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Show HDCBLr Park City, Utah 250 Vol. VII, No. 1 Thursday, September 24, 1981 2 sections, 28 pages few'?., . , - Construction in Park defies national trend Building slump? What building slump? While high interest rates have helped send new construction into a tailspin in most parts of the country, new buildings are sprouting in Park City like mushrooms after five days of rain. According to figures presented to the City Council Thursday, the pace of new construction in Park City in 1981 has quadrupled over the pace of a year ago, as judged by the valuation of building permits. Building Inspector Ron Ivie reported that the total valuation of new construction in 1981, as of Sept. 16, amounted to $66,500,000, an increase of about $50 million over the same period a year ago. Although the construction season is legislation Park City residents who intend to vote in the Oct. 6 municipal primary have one day left in which to register. Summit County Clerk Reed Pace said that local registration agents will be available between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29 for residents wishing to register. Pace said that voter rolls have been computerized since 35 cases of duplicate registration were discovered earlier this year. Ke said that, in cases where an individual was registered more than once, the most recent registration date was considered to be valid. However, he encouraged those who have questions about their registration to check with the Historic committee worries Is time by Rick Brough Park City as an historical town has nothing of great importance, said Anthony Jay. "But we should be cautious with what we've got." Unfortunately, said Jay, Chairman of the Historic District Commission, it's getting harder to do that. A momentum is growing to tear down the old ana build the new in fane uty. And land values on Main Street are rising to the point where property owners have little incentive to maintain small-scale buildings. The Historic Commission met Monday Mon-day night with members of the City Council and Planning Commission to debate the pros and cons of the changes coming to Park City, and to discuss what can be done to control them. Should the city use Redevelopment Redevelop-ment Agency money to subsidize historic reconstruction; lower the height limitation; buy air rights for Main Street buildings ; or buy buildings outright? Larry Jones of the Utah Historical Society told the group to stand behind the people they have placed on the Historic District Commission. Guidelines, Guide-lines, he said, are only a beginning. "You should support the commission 100 percent. Otherwise, if you don't want to put roadblocks up for whatever scheme comes along good, bad, or average, then get rid of the group." Because land on Main Street is so 111 - 111- , drawing to a close, the pace shows no signs of slowing down. Ivie told the Council that, in the first 16 days of September alone, building permits worth almost $22 million were issued. "It's primarily residential construction," construc-tion," observed Kevin Hooper, a member of the city's planning staff. "I can't really designate a particular area because it's happening all over." Some of the most intense development is occurring around the city's two ski resorts. At the base of the Park City Ski Area, the first phase of the 750-unit Park City Village is well underway. According to General Manager Bob Ziegler, framing on the building adjacent to the ski area's ticket offices should be completed by the end of this agents in their districts. Pace noted that an individual must have been a Utah resident on or before Sept. 5 to vote in the October primary, but that there are no residency requirements for the individual districts. Maps outlining the voting district boundaries are available at City Hall and the Park City Chamber of Commerce. Listed below are the registration registra-tion agents for each of the Park City districts: District No. l: Barbara Price, 180 Daly Ave. District No. 2: Barbara Burns, 1120 Woodside Ave. District No. 3: Mindy Nelson, 2212 Ina Ave. District No. 5: Martha Brown, 2376 Lucky John Drive f 1 1 i at - . . running out for Park valuable, Jones said, owners there are pressured to push their building up to the present 45-foot limit. "Ultimately, I can see a narrow corridor there of tall buildings not connected to the past," He said. "I also can see a lot of angry people on the street if they're not allowed to build that high." Planning Commission Chairman Greg Lawson expressed some exasperation exas-peration with Park City builders. "If the 3-4 percent who yell and scream make the decisions, we're not gonna have anything," he said. Commissioner Bill Coleman said the group shouldn't talk about developers as if they were "aliens" in Park City. "They have vested interests, sure, but those are the best interests," he added. "They want to make good use of the property. They want to live here." But Lawson responded that many developers are from out of town. "They buy an old building, tear it down, throw something else up, and say, 'So long, I can live in Aspen now.'" Jay said the city should define its policy toward old buildings that could, by rights, be demolished. "When does a building become important enough for us to stop demolition, even if it's been condemned?" con-demned?" he asked. The city can't do much to save a structure like that, he said, except purchase it. Jones said local property owners should hire consultants experienced in preservation to look at their buildings. s : . v. -r . " City The Snow Park Lodge takes shape in Deer Valley. week. That building will house the kindercare facilities, 5,250 feet of retail space and 18 condominium units. "We're very anxious to get people in by the holidays," Ziegler said. Also underway is the first phase of the project's massive system of parking garages. Ziegler reported that, during one recent two-day span, more than 2,300 cubic yards of cement were poured for the structure. Planned for the top of the first structure are 12,000 square feet of commercial space and 50 condominium units. Ziegler said construction on those units would continue through the winter. Meanwhile, construction at the base of the Deer Valley Resort continues at a frantic pace in anticipation of the grand opening later this year. Several, condominium projects are underway," the base lodge in Snow Park is taking shape, and single-family homes' are already being built in the American Flag subdivision. Neither has Main Street escaped the construction frenzy. Work has begun on the Silver Queen Hotel on the southeast corner of Main Street and Heber Avenue. Immediately to the south, where the Skyline Land Company offices once stood, a large office building is rapidly taking shape. Statistics compiled by the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research reveal that, during the first seven months of 1981, the valuation of building permits issued in Park City (population 2,823) was greater than that of either Provo (population 73,897) or Orem (population (popula-tion 52,399), and almost as much as Provo and Orem combined. The Bureau's statistics also reveal a significant difference in the type of new construction in the two areas. In Park City, only 17.3 percent of the new dwelling units are classified as single-family homes, while in Orem and Provo that figure is over 40 percent. "Owners hesitate to use them because they think the consultant will always be pro-preservation. That's not true," he said. "Owners should also hire outside consultants who can be unbiased, with no local attachments." The group pondered renderings of 40-foot-plus buildings planned for lower Main Street, and Jones said if he were a developer, he would build exactly the same kind. "But you might end up with a streetful of fake Victorian, which isn't gonna make it," Clues sought in death A Park City man died in Holy Cross Hospital Saturday, about 15 hours after he was found unconsious on the sidewalk next to the Anderson Apartments Apart-ments on Fifth Street. The events leading up to the head injury that caused the death of David Lee "Shooter" Stenshol still are being investigated, but local police said the injury appears to have been accidental. acci-dental. Park City Police Detective Lloyd Evans said the Summit County dispatcher received an anonymous call about 9:15 Friday night indicating that a man was lying unconscious on the sidewalk next to the Anderson Apart-, ments at the corner of Fifth and Main Streets. An ambulance arrived, but Four workers quit Reinstated employees claim city's treatment is unfair Less than a week after being reinstated to their jobs, four workers fired after the Public Works Department Depart-ment strike in July have quit. One of the men claims that he left because he was disgruntled over job assignments, pay inequities and sick leave benefits. Verdon Street told The Newspaper that he quit last Friday after he was told by Public Works Director Bob Lashier that he could not take a sick leave day without pay to go elk hunting. Like all of the fired employees, em-ployees, Street apparently was paid for all accrued sick leave and vacation time at the time of his termination. But Street told Lashier he hadn't missed an elk hunting season in years, and he requested a day off without pay. Lashier refused. "We have a long list of jobs to be done that have accumulated since the workers have been gone," said Lashier. "I told both the new and returning workers that they couldn't take a day off, even without pay, to go hunting. You can't run a ship that way. You have to earn (sick leave and vacation) credits before you use them." Street also complained that another reason he left is that the reinstated workers were being delegated menial chores, and that the "scab" workers were being paid more to do the same work. Lashier said Merrial Street cited medical problems as the reason for his termination, but when contacted by The Newspaper Street said, "I don't want to comment about it. If the city doesn't kriow what the problem is by 'I'd have to say that, in my personal opinion, they are purposely doing this to make us quit' now, they ought to." Lashier said Bud Henley apparently punched out on Thursday, Sept. 17, and told his supervisor Travis Black simply that he was quitting. Alma Pederson said he had been planning his retirement for some time, and chose last Friday to be his last day. But when asked by Black if he could "pick" Pederson's brain about his knowledge of the water department, Pederson declined, saying he had been treated unfairly. Later Pederson admitted that he had no complaints since being reinstated, and that he was referring to pre-s'rite days. According to outspoken city em- City's old buildings? he added. "They tried to turn Payson into a Victorian town, and it was a total flop." Everyone in town took a turn designing, he said a plastic eagle here, a roof ornament there. And tourists driving through instinctively knew it was fakey. Property owners on Main Street don't have to build high, said City Councilwoman Helen Alvarez. "A two-story can be feasible for some. They may scream, but they didn't pay that much money for the property," emergency medical technicians were unable to determine what was wrong with Stenshol, and he was rushed to the Park City Health Clinic. According to Evans, doctors at the clinic took X-rays, then treated Stenshol tor what they tnougnt could possibly be a drug overdose or a diabetic reaction. When Stenshol did not respond to the treatment, he was transported to Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City. There he was given a brain scan, and it was discovered that he was suffering from masive bleeding into the brain. Although he was admitted to the intensive care unit, he died about noon Saturday. Evans said Utah State Medical Examiner Dr. J. Wallace Graham ployee Karen Taft, the workers' morale is at a low ebb, and many intend to file grievances. "A lot of the workers don't feel like this was a true reinstatement," said Taft. "Instead what they feel is that they have been rehired, but not necessarily to do their old jobs. I know that some of them feel that they are being harassed and put down on the job. Merrial (Street) was a supervisor, and now he's not; Bud Henley was in the water department, but they had him cleaning parts. "Arlene Loble (the city manager) told us the first day we were back that she felt we knew that she was not happy to have us back. I'd have to say that in my personal opinion, they (the city) are purposely doing this to make us quit." Taft said workers were complaining that employees hired during the strike were currently being paid more than the reinstated workers doing the same work. But she said the remaining workers are "trying to stick together" and solve their problems through the newly-established grievance procedure, pro-cedure, rather than quitting. "The morale is very low.. .real bad," Taft said. "But people are hanging in because we feel there is a ways to go to fight through the grievance procedures. pro-cedures. Those that quit were at the limit." Taft did say that she personally had seen "a lot of good things happen in many cases," and that the workers "have no real animosity everyone is real calm. I think we can solve it if everyone hangs in there and doesn't quit." On Tuesday, Lashier said he felt the complaints about unequal pay were unfounded. As an example, he pointed to the bus drivers. "The bus system isn't even running right now," said Lashier, "and we could've laid off the drivers. Instead, we found work for them to do to keep them on the job. We have lots of work to do, and we have asked the drivers to do such things as setting water meters, painting, straightening signs. The drivers get $5.75 an hour, and they're doing laborer's work. Laborers get $5 an hour. I suppose we could've laid off the drivers and hired more laborers for she said. Coleman disagreed. "The fact is they have been paying $50 a square foot for the last two to three years. Forty-five feet is not that tall, and you'd be surprised to find the number of old buildings that are 45 feet," he argued. Does the group want to freeze the evolution of building, he asked. "We don't want to freeze," said Bill Mammen, a member of both the Planning and Historic District Commission, Com-mission, "but the present situation is of Park City man speculated that the injury was caused by a fall, rather than a blow to the head. A blood test revealed no traces of drugs. "The medical examiner said thai that type of injury is common to a fall," said Evans. "He said it was possible that Mr. Stenshol fell anc caused the injury hours before he was found unconscious. According to the officer at the scene, it looked as though he had collapsed on the sidewalk, rather than having fallen there and injured his head Evans said fnenas of Stenshol's saw him at the Alamo Bar, and that ht apparently was on his way home to the Anderson Apartments when he was found. Evans said he had attended a less money. But the idea was to keep the drivers working." If workers are doing jobs now that they didn't before the strike, it's only because they weren't properly supervised super-vised before, said Lashier. "It's pure, plain, sweet and simple: there is more supervision now and the workers aren't allowed to drift off in twos and threes and not work. If the workers have complaints, we're ready to receive them. They complain first to their immediate supervisor, and if he doesn't get the job done, then he's in trouble. "We want to field the problems as fast as they come in.. .if there are any formal complaints," Lashier continued. con-tinued. "But I think that the workers weren't happy before the strike, so Workers to A3 The light at the end of the avenue Good news. The agony is almost over. Norm Dahle, manager for the Park Avenue reconstruction project, said Tuesday that the much-maligned thoroughfare should be sporting a new coat of asphalt by the end of this week. "If they start Thursday as scheduled, schedul-ed, then by Friday night it should be done." . Except for a few' days lost because of a rainy stretch at the beginning of September, the project has been moving on schedule, Dahle reported. "The expected completion date is between Oct. JO and Oct. 15." Once the paving is completed, construction crews will focus their efforts on buiding sidewalks, retaining walls and fences. Also waiting to be installed is a stretch ot storm sewer along the west side of Park Avenue between Empire Avenue and Utah Highway 248. Dahle said that phase of the construction should cause a minimum of disruption "It won t be nearly as bad as what we've had on Park Avenue, because it won't be ripping up the road," he said. "I see no reason why we should be shutting down (traffic) to one lane." Tne city has encouraged utility companies to install laterals leading to every potential construction site while the street was torn up. Dahle reported that Mountain Fuel finished installing gas laterals earlier this week. He was asked whether residents could now expect Park Avenue to be free from excavation for a while. '"Theoretically, yes," he said. pushing us with evolutionary forces we don't want." What then are the solutions? The group discussed the idea of buying a builder's air rights or development rights to keep his building low. City Councilman Tom Shellenberger suggested sug-gested using Redevelopment Agency money for historic areas. Larry Jones said, "I don't see outright city subsidies as much as I see the Historic Historic to A3 party earlier in the evening, and that he is attempting to locate friends who may have seen him fall at the party. Stenshol was most recently employed employ-ed as a carpenter for the Dean Mutcher Construction Company of Park City. He was born October 31, 1945 in Bottineau, North Dakota to Selmer and Elva Larson Stenshol. He served in the Navy and was a Vietnam veteran. He is survived by his mother, Walnut Creek, Calif.; two brothers, Lynn of Lenza, Kansas, and Richard of Salt Lake City; and two sisters, Mrs. Patricia Beltz, Salt Lake City, and Mrs. Sandra Bradley, Scottsdale, Ariz. Funeral services were held Tuesday in Salt Lake City, and he was buried In the Park City Cemetery. |