OREM — The east bench of Orem can now join the ranks of alphabetically decorated hillsides.
Tuesday night, the Orem City Council approved an amendment to its city code that will allow three Orem high schools to install temporary letters on the mountain above the city's water tank on Cascade Drive.
Taylor Johnson was a senior at Timpanogos High School when he submitted the idea to the City Council, hoping to change an unapproved tradition of decorating the mountain with a paper "T" into something that wouldn't get students in trouble.
"I'm happy it went through," he said of the application, which he submitted in January. He has since graduated and is studying political science at the University of Utah.
Before he left, he and the senior class raised $3,000 to buy a 100-foot-by-100-foot "T" made of backpack-like material, which they hope will be done in time to put up for Homecoming on Sept. 29.
However, before giving the giant letter a unanimous vote of approval the Orem City Council discussed several points of concern.
"Orem city as a city of three high schools, how do we get fairness and equity in the use of that (mountain space)?" council member Les Campbell asked. "We need to really go out of our way to make sure that the other two high schools feel like they have ownership in this."
The council agreed that the mountain is available to all schools equally, as long as they follow the rules listed in the ordinance.
Campbell also asked about letter color, originally specified as white.
"Why do we limit them to white? Why not allow them to have it in their school colors?" he asked.
After voicing concerns that letters might turn up in hunter orange or chartreuse, the council agreed that colors must be white or school colors.
A high school is allowed to install one letter, or one logo, as Mountain View has a dual-letter name.
The letter can only be displayed for a week and the students must submit an application that has been approved by a school official. That school official must also supervise the installation process.
Students are required to keep the area clean, stay safe and not tamper with the letters of other schools.
"Whatever you do, if you mess up, that means that future students, all those little lowly freshmen and sophomores, they're going to be seniors sometime and they're going to find you," council member Karen McCandless said, and the audience of Timpanogos students chuckled.
The ordinance allows the Orem city manager to review the way the land is being used and if it's being abused, to revoke the privileges.
"I do appreciate the fact that the way this ordinance is written, that nobody is permanently vested," said Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn. "This is something that can go on and on in perpetuity as long as it is deemed to be a safe and appropriate activity."
Other rules require a path to be created before high schools can install their letters, no flammable or hazardous materials can be used in the letter, and that the letter remain parallel to the ground — not propped up.
"Thank you for bringing this up," Dickerson told the gathered students. "It's a great idea. I think these kids just want to have fun and I don't want to kill it. Let's have fun with it; let's have good school spirit."
Roy Peterman, grounds director for Brigham Young University, is in charge of caring for the giant stone Y on the mountain above Provo.
He emphasized the importance of having a path to prevent people from randomly scrambling up the mountain.
"We have had numerous projects to regenerate where people have created trails and erosion patterns have started," Peterman said. "It's not a good idea to have people tramping around in areas that are not specifically designated as trails."
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