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Show i mar w wj rr Volume Four Council Votes To Expand Commission Despite Protests At a February 1 public hearing, the Park City Council adopted an ordinance or-dinance that will expand the Planning Plan-ning Commission from six to nine members and change the length of terms and the method of selecting the commission chairman. The council voted to accept the change despite strong opposition from current Planning Plan-ning Commission members. Currently the Planning Commission Com-mission is made up of five voting members, who serve five-year terms, and a non-voting chairman who serves ser-ves indefinitely. Under the provisions of the new ordinance, two additional voting members will be added, with all members appointed by., the' City Council and serving three-year terms on a rotating basis. The chairman will be elected annually by the other commission members and could serve ser-ve a maximum of two consecutive terms. Mayor Jack Green reiterated at the meeting that the restructuring move was an effort to expand the expertise of the commission. He said the expansion ex-pansion would strengthen it in the event a planning decision is challenged in court and would address ad-dress some public criticism that the commission does not presently completely com-pletely represent the local business community. Incorporating suggestions made by an attorney hired to strengthen the city's historic preservation laws, appointments ap-pointments to the Planning Com- January Thaw Is No More i This year Park City didn't experience ex-perience it's annual January thaw; no warming temperatures to melt the icicles adorning every house, or the enthusiasm of the visiting skiers, who move relentlessly into town like an ice floe. Historically, January has been a slow time for Park City. Skiers wait to take vacations around national holidays, while padding their pockets after the Christmas crunch. And students await spring break to get maximum mileage out of their limited ski time. But this year there was no post-holiday post-holiday lull. January lift ticket sales were up eight percent over last year, bringing 9,592 more skiers to the slopes for a month-long total of 129,456. And when the lifts close, those skiers are ringing the cash registers of all the businesses in town. "We anticipated January being a slow month, but there were times when the whole town was booked,' said Cindy Bane of Advance Reser: vations. "Through this office we booked a lot of Sun Valley people since sin-ce they don't have any snow. And 1 feel like we're getting a lot of East Coast business since Eastern Airlines moved to Salt Lake. Personally, I feel Park City is being marketed better. bet-ter. The accessibility was really pushed that you can fly over Colorado to Utah and still be skiing sooner than if you stopped at Denver." Den-ver." Ms. Bane commented that last year accommodations wore about fiO Continued On Page 1 1 Omniusst Ccrr. 11 3322 So. Zri :-;a.T!i Salt Lake Cityt wi" Page 3 We've all heard of painting by the numbers num-bers but computer technology now makes it possible to record music by the numbers. That fascinating rhythm has been converted con-verted to a binary code. mission now will be made on the basis of expertise in the areas of architectural ar-chitectural andor civil engineering, historical aspects of the city, economics, banking andor financial matters, and real estate development andor sales. At Thursday's meeting, present Planning Commission Chairman Burnis Watts took exception to the need for expanded experience in the organization, commenting, "The expertise ex-pertise alluded to already exists. We City's Fault? ire J&avages wintzer ome S.-t' It if H i fcvyv f Vif:"t.. s - h ft I . . Wi I1 , lit t I I I Vr A downstairs bedroom was completely destroyed by a lire that started in the basement of the home. Responsibility for the incident that caused up to $75,000 damage is in question. A fire smolderine undected for nearly an hour caused an estimated $75,000 damages to the Rossi Hill home of Mary and Charlie Wintzer last Thursday. Investigation into the cause of the fire has shown that a municipal crew electrically thawing frozen water pipes at a neighboring house may be responsible respon-sible for the incident. The city crew apparently attempted attempt-ed to thaw a frozen water line servicing ser-vicing the Bosgraaf home next door to the Wintzers with the use of an arc welder, which sends an electric current through the pipe, heating it and melting the ice. When the electric box outside the Bosgraaf house began smoking the crew disengaged the welder and called Utah Power and Light Co. to ay Li Thursday, February 8, 1979 have an architect, a land planner, a banker and a representative from the business community." Watts further questioned the limitation of a chairman's term to one year with a possible one year reappointment. "The chairman of the commission has a very large responsibility. ...the leadership role requires a good deal of insight and knowledge of the past activities and projected activities of the commission. There may be a bet On Rossi Hill J " come and turn off the electricity to the house. The crew then reportedly lett the hill. Later it was discovered that the ground wire to the hosue had been burned, two circuit breakers flipped at the neighboring Alvarez house, and a low voltage transformer burned burn-ed in the furnace in the Woolsey home across the street. "It looks like the electric welders thawing the pipes had a bearing on the fire at the Wintzer house," said assistant fire chief Earne Anderson, Wednesday. "With the other circumstances circum-stances at the houses around theirs, it s reasonable to guess that's how it happened. We think it heated the water line into the house and started he fire in the floor where the power lines cross the water lines." iiiifciiiji iiiAiiiiiJ laHir ,k mm i Page 5 The Park High Miners did it again last week. They surprised powerful Wendover for their second straight win over a I-A power. ter alternative than a one-year term." The chairman remarked that increasing in-creasing the number of members on the commission may "dilute the effectiveness ef-fectiveness of dealing with both the commission's issues and that of the historically oriented issues that are of concern." He suggested ad hoc committees to work with segments of the committee involved in specific problems." Continued On Page 13 Clocks in the Wintzer home stopped running at about 2:10 p.m. and it wasn't until 3:02 p.m. that the fire alarm was called in by a couple across the canyon who saw smoke billowing from the back of the house. In the hour that the fire was burning, it destroyed a first floor bedroom, with the smoke and intense heat badly damaging other parts of the house. "It had to be burning that long for the pressure and heat to build up the way it did," Anderson said. "Windows "Win-dows were cracked, the television and stereo were melted, as was a camera sitting on a table in another room and a telephone on the far wall." The loss that most saddened the Wintzers, however, was a dog and cat that perished in the fire. Asked if the city crew had been negligent in not taking safety precautions, Anderson said, "I don't think the blame lies with anybody. You just never know, it's a funny thing about electricity. The city has been thawing pipes for years, and to our knowledge there have been no major fires caused. There have been burnt wires, but none that have burned bur-ned a house down." City Manager Wayne Matthews said Tuesday that until the fire department verifies reports about the cause of the fire, he would not comment com-ment on where the responsibility for the accident lies. Asked if the city welders were also electricians, he replied negatively, adding that an electrician was scheduled to accompany accom-pany the crew on pipe thawing jobs Tuesday, and perhaps would routinely assist in the future. He further commented that, despite the smoking electrical box, the crew left the area before the power company arrived because they believed there was no problem. When asked what precautions could be taken to prevent such a tragedy from recurring, Anderson said, "To do the job right, you should shut off the power and disconnect the frozen pipe section. That way there can be no danger of the current going anywhere." Anderson remarked that since the accident he and fire chief Paul Kof-ford Kof-ford have been in contact with the state fire marshall's office for advice on how to more effectively deal with future problems. Matthews said Tuesday, "In the last five years we've been thawing pipes we haven't had any problems. It's an expensive lesson to learn." weahex Park City's Only r n illi in i 'Mi li in h i- Planning Commission Chairman Burnis Watts raises objections objec-tions to commission changes. Main St. Parking Compromise Reached After a 24-day trial period marred with countless complaints and parking tickets, a compromise solution to Park City's Main Street traffic dilemma was adopted at the February 1 City Council meeting. Proposed changes to the city's parking ordinance were initiated on a trial basis on January 8 and they included in-cluded a two-hour limitation on the east side of Main Street with parking completely banned on the west side. The new system met with such adverse ad-verse reactions the public was invited in-vited to air their views at the January 18 City Council meeting, midway through the trial period. At the January meeting, several Main Street merchants complained that the reduced parking proportionately propor-tionately lowered their revenues, with some customers refusing to shop in the area because their cars had been ticketed. The merchants further complained that there is inadequate signage to send customers to Swede Alley to park, coupled with poor snow removal that limited parking spaces in that area and badly lit and inaccessible inac-cessible pedestrian walkways leading to Main Street. Proponents of the ordinance change countered that one-sided parking on Main Street facilitated the usually slow traffic flow, caused mainly by delivery trucks, double parking, and the occasional build-up of snow near the curbs that forced cars to park futher into the street. Opponents balked at losing business to delivery trucks, to which Mayor Jack Green responded, "What we are trying to do is accommodate the traffic flow and accommodate the businessman. We are trying to arrive Mostly cloudy Friday and Saturday with increasing chance of snow Sunday. Continued mild temperatures with highs in the 30s and lows in the teens. Locally Owned Newsp aper Number T wenty One 4 t at a compromise. We're looking for a solution to a problem that's been evading us for 30 years. " Armed with pro and con ammunition am-munition for the trial period's end February 1, a handful of local residents appeared at the City Council's Coun-cil's public input session. But streets commissioner Steve Bering opened the session with a compromise solution to the controversial subject. Proposed was a two-hour parking limit on both sides of Main Street from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the creation of loading zones to prevent traffic snares caused by double-parked double-parked trucks. The city plans to approach ap-proach businesses in an attempt to standardize delivery times so that trucks will be off Main Street by a specified hour, hopefully before 2 p.m. when the traffic flow increases. There will be strict enforcement of the two-hour parking limit, perhaps with the use of a "meter maid." Also planned is strict enforcement of double parking and U-turn prohibitions. "We arrived at this compromise solution primarily at the request of the business community," said Mayor Green. "But we need the cooperation of the whole community to make it work." The recommended changes to the parking ordinance were unanimously adopted by the City Council, with no apparent objections from residents who attended the meeting. The new regulations will be in effect as soon as new signs are posted. Until the new signs arrive only the two-hour parking limitation on the east side of Main Street will be enforced. |