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Show Perpatuas Stcrae, Inc. 12 3322 South 3rd Enat SalV-aV.e City, UT 84115 Twenty-Five Cents Volume Five Leapin Quick, how many days in a year? If you answered 365, in a couple of centuries your calendar will read spring in the midst of winter. If you said 365 and a quarter days, you'd be as accurate as the ancient Roman astrologers. A reply of 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and a bit over 45 seconds, puts you right on target. And, if you answer this year there are 366 days, you must know that February 29 is Leap Year Day, when calendars are set back in step with the earth's season's and, by old tradition, single women propose to unmarried men. Since the day he took up the plow, man has kept track of the seasons. Careful mapping of the sun's path through the year is important for proper timing of planting and harvesting. harvest-ing. Some early Middle-eastern civilizations civili-zations Summerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian used a base-60 arithmetic which was reflected re-flected in 360-day calendars, divided into twelve 30-day months. The ancient Egyptians maintained a convenient 'layman's' calendar also based on 360 revolutions of the earth, and a more accurate, frequently updated, agricultural calendar. To correct the timetable of the calendar of convenience, Egyptians held a five-day holiday at the end of each year. It was Julius Caesar, or more exactly, his Greek astronomer So-sigenes, So-sigenes, that first gave the world the awkward year where a month can have less or more than 30 days, and the concept of a 'leap day.' Caesar revamped the Roman calendar because be-cause it was inaccurate and contained a number of irregularities. First, New Year's day had been moved back by Caesars predecessors from March 25 (the vernal equinox) to January 1, when new government officials took office. This put all the month names two behind December, after the Latin decern, means tenth, but became the twelfth month. Similarity, September, for seventh, became the ninth; October, for eighth, became the tenth, and so forth. While Julius Caesar was unable to convince his fellow Romans to set another date for New Year's, he was able to institute a new calendar based on the twelve 30-day month Egyptian model. The Julian calender took the five extra Egyptian festival days and spread them throughout the year, making some months 31 days and others a bit shorter. The new calendar also added a leap year, which was inserted after February 23 every three years. To reward Caesar's calendar reform efforts, the Roman Senate renamed the month Quintilis as July. Julius' grandnephew Agustus gained a similar honor, having August named after him, by correcting the leap year calculation mistake that added an extra day every three years. The emperor had leap year observed every fourth year and all leap years between 8 B.C. and A.D. 8 were abolished to set the calendar straight. The year before the Junian calendar was put into practice, 45 B.C., had to ie reorganized to fit the new schedule. The manipulations were so extensive that rampant confusion resulted and "to ' Lizards It's Leap Year the year became known as the 'Year of Confusion.' Besides the normal 12 months, an extra 23-day Duodecem-ber, Duodecem-ber, making for a total of 445 days in the year 46 B.C. Though messy, the 'Year of Confusion' put the calendar back with the seasons. But the 'Year of Confusion' was not the end of the confusion. The Julian Calendar of 365 and a quarter days was too long by several minutes, and by the Middle Ages the calendar and the seasons were off again by several days. To set things straight again, Pope Gregory XIII abolished the Julian, or Old Style calendar, in March, 1582, replacing it with the Gregorian, or New Style, calendar. In the process he had to wipe out 10 days of the year, since every 400 years the Julian calendar gained three days on the seasons. The New Style calendar also omitted Leap Year from all centenary years, except those divisible di-visible by 400. Consequently, this century began without a leap year for 1900, but the year 2000 will have a Leap Day. Leap Year is believed to have earned its name after an old English practice that considered February 28 and 29 in a Leap Year to be the same day for legal purposes. The 28th would be the official day, the 29th sort of a non-day. Without its own legal status, February 29 would be 'leaped over' in English legal record books. Anything that occured on leap day would be dated on the 28th. The association of Leap Year with proposals of marriage dates back to an ancient Irish legend involving St. Patrick and St. Bridget of the 5th century. According to the story, Bridget complained to Patrick that the nuns in her charge wanted an opportunity to propose marriage. At this date celibacy in Irish religious orders was not a church requirement, but sometimes taken through private vows. The two saintly leaders agreed to allow the nuns a chance to propose every four years on Leap Year, the longest year of all. Bridget quickly proposed to Patrick, who declined, but he did give Bridget a kiss and a silk gown. In the British Isles of Middle Ages, the custom grew that any maid can propose to a man in Leap Year. Those men who refuse the offer must oblige the girl with a kiss and a pair of gloves or a silk dress. Subsequent Parliamentary Parlia-mentary acts made it a law that proposed-to-men must accept or provide a gift. Today, in a world where atomic clocks measure time to split nanoseconds nano-seconds (billionths of a second), man's ability to keep track of time has surpassed in accuracy the Earth's constancy as measured in revolutions. In fact, astronomers identify three different Earth years: The sidereal year is the time that the Earth takes to travel once around the sun in respect to the distant stars. The sidereal year takes 365.2564 days. The tropical year by comparison takes 365.242199 days and measures the period for the globe to complete the seasons. The tropical year is slightly Continued On Page 3 Page 6 An irritating noise to some, the sound of snowmobiles may get louder in the Heber Valley. Thursday, February 28, 1980 City Park Access Road: Acting on behalf of certain Park Avenue property owners, Park City attorney Brent Gold Thursday asked the City Council to consider widening and paving the access road which leads to City Park. "I have several clients who are proposing development in that area," Gold told the council. "One of the objections that has surfaced in the Planning Commission is that the road is not standard." Gold said his clients hope to develop their property which lies on the west side of the access road, but were informed by the Planning Commission Commis-sion that the road must be at least 25 feet wide. He pointed out the present road is wide enough in places, but is not standardized. He said he consulted engineer Wayne VanWagoner, who is conducting a survey of present and future traffic demands in the city. "One conclusion of the study is that current usage warrants the widening of that road," Gold said. Another conclusion, he added, is that "increased "in-creased usage as a result of new development would be insignificant when compared to what already exists." Gold conceded that his clients would benefit from the upgrading of the road, but noted they would be willing to bear "reasonable costs" regarding the widening and paving of the road and land acquisition. He said most of the land bordering the road belongs to the city, but that the alley along the south side of the 7-Eleven store is privately owned. "Our request is to give us an indication that the city is willing to go forward with this," he said. Plans for an airport in Summit County have never taken off, but trial balloons are flying once again. "For the past several months I have been meeting with a group of people who are interested in reviving the airport," air-port," City Manager Wayne Matthews Mat-thews announced at last Thursday's City Council meeting. He recalled the feasibility had first been studied in 1974, but then the project was abandoned. aban-doned. The plans called for the airport to be located east of U.S. Highway 40 and south of Interstate 80. The runway would have eventually been extended to 8,100 feet, long enough for small corporate jets. "The proposal has been discussed at various times since 1974, and Matthews Mat-thews said county officials "and some portions of the private sector" have been involved in the current talks. Matthews indicated Tuesday that the parties to these discussions have been asked to find answers to some of the most pressing questions. "The county wants more information and so does the city," he said. "I'm assuming there will be a meeting next week to gather up some of the information." wv&s - ley m ;0 k From Alley To Avenue: -X . I-!-, - li 'v I ' Si liiiil Councilwoman Helen Alvarez wondered won-dered whether it was the city's responsibility to provide access to someone who had subdivided his property. "I don't think it's prudent to improve that to a 25-foot road," she said. "I ,sdon't think it's prudent to make it a major traffic artery if it's going to continue to be a play area." She asked whether it was legal to sell a piece of property which created a Among the questions being asked are these: 1. How much federal money, if any, would be available for the project? 2. Would the Utah Department of Transportation be willing to contribute? con-tribute? 3. What would be the burden on the local taxpayer? 4. How many air carriers would be willing to fly into the airport? 5. Is there a sufficient demand? 6. Would the flight pattern interfere with population centers? 7. How valid are the studies conducted con-ducted six years ago? Those studies were prepared in 1974 by then-County Engineer Tom Mabey. In the intervening years Mabey has started his own firm, and is now representing developers Paul Anderson and Vern Hardman in the airport discussions. "We felt that the time might be right again to try to reactivate the project," Mabey told The Newspaper. "The only input we're giving is from the perspective of some of the developers in the area. The ultimate goal is to see where everybody sits on the situation." According to Mabey, it would not be Page 10 Some women wish to be Queen for a Day, but local resident Bea Kummer is looking toward Mother of the Year. afc City's only locally owned newspaper - '' .J, ' if nonconforming situation. Mayor Jack Green recalled that the city recently had sold a piece of property to Bud Workman to resolve a question over property lines. "At no time did we envision that being subdivided," he said. That property was then sold to developer Jim Lynn, who has announced an-nounced plans to build a triplex fronting on the access road. "That road is there," Gold said. "I Trial U.JL1JLJL1JLXL Xlll feasible for a private corporation to seek approval for the airport. "The project has to be sponsored by a governmental agency to receive federal funding," he said. As much as 90.94 percent of the construction con-struction costs can be paid by the federal government, Mabey said, with another five percent from the State Division of Aeronatics, UDOT. "Then it's a matter of the other five percent being raised by some other means." Mabey was asked if his 1974 studies would have to be done again. "None of those questions have really been answered at this point," he said. "It's really up to the Federal Aviation Administration and how they look at the project." As indicated in the 1974 studies, the runway would run north and south, roughly parallel to U.S. 40. "Originally, Phase One was designed for 5,700 feet of runway." Mabey said, "and Phase Two was designed for 8,100 feet of runway." Also involved in the discussions is the present county engineer, Stan Post ma, of Salt Lake firm ol fors-gren fors-gren and Perkins. Postma noted that Mabey's clients are planning an industrial in-dustrial park in the same area as the Number Twenty-Four J f SIS don't think it's going to be closed down. We're asking not that it be turned into a major road, but that it serve existing needs." Planning Director Bill Ligety said several members of the Planning Commission had expressed the desire that the road be retained as a secondary access "but that it shouldn't be developed as a primary Continued On Page 3 Balloons Fly For proposed airport and clearly would benefit from the improved transportation. transpor-tation. Postma indicated one of the questions being asked by the county is whether the airport would benefit the whole area, for example, by helping to promote jobs in the industrial park. At this point, he said, the county was waiting to be shown that the need exists. "The onus is back on the city and the developers." According to Postma, the airport could be sponsored either by the city or the county, or jointly. If the airport were built, it would require a "fixed base operator" to run the day-to-day maintenance operations. Alex Matway, currently the fixed base operator at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport in Florida, has already expressed ex-pressed an interest in the project. "The site they've got picked is one of the nicest I've seen in a long time."' Matway said. "We feel that it has potential, but there's a bunch of other things to be done first." "A lot of people have had the idea before," he pointed out. "I think what it needs is the catalyst to get it off the ground." Chance of rain or snow today and again Sunday, with overcast skies in between. High temperatures tem-peratures in the 30s, with lows in the 20s. |