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Show JOURNAL BULLETIN LEADER SEPTEMBER 16, 1982 REFLEX Farmer Brown Delights Passersby, And Keeps Pantry Full, Too By WANDA LUND CLEARFIELD - Called Farmer-Brow- n by the people who buy his vegetables and fruit, Ted Brown, 937 E. 700 South, provides more than a feast for the palate. His spectacular displays of flowers, raised from seed in his backyard greenhouse until they ars large enough to transplant, delight neighbors and passersby. THIS YEAR, hundreds of bright yellow and orange marigolds contrast vividly with rows of red, white and pink petunias, deep purple alys-suand bronze, white, lavendar and pink dahlias. 1 he feast for the eyes continues around the white house, with hundreds of flowers beautifying the walkways. Mr. Brown formed part of his large front yard into terraces. secured by rock w alls to contain the dirt. He brought the rocks from the mouth of Weber Canyon years ago. also hauling enough of them to s reate a picturesque rock wall at the back of -- trim-lookin- g hi liume. I FIGURE I get about a nickel an hour for This place is my labors, he said, grinning. little a for too me now, but I just big getting it. at keep Like many other farmers in Davis County, Mr. Brown went to work at Hill Air Force Base. He worked there for 26 years, retiring 15 IT SEPARATES the house area from the old trees. A tree of delicious orchard of apples is so burdened with fruit that its branches nearly reach the ground. Ted and his wife, Afton, have picked more than 60 bushels of fruit from the tree in the past three years. The area has not always been so beautiful. When the couple moved into their home, then only two rooms, in 1937, their yard, about eight-tenth- s of an acre, was nothing but a sandhill, Mr. Brown said. He and a neighbor had built the house. 40-ye- years ago. THE ROWS of colorful hot peppers that he raises are as beautiful as his flowers. Glossy red, yellow and green peppers grow on the healthy-lookin- g plants. He also raises cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupes, com, beans, onions and strawberries. Mrs. Brown found a good w'ay to plant their corn this year. She used a short length of plastic pipe to guide the seed corn into the earth. HE HAS BROUGHT in thousands of pounds of fertilizer and has a continuous compost pile, also dumping grass, leaves and vegetable scraps into open trenches and covering them with earth. The result is a fertile rich soil that produces efficiently and continuously throughout the summer. Mr. Brown gets up at about daybreak, a lifelong habit, and manages a few hours of work in his garden before breakfast. IT SAVED a lot of bending over, she explained. Afton planted the corn as fast as I could make the furrows and cover them up, Mr. Brown added. At Information Meeting Seeks Sidewalk Funds Residents Stitt Nw Solid Waste Facility Bv DONF.TA GATHERUM LAYTON - Last Thursday evening a special public information meeting was held in the -- Layton City Council chambers to inform people living in Layton and Clearfield about the mechanics, the proceedures, the costs and the progress that is being made towards building a solid waste resource recovery plant in Layton. The proposed plant would be used to dispose of garbage from the entire county. ABOUT 30 CITIZENS from Layton and Clearfield attended. Most residents live near the number one proposed plant site, a holding pond on the south side of SR 93 just across the street from the Hill Air Force Base Hospital. A committee established to dispense public information about the resource recovery plant was in attendance to present the material that has been gathered about the solid waste plant. Members of the information committee are Mayor Robert Palmquist of North Salt Lake, City Council member Jay Dewell from West Bountiful and John Buetler, City council member from Clearfield and Chairman of the North Davis Refuse Board. County Commissioner Ernest Eberhard is a member of the public information committee. He did not attend the meeting. 1 ALL COMMITTEE members are also mem- bers of the Davis County Resource Recovery Board. Although it was easy to sense the citizens living nearby the proposed plant site had many concerns about having a large industrial building located in their residential area, the meeting moved along smoothly. Courtesy was shown by both the citizens attending and the committee members. ANN HARRIS of the Layton City Council was the moderator for the discussion. Mayor Palmquist opened the discussion by saying. "We will tell you what we know about solid waste. When you know what we know then we can talk on common grounds." HE WENT ON to explain the reason the pond site and a second site across the street on Hill Air Force Base were considered as the only two possible sites for a waste recovery plant was because they were near Hill Air Force Base, the only available market for the steam energy that the plant would generate. The pond site is close to where the steam would be used. The U.S. government has promised the land without charge. "It would not be economically feasible to build a solid waste recovery plant if there were no market for the steam, Mayor Palmquist stated. THE $40 MILLION cost of the plant would be financed through industrial revenue bonds, the Mayor said. These would be guaranteed through the company building the plant and through a bonding insurance company. The only cost to the tax payer would be through dumping fees. The Katy-SeegCompany is the primary firm the county hopes to negociate with to build and operate the plant. This company has constructed many solid waste recovery plants in Europe. Their first plant was built in 1904. It has no is still in operation today. solid waste recovery plants operating in the United States. er Katy-Seeg- AFTER HEARING this background information, the citizens next viewed a film showing a solid waste recovery plant in operation in Japan. Three main ideas could be learned from t "Ghf1 the film: 1. there was no noise, 2. there was no smoke or refuse pollution, 3. there was no odor. After the film, Jim McCowan, leader of a citizens group opposing the plant construction at either site being considered, asked for the opportunity to mention several concerns the citizens have. His first question was, Have contracts been signed? MAYOR PALMQUIST replied, No. Mr. McCowan then requested Randy Harris, another citizen who is opposed to the plant being located at the proposed HAFB sites, be given time to present questions and informa' tion that the citizens group had collected. MR. HARRIS started by asking Does this committee officially represent the board so what is said by committee members is factual? Mayor Palmquist replied, Yes. MR. HARRIS then asked, Why hasn't the board disclosed the exhorbitant tipping fee increases that would result if the plant were built? Mayor Palmquist said, We won't sign a contract unless the fee rate for the sale of steam is set at $6 on an escalating fee to peak at $12 per ton. Withouth this guarantee from HAFB, it would not be economical to build the plant. THE NEXT question was, Are you willing to put the Industrial Revenue sale question on ballot vote before Dec. a referundum-typ- e 31? All three members of the information committee said they would be willing to do this as long as the procedure did not slow down the project. ARE YOU willing to compensate property owners for damages to their property created by the plant, was the next question. Mayor Palmquist stated the owners of the plant had agreed to purchase property at the appraised value within a certain radius of the plant. Home owners could rent their homes from the company after the purchase was made at a rate comparable to house payments. At any point in time, ownership of the home could be purchased back by the home owner. Mr. Palmquist said this agreement was not in writing but it would have to be placed in contractual form before any plant could be constructed. ONE QUESTION that concerned nearly Mr. and Mrs. Ted Brown survey some of their bountiful crop that also includes a floral display that decorates 700 S. in Clearfield. ev- ery person attending the meeting was, How are you going to handle the increased traffic load?" The committee members answered this by saying traffic studies indicated the increase in number of vehicles would be only ten percent. The nearby freeway system is adequate to handle the traffic, committee members stated. You would have the same problems with the plant as you have today with the landfill. Do you plan to to maintain counties from other import garbage the level needed to operate the plant? No, there is an adequate supply of garbage in Davis County, was the answer to this question. MR. HARRIS next asked, WILL THERE be a holding pond? Will this pond by lined? were important questions the citizens had. The committee members said there would be a holding pond to store cooling water. It would not handle recoverable water from the steam plant. No on one the committee knew how large this pond would be nor how it would be constructed. MR. HARRIS questioned the panel about the high water table in the area and the effect this would have on plant construction. Panel members said they had no knowledge about this. MANY OTHER questions poised by Mr. Harris were highly technical dealing with the areas of finance and engineering. Mayor Palmquist promised he would have the experts working on the project in these special areas contact Mr. Harris and give him the information. Finally, Mr. Harris asked, What is the agreement Hill Air Force Base is willing to sign? THE ANSWER given was that HAFB would committ to buy a certain amount of steam and to pay for it whether or not it was used. The contract would be for a 20 year period. Mr. Harris stated the legal limit for any government contract was 10 years. It would take an act of Congress to get a 20 year contract. OTHER QUESTIONS raised by citizens in the audience included What is the projected life of the landfill? What would happen in a year of drought? Who would get water, the residents or the plant? Why not look at smaller plants located in industrial parks? What would happen if Layton City or another city in Davis County decided not to contract their garbage to the plant? Why do you want to complete the project before Dec. 31? One citizen commented that the European and Oriental way of life was very different than Things that work in your American and Japan just wont work in Europe America. life-styl- e. ANOTHER PERSON wondered what would happen if the plant didnt work properly. What about pick-utrucks filled with garbage? All the carriers in the film were commercial? was another important question. p COMMITTEE members supplied answers some of these inquiries. Mr. Dewell said West Bountiful would sell Weber Basin Water to Hill Air Force Base if it was needed. Hill plans to expand their steam plant with or without the solid waste system. Water will be bought and used by them either way. to JOHN BUETLER said if any city in the county refused to contract to the plant then the project was dead. Pick-u- p trucks loaded with garbage would go to the landfill. The plant owners would haul the debris from the land fill to the solid waste plant. WHAT IF the Layton City Planning Commission denies the request to rezone the pond site for commercial use?" was a question that could greatly influence the whole solid waste recovery project. Mr. Palmquist answered by saying, Then the project is dead at that site. AT THE conclusion of the discussion, representatives of the citizens stated they were firmly opposed to the building of a solid waste recovery plant either on the pond site or the HAFB site. They stated they have hired an attorney. The final decision about building a solid waste recovery plant might be decided by the courts. Ann Harris dismissed the meeting by saying, Theres a lot of ifs. We need more public meetings for educational tools. The matter is coming up before the Layton planning commission and the city council as a rezone By DONETA GATHERUM LAYTON - Last Thursday evening Layton Mayor Lewis G. Shields recommended to the city council members that Lay ton City officials should try to secure enough money from the sideState of Utah to complete the piece-mewalk project that has been going on for several years along Antelope Drive from the Camelot subdivision to Lincoln Elementary School. -- SO FAR THE project has cost the city 57.101. The State of Utah has contributed 575,713 towards the project. This year there is $5,784 set aside for sections of sidewalk in this area. This amount will pay for only 300 additional feet of sidewalk. There is still 1350 feet of sidewalk to be installed at a cost of about $31,000. This figure includes improvements and the purchase of ground. MAYOR SHIELDS met with citizens living in the Camelot subdivision to get their support when he approaches the state to ask for enough money to complete the entire project. Layton officials and residents have long considered children walking along Antelope Drive to junior high school and elementary school to be one of the biggest traffic and safety problems in Layton. For many years, the parents have petitioned the Davis School District fora school bus. The children all liv e w ithin walking distance of the schools but because of the hazardous road conditions, the school district has provided bus transportation. WITH THE completion of the Antelope Drive interchange this year, the school district felt school busing should be discontinued. They reconsidered when parents pointed out that 1350 feet of the route is still without sidewalks. The school district has promised bus transportation for the 1982-8- 3 school year. MAYOR SHIELDS pointed out to the council that the residents living along Antelope Drive rejected a proposal for a special improvement district that w ould have paid for the sidewalk project. This was voted on in 1976. Because property owners rejected the improvement district, sidewalks had to be installed in a piece-mefashion as money was avail- able. ONE COUNCIL member questioned, What is hazardous? The overpass with several crossings or the road surface with no sidewalks? Councilman David Pratt told the Mayor, Id rather act on correcting the situation before it is an emergency. Lets use the year that busses are provided to get something concrete done. Water Tank Postponed, Computer Study Okd By TOM BUSSELBERG CLEARFIELD Rather than possibly to $750,000 up spend needlessly, Clearfield inCity will investigate various proposals cluding a computer study estimated to cost a fraction as much. ASSUMING THE state Division of Water Resources goes along with funding all or part of the study, the city council looked favorably to the $20,000 study proposed by Clay Forsgren, Forspresident of the Rexburg, Idaho-base- d gren Perkins & Assoc , engineering firm. The study would help the city determine w hat its water needs were throughout the city, giving data on whether the city needs more storage, any necessary distribution changes needed to resolve existing problems to pipe sizes, he explained, adding it would be possible to equalize storage requirements and location, booster pump capacity and othei problems. USING THE example of St. Anthony, Ida., a city about 10 miles north of Rexburg, that had experienced ow water pressure, he noted that before his firm was asked to complete a computer study, in- - city installed a pump with other expensi' c equipment. It didnt solve the citys problem, though, with analysis showing the city was trying to pump too much water through too small a pipe. That city of 4,000 has since saved about $20,000 a year in power costs. The Clearfield Council has been studying to three construction of a one and one-hamillion gallon tank with estimated costs, including laying of more than a miles pipe and foundation, at up to $750,000 for a three million gallon concrete tank. lf MR. FORSGREN said the study could be e months and adapted, at completed in an unknown extra cost, for use in the citys computer. That would enable the city to check an areas water pressure and other data before allowing a subdivision to be built in a particular area, for example erasing much of the guesswork. It could eliminate problems such as Fire Chief Roger Bodily noted when the department recently checked fire hydrants in Meadow Park and received a couple hundred complaints from residents complaining of low water pressure or dirty water. two-thre- THE NEW tank has been proposed to alleviate water pressure problems for the north region plus anticipate new growth in the city's western sector. Noting the city currently has about two and times the normal storage recommended for a city of 20,000, Mr. Forsgren noted the last master plan was completed about 10 years ago and added, Theres a real question whether Weber Basin (Water Conservancy District) can provide enough water to fill (a new tank). HE ALSO indicated cost savings could be generated if the tank is built through use of alternate bidding with an enormous difference possible in bidding with a 0 percent difference not uncommon. It is likely the study will show no need for additional storage at this time which could save a written report to the council said. 30-4- WEBER BASIN has run into a lot of probRon Smith of Templeton Link & lems, Assoc, said, indicating people have been hooking directly into some of their lines, adding, Everybody needs to balance the system. From the picture thats been painted, it would be tremendous, said Howard McMillan, building director, of the information that could be provided through such a study. It would give us a chance to tell how to better utilize our Weber Basin connection" as well as help in subdivision and other development, he added. THE COUNCIL also heard of plans to beef up the areas disaster preparedness and hazardous materials incident response plans, with both Police Chief Darrin Green and Fire Chief Roger Bodily set to attend a seminar in Clinton Wednesday. The amount of hazardous material transported through the area by rail, highway and even through some pipes that pass through the city to HAFB would probably stagger the imagination of most residents, Chief Green said, noting a big problem could result if any irregularities occured such as struck Dallas when a sqaure mile had to be evacuated. MAJOR EMPHASIS of the seminar, sponsored by the Clinton Fire Department, will be implementing citizen involvement in areas such as alerting neighbors when emergencies arise. That would relieve fire and police personnel for other duties. |