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Show Page 2 Thursday, October 23, 2008 AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN mm EH LnH f . r rp rp NEWS AND NOTES TO KEEP YOU INFORMED AND INVOLVED e rdliimaiiiiira itwim Barbara Christiansen NORTH COUNTY STAFF American Fork residents will have a different set of laws they will need to follow fol-low in the future when they conduct a yard sale. The City Council approved revisions to the ordinance governing those sales at its Oct. 14 meeting. There will be a grace period until Dec. 31 to give residents a chance to learn about the new requirements before the city begins enforcement. In the summer there had been complaints when the city began enforcing the ordinance it had passed earlier in the year. It placed a limit on the number of signs, the locations they could be placed, and how long they could be displayed. One of the goals the council members expressed was to limit the number of yard sales a family could have in a year. That has stayed the same. "This still allows us to address ad-dress the problem with perpetual per-petual yard sales," said coun-cilwoman coun-cilwoman Heidi Rodeback. Residents will be permitted to conduct up to four sales a year, rather than the two allowed under the previous ordinance. "It is to allow more flexibility flex-ibility with rain dates, football games, etc." Rodeback said. "It also allows great time for signs to be displayed." The previous ordinance said signs could be placed no sooner than 12 hours before the sale and had to be removed within 12 hours after its conclusion. Signs may now be displayed 24 hours before the event begins and need to be taken down by noon of the day following fol-lowing the last day of the sale. Up to eight signs may be used to advertise the sale. Each of those must be approved ap-proved by the city and must display a sticker indicating that. There is no charge for the sticker. They may be ob- li r J Ft 7 . ?c u uw 0 I . ! 0 ! f i Si 1: H 1 1 rt II II L '4 ASJJUt' r ... ... T WW, LI -i i BARBARA CHRISTIANSENNorth County New members of the American Fork Youth City Council take the oath of office on Oct. 14. Limiting the number of yard sales still allows us to address the problem with perpetual yard sales." Heidi Rodeback, city councilwoman tained at the city administration administra-tion building. City representatives representa-tives will mark each sticker with the closing date of the sale and keep a record of the person who received the sticker, the address and dates of the sale. The council broadened the locations in which signs may be placed. They are still not allowed in public parks and may not be attached to utility poles, street signs or similar locations. They may, however, be posted on private property or in the public mow strip if the seller obtains permission of,the owner own-er of the nearest home. Those who do not comply with the provisions of the ordinance or-dinance may be fined $50 for each sign violation. Groups who conduct charitable chari-table yard sales may obtain permission to have their sale in Robinson or Rotary Parks, but must follow the same provisions pro-visions regarding signs. COMMUNITY NOTES Youth City Council named American Fork City has named members of its Youth City Council for this school year. They include Youth Mayor Kaitlyn Stone, Youth Mayor Pro Tern Bethany Richards, Rich-ards, and council members Cameron Hodges, Brittany Stevenson, Camille Payne, Jasmine Fierro and recorder Steven Noyce. Yard of the Month winners The American Fork Beauti-fication Beauti-fication Committee has named the winners of the Yard of the Month honors for October. They are Travis and Brooke Williams, 504 N. Brigham Ave.; Terry and Autumn Beighley,41E. 1380 North; Danny and Jennifer Spray, 61 S. 300 West; and Dean and Jan Shelton, 627 E. 875 North. Scary Story contest The results of the annual Scary Story contest will be presented present-ed Monday at 7 p.m. at the American Fork Public Library, 64 S. 100 East, American Fork. The grand prize winner will receive $50. There are four age categories with four cash prizes to be awarded in each. They are $25, $20, $15 and $10. Annexation approved On Oct. 14, the American Fork City Council voted to approve the Cody Olsen annexation. It is 1.85 acres at 750 N. 900 West. Much of the property will be used when 700 North and 900 West are widened. The city has determined it will purchase the land since when the roads are built, there will not be much opportunity to develop de-velop the lot. The purchase is contingent on voter approval of the bond for road improvements improve-ments in the city. Development code amendments amend-ments tabled The City Council discussed several options, then decided more study was necessary before they took action to chance the city's development code requirements. On Oct. 14, the council members looked at options to change width and depth requirements for the city's residential zones. The group considered making the changes to help with design for multiple family housing. They also considered differences differ-ences between American Fork's codes and those in neighboring Highland and Alpine. Some of the larger lots in those communities had less stringent requirements than what American Fork had. The City Council will consider the issue at a future meeting. Author Continued from Page 1 Teaching Excellence Award from the Albertson's Foundation and was named Cassia County Teacher of the Year for the 2006-2007 school year. She also taught part-time for the College of Southern Idaho. Inspiration for her writing came from her surroundings and her great love of literature. "I spent part of my childhood in a beautiful mountain valley in Idaho, and I have always loved the West as a literary setting," she said. "It combines beauty, harshness and danger in an interesting in-teresting way. In addition to the setting, great writing itself has always iaspired me. My idols are people who can tell great stories in a beautiful way: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Shakespeare and all of the lesser lights that just knew how to write well. I do not pretend to rate with them by any means, but 1 admire what they did," said Larson. "Writing this book has reminded re-minded me of how difficult good writing really is," she said. "My advice to aspiring writers would include getting the best education educa-tion they can, being voracious readers of excellent writing, and writing about something they love that is ready to burst if they don't get it on paper." Larson's future plans include the release of her recently finished fin-ished book about her experiences experienc-es while teaching eighth-grade English. I spent part of my childhood in a beautiful beauti-ful mountain valley in Idaho, and I have always loved the West as a literary setting. Lynne Larson AUTHOR ' ' ' NorthCounty NEWSPAPERS 399 E. State St. Pleasant Grove Phone: 756-7669 Fax: 756-5274 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 0 DAILY HERALD FUBLISHIHO CO. FT7J1 Josh Walker 443 3260 Advertising Account Executive jwalker heraldextra .com Jennette Esplin 756-7669 Office Manager Megan Carleton 344 2558 Project Coordinator, DesignerCopy Editor Allison Davies 344 2570 DesignerCopy Editor Ashley Franscell 344 2585 Photographer Volume 135 Issue 44 American Fork Cteon Daily Herald Edition USPS 018-680 a weokly newspaiier published at 399 E St.e St.. Pleasant Grove. UtnrH.1063 Percckals Postage Paul at Pleasant Grove, Utah 84J6? and adcnunal manoottices Poetmter:Serx3ares5crwigffitotheAiiiwrariForkCriun, HO Bon I American Fork, UT 84003 0007 PutSied Thuradays by Lee PutAcaiiora, wtuch o a dvwon of Lee Enterprises. Inc. Mwnbnr: Aurtt Bureau of emulations Long line forms for early voting oiks started lining ud to vote at the American Fork Li-ibrary Li-ibrary around 1:30 on Tues day atternoon, even thoueh the first day of early voting didn't start until 3 n.m. It turns out that one-and-a-half hour wait was the standard for most of those who voted in American Fork on the first day. I was supposed to meet my wife there around 4:15 p.m., so we could cancel out each other's vote. We didn't get the chance. When I arrived, the library parking park-ing lot was overflowing. And while I saw a few people who left because of the large turnout, most who came staved until thev could get to a voting machine, the line spilling over in the library's open space and then into the children's library. Patti Richards had arrived at 2:55 p.m., five minutes before the polls opened, "trying to be the first one here," she said. At 4:30 p.m., she was still in line, but she said she's learned her lesson. "We will go regular next time." Marlene Bennett had waited since 3 p.m. too, and she was willing to stick it out for the same reason most of those in line were still there: "It's going to be worth it because we are going to get to vote for our candidates and I'm not going to tell you who that is." (I hadn't asked.) Ira Sanders, who was reading a library book while he waited, wasn't so shy. "I'm waiting because I want to get out and vote for Barack Obama. I'm hoping my vote 'will help get him elected." Malcolm Beck, who has been an American Fork city councilman, mayor and county commissioner, com-missioner, and who knows a thing or two about elections, said he knew he would be waiting wait-ing a while before he arrived that day. The problems included opening the polls too late "They should have opened them at 1 1 a.m., not 3 p.m." and not enough voting machines. There were six of them in operation Tuesday. But there were other issues. Many of the voters on that first day were elderly, and the A, ;W, - Marc Haddock THE EDITOR'S COLUMN electronic voting machines, instead of speeding up the process, slowed it down. Also, this election is much more complicated than a simple presidential presi-dential race. We are voting for several state officials, some of whom voters don't know well, in addition to five amendments to the state constitution and, in the case of American Fork voters, five separate bonds. That's a lot to think about, and some folks were spending up to 15 minutes in the voting booth once they finally got there, although poll workers said the average was around five or six minutes. Reading ud on the candidates and ballot issues before getting to the polls will make it go faster. But Malcolm also had a good handle on why so many people were willing to wait to vote on the first day. "They want to get it over with and forget about it," he said. "Once you vote, you don't have to listen to the campaign ads any more." Casting that ballot gives one a great sense of freedom. I came to vote early because when Nov. 4 rolls around, I will be in California visiting my two daughters and their families. So while I didn't have time on Tuesday, I'll be back sometime this week, prepared to stand as long as necessary because I feel the same way as did Juan Loya of American Fork, who had been there one hour and 55 minutes because "voting is important." The long lines may scare some early voters vot-ers away. Personally, I think the lines will get shorter as early voting continues through Oct. 31, but I could be wrong. However, Malcolm said it wasn't going to get much better, even on Nov. 4, as many people feel it is important to vote in this presidential election. And while it's a shame they didn't have more voting machines and longer hours, I find it encouraging that so many of my neighbors feel that the best use of their time is waiting in line for the right to vote. As soon as I can, I'm going to go and wait with them. Bond Continued from Page 1 that American Fork has received re-ceived a grant to construct a oortion of the trail. "We received a grant for this trail," she said. "This was a federal grant for alternative alterna-tive forms of transportation. At that time the trail cost was $490,000. Our match would have been $98,000, making a $392,000 grant. We spent about $90,000 of that grant money on engineering. engi-neering. If we are unable to come up with that match, we would have to give back the engineering money. We also want to protect our grant credit rating." Rodeback said that if a community turns back a portion of a grant it can affect the chance to obtain ob-tain future grants. The Beehive Park road runs into Art Dye Park from 700 North, along the west side of Beehive Park. The quarter-mile road is currently current-ly two lanes and would be widened, with added parking on the east side. Rodeback told about the current situation. "At times it prevents safety vehicles from getting in and is a threat to pedestrians," pedestri-ans," she said. "It is a public safety need. There is quite a bit of engineering that goes into that road." A citizens' group with spokesman Clark Taylor appeared before the City Council last summer and requested that the city finish the park. American Fork charges impact fees to those who build new homes in the community, com-munity, to help offset the costs of expanding the parks to meet the needs of new residents. res-idents. Those fees have been obligated through 2012 to repay a bond which financed other park improvements. "We expect to retire that bond," Rodeback said. "Then we will be able to continue to make upgrades to keep up with the growth. This bond would bridge that gap." The city has recently completed com-pleted installing 21 locust trees around the perimeter of the ball fields and installed curb and gutter in the park through the previous bond- ing, Rodeback said. Library Continued from Page 1 months in both 2006 and 2007. "We have increased to 330,500 items circulated last year," she said. "The previous previ-ous year it was 300,600. That is a 10 percent increase." Part of that may be attributed at-tributed to the reciprocal borrowing agreement with which patrons from other north Utah County communities commu-nities may check out books from American Fork. "We started the fiscal year July 1 off with a big bang with the North Utah County Library Cooperative," Parker said. "The public feelings about the system have been positive." As of Oct. 13, there had been nearly 6,000 items checked out by those in other communities. By far the greatest number of patrons have come from Lehi and Pleasant Grove, with 186 and 165 respectively. Parker chose Oct. 6 to analyze ana-lyze as a typical day. There were 1,515 items checked out. At an average of five items each, that meant about 300 patrons. Fifty-nine had Internet sessions; 43 participated par-ticipated in the Mom and Me toddler program. Parker estimated esti-mated there were 50 individuals individ-uals studying or browsing. Youth and tutors worked in the learning center. There were 122 individuals who checked their accounts on the on-line catalogue and 623 searches done. "We had 876 patrons served in one way or another in one day," Parker said. She mentioned the various duties which the staff members do for each item that is processed pro-cessed and checked out. "Each item is handled by the staff about njne times," she said. That includes checking check-ing items in and out, shelving them, taking care of book requests, and preparing them for checkout. "The clerks process about 12,500 items a day," she said. Councilwoman Heidi Rodeback Rode-back praised the library and its staff. "The taxpayers pool our money," she said. "In times of recessions we need our library more than ever." a |