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Show Service district The answer for hospital woes? p frwC Jj by LJ CJL J vIZa 1 JljJIJlJ JL UL Park City, Utah 25 1 i Vol. VII, No. 31 Park Avenue City awaits response from engineering firm Earlier this week, the engineering firm of Bush and Gudgell made a settlement offer to the city for the repair of the ailing Park Avenue. The City Council rejected that offer, and extended a counterproposal asking for a sum in excess of $100,000. As of noon Wednesday, the city was awaiting a response from Bush and Gudgell. City Attorney Tom Clyde said that part of the counterproposal would require that Bush and Gudgell author a press release stating that the failure of the road was caused by inadequate engineering, and not by either the city or the construction firm of Bank Construction Ltd. Clyde said further that the repayment repay-ment terms the city would accept are substantially different than those initially suggested by Bush and Gudgell. Clyde said the repayment would be an interest-bearing obligation and would be secured with real property that has no outstanding mortgage. In late February, expert Ed Nurse was hired by the city to analyze Park Avenue to determine what went wrong with last year's reconstruction project and why, and how the road could be Hats in the ring Who dunnit? Elementary, my dear Watson by David Hampshire Two men were sentenced Monday in connection with a rash of burglaries in Summit Park and Pinebrook last year. But that's just the latest chapter of a story that could have come right out of the memoirs of Hercule Poirot. The story began last summer when eight homes in the two subdivisions were systematically stripped of their contents. The thieves took furniture, appliances, food out of the refrigerators, refriger-ators, even sheets and towels. Police estimated the total loss to theft and vandalism at $75,000. The thieves were so smooth th neighbors never noticed a thing until it was too late. "We were trying everything," Summit Sum-mit County detective Rob Berry remembers. "We were running unmarked un-marked cars, extra patrols, everything else we could think of." But the break in the case finally came from a woman who has been victimized by the burglars. According to Berry, she was in a Salt Lake lamp store trying to replace some of the stolen items when she came across a set of seven lamps which looked very repaired. Nurse's report, which cost $14,500, suggests that the road failed because it was not properly engineered to bear the traffic load. In his report, he told the city that it would cost approximately $194,000 for the repair. On Wednesday, Attorney Clyde said Bush and Gudgell will reimburse the city for the Nurse report. Still to be resolved is the dollar amount to be reimbursed for the patching work that was required after the repaving project was completed. In addition, Clyde said the city will receive approximately $28,000 from the Utah Department of Transportation, which had planned to spend that much this spring to put a one-inch top coat of asphalt on Park Avenue. The repaving portion of the Park Ayenue reconstruction project cost the local taxpayers $285,000. Clyde said that City Engineer Mike Vance now has estimated that, had the road been properly engineered, it likely would have cost an additional $100,000 to lay the proper amount of grading material and asphalt to bear the traffic load. Clyde commented that the relationship relation-ship between Bush and Gudgell and the city "is up in the air right now." "We've made no promises to them As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, two hats had officially been thrown into the ring for the two county commission seats up for election this fall. Albert C. Cooper, a resident of Summit Park, has filed for the two-year two-year commission seat as a Republican. Carl T. Ovard, a resident of Henefer, has filed for the four-year seat as a Republican. Ovard is an incumbent commissioner. Democrat Ron Perry, a Summit Park resident, also has expressed an interest in running for county commissioner but has made no official decision. In other local races: Park City resident Fred Eley, a Republican, is still the only individual in-dividual to have filed for sheriff. Eley is currently a sheriff's deputy. Incumbent In-cumbent Ron Robinson has said he will not seek re-election. John D. Carbine of Park City has filed for the office of Pre protection commissioner. Thomas L. Hurd of Park City is running for re-election as the constable con-stable for the Park City precinct. Robert W. Adkins of Coalville, the incumbent Summit County attorney, attor-ney, has filed for another term. Park City Justice of the Peace James J. Kilby has also decided to run for re-election. . The filing deadline is 5 p.m. April 26. familiar. Berry said the woman notified the Sheriff's Department, but first didn't want to give her name. "She just wanted to buy the lamps back. She was sure they were hers." She eventually agreed to cooperate. .Berry and fellow detective Bob Richards approached the owner of the lamp store. The proprietor said she had bought the lamps from a private individual, and managed to find a cancelled check which included the man's name. "All she could remember was the house (where the individual lived) and that he worked at a cabinet shop," Berry said. Berry and Richards went to the house, only to find that the man had moved. They traced him through two more moves before reaching a dead end. So they started checking cabinet shops. After several days, they picked up the trail again. The owner of a cabinet shop said that the man was a sometimes employee of his, but he didn't know where the guy lived. The Summit County Hospital should be supported as part of a special service district. State Representative Glen Brown, chairman of the hospital's five-member advisory board, made the suggestion Tuesday to the Summit County Commission. A decision on the size of the district hasn't been made yet, but Commissioner Commis-sioner Bill Wallin said it would likely serve the North Summit area. "Our feeling is there is limited support for it from the other parts of the county," he said. Thursday, April 22, 1982 that they can save any of their business in town." He said that last year, Bush and Gudgell billed the city for about $300,000 worth of work, although a major portion of that was rebilled to the developer for whom the city contracted the work. "But they are involved in an awful lot of work for the city," said Clyde. "The Park City account means $300,000 (a year) to Bush and Gudgell." Clyde said it is hoped that the repaving project could begin in the middle of June and be completed before the Fourth of July. Clyde said he feels the city's counterproposal "is a fair and reasonable reason-able offer." But he reiterated that the settlement includes not only a monetary mone-tary reimbursement, but a public acknowledgement of blame. "We expect them to admit that the road was inadequately designed to take the traffic loads that it needs to; that it was an engineering, not construction or city failure," said Clyde. The City Council expects Bush and Gudgell to respond to the counterposal today. However, he remembered that the man had a roommate who worked as a dental assistant in Murray. He supplied Berry and Richards with a first name. She was in a Salt Lake store trying to replace some of the stolen items when she came across a set of seven lamps which looked very familiar. Through a systematic check of Murray dentists, they finally found the roommate, and got a Sandy address for their man. They staked out the house. Unfortunately, one of the neighbors spotted the stakeout and called police. Berry and Richards had to do some explaining before being allowed to continue. They finally picked up their suspect and arrested him for possession of stolen property. He said he had bought County Planner Stan Strebel was directed to set up dates for public hearings in Park City, the Oakley-Kamas-Francis area, and the Henefer-Coalville Henefer-Coalville region. Wallin said it was probably the only way to handle the hospital's costs. He had not discussed since Tuesday the idea with the hospital managers, Advanced Health Systems, but a financial problem was inevitable. Either the county would have to help AHS with their losses if they stayed, he j f , ' v V , T ' .A V I V ' . Intrigued Water rates Alternative schedule The monthly charge for water would be higher, but you'd get more for your money. That was the suggestion of the task force which met Monday night to discuss the proposed water rate schedule. The group was made up of residents from both the old and new areas of town, plus city officials. Their suggested rate schedule will be presented to the City Council for review, then will be discussed in a public hearing set for April 29. As proposed, users would pay a $10 a month base charge for a minimum of 10,000 gallons of water. That plan is in response to the city's initial proposal, which was to charge a base monthly rate of $7.50 for 3,000 gallons, with additional gallons charged on an inclining basis depending on the amount of water used. Under that plan, the more water used, the more it would cost per 1,000 galloas. That first plan brought more than 60 residents to a public hearing in late March to complain that the monthly allotment of 3,000 gallons was too little, and that the inclining rate penalized those people with large lawns who were trying to beautify Park City. Citv Manager Ariene Loble explain the lamps at a garage sale. He told the detectives that he couldn't give them a description of the guy at the sale, but that he had a sketch pad at home which contained an informal receipt. Sure enough. The receipt was there, signed by an Eric D. Garrett. Armed with the sketch pad, Berry and Richards went to the Utah Driver License Division and asked for copies of all the licenses issued to Eric Garretts. On one of them they found a signature that matched the receipt: it belonged to Eric D. Garrett, 170 East Main, Herriman, Utah. Although the detectives didn't have a direct link between Garrett and the burglaries, they soon got one. Garrett said, or they would have to pay for capital investments, under their contract, con-tract, if AHS left on Aug. 2. (The firm gave its contractual six-month notice in February.) County planner Strebel said that under Utah Code (section 11-32) a district cannot include a city unless its government approves. The district cannot levy taxes without approval in a special election. Otherwise, it can only charge fees for Mindy Nelson fascinates kindergarten students with her explanation of block printing during a demonstration of Japanese art techniques. The exhibit was brought to Parley's Park Elementary School by Asaka Tohyama. (See PageB4.) ed that $900,000 needs to be raised to pay for the yearly operation and maintenance of the water system and for needed capital improvements. In the first plan, it was expected that the $7.50 a month base charge would pay 75 percent of the operation of the system, while the overage fees collected would defray the capital improvement costs. After two meetings, said Loble, the 10-person task force came to a consensus that all of the anticipated system improvements needed to go on as scheduled, and suggested that the city not reduce the $900,000 budget. But to make the rate system more equitable to the large water users, the group asked that the monthly water allotment be raised, resulting in an increase in the base charge to $10. Loble said that the single resident of a home in Old Town where there is a small or non-existent lawn would probably pay a higher rate under the revised plan. But those homes with several people living in them, or those with large lawns would get a break from the first plan. It was further suggested by the task force that the overage fees could be charged in two ways: either at a flat rate of $2.70 per 1,000 gallons; or at an was arrested, admitted his involvement, involve-ment, and named three accomplices: Carl Andrew Weidman, 719 East 9th South, Salt Lake City; Kevin James Love, 4888 East Highland Drive, Holladay; and Mark Wayne Ivison, 4790 Wallace Lane, Holladay. The three were apprehended, and gave statements acknowledging their roles in the burglaries. Weidman, Garrett and Ivison have each entered a guilty plea to one count of burglary, one count of theft and two counts of criminal conspiracy. Love pleaded not guilty and will be tried June 8. Ivison, who has a previous criminal record, was sentenced Monday by In addition, the district can be stopped if over half of the area's qualified voters indicate written opposition oppo-sition to it. This must be made within 15 days after hearings are finished, he said. In other hospital-related news, it appears the State Department of Health is preparing a press release on the hospital's response to deficiencies cited by the state. Spokesman Lee Shaw said the report would be released, hopefully, this week. Two Sections, 24 Pages Staff i t '5-.-' proposed inclining rate to meet a budget of, say, $700,000, with the difference made up through property taxes. "Property taxes are a tax deduction, and so in essence, the U.S. government would help pay for the water system," said Loble. However, Loble argued that making up the difference through property taxes would penalize Old Town residents, since their properties tend to be assessed at their full value while newer properties tend to be underassessed. under-assessed. To balance this inequity, those who use more than 10,000 gallons a month primarily New Town residentswould resi-dentswould be charged at an inclining rate per 1,000 gallons, rather than at a flat rate. Loble said that the first plan proposed by the city 3,000 gallons at $7.50 per month is actually more equitable to the majority of people. "But people seem to feel they're getting a better deal to get more water every month," said Loble. The task force has suggested that residents read their water meters for the next week so that they can estimate what their monthly water usage will be. If you can't locate your meter, call City Hall for information. Third District Court Judge Ernest F Baldwin. He was ordered to serve one to 15 years in the Utah State Penitentiary on each of the burglary and theft charges, and up to five years on each of the conspiracy charges. Garrett, with no previous record, was given a similar sentence but placed on three years probation and ordered to make restitution for the stolen items. Weidman has yet to be sentenced. According to Detective Richards, the burglars had their trade down to a fine art. They would stake out a home until they were reasonably certain nobody was there. They would walk up and ring the doorbell just to make sure. Then they would break into the home, open the garage door, drive the truck into the garage, close the door, then load up at their leisure. Richards said the best way for residents to protect themselves is through the Neighborhood Watch program. It's simple: if you see something suspicious, call police "That's the best thing we've got going for us," he said. |