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Show teasant row Rowiew 21. HDflG & SniMR nn 1 0 DC 840 127 RAIL ROOD ST c!Di?TMRrinDT kjt , Y, INC. 7 More LOCAL news fftan any other source! I For home delivery call 756-7669 or see our web site at www.newutah.com Wednesday, March 1,2000 50 cents a single copy J . J 1V T fit! : 4f: , IllleillJ ij H " SALE r ; N Vol. 22, No. 9 f ... f n ij Strawberry Days plans underway City to commemorate sesquicentennial, hang new banners roGc NE Lacking &t lis descri. d seeyou'i Jsing thefeC miciansc ismissbn-.. repair 50,oo:- ican Ft 43 injuiit deftis. By Kalyn Secretan NewUtah! Correspondent Strawberry Days 2000, June 14-17, will also commemorate Pleasant Grove's Sesquicentennial. The special banners will soon be seen along Main Street. Pleasant Grove was first settled in 1850. Pleasant Grove's Strawberry Days Royalty will have the distinction dis-tinction of representing the city during this special time. As of Monday night, 17 young women have made application appli-cation to be a part of the Strawberry Days pageant on April 15, reported pageant director, Kim Bronson. If anyone any-one wants to be a part of the pageant, today, March 1, is the deadline. Interested applicants should pick up an application at city hall and get it turned in. Bronson would like the girls to know the contest is a schol-arsbiD schol-arsbiD naeeant. Each of the contestants give 15-30 hours of service to the community tor the opportunity to run for Miss Pleasant Grove. If anyone has questions about the pageant, please contact Bronson at 785- 8951. The Strawberry Days committee, com-mittee, under the direction of Frank Mills, wants a special C Strawb Y v col theme for the 150th birthday of Pleasant Grove. Everyone is encouraged to submit an idea. Bring written suggestions to City Hall to be given to Mills. Theme ideas should be submitted submit-ted by March 10. The rodeo queen contest will be May 6. The rodeo committee have new bucking chutes which they plan to install in the near future. They would like to improve the bleachers this year and they are looking for volunteers volun-teers to put on a coat of shellac. The committee is also considering consider-ing installing a new sign downtown down-town to advertise the rodeo and providing paper place mats at local cafes with details about the rodeo. Joyce Hanks and Penny Taylor are the parade co-chairmen. They are open to ideas and suggestions for the parade. Chris Brightenburg represents repre-sents the Chamber of Commerce and is also in charge of the Car Show that will be held in the Allred's and Parts Unlimited parking lot. They are considering a pre-parade car show. The City Youth Council will again sponsor a breakfast on Thursday morning. Those who attended have enjoyed the breakfast on the south patio at the library. Marcy Pace will be in charge of the boutique, it will be open Thursday through Saturday. The Youth Theater will present a play three times during the day on Thursday and Friday. The Eagles have ordered and prepared the strawberries for several years and they will continue con-tinue with the project again this year. It takes a lot of people to bring the Strawberry Days celebration to Pleasant Grove. Any residents who would like to volunteer, please contact a member of the committee. ne. One PGHS student Sterlinq Scholar semi selected as inalisi rt 4 j MM By Karli Poyfair City Editor One student from Pleasant Grove High School was selected select-ed as a semifinalist for the Deseret News Sterling Scholar awards. Zach Holmstead competed in the area of foreign language. Fifteen students from each of the 12 categories were selected from throughout Utah. Semifinalists will compete again Wednesday, March 8 and the winners will be announced at the end of the month. Holmstead, 18, is a senior who has taken four years of German and one year of Hebrew. "I love speaking other languages," lan-guages," he said. Holmstead has a 3.99 GPA and his current class load involves taking four AP (advanced placement) classes which are, German, Calculus BC, English and Biology. After school, Holmstead works as a tutortrainer for a 15-year-old disabled boy in Provo. "When Zach decides he's going to do something, he does it one hundred percent," said Lyle Holmstead, Zach's father. Zach says he will probably attend BYU next year and plans to major in engineering. As far as pursuing more foreign for-eign language, he says he will "take some Japanese probably to help with my major." Other interests include basketball, bas-ketball, auto mechanics and piano. Brad Talbert, the high school advisor, said prior to the competition, "We have the best Zach Holmstead students representing Pleasant Grove than we've had in quite a few years. We have high hopes." j 7 . l a Jl , , 5 , , ' mv Photo by Karll Poyfair Micah Jones, 4, a Pleasant Grove resident, plays at the park in downtown Pleasant Grove. This piece of equipment will be removed when the new playground equipment is installed. Let's go play. . . Downtown Park to get new look By Karli Poyfair City Editor The city park in downtown Pleasant Grove will soon have a new look. While some of the equipment will stay in place, other parts will be replaced. The equipment has been ordered and will be in by spring, said Tony Onofrietti, director of leisure services for Pleasant Grove. The dome-like metal structure will be replaced with a castle-type climbing apparatus made of plastic-like material. The concretecrawl tunnel will be taken out and a new tunnel will be installed. The new tunnel will have holes in the sides and parents will be able to see their children playing inside. Swings, which have not been at the park for some time, will also be added now to the park. "Pleasant Grove is committed to providing safe and attractive equipment for children and we are very excited about the new playground equipment that will be installed at the downtown down-town park this spring," Onofrietti said. The leisure services and parks department budgeted for the new equipment. "It will be good to have a newer park so close," said Wendy Ellsworth, a Lindon resident. resi-dent. "My kids liked to play at that park during dur-ing Strawberry Days last year." "We are very proud of our parks department and our parks superintendent Deon Giles for all their efforts in this project," said Onofrietti. Public Safety Dept. sees 13 increase in calls for service By Karli Poyfair City Editor Pleasant Grove Department of Public Safety had a 13 percent per-cent increase in calls for service in 1999 over 1998. Mike Ferre, director of public safety, said the increase can most likely be attributed to growth in the community and the increase in population. The number of calls for service ser-vice was 31,666. The total num ber of calls, not all of which resulted in action, was probably proba-bly around 158,000, said Ferre. "Which means for every incident inci-dent we do, we have about four other calls," he said. Significant monthly increases increas-es from 1998 in calls for service were seen in the months of July, August, September, November and December. In 1999, the most calls for service were recorded in July, with 2,959 calls. In 1998, the most calls for service were recorded in April. April 1998 had 2,666. The fewest calls for service in 1999 came in January, with 2,069. In 1998, the fewest calls came in the month of February, with 1,981. Total arrests for 1999 in Lindon and Pleasant Grove See SAFETY on page 12 High speed internet company plans to enter Pleasant Grove, Lindon r LOCUS 6 " urn Sound By Karli Poyfair City Editor Engineering is underway to bring AirSwitch Internet service to Lindon and Pleasant Grove. With AirSwitch, residential customers cus-tomers can be connected 24 hours a day for a basic service rate which is ; under $20 per month. The AirSwitch j Neighborhood Area Network does not use existing telephone or cable televi- sion lines. Instead is uses proprietary, patent-pending technology to create a yew internet delivery system that is "tailed along existing public utility easements. AirSwitch provides Internet access speeds up to 500 times faster than conventional dial-up and eliminates the need for a modem or second phone line. Frank Mills, Pleasant Grove community com-munity services director, said the company com-pany will hook up the city buildings first. "That way, when residents call the city to ask questions, we can tell and show them how it works," he said. "We thought this was a service we could use." "It's fast," said city council member Freeman Andersen. "It's extremely fast." Andersen said that even though it will involve cutting up the streets, it will be "a worthwhile thing down the road." Specific rollout dates have not been set for Pleasant Grove and Lindon. It will take some time to get everything in place. AirSwitch installs a whole new wire to every home in every neighborhood. It is a dedicated Internet line that doesn't have to share bandwidth with other services. Amber Teeples of Springville has had Internet service for years. "I used to get Internet access through a regional ISP," she said. "But it was horrible. I continually had trouble getting get-ting online-either the line was busy or my system would freeze up. "Now I have constant access. AirSwitch is always up. And it's fast. Very fast," she said. Springville resident and AirSwitch subscriber Leonard Johnson was happy to free up his phone line. "As a high-tech enthusiast, I have to admit that it's the fast access that's most compelling for me. Now the speed of my PC is the limiting factor, I love it," he said. AirSwitch is a company based iri Springville. Currently service is available avail-able in Springville. The city of American Fork may soon be able to hook up subscribers. Work is also underway in Provo and Orem. AirSwitch is currently rolling out; service in Utah only but is following a; plan for nationwide rollout through 2001. Aaron Block, who survived a coma eight years ago, works at Albertson's in Lehi. Alyssa , Naylor, 2, of Lehi watches as he loads the groceries. Photo by Karli Poyfair .B av!-S,i ..i "fey oma Survivor Despite difficulties, PG man learns to live on his own By Karli Poyfair City Editor Eight years ago, on his 24th birthday, Aaron Block was in a coma. The 4-w 4-w heeler he was driving crashed and sent his face into a 8-inch cedar post. "The doctors didn't expect him to come out of it," said his sister, Vivian Jepperson. "They said he would be a vegetable," said his other sister Jeanette Case. Block did come out of the coma after 10 days and through much rehab and with help from his family, this Pleasant Grove resident has gone from being totally dependent on others to living and working independently. He completely lost his sight in one eye. He is legally blind, his sisters said, but he can see images through his other eye. Block has also received a lot of help from the community. He is a member of the Pleasant Grove Timpanogos 7th Ward. He enjoys working with the cub scouts, and is the den leader assistant. He is also involved with a special needs mutual which involves people from all over Utah County. "I'm working on getting my eagle scout award," Block said. Block loves music and to help him sing with the ward choir, the choir used choir funds to buy him a large magnifying magnify-ing glass so he could read the music. Case also said Block's bishop is in the process of obtaining an extra large set of scriptures for him to read. Before church on Sunday, Block stands at the entrance to the chapel to greet people and hand out the programs. "Everyone comes to my door," he See COMA on page 12 |