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Show A-19 VIEWPOINTS SAT7SUN/MON/TUES, AUGUST 20-23, 2011 www.parkrecord.com EDITORIAL Council is prudent to avoid Treasure bond vote this year T LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The loss of an exceptional athlete Editor: On behalf of the Youth Winter Sports Alliance and the youth that we serve, I want to recognize the efforts of an amazing athlete. Jeret "Speedy" Peterson. Speedy touched many lives in this community in and out of the winter sports world. He made Park City his second home and used his stardom to benefit this community in many ways. He had a gift of athleticism, energy, and a magnetic personality that radiated through his friends and acquaintances. He was always willing to help this community raise funding for future athletes and never turned down the chance to encourage a junior athlete to spark their dreams. We are saddened by the news of his death and wish to reach out to his family and friends to express our sincere sorrow for the loss of a great athlete and friend. Park City's winter sports athletes will always remember the positive impact of the "Hurricane." Please visit speedyfoundation.org for more information or to donate in his name. In loving memory - Youth Winter Sports Alliance. Aimee Preston Executive director Workforce housing should be up to us Editor: Attending Wednesday night's County Council meeting at the Council Chambers in Coalville in front of an over-capacity audience, listening to the public and council comments on the Discovery CORE project in the Snyderville Basin, the common thread was, we need workforce housing, but not at this location. Councilman Dave Ure, commenting from his Kamas Valley ranching experience, made the point that the north-facing location for this project is going to see snow for most likely six months of the year with little direct sunlight, requiring the new homeowners have four-wheel-drive and added snow maintenance, all an added expense for the workforce. Park City School Superintendent Dr. Ray Timothy pleaded with the council for workforce housing to help attract the best staff for our schools; local residents speaking in opposi- tion of the project made clear that the basin needs workforce housing, but due to the myriad of issues with this steep and sensitive location, not there. I can safely say that most everyone in the Basin will agree that we need workforce housing. Should we continue to leave it up to a developer looking to make a profit on a housing development, in which part of the deal for their dense build out is a percentage of workforce housing? Or. could we as neighbors, a community and a county, work together and find the right locations near walkable bus routes and work centers, the right designs, and not have to sacrifice density for the sake of our workforce. To me, the needle now points in one direction, it looks like workforce housing is going to be up to us as a county. Colin DeFord Park City Minding everyone else's business Editor: Fifty years ago this month, the East German government (GDR) began the erection of the Berlin Wall. That government was renowned, even among Soviet satellite countries, for its brutal and repressive ways. One of the GDR's weapons in the Cold War was the Stasi, an intelligence and secret police agency which, in the words of famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, was "much, much worse than the Gestapo." After the Wall fell in 1989 and Germany was reunified, western ^LETTERS POLICY :£:.•: : 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 home (street) 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 about 300 words (about 600 words Jor guest editorials) and should, if possible, be typed. We reserve the right to edit letters if they are too long or il they contain statements that are unnecessarily offensive or obscene. Writers are limited to one letter every seven days. Letters thanking event sponsors can list no more than 10 individuals and/or businesses. Send your letter to:: aditor@parkrecord.com : he Park City Council made a wise decision to back away from placing a Treasure bond on this November's ballot. The council had been toying with the possibility of offering city voters two options: a total buyout of the Sweeney family's development rights on the hillside above Old Town, or a partial buyout that would have reduced the proposed density on the site by about half. The cost of preserving the entire parcel, estimated at approximately $48 million, would have translated into a substantial bump on Parkites' property tax bills - about $215 per year for a $500,000 home. The partial buyout would have cost that same homeowner about $65 per year. For second-home and commercial-property owners who are not eligible for the local primaryhome discount on their assessed valuation, the cost would have been about double those figures. But in trying to craft the precise language for the bond request, the council rightly determined that, at this point, it would have been impossible to clearly define for voters exactly what each level would achieve. So, rather than rushing to meet the state's tight timeframe to include the measure on the upcoming election ballot, the City Council opted to continue negotiating with the developer in hopes of finding a more nuanced solution. There were legitimate concerns, given the volatile state of the economy and sharp divisions in the community about the Treasure project, that forcing the measure to an all-(or half)-or-nothing vote would doom any chance for a more detailed and more sensible agreement. There is still the potential for a buy-down through a taxpayer-approved bond, but the council is right to assume that citizens deserve a clear description of what their tax dollars would purchase and exactly how much development could still be built on the site before they cast their votes. As proposed earlier this month, the $15 million bond for a partial buyout would still have left more than 213,000 square feet of development on the hillside and would have shifted 100,000 square feet to just uphill from Park City Mountain Resorts base area. Some would say that the benefits of a bond at that level would be negligible. At the same time, asking voters to accept the full-scale buyout in such a difficult economy was not likely to gain enough support to pass. On the other hand, if both bond proposals failed, the city and the developer would be no further ahead in the approval process than they are right now. The city is better off continuing its negotiations with the Sweeneys in hopes of crafting an agreement that is not limited to only two options and that keeps open other possibilities - including transferring some of the development rights to other parts of town - on the table. This council's legacy will likely be defined by how it handles one of the biggest developments ever proposed in Old Town. They are smart to take as much time as they need. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR intelligence agencies and other researchers had the opportunity to review many of the Stasi's records and it was then learned that, for decades, the Stasi had employed one in seven members of the population of the country to spy on their friends, neighbors, and associates. Let me say that again: In one of the most totalitarian regimes that ever existed, a full seventh of the people were informers, watching for and reporting suspect behavior to headquarters. This caused the East Germans, at least in public, to act and speak very, very civilly. The so-called "Leadership" snoops are, in my view, not so different from the good Germans who snitched on those around them. They are using a slightly different system, but their goal is to pacify and influence the people under the guise of civility. Ironically, the Stalinist Snyderville Planning Commission has recently been cited publicly more than once for the pleasant way in which it has imposed arbitrary and incomprehensible requirements on applicants. The "Leadership" program has. with this exercise in minding everyone else's business, jumped the shark. It is done. Time to say goodbye. Bruce Margolius Kamas Please be aware: The Park Record's content is copyrighted and, other than limited excerpts that are clearly attributed to The Park Record, cannot be reproduced without express written permission from the publish- er. That includes both written and online distribution. The Park Record welcomes dialog about its content but any unlicensed distribution of its content is a copy, right violation. In particular, articles . .and photos may not be displayed on Leadership Class should pay own way Editor: I, for one. echo the sentiments of Bruce Dennis deriding the mawkish letters from members of Leadership Class 17. Are we teaching this exercise in civility to the tune of $50,000 per year? If so, why are we funding a program that is not addressing more pressing issues that confront Park City and its environs, to wit, the encroaching air pollution that is creeping up from the Salt Lake Valley, the preponderance of off-leash dogs that continually threaten the hikers and bikers on our trails, economicstimulus ideas that will insure that Park City doesn't become irrelevant, and other issues that address our quality of life. And why are we, the taxpayers, underwriting a program that teaches leadership? Shouldn't the participants pay for this instruction? If an individual wishes to pursue a course of instruction that furthers their knowledge or their area of expertise (an admirable endeavor), should not these individuals be responsible for their education? When I went to college and then to grad school, I had to pay for my education. Why not them? And, for a governmental-funded pro- other websites. Links to the content on www.parkrecord.com, however, are permissible. * ; •: ' ' •;' The Park Record maim a ins a staff of writers, photographers and graphic artists who are committed to producing local news for Park City and Surnraii County. In order to continue doing so, the management must protect its original content. If there are any questions about this policy j please contact the publisher. Andy i Bern-hard at ab@parkrecord.com. gram in a climate of economic uncertainty- it is ludicrous that taxpayers are expected to foot the bill for a group of individuals whose mandate appears to be one of learning and then preaching the benefits of civility. Bang for our buck? I think not. Brian Harlig Park City The Park Record Staff : '••-<: PUBLISHER Andy Bemhard :' .V. ' Edhor Nan Chalat-Noaker . ;' '•*,•-„'.A.Staff writari Jay Hamburger f'^-'-J'^'-V.^.'*" •'-•• Andrew Kirk $ $ & ! $ ^ Scott Iwasokl !•' •1.'•*£,•>'/"-•;:-~ Christopher KamranU •:j|'''•.•.•;.. '; " -I' ':"-'<. M e g a n Yeiter ' ^ Sarah Moffirt .%$ B Contributing writers Tom Clyde . , Jay Meehan Terl Orr Steve Phillips Amy Roberts r'-i Larry Warren ; :"Mi! - '• * * Copy editor David Hampshire ADVERTISING Classified advertising AshJee Thomas I *' Office manager Jennifer Lynch * Office assistant Tiffany Rivera Circulation manager Lacy Brundy Accounting manager Kate Fischer Z i.,; Advertising director Valerie Spung •;'?•• Advertising sates Lori Gull -* Jennifer Muslal -V! Rachael Young-Tilton. '^ BarbaA Yarbenet Jodi Hecker : • i f / \ : /'Photographers Grayson West •XL\,;'v Tyler Cobb ; ; 1 .Production director Matt Gordon [:\i;iu ,)t Production Scott Schlenker * 2*^iq$* pal ! •-•. •:«!«•*'.-. •.-*• ._••.. Megan Maynard J Hamaker Kristl Masters - • • *JH t i l © rGCOrCl Asked at kids' yoga, Parley's Park Elementary What was your favorite year/grade of school? Alison Gross, Park City I've learned the most in life after school when I studied organic gardening and natural healing, the nontraditional stuff. facebook Randi jo Taurel, Park City Senior year of college, when I went to London for a semester. Hannah Lutzkum, Park City The first grade, because my friends are in the first grade and they said it was fun. Max McNulty Van Dordt, Park City Kindergarten, because it was reallv fun. Photos by Tyler Cobb Missy Kelly, Park City Fourth grade, because my teacher, Mr. Goodwin, read aloud the book, "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing," and he did a good impersonation of Fudge. Add your response to the question otthe week on The Park Record's facebook page: facebook.com/parkrecord \ |