SALEM — The ground-breaking ceremony for a new high school — the first high school built in Salem — was personal for Mayor Lane Henderson.

By January, he will have moved out of his house, which will be razed for the 59-acre school scheduled to open fall 2008. His old barns also will come down to make away for the school.

"This is where my horses were," he said, pointing around the property near 250 N. Main. "This is where my hay was."

The area of his farm where he stood Wednesday afternoon will be the future Salem Hill High School football field, home to the Skyhawks.

The school will have 74 classrooms and will be close to the town's students who now attend Spanish Fork High School.

"Southern Utah County has been served by three high schools for 100 years," said Nebo School District superintendant Chris Sorensen.

The three schools, Springville, Spanish Fork and Payson high schools, were built in the 1960s. The district had not needed to add new high schools until recently, when population swelled.

Small towns such as Salem became bedroom communities to larger towns such as Spanish Fork. Voters in February 2004 approved the issuance of $140 million in bonds for a handful of construction projects, including Salem Hill High and a fifth high school in Mapleton.

Construction on the Maple Mountain school is scheduled to begin spring 2007.

Henderson has been excited for completion of the new high school.

"It will attract business such as restaurants, which will bring tax money" the city needs, he said.

"The city of Salem is struggling for an economic base," he said.

Nebo officials ran into a problem trying to build the school. The district discovered that about 5 acres of the former dairy purchased for the future high school is off-limits — the land is federally protected wetlands. And as architects designed the school they realized they needed more land.

So the district made offers to Henderson and his neighbors.

"I've lived here for 22 years," Henderson said. "I built the home."

Henderson considered his attachment to the land. He also considered the future of Salem.

And he decided to sell. He will continue farming on other land he owns.

"I understand the need," he said, "so you weigh the differences."

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com