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Show Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, Sept. 18-21, 2004 The Park Record A-14 THE fl MOUNTAINS C A N Y O N S i 1ML PARK C I T V r U T A H , 3-.SDQ ACRES TRAILS 3-.nO' VERTICAL MORE DOC* ON M A I N STREET By Tom Clyde • Twenty-nine percent fewer fires t's time to clean off my desk and sort through I t i& liJasatch '\Countyf to Imyself. all the little scraps of paper with illegible notes Its a significant pile of missed dentist appointments, credit card receipts and envelopes Student Passes ; : ^ marked "important news inside" that have never been opened on the theory that no important news '*^ now on sale- i (O/iciKtojjoir^ rv..: This is the deal of the season. The Canyons Summit & Wasatch K-12 Student Season Pass is just $119 when you purchase and pick up your pass before October 23, 2004. If you're on the honor roll the pass is only $70. Get a whole season of skiing and riding at Utah's largest ski and snowboard resort for one low price. No restrictions either. But do it now - before October 23rd. CAJVYOTVS Call 435-615-4311 or buy online at www.thecanyons.com EXPLORE. EXPERIENCE. DISCOVER. www•thecanyons•com LOCALS" SPECIAL like that will produce a windfall for the government entities. But in the early years, when it is mostly vacant lots, the development doesn't pay its own way, and is a drain on the rest of us. We'll be paying firemen to sit around and wait for houses to be built so they can catch on fire. In the meantime, they can ever came bulk rate, but got saved anyway because watch Oprah. That was the theory behind the conit said it was important. One of the notes had to do currency ordinance in the old zoning code -- logical with the fire district raising their property tax rate and orderly extension of services, rather than build29 percent. This happened about a month ago. and ing and staffing fire stations out on the prairie. went through with hardly a whimper. A couple of Former Commissioner Gene Moscr was the chief people showed up at the hearing and protested the proponent of the concurrency approach. He is too increase. There was some coverage at the time, but much of a gentleman to get out in front of this and no really satisfactory explanation on why the fire say, lT told you so," but the fact is. he did. And he district needed to increase its budget by 29 percent was right. in a single year. The presidential campaign is about as ugly as it Of course, in the back of my mind, there was the can get, with each candidate doing his best to avoid suspicion that they know something the rest of us mentioning anything of substance. The campaign is don't. Did they get a memo from Tom Ridge? Do being fought by shadowy groups with lots of money they have some way of predicting that there will be and few scruples. We've got Swift Boat Veterans for 29 percent more fires next year? Emergency med- Truth and Texans for Truth. Frankly, any group who ical response is in there, loo, so maybe there is some has lo include the "for Truth" in their name should new and terrible plague about to strike, and ambu- be presumed to be lying. If they stood for truth, they ' lance calls will increase by 29 percent. Will response would be called "Sleazy Campaign Operatives for time be 29 percent faster? Certainly there must be Character Assassination." Now, with the CBS some very dramatic change in conditions that would menios about Bush's National Guard service (which justify that kind of provide absoluteincrease. ly no new inforBui it turns out that •" Frankly, any group who has to mation), we have " R e t i r e d the change in conditions is nothing more than include the "for Truth" in their name T y p e w r i t e r sprawl. Most of the should be presumed to be lying, if they Repairmen for Truth" trying to increase was "justified" by the need to build a new stood for truth, they would be called determine if the fire station to protect the 'Sleazy Campaign Operatives for memos could have been typed on an Promontory developIBM Selectric ment. Hmmm. Remember Character Assassination.'" concurrency? That was a ^ • • ^ • ^ ^ • M ^ H ^ ^ H M ^ H ^ ^ H ^ ^ M ^ from the 1970s. fancy-pants way of saying Aren't we that the county would only approve new growth that involved in a war someplace? Anybody want to talk was in close proximity to existing growth so that about that? basic services could be extended in a reasonable and Bush is making glowing, general promises for rational manner. New growth would not become a what he will do in the second term, all the while financial burden to the existing residents. It was ignoring what has happened during his first term. built into the code a decade or so ago. George Kerry's only appeal is that he isn't Bush. I'd vote for Johnson, who owned the Promontory property at a ham sandwich before I'd vote for Bush. But even the lime, found that under the concurrency system, under that generous standard, Kerry lacks mustard. his property could not be developed for about 50 Kerry is a lukewarm, watery soup. He's Al Gore years because it was out in east Winooski by itself. without the warmth. "I'm not quite as bad as So. he sued, the county caved in and we now have a Dukakis" isn't a winning position. Kerry hasn't been demand for full urban services rising out of the sage- able to state what he is for, what he would do about brush. Iraq, or how he would solve anything. So in the absence of anything meaningful hapThe county covered their end of things pretty well by making the roads private and working with pening on the political front, how about that Oprah? the developer lo get the right-of-way for a water She gave everybody in her studio audience a new pipeline to bring new water into the area. They Pontiac last week. You go, girl. Then Martha solved the school issue by dumping it off on the Stewart announced she wants lo go to jail early so South Summit School District, not that any of the she can be out in the spring in time lo plant her garlittle tots living in Promontory will ever see the den. That sounds like a load of mulch to me. But inside of a public school. But fire just got left out when Oprah and Martha can knock the war and the campaign off the front page, there really is somethere. So in order to provide a reasonable level of fire thing terribly wrong with our collective ability lo protection to the vacant lots and expensive vacant pay attention. homes of Promontory, they need to build, equip and Toiti Clyde is a former city attorney and author of staff a fire station in the area. Over time, when the "More Dogs on Main Street." He.has been a columnist lots are all built on, the tax revenue from a project for The Park Record for 18 years. WRITERS ON THE RANGE By Susan Tweit When the night sky provides free entertainment comet-detritus is not as harmless as rural dust; in the zero gravity of space it never dissipates. When earth passes through this trail of floating stepped out the door, Richard said. "There's one!" I comet trash, bits of debris collide with our planet's looked overheat! and caught the tail end of a white line atmosphere. Healed instantly by the friction of their fading in the black sky over our small town in south- sudden encounter with gaseous air, the particles most no bigger than a sand grain - flare as they shoot central Colorado, 'Hie meteor shower we roused ourselves to watch across the heavens, and are vaporized, all in less time was the Perseids. the most reliable shower of the year, than it takes to read this sentence. The Perseid meteor shower can be counted on to which begins in late July and peaks the second week of August before tapering off. This celestial drizzle of produce a trickle of fiery comet-debris each summer. shooting stars is named for the constellation Perseus And in years when Earth brushes through a particusince the meteors seem to radiate outward from its larly dense portion of Comet Swift-Tuttle's gritty plume, the trickle turns to a shower. location near the Milky Way. Humans have long read portents in such stellar The source of the falling stars is not the constellation, however, but a trail of dust laid down by Comet rains, interpreting meteor showers as mythical beings Swift-Tuttle. Earth passes through this debris-laden like dragons or angels bearing messages from the heavens. One cannot plume each summer, - help but be awed and a producing fireballs k L that streak across the The Perseid meteor shower can little bit frightened when it appears as if stars flare heavens. Comets arc celes- be counted on to produce a trickle of and fall. If a meteor is large tial construction fiery comet-debris each summer. And in junk. writes years when Earth brushes through a par- enough to survive its plunge through our astronomer diet Raymo, giant snow- ticularly dense portion of Comet Swift- atmosphere, the celestial halls of ice and space Tuttle's gritty plume, the trickle turns to a detritus is dangerous indeed. Meteors have debris left over from crashed through roofs. the formation of our shower." started forest fires, even m solar system. They H ^ ^ ^ ^ M ^ ^ H H ^ M ^ ^ H B M ^ hang out in the killed people. As Richard and I fringes of our neighborhood until dislodged bypassing stars and sent hurtling on pendulum-like orbital paths watched the bright streaks cross the star-freckled sk^ in the chill of night, I shivered, thinking of the skies around the sun. over Iraq, where the artificial shooting siars of missiles I curled up on the chaise lounge Richard had unfolded next to his* and scanned the night sky, too and bombs split the darkness, their explosive tracings dazzled by the abundant stars to notice meteors. As I cruel imitations of meteors' slunning beauty and deadbegan to pick out the familiar shapes of constellations, ly potential. I was reminded of how lucky I am to live in the rural My small town in the Upper Arkansas River Valley West, where the heavens remain dark, relatively is a long way from war-torn Iraq. But meteor showers unbleached by light pollution. bring that violence close in a way television images Soon, a meteor zipped across the hazy band of the and news stories cannot. When our planet brushes Milky Way before burning out; an instanl later, anoth- across a debris-laden comet trail, sending flaming proer whipped away in the opposite direction, leaving a jectiles cascading in all directions, I can almost feel the straight and faintly reddish trail. After a few minutes searing power of those streaks of light. with no meteor activity, a really bright one streaked They provide evidence of something we usually canhalfway across the sky before vanishing in darkness. not grasp: our own fragility in the course of Earth's Meteors begin as bits of debris left behind by a hurtling journey through space. In the momentary illucomet on its swing through our solar system. The sun mination as meteors flare in the night skies over my boils the outer layers of the comet's icy nucleus into a small town, the immensity of the universe seems very halo'of shimmering gases; solar winds whip the debris real, and our lives very brief and blessed indeed. intd B stijpjamlined "tail." Susan Tweii is a contributor to Writers on the Range, Inisupcwdcry tail persists like the plume of dust a service of High Country News (hcn.org). She writes trailihg behind a pickup on a dirt road ~ except the books and essays in Salida, Colo. ne night this past August, my husband Richard and I woke at 3:30 a.m. and headed groggily O outside to our back deck to watch for meteors. As I MAIN STREET 435-645-Q636 , 577 MAIN STREET $35-615-0300 SOUTHWESTERN RESTAURANT MAIN STREET this ad with you and receive a complimentary entree when you purchase one of equal or greater Open for dinner at 6pm Credit card purchase • One free entre'e per zd valid through September 3O'\ 2004 •Reservations Recommended Don't miss Teri Orr's 'Sunday in the Park' in Wednesday's Park Record |
