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Show Mayor Pi-edicts City Will Join CUP Fray .... . a 1 to y x-r anyone protested, they say, the Water District could plead in court that Since a great deal of money had already been expended, it would not be in the public interest to deny passage through the city. The court request will ask that Reclamation deal with the cities now, not at the last minute. But American Fork's support will not be limited to the court case. According Ac-cording to Mayor Beck, the city will probably pass a new ordinance next week identical to the one unanimously endorsed by Pleasant Grove's city council December 1. The ordinance asserts a city's right to control its own property by requiring a council-approved council-approved permit for construction of "part or all of any system, facility, or structure" that would cross the right-of-way of a city-owned street. The ordinance would affect CUP and other entities now outside the city. "I intend to ask the city council Tuesday night to endorse the ordinance," or-dinance," said Mr. Beck. "We need to have some control over our own corporate lines. We're trying to prove that CUP cannot arbitrarily come in and condemn any city property they want to use." Mr. Beck said that the issue of local control affects all of north Utah County ,- not just Pleasant Grove -and he pledged the support of American Fork Citv in efforts to Bain that control. "I think both the ordinance and the lawsuit involve all seven cities, and we need to band together to put the controls back into local hands," he said. "As planned right now, the CUP pipelines will not come through American Fork. But when they get their three-line system completed and they start building outlets and water lines, you have another problem. How far can they go with their water lines? There are questions in all our minds." Mr. Beck says in Pleasant Grove the CUP officials have arbitrarily condemned properly needed for passage, and he doesn't want to see that continue to happen. "We think this ordinance could establish who has the right-of-way on public properties - especially who has the right to condemn property in order to come through it," he said. Since both a city and the Bureau of Reclamation are public entities with condemnation powers, the no-passage ordinance raises the question of whose is the stronger right to municipal property - the city itself or an outside agency. Jess Green, American Fork councilman in charge of water affairs, af-fairs, is working on a unique aspect of that question. Mr. Green says American Fork, Pleasant Grove and . many other cities in Utah were established by federal patents which Continued on Page A-2 By SHARON MORREY I and RANDALL WRIGHT I ,f recent assurances of solidarity om American Fork Mayor Malcolm Lk are transformed into action, pleasant Grove City won't be alone then it goes t0 collrt seekinS an injunction in-junction against further construction on Central Utah Project's Jordan and Alpine aqueducts. pleasant Grove is spearheading a uove to block further construction of U,e pipelines, but they expect to be backed by the combined muscle of six other cities. Mr. Beck predicts American Fork City and the other cities of north Utah County will join Pleasant Grove as 'friends of the court" - in a sup porting role rather than as direct litigants. The request for an injunction, if granted by a District Judge, would require the federal Bureau of Reclamation to acquire in advance all rights-of-way for the aqueducts before continuing construction. Current Reclamation practice, under the direction of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, allows construction of the pipelines as each small section of ground is acquired - a practice Pleasant Grove and other cities fear could lead to coercion into a plan they don't want. They fear the project could be built to the very edge of a city, then forced through despite local objections. If r.. f 4 V s f fl ' I , ' V)A vN if y I ' yVtx- i V - , V ' s- TvK- l I AKS J 2tV 1 Old Bell School Donation HARVEY RAWLINSON, Kiwanis Club, presents a check for $100 to Alta Hone of the DUP while Maurice Peterson, Kiwanis Club looks on. Funds are to be used (o make renovations on the Old Bell School. From the Front AF Enters Fray Continued from Front Page granted land, water and mineral rights in perpetuity. As a result, he says, manipulation of the cities' water or condemnation of their land may be outside the jurisdiction of any state agency - such as the state engineer or the Water Conservancy District. The patents were granted in 1872, long before Utah became a stale (1896). Furthermore, says Mr. Green, the patents - signed in 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant -- are virtually irrevocable. "There are too many precedents reaffirming the strength of patents," he said. "It is possible," said Mr. Green, "that we have the same standing as Indian reservations. We don't know how far we can take it, but it doesn't hurt to check it out." Meanwhile, Pleasant Grove City Attorney John Backlund is preparing to argue in Fourth District Court that CUP should be enjoined from further construction of the Jordan and Alpine acqueducts until all rights-of-way have been acquired along the route. He is filing on behalf of Pleasant Grove, but he anticipates that American Fork, Alpine, Lindon, Lehi, Highland and Cedar Hills may file supporting briefs "friends of the court." "As friends of the court, they would basically become involved in favor of the position of one or the other party --CUP --CUP or the city filing the suit. They would be filing briefs, memoranda or presenting points of view that would hopefully give the court enough information in-formation to make a good decision," explained Mr. Backlund. "Usuallj friends of the court have a stake in the outcome." He is in the process of preparing his case, but he doesn't know just when the request will be filed or when it will appear on the court calendar. When he is ready, he says, he intends to file in Fourth District Court where the case could come before any one of four judges. Mayor Beck says that he has not yet had the chance to gauge the feelings of American Fork's city council, but he says the city will "most probably" join its eastern neighbor in the attempt at-tempt to forestall CUP. "Of course, I need to get city council feeling, but I'm going to recommend we support Pleasant Grove," he said. On Monday, December 21, representatives of northern Utah County are scheduled to meet with Governor Scott Matheson to discuss what they see as problems in current CUP plans. "After that meeting, we might know more than we do now," said Mayor Beck. |