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Show Lone Peak Press - Thursday, December 30, 2004 - Page 2 Opinion 2004 saw business boom for county It was a milestone year for business in north Utah County during 2004. Cabela's announcing its move in August impacted us in ways we couldn't anticipate. The outdoor sporting goods store is a tourist draw which promises 4.4 million visitors a year. When combined with its neighbor Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, the move guarantees north Utah County as a destination site. It wasn't an accident Cabela's considered its move to Utah and decided to build in north Utah County. Planners in most of our cities have been preparing for its type of economic growth for years. The anticipated business surge took significant steps, both large and small, in our communities. Pleasant Grove had its first groundbreaking ceremony for a business at The Gateway near the Pleasant GroveLindon 1-15 interchange. inter-change. Lindon's Wal-Mart, Lexus of Lindon and Mercedes Benz of London also opened for business. It marked the beginning of more to come for the Lindon and Pleasant Pleas-ant Grove area. American Fork's The Meadows planned business development opened Kohl's, Wal-Mart, and many more stores becoming the busiest commercial consumer node in north Utah County. Highland opened new businesses business-es in the Lone Peak Shopping Center and approved new businesses busi-nesses in the Town Center and on the Town Center Boulevard. Cedar Hills had growth in its small commercial com-mercial area despite turning down a Wal-Mart proposal earlier in the year. In Saratoga Springs, business was growing at The Crossroads commercial center. Eagle Mountain Moun-tain saw several businesses move or plan to move into its Parkway Crossroads. Even tiny Cedar Fort felt some benefit of the commercial boom with developers moving through the process to establish an Inter-mountain Inter-mountain Farmers Association franchise in town. The news that Cabela's plans to build a store in north Lehi has already drawn interest from other businesses, interest that will affect not only Lehi but the rest of north Utah County. All the other economic pieces effect the whole. This economic boon didn't come to pass haphazardly. Each municipality, munici-pality, its staff and officials, have put in hours, sometimes days and months, in planning and negotiating negotiat-ing for each business development within our communities. We can feel fortunate to live in an area that has seemed impervious impervi-ous to the last two economic recessions and has continued to grow. It has provided livelihood for us and our children. Development is unavoidable, but planning for the best sometimes some-times takes courage, and definitely definite-ly requires foresight and a lot of time. Very few of those planning for their cities gave thought to a possible reward. They have prepared for this pivotal moment and have worked to be ready from the beginning. The business boom we have seen in 2004 is just the crest of the first wave. The momentum has begun and, barring any disaster, we shall not see the tide turn for many years. Year of dangerous living ends As the year trudges wearily toward its ultimate end, there is one more disaster to consider, one more tragic loss of life and property. A powerful earthquake and the subsequent tsunamis claimed tens of thousands of lives across 10 African and Asian nations, obliterating obliter-ating homes, businesses and towns. In one violent burst of water and energy, lives were forever forev-er changed by unpredictable and unchangeable events. Today the world again mourns the loss of so many so quickly, grieving with familips jinH rnmmnnifiDo nm avac rrA cnA WA t lilt asunder by forces completely beyond their control. The world wonders what's next. If nothing else, 2004 was the year of dangerous living. It was a year filled with war, natural disaster, disas-ter, political upheaval, violent crime and abuse. It was also a year filled with kindness, compassion, heroism and love. The world is kind of funny that way. Just when you're ready to give up on the whole human experiment, along comes a person who proves that we might be worth saving. For example, during the tsunami tsuna-mi effect in Sri Lanka, local citizens citi-zens opened their homes and hearts to hotel guests who lost everything in the waves. "They gave us the shirts they were wearing. They gave us their slippers," said Jorg Dietrichs, one of four German backpackers taken in by a Sri Lankan family without with-out hesitation. "They are the most beautiful people in the world." Similar goodness can be found in almost every tragedy this year. Steven, an acquaintance of mine who returned earlier this year after serving in Iraq, experienced all the horrors of war, including the death of one of his closest friends. But he also experienced an outpouring of sincere affection and appreciation during a school service organized to pay tribute to the soldiers from every nation who had come as lib erators, not conquerors. "In the middle of the service, while a group of students was performing, per-forming, a little girl about 4 or 5 years old wandered up to the front of the room and stood next to one of the officers," Steven told me. "He smiled at her, and she just jumped up into his lap and just stayed there for the rest of the service." Steven smiled through misty eyes, and said, "At one point, I looked at them, and she was sitting sit-ting there so comfortably, leaning her head against his chest, and he had his arms wrapped securely around her. And I remember thinking right then, at that moment, it's worth it. All of it it's worth it." Tragedy struck close to home when a young Boy Scout disappeared disap-peared during a camping expedition expedi-tion in the nearby mountains. Immediately, thousands of volunteers volun-teers mobilized to search every inch of the rough terrain. My neighbor David was among the most diligent of those volunteers. I don't know how many times David went up and down that mountain. David probably isn't sure either. He organized search parties from our neighborhood, took water and fruit to the searchers and prayed constantly with countless others for the safe return of the boy. Sadly, that prayer hasn't been answered months later. The boy's family found peace in their faith in God and in the valiant efforts of thousands of people like David, who reached out to them and their son during a time of agonizing crisis. "Years from now when I look back on this, I'm sure that's what IH remember," the boy's father told a reporter recently. "People are g(xd. When you need them, they're there." Even during a year of dangerous danger-ous living. Why thisC hristmas was uniqUe U tltXfU. i l - I m 1 J i!ihese bovs the toughest toys d '"there, because those flimsy plastic plas-tic ones don't last an hour with these kids. Well, knowing her boys, she put her Christmas tree on top of a table and decorated it. But 1 'that was not enough to stop them. Not only did they still reach up and play with the ornaments, orna-ments, and subsequently shatter them, they also got the cat involved. Mind you, this cat was an adopted stray who didn't need a whole lot of encouragement encourage-ment he must have thought the tree was his personal playground, play-ground, because he jumped into it and scampered up the trunk often. Plus, the boys thought it was a great game to play "Toss the Cat" into the tree. That poor tree toppled over about four or five times in one month. Finally, As many of you know, Christmas with young; children is stressful, - W nnimie and a Dit necut . Let me illustrate. Hefeffl stressful and hectic: Last Christy . , , , , . aw.. S as normal boys, they have left of her ornament collection, .t....J.1warddestruc. .-my sister-in-law stripped the have to W .tree, and they celebrated Chnst- Ulda WHI1 x ucxic cvcigtccu. And here's an example, from this year, of uniqueness: In lieu of siblings, my toddler son has developed a vast array of imaginary imagi-nary friends. His current best friend is Rudolf, as in the reindeer. rein-deer. My son "takes" Rudolf wherever we go, which means we don't get places very quickly. See, Rudolf is of course, an active deer, and has a tendency to scamper off at the grocery store, prancing and playing, and thus (overindulgent?) Mom is forever "chasing" after him. Two Saturdays ago, we were trying to put up lights on our house. Out of the blue, my son came to the front door, and said, "Oh no, Rudolf got out, and he's hanging from the lights! He'll get hurt!" So Mom and Dad had to "pull" Rudolf down, and put er,. out- at trie 1 him in the h flllon ' Then n fc,.. minuteg hi, son came hxrV . , dl1 no, now Rudolf s V the ladder! Quick hUT fall!" So at this po n Vodded" Rudolf8 Z ; Hy house and shut the drl he said, "No mo ,lr0T' and side!" CU1Qeers H K 1 iviy nusband looked then, and nnA m.: what it's like i l: these with five kids If It have a houseful in the'e i WC Subsequently, We ran out nf I ' only got the iigh2 half done that day. So Santa, if you're looking for Rudolf, we've got him. Sort of But yes, there are magica moments in there, too We enjoy family bonding moments while singing CW mas songs with my son, especial, ly his favorite, "Feliz Navidad" or "Police Navidotashecallsi! He and I both have about the same skill level on the Spanish pans, ana mostly through with: "Police mumble Navidad, proswn. ayonso peliz neya," (yeah, We have no idea what we're saying). But we can sure belt out those English parts! Web site hits show popular stories We launched our new Web site as part of www.harktheherald.co m in July. From this site, one can link to our North County Newspapers and catch up on the community news in north Utah County wherever they are. OK, maybe not in the back-country back-country of the Olympic rain forest for-est or while running the rapids in Hell's Canyon, but nearly anywhere. There is one particular feature fea-ture of this Web site system I use frequently. It gives me the ability to go in and see how many hits an article gets each week and each month. ' It lets me know which arti,-, cles our readers were most """ interested in reading. Through' ' this feature, I've found the human heart is touched by the GSJB7 ""A iu wiiMr ii irW! iwiimn i nmii r!' i tat'im'"i uniil'TTifriJ plight of the weak or innocent, the deeds of the noble and brave and the tragedy and triumphs of the good and virtuous. 11 It sounds melodramatic, but it's true. The first month, our readers 'J1 686 of them, read about "Child ; 'negligence on rise at Lehi pool," ' an article about parents leaving young children at the public swimming pool to be tended by ' ''strangers. Nearly 200 fewer " read "City raises not based on local wages," showing more of an interest in the innocents than politics. In August, the accidental death of Chad Robinson drew 3,111 hits from our readers in the article "Highland man killed in construction accident in Saratoga Springs," and 1,288 in "Accident kills Highland man." Robinson, a Caveman alumnus and American Fork native, was known for his character char-acter and as an "outstanding .human being." In September, a feature on noble Judge Garry Sampson drew 651 hits; and "Halloween parade canceled in Lehi" got 443 hits. The school year began turning turn-ing our attention to other matters mat-ters such as "Cabela's begins impacting Lehi," 596 hits; and "County to host first Mascot Bowl, ESPN to attend," 413, in October. A story on the "History Channel Chan-nel to show 'Story of Veterans Day,' " was the top winner on our Web site in November with 479 hits; and then the tragedy of Seth McEwan's death drew 332 readers to "Students say farewell to PGHS classmate." December has barely ended and in the lead for hits is 'Police called in during hearing" and "Alpine District announces three schools." Readers' hits have developed a pattern. Usually the first week, all the police beats and crime watches are the most frequently fre-quently read. There is an office hypothesis criminals are catching up on the news, but I believe it is law enforcement officers and other officials checking on crime in the area outside their jurisdiction. I would like to believe vre provide pro-vide a service to not only our readers, helping them defend themselves against crime, but to aid the crime fighters as well. As the week passes, those articles that hold the community interest gradually pass by the crime reports in number of hits. The Web site tool has acted as a meter letting us know what you think, and where your interests lie. I look forward to another exciting year serving those interests. r' Readers' Forum Interfaith Celebration success I would like to express my appreciation to all of the churches, organizations, families, fami-lies, and individuals that helped make this year's Interfaith Celebration Cele-bration of the Birth of Jesus (Fourth Annual Lehi Community Communi-ty Event) an outstanding success. suc-cess. Your contributions were invaluable. Special thanks go to Father James E. Blaine and the St. Peter's Catholic Church in American Fork; Scott Daniel and the Utah Valley Ministerial Association; Reverend Miki Laws and the Community Presbyterian Pres-byterian Church of American Fork; Pastor Chuck Lovelady , and the Timpanogos Baptist Church; and President Douglas ' Muir and the ten Stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lehi, Eagle Mountain, and Saratoga Springs. Special thanks also go to the Eagle Crest Children's Choir, the Ranches Academy Choir, Lehi High School Bravo Choir, the Lehi City Chorale, Greg Straud and Liz Lemmon Swindle Swin-dle and Company, Tim Leavitt and Alius Fine Art in American Fork, and all those participating in the Live Outdoor Nativity Pageant. Individual efforts that were invaluable can be attributed to Nina Shuman for coordinating the art and nativity displays, Kali Church from Pleasant Grove who brought four tables worth of her personal collection of Nativities, Scott Daniel and John Ellsworth for their special lighting effects on the Nativities and art, Peter Brooks and Jenny Robinson for creating the promotional pro-motional flier, Carl Mellor who displayed his personal material on the Holy Lands, Wayne Korn-er Korn-er for his help with the Puppet Show, Cliff Dunston for bringing his triptych for use in the ChJ dren's Activity Room as a w drop for almost 300 pictures taken, Judy Law and Adair Payne for bringing then -a. John and Sylvia Jax and Me and Sandy Schoonover for bringing the Nativity thai ; family had displayed on thu front lawn. -., . The combined effect of J e Live Nativity rageant C " dren's Activity Room, ' Show, Music rrognun,! Land Room, Profonj . Children's art tover l W )tf. ing of the video Luw . &r the host and hosU'sse an outstanding event - ld something that everyone lMW it his event It is my hope-that th reinforced the tnnn ; ' ., true mi' L-eo mi- - . . c is MningofChnstnU The Birth of Jesus. : w j: thre bece ht Lvhi! iram lankl -ent City ratio: dl bant lisi fc ibo e ha 'olui v con J an :ave ::ern: ir ver, frs t ffet ! sav ::r scour "ificai ar b, ilifv n hile ;Pani ?erCe : th 'Jigs: "lVe a . ,ole CM9 |