OCR Text |
Show Vol. VI, No. 21 NOW! The Dynamic Duo is back in town: snow and visitors. And for the first time in weeks, that combination is tangible evidence that this is, after all, a ski resort town. For businessmen, the word "drought" means more than a lack of precipitation. precipita-tion. It means empty streets, empty buildings, and empty pockets. For nearly everyone in town, the word "front" is much more than the opposite of back. When uttered by weathermen, it brings hope that a massive snowstorm is approaching, and in its wake, good skiing and good times. Unfortunately, drought has been too often heard along the Wasatch Front this winter. Until last week, that is. And while the Park City Resort still has below-average snow coverage, the two-plus feet that fell was enough to get visitors out on the slopes and out on the town. According to Resort assistant marketing market-ing director Laura Thomas, all chairlifts but King Con were able to be opened last Sunday, and 52 of 68 designated ski runs were groomed and ready to go. On Sunday, 5,000 day passes were sold. That's nothing compared to the record-breaking day two years ago when 12,000 passes were sold, but it was the second biggest day at the Resort since its opening Nov. 21. Ms. Thomas commented that business at the Resort through Feb. was down 45 percent when compared to last year, and down 67 percent from the year before. Only time and the snowfall over the rest of the season will tell if those losses can be recouped, she said. She added that the Resort currently is working on a development master plan, and it will be several months before it will be known if the slow season start will precludejew chairlift and run awim i imr SHE An ordinance requiring snow in Park City B e it ordained by the City Whereas snow brings tourists to Park City, Utah and Whereas snow is essential to the ski industry and to the business success of Park City, and Whereas snow is summer's drinking water and without snow, we will all go without . . . Now , therefore, be it ordained by the City Council : Section 1 Snow is hereby required in Park City; Section 2 It shall be unlawful for it to fail to snow in Park City; Section 3 The Council hereby directs it to snow in Park City forthwith. Section 4 Effective date will be January 29, 1981 at 5:20 p.m. Mountain Daylight Savings Time. Park City Municipal Corporation By John C. Green, Jr . , Mayor Attest: Arlene Loble, Recorder Parkite Jim Doilney presented the must-snow ordinance for the City Council to adopt last Thursday and guess what? It did ! Something for everyone City-school sports A plan to combine school and city resources to build a community athletic facility is under consideration by the Park City Council and Board of Education. As spelled out at Tuesday's meeting of the Park City School Community Council, the plan would involve building the complex in conjunction with the new middle school so that it could be used both by students and members of the community. Details of the proposal were presented by Bruce Henderson, Park City's recreation director and chairman of the Community-School Task Force. The type of facility we are proposing would fill so many of the school's needs and so many of the community's needs," he said. In researching the plan, members of the task force visited several facilities designed for joint use, including one at Snow College and another at Alta High School. Henderson presented slides showing how one large structure could be used for a number of different activities. As presented to the community council, the facility would follow the field house concept: a large gymnasium gymnas-ium equipped with dividers so that several activities could go on simultan construction this year. But things are looking up. Thomas said she estimated that 1,800 visitors will be in town for the seven-day period that began last Saturday. That number would be higher, she said, except that the snowfall began late in the week, when many people may already have cancelled their reservations. "Next week I'm guessing it's going to be a real zoo here," Thomas predicted. "People now know we have good skiing here in Utah, and I think next weekend we're going to see a decided increase in business in town." The Resort currently is reporting a snow base of 40 inches at the bottom of the mountain, 42 inches at the summit, and 46 inches at Jupiter Bowl, In an area that boasts of 300 inches of "the greatest snow on Earth" annually, the snow depths seem laughable. But the only laughter echoing from the slopes last weekend was that of skiers happy to make turns in fresh powder. Thomas said the Resort will continue to make snow in those areas that need it until there is another storm. She added that one more snowfall should enable them to open up night skiing on Pay Day and from the First Time chairlift. "This year, we opened Nov. 21 with one run, Clementine," Thomas said. "It was the first time we've opened on just man-made snow, but we were the first ski area in Utah to open. What has helped pull us through is the snow-making. snow-making. We've increased our capabilities capabil-ities each year, and it's really helped us." Things surely could be better, Thomas acknowledged, but last week's storm was a much needed psychological and economic boost for Park City. "The whole town is really excited again," Thomas said. "Finally!" BE 3QC 3SE Council of Park City : eously, and equipped with specialized equipment designed to accommodate sports such as basketball, volleyball, tennis, track and field (with the possible exception of the javelin), soccer, baseball, Softball, flag football, climbing, wrestling, jogging, and roller skating. Henderson also discussed the possibility possibil-ity of housing Recreation Department offices, separate locker rooms for community use, and as many as six racquetball courts within the same complex. "It's the type of facility the school district probably would never be able to afford on its own," he said. "And it's the type of facility the city would never be able to afford on its own." He stressed the need for an indoor facility in the Park City area because the short summer season limits the time that sports such as soccer can be played outdoors. He pointed out that the gym in the memorial Building is so small that it can be used for no more than one activity at a time. Councilwoman Tina Lewis said she broached the idea at last week's meeting of the City council. "What I got was a very strong positive reaction," she said. "The council has given us the Thursday, February 5, 1981 v XX, : - - ! ?flv51Ii At"-- vf i X X -X Kvv - ' , u K B ft - "VV - vNosSs --UtJf if Taft's filming of The Boogens' brings down the house The Mt. Air Market, which was the grocery store in Park City until Alpha Beta opened in 1979, was destroyed Tuesday morning in a spectacular fire. The market closed its doors less than a year ago after droves of local shoppers switched their allegiance to the competition. The building was being used by Taft International (formerly Schick Sunn Classic Pictures) when the blaze erupted. According to eyewitnesses, the lire broke out about 8:45 a.m. It was visible to residents of Old Town first as a few wisps of grey smoke, followed a few seconds later by an enormous, black mushroom cloud. According to Park City Patrolman John Newland, air currents caused by the fire were so intense, that the glass front of the building was sucked in and the roof lifted from its moorings. Park City's volunteer firemen responded re-sponded quickly, but the fire was already well out of control. Within minutes the wooden roof and much of the facade had collapsed. As hundreds of Park City residents watched from surrounding parking lots, firemen concentrated their efforts on preventing the fire from spreading to the Summit County Title Building, separated by only about 10 feet from the burning structure. Tenants of the threatened building were taking no chances. With the help of several bystanders, they emptied the complex proposed go-ahead to start negotiations on this. We are very excited about the whole concept and hope that the school board would be, too." Henderson was asked if a swimming pool had been considered as part of the proposal. He said the idea had been discussed, but that the task force felt a pool would not offer as many opportunities as the field house idea, and also would be very expensive to maintain. According to School Board President Nancy McComb, a second phase has been discussed combining a swimming pool (which is expected to lose money) with a skating rink (which is expected to make money). School Superintendent Richard Good-worth Good-worth recalled that there had been previous joint city-school district discussions dis-cussions about building a swimming pool, and that an application for federal funding had been filed at one point. He noted that the high school had been designed so that a swimming pool and an auditorium could be added later. "I don't foresee that the board's posture has changed from the time we were doing that," he said. Community Education Director Nan McPolin used the opportunity to put in a 1 kiiy structure of its contents: law books, typewriters and office furniture were stacked in the parking lot between Summit Title and the Copperbottom Inn. Fortunately, the cinderblock rear wall of the burning building helped to contain the flames, and the lack of wind aided firemen in their efforts. About 25 volunteer firemen, with the assistance of Taft International security securi-ty personnel, dumped water on the fire from every possible angle. A line was run into the new Hot Spa facility at the nearby Mt. Air Mall to provide additional water. One of those manning the hoses was local realtor Bill Coleman, the principal owner of the property. He was asked how much the structure was worth. "Right now, not very much," he said. Was the building insured? "Yeah, but you can never replace them for what you insure them for." The huge plume of smoke was visible to residents in Heber Valley 20 miles away. Before long, the fire had attracted the attention of the Salt Lake media, and two television helicopters descended onto the vacant lot west of the Copperbottom Inn. Incredibly, there were no serious injuries. According to Taft spokesman Al Pederson, there were 21 film company employees in the building when the fire broke out. All escaped safely, although one received super plug for an auditorium which could be used for concerts and plays. Mrs. Lewis replied that the Park City Recreation Advisory Board had just heard a proposal to turn the Memorial Building gym into a civic auditorium, assuming that the recreation complex were built. School Board member Gene Lambert wondered whether the city had the finances to pay for such a project. "Does the city have the bond authorization for a project of this sort?" he asked. "Would there have to be an election?" According to Mrs. Lewis, an election would have to be held. High School Principal Jack Dozier put in a word for his own students. He said their athletic facilities were too small "the day we moved in here." However, he did not want his remarks construed as opposition to the idea. "I say go for it.. .but don't forget us." The major concern expressed by Middle School Principal Otis Falls was that discussion over the field house would delay the construction of the school. "We don't want to dampen any enthusiasm because it sounds like a neat idea, but..." (See related story on the plans for the new middle school.) OTXBIJ0 11 Park City, Utah ficial burns and another suffered slightly from smoke inhalation. Heber resident Leo Witt, one of Taft's security personnel, helped to man the fire hoses and had been in the building when the fire erupted. As he took a cigarette break from his firefighting duties, he was asked how quickly the flames had spread. "It was fast," he said, groping for a match. "It was fast... Got any fire?" Pederson said the employees had time to do little else besides shut off the power before evacuating the building. "We lost several lenses, a camera, a lot of specialized filming equipment, some personal effects... We can't tell you a definite dollar figure because we haven't got to that yet." He said he expected the company's losses would exceed $25,000 or $30,000. Two vehicles were housed in a garage attached to the main building. One was a Taft International van. The keys to the vehicle could not be located, so it was pulled from the building using a cable attached to a four-wheel-drive cue Mid an unveile' Preliminary plans for the new Park City middle school were unveiled at Tuesday's meeting of the Park City School Community Council. As proposed by architect Keith Stepan of Mountain West School Architects, the school would be built in two phases with an eventual capacity of 1,000 students. Stepan estimated the total cost of the structure at $6 million, or about $52 per square foot. The first phase, which the Park City Board of Education hopes will begin this summer, will include the following: 18 regular classrooms, an art room, a science room, and administrative area, a 9,300-square foot gymnasium, separate separ-ate areas for wrestling and gymnastics, classrooms and shop areas for industrial indus-trial arts, classrooms and a kitchen area for home economics, a music wing, two special education classrooms, class-rooms, a kitchen and a forum (combination auditorium and cafeteria). cafeter-ia). Cost of the first phase is estimated at $3.9 million. It could accommodate as many as 650 students. The second phase would consist mainly of 10 additional classrooms and a second gymnasium. Stepan pointed out that the proposed design isolates the activity protion of the school from the academic portion, and would allow one half to be kept open without the other. The classrooms are designed in clusters around central "kivas" or common areas lower than the level of the surrounding rooms. The cluster concept eliminates long hallways and allows different grade levels to be 250 2 Sections, 28 Pages truck. Although the van was blackened, Pederson said most of the damage was from soot and smoke. The other vehicle was a Lotus sports car owned by local businessman Peter Cole. At this writing, the Lotus is still in the building. Cole said Tuesday afternoon that a portion of the roof had collapsed on the car, breaking the windshield, but that somehow it also had escaped the flames. The fire is being blamed on a propane-fired special effects device being used in the filming of Taft's latest feature, "The Boogens." The plot of the movie is centered around the reopening of an old mine, and an indoor set had been constructed to simulate the mine tunnels. According to Pederson, the propane was being used to simulate a fire inside the "mine" when it ignited part of the set. "Some of the sets in the building utilized foam, and the foam is Taft filming to 3 sceoo virtually self-contained. The focal point of the academic wing is a huge media center. In the activity area, Stepan pointed out that there would be four separate places where physical education programs pro-grams could be carried out simultaneously. simultan-eously. However, he acknowledged that plans for this area were contingent on discussions between the district and the city regarding a joint community facility see separate story.) Jim Doilney, a local advocate of solar energy, wondered whether energy concerns had been emphasized in discussions between the board and the architect. He pointed out that Stepan's plan called for a one-story building, which would invite more heat loss than a two-story building with the same floor a'rea. Board President Nancy McComb assured Doilney that energy was a prime consideration, and that energy questions would be addressed more fully when a site was chosen for the school. Councilwoman Tina Lewis observed that selecting a site could delay the construction process. She noted that the board's first choice, a 40-acre piece east of the high school, is outside the city limits. For the city to provide services to the property, it must first be annexed. And, by state law, a city cannofannex more than five acres without an annexation policy. Mrs. Lewis pointed out that the city does not have an annexation policy, and is not expected to adopt one until Mavor June. |