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Show SPRINGPORT ,KEtT ' MI 43584 juv N Vol. 10, No. 27 Wednesday, July 6, 1988 50 cents a single copy "pages; seeks better stage, may move to mew theater . BABBARACHRISTIANSEN Veneedfor greater ticket sales A, Utah Pageant of the Arts ri Uingfor a new auditonum and financial help from gan Fork City- - And Pgeant fficials are con" ' .idering an offer to move the pag-- jtto a Salt Lake theater to help jve the Pageant's financial woes, Jthough Pageant Board members toe not expressed an official posi-- S tion about moving the "living pie-ces' production. In fact, Betty Brady, chairman ft f the board, recently sent a letter 7 n the American Fork City Council questing a donation of $20,000. f It is becoming virtually impos-ijil- e to balance the budget with jjtket sales alone," Mrs. Brady did. The request will be discussed by the city council at its July 12 meeti-ng Mayor Kent Evans expressed dismay at hearing a request from the Pageant for a donation at the Hue time thePageantis threatenin-g to move. 1 feel as though we have not ten treated fairly and honestly by lome of the members of the board," the mayor said. But in an interview following the city council meeting, Pageant producer and director, David Brockbank, said it's not the comm-unity, but available facilities that have the Pageant considering other options for the coming year. 1 feel like I need a better facilit-y. The high school does not meet our needs Brockbank said. "I think people are tired of coming to i high school facility." Brockbank points out that the bigh school is not adequate in sev-j- tl areas. For example, the rooms adja- - tent to the stage are not air condi tioned and during the recent heat, participants have been getting sick every night, according to Brock-bank. The stage is small, Pageant personnel are required to bring in special draperies and curtains, portable dressing rooms, parti-tions, and portable showers. The high school owns only five lighting instruments, Brockbank points out. Pageant personnel augment that number with 56 of their own. Those lights are loaned "It is becoming vir-tually impossible to balance the budget with ticket sales alone" --Betty Brady to the American Fork High School during the school year. But because that "donation" benefits one school only, the Alpine School District is unable to give any credit to the pageant for the lights the Pageant has installed. Another concern to the Pageant, according to Brockbank, is an ap-parent change in the level of sup-port from the school district for the pageant. Prior to 1987, the school district did not charge the Pageant for rental of the high school, in consid-eration for the Pageant installing air conditioning in the auditorium. The Pageant did, however, pay approximately $2000 in custodial fees. That amount jumped to $15,000 last year. And this year the school district threatened to lock the Pageant out of the high school until an outstanding debt was paid. American Fork City also negoti-ated that difference, guaranteeing payment of the debt if the Pageant couldn't. But Brockbank says the high school auditorium is becoming too costly, when the Pageant could pay the same amount for a better equipped facility. One theater being investigated is in the Salt Lake area. It has 200 seats more than the high school auditorium. He feels that the facil-ity could be a much-neede- d finan-cial boon to the Pageant - increas-ing the ticket income by as much as $80,000 for one season. He noted the Pageant would have to pay more for rent, but they would get many more amenities for their money. With 600 lighting instruments available on-sit- e, six main cur-tains, and adequate dressing and makeup room facilities, production would become much easier. He said he didn't think Pageant attendance would suffer, since most of the Pageant patrons come from Salt Lake City and areas to the north. Another concern, however, is the use of volunteers. The Pageant relies completely on volunteer tal-ent e, and uses mostly vo-lunteer labor behind the scenes to create the Pageant's unique form of art. Currently, one-fift- h of the vo-lunteer cast members come from outside Utah County.the Arts. To Brockbank, a concern as large as getting enough cast mem-bers to produce the show is main-taining enough well-traine- d tech-nical personnel to ensure safe pro-duction procedures are followed. He said this is hard to do with an inadequate facility. "There is a tremendous burnout problem," he said. - Brockbank is suggesting that American Fork City build a theatre to be available for the Pageant of the Arts and occupied throughout the year for a variety of community uses. "I have always felt that this was a better place to do the production than any other in the state," he said. "But we have got to survive first." Survival of the Utah Pageant of the Arts is the main issue, but American Fork city will approach the problem with a solution that will keep the Pageant in American Fork. Mayor Evans pledged to do eve-rything in his power to see the Pageant stay in American Fork. "American Fork City is suppor- - "American Fork City is supportive in every sense of the word of the Pageant's program. --Mayor Kent Evans tivein every sense of the word of the Pageant's program and the person-nel in the Pageant," he said. Evans pointed out that Ameri-can Fork City, using limited re-sources, purchased the old junior high property the Pageant nov calls home, cleaned it up, offered it to the Pageant with a favorable lease, and even mows the lawn for the Pageant. "American Fork City is not re-sponsible for the downfall of the Pageant," Evans said. City officials are considering asking that a business manager be appointed to oversee the monetary side of the Pageant.. 7;:SiSS:j :s::::::$::w The look of a champion... Trent Bell manages a smile after more than :59 minutes of running, biking and swimming. Bell had the best overall time of : 59.07 to win the PG Triathalon. (See story page 9) Resident donations would make city fireworks display even better Pleasant Grove area residents were treated to a delightful fire-works display at the Pleasant Grove High School football sta-dium on Monday evening. As the colorful explosions took place in the sky, patriotic music was played for those assembled. Doug Bezzant, owner of dB Sound, provided the musical accompani-ment while the Pleasant Grove Fire Department took time out from their busy schedule offighting brush fires to shoot off the display. Fire Chief Calvin Mills esti-mated the attendance at the fire-works show at between two and three thousand persons. He thought it might be the largest attendance the city has had thus far at the fireworks displays. He said that those who would like to donate toward the expense of the fireworks may do so at the Pleasant Grove City Hall or give it to any member of the Fire Dept. ChiefMills added th at they have had to respond to many fires caused by fireworks this year. This is an expense to the city each time the trucks and men are called out. He said that ifall the money that is spent by residents for fireworks were donated to the city, the Fire Dept. could put on a fireworks dis-play twice as good as the one they had and it would be done safely to eliminate the danger of fire. He also urged residents to be extra careful in using fireworks between now and July 24 to reduce the possibility of fires being started. Cox ends term on upbeat note 1 When Dr. Clark L. Cox retired J u superintendent of the Alpine 1 School District, he hoped to just puthiskeysonthedesk"andgoout j with Tittle fanfare." l This didn't quite happen but district employee said he left Thursday "without saying a formal He was honored at the June 28 district school board meeting with former board members and district employees attending the last part the meeting instead of during theopening to express their good Col's last day on the job was 'today (June 30) when he offi-- '; ly turned over the keys to his wr, Dr. Steven Baugh. At the board meeting, Jan Le-wi, president of the school board, the Superintendent's back ground before presenting him with a farewell gift from the board. She said he and his wife now plan to travel and to eventually settle in St. George. Cox said this job becoming superintendent of the Alpine School District was the "only job I have taken in education that I really wanted. I moved here be-cause it was where I wanted to be for pleasure instead of for profes-sional reasons." He thanked board members and citizens in the communities in-volved for "letting me work in this community for the last five years. I've grown in many ways." He said he feels it has been "very fruitful in many ways," and he has enjoyed the challenge it has offered and he "enjoys challenges." Although hehas worked 60 to 70 hours every week as superinten-dent, he said most of that work has been interesting. (One speaker at board meeting said she often saw Cox's car as she passed the district offices at 7 in the morning). There has been no two days the same. He quipped there were two groups of people who have always had the last word in his life "women and school board mem-bers." Saying this, he did get back at one board member. Cox said since coming to Alpine District has been "harangued and harassed by an unnamed board member directly to my left" who wanted more text books in the dis-trict. "During (my time as a superin-tendent), David Harvey has felt a need for more textbooks in this district. So I want to give him this gift." Cox then pulled out a thick but tattered textbook. Reading from the cover and inside the book, he said it was used in 1950 by an 11th-grad- er at Pleasant Grove High School. Then he read the name on the inside cover: David Harvey. The name was written in various forms throughout the book and along the edge. Other thoughts were also in the book and the name "Harv" was scrawled in the pages. "David, if we had more students like you in this district, we would have even fewer texts than we do now," he joked. Cox explained the book was found about lf years ago by workmen renovating the See COX on Page 2 Fireworks keep firemen busy f!eRa8ant Grove Pi Fighters J e scene of a brush ah!v! onnbegan in the foothills Z 200 South in Lindon on at about 2 p.m. "re Chief Calvin Mills said the c?ntained in abut ut crews wer n the UtsiX0rsevenhoursto oopUp J!" wid that immediate assis-C- st receivedfromthe U.S. CLr. Citv Fire Iifnt' Vt&h Power and Cp,8 "g with brush trucks and American Fork. Pleasant Grove used two fire trucks, two tankers, and the Res-cue Truck and 15 fire fighters to quell the blaze. Chief Mills said that it was be-lieved that the fire was started by fireworks. Damage was confined to about 15 to 20 acres of brush, he said. As soon as the firemen returned to the station from this fire, they were called to another fireworks-cause- d fire in Manila. On Monday they responded to five fires, all related to fireworks. One call was received just prior to the start of the city's fireworks display at the football stadium. Four trucks were disDatched to this fire which was put out in 10 minutes. The fireworks display went ahead as scheduled, however, and the trucks returned to the stadium as soon as possible. All of the other fires on Monday were soon extinguished and did minor damage. Chief Mills cautioned residents to use fireworks with care between now and July 24 because grass and brush are extremely dry and will ignite easily. -- - k ' 1 I... C , ." ' ' ' V t t Jl f .'- 4f ' .' I ' it I, l .. ,.. ' - , '"' - '. .v ) ... . , . Pleasant Grove firemen look over the damage to a garage following a fire at the Gary Ewell home on Tuesday. Fire destroys Ewell garage Fire destroyed a garage at the home of Gary Ewell, 750 S. Loader, Tuesday afternoon. Pleasant Grove Fire Chief Calvin Mills said the fire apparently started in a mattress near the garage. He said that children reportedly chased some cats with sparklers Tuesday morning and started the mattress on fire. The children thought they had put the fire out but it apparently flared up again in the afternoon. A neighbor reported the fire. Chief Mills set damage to the garage and contents at $3,000. He said the firewall between the house and the garage kept the blaze from damaging the home. No one was home at the time o the fire. Three fire trucks, the rescue vehicle and 10 men fought the blaze. The crews were at the scene for about 45 minutes. Blue Crystals to Perform in park Pal lnt Grove Concert-in- - KrecnndayJuly 10. wil1 Batnn 6 tals Dance '"nLorpa. th2wnefrtbe?in8 8t 7:15 - Park. WaJ6 Cr3"tls are directed 9Ns inT3 nd have won ma"y Petitions and Te&on& com- - 5rrblf nketor lawn chair 8ntrta mL 8I! hour of ent enjoyable in the fresh air. n3theerpa1artundertbe M Grove Arts ttUic Committee headed by Ida Mae Christiansen. Everyone is invited to attend. There is no charge for the concerts which are held each Sunday eve-ning. Last Sunday's concert was pre-sented by the Pleasant Grove High School Band. It was a very wonder-ful presentation by a great group. They received a standing ova-tion and a request to replay their final number. There was also a huge crowd in attendance. This is what it is all about and the Arts Council appre-ciates those who perform and those who attend. Lindon City to hold public hearing The Lindon City Council will hold a public hearing tonight, July 6, at 7 in the Lindon Elementary School, 30 S. Main, to discuss a proposed water rate increase. Agenda items will include re-ceiving input on the water rate increase plan, a report on the canal break flood damages, and appoint-ment of bond attorneys for Lindon Industrial Park, S.I.D. Reports will be given by the mayor and councilmembers re-garding departmental business. The public is invited to attend. |