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Show Park City, Utah 25 Vol. VI, No. 26 Thursday, March 12, 1981 2 Sections, 28 Pages :wr t.- i .11 11 Falls resigns as principal A search has begun for a new middle school principal following the surprise resignation of Dr. Otis Falls. Falls submitted a letter of resignation to the Park City Board of Education on Friday, the day after a marathon executive session involving Falls, the board, and the faculty of the middle school. "I believe this has been a most productive school year for students at Carl Winters Middle School," Falls' letter let-ter began. "Programs have been initiated and teachers have effectively carried out a successful school program. "Unfortunately, of late, philosophical differences and blocked communication com-munication between some staff members mem-bers and myself have resulted in teacher energies being diverted from the educational program. This situation is detrimental to all parties involved: the staff, students, parents and myself .- "Rather than continue what appears to be an unresolvable situation, and acting act-ing on my belief that educators have a sacred trust to parents and children, I request the following actions of the Board of Education: "1. That I be granted a leave of absence ab-sence from the principalship at Carl Winters Middle School immediately. "2. That this letter serve as my resignation from the Park City School District, to be effective at the conclusion con-clusion of the 1980-81 school year. "My very best wishes for the continued con-tinued success of the Park City School District." The letter was signed, "Otis A. Falls, Ph.D." At a special meeting Monday evening, the board agreed to grant both of Falls' requests. Although no formal statement was released, School Superintendent Richard Goodworth said the board felt "the issue was handled han-dled in an appropriate and professional " Who says there are t, r , Statue polisher heads Amazing Bob Grace, the man who wants to polish the Statue of Liberty has taken his campaign to the Big Apple. Grace, whose dream to make American's great green lady as shiny as a new penny was revealed on these pages last October, moved from Park City to New York earlier this week, hoping to benefit from the national publicity his idea has received. Although The Newspaper does boast of a few out-of-state subscribers, it took the clout of the Associated Press to carry the story nationwide. About two months after it appeared in The Newspaper, Clark Lobb of the Salt Lake Tribune picked up the trail. His story caught the fancy of the wire services, and was printed in newspapers across the country. On Jan. 13 it was repeated by Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News. The following day it surfaced as an item on ABC's Good Morning , JVC (4 5 Dr. Otis manner." The board asked high school principal prin-cipal Dr. Jack Dozier, to serve as interim in-terim principal of the middle school for the remainder of the school year. After meeting with the board Monday, Dozier agreed, contingent upon an expression of support from the faculty of the high school. Goodworth reported that Dozier received that endorsement from the high school staff, then met with the faculty of the middle school Tuesday morning. "He indicated to them he wasn't coming in as Wyatt Earp to clean up the town, but as a coach to pull the team together," Goodworth said. School Board President Nancy Mc-Comb Mc-Comb acknowledged that Thursday's marathon executive session, which- no Leprechauns? iy X: y i Photo by Phyllis M. Rubenstem America. Bob Grace was a celebrity. "They had my picture right next to Ronald Reagan's picture," Grace said Monday, recalling his surprise at seeing himself on morning television. After that, the phone calls started coming in from all across the country. Unfortunately, Grace made the mistake mis-take of getting an unlisted number, so some of those calls ended up at The Newspaper office. One came from a weekly paper in Montreal, another from the P.M. Magazine crew in Salt Lake City. Grace finally came to the rescue by having his number listed. "Then a man called me from Louisiana with a product that could keep the statue shiny for 10 years," Grace related. . That led to a trip to New York for Grace late in February. There he met -I" ... I 4 Ji it. If Falls lasted from 3:30 p.m. until after midnight, mid-night, did have a bearing on Falls' decision to resign. "We did talk to all the teachers and had a moderator up from the University Univer-sity (of Utah) to discuss the situation," she said. "Dr. Falls was heard. All sides were heard." Mrs. McComb was asked whether Falls was pressured to resign. "He was not," she said. "He offered his resignation. He felt his presence in the school was detrimental to the progress of the school . . . There was no pressure from the school board, in my opinion." She suggested that the differences between Falls and the faculty stemmed from a Clash of personalities rather than a disagreement over curriculum.' Mayflower Mountain Wasatch Construction on a new Wasatch County Coun-ty development which could rival Deer Valley in. scope may begin as early as 1983. The so-called Mayflower Mountain project would be built on 5,400 acres south of Keetley, bordered on one side by the proposed Jordanelle Reservoir and on the other by Flagstaff Mountain. According to Wasatch County Planner Plan-ner Bob Mathis, a strict interpretation of the slope restrictions imposed by the county's land management code would limit the developers to about 600 units. However, he indicated that the developers are proposing a higher density. den-sity. "They want anything from four to eight times that amount," he said. "We will have to review the evidence they bring in." Mathis explained that the code makes room for concessions which could allow a compromise to be reached between the developers and the county. Although no plans have been filed, the developers have established a $25,000 out-of-pocket review fund with the county to pay for the services of outside consultants. The county's concerns have been focused on the instability of soils in the area, the impact that the development would have on water quality, and on the financial qualifications of the developers. "They've got to show that it will work environmentally, that it will work financially, and that it will work, as far as is possible, economically and socially," Mathis said. When Wasatch County decided to build a new sewer plant in 1977, the for the Big with experts on copper oxidation who had flown in from as far away as Alaska. The New York visit naturally included a trip to Liberty Island, where a camera crew from WABC-TV was waiting to record the occasion. "They had a thousand school children out there that day, and they went crazy," Grace said. At that point Grace decided his campaign needed a little organization, so he approached the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. "I wanted a big name, so I sat down and sold them on the idea," he said. Other offers started to come in. A restaurant chain promised him an office and telephone. A well-known New York bank offered the use of its facilities to keep track of donations. Grace said the largest offer so far has come from a French chemical com I i r '" '-, , ' of middle schoo "He had one brand of leadership and the staff was expecting a different kind of leadership. They did not mesh." Goodworth said Tuesday he had been authorized by the board to begin a search for a new middle school principal. He indicated that letters would be sent to about 90 placement centers at universities and colleges nationwide, and to all other school districts in the state. Also on the list to be notified are those who previously have inquired about administration positions in the Park City School District. According to Goodworth, Falls' resignation is not expected to hinder the plans for the new middle school. "I think if anything it may hasten them," he said. He explained that Falls will be working out of the district office for the remainder of the school year, and will be asked to work closely with architect Keith Stepan on the plans for the new school . Falls came to Park City from San Diego at the beginning of the 1977-78 school year. He served for two years as the principal of the Marsac Elementary School, then assumed the added responsibility of principal of the Carl Winters Middle School, at his own request, at the beginning of the 1979-80 school year. Before that year was over. Falls had become embroiled in a controversy over the firing of three untenured teachers. In an executive session in April of last year, representatives of the middle school faculty asked that Falls devote his full attention to the elementary school, and that the board hire a new principal for the middle school. The board did not heed that suggestion. Instead, the teachers were notified that Falls would be retained as -the middle school principal, and that a '?w principal would be hired for the project could rival Deer Valley owners of the Mayflower property were consulted about paying one quarter of the cost of a trunk line to be run north from Heber City. They declined, and the line was never installed. "If they wish to use it now, they'll have to pay for it all the way." Mathis said. He indicated the developers also have the option of building an on-site sewage treatment facility. The Mayflower property is owned by two Dutch firms: Sichting Mayflower Recreational Fonds and the Sichting Mayflower Mountain Fonds. Preliminary Prelim-inary plans are being drawn up by Bingham Engineering, a Salt Lake City firm. Clark Mower of Bingham Engineering estimated that the planning plan-ning and approval process would take about two years. "From that point on. we're talking about development taking 10 to 15 years," he said. Mower described a project which would include single- and multi-family homes and enough commercial development to serve the needs of the residents. He estimated that about one quarter of the 5,400-acre site had the potential to be developed. According to Mower, a portion of the property has been leased to the Royal Street Land Company to be developed as part of the Deer Valley ski area. He indicated that an agreement had been made with Royal Street to allow residents of the Mayflower project to use the ski facilities. The Mayflower property also includes in-cludes surface rights in the area of the Mayflower Mine, once a steady source Apple pany. "They ottered $500,000 to get it started, plus they were going to donate the chemicals free." But he had no mechanism to handle the money. "I didn't want to take a donation that big right away. ..the donations were coming in so fast I had to lell them to stop." Grace said his next step will be to set up a nonprofit corporation to handle the funds for the project. "Everything has to be open book. I want the IRS to run the thing. That way they can't come to me and say I did something wrong." He also hopes to win the endorsement endorse-ment of Ronald Reagan. During last year's campaign, Reagan the candidate candi-date expressed interest in the project, but Reagan the president has yet to give it his blessing. Grace's goal is to have the statue restored to its original pristine condition condi-tion for its 100th birthday, July 4, 1984. elementary school to begin in the fall . In a detailed letter drafted by then-board then-board members Gary Boyle and Anne Prince, Falls and the returning teachers were instructed to "explore the apparent problems on an individual basis and make commitment to a per From the legislature In the past month, The Newspaper has discussed several bills in the Utah Legislature which would have an impact on the Park City area. The following is a status report on those bills as they stood at noon Wednesday. Wed-nesday. The 1981 legislative session is due to close at midnight Thursday. I1B 60: a proposal to make increases in revenues collected by local government contingent upon increases in population and per capita income. in-come. Opposed by most municipal governments including Park City. Has passed both House and Senate, but in different forms. Compromise unlikely within next 36 hours. HB 164: a proposal to reduce the value of a home, for taxing purpose, to 80 percent of its market value as established by sales ratio studies. Designed to reduce the homeowner's property tax burden. Passed by both House and Senate. Awaits the Governor's signature. 1IB 172: a proposal to allow a municipality to establish a public transportation tran-sportation system operated directly by local government, and to allow general revenues to be used to fund the system. Sponsored by Rep. Glen Brown at the request of Park City Attorney Michael McCoy. Has passed both House and Senate. Awaits the Governor's signature. II H m: a proposal to drop the state-run county-by-county reappraisal program. Gives the local assessor responsibility for reappraisal, but allows the State Tax Commission to conduct a factoring-up process every two years. Has passed both House and Senate. Awaits the Governor's signature. HB 228: a proposal to redistribute the three-quarters of one percent local option sales tax according to population as well as point of sale. As amended, 70 percent local option tax would be distributed according to point of sale, 30 percent according to population. To be phased in over three years. Opposed by Park City. Passed by the House, awaits action by the Senate. SB :i: a proposal to withhold public funds from any organization which provides contraception and abortion services to unmarried minors without parental consent. Opposed by the Park City Community Clinic. Has passed both House and Senate. Awaits the Governor's signature. of gold and silver. The Noranda Mining Company is proposing to reopen the Mayflower Mine, but first must negotiate an agreement with the landowners. "Both parties have to come to some kind of an agreement before we can proceed," Noranda area production manager John Cesar told The Prospector Park lawsuit settled After months of negotiation, the City Council voted last Thursday to settle out of court a lawsuit filed last October against the developers of the Prospector Prospec-tor Park subdivision. The suit, filed in district court, alleged that developers Murray First Thrift agreed to make certain improvements im-provements in the subdivision, but failed to do so. That fact was abundantly abundant-ly clear to area residents, who complained com-plained to the council last fall that their development was experiencing sewer system problems, was devoid of landscaping, land-scaping, and lacked, among other things, the live-acre park that was promised. Although bonds were posted to complete com-plete a portion of the improvements, they lapsed or were released before work began. Since the city had not accepted ac-cepted the three-phase subdivision, which received its first planning approval ap-proval in 1977, it felt it was not responsible respon-sible for bearing the financial responsibility respon-sibility for making the improvements. Last October, the council voted to file the breach of contract suit to force the developers to take action. Last Thursday, the council signed an agreement with John Price and the Banberry Development Corporation, which guaranteed that certain improvements im-provements will be completed within one year. Early in October, Banberry Corporation purchased Prospector Ridge, which abutts the subdivision, from Prospector Park Associates. So that a lawsuit would not hold up the development of their property, Banberry Ban-berry agreed to settle the issue with the city. As spelled out in the agreement, Banberry Ban-berry will be responsible for making improvements in five areas : The Silver Creek drainage will be upgraded so that the streambed is a maximum of four feet deep wherever possible. It will be riprapped with one-inch one-inch graded rock to build up the bed so that it is a minimum depth where feasible, and drain pipe will be laid under un-der the rock to carry storm run-off. sonal resolution of those conflicts." Although differences between Falls and the faculty were less visible to the public after that point, the members of the new board discovered during recent contract discussions that all the fences had not been mended. Newspaper. "The negotiations have been pretty much at a standstill recently. re-cently. Another facet in the equation is the continuing debate over the Jordanelle Reservoir. Mower was asked if the project was contingent on the reservoir being built. "No, not al all," he said. Public access areas along the creek will be landscaped. If it becomes necessary to relocate cable television line located in the streambed, Banberry will be responsible for removal and reinstallation. rein-stallation. A five-acre park will be developed adjacent to Wyatt Earp Way. City Councilwoman Helen Alvarez will work with Banberry to develop a park plan. Alvarez said the park will use natural landscaping, and will have a stream running through it, a walking path, barbeque pits, picnic benches and a parking lot at one end. While Banberry will not be required to install a storm run-off retention pond for Prospector Park, they will be required to create one within the Prospector Ridge subdivision. sub-division. The sewer lift station (which never was accepted by the Snyderville Basin Sewer District ) will be replaced by one that can adequately serve both Prospector Park and Prospector Ridge. The lift station must be improved before the City Council will consider approval of Prospector Ridge. Further, if the Prospector station connects with the Park Meadows lift station, Banberry Ban-berry must guarantee that the system can handle it. The buffer strip along Highway 248 must be replanted with natural landscaping, land-scaping, and a sprinkler system installed. in-stalled. The landscaping plan must be reviewed and approved by the City Council. As part of the agreement, Banberry must provide the city with an irrevocable letter of credit for $200,000 guaranteeing that the improvements will be made within a year and remain intact for one more year. Of that amount, $86,000 will be used for improvements im-provements to Silver Creek. Spearheading the drive to improve Prospector Park was Councilwoman Alvarez. On Tuesday, she expressed relief that the issue was settled, and was optimistic that subdivisions in the future will not suffer from the same problems. |