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Show to - SECTION cmtti Daily 5 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2004 CITY EDITOR Legislators make the grade State officials bring programs to life for schoolchildren Amie Rose DAILY HERALD The state budget came to life for seventh- - and eighth-grader- s at flrovo's Dixon Middle School on Friday. "' The history students had to de- ' cide how to split $500 million be- tween different state programs education, services for children, health care for seniors and safety ;and security for everyone. They also.had the choice to raise taxes. 'But, like the real Utah legislators', hey cut back on spending and Cdidn't raise sales tax. State Rep. Becky Lockhart, and state Sen. Curt Bramwere at the school ble, Friday morning as part of Ameri J ca's Legislators Back To School Week. Lockhart has served in the stafe House of Representatives since 1999 and Bramble has been part of the state Senate since rti'1 ' bf J, Marc Haddock 344-258- 6 mhaddockheraldextra.com Highland's residents vote 2001. This is the third year state legislators around the country have gone into schools to meet with a program sponsored students by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Last year, Utah lawmakers met with 16,500 students. "I thought it vas pretty cool," said Nikkie Higgins, an eighth-gradat the schooL "I learned how people decide things." No matter how lawmakers decide to spend money, people will be upset, Lockhart said. They'll go to the Capitol with signs to protest, and they will testify in committees, he said. Lockhart and Bramble divided in favor of water merger er See LEGISLATORS, Elisabeth Nardi DAILY D3 frank BonDaiiy Herald State Representative Becky Lockhart, starts the process of breaking the Dixon Middle School classroom into legislate on Friday. The classroom visit is part of a nationwide program. RAISING THE BAR 1 V X jjf .... siiisiitisfs PS if : HERALD With 473 votes in favor, the city of Highland and the nonprofit privately owned Highland Water Company will be merging. The decision comes after months of discussion and debate about whether the company that handles the $35 million drinking water system in the city should merge with the city, which handles pressurized irriga-tio- a Now all will be run by Highland within one department. The vote was made either by proxy or in person at the company's board meeting on Wednesday, where more than 100 people showed up, many voicing their concerns about the merger. The votes were tallied and authenticated on Thursday and Friday, and there were approximately 445 dissenting votes, making this a very tight race. Under company bylaws, the board of directors of the water company had to hold an election where every member of the company, or 2,900 people, could vote on the dissolution. The number of members is in direct proportion to the number of households that receive drinking water, which is almost everyone in Highland and a few homes in unincorporated parts of Utah County. The board members and three out of four city council members along with the mayor all supported the merger. The most vocal opponent was City Councilwoman Kathryn Schramm, who at the meeting Wednesday stood up a few times to voice her opinion. She said she fears the merger wiU mean higher water rates. Be- cause the company was a nonprofit organization, it couldn't raise water rates to make a profit, only to maintain the service. She also felt like agreeing to the merger means the city acquires priceless water rights and an expensive See 1 W MERGER, D3 Santaquin to receive $5 million grant for new irrigation system Caleb Warnock DAILY JOSHUA BROWNDaily Herald y leads a group of sixth- - and seventh-grad- e part of Springville Middle School's Motion Marathon on Friday, Wendy in Tae Bo. The school has participated in the program for close to lOyears and has raised nearly $100,000 during that time. As students Gale-Hendr- i Springville kids kick it up a notch Students help raise money for American Lung Association Todd Hollingshead -- 3 to DAILY HERALD in Springville A dozen 12- - and actually were up to some good Friday during school hours when they were outside on the playground instead of inside their English classroom The students were lined up for an abbreviated session of Tae Bo, just one of the activities at Springville Middle School's "Motion on display Ct Payson -- the drug lliducation "foas '. Mudents. -- . : n. FRANK NTT Dally Herald . See MARATHON, D3 educates parents, students n9 : ' Todd Hollingshead DAILY HERALD if'; . ; : - , ; mon," said Jennie Taylor, a first-yeteacher at Spanish Fork High. "I'm still in shock. One student laughed at me when I asked if we have a drug probar . ' Somewhere between immaturity and X 1 Till :r pressure, nuuious 01 juiuor ragn ana h school students around the nation fall into the trap of drug use every year. While the numbers in Utah County cities are lower, students and teachers at Spanish Fork High School say there is a bigger drug problem among students locally than people might want to believe. A group of students and teachers filled most of the Payson City Center auditorium Thursday night and voiced their concerns at a meeting for PANIC (Parents a Against Narcotics In the Community), ' ' ; local drug support group. "It's all over. It's, frighteningry com- 1 educate parents how their children might hide drugs. The majority of the crowd 's of those tiny straws you get in the lunch room," Jepson said about the attacks. "You get so scared you start to cry. It's hard when you play football and you have to use your inhaler. Everyone thinks you're using it as an excuse." 'Jake is one of 36,000 children in Utah who suffer from asthma enough students to fill and he's one of 36,000 1,200 classrooms children in Utah who wishes there was a cure. That why Jake's friends and teachers at Springville Middle School are doing as much fund-raise- lem." j Taylor was in the crowd Thursday evening as Rob Riding, a member of the Utah County Major Crime Task Force, spoke about the signs and effects of drug use and displayed a assortment of confiscated marijuana pipes, stashes of illegal drugs and booze bottles. Judging by what students had to say ' about drug use, Riding's presentation couldnt have been more timely. "You can walk from class to class and get anything you want," said Acey . ; See PANIC, Santaquin residents may soon have access to pressurized irrigation water. The city will receive a $5 million grant to use toward the $10 million cost of installing a citywide pressurized irrigation system, said Chris Finlinson of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, which is awarding the grant. A public hearing about awarding the grant money was held in Orem on Thursday night, she said. Some paperwork still remains, but Santaquin has been chosen as the finalist for the money, beating out five other cities, The federally funded grant is given to cities and public agencies based on large-scal- e proposals that will conserve water, she said. Grant officials felt proposal would save more water than any of the other proposals, which included a water conservation program in Jordan Valley, a water system in Magna and a sprinkler project in Levan. Santaquin city councilman Wes Morgan, whose assignments include overseeing the city's water projects, said the city would like to begin building the pressurized irrigation system as soon as possible. . The city must now find a way to pay the remaining $5 million required to build the system, he said. The city could issue a bond, which would be repaid by the monthly fees paid by residents for the service. "We would like it to go to every house but at this point we haven't discussed any kind of plan that would force people to do ft," he said. "They may have a choice." When Spanish Fork issued a bond for a similar system in 2003, city officials were forced to require aU residents to hook onto the system as part of the bond issue requirements. Hundreds of residents signed petitions protesting the new fee, saying it cost many of them more than $100 a month during the summer to water their lawns. Santaquin officials have said they would like to avoid a similar public outcry. The city needs the pressurized irrigation water in order to save drinking water, Morgan said. Residents now use culinary water on their lawns and flowers, but the new pressurized irrigation system would allow them to use irrigation water instead. That water comes from wells, but the state is reluctant to let cities drill new wells, he said. The city will not have enough water to meet future population growth unless residents can use irrigation water instead of drinking water outdoors. "If we don't do it, we basically cannot continue to grow at the rate we have," he said. At least 60 percent of residents would have to sign : up for the system for it to be financially viable, Morgan said. It was not clear how much residents might be ' charged per month for the water, but a $250 hookup fee would likely be charged for the first six months after the system was available, he said. " "After that people would have to pay several times i 3PANIC, drug use seminar Students look j 4t some of Ctfredrug Seminar Thursday rmght The )Zpurposeof (he seminar t.$cu to help for the Marathon," a schoohvide American Lung Association of Utah. In the 10th year of the effort, school administrators have organized the athletic marathon with the lofty goal of pulling in an amount that .would put the $16,000 school's e donation total at $00,000. Administrators will know by next week if they met the goaL The money will be used for asthma and hing disease research to help students like Jake Jepson, who hopes to live one day without the fear of an asthma attack. "If feels like you're breathing through one HERALD D3 , See GRANT, D3 |