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FARMINGTON -- This city of almost 10,000 people is not used to all the attention.
Pinched by the Wasatch-Cache National Forest on the east and the Great Salt Lake on the west, Farmington served as a sleepy enclave of farmers and ranchers for more than a century.
Even the arrival of Interstate 15 in the 1960s and residential growth in the 1990s did not disturb the calm. Most longtime residents figured that all those newcomers spilling into the Davis County seat could not resist its hushed borders and would conspire to preserve the quiet.
But in less than a year, Farmington has learned that it is as vulnerable as a lone sheep is to a pack of wolves. Six massive government-sponsored projects threaten to alter this community of tree-lined lanes and immaculate city parks into something people like Aaron Richards barely will recognize.
During the next decade or so, residents will contend with the widening of I-15 and U.S. Highway 89, and the likely construction of the Legacy Highway. Also on the planning table is the creation of a school-bus depot, a federal lockup and a 16-acre reservoir near their city.
City officials and agitated residents concede there is little they can do to impede the plodding, determined advance of progress.
``Our local political leaders have tried as much as they can. But the higher levels of government have taken citizen input and put it into file 13,'' said the 63-year-old Richards. ``They will put things wherever they damn well please.''
State officials, however, say they have been more than considerate when it comes to fielding suggestions. Open houses have been held to discuss the state's road proposals, and many plans have been dumped because of expense and inconvenience.
The Utah Department of Transportation even has opened an information center in West Bountiful where people can comment on road designs.
For his part, Richards insists he is no complainer. He still milks the 80 cows on his dairy farm in west Farmington on two creaky, damaged knees every morning.
He also has shown adaptability. When the $18.5 million Davis County Jail emerged just across the street from his home in 1991, he moved most of his operation to a farm in Erda, just outside Tooele....