above 9,000. If they choose not to participate, they may still flood irrigate. If the owner has additional shares in excess of the re- Pageants Continued from Page 1 The theme for the 2008 pageants pag-eants was "Runway" and was the first such pageant for a Miss American Fork Outstanding Outstand-ing Teen competition. Fourteen teens, ages 13 to 17 years old, vied for the sparkling tiara by showcasing their talent, communication com-munication skills, community service and academic ability. There were several violinists as well as dancers, pianists and singers in the Outstanding Teen talent competition. "Amazing, I can't even express it in words, it's just amazing," said Renata Smith, committee member. "The talent, omigosh, there is so much talent in American Fork." NorthCounty 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 Josh Walker 443-3260 Advertising Account Executive jwalkerheraldextra.com Volume 135 Pony Express, an edrtionof the left Free Press Daily Herald Edition, USPS 309-900 a weekly newspaper published at 399 E. State St.. Pleasant Grove. Utah 84063 Periodicals postage paid at Pleasant Grove. Utah 84062 and at additional mailing off ees Poatmaeten Send address changes to North County Newspapers. P.O. Box 7, American Fork, Utah 84003-0007. Published Thursdays by Lee Publications, which a a drvwon of Lee Enterprises. Inc. Member Audit Bureau erf Circulations ' t;, fo&W' tt wStfjjr? A worker uncovers a section of wooden pipe, wrapped around metal pipe, as workers dug trenches for the pressurized irrigation system being built in American Fork. quired minimum, there is an additional discount of $28 per month. The monthly fee, however, how-ever, cannot go below zero. There are also rates specifically specifi-cally designed for agricultural users. If the land meets specific criteria, the cost for the shareholders share-holders is $1 per share per month, in addition to assessments assess-ments from the American Fork Irrigation Company. Owners of lots larger than one acre may qualify for special spe-cial rates. They may choose to install a water meter to measure mea-sure the amount of water they actually use. The charge would be a base of $ 14 for up to 8,000 gallons per month, with a sliding slid-ing scale for charges greater than the base rate. This would most likely be used for owners of large lots who only irrigate Jessica Taylor, Tay-lor, daughter of Sam and Camille Taylor, will compete as the Miss American Fork Outstanding Teen at the state Miss Utah Outstanding Out-standing Teen Pageant in October. Oc-tober. As well as attaining the liliss Miss American Fork 1st attendant 2nd attendant Service and platform 1 Service and platform 2 Committee's choice Miss Photogenic Spirit of Miss A.F. Most ticket sale's crown, she addi- tionally won the Miss Photogenic Award and was chosen by her peers for the Spirit of Miss American Fork Award. Her attendants are sisters, daughters of Dana and Gina Cox. Kylie Cox is the first at- Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 t J DAILY HERALD PUBLISHIMO CO. urn Jennette Esplin 756-7669 Office Manager Megan Carleton 344-2558 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Allison Davies 344 -2570 I DesignerCopy Editor Ashley Franscell 344 2585 Photographer Issue 35 INFORMED AND - :., ' I I I' - v BARBARA CHRISTIANSENNorth County a portion of their acreage. The council granted a hardship hard-ship clause, for senior citizens who qualify under the Utah County Circuit Break Abatement Abate-ment program. Others may apply ap-ply for hardship status. In an effort to encourage residents to participate in the secondary water system, the city will implement new, higher rates for culinary water. wa-ter. These will begin at any particular residence when the secondary water is available to them. The base amount will be 6,000 gallons, with a charge of $14 a month for amounts up to that much culinary water. For additional amounts, the charge is based on a sliding scale depending de-pending on how much extra is used. American Fork Kaitlin Hale Juli Carter Carrie Helland Alliesha O'Neil Kaitlin Hale Kaitlin Hale Kaitlin Hale Carrie Helland Adrienne Shelley tendant while Chloe Cox is the second attendant. "I'm just so excited to start my reign and to start developing my platform," Jessica said. "It's going to be health and physical fitness for teenagers and kids." Can the county fair be saved? le went to the Utah County Fair Saturday Satur-day looking for an answer to the on-go ing question this fair be saved? It's been an ongoing struggle to re-establish the county fair as a place people want to spend an afternoon or an evening, and it seemed like the fair's return to Spanish Fork deserved de-served a closer look. It's kind of a come-full-circle year for the fair, which, for several years, was running on empty. Up until about 10 years ago, the fair had a permanent perma-nent home at the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds, Fair-grounds, but there was a falling out between the county, which owned the tair, and Spanish Fork, which owned the fairgrounds. I used to attend as a matter of course, looking look-ing for local entries that had done well that might be the basis for a story. But that last year, the fairgrounds was rundown, the fair was hot and dirty and there was an overabundance over-abundance of commercial vendors and not enough fair-type entries such as home-grown vegetables, canned peaches and custom-built dollhouses. After the break-up between the fair and Spanish Span-ish Fork, the event underwent various permutations. permuta-tions. After a brief hiatus, an abbreviated Utah County Fair was held at UVUs McKay Events Center. It had the advantage of being in a central location, and the disadvantage of be ing at the McKay Events Center, where there were no provisions for animals, limited space for displays and no fair-type atmosphere to speak of. If the fair at Spanish Fork had lost some of its charm, the Orem fair had almost none at all. The second year, fair organizers brought in a small petting zoo, so there would be some animals, but they were housed in a pen on the hot parking lot, and instead of being intriguing, you just felt sorry for the poor animals. With the events center filled with commercial booths, there was no place for a large concert or other event to anchor the fair, and interest continued con-tinued to wane. Five years ago the fair continued moving INVOLVED Examples: Lot size 20,000 30,000 40,000 60,000 Charge $33.25 $50.75 $68.25 $103.25 Much of the City Council discussion dis-cussion on the topic centered on charging the residents to connect to the system. The city will not charge the homeowners homeown-ers to connect, unless it does not take place when it is available. avail-able. The debate was about how long the period would be before it would trigger the charge. The council finally settled on a six-month time frame. They looked at 30 days, three months and four months prior to deciding to allow the residents resi-dents six months to connect without an additional fee. The charge is $250 for those who connect after six months has passed since the secondary water wa-ter became available to them. City engineer Andy Spencer said that charging a connection fee was an incentive for the public to connect. "More than anything it is a motivator," he said. Spencer Spen-cer said the city was paying between $700 and $1,000 for each pipe running from the distribution dis-tribution line to each property. COMMUMTY NOTES More bids sought On Aug. 12 the City Council voted to reject bids it had received to construct a light and sound J f (k A CATHY ALLREDNorth County Miss American Fork 2007 Liesl Wright attaches the tiara onto Miss American Fork 2008 Kaitlin Hale on Saturday. can Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN V -7) ' ?! t s .4 booth at the Amphitheater at Quail Cove, used by the Arts Council and others. Mayor He-ber He-ber Thompson reported there had been a complaint about the bidding and that the bid received did not comply with city procedure. Councilman Dale Gunther said it was about double in price what the city anticipated. He suggested the city ask the company to follow value engineering to bring the price down. Councilwoman Heidi Rode-back Rode-back said the original plans were to make a building from stone to match the architecture of the historic amphitheater. The state has approved a different dif-ferent style building without jeopardizing the historic designation. desig-nation. "The new building has to look clearly new," Rodeback said. "We hope it is different yet tasteful." Planning Commission considers con-siders amendment The Planning and Zoning Commission Com-mission has tabled action on a proposed general plan amendment amend-ment for 20 acres at 1028 W. Main. The request was to change the property from design de-sign commercial to high density den-sity residential. Commission chairman James Hansen outlined one of the reasons the group said they needed more information. "The interchange redesign will change that area dramatically," dramati-cally," he said. Members of the Walters family, which owns much of the property, said they had a buyer interested in purchasing the land, but wanted to put in high density housing. north, this time to hanksgiving Point, which had created its Electric Park as a venue for the fair. The idea was simple. Thanksgiving Point would host the fair, and bear much of the cost of putting on the event. In return, the fair would expose ex-pose a lot of Utah County residents to Thanksgiving Point. The animals were back, albeit in the homogenized setting of Thanksgiving Thanks-giving Point's Farm Country. But Thanksgiving Point didn't permit the kind of carnival that makes a great fair, with rides that border on the edge of being safe, and an obviously rigged midway. They tried hard, but it was too sanitized to qualify as an interesting tair. So we went to this year's fair to see what Pleasant Grove's Carol and Jay Harmer, who were asked by the county to direct the fair, had come up with. This is what we found. It looked like a fair. Admission was free, so anyone could walk around and look at stuff. The display barn was full of interesting stuff: lots of 4-H displays, homegrown onions, and the best Lego display I've ever seen outside of Legoland. The carnival and midway were appropriately seedy. I don't mean this as a criticism. The fairs of my youth always featured a traveling carnival carni-val that was ... suspect. It was part of the fun. The commercial booths were there, but they didn't overpower the event. It smelled like a fair. There weren't a lot of animals, but many steers, including the grand champion, were on display along with sheep, goats and chickens of various types. Adding to the charm, the folks directing traffic traf-fic did so from the back of a horse. And there was enough dirt to make you fell like you'd taken a trip tq the country. It played like a fair. Well, it had a demolition derby. Many fairs have a big country music concert or a rodeo. But the demolition derby, which is redneck entertainment at its best, is probably the easiest of all these events to organize. If the Utah County Fair is going to be saved, this is probably the best way to do it. Vote Continued from Page 1 include $348,000 to construct a trail, nearly $1 million for reconstructing the concessions conces-sions building, equipment building and rest rooms. Completing the fields, installing install-ing lights and scoreboards, and making repairs would run slightly more than $1 million. Building four tennis courts is expected to cost $300,000 and new baseball and soccer fields on the east side are approximately $50,000. Widening the Beehive Bee-hive Road, which provides access to the park from 700 North, is expected to cost approximately ap-proximately $315,000. With the construction and bonding costs and contingency contin-gency fees, this bond issue could run $3,855,000. The impact on a $240,000 home is approximately $33 a year and a similar business would be $60. The city is looking at expanding ex-panding the cemetery and has an option to purchase approximately six acres adjacent to the cemetery for approximately $3 million. The average home would tentatively have its property tax increased by $27 a year; while a business of the same value would see a $49 annual tax increase. Approximately $2.3 million mil-lion could be used to finance purchasing property at 600 North and 150 East, near the stream, which would be used for open space and a trail corridor. There would also be $490,000 and $1.2 million for the South Rail trail and River trail. The tentative impact for the average home is $19.50 and $35.50 for an equally-valued equally-valued business. Constructing 560 West across the railroad tracks north of Pacific Ave. would run approximately $5 million. It would impact a $240,000 home about $43 a year and a business $78.50 a year. Public hearing The public is invited to express their views on the bond issues at a public hearing Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 31 N. Church Street. Library Continued from Page 1 A few patrons have come in from the surrounding area and gotten their library card at Eaele Mountain's library so they could use the inter- library system, l nose wnose home library is the Eagle Mountain library pay $40 to use other libraries in American Ameri-can Fork, Lehi and Pleasant Grove. "We've had some, not very many, of our patrons decide to participate a handful or two," Graves said. "Which is a good thing for us, because it lets me know that we are doing the right thing here. We're keeping up with the popular demand." Harrison said there are a couple of small issues about th system that heed to be addressed. The library directors di-rectors will meet at the end of the year to assess and tweak, if need be, the program. pro-gram. Parker said there are software issues that need to be fixed so that the program works better. For example, programming program-ming on the system for the Lehi Library continues to be a problem. Each library purchased pur-chased software so librarians could be on the same system and automatically know if a nonresident patron was in good standing with their home library before using another library's services in north Utah County. All work dui Leni s. The company that provided provid-ed the program is working on a solution and librarians can call home libraries for verification of a patron's good standing instead. Seely said in spite of the initial inter-library loan success, she doesn't think that the patrons will see the agreement broadened to include Orem and Provo anytime soon. "Although it would be nice," she said. "It gives all citizens the advantage of the four collections," collec-tions," Graves said. "If you can't find something at one library, you can find it at another library. That is one advantage." |