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Show VIEWPOINTS A-15 MARCH 19-21, 2008 THE PARK RECORD www.parkrecord.com EDITORIAL Community Wireless board has more to consider than bottom line t is impossible to imagine Park City without its own public radio station. Even though KPCW is just 28 years old, it has become an indispensable fixture in the community. So we understand why fans of KCPW, KPCW's Salt Lake City offshoot, are so concerned about the future of their station. Both stations are overseen by Community Wireless - the governing board that guided KPCW's growth from a single frequency, hyperlocal station to a multi-band, widely recognized forum for western issues. In 1994, as part of KPCW's rapid rise to success, the board established KCPW, a Salt Lake-based sister station whose strong emphasis on local news and environmental issues quickly attracted a devoted following. Last month, though, the board made a tough decision and announced its intention to sell off the Salt Lake station in order to consolidate its resources in Park City. That has sent KCPW listeners and staffers scrambling to try to buy the station themselves in order to maintain its current format. But they aren't the only ones interested in securing a foothold on the Salt Lake airwaves. Community Wireless claims to have received at least one other I president Bush S3y5heVontop o?ftesituation... bid and has suggested there are others too. But, based solely on how Park City has been enriched by its own locally run public radio station we encourage the board to sell the station to those who would maintain the local news and National Public Radio format, regardless of whether they submit the highest offer. If KCPW was a for-profit business, the board could argue that it is beholden to investors to accept the highest bid. But public radio and TV stations are held to different standards. They are eligible for public funding and rely on donations precisely so they can be free from commercial pressure. It would be an affront to KCPW donors who have supported the station for 15 years and to KPCW supporters who indirectly provided a launching pad for the Salt Lake station if the frequencies were turned over to out-of-state management or to those who would significantly alter the format. Community Wireless donors on both sides of the Wasatch should be proud that they have helped to establish two fiercely independent public radio stations. IS UDTBEHW LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Arts integration helps class dynamics Editor: I greatly appreciate the recent articles discussing how art is being introduced into Park City's elementary schools. Like all districts in Utah, Park City is forced to do a lot with very little financial resources given that the state of Utah provides the lowest level of per student funding of any state in our nation. The Park City Education Foundation exists to help address this funding gap and two years ago, with money raised in this community, we supported the district's desire to hire an Elementary Art Specialist. The Specialist was charged with developing a program that instructed teachers on how to integrate art lessons into the core curriculum. Arts integration is a priority of the Utah State Office of Education and its success is well docurstutfy'lMdertairen by' y y Chicago's public schools found that integrating art into the literacy curriculum not only affected student learning, but also improved classroom dynamics and student behavior. Additionally, teachers came to believe that arts integration can improve overall academic achievement, including language literacy and should become a priority in their teaching practices. Arts integration is not intended to take the place of pull-out art instruction as is being offered at McPoiin Elementary School. Rather we believe they are complimentary programs and in an ideal world, absent of financial constraints, the two programs would co-exist to serve all students and teachers in our district. Meanwhile, our district is extremely lucky to have JoAnn Memmott serving as the Arts Integration Specialist. JoAnn is recognized by the state as unsurpassed in her field. In just two years, JoAnn has worked with dozens of teachers, developed a K-6 lesson book for the newly revamped state arts core - which is likely to be adopted statewide - and presented at numerous state conferences on the work she is doing in Park City. JoAnn has her master's degree in Art Education, has a level 2 endorsement in the Visual Arts and acts as a Visual Arts Mentor for the state. Park City's students are fortunate to have JoAnn working on their behalf. I continue to be humbled by the dedication of everyone working in this district and the Park City Education Foundation looks forward to supporting creative solutions for our district's challenges. Abby McNulty Executive Director Park City Education Foundation Dads and doughnuts were delightful Editor: To the Barth family: Thank you for dads and doughnuts. The doughnuts were delicious! The idea of dads reading with kids and then eating doughnuts was a good idea. Thank you to the Barth family. Mikayla Aikin, Ceci Campbell And all the kids from McPoiin Elementary School Woodland town plan should be redrafted Editor: Why a Woodland township? The counsel doing this has pushed this in under a very lax bill called HB466 requiring no feasibility study, wealth and acreage having the upper hand, no vote, no public hearing with the county. And to make things worse, they submitted some of the petitions that were signed under one boundary proposal and then changed the proposal boundary lines making the town even smaller before they submitted it to the county. If they truly want to save a town? They would stop this proposal now and resubmit it under the new revised Bill 164. This would require the proposal to have a feasibility study and assure the residents that the town would have the financial ability to pay for the service it now receives from the county. As a resident of the Woodland Hills area of the proposed Woodland City, I do not see where our subdivision is going to receive any benefits from becoming a city. Who is going to do our snow removal, repair our roads, pay for the lawyers, insurance and all the other service and hidden entities that we now get from the county? As for the residents on the Lower River Road, the Bench Creek Road, and any other road off of the main highway, who do you think is going to maintain your roads? Without a feasibility study we do not know if we are going to have enough funds to maintain them. It is not too late to rescind a petition that was signed before the changes were made to the proposal. I truly believe that if the new proposed city of Woodland is going to succeed, the existing proposal under HB466 needs to be.stopped now before it is too late and then resubmitted under the new HB164. Then, if the town can pass a feasibility study, I will be all for it. I will help in any way to make the new town of Woodland the very best town in' Utah. Bobbie Williams Woodland Freestyle skiers deserve better Editor: I realize that downhill ski racing is king of the mountains, but I would like to bring your attention to another very important and equally as exciting sport: Freestyle skiing. Very little coverage is ever given to any of these very talented local athletes. In fact last week in Steamboat Springs, Annie Serra, a lifetime resident of Park City WON the Junior Olympics in Women's Singles. Yes, I'll admit there was a tiny little article about her wonderful accomplishment, but hey! Annie is a local and this is really BIG TIME for our town to have such an athlete. By the way, she came in second last year! The competition is very difficult and competitors are from all over the country and must be invited to compete. Park City Mountain Resort in conjunction with Mic Berry and the Park City Freestyle team hosted Inter Mountain Divisional in early March. This is a competition for the best of the best from our division. Kimberly Sharp, who is another lifetime resident of Park City, won both ladies Singles and Duals - a great accomplishment because the competition was stiff and she skied beautifully. Another interesting fact about Kimberly is that last year she won Junior World Championships in Halfpipe that was held in Switzerland. Her twin sister, Jessica had a fourth place in the same competition! Ani Haas is a talented young adult who moved to Park City 5 years ago to attend school and participate in Park City Freestyle. This year Ani has had great success and a complete sweep of winning Ladies Singles and Duals at a Nor Am competition in Winter Park, Colorado. Ani's hard work paid off and she has received an invitation to join the U.S. Ski Team! Park City is blessed to have such wonderful, talented young athletes. They work extremely hard all year. Most work several jobs to help pay for their sport, and they are all diligent with maintaining high grade point averages at their respective colleges and high schools. The weekend of March 28, 29, and 30, we all have the opportunity to watch this exciting sport. Deer Valley will host Nationals on their famous Olympic and World Cup course. Some local athletes will have the opportunity to compete and you will also be treated to watching many of the U.S. Ski Team members compete. As a proud parent of a Freestyl«-&fc« would like to invite the entire community to come to this amazing event and show these athletes your support and encouragement. So, to The Park Record, I challenge you to please give this sport more coverage, and a few pictures now and then would be nice as well! We will look forward to seeing everyone at Deer Valley on March 28, 29, and 30! full letter grade and the quarter is not over yet. Fortunately, she is an "A" student, except for the F's for absence, and is still permitted to compete in athletics. Other students will not be so fortunate. For example, some athletes will not be permitted to participate if this NEW policy continues (i.e., football, wrestling, soccer, basketball, baseball, swimming, volleyball, tennis, golf, etc.). Some students will fall below a "C" merely because they leave school early to participate in high school athletics and are given F's for participation on game days. Other students grades could be reduced when F's for "participation points" are given for competitions and performances during the class period: Academic Decathlon, debate, musicians, China trip, college visits, competitive contracts, etc. Jeri Briggs Park City 'A' for athletes is impossible at PCHS Editor: The new policy, F's for "participation points" for excused absence at Park City High School, makes it statistically impossible for an athlete to be an "A" student. A student at the high school received her first-quarter grade in class as an "A" and 103%. Her second-quarter grade was an "A-" and 89.7%. She received F's for excused absences which decreased her second-quarter grade from 99% to 89.7%. Third quarter she is no longer an "A" student. She is a "B" student due to F's for "participation points" for pre-arranged excused absences for athletics. Her third-quarter grade is down one GUEST EDITORIAL The energy we take for granted is becoming scarce depends on saving it. But winter sometimes Submitted by introduces a new calculus. Randy Udall In the Rockies, winter is the big dog, the Writers on the Range main event, and this year it returned with a A modern snowmobile is more powerful vengeance. Two kids get out of a car at than any machine that existed on the planet Colorado's Wolf Creek Ski Area, ride the 200 years ago. In an hour you can be 20 miles from the nearest road, high-marking a corniced The Inuit understood cold, and how ridge. But if the engine breaks or you run out of gas, how quickly to survive it. For centuries, they lived on the tables can turn. One minute Arctic shores, heating their igloos with seal oil.... In contrast, we modern people have become dangerously cavalier about this thing we call winter, perhaps because we live inside a civilization that is one big bonfire." space, living like a god. In the next you are frightened, shivering like a dog. The Inuit understood cold, and how to survive it. For centuries, they lived on Arctic shores, heating their igloos with seal oil. If there was no seal oil, they ate their meat raw. In contrast, we modem people have become dangerously cavalier about this thing we call winter, perhaps because we live inside a civilization that is one big bonfire. Energy consumption in the United States is approximately 1 million British Thermal Units per person per day, nearly twice what it is in Europe or Japan. That means we each use the equivalent of 100 pounds of coal, or eight gallons of gasoline, or one lightning bolt's worth of energy per day. With energy so abundant, our physical survival rarely chair lift to the top, duck a boundary rope, and are never seen again. A Utah couple photographing wild horses gets stuck in a snowdrift and vanishes. An ER doc and his nurse fiancee go missing at Taos. Three snowmobilers disappear north of Vail. Stranded in the snow, we face a thermal IQ test, our own personal reality show. At 98.6 degrees F we are sentient; at 86 degrees, we are dead. "Stay calm, stay put, stay dry, don,t sweat, dig a snow cave," the experts advise. Great advice - but counterintuitive. Stay put? Panic says to flee. Dig a snow cave? Lf cold is the threat, isn't snow the enemy? The thought of finding shelter in the belly of the beast - tunneling in like a bear or a weasel seems almost un-American. Short of energy, the American bias is not to conserve energy but to find something else to burn: Witness the current natural gas boom in Wyoming and Colorado. But a blizzard teaches that conserving heat is the key to survival. A snow shovel is the means of salvation, not fire-starter. Maybe we Americans are better at saving energy than we think. The Utah couple spent nine days and nights in their Dodge Dakota, practicing radical energy conservation, using the engine sparingly to stay warm. When they were out of gas and down to one granola bar, they fashioned a pair of snowshoes out of the seat cushions (something they recalled seeing on TV), and began walking. At night they huddled under trees, using carburetor cleaner to start campfires. Three days later, a snowplow driver found them, in good shape. Their relatives said it was a miracle. But they were saved by their heat sense. As: for the other lost adventurers, an exhaustive search failed to find the two missing snowboarders at Wolf Creek Ski Area, and they.are presumed dead. The three miss- ing snowmobilers north of Vail had a saw and a shovel. After three days, a Black Hawk helicopter rescued two of them. They were found near tree line, incoherent with cold. Their friend had died earlier of hypothermia. The Taos ER doc and his bride-to-bewere lost in a whiteout, but they dug a snow cave, lining it with pine branches. For three nights they shivered, which is how life keeps death at bay. When the stormfinallybroke, a Black Hawk rescued them. Emerging energy realities suggest that we Americans will need to save energy with a vengeance in the decades ahead. So perhaps it's good for us to spend time outside in the cold. If you go, be prepared. The fundamentals of winter survival have not changed in a thousand years, but technology has. Lost in a blizzard, stranded near tree line without a shovel, you might have one final lifeline: Open the cell phone and hope you have service. If you do, you can SOS the sheriff, text 911. Thumbs stiff, night falling, what might you type? "The gods are stranded. The apes are freezing. Send new chariots." r. \r Randy Udall is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He lives in Carbondale, Colo., where for 13 years he directed the Comm unity Office for Resource Efficiency. Lisa Wilson Park City ;; ^lETTERS POLICY • ' '.' . • . •. % •- ''.ft :i t The Park Record welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. We ask that the letters adhere to the following guidelines: They must include the address and telephone number of the author. No letter will be published under an assumed name. Letters must not contain libelous material. Letters should be no longer than 300 words (550 words for guest editorials) and should, if possible, be typed. We reserve the right to edit letters if they are too long of if they contain statements that are unnecessarily offensive or obscene. Writers are limited to one letter every 28 days. 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