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Show The Newspaper'Thursday, September 10, 1981Page A7 Sewer problem The means to clean up a months-old sewer problem on Woodside Avenue may be clogged in the system for at least another todays, but the solution may prove important impor-tant to both the city and area residents. The problem involves a damaged four-inch sewer line running through the property of Clarence Johnson John-son at 332 Woodside Avenue. Because of the broken line, Before the highway Maybe this isn't the right time to bring this up, with traffic jams clogging up Empire Avenue, but has anyone stopped to figure out the traffic pressures on Park Avenue after Deer Valley opens, and before the new highway is constructed? Actually, the city already did. Traffic Engineer Wayne VanWagoner said his office did a quick study nearly three years ago of traffic impacts on Park Avenue and its intersection with Empire Avenue. At the peak hour at the end of the day, a traffic light will be needed at that intersection. Periods of slow stop-and-go traffic might occur. But the city officials found a silver curb lining for this cloudy report. They took the County ready to charter new course Okay, Commissioners. It's your move. If all went according to plan last night, the proposal to revise the Summit County charter is now in the hands of the County Commission. A 17-member study group, appointed in June to consider revisions to the charter, was to have completed its recommendations recom-mendations last night as the first step in bringing proposed pro-posed government changes before the voters of Summit County. "I think we made some real strong headway in the last couple of weeks," Assistant Assis-tant County Attorney Terry Christiansen said before Wednesday's meeting. "I really don't see there will be too many problems." Christiansen and County Planner Stan Strebel have been acting as advisors to the group, which is composed com-posed of private citizens from all areas of the county. The portion of the charter which was reviewed at last week's committee meeting calls for the division of the county into five voting districts, dis-tricts, with one County Commissioner to be elected from each district. (Under the present system, each of the three Commissioners is elected by the county voters as a whole.) The new charter calls for the five Commissioners to vote among themselves to select a Commission chairman. chair-man. That chairman would have the same voting privileges priv-ileges as the other four members of the group. According to the terms of the proposed charter, the creation of the districts would be authorized by the current Commission, assuming as-suming that the new charter Resort, Deer Valley co-op ski tickets Park City Ski Corporation and Deer Valley Resort will offer an interchangeable ticket for the 1981-82 ski season, the two resorts announced Wednesday. Skiers will be able to purchase voucher books redeemable for five-out-of-six days or six-out-of-seven days of skiing at either resort. The voucher books will be available at both Park City and Deer Valley. The cost of the five-day adult voucher book is $90 and $108 for the six-day version. A $2 daily upgrade will be required when exchanging a voucher for a day pass at Deer Valley. The resorts also will offer children's vouchers. Let the raw sewage is seeping into Johnson's backyard, and the Summit County Health Department has formally requested that it be fixed. Johnson's problem is that he'd like to have it fixed, but neighbor Mrs. Jessie McAlevy refused to allow the Snyderville Sewer Improvement Improve-ment District onto her property prop-erty in July to replace the line connecting him with the main. Mrs. McAlevy claimed claim-ed that the district had no data to the Utah Department of Transportation, and used it to persuade UDOT to step up their schedule for building build-ing their highway. "The city really performed a yeoman service," said VanWagoner. "Otherwise, you'd still be looking for the highway four or five years down the road instead of next year." The new thoroughfare should be ready for 1982-83 skiers. At a peak hour in the afternoon, a condition of slow stop-and-go traffic might develop. VanWagoner said his best ballpark guess is that it might last for 20 minutes. (That doesn't mean every driver will take 20 minutes to get out of town. The sluggish condition will last for 20 minutes.) And VanWagoner also stresses is approved by the voters. Katherine Janka, a member of the study group, predicted that two of those districts would be in the Park City-Snyderville area. Janka said the group also voted in favor of an appointed ap-pointed county executive (county manager), to be hired and fired with the approval of at least four of the five commissioners. As spelled out in the proposed charter, the county manager would have the power to nominate (but not to hire) department heads, and to recommend their dismissal. The manager would also be authorized to prepare the annual county budget and to sign county documents other than legislative legis-lative acts of the Commission. Commis-sion. Last week's meeting did not address the salary of the county manager. Janka said she would like to see the charter include an initial base rate of $30,000 to $35,000 enough to attract top-quality candidates. The major issue not addressed ad-dressed at last week's session ses-sion was the method of selecting other county officials, of-ficials, such as the clerk, treasurer, recorder and assessor. as-sessor. The charter proposal drawn up by Christiansen and Strebel calls for the offices of the county attorney, attor-ney, sheriff and assessor to be elected, as they are currently. However, it stipulates stip-ulates that the offices of the clerk, treasurer and recorder re-corder be made appointed positions as of Jan. 1, 1987. It also calls for the creation of an appointed auditor position. pos-ition. "We want to make things as convenient as possible," said Park City Marketing Director Craig Badami. "The interchangeable voucher provides a great deal of flexibility for the skier." Steve Dering, Deer Valley's Val-ley's director of public relations, added, "This is not only a skier convenience, but also a demonstration of the spirit of cooperation which exists between the two resorts. Our common goal is to make the town of Park City one of the country's premier ski destinations." Dering commented that while the vouchers do not represent a savings on daily is stink right to trespass onto her property since no legal easement existed. Once construction con-struction began, she said, public access to her land would have been established, and she complained that an easement would devalue her property. Faced with a growing health hazard because of the raw sewage, the sewer district filed a restraining order in Third District Court asking that work be allowed comes... the time for slow traffic might vary widely, depending depend-ing on individual factors that day. "It might last 20 minutes one day, five minutes the next," he said. The big peak of the day, he estimated, would be around 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. "At 3, people will start drifting away from the resorts," he said. "In the morning, the traffic peak is more concentrated." concen-trated." None of this means we need any more than one traffic light, said the city engineer. "I don't think any other intersection needs it yet," he added. Another item we can do without, thanks to the study, is a temporary road that was proposed to serve the city until the highway was built. Christiansen said the majority ma-jority of the committee members mem-bers favor that change from elected to appointed for the clerk, treasurer and recorder. record-er. "But there's very strong thought that the county (voters) may not support that position. ..That's really why the committee is jostling jost-ling with it." As Janka pointed out, the committee is in a Catch-22 position. If the group recommends recom-mends that those offices be elected, then the county manager's authority over those officials is immediately immediat-ely jeopardized. If the group recommends that the offices be appointed, the whole county charter could be thrown out by the voters. Janka indicated that the group may decide to go for the second alternative and leave the County Commission Commis-sion with the option of changing the charter if public opposition is expressed expres-sed in upcoming public hearings. The tentative timetable calls for the present County Commission to review the group's recommendations, make whatever changes it sees fit, then present the charter for public hearing. Depending on the input at those hearings, further changes chan-ges could be made to the charter before it is prepared for a county-wide vote in March of 1982. Following the public vote, the present County Commission Commis-sion would draw up the district boundaries, assuming as-suming that the charter wins approval. If the new charter is approved by the voters, the first election under the new system would be held in November 1982. offer lift tickets, they are intended to save the visiting skier reservation hassles. He noted that without the vouchers, vouch-ers, visitors would have to specify in advance the date and area they wished to ski. Now he said, that decision can be made when the skier reaches Park City. Dering added that Deer Valley intends to allow a maximum of 3,000 skiers per day on the slopes, and the vouchers will insure space will be available availab-le at the resort. According to Laura Thomas, assistant marketing mar-keting director of Park City Ski Area, their resort vouchers vouch-ers also will allow visitors to ski at Alta and Snowbird. for all concerned to proceed. But on Aug. 5, district court Judge Bryant Croft ruled in favor of Mrs. McAlevy, noting that easements ease-ments generally are visible, and that the state law is unclear regarding public access to private property for the construction or maintenance main-tenance of underground sewer or water lines. On Monday, sewer district director Bruce Decker commented, com-mented, "We've been taken out of the picture involun- "It would have paralleled the highway route, running from Snow Country south on the railroad right-of-way to the east of the Depot Project," said councilman Bob Wells. But the imminent construction of the highway, he said, made the temporary road unnecessary. The traffic projections made for the 1978 study, based on resort activity, are still valid. "We assumed Deer Valley would be at full operation capacity," VanWagoner Van-Wagoner said. "And I think they're slightly below that this year." Also, new commercial-residential development develop-ment at the resort base should help dilute the heavy stream of traffic leaving there at rush hour. Traffic from the north to Main Street at peak hours should have few troubles, since it's going against the heavy direction of autos. When Park City Village was planned at the base of Park City Resort, VanWagoner said, city planners made sure a good signage program would direct motorists to Main Street. We must last through one more winter, evidently. And then Park Avenue, the street of a thousand autos and a million ruts, will get some relief from traffic congestion con-gestion If you're a student getting "B's" or better, you may qualify for Farmers' Good Student Discount in the form of a special bonub lower rate on your Auto insurance. Call today and get the facts on Farmers money-saving Good Student Auto Policy. You can get 25 off. Judy M. Kimball, Agent Tom Wilson, Agent 202 Silver King Bank Bldg. Park City. Utah 6498656 Enjoy Hey Smarty! Suite Relaxation with special at the tartly. The judge decided we can't go in and fix his (Johnson's) line." Decker said that while the district could test Croft's decision in a higher court, the board of directors voted against it. That seems to leave the problem up to Johnson, who was told by the Health Department to resolve the situation by Aug. 31. He said he feels the sewer district or the city should help him solve the dilemma. As outlined out-lined in letters from environmental environ-mental health officer Bob Reschke, Johnson could attempt at-tempt to purchase an easement ease-ment for gravity-fed pipeline to send the sewage down to Park Avenue; purchase pumping equipment to go uphill to Woodside Avenue; or move out of the house. While Reschke said he feels sympathetic about the problem, the Health Department Depart-ment has the area residents to consider. "The Health Department can't take sides," Reschke said. "There is a pre-existing health nuisance there, and Mr. Johnson has ignored the abatement order. If we become passive about this, people will say we are willy-nilly health officials who couldn't care less, which isn't true. "We may appear inhuman, in-human, but sewage is leaching leach-ing out into a lot where kids play. And a full-blown epidemic epi-demic of hepatitis is no laughing matter." September (DAME I - . " ; , - I If At f1 4" 1 "Ok V f - W l U ' " W , '- ...-n n i ' .lit i i ; I I Tf Tf 1 H 11111 1 Thursday Park City City Council meeting, 5 p.m.. Memorial Building Supper at Senior Citizens Center, 5p.m. Deadline for entering Great Salt Lake Sand Castle & Sculpture Contest; call 533-0012 for information "Room Full of Blues" in concert at Cowboy Bar; 9p.m. room rates -;.' -$35.00 Kach two room suite sleeps up to four people with your own private balcony and wood burning lircplace. Color cable T.V., full wet bar, microwave 1637 Shortline But Reschke noted that the department has given Johnson John-son another 10 days to take action on the problem. "We're going to allow him to make the first move," said Reschke. "I understand from Mr. Johnson that he has obtained legal counsel. If he proceeds through legal channels, that will be okay. We'll give him some time, and if nothing happens, then we only have one recourse, and that's to go to court." On Wednesday, Johnson said he had seen an attorney, "but it don't look too good about getting any help. It's pretty hard for an old citizen to get anything done." Johnson said his attorney is exploring possibilities for either having the problem fixed by the city or the sewer district". He added that he had not researched the cost of either buying an easement or pumping equipment. And he says he doesn't intend to move out. "My attorney is figuring it out," said Johnson. "I really can't talk about it, and I don't know when there will be an answer." According to both Reschke and Decker, the court decision for now ties the hands of officials trying to upgrade the sewer pipes in the older part of town and both agree that the ruling needs to be tested in a higher court. The question now comes down to who is responsible for footing the attorney fees. MID ATE 1LIL Friday Historical Society meeting in the City Hall Dungeon ; noon Park City Miners vs. Beaver, 4 p.m., High School Saturday Rugby Challenge Cup begins 10 a.m.. City Park; all day Youth soccer begins at high school, Parleys Park per night now z .j..:..-rr T'i'ywJA - Road, Park City HELP WANTED The Newspaper is looking for a part-time typesetter. Good typing skills needed, typesetting experience preferred though not necessary. Ten to twenty hours per week, good pay, health insurance, other benefits. Come by 419 Main Street or call 649-9014 and ask for Rick or Jan. TFN CMC Fine German Food open for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Seating from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Daily Specials Specializing in Fine German Pastries Cappuccino & Expresso 402 Main Street, Park City Now Open the Ritz Beer Garden sidewalk cafe Elementary Easter Seals 5-Speed Challenge RunWalk in Salt Lake; call 486-3931 Great Salt Lake Sand Castle & Sculpture Contest; 9a.m.-12:30p.m.; Saltair Beach Intermountain Regatta Windsurfing race; 1 p.m., Deer Creek Reservoir Sunday Rugby Challenge Cup begins at 10a.m., City Park; all day Intermountain Regatta Windsurfing race; 1 p.m.. Deer Creek Reservoir Park through November 30th- oven and refrigerator in every suite Relax in our hot tub. And enjoy your Park City vacation with suite relaxa lion at the Copperbottom Inn. across from the Park City Monday Racquet Club Irague play begins; call 64 !M(080 Summit County Commission Commis-sion meeting; 10 a.m., Coalville courthouse Supper at Senior ( hums Center, 5 p.m. Snyderville Sewer District meeting; 7 p.m., disli ii t offices Ladies Night at the Racquet Club, 7-9 p.m. Ladies Athenaeum meeting, 7:30 p.m.. Memorial Building Tuesday Motor vehicles representative represen-tative at the Memorial Building; 9-noon, l-4p.ni. Men's Night at the Racquet Club, 7-9 p.m. Park City Community Clinic ; 649-59K!) for appointment Well-Child, WIC Clinic at Health Dept. on Main Street; 9-1 1 a.m. ; 6I!)-!MI7 Mixed Doubles .Night at the Racquet Club; 7-9 p. m City, Utah it t 'ft Resort entrance Wednesday Lodestar Call for reservations: TOLL FREE 800-453-3850 And in Utah 801-649-5111 (r i ;0 be your guide |