Home Care In Spanish Fork, UT

SPANISH FORK, Utah (KUTV) — Rivers in Spanish Fork are reaching levels that they haven’t seen in more than twenty years.

In unincorporated Utah County, west of Spanish Fork, a portion of the Spanish Fork River is four feet higher than usual, a section of the road is washed out and it has created a lake in the backyard of a home.

Homeowner David Hansen said for the last three weeks they have been trying the best they can to keep the water out.

“This is one we will be talking about for years to come, for sure,” Hansen said.

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David Hansen and his wife have lived at their home in Spanish Fork since 2001. They both said they’ve never seen anything like this.

“It’s been exhausting, we’ve been sandbagging, equipment, working everywhere, lots and lots of volunteer help,” Hansen said.

With help from more than 100 volunteers, they have built a barrier of haybales and sandbags to stop the water from reaching their home. It’s three-feet tall surrounding their home, but the river is moving fast.

“In this area the river may usually be 10 or 12 feet wide, maybe three or four feet deep it could be deeper in some places, right now it’s moving at least more than double that,” Utah County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.

Hansen said the flooding reached its peak on Sunday, but the water made its way into their crawl space on Tuesday morning.

“We knew this was coming. we just didn’t know it was going to be this much and this fast,” Cannon said.

But they are hopeful it has finally reached a plateau.

“We have had so much help and we just appreciate that and the community and the area. We would like to be the ones helping someone else, but this time it’s been just everybody helping, that’s just been amazing,” Hansen said.

Flooding is impacting other areas of Spanish Fork, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said a part of Highway 89, near mile marker 311 is closed and they expect it to remain closed for a week.

SPANISH FORK, Utah — The spirit of the Spanish Fork High School class of ‘76 will live on, piece by piece.

Logan Von Hoene is leading an ambitious project of picking off hundreds of tiles that make up the mural outside the Spanish Fork High gym.

“When I heard they're going to tear the school down, I asked the principal what senior projects would be coming with the school, which ones they'd move,” he said. “And this wasn't one of them. So I volunteered to take it down.”

Word of what the 9^th grader was doing spread quickly.

“When I started out, it was just me,” said Von Hoene. “There was nobody else. And then when it hit Facebook, I had people in all the community asking if they could help.”

Logan’s grandmother, who was on student council, rallied the class of 1976 around fundraising to pay for the mural, he said,

“This was my grandma's year,” said Von Hoene. “This was the year she graduated, and they sold candy bars just to pay for it.”

The old Spanish Fork High is supposed to be torn down in June, giving Logan and his team of volunteers barely a month to get every tile off the wall.

“We really don't have a ton of time to do it,” he said. “We just have to get it done.”

Friends and family members picked up grout scrapers, drum sanders and hammers to help Logan out.

“They graduated in ’76, which was the spirit of ‘76 right? 200^th year anniversary of our country,” said Merrillyn Clark, Logan’s aunt. “And so they just had a lot of excitement in this class, and that's why they brought a huge boulder down from the mountain and made it the spirit rock, it's out in front of the school. And then this was their ending project that they just really wanted to show the school that they had a lot of spirit and that they really had a lot of respect for our community.”

Clark’s sister would be proud to see Logan honoring her class’s legacy, she said.

“We were really close,” said Clark. “My sister passed away when Logan's mom was just 10, and I think it's really cool that he loves somebody that he doesn't really know and wants to honor her.”

SPANISH FORK, Utah (ABC4) — A small plane made an emergency landing in the front yard of a Spanish Fork home on Saturday afternoon after an engine failure, and both occupants walked away unharmed.

“We are just grateful the pilot and passenger are okay, around here there are a lot of houses, power lines, substations, I-15,” Spanish Fork City Public Information Officer Nick Porter said. “It’s kind of miraculous they came to rest before they went into a house.”

The cause of the engine failure is unknown, but the pilot was able to make a mayday call after hearing the engine sputter before its complete failure, according to officials.

The pilot attempted to direct the plane back to the Spanish Fork Airport but was unable to do so and attempted to land in an open field in order to avoid hitting nearby structures, according to officials. Porter said the plane clipped a power line and skidded through a Spanish Fork field before ending up in the front yard of a nearby home.

“I’m just surprised they didn’t hit any of the power poles or lines, or, luckily, hit into our house,” homeowner Jonathan Morrill said.

Morrill said he was sitting in his home and watching TV when his dogs came into the room and were acting strange.

“I look out my front window and I see the plane on the front yard,” Morrill said. “Then I see all the emergency vehicles there, so I came out and checked it out, and thank God nobody was injured.”

Morrill said it seemed like the occupants of the plane were in shock, but otherwise alright.

Spanish Fork Fire and EMS crews responded to the emergency landing around 2:30 p.m. Both male occupants of the plane were able to get themselves out of the plane unharmed, according to officials.

There is some damage to the wing of the aircraft and some slight oil and fuel spillage, Porter said. Spanish Fork City said damages are estimated at $350,000 and the plane is likely to be a total loss.

The cause of the engine failure is still under investigation, and the investigation will continue after the National Transportation Safety Board clears the airplane to be moved to the Spanish Fork Airport, according to Porter.

Once the aircraft is moved, Porter said crews will clean up the damage.

“I’m just glad everybody’s OK,” Morrill said.

SPANISH FORK — Mike Patey got into aviation 25 years ago, and since then he's felt like he's "in heaven" anytime he's airborne.

"For me, aviation is second only to my family. I have such a love for flight, I can't even describe it in words," Patey said.

Patey's love of flying has led to his desire to spread that love and make it more accessible to everyone. On Wednesday, he came another step closer to that goal with the groundbreaking of the Patey Aviation Business Park, in conjunction with Spanish Fork.

The Spanish Fork Airport describes the upcoming park as a "significant leap forward" for it and private aviation enthusiasts alike. The first phase of development comes with a $60 million price tag, which will be part of an overall project cost of $100 million.

While Patey hopes the park will establish the Spanish Fork Airport as a premiere destination for private pilots, he also sees it as a community project.

"This has been a dream ... to take this whole side of the airport and turn it into something for the community," Patey said. "A park, a place for kids to come hang out and play, see planes, get up on the second story of the restaurant, watch airplanes take off and land. We're trying to build that here — a community airport for the people, the pilots, everybody that loves anything that flies."

The state-of-the-art aviation hub will boast 66 hangars, ranging in price from $350,000 to $3.5 million, catering to the diverse needs of private pilots. And with sizes ranging from 2,200 square feet to 21,000 square feet, the hangars will offer space and flexibility to accommodate various aircraft types.

Each hangar will provide access to either a private suite or a shared common suite in hopes of fostering conversation, connection and collaboration between hangar owners. Additionally, a public restaurant is planned for the site.

But what made Spanish Fork the ideal location for this kind of project?

Patey said when most airports were built, buildings were put all over without "good forecasting" for the future.

"It eliminated any ability to do something like we can do here with a park," Patey said. "This airport, someone had enough foreshadowing to say, 'You know what? We're going to put down the runway, and we're not going to let anybody touch the north side and the south side. We're going to build and build and build, and then sometime in the future we're going to allow somebody to come and take the other side and do a new version without having to rip down buildings to do it.'"

And the city is happy about it, too.

"We're so grateful and excited for this investment to the Spanish Fork Airport and what will come from the efforts of this group and others. We are going to have the greatest general aviation airport in the country," said Seth Perrins, Spanish Fork city manager.

Patey sees the newest addition to the airport as something that will be good for the entire community, not just the aviation community.

This notion is further reinforced through the businesses Patey said will be brought to the area through the park.

"The community benefits because we can bring hundreds and hundreds of jobs to the community and that money just flows," Patey said. "The pilots and planes may be from all over the country, but the money drops here in Spanish Fork."

Correction: A previous version incorrectly spelled the Spanish Fork city manager's name as Seth Parrish instead of Seth Perrins.

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SPANISH FORK, Utah — About seven million gallons of water go through the Spanish Fork water treatment facility every day.

“The sewer treatment plant is probably one of the most important functions that a city of offers to its residents, and it's probably the least talked about, maybe the least understood,” said Seth Perrins, City Manager.

It was originally built in the 1950s, was reconstructed in the 80s and had some additions made to it in the early 2000s, he said.

“With this plant being so old, it's not capable of meeting new regulations that have come from state and federal government,” said Perrins. “We have to meet those regulations. We don't have a choice as a municipal wastewater facility.”

The city secured an $80 million loan to build a new plant, but recently, they needed to take out a second loan to pay for the construction, he said.

“That is a tremendous saving for our residents, although the plant is expensive to build, and we understand that,” said Perrins. “What we tried to accomplish, and believe we have, is to finance it in such a way that it is as inexpensive as possible.”

The new water treatment plant is being built right next to the old one on the north side of the city just west of I-15. The city believes it will be up and running by July of 2025.

“We're in a difficult situation already, like with the economy,” said Jackie Larson, a Spanish Fork resident. “I think it's just compounding on an already difficult situation. We're doing a lot of improvements on a lot of projects all at once.”

Larson is already paying a lot for sewage, she said.

“Personally, my taxes have gone up about $15 just with sewer since 2021,” said Larson.

Plus, the new plant construction already ‘stinks,’ she said.

“They made these trunk lines larger capacity to take in more people,” said Larson. “As a result, since there's no people out there, we're having issues with noxious gasses coming up through the line.”

Perrins says taking on ‘Smart debt’ is the fairest way to pay for the plant.

“It allows the user to also be the one that pays for it, instead of perhaps somebody that lives here for 10 years and is paying into the system, but if we don't build it until year 20, they move away, they paid for something but never use it,” he said.

The sewer plant will be paid for by user rates, and taxes will not be increased, said Perrins.

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