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Show SPANISH FORK WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2009 • A3 Covering ivhat matters most Condition of rural communities threatened There and Back Again Shirlcnc Ottcsen The subject of this column is something I have been thinking about for some time now. These are my opinions and feelings and so I take responsibility for them. The history of the community of Palmyra goes back to the year 1851. We were established as a "City of Palmyra" when a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized on December 21, 1851. The site for the community was selected by Apostle George A. Smith. William Pace was the first bishop; Matthew Caldwell was the mayor. All the early settlers struggled and sacrificed working hard to prepare roads and ditches for irrigation, and lived in dugouts or crude shelters for several seasons. They faced every day not knowing if there would be enough food to sustain their families. Those of us who live here today owe a great debt of gratitude to them for all they did for those who came after. My great-grandfather came from Wales in 1852. My grandparents came to Palmyra in 1904. My parents chose to live here, and started their life together during the devastating depression in 1931. My husband and I were both blessed to have been born here, met and married and continued to live and raise our children here. Many others living here can recite the same history of their families. Our community has wellcared-for homes, stockyards and fields that contribute to the production of food for a hungry nation. At this time of year, the fields are especially pleasing to the eye. Fall grain and alfalfa are beginning to grow; tilled and brown fields are waiting for the corn seed to be planted. Pastures are abundant with beef cattle and their baby calves. Sheep and baby lambs will soon head for summer pastures; and those who have horses have new colts to love and care for. 'Yes, we are blessed. Now the county wants to put in a sewage treatment plant to take all the poop from Mapleton, Spanish Fork, Elk Ridge, Woodland Hills, Salem and Payson and bring it through a big pipeline through Benjamin and Lake Shore to a treatment plant in the midst of our community! Wait, there's more! Instead of enlarging the garbage transfer station where it presently sits in Springville by freeway exit 260 — where they have oodles of room to expand — they want to give us that little treasure, too, and bring all the garbage from Provo and all the cities in the south end of the county to us! Springville City doesn't want it in their boundary. Guess what? We don't want it either! Who left Springville in charge? And we're supposed to be happy with all this development? I don't think so! Those of us who live in a rural area accept the conditions of living in a rural area: the cattle that sometimes get out of a field or corral, the smell associated with cattle and the manure they create, the fanner who bales hay at 2 a.m. because he needs the dew on his crop. We pay to have our own wells dug and we maintain them. We pay for our own septic tank system. We pay for a commercial garbage pick-up service. Why, in heaven's name, are we supposed to take all this stuff just because the cities cannot provide these services for their own citizens? We have not contrib- just because you don't have land that is affected or because your home would not be downwind of the sewage plant. Everyone will be impacted in some way, and if you stay home, you are as much as telling the county to go ahead and do what they want. Lake Shore, Benjamin, Palmyra and other rural communities have formed a non-profit organization, Citizens for Rural Utah, to represent our views and combine our efforts to preserve this final piece of rural Utah County. We want to help the public and the rest of Utah County, including our elected officials, understand the importance of preserving open spaces and farmland. We do not believe that we should fill in every available piece of farmland with homes and industry and lay asphalt over the very piece of ground our ancestors struggled to make productive. Citizens for Rural Utah (CRU) can be contacted directly at actioncru@gmail. com . You can go to their website, www.citizens4ruralutah .org., to become a member, receive regular updates, and obtain more information on this crucial issue facing Utah County and our communities. Benjamin 4-H Habitat for Humanity Namon Bills / Spanish Fork News RIBBON CUTTING: Habitat for Humanity held a ribbon cutting for Keith and Allison Norman's new home in Spanish Fork, Saturday, April 11. This is one of a few homes in the area refurbished by Habitat for Humanity. Pictured, left to right, are Jonathan Mecham, Vice President for Habitat for Humanity of Utah County; Keith, Emmalee, Joyce and Allison Norman. Keith and Allison expressed gratitude for the Habitat for Humanity program and Mecham thanked the individuals and businesses who were instrumental in helping with the home. Madison's Avenue uted to the problem. Every- to feed cattle, to help with one, take responsibility for calving or to irrigate their your own problems. Yes, we property. have fire protection as well This is one big mess! as the county sheriff, and And anyone who has been we pay for them through involved with this knows county taxes. — and I think even the commissioners Years ago we leased county some ground near the pro- know — that deep down posed site of the sewage this is not right. They will treatment plant near the have to build a five-lane lake. We had a beautiful road to take care of the trafcrop of barley. When it fic, more power lines and came time to harvest it, the drill big wells to provide man with a combine walked water. And why, can someout into the field and said he one please tell me, why is wouldn't dare take his com- Palmyra all of a sudden the bine into the field. There prime location site when we was no surface water, but were never even considered the water had subbed up in previous proposals? to the point of making the So, here is my solution. land mushy. The pheasants All you cities take care of and the geese got that crop. your own problems. If you But this is where they want have reached the limit of to put this huge treatment your capacity to provide plant! water, sewage and garbage Their own Planning and services to your citizens, Zoning Board rejected and stop building. There are exrecommended against this isting sites in your own city proposal not once,buttwice. to provide what is needed Additionally the garbage now without disrupting the transfer station (garbage people who live in Benjadump) would put 300 trucks min, Lake Shore and Pala day on the road that is myra. We can take care of known as 4000 South, com- ourselves and ask you to do ing off freeway exit 260. A "the same. new road to accommodate There is a crucial meetthis scale of traffic would ing on April 22 at the Counbe 240 feet wide. Anyone ty Commission Chambers who lives on the south side at the County Building in of the road would have a Provo at 6 p.m. We encourhard time getting across the age you to attend. Don't road with a tractor or truck think this will not affect you Courtesy photo STOCK SHOW: The Benjamin 4-H Livestock Club will be holding their stock show, Saturday, April 25 at Brown's arena in Payson starting at 10 a.m. The 4-H members will be exhibiting steers, lambs, and pigs in marketing and showmanship. There will be a concession stand and a raffle for a quilt as well as a cake auction. You can purchase tickets for the raffle from a Benjamin 4-H member or at the stock show. The 4-H presidency for this year is President Wyatt Peay, Vice-President McKenna Anderson, Secretary Shanae Jensen, Historian Rex Galloway, Beef Chairperson Karson Jones, Lamb Chairperson Tille Brennaman and Swine Chairperson Seth Worthington. by "Big Al" and "Farnzy" You paid for Insurance and you're covered. 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