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Show N ! ;W in iiHi VL l'1 til 11 XI i I'm1 v Vol. VIII, No. 15 iff l X -"i ""?f mmmim. Park City Christmas 5 4 f f w.xv:-:-:-?3-:-:-:-:-:'::: 'Wtorw.T ;: O o 77 V 5. ' ABOVE: Katy MacQuoid of Park City (left) and Courtney Lesser of Laguna Beach, California share a candle during Christmas service at the Park City Ski Area. BELOW: The traditional torchlight parade down Payday is witnessed by a group of chilly visitors. m in 1 1 vi in I . v . v r-v a mmr m mm m m s s y Thursday, December 30, 1982 WSrnM A8 "And Sheriff Summit County Sheriff Ron Robinson looks back at 20 years as top cop. Story by Nan Chalat. from Power failure hits city by David Hampshire It cave Blair Feulner a natural question to ask the guests on his Tuesday morning radio show on KPCW: "Where were you when the lights went out?" Park City was hit with a five-and-a-half hour power blackout Monday, threatening havoc during the height of the Christmas ski season and cutting off heat during one of the coldest days of the winter. The clocks stopped at 11:45 a.m. as a switch failure at the Utah Power and Light substation sent a big ball of flame into the air, blowing fuses which supplied power to most of Park City. According to Wayne Bruening, manager of the Park City UP&L office, the problem apparently started when some "pollution" caused an arc in one of the switches in the substation. "It started arcing, and it went across and took out two switches," Bruening said. "You actually had two big arcs down there." He said that the demand caused by the large number of visitors in Park City could have been a factor. "The bigger load could have caused more current and caused it to arc. That's a possibility." However, he stressed that the failure was not caused by an overload in the system. Bruening said that UP&L tried to remedy the problem by drawing power for Park City through the small Snyderville substation, bypassing the damaged switches. About 1 p.m. the lights flickered back on in Old Town, but after a few uncertain minutes, went off again. The Snyderville substation couldn't handle the load. At the local ski areas, with temperatures in the low teens, skiers were left dangling from the lifts. But not for long. At the Park City Ski Area, auxiliary engines on all the lifts were started within 10 minutes, according to Robbie Beck, assistant marketing director. She said that eight of the lifts were run for the rest of the day using auxiliary power. "Some people weren't even aware that we had a power shortage," she said. "Because it was such a great ski day, we felt very comfortable keeping the area in operation." However, four other lifts, King Con, Crescent, Jupiter and Motherlode were shut down before the day was over to avoid stranding skiers in the event that the auxiliary engines failed. The gondola was also shut down because of the demands it placed on the auxiliary power. No room at the If you found a place to stay in Park City this week, consider yourself lucky, 'cause there ain't no more room. "There are no places left this week, as far as lodging is concerned," said Tina Lewis of the Park City Chamber of Commerce-Convention and Visitors Bureau. "I spent a half an hour Tuesday calling every place in town. There was nothing." Lewis also reported that the phones at her office were ringing off the hook. "I think we took more phone calls at the Chamber-Bureau than we've ever taken in a single day... It was like election central." Many Park City restaurants reported re-ported capacity crowds Monday and Tuesday evenings as skiers poured off the slopes. here's to Robinson you, ifoe Newspaper sei ff n 4 f .. Beck reported that complaints were minimal. "To those people who did come to our ticket office with their old tickets, we did give rain checks," she reported. Meanwhile, Deer Valley was also taking the blackout in stride. Executive Execu-tive Vice President John Miiller reported that all lifts were running on auxiliary engines within 11 minutes. However, about 30 minutes later, the auxiliary engine on the new Sterling lift failed. Ski patrolmen began evacuation procedures, Miiller said, and had lowered about 40 people off the chairs when the power came back on, and stayed on, shortly after 1p.m. "As far as food operation goes, most of the food was already prepared," he said. "It wasn't that major of an impact." While the electricity returned to Deer Valley, the rest of Old Town wasn't so lucky. Employees in Main Street businesses tried creative means to keep warm. Some local bars brought out lamps and kerosene heaters, and recorded a booming business from those who had turned to alcohol to warm the blood. At the Park Avenue substation. UP&L crews from Park City and Salt Lake were working frantically to replace the damaged switches. "It takes normally a whole day to put one switch," Bruening said. "They put two of them in between 12 noon and 5 o'clock... They did a damn good job." Then, about 5:30 p.m., the lights came back on. This time they stayed on. Residents and visitors bundled in their overcoats breathed a sigh of relief. V 1 A itM1 A r It ii if x r w i County takes 'hands off stance for clinic by Rick Brough Federal money is available to fund the Park City Community Clinic. But it's becoming ever more difficult to grease the legal machinery to transfer the funds from the State Department of Health. Last Tuesday, the Summit County Commission declined to enter into contracts con-tracts with the state and the clinic to transfer the money. After meeting with county attorneys, commissioners again expressed concern that, under the contracts, legal and financial responsibility for the clinic might be totally dumped in their laps. The John Miiller, executive vice president presi-dent at the Deer Valley Resort, said the ceiling of 2,900 skiers per day had been reached for the first time this season. "We shut off skiers yesterday, and we shut them off today," Miiller said Wednesday. Deer Valley is encouraging skiers to call for reservations this week. Packy Longfellow, director of communications com-munications at the Park City Ski Area, said that skier traffic was fairly light over the weekend, but has picked up since. "We really felt the major influx Monday morning," he said. "We really started seeing the Christmas holiday rush, and it has held consistent since then." Park City Police Chief Frank Bell Bl Park City resident Alana Soares talks about her decision to become the March, 1983 centerfold for "Playboy" magazine. Story by Jeff Howrey. 25 Three Sections, 36 Pages Tina Lewis from the Park City Chamber of Commerce-Convention and Visitors Bureau said her organization organiza-tion received only a few complaints. "Some people said, 'We've heard that there isn't enough power in Park City' which is total bunk!" she said. She heard some grumbles from businesses at the base of the Park City Ski Area which lost revenue because of the blackout. "They were very upset and wanted to know what in the world happened," she said. Although the phone system continued con-tinued to work, many businesses reported that there was not enough power to operate the bells or the flashing lights. "I talked to several businesses who just kept picking up the phones to see if there was anybody on the other end," Lewis said. While Old Town was blacked out for almost six hours, residents of Park Meadows, Ridgeview and Silver Springs were more fortunate. There, the power was off only about 15 or 20 minutes. ParkWest Ski Resort also reported a brief blackout lasting less than 20 minutes. Twenty-four hours after the blackout started, almost to the minute, KPCW was getting ready to tell people all about it on its noon news broadcast when suddenly the lights went out again. "We thought, 'My God,' it's happening happen-ing again,'" Feulner said. But this time the blackout affected only the Memorial Building. The trouble was traced to some workmen at the back of the building. commission wrote a letter to State Health head Dr. James Mason, saying the state should (a) establish a family-planning family-planning program itself, or (b) should give the money directly to the Park City Clinic. Commissioners said they preferred direct funding but the state has said it must contract with the county. A county contract may be considered con-sidered again next week. Tuesday's action was the last for lame-duck officials of-ficials Bill Wallin and Carl Ovard. The clinic has been placed on next week's Clinic to A6 inn said as many as four officers are being used daily to control traffic letting out of the two area resorts at closing time: two at the intersection of Park Avenue and Empire Avenue, one at Heber Avenue and Main Street, and a fourth to spell the others. "It's so damn cold, you can't stand out there for two hours," he said. Bell said that pylons were being placed on Park Avenue south of Empire to allow two lanes of outbound traffic during peak periods. Nevertheless, Neverthe-less, traffic was still bumper to bumper at times. "There's no question that it was slow, but we were cleared out by 5:3o last night," Bell said Wednesday. "It's probably moving as well as it's going to move." In n i i ! nmr-nT; fa i m rlir .' " 1 .fr.ifc i |