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Show R ecKiess Skiing Is Now A Crime There was a lime when skiing in a reckless manner could cost you your season pass. Bui that was last year. This year it could land you in jail. A bit harsh? You wouldn't think so if your name were Merina Adamy. Mrs. Adamy was skiing at the Park City Resort last March 1 when ' lK-year-old Bruce Wilkerson. rocketing down Treasure Hollow, slammed into her from the rear. She was hospitalized Willi numerous injuries, including a shattered eye socket, broken jaw and broken clavicle. Wilkerson was charged with assault in a complaint signed by the woman's husband. In a trial held in July before Fifth Circuit Court Judge Raymond Uno. Wilkerson was found guilty. Assistant Summit County Attorney Terry Christiansen, Chris-tiansen, w ho prosecuted the case, noted that it set a precedent because it made I accountable when reck less skiing resulted in injury to another party. News of the landmark conviction was relayed nationwide in the National Ski Area Association newsletter, and has been noted in a number of other ski-related publications. Summit County now has gone one slep further. In a unanimous vote earlier this month, the County Commissioners Commis-sioners approved an ordinance making il a misdemeanor lor a person to "ski in a reckless or negligent manner so as to endanger the life. limb, or property of any person." The ordinance, drafted by Christiansen, Christian-sen, sets the maximum sentence at six months in jail or a $299 fine. "The Wilkerson case was the thing thai got me started on the ordinance," Christiansen said Monday. "Merina Adamy almost died as a result of that collision. "I think it can do a lot for the safety of the pi'oplca! the Kesorl." he continued. "It's designed to prolecl the people using the ski lulls, and lo help me in prosecuting the cases -T lelt we needed an ordinance to prosecute under II would have been a much easier case if we had been able lo prosecute under I lie ordinance I have just dialled. In researching his proposal. Chris-tianseiichecked Chris-tianseiichecked u ith oiherslates. "Colorado and Cahlornia have enacted en-acted skiing ordinances, but as lar as I can see. they don't apply to reckless skiing." Christiansen said he drew on a state statute governing the reckless opera-lion opera-lion of a motorboat The ordinance also spells out the duties of a skier involved in a collision. It requires that lie or she stop immediately and "render. ..reasonable assistance." including making arrangements ar-rangements for whatever medical care ;- nnresarv II stipulates thai a person involved in a collision where injury results should give his name and address to an employee ol the ski .area or a member ol the ski patrol before leaving the vicinity ol the collision. According to Phil Jones, mountain manager at the Resort, the ski patrol will have the responsibility of seeing that Ihe ordinance is obeyed. He said members of the patrol will be instructed to report violations to the Summit County Sheriff's Department. "All we're trying to do is make it a law lor skiers to do the prudent thing," he said. "Ninety-nine percent of them do already. The one percent that don't are the ones that make the problems." Jones said both skiers and Resort employees would be notified of the new ordinance. "We will post it on the hill the same as we have the out-of-bounds-skiing ordinance." ordi-nance." he said. v'l! 11 U. 7rTTO Park City, Utah 250 Vol. VI, No. 14 Thursday, December 18, 1980 3 Sections, 40 Pages County Approves $2.8 Million Budget The Summit County Commission voted Monday to approve a $2.85 million county budget for 1981, an increase of about $375,000 over 1980. The budget does not make provisions for any increase in the number of county coun-ty employees in 1981. However, it does call for a 12 percent cost-of-living hike plus merit raises for existing salaried employees and an 18 percent salary hike for the county's elected officials. The commissioners each receive a current monthly salary of $710. An 18 percent raise would bring that figure to $838. According to Commissioner Bill Wallin, the raise would bring the commissioners' com-missioners' salaries in line with recommendations made by the Utah Intergovernmental In-tergovernmental Agency. Among the other big changes between bet-ween 1980 and 1981 is a doubling of the budget of the defense attorney, from $52,681 in 1980 to $100,000 in 1981. County Clerk Reed Pace explained this move was made in anticipation of extra legal expenses because of the lawsuit filed against the county and the state by the family of John Singer. The civil defense budget is also way up, from $1,000 in 1980 to $14,798. Pace Detective Berry Resigns; Joins Sheriff's Office After serving nearly seven years on the Park City Police force, Detective Lieutenant Robert Berry resigned Monday in favor of a post in the Summit County Sheriff's Office. "It was time for a change, and it's an opportunity to more fully use my education and experience," Berry said. Berry, who was a patrolman for two years, initiated the detective division in Park City five years ago the first one in Summit County. When he begins his new job Jan. 2, he again will be setting up a new investigation program. "In some ways, Park City was the frontrunner in the detective division," Berry said. "And the job in the county will be a challenge for me, a chance to start another division. And that's what I enjoy doing." According to Summit County Sheriff Ron Robinson, there has been a growing need for an investigator in his office. Berry to 3 said this reflects an increased emphasis em-phasis on the program and the hiring of a part-time civil defense director. The county also doubled its budget, item for maintenance and utilities for government buildings, up from $42,127 to $87,800. According to Pace, this increase in-crease is a result of the expansion of the county courthouse. On the other side of the ledger, the county expects to receive about twice as much in animal licenses in 1981 as it did in 1980, up from $6,311 to an estimated $12,000. Pace pointed out that the county's animal control, progranj. did not get into full swing until about the middle of 1980. However, the county doesn't expect to make much more in marriage licenses licen-ses than it did in 1980. That item reads $400 for 1981, up only $5 from the 1980 figure. The Monday public hearing took place with a minimum of public comment. com-ment. Pace observed later that (here were only six people at the hearing other than county employees. One of those six was Park City School Superintendent Richard Goodworth, who expressed disappointment that the county had not seen fit to improve the level of health and social service in the Park City area. "I do think you should assess that very carefully," Goodworth told the commissioners. "We have some questions whether all the social services ser-vices are adequate to meet the coming needs." When questioned about the budget for the Summit County Health Department, Depart-ment, Commissioner Bill Wallin said it called for maintaining the existing level of services without making any stall cuts. However, in a meeting held following the public hearing, the commissioners voted to cut $15,000 out of the department's depart-ment's 1981 budget. Pace told The Newspaper that Health Director Frank Singleton was being asked to reduce the number of administrative jobs within the department to meet the cutback. In other amendments to the budget, the commissioners voted to include an expenditure of $62,500 to pay the county's coun-ty's share of extinguishing the Whitney Reservoir fire which burned about 40(1 acres of private and public land early in October. , Also included in the budget was an expenditure of $25,000 as the first payment for a plan to create a county-wide county-wide address system. Pace said the plan would include the making of maps, the assigning of house numbers, and actually ac-tually putting the numbers on the houses in the unincorporated areas. The utility companies have agreed to share the cost. According to Pace, the county 's share comes to about $70,000. Widow Plans 'Revenge Singer's Family Threatened With Eviction Relatives of slain polygamist John Singer have taken action to evict his widow from the Marion farm where she has lived for the past 18 years. Mrs. Singer told The Newspaper Wednesday that the children of her husband's late uncle, Gustav Weller, ordered an eviction notice served Tuesday. She was told she has three days to vacate the house, unless she pays $1,000 in back rent. Mrs. Singer said she owes no rent, since the house was owned by John, who earned it by working without pay for Weller for 17 years. Weller's children, however, claim that no documents exist which prove Singer's ownership of the land . The Wellers, who own the Marion Park Estates corporation, are asking for rent accrued since the shooting death of Singer in January 1979. Singer apparently had paid one third of the property taxes during his years there, and none have been paid since his death Mrs. Singer said she will not pay the rent, and furthermore, will add the relative's names to the list of defendants defend-ants in the wrongful death suit that has been filed in federal court. According to Mrs. Singer, shortly after af-ter her husband was shot by law enforcement enforce-ment agents, she discovered that the Weller children had rented their late father's home to the agents. The home, down the lane from the Singers, allowed easy viewing of John's daily activities, Mrs. Singer said. In addition, she said the family also rented snowmobiles to the agents, on which they approached and circled Singer the day of the shooting. "Right after John's death, people asked me why I didn't enter their (Wellers') names to the wrongful death suit," Mrs. Singer said. "I didn't want to. I have no hatred or revenge. But honest to Pete, they warned me that if I so much as built a porch on the house, they would have me charged with criminal trespassing. I wrote a letter to Jarred (Weller, president of the corporation). cor-poration). I told him after all that has happened, if he further harassed me, it would come back on his head. And it will." Mrs. Singer said she is unable to pay the requested rental because she receives only a limited income from Social Security and her husband's veteran's benefits. She emphasized thai the farm belonged to her husband, and she plans to produce notorized documents from witnesses who claim to have heard the agreement between John and Gustav Weller. Mrs. Singer said she was taking her three sons to Salt Lake Wednesday to be deposed as part of the wrongful death suit. She said she was deposed Monday and three days last month, and that her four other children already had been questioned. "The whole thing is a religious harassment," Mrs. Singer said. "But I have taith it will be okay in the end. This thing with the rent they're bringing it against themselves. I would not have taken revenge. They're doing it to themselves." , ' r ,ft 1 ' Y&. ' ' x ! '' ".' ' ; 4 ' i (3 r 1. f. ' is M " M i Santa and Friend Guess Who's Coming to Town The jolly gent we've all been waiting for will be the guest of honor at the Community Christmas Celebration Friday in the Memorial Building Santa Claus is coming to town! The festivities sponsored by the Recreation Department will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the gymnasium, which will be decorated for the occasion. There will be candy for the kids and apple cider for all. The program will include music, a ballet exhibition by 6-to-8-year-olds, tap dancing by the Community Education class, gymnastics gym-nastics by the Prospector Athletic Club tumblers, and caroling. Santa will make his appearance through the chimney about 7 p.m. To help send Christmas cheer to those less fortunate, participants are encouraged to donate something to the Toys for Tots bin at the door of the Memorial Building. The gifts will be taken to the Marine Corp. armory at Fort Douglas, where they then will be distributed by Christmas Christ-mas Eve to needy kids. Get into the Christmas spirit! Join your friends and neighbors at the Community Christmas Celebration it's fun, and free! r - . New Planner Has Eye on Historic Preservation Hill Mamim-ii Keeping close tabs on Park City's growth and the design of its new buildings is not an easy task. But it's a job the City Council felt architect Bill Mammen could handle, and last Thursday night, they appointed him to the Planning Commission. Mammen will fill the unexpired term of architect Roy Reynolds, who resigned in September to fulfill other commitments. Just two months remain re-main in the unexpired term, but the City Council will then reappoint Mammen to the commission for a four-year stint. The 31-year-old Mammen came to Park City about 18 months ago from Southern California to design a project, and like so many other visitors, he fell for the town and moved here. He worked with Reynolds, and then went into partnership with him in the Main Street architectural firm. Mammen said he didn't intend to apply for the commission job, but friends convinced him his interest in historic preservation and his architec tural background would be an asset. "So I applied," he said. "I would like to be part of the community, and being an architect, I feel I can be helpful to the commission. When plans come in, I can visualize what the end product will be." Mammen said he has attended commission meetings on a regular basis, and has observed where changes might be made. "I would like to be part of seeing the Planning Commission become a planning plan-ning board instead of a review board for conditional use permits." Mammen said. "I would like to see the continuation of the new policies that have been adopted. I think the Land Management Code is a good document, and that the changes that were made were good ones. I'd like to see it taken further so that we identify permitted uses and eliminate conditional uses to the broadest extent possible." For obvious professional reasons. Mammen said he is interested in seeing Park Citv continue to grow. "It makes the community a viable and desirable place to live, and professionally, growth makes it possible pos-sible for me to live here," he commented. "Because of my background back-ground in historic preservation and urban and regional planning, I'd like to see growth w ith concern for Park City's past, both socially and architecturally" As new buildings go up in Park City, debates have centered around contemporary con-temporary architecture versus replication replica-tion of historic designs. Although Mammen said he has not determined what he believes the city's policy on architectural design ought to be, he said he has personal feelings. "I believe that the architecture should be compatible with the historic feeling here. Personally, I feel there are areas of town where historic buildings are more noticeable, and there I would like to see a more strict interpretation. To me. any imitation of Victorian architecture belter be very historical, or il better stick to modern designs. I'd r.iiher see good architec ture than lousy architecture." He agreed that developers may come before the commission with a preconceived pre-conceived notion of what architectural style might win approval. And while many designs reflect historic lines, approvals do not necessarily mean the commission encourages that type of architecture. "I think that may be a false assumption on the part of the developer," Mammen said. "I'd like to see, especially in the historic areas, a higher quality of architecture. I hope that developers will look at projects with more of an open eye than in the past. "I think historic Main Street needs some special ordinance work," he continued. "I'd like to see it be a high priority to establish a policy that encourages both restoration and a variety of buildings, as opposed to five-story buildings up and down Main Street." Mammen to 3 |