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Show Ce eee ~ ee Ses ceeepit eres eee a Dailys Herald SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2006 METRO EDITOR Joe Pyrah - 344-2586 jpyrah@heraldextra.com Utah County cities form task force to explore recreation solutions Barbara Christiansen and Brenda Armstrong NORTH COUNTY STAFF To meet demandfor recreation programs in north Utah County, cities are proposing to form a recreation district, or are already moving aheadwithplans for a center. American Fork, Alpine, Highland and Cedar Hills are considering banding together with the Alpine SchoolDistrict. More than half ofparticipants in Americari Fork's most popular recreation programs come from other communities,said recreation director Derric Rykert. “Right now, as the bigger city, we are carrying too largeof a burdenfinancially and physically to be able to continueto carry it,” hesaid. So great is demandthat the city is running out offields and gyms, he said. After American Forkset a July deadline for the neighboringcities to come up with a solution or be on their ownto provide for MATT SMITH /Daily Herald their residents, the communities created a task force, Rykert said. Pleasant Grove and MarKaeFunk gives instruction to a group of senior citizens during a cardio class at the American Fork Recreation Centerlast month. American Forkis having to carry the majorityof thefinancial burdenforits recreation center, whichis used by neighboringcity residents. identified four possible solutions — form a recreation special service district, which could impose property taxesto funditself; form analliance, whichis a formal organi- Zation with a boardofdirectors; form an association, whichis less formal and has no board; or haveeachcity provide recreation on its own. The committee recommended thatatleast in the short-term thecities and district form an alliance. In addition, the committee recommended Alpine, Highland and CedarHills — the three smaller communities — create their owntri-city recreation special service district with taxing and bondingauthority. Overthe long-term that servicedistrict should issue a bondto purchase land and build a recreation complex, the committee recommended. In addition, programsandfacilities should be planned to complementand not compete with American Fork’s program,the committee recommended. For example,the three cities should not build a swimming pool as long as American Fork’s poolis below capacity, they said. The recommendations have been present- ed to the councils of eachcity. “The council was very positive,” said Al- pine administrator Ted Stillman. “They were very agreeable to us pursuingthe alliance andrecreation servicedistrict.” Lindonopted out. Thetask force met for seven months and See RECREATION, D3 more tourism Caleb Warnock DAILY HERALD. Eagle Mountain has asked the Utah Valley Convention andVisitors Bureau to add Cedar Valley to its tourism ad campaign. “The Utah Valley tourism board just put together information about tourism in Utah County,” said Eagle Mountain MayorBrian Olsen. “As I was going throughthe brochuresI noticed that our city lacks quite a bit in that.” The city’s annual celebration, Pony Express Days, will be tied in with events at Camp Floyd/ Stagecoach Inn State Park this year, he said, noting he askéd bureau managersto help the city spread the wordabout the event. £ wereso excited andfelt so bad that they left that out, they are goingto updatethatin their next publication,” he said. Uinta National Forestis drawing tourists to Utah County and the ‘d is workingtohelpcities benefit from that, he said. “In addition, they are coming here from places throughout the country for heritage tours,” he said. “As people comehereto see the Pony Express trail and re-enactments, these things are going to attract more people who will need places to stay and eat and mostof them are going backto the valley to do that. “We to see somebenefit. It might be a year or two,but things are in motion.” Councilwoman Linn Strouse said Eagle Mountain shouldpetition the Utah Departmentof Transportationto put sign in Cedar Valley indicating “our interesting historical things fortourists.” The city could also work with the Hutchings Museum and Thanksgiving Point in Lehi to offer moreoptions to tourists, she said. Joel Racker, president and CEO of the Utah Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, said that during arecent meeting of Utah County mayors he asked eachcity to make sureall events they would like advertised are listed on the bureau’s See TOURISM, D3 JEREMY HARMON/Daily Herald Aplane taxis to the runwayat the Provo Airporton Friday. Provo MayorLewisBillings sees potentialfor growth at the Provo Airport. “I don't think there's any doubt that in the nearfuture thereis sufficient population and business base in the Utah County area thatit could indeed support anairline service out of Provo.” Pat Morley,directorof the state transportation department Provoairport considers options for growth ment's Division of Aeronautics. The nextstep, Billings said,is determining just DAILY HERALD howsoonit could happen;the city should invest in It’s 8 a.m. in Utah CountyandInterstate 15 has a feasibility study of some kind to chart growth slowed to a crawl. rates andflight trends to get Provo onthe airline industry's ra By the Point of the Mountain cars are inching airport is already growing up andout; in along, changinglanes to get a few car-lengths ahead only tofind themselves stopped again just as June it got a control tower anda new taxiwayis beingbuilt that is the length of the runway. traffic in anotherlane starts moving. Betweenflight schools and business jet traffic, commuteis frustrating anyway,but throw in arigid deadlinelikea flight taking off and the Utah the regional airport sees about 180,000 operations yearly. It’s at a place,Billings said, that he would Countyian on the wayto Salt Lake International like to see some market studies done tosee if the Airport has a problem. The 50-mile trip can take a couple of hours and airport could handle a few commercial flights. He encouraged the Municipal Council to consider ruin a day's plans, whichis all the more reason, putting aside moneyfor those studies andalso plans Provo MayorLewis Billings believes, to consider to pushit to Utah’slegislative team in Washington, making this process just little bit easier by = - D.C, whenhe meets witht the ProvoAirport. rt Manager Steve Gleason said there are no And while that timeisn’t now,it may not be too plans for bringing in airlines yet, but they are in the far away, say the industry experts.. middle of a construction project. A taxiwayis being “I don’t think there’s any doubt thatiin the near built parallel to the main runway andthe city is acfuture thereis sufficient ion and business cepting bids for phase twoof the project. base in the Utah County area thatit could indeed Traffic at the airport has increased in the last support an airline service out of Provo,” said Pat Morley, director of the state transportation depart- several years as more and more businesses started using privatejets instead of commercial airlines to movetheir employees around. Most of Provo's traffic comes from the local flight schools and helicopter schools, but Gleasonsaidin an interview several months agothat the control tower could bring in morebusiness jet traffic. Commercial air at the airport, which couldbecomeinevitable as Utah County continues to grow, won't mean the flight schools haveto stop using Provo’sairport andit wouldn't mean bustling metropolitan airport with heavyair traffic, Billings said. He's thinking a few flights a day to popular placeslike Las Vegas, Long Beach,Calif., Mesa, aeand Denver — not justair shuttle to Salt “Basically, a‘ve got to put our ‘open for business’ signup,” he But airlines have to know one thing first — what Provocan do for their bottom line. “They won't even give consideration to providing service to a community theyire sure oere not going to be losing their shirt,” Morley said. » Heidi Toth can be reached at 344-2543 or htoth@heraldextra.com. ‘www. EEOACN CALL 375-5103 TO SeeSNne SELL YOUR CAR FREE# Daily¥Herald CALL 373-6450 Eiha DHCLASS@HERALDEXTRA.COM *2\ins/ 7 ays FREE, Private party advertines only. One veil pra Aesrtions apply. Limited time of. plies to mew ads ony. |