American Fork City has agreed to purchase 37 water color paintings depicting the early days of the community and its historic landmarks. They were created by Mary Ann Judd-Johnson and have been hanging in the historic City Hall and city administration building.

Councilwoman Heidi Rodeback made the motion to approve the contract.

"I am pleased to recommend this to the council," she said. "We are losing buildings. This is a way to keep some of them. It is a wise purchase."

Mayor Heber Thompson agreed.

"We are delighted to have this addition to our city buildings, preserving our history," he said.

Many of the paintings are of American Fork landmarks -- homes, farms or other scenes Judd-Johnson remembers. "They are out of the way places that I think are beautiful and they are almost gone," she said of the farms.

One of those is the Vest farm, north of the freeway.

"I used to work on that farm," she said. "We were paid $2 a day. We hoed cabbage and onions."

Another painting is of a waste ditch from the farm that flowed to the lake. It was located on the other side of where the freeway now it.

She has paintings of the historic Mary Pulley home, which she did from a photograph of the actual home and memories of events which took place there. There is a painting of ice skating at the side of the old American Fork Second LDS Ward.

There are several paintings of City Hall itself.

She has memories of going up to the second floor of the City Hall, then farther into the bell tower with a chance to ring the bell.

The times she depicted were times of need.

"I tried to paint them to show the poverty that most of us lived under," the former American Fork resident said. "All of us were poor, but nobody knew anything different. We had so much fun, we were all the same. Growing up in American Fork was really wonderful."

COMMUNITY NOTES

Cottage Development approved -- The City Council on April 22 approved the final plat of James Court inner block cottage development at 150 W. 200 North. The project has been under consideration for months. It has nine lots.

At a public hearing conducted by the Planning and Zoning Commission, there were neighbors who expressed opposition to the project.

Planner Rod Despain voiced the feelings of the commission.

"The Planning Commission felt it would comply with the standards," he said.

Some council members suggested that a pocket park be required in the development, but the group finally determined it could not make that requirement. One reason was the question of who would be responsible for park maintenance since there was no homeowner association for the project. Councilwomen Heidi Rodeback and Sherry Kramer voted against the plan, with Rodeback stating it was to express solidarity with her neighbors since she lived near the area.

Two-lot subdivision approved -- Hill Valley subdivision, plat D, with two lots, was approved by the City Council on April 22. With Councilman Dale Gunther as owner of the project, he excused himself from the discussion and voting.

Another two-lot subdivision had previously been approved in the same vicinity, but had not been constructed. Both times, there had been discussion about traffic in the area, and many had asked that a road be required to provide access to 900 East. Since the current proposal did not change the number of homes in the area, the council decided not to place the requirement for a road yet, but would do that in the future as additional development is requested.

"The Planning Commission has said two additional lots do not rise to the level of insisting (on the road)," planner Rod Despain said. "The action of the Planning Commission is in the form of a recommendation to the council. It is a heads up."

One resident who lives in the area expressed concern that homes could keep being built one at a time and never trigger the requirement for the road.

Despain assured her that a third lot would make the requirement effective.