Boundary decision put on hold until February

SPANISH FORK — New city councils will decide the fate of a controversial boundary shift between Spanish Fork and Mapleton.

The Spanish Fork City Council opened a public hearing on the issue last week and then continued it to Feb. 16. New council members and mayors in both cities take office in January.

Some 600 acres of Ensign-Bickford land at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon are slated to transfer into Mapleton. The land has been the site of explosive manufacturing for more than six decades. However, Ensign-Bickford has been cleaning up the site and now wants to develop it for industrial, commercial and residential uses.

Earlier, the Spanish Fork City Council unanimously approved moving forward on investigating the boundary shift, while the Mapleton council voted 4-1 in favor of exploring the change. The lone dissenting vote was cast by Councilman Brian Wall, who in November was elected as Mapleton's next mayor.

A contingent of Mapleton residents have opposed the transfer. Some argue they don't want the land in the city, saying the manufacturing plant leaked contaminants into the groundwater and that the poisons showed up in both private and city wells. Some residents became ill, and a handful died, including a former mayor.

Others argue that the shift will harm Mapleton financially, particularly when it comes to building a sewer line to potentially serve 1,000 new homes on the Ensign-Bickford land.

The Mapleton City Council's position is that the boundary shift would give the city a commercial corridor and needed sales taxes along U.S. 6.

A public hearing in Mapleton is scheduled for Dec. 16, but it, too, will be postponed until February at the request of the developer and Ensign-Bickford's partner, Jack Evans, to allow the state Department of Environmental Quality to complete its analysis of the final 30 acres that underwent remediation, city administrator Bob Bradshaw said.

Mapleton City Councilwoman Ann Tolley, who backed the proposal, will not return to the council in January. New councilmen are Jim Lundberg and Ryan Farnworth, both of whom oppose the boundary change, according to campaign literature.

In Spanish Fork, Councilman Wayne Anderson takes over as mayor the first Monday in January. Voters picked Keir Scoubes to fill his vacancy. Councilman Steve Leifson was re-elected.

e-mail: rodger@desnews.com