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Show www.parkrecord.com WED/THURS/FR1, DECEMBER 24-26, 2008 Santa shares his own wish list T he real Santa was in Park City this week. We knew he was the real one because a child gave his beard a good yank and it didn't budge and, when he finally had a child-free knee, we managed to ask what he wanted for Christmas. "I wish I had a full-time job," he said. Last week, Santa barely had a free moment. The trip to Park City was sandwiched between visits to Primary Children's Hospital and to a shelter for adolescents. He returned to Park City for a ride on the chairlift last weekend and then there were more appointments in Salt Lake. Next week, after his whirlwind excursion on Christmas Eve, Santa and Mrs. Claus will go back to their peaceful routine at the North Pole. But he admits he'll still be thinking about the lists he collected and some of the gifts that were beyond his power to deliver. So, he says, he is counting on us to come through for the rest of the year. According to the jolly old elf, Park City and Summit County residents have been generous beyond measure this holiday season. They have responded with food, clothing, money and time to nonprofit groups and charities that serve a myriad of urgent needs. The Christian Center's food pantry has received boxes upon boxes of canned food. Recycle Utah was able to reinstate glass recycling after making a plea for help. The Peace House and People's Health Clinic have also seen strong local support. But Santa wonders if the shelves at the pantry will be bare by springtime, if the health clinic staff will be able to keep up with demand through the winter, and whether the worsening economy will continue to increase demands on already overloaded volunteers at hospitals and shelters around the state. He frets that once the holidays are over, people will forget about the kids he visited at Primary Children's Hospital, and volunteers will stop feeding the homeless like they do on Christmas. Then, with an uncharacteristic sigh, Santa said his wish would be to stick around to spread a little Christmas spirit throughout the year. NAN CHALAT-NOAKER/R4RK RECORD There was only one thing we could say. We promised Hannah Anderson of Park City ponders her wish list during a visit with Santa at to help keep the spirit of giving alive until we see him KPCW's new studios on Swede Alley. again next year. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Thanks for making environment a priority Museum dungeon party draws a crowd Zions Bank is making field trips possible Editor: Oftentimes, environmentalism is a luxury good. When times turn hard, longterm necessities like clean air and water take a back seat to immediate necessities like shelter and food. I would like to thank you for making room for both in these trying times. Thanks to the support shown from Mayor Williams, Tom Bakaly and the Park City Council and numerous donations - some quite large, others just $1 Recycle Utah has been able to resume services we have been able to provide to residents of Park City and Summit County for years. We thank you and strive for your continued support. Editor: The Park City Museum would like to enthusiastically thank museum board member Jan Massimino for organizing one of our most successful museum membership and dungeon parties on Friday, December 12. Over two hundred people visited with each other, renewed their memberships, bought the 2008 museum ornament, and were wowed on their tours of the new museum. Thanks also to all those who helped with the organization and set-up, those who donated items for the silent auction, and the six wonderful local restaurants and caterers (Cafe" Terigo, Chez Betty, Java Cow Cafe" & Bakery, Done to Your Taste Catering, Jean Louis, Riverhorse, and Shabu) who generously donated their time and delicious food to our event. Editor: The third grade at McPolin Elementary would like to thank Andy Garland, manager of Zions Bank, for his support of our third-grade children. We appreciate the projects that were provided for the children. Their financial support will help make more field trips possible. Again, thanks to Zions Bank for their help with the education of our children. Jeramy Lund President, board of trustees, Recycle Utah Sandra Morrison and staff, Park Ci ty Muse um Kim Jensen McPolin Elementary Many angels flew to Recycle Utah's rescue City and Summit and Wasatch counties for their overwhelming support. Your concern for the survival of our small but important community recycling drop-off center was inspiring. Without all of you, we are nothing. Yes, we do provide services for you, but the community is really what keeps us . The Park Record welcomes letters to going. And that was proven this month. the editor on any subject. We ask that As Recycle Utah struggled financially, the letters adhere to the following guidethere were countless angels who placed checks and cash in our special collection ; lines: They must include the home (street) address and telephone number boxes. of the author. No letter will be published But, we're not out of the woods yet. under an assumed name. Letters must The glass bins may be back, but the constant reminder of the economic trends still \ not contain libelous material. Letters loom in the future. A new year is upon us should be no longer than about 300 and we plan on providing the community words (about 600 words for guest edftowith the reuse and recycling services they want and expect. Our website has infor- : rials) and should, if possible, be typed. mation on how you can continue to help. We reserve the right to edit letters if they www.recycleutah.org. are too long of if they contain stateWe appreciate all you have done and ments that are unnecessarily offensive will do. Life is good. Happiest of holidays and thanks again. " or obscene. Writers are limited to one LETTERS POLICY Editor: Al! of us at Recycle Utah - from the Insa Riepen board"to the staff to the volunteers -, On behalf of the Recycle Utah staff and want to thank "the communities of Park board of directors letter every seven days. Letters thanking , event sponsors can list no more than 19 and/or businesses. GUEST EDITORIAL 1 -.1 SEND YOUR LETTER TO: ED1TOR@PARKRECORD.COM Obama picks a moderate for Interior secretary By Rocky Barker, Writers on the Range It's not surprising that Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity and Jon Marvel of the Western Watersheds Project are disappointed in Barack Obama's choice for Interior secretary, Colorado Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar. The two activists have tapped the federal courts for the last two decades in their efforts to stop overgrazing, logging and other activities on public land. Suckling, of Tucson, Ariz., and Marvel, of Hailey, Idaho, have made frequent use of the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. They, and some other small environmental groups, were hoping that Obama would pick an Interior secretary willing to buck the political power of the states and Congress and leap over all other barriers to the achievement of their goals. Instead, they got in Salazar, a nominee whom Interior Department solicitor Bill Myers describes as "a cowboy hat-wearing, Western Democrat in the mold of (former Interior Secretary) Cecil Andrus." In other words, a moderate. Salazar, a former Colorado attorney general, is also the former director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. He's a fifth-generation Hispanic Coloradan who grew up on a farm and owns a ranch. As a senator, he has fought against oil and gas drilling on Colorado's Roan Plateau, and he challenged the Bush administration's gung-ho efforts to spur oil shale development. He's a great example of "Next West" Democrats who have expanded the party's influence across the region. He's also pro-gun, and he's not Raul Grijalva, the Tucson congressman that many environmentalists hoped would get the job. Marvel, who says one of his goals is pushing livestock grazing off the public lands altogether, put it clearly: "We're not very happy with Ken Salazar. After all, he's a rancher." On the other hand, national environmental groups have all praised Obama's choice. Their power base is in Washington, D.C., and they have lots of alumni on Obama's transition team and in his inner circle. They are confident Salazar will help them advance an environmental agenda that includes transforming the American economy to combat climate change. This is a mind-bogglingly ambitious agenda that can only be completed by legislative changes in Congress, in the states and even in local governments.That why Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition, which represents 95 grassroots groups in the state, thinks Salazar is a good fit. "It could be that a centralist like Ken Salazar can get more done because he's not a lightning rod, and he can work with all sides," Jones said. "He's not going to draw a backlash from traditional commodities industries." Western Democrats have expanded their power by appealing to the new urban and exurban residents attracted to the region by its beauty, and by gaining some support from people in traditional industries like agriculture and mining. Obama's re-election could hang on how well he keeps this uneasy coalition together. Fixing the economy, fighting two wars and addressing climate change are bound to be higher priorities than the traditional Western, land battles over endangered species, motorized recreation, logging and mining. This could give Salazar a wide berth to make decisions in the next two years. He will be tested soon by his decision whether to list as endangered the sage grouse, a bird that signals the health of millions of acres of sagebrush steppe habitat across 11 western states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must decide by May whether to list the bird in a case filed on behalf of the Western Watersheds Project, Marvel's group. If the sage grouse is listed, it could have the same kind of impact on public-land ranching that the spotted owl had on logging in the Pacific Northwest's old-growth forests in the late 1980s. It also could limit the development of wind, geothermal and solar energy across the Western deserts, as well as new utility line connections to spread-out alternative energy developments. In 2004, scientists said that the sage grouse decision could have gone either way. Now, with west Nile virus killing thousands of grouse, the Bush administration's determination to quickly bring on oil and gas, and fires destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of habitat, many environmentalists believe that the agency will have no choice but to list. If that happens, Salazar will earn his keep if he can find common ground among a lot of ornery Westerners. Rocky Barker is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He is the environmental writer for IdahoStatesman.com in Boise, Idaho, and the author of Scorched Earth: How the Fires of Yellowstone Changed America. GUEST EDITORIAL The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER Andy Bernhard Editor Nan Chalat-Noaker Staff writers Jay Hamburger Pat Parkinson Joe Lair Adia Waldburger Greg Marshall Andrew Kirk Contributing writers Tom Clyde Ten Orr Jay Meehan Joan Jacobson Larry Warren Steve Phillips Editor's assistant Alisha Self Copy editor David Hampshire Special sections editor A.M. Stofko. ADVERTISING Classified advertising Cristin Hicks Kristina Pentz Office manager Circulation manager Accounting manager Advertising director Advertising sales State can't afford to chop road projects By Howard Stephenson, president, Utah Taxpayers Association over the lifetime of the project. Because the lifespan of road projects is so long, bonding over 15 or 20 years is wise Utah's sales-tax revenues are falling for policy, especially when compared with the the first tirqe in 20 years. In response, the alternative of raising taxes. Moving from Utah Department of Transportation pay-as-you-go to bonds, or from shorter to (UDOT) has put on hold nearly 60 trans- longer-term bonds, decreases the annual portation projects totaling $3.9 billion. This payment, thereby increasing the amount of temporary postponement gives flexibility for money available for other programs. For example, in 2002 the legislature the governor and the legislature to decide faced a nearly $400 million gap in balancing how to proceed in the budget-cutting the budget. In addition to reducing spendprocess. However, if those projects remain ing they issued $209 million in bonds to pay on hold, Utah's economy will suffer even for various road projects that otherwise more. Businesses will not be able to effi- would have been paid for with ongoing ciently get their products to market, jobs will General Fund dollars. be lost, and Utah's economic competitiveThe recession continued in 2003 and the ness will suffer. And sales, income and cor- legislature faced a $173 million shortfall. To porate income taxes will dip even further. balance the budget, the legislature again The legislature has long used current tapped transportation projects, first by refitransportation spending as a quasi-rainy nancing the bonds that were used to pay for day fund. When tax revenues fall, the legis- the rebuild of 1-15 in Salt Lake County. lature often redirects current transporta- Instead of paying those bonds off in 10 tion spending to pay for other current pro- years, the refinanced bonds extended their grams. The transportation projects contin- terms to 30 years. Second, the legislature ue, but instead of "pay as you go," long- redirected $66.4 million in revenues for the term bonds are used to spread the costs Centennial Highway Fund to the General Fund. The economic consequences of UDOT's recent decision to postpone these 60 projects, if made permanent, will be terrible. Already Utah's construction industry is contracting, which will further dampen sales, corporate income and individual income-tax revenues. More importantly, not moving forward with these projects will harm Utah's economic competitiveness. The most glaring delay is the rebuild of 1-15 in Utah County. Utah County is one of the state's economic engines; population is exploding, and businesses are popping up across that valley. However, that growth is quickly outpacing the road system's ability to efficiently move people and goods. Moreover, 1-15 in Utah County does not just serve Utah County; it is a critical artery in moving goods and services statewide. We must provide capacity necessary for Utah's economy to expand. Simply filling the potholes and sealing the cracks will not meet the economic demands of the state's second-largest county. Several of the other projects are prerequisites to completing the 1-15 rebuild in Utah County. Without the Vineyard Connector and the rebuild of the Geneva Road from 1-15 to 1600 North in Orem, the 1-15 work cannot even begin. Otherwise Utah County, and thus the state, would lose virtually all north-south mobility. Beginning work on the Mountain View Corridor is critical to the transportation infrastructure of Salt Lake County's booming west side. And if work does not begin on the Mountain View Corridor by 2015, the price of that road will increase significantly. Certainly there is room to question whether the projected $2.6 billion price tag to rebuild 1-15 in Utah County is appropriate. The Utah Taxpayers Association will be working with the legislature and the transportation committees to identify the most cost-effective ways of completing these projects. But we must continue those projects now. If these cuts remain in place, Utah's economy will suffer. We cannot allow gridlock to stymie Utah's economic growth, especially when the economy is already ailing. Kandilee Snyder Lacy Brundy Kate Fischer Valerie Deming Lori Gull Jennifer Musial Arwa Jundi Erin Donnelly Lynne Giuffre Blair Gordon Pamela Graves Photographers David Ryder Scott Sine Production director Matt Gordon Production Scott Schlenker Ann Marie Kloogh Anastasia Varlakova Sarah Ely Pat Hamaker Amy Barrus PRESS ROOM General Manager Head Pressman Pressman Controller Office Staff Bill Olsen Don Ferney Jimmy Etkins Valerie Waite Sandy Trost Ethel Bradford Mail Room Marilyn Case Ray Scoggins Distribution Matt Conrad |