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Show a v n i res iiS I':-; press ; SALT - LAKE CI c. S?0N b' i . Y v.-- H fi(l 1 Thursday, Februaly 21, VoL13,No.8 i .r i J? . j Committee named to support troops on city entrance signs and along Main Street. . A program is planned with emphasis on patriotism and support of our nation's commitment in the Gulf, and the committee hoped that citizens would write to local guardsmen and women who've been called to duty, to support them with care packages, and plenty of news from home. a committee to help arouse community support ofthe troops in the Persian gulf. Blaine and Alta Anderson will chair the committee. Meetings are already planned to find ways to urge residents to decorate their homes with flags and yellow ribbons. They will also ask cooperation with the Post 19 of the American Legion to post flags 'tiv ::' ... I -- raifea. .... m. - . ' k . , next week's paper. ear-M- r, on Oct. 16, 1900. Will Ross, as he wasbestknown, had been Lahfs postmaster since 1897. At that time local postal . By BETTY FOWLER The lives of Daniel and Brenda Fox Erd have undergone a lifetime's worth of suspense, travel and happiness all in the providential year of 1990 but the happiness and fulfillment did not come easy and their story sounds like a suspense movie, with an unlikely, almost impossible plot. Brenda's grandmother, Bertha Fox of Lehi, is enjoying the fruits of the tantalizing tale as the Erds were hev house guests for the past few weeks. The story really began in 1989 when the president of Romania was executed after the Rumanian revolt. The execution of the president and overthrow of the Communist government paved the way for the adoptions of hundreds of Rumanian babies. The Erds learned about the Rumanian babies through a contact made through their LDS bishop in Elk Horn, Wise. The bishop had noticed the couple's interest in children and asked them if they were trying to have a family. "When Dan explained that we'd been hoping and praying for years, he said we should talk to this special friend and her husband because they would be willing to perhaps help us to adopt," Mrs. Erd said. The contact paid off, but after they explained how they could help and that the Erds would have to find a way there, then find some children and figure out how to get them adopted in a foreign country, it sounded like a big challenge. "We told them we would think about it," Brenda said. She used the word "if" once or twice, then it was "when " and the mad paper chase began. They needed police reports, marriage license, home study, birth certificates, job verification and a dozen other documents and six notarized copies of each. At the time, nobody knew exactly what would be needed because Romania was still unstable, recovering from a bloody revolution a few months earlier. The couple spent last June and July gathering papers, government immigration documents, baby diapers, bottles, blankets, medicine and everything else they'd need to care for the kids in a hotel room. "We knew that many of the children were sick," Daniel said. - X9 ,4 Lehi Yesteryears ar a that that the Lions Club was organization and percent of their funds go to service projects such as furnishing service-oriente- d 90 s mer Lehi Lions had held prominent leadership positions in both city, state and national Lions organizations. "We need the council's backing as well as the backing from the people of the community," Atwood said. They stressed that women were welcome to join, that there were 10,000 women members of Lions Clubs. The Mayor promised Atwood and that the council would Oveson support them in their efforts to organize a new Lions Club in Lehi. Lloyd Brooks was present at the meeting to explain the proposed 300 East water-sewextension er project which is still in limbo. Mayor Cash asked Brooks to tie up the loose ends and bring everything together to accomplish the completion of the project. Councilman Sherwin Allred will bring recommendations for the project, widening of the road, work plans, engineering for preliminary work, to the next council meeting. Allen Roberts of Architecture of Salt Lake City gave each council member a study of the Main Street Restoration Project that his firm had been commissioned to do. He explained some of the facets of the study which includes planning of a Heritage Park at the end of the restoration area and which will be located east of Lehi Bakery. He also told the council of the need to discourage demolition of significant old buildings, namely the old LDS Church which is now being used for the city administra Cooper-Rober- two-bloc- ts k tion building. He said that old buildings such as this could be used for professional offices, specialty shops, antique shops, apartments for senior citizens, or conversion into private schools, or simply to be used as a community center. He said that the city needs to find a sensitive, compatible use for such property such as a farmers market or an agriculture- - oriented fair, anything of this nature would be perfect to promote heritage tourism and would generate tourist dollars. "You have a resource your community can cultivate for historic site tours and events of this nature," he said. Roberts is preparing a master plan for the Main Street restoration which contains, essentially, recommendations for restoration of the buildings and store fronts. He said that there are 35 buildwhich means ings that are 50 over are they years old, all in good shape and structurally sound. His study includes ideas for the d, facades which can be developed along a heritage theme because they are historically significant. He advised the council to adopt a preservation ordinance to go with the plans to submit to qualify for government funds and to the state historical society. He explained the need for a design guideline for restoration procedure so plans will be done according to design codes and explanations as to what is planned for vacant lots, paving patterns and cross walks. Couple finds Rumanian adoption is hard, but has great rewards Laney's past is three-fol- d story By RICHARD VAN WAGONER ; For weeks I have been promising Gary Laney, congenial manager of Lanes Circus Video, that I would soon feature his building in this Main Street series. But I am highlighting these historical structures in the order they were built. Otherwise my personal bias would have been to write up the Laney building first. Gary and I share a common interest in 86 West Main, the subject of today's biograph. His family has been doing business on the premises for 46 years. And my Ross ancestors built the structure nine decades ago. This property originally was the northeast corner of Lehi's first fort, constructed in 1853 by moving 60 log cabins to form a hollow square. The log structure then situated on what is now 80 West Main (the eastern portion of the Laney buildfirst ing) was the Log School-Leh- i's public building. It had been built two years sight rods (132 feet) north of where the Denver and Rio Grande tracks now cross Dry Creek. No one knows exactly when the Log School was demolished. It was still there in 1864, but was gone by 1900. The first Mayor's Deed on ths property was given to Paulinus Allred in 1871. He sold to Henry Joyce in 1896. My Amanda Ross, and her son Stephen W. Ross bought the prop-art- y ago. He said eye-glasse- -- rt .original Lehi Lions folded over eight years to people who need them, The Andersons and Mayor Cash have made certain that flags are i for playground equipment and many " other service projects. flying from each building in the new city complex, and that yellow They told council members that Lehi had the first Lions Club in ribbons have been placed on the decorative shrubs along Main Street , jJtah County and that some of for- - In this 1915 photograph the Lehi Drug Store (now Dalley's 98 West Main) is on the left. The three-sectio- n building on the right (80-8- 6 West Main) is Laney's Circus Video today. Editor's note: This is the first of a two-paseries. cents a single copy City council members held the February meeting in the comfortable city council room in the new city administration building Tuesday evening. Blaine and Alta Anderson were present at the council meeting to ask for the city to make Lehi's support of U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf official. : They asked that the city place flags on the entrance to the town Signs, to form patriotic committees in each stake, and to encourage residents to decorate their homes with flags and yellow ribbons. Blaine explained that the com- -' mittee would meet to decide on other means of promoting patriot 4 ism and support for the troops. 9 Following their oresentntinn. ' Mayor Cash and the council voted o support the Andersons in their efforts to promote support for our troops in the Persian Gulf. Members of the Pleasant Grove Lions Club, Atwood and Oveson, explained that they wanted to get the council's support in organizing a Lions Club in Lehi. They told the council that there aie over one million Lions throughput the United States and that the A complete list of Lehi men and women who have been called to active service will be printed in 1'V.v "rr 50 Council holds its first meeting in new building Blaine and Alta Anderson, chairmen ofLehi's Support the Troops Committee, pin a yellow ribbon on a Lehi lamp post. Mayor Guy Cash has appointed 1991 business was being conducted in the former Harwood & Son Harness Shop at 130 West Main. But Uncle Will, a zealous Lehi booster, felt these quarters to be beneath the dignity of a fine town like Lehi. After considerable planning he began constructing Main Street's then largest commercial structure. Foundation work on the Ross Block, as townspeople called it, began in late December 1900. The Lehi Tabernacle was being built at the same time, which sparked a rivalry between the work crews. But financial problems delayed the completion of the Tabernacle until 1910. The Ross Block was occu pied by the end of 1901. To provide a clear narrative of The Ross Block's history it is best to envision it as three separate compartments. The eastern portion of the structure was originally the Lehi Post Office. The local newspaper on January 23, 1902, hailed the facility as the "finest in the state outside of Salt Lake, Ogden, and Provo." It was a 16 12 by 48 foot room with the address 80 West Main. Will and Alice Ross leased it to the U. S. government for $188 a year. Lehi had no home delivery then, so patrons picked up their mail Sec YESTERYEARS on page i - They didn't even know how old the kids would be or even what they would do after they got to the hotel. They did know that they'd have to leave on Aug. 10 because they needed at least three weeks and Daniel needed to start law school in Michigan as soon as they got back. So, while they were preparing, Dan was moving all their worldly goods to an apartment in Michi- gan. With so much going on all at once, it seems almost impossible that Brenda and Daniel could work it all out. But they did, through divine assistance, faith, determination and much careful planning. When they arrived in Romania they found conditions to be ter- rible. Dan's undergraduate degree is in International Relations; he knew about the communist system and what it does to a country, but d was a whole to see it new education. "What surprises me is, not that the system broke apart after 45 years, but that it lasted that long. It is pitiful the conditions these people live under, not because they don't know better or aren't able to improve themselves, but because the 'system' held them down. I gained a new respect for the wisdom behind a market economy like ours, and though it has its faults it is infinitely better than the communist system," Daniel said. The Rumanian people were usually very good to the Erds. "They respect Americans very much, but a lot of them want dollars more. To them, any American is infinitely more wealthy than they are, and many could justify swindling or cheating us out of a few dollars," Dan said. "It was the U.S. currency they were after, their own currency was worthless outside their country, so they were after the dollar. "It was interesting to see how much influence the U.S.hasin even an obscure country like Romania. Everyone wanted to know what it was like in America and everyone wanted to go there." Fortunately they were put in touch with a liaison-culawyer and a taxi driver who knew the ropes in adoption procedures. The aearch for adoptable children was a success. The Erds found a little boy and a tiny little girl in two different orphan ages within the first four days first-han- m ' Km, ; h I Brenda and Daniel Erd hold Michelle and Daniel, children they adopted in Romania. Brenda is the granddaughter of Bertha Fox of Lehi. of their arrival. After that they had to find the parents and get them to relinquish their rights if they didn't think they would ever bring them home from the orphanage. "That was important to Brenda and me; if the parents were still hoping to someday bring their children home from the orphanage we didn't want to try to adopt them " Dan said. The mother of the little boy had been reported to the police because she wasn't taking care of him properly, and they put him in the orphanage. The Erds later found out that the young mother had been raised in an orphanage herself. "Instead of feeling angry at her, we felt sorry for her because how could she ever learn to be a good mother growing up in an orphanage when they consider themselves successful if the child survives?" Dan asked. The little girl's story was different. Her parents had one little girl 4 already and lived in a single room apartment about 8 by 12 feet. There was a small kitchenette and a bathroom but that was it. They ate, slept and lived in that one room. They literally had no room for another child. As a result, the girl had never been brought home from the hospital after she was born. "When we went to see them, they didn't know where she was. We h ad to tell them where we found her. I'm sure they were embarrassed for having left her there for so long (eight months) but we had to tell them where we found her, but they felt it would be best for her to be adopted." They named the children Daniel, after his new father, and Michelle. While in the orphanage, the children received very little attention outside of feeding time, and then the workers could only prop up a bottle for them. The babies See ADOPTION on page 8 |