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Show w w w m fy w m ' ?x3 UTW-Tni- ibl EASt 300 SJ.LT UK t-- a cLl??I3i5,SEVIC3 SO 84U1 CIITOT -- VOLUME FIFTY NUMBER SEVENTEEN Coiiort oapuremni .'. sfys A & FaimiBiigiiloiia IdOSBDTieSS U(BBrD$ yroDirasffllMtnoiM amusement tax because the R. BLODGETT By GARY matter was in litigation for - FARMINGTON The Utah Supreme Court has upheld a Second District Court ruling that a business license revenue tax imposed by Farmington city against Lagoon is unconstitut- Corporation ional and illegal. BUT IN the same motion, the Supreme Court ruled that owners of Lagoon could not the amusement park from the city. Both de-ann- cases were previously heard in Second District Court in Farmington and the Supreme Court decisions upheld the rulings made earlier by Second District Judge J. Duffy Palmer. It was a 4--1 vote in favor of upholding the decision that tax is unthe constitutional, but it was a unanimous 0 decision that Lagoon Corporation could not city-impos- ed 5-- Some Farmington streets have been busy all summer, with curb and gutter and sidewalk work, road work etc. and this intersection of First East and State was busy recently with Utah Power & Light equipment, as workers put up a new pole, while Ma Bell workers put in a new underground cable. BUSY STREETS - FARMINGTON There have been a lot of gripes from people having to travel to Farmington on county business and otherwise. AND ASIDE from those having to pay taxes, the big- gest complaint has centered on the massive construction projects throughout the city making for detours, slowdowns and lack of parking in some areas. But the end is in sight, says Farmington City Manager Max Forbush, who indicated workmen are trying to meet a Sept. 15 deadline. He said that many people have failed to realize that much of the construction has centered around subsurface work along with resurfacing. WE IDENTIFIED some problems that had to be corrected and wanted the roads to last, rather than allowing the resurfacing to be , followed in a year by underground improvements necessitating ripping up the road, for instance. Curb, gutter and storm drain projects paid previously inadequate. THAT FORMER four inch line was replaced by an eight inch water line. In addition, service lines were replaced to avoid the need for future redigging, Mr. Forbush said. ' jointly through a grant and formation of a local improvement district have improved conditions in some sections of the city, he said. Three sewer Work wasnt confined to the with sidewalk improvements made on West Main and State. They were a hazard to the public and now streets lines on the west side of Main Street were upgraded along, with a water line on State Street that he termed were replacing service Grand Central Or Not; Decision To build a Grand Central store or not to build a Grand Central store, that is the question the East Layton City Council must decide within the next two weeks. New Police Officer Por Kaysville City OFFICER BURNER served the past eight years on the police force in San Francisco where he was primarily involved with public relations work regarding traffic safety. He was a special accident investigator for seven years. As a public relations officer, he conducted tours of the police facilities to many police agencies from all over the world as well as giving traffic safety lectures at the schools. He was also in charge of hiring, training and supervising 40 adult school crossing guards. He noted, they had 20 traffic boy patrols organized and supervised. He was somewhat surprised to learn that they do not have this program set up here. He feels it is a splendid program and one that may be beneficial to the community. OFFICER ; HAROLD BURNER Harold Burner is Kays-ville- new police officer. s Of- ficer Burner started with the force June 16, 1979 as a regular patrolman. He had previously worked with the law enforcement in California before moving to Kaysville to make his home. He and his family reside in the King Clarion Subdivision. THE KAYSVILLE REFLEX 197 "B North Main St., Layton PHONE 376-91- Published Weekly by : curarjxiSDi. John Stahle, Jrl, Publisher Second Class Postage Paid At Layton, Utah SUBSCRIPTION $4.50 per year smsMwya liSriSiim Sue IMS (NpbtolnMmnM) THE OFFICER was bom in Elko, Nev. and is the youngest of 13 children in his family. He was educated in the Elko schools and after graduation from high school, he attended the College of Idaho at Caldwell, Ida.; the University of Nevada at Reno; Diablo Valley College at Pleasant Hills, Calif, and San Francisco City College in San Francisco where he was enrolled in law enforcement classes. HE HAS friends in Layton who encouraged him to move to Utah and he is very happy with their decision of making the move. He loves the com- munity and the people and said, Its a nice place to work and he finds less crime than in most small communities. He said, Kaysville police officers are the finest group of officers he has ever been around and has respect and admiration for them and the excellent way the police department is handled, np ON AUG. 28, representaAdams, Hayes and Bundy and the Bover Corp., met with the East Layton City Council in behalf of the Grand Central organization who is very interested in building a 182,000 square foot store at the intersection of Fairfield Road and Rainbow Drive. Grand Central wants to start construction of this store immediately so the store can be opened before the Layton Hills Mall is in full operation. Grand Central wants a commitment from East Lay-to- n that the city will complete an extension of Rainbow Drive to the east of Fairfield Road that would connect with the Mountain Road (U.S. 89). Without this access road, Grand Central will begin searching for a new location for their store. THE FAIRFIELD Road site is the third sight Grand Central has secured in the Lay- - COUNCIL THE BOOKS were a part of the Hardy Boys Mysteries, a series that was banned from the Davis County School District and library while the two cooperated in a joint processventure at the ing headquarters library in Farmington. They were donated to Crestview Elementary School in Layton by the schools The PTA. destruction of those books has been raised by County Comm. Morris Swapp and two other Davis Board County Library members as a reason Library Director Jeanne Layton should resign. They have asked for her termination effective Sept. 18. She has refused. ACCORDING TO Keith Brimhall, Crestview principal members dis- cussed this proposal. All members of the council could see the desirability of having a store of the size of Grand Central locate in East Layton but none of the council members would commit themselves to building the Road ' without first studying the the sources of revenue, land acquisitions and the legal implications of building the road. Grand Central was told to wait for two weeks. At that time, the council would have had a work session to decide the answers to the questions According in a childrens mystery series donated to a school were destroyed in the spring of 1977, a Kaysville principal says. area. Each Oakridge-Rainbo- because of the illegal taxation. . laterals and moving some fire hydrants off four inch lines to adjacent side streets (with so we can tie larpejrjines) them Tri and give better fire, protection. I WOULD like to comment that I feel the residents have been veiy patient, manager said. the city It has been difficult for us as well as for them. There has been a great coordinating effort to get all done. tb Pending site has been plagued with the problem of road accesses. Grand Central is willing to build on the Fairfield Road site if East Layton will connect Oakridge Drive to Rainbow Drive by 1980. Books Lost KAYSVILLE -- Eight books Layton ton-Ea- st tives from mentioned above. A decision will be made at the next regular council meeting to be held Sept. 11. Citizens of East Layton are invited to attend this council meeting which will also be a public hearing on the proposed connecting road. IN OTHER council business, Robert Green was appointed to the chairman of the planning commission. One vacancy on the planning commission will be filled at the next council meeting. City manager, Tracy Barnes reported on the progress of the various subdivisions that are now under construction within the city limits. He indicated compaction tests are now being run on all roads within subdivisions. The roads must meet certain specifications before the city will accept them. THE COUNTY commission Spring, 1 2)77, To Principal! at the time and currently serving as principal at Kaysville Elementary, the books were donated by the PTA and sent to the county library for processing. I got word through the that the books had grapevine ' been destroyed. They were never heard from again, he said. Overseeing the county library system then and now was Miss Layton, who also acted in a supervisory position over the school processi- ng. MR. BRIMHALL said he tried to determine what had happened to the books not only as principal but as vice president of the PTA, a post held by elementary school principals. I wrote (Miss Layton) with the idea for her to replace them and told her that while they were in her possession they turned up missing and asked if she could replace them. The books were valued at from . the city de-ann- LAGOON Corp. Pres. Peter Freed said I feel like dancing a jig on top of my desk Im so happy. He then explained that the the tax saving by amusement park would amount --.ta. more than $100,000 per year. Lagoon, he said, presently, and for the past several years, has paid to $70,000 a year in sales taxes. $50,000 MR. FREED explained that Lagoon did not have to pay any additional taxes based on working with the schools. She said books were checked for content as well as physical condition and were sometimes returned if they didnt meet library standards. Our policy was if the books werent suitable they I would be returned. remember vaguely when they were missing and I tried to track them down. They couldve been destroyed or, returned to the wrong school, she continued. NOTING THAT she understood school policy at the time didnt allow for placement of Hardy Boys books in the schools, the library 20-ye- ar city-impose- d accepted a low bid of $184,000 plus dollars to complete the Rainbow Drive improvement project. The city council voted to also accept this low bid. The Contract will be awarded to Claude Mix of Ogden. Work on the project should begin within two weeks. Deane Rigby, the city recorder, explained the fall election procedures. Three council members will be term. elected to a four-yeThe council seat held by Kent Forbes will be up for election or but this will be term. The only a two-yemayor will be elected or rer elected to a term also. The reason for the term elections is that these two people. Mayor ar two-yea- two-ye- d 41 ar Johnson and Councilman Forbes, were appointed to fill the unexpired terms of office of people who had resigned their positions. PETITIONS with the signatures of 25 East Layton residents must be turned in to the city hall by Oct. 9. If petitions were turned in earlier than the deadline, it would save the city recorder a considerable amount of work, dmg R. Hall, who wrote the opinion for the High Court, said in part: IT IS abundantly clear that the tax imposed by Farmington city was, from the outset, intended for and tailored to Lagoon Corporation alone. The amusement tax was first imposed on Lagoon, by action of the Farmington City Council, early in 1976. The original action was a five percent tax on Lagoons gross earnings, but this was later reduced to two percent. AMUSEMENT park officials filed suit against Farmington on May 18, 1976, alleging that the tax was discriminatory and illegal because it was aimed at collecting tax only from Lagoon Corp., the only amusement facility within the city. Judge Palmer entered a judgement in Lagoons favor on July 7, 1977. This decision trial a followed a few weeks earlier. week-lon- g THE DISTRICT judge ruled against Farmington on the taxation' matter upholding Lagoons contention that the tax was unreasonably discriminatory against the amusement park and its patrons and that the city had abused its taxing powers in levying the tax. At the same time. Judge Palmer denied a request from Lagoon officials that the amusement park be from the city. WE HAVE no reason now to seek said Mr. Freed. AH we sought was relief from the taxation by the city against Lagoon which we have felt all along was discriminatory and illegal. Farmington asked for the additional tax because, officials said, the city has provided police and fire protection, at least in part, to the amusement park. The city has also provided Lagoon with some of its culinary water needs. HOWEVER, JUSTICE Hall wrote in his opinion, Since 1969 Lagoon has provided its own security force made up of full-tim- e officers and e part-tim- law enforcement officers from city, county and state agencies. Farmington, however, does not furnish other services such as garbage pickup, street cleaning or repairs, street lighting or curb and gutter to the park. THE OPINION also noted that Lagoon has contributed significantly to the citys tax base having paid twice as 1974 as in and an 89 percent increase between 1974 and 1970, 1976. If the new tax were to be imposed. Lagoons tax burden would have increased ten fold since 1975, the Supreme Court Justice ruling added. IT MUST also be concluded that under this situation, where a municipality imposes a potentially crippling tax on a single business for the benefit of the community, and coupled with vague promises of improved services for which the park does not necessarily need, such a case (increased taxation) would be an abuse of taxing power. In District Court, Judge Palmer listed nine reasons why the park should not be Supreme Court justices concurred that there is adequate evidence to support his (Judge Palmers) findings. CHIEF JUSTICE J. Allan Crockett cast the dissenting vote on the taxation issue. I think there is no basis upon which to justify the courts intrusion into the prerogatives of the governing body (Farmington city) by declaring the tax void as being in conflict with any constitutional prohibition or limisaid Chief Justice tations,Crockett, . . MR. FREED said he did not expect Lagoon officials to appeal the ruling. We have no need or desire to take further action because the taxation issue was in our he said. Our only favor, was to desire to avoid an undue taxation that was being imposed on us by Farmington city. MEANWHILE, Farmington Mayor E True Johnson said the city, too, will accept the Supreme Court rulings and there are no plans for additional action. But, he said, it hasnt settled the problems that prompted the city to impose an amusement tax against Lagoon. We still can not provide adequate fire and police protection for Lagoon or the city. CITY OFFICIALS said they can not determine at this time what action the city will take regarding these ser- vices, but the situation is expected to come before the city council in near-futur- e meet- ings. One city official said some alternatives have been dis- cussed and will be brought before the city council. The e officers city has two volunteer fire and a part-tim- e department. Included in the latter is a new $100,000 fire truck which the city purchased recently. full-tim- Sctaell Board Reviews iMicfipafiedl (Building FARMINGTON Although school has just started for the year for Davis County the Board of Education has already begun looking ahead to the following year. 1979-8- 0 projects include an elementary school for southeast Bountiful, projected at $3 employee million, and $1 million for land acquisition. A $900,000 allocation for Layton High School would include an eight-rooaddition, the board was told. Assistant Supt. John S. White said the school had recently been surveyed with an intense evaluation continuing to determine where the rooms should be placed. The art department, presently housed on the second level, will probably occupy some of the space, along with general classrooms. pened at least two years ago. IT HAS not been determined if additional supportive facilities, such as heating plant, will be necessary, he students, m THE BOARD gave approval to tentative projects valued at $18 million during a recent meeting. Topping the list was a million junior high planned for east Bountiful. An architect was recently appointed for that project. Other $5.5 added. It certainly should not have happened that particular way. I have no way of knowing the disposition of those books. It haptb I A Gordon ar about $28 but she never made any move to replace them, Mr. Brimhall said. IN COMMENTING on the situation. Miss Layton said, I only vaguely remember it. How we handled books coming in that were gifts was part of my responsibility, in new the more than three years. Supreme Court Justice much in taxes in -. said. Other plans call for addition of a media center costing $150,000 at Burton Elementary School in Kaysville and a $120,000 project at North Davis Jr. High in Clearfield, to include remodeling of the old cafeteria and kitchen. DISTRICT SITE improvements were projected at $500,000 with a like amount planned for central office equipment. Some $1,730,000 has been set for miscellaneous projects, the board was told. To meet the price tag, some $9.5 million, or just more than half, will come from district bond sales, $5.85 million from the district mill levy, $2.5 million from state sources and $150,000 from interest, tb i I I |