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Show - ' i STANDARD-EXAMINE- R r INSIDE Parry honored Clearfield woman recognized for getting Bear River incident called a massacre.2 INSIDE Legislators meet public Davis lawmakers discuss taxes, property seizure law and closed meetings.6 j DAVIS COUNTYS COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER MARCH 23, 1996 Waves being made on pool Farmington official says questions still need answering By L1NETTE GAMBOA Standard-Examin- Davis Bureau FARMINGTON - In the summer of 1997, Farmington residents may find relief from the heat by donning their bathing suits and dipping into the new city swimming pool. Last fall, Farmington voters approved financing the $1.5 million pool in a special bond election - it won by a narrow 46 votes. Last week, the citys planning commission approved the site plan for the pool. Now to turn the idea into a reality, the city council must approve the architectural design and bid offers. ' But the pool wont relieve everyone. Planning Commissioner Constance Hughes, who voted to deny the site plan, believes there were enough residents who voted against the pool and enough unanswered questions to delay the plan. In the meeting, Hughes complained that adding a swimming pool to the historic Main City Park, at. 125 S. Main St., would ruin atmosphere of the park. By putting a pool there, it tends to gut through the downtown park, Hughes said. I dont know if it will be desirable. , Instead, Hughes would rather see the pool planted in another park VOL 15, NO. City limits Catching a kite Fruit heights outside of downtown. But its the downtown that makes the park so desirable for the pool site, said Mayor Greg Bell. Its centrally accessible, Bell said. Especially for children so they can hop on their bikes on a hot summer day and dive into the swimming pool. There are other practical matters that make Hughes uncomfortable, including possible legal liabilities inherent with a recreational facility, and whether the city can afford to maintain the pool. Hughes didnt cite specific legal or budget issues. What concerns her is that the liability and budget aspects havent been thoroughly reviewed, she said. We shouldnt rush into it without fully examining the consequences, Hughes said. But the council and staff have examined the consequences and determined the city not only can afford the pool without raising taxes, but needs it. Bell said. The city is prepared to pay off a $750,000 bond in 15 years and should break even each year to maintain the pool and Soccer field to get fence If you dont ask, youll never know. Fortunately, Councilwoman Tina LePendu asked, and now the Utah Department of Transportation is helping build chainlink fence. The a 500-fofence will separate U.S. 89 from the new soccer field and other facilities at City Hall Park on South Mountain Road. Construction should start next week on the project. UDOT will kick in approximately $2,800 to cover cost of materials and the city will pay the $1 ,750 in labor. LePendu oversees parks and recreation for the city and has expressed concern several times in the past that a fence needed to be installed between the busy highway and new park. ot staff. We lacked a swimming pool in the neighborhood, Bell said. We felt that more and more, as the city grows, there was such a large push for recreational amenities. locker The room, lounge and concessions building will only be matched by the swimming City purchases more culinary water It will cost approximately $53,000 to meet the culinary water needs of Fruit Heights residents for the coming year. The city council recently approved the purchase of an of water additional 55 acre-fefrom the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District. We will probably need more water (than the standard allocation) but we hate to buy too much, City Manager Richard Marchant said. 4,735-square-fo- ot 5,000-square-fo- ot pool. If built, the pool will have a zero See POOL on page 2 Cost may be roadblock to parkway in S. Weber By TOM BUSSELBERG Standard-Examin- ' correspondent SOUTH WEBER - City offi- cials love the idea of having the pro- posed Weber River Parkway run through South Weber. They just dont know if they can pay the bill. Tuesday they hope to have a better' idea of what it will cost if the city agrees to handle maintenance for the parkway portion which would run through South Weber. Weber County is preparing a grant proposal in hopes of obtaining federal funds for the project. The Utah Department of Transportation would administer those funds. Weber County has told South Weber it must have the citys decision by the end of next week. There has to be someone who takes maintenance responsibility so if any problems arise, there is a party able to ensure the trail stays intact, says Davis County trails planner Jeff Oyler. South Weber, and Riverdale in Weber County, are the two local government entities through which the trail would actually pass. In a special meeting March 13, the city council voted to assume maintenance responsibilities. Agreeing its a wonderful project, City Recorder Ginger Miller said the mayor and others are very concerned (about) the funding. TTiere is no (set) limit as to what it would cost the city. They (Weber County and other officials) couldnt produce any figure. The mayor ( Bill Petty ) doesnt want to raise property taxes to pay for maintenance costs. Miller said. Were hoping to have some figures by Tuesdays meeting, she said. Oyler said Weber County offi cials were to gather cost comparisons from the Ogden River Parkway and other trails. Weber County officials did not return calls. Since the trail would be in Riverdale and South Weber cities, they were asked to maintain the area that lies within their jurisdictions, Oyler said. South Weber is a small city. Everyone understands they have budget constraints. Their concerns are legitimate. Davis County and Weber County have each allocated $25,000 to the project, with Davis Countys portion for trails development. Riverdale would have one mile (to maintain) and South Weber would have close to five miles, Miller said. Everyone would love it and we would like to preserve the open lands but our budget doesnt allow it, not just at a cost to South Weber residents. She said most of the trails on South Webers portion would probably be hard-surfa- gravel. We had 20 people show up at the emergency meeting. There are a lot of concerns. A few there were for it, some were against. The fire department is concerned because right now they dont have any trained skin divers. Would restrooms have to' be maintained was another question. Miller said. Mayor Petty said bigger cities can consume things like this, we cant - it could take our whole budget if there were we problems. A lot of people felt the city should keep its fund to do things within South Weber - others are saying we should do it. It was hard for the council to decide. No one was opposed to the project, just the funding issue, she said. year-roun- KAYSVILLE Mayor brings up rolled curbs again DIANE IVE GOT IT: took turns Four-year-o- ld test-drivin- g BUSHStandard Examiner Justin Bush of Clinton chases after a kite while seven other family members more kites at a field near Sunset Junior High School recently. 1 Davis farmers still alive and kicking ByVIKKH-EZ- A Standard-Examin- correspondent CLEARFIELD - The annual Davis County Farm Bureau banquet March 16 didnt have quite as many farmers present as in previous years. Dix Roberts, bureau president, said that the number of memberships has stayed about the same, but the number of actual farmers is going down. In Davis County, weve probably lost 10 percent of the farmers in the last 10 years, said Roberts, But many of those are not going out of business, but theyre the older farmers retiring. Roberts said in some cases, after a farmer has passed away, the families may sell the farm to developers afier awhile. The capacity of equipment now makes it so farmers can handle much more acreage, so the size of the farms are increasing, Roberts said. Farmers are finding that they have to run more acres in order to spread out the cost. Bureau memberships, though, have remained steady, largely due to the Farm Bureau Insurance Company, where membership to the bureau is included when clients purchase auto, home or life insurance. Area director for Davis, Weber, and Morgan counties Farm Bureau Insurance, Alex Malley, said the decrease in the number of actual farmers has been reflective of the times and the area. We are slowly getting urbanized, we are slowly getting developed, Malley said. Key speakers at the banquet were Ken Ashby, state president of the bureau and Reed Balls, vice president in charge of member relations and commodity activities. The impression in Utah is that agriculture doesn't exist, but it does, Ashby said. Agriculture is responsible for 22 percent of the employment of people in Utah, according to Ashby. The world is changing, Ashby said. Were in a state that has probably seen more changes that I can think of. He spoke about farming now, as opposed to 25 years ago, and the marked difference technology has made in progress, such as tractors with higher and higher horsepower as years go by, and milking machines for dairy farmers. The number of people fed in the U.S. by one farmer in 1940 was 19, Ashby said, and the number today is 129. Farming is a family affair, said Ashby, noting that most corporate farms today are still family farms. Farming is very much alive in Utah, according to Ashby, with 28 counties of the 29 in the state being active farming counties. The Farm Bureau is really one of the great icons of America, said Balls. Over 80 years the Farm Bureau has functioned in the state of Utah, and referred to for advice in Congressional and economic issues. If you want to make a good investment, invest in milk for your children, Balls said. See FARM on page 2 Spacey Russian work doomed USU satellite State University scientists have what caused their $7 million to go haywire after being launched last December. The Russians did it. It appears the Russian side of the joint project wired a battery charger backwards on the satellite. James Cantrell, USUs main engineer for the mission, said solar panels that were to recharge the satellites battery were messed up. It would be like wiring your alternator in Lobackward, he told the Herald-Journ- Utah al ' can understand us wanting to be involved in such a sensitive joint project with the Russians for political reasons. But for practical reasons, maybe we shouldn't let them handle any sensitive matters. The Russian space program is in disarray and a public relations nightmare. The head of the country's program recently said he was I copying. But there was another problem with the satellite that was launched from Kazakhstan mission intended to help detect on a y and identify incoming missiles. The piece of high-tec- h machinery was called Skipper. Skipper is the name you give a dog, not a satellite. Satellites should be called Galaxy I or Intrepid - names that capture the excitement of space exploration, not something that reminds you of a fat comedic television character stranded on a desert island. d U.S. and Russia worked on the satellite for more than two years, but it only took a day after its launch for it to become space scrap metal. Its always the simple stuff that kills you, Cantrell said. It should have been caught in the design stage but wasn't. By no means should we scrap joint U.S. 30-da- U.S.-Russi- gan. glad a female U.S. astronaut was going to be working in the Mir space station because shell keep it clean. Sexism aside, asking the Russians these days to do the wiring in a satellite is kind of like asking Jerry Lewis to stack the cans in the grocery store. Right now the Russians have trouble getting Moscow toilets to work. So with joint scientific projects, lets take it slow. I lave the Russians go out for coffee or make sure the pencils are sharpened. Then when they get that down, we can move on to more important responsibilities, like photo 550-poun- . 1 2450 CENTS v Russian space projects. Even though Russia is having its problems, they are the only other country really capable of working with us on such matters. We just have to be cautious. If the lead Russian scientist on the project is named then we know not to put him in charge of reworking the nuclear device. Gil-liga- n, Last week I mentioned a pay figure for Davis County correctional deputies (jailers) that was the high end of the salary range. Many jailers informed me, in no uncertain terms, that they make less than $24,000 a year, the low end of the range. This could be a case where the county needs to tighten its salary description. Judging from the reaction, I hope there are no Russian jailers reading this. Aiuh Unwell is assistant managing editor Da-sand a County for the Standard-Examinmember oj the newspaper's editorial board. He 1 . can be rent lied weekdays at er 776-495- I is Last Sept. 5, the city council approved the use of rolled curb and gutters along Phillips Street. After driving by the area. Mayor Art Johnson decided the subject should be brought up again. I have gone back and looked closely at it, said Johnson. A heavy rain could cause problems so I put it on the agenda again. But Jack Robbins, whose family has lived on Phillips Street since the 1850s, said they have never had a water problem. The rolled curb and the high back curb take the same amount of water, said Robbins. Water is not a problem. Nothing has changed, nothing is new. The council went along with its previous decision and left the rolled curb in place. SUNSET Six candidates for position The city is preparing to replace a fixture. City Recorder Ora Clayton is due to retire, and city officials are in the process of hiring a replacement. Six applicants have been selected for the final process, which will be an interview by a panel that the city hopes will be made up of recorders from surrounding cities. The salary range for the position is $13.77 to $17.99 per hour. City to purchase own seal machine The city council recently approved a request to purchase a crack seal machine. Sunset, along with Clinton, is currently borrowing Clearfield's machine to seal cracks in the pavement of the citys streets. Because weather is a factor, there is a narrow time window during which the process can be accomplished. Purchasing a machine will ensure that the city can do the proper maintenance without waiting, city officials said. A |