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Show (r Page A6 Thursday, Manh 11, )". Newspaper ji? fIO ifJ tH"' I11 Cool, clear water ALL JUNIOR EQUIPMENT AND APPAREL eRossignol Fischer oK-2 oCB Sport-Obermeyer Porh idy Deer Volley J 1700 Park Avenue -649-4946 Base Lodge -649-8770 prospector. ll ATHLETIC CLUB aft (prospector gquare 649-6670 St. Patrick's Day Racquetball Tournament March 16 & 17 Entry Fee: Member $10, 2nd event $5 NonMember $15 Trophies f Prizes A T-shirts refreshments Entry deadline March 14 Sign up today! Bills will rise with temperature by Bettina Moench Wait! Hold it! Before you pour that pitcher of water down the drain, you had better read this. A month from now, you may find that wasting water, even a little at a time, can start adding up to a bigger bill. For as many years as most people can recall, water in Park City has cost $5 a month for everyone from the frugal grandmother who lives alone, to the restaurant serving 300 people a night. But water needs are growing grow-ing and so is the price of buying rights to it and constructing the system to carry it through town. How can the city keep pace with rising costs? By making those who use the most water pay for it. That's the philosophy of the City Council, which currently is reviewing a new water rate structure proposed pro-posed by Community Consultants Consul-tants of Provo. The suggested-rates will be open for public discussion at a hearing hear-ing before the City Council on March 18. If the new fees are approved by the council at its March 25 meeting, you'll only have about another ano-ther week after that to waste water before it starts costing you. You may be wondering how the city is going to monitor how much water you use every month. No, Big Brother is not watching you, but a new water metering system is. The meters will be read every month starting in April, and in May, residents will receive the first "new" bill. They will find that instead of $5 a month, the base rate for water will be $7.50 a month. But read carefully the word "base" rate. The $7.50 represents a minimal increase, in-crease, but it doesn't buy you an unlimited supply of water -it buys 3,000 gallons a month. If users stay within the allotment, the yearly bill will go from $60 a year to $90. But water wasters and business owners who use more than the typical amount of water will find the annual bill can go much higher. In the study prepared for the city, Community Consultants Consul-tants described three typical water users and their projected pro-jected yearly bills based on the new rates: Two people living in a single family home in the Old Town area with a 1,200-square foot lawn will probably use an average of 5,000 gallons of water a month. That amount likely will double in July and August, resulting in a yearly water bill of $125. Those same two people living in a Park Meadows home with an 8,000-square foot lawn will find their summer water usage significantly higher-up higher-up to 40,000 gallons in July and their bill of $471 a year will reflect that. Two condominium dwellers, who share in the maintenance of the common lawn area, will pay about $163 annually. According to City Manager Arlene Loble, about 75 percent per-cent of the nearly $1 million to be collected through the new rate structure will come from the base charge for water. The remainder will be raised through the anticipated antici-pated overage charges and an increase in water connection connec-tion fees. Loble said the water rate revenues will be used for the operation and maintenance of the water system. Capital improvements and water acquisition will be paid for :M til "S TC China Ridge Restaurant Open 7 days a week, I i Mon, thru F""-11:30 a.m. -11:00 p.m. Sat. & Sun. 3:00 to 11:00 XL" Zf SPECIAL Monday - Friday Lo-" Jy 11:30 a.m. -3:30 p.m. y Ch'cken Chow Mein, J r Pork Fried Rice V $2.95 T Take out available mini bottle service. 6 , So- .S The Hot Spa Luxury Soaking Salon 5 private rooms, reservation suggested. 1700 park avenue mount air mall 649-4056 through the city's current water development fee, which charges new developments develop-ments for the impact they place on the system. Now that you know that it may cost you $7.50 a month for 3,000 gallons of water, you may be curious to know just how far that water will take you. Dale Berg of Community Consultants pointed out that 75 percent of all the water used in a home is used in the bathroom, while 20 percent is used in the kitchen and laundry, and five percent for cooking and drinking. On the average, one person will use about 82 gallons of water a day. Double that for the typical two-person home, and about 5,000 gallons will be used in a month. It is possible for two people to stay within the 3,000 limit, said Berg, if conservation measures are taken, bui before you can look at where you can cut back, you should look at what you probably use now. Berg offered the following examples of typical water use: Every time you flush the toilet, you use about five to seven gallons of water; if you let the water run while you brush your teeth and shave, three to five gallons go down the drain; a 10-minute shower depletes your reserves by 40 to 70 gallons; an automatic dishwasher dish-washer consumes 10 to 20 gallons per cycle; a load of wash in a top loader, 30 to 55 gallons; if you let the hose run while you wash your car for 20 minutes, about 90 gallons will disappear. Do you have a leaking toilet? If you let it go for six months, an incredible 45,000 gallons can be lost; a faucet that drips a slow, steady 100 drops a minute will let about 350 gallons escape in a month; a fast drip where you can still see between the drops will lose 600 gallons a month; a small stream coming from a faucet will cost nearly an entire month's ration of water 2,700 gallons. There are some simple, inexpensive ways to conserve con-serve water, said Berg. A flow restricter device in the shower could cut down water usage by one half ; a special plastic bag in the toilet tank can help reveal leaks. Aside from the bathroom, the second biggest area of water usage in the summer is lawn sprinkling, said Berg. Community Consultants Consul-tants is working on an information packet that will be distributed to residents when the first meter reading takes place that will offer suggestions about the amount of watering that is really required. More expensive devices can be purchased that can significantly reduce the amount of water used, said Berg, including such things as toilets that use only two quarts of water. But simple conservation methods could result in savings too. "In one community, one lady was allowed 10,000 gallons a month," said Berg. "But she only used about 2,000 gallons. She washed dishes in a etisnpan, then used the water for her flowers. She filled a pitcher with water and put it in the refrigerator instead of letting let-ting the water run down the drain to get one glass of cold water." If conservation allows for significant water savings, imagine what a little creativity crea-tivity could do. With tongue in cheek, The Newspaper offers a few suggestions: double up in the shower and save as much as 10 gallons a day; when you do shower, let the water fill up in the tub, then siphon it out for watering flowers; collect the water that drains into plant saucers at the end of three months, you should have enough to wash your car; when you do wash your car, first drive it onto a giant shower curtain, then collect the runoff and sell it to a neighbor to wash his car, thereby making a profit while being thrifty. With a concerted effort by residents, such casually wasteful phrases as "Oh, well, that's water under the bridge," and "That's just a drop in the bucket," can be eliminated from the language. Silver Pine wins appeal before City Council Apparently frustrated by the Planning Commission's inability to make a final decision in a reasonable amount of time, the developers de-velopers of the Silver Pine condominium project in Deer Valley appealed to the City Council for help last Thursday. After an hour of discussion, the council voted, 4-1, to approve the first version of the project presented to the commission. com-mission. City Engineer Mike Vance told the council that the project first came before the Planning Commission in mid-January. After reviewing review-ing the plans, the commission commis-sion registered some concerns con-cerns over the unbroken mass of the roofline, suggesting that it may not meet the conditions of the Land Management Code. The commission tabled, but did not deny, project approval, ap-proval, and asked the developers to return with alternatives to the design. Two weeks later, the developers returned with a revised design, and the Commission vote ended in a 3-3 tie. That was broken by Chairman Greg Lawson who voted in favor of the new building. That approval, however, was contingent on the design meeting the code. It was discovered a day later, said Vance, that the specified setback was inadequate. In the third meeting on Feb. 24, the developers appealed ap-pealed to the commissioners to accept the original building, pointing out that the second design was less attractive and efficient. The commission voted to table a decision until their next meeting on March 10, at which time they would discuss a policy decision interpreting in-terpreting the meaning of an unbroken roofline. w MeM IPiretfity HBaltoy These new parents Charlie and Eileen Torrence wish to announce the birth of their baby boy Zachary Howard born on Feb. 20th weighing 81b., 13oz. II WLwmBs? IL H H Iff 3737rrr7 H I 1 1 JM 1 1 wmamsm i iiiiiilrkts ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT: Mid summer watering moratoriums? New water rates? Expense of keeping a lawn? Call 336-2523 .wjwi '-na' m-m,.w ..tf&lM'M? ' Irritated by the delay in making a final decision on the design they preferred, the developers appealed to the City Council last Thursday. Thurs-day. It was pointed out by the project's architect that the original design had been worked on for several months with the city's planning staff, which made a recommendation recom-mendation for approval to the Planning Commission prior to the first meeting. City Councilwoman Helen Alvarez criticized the Planning Plan-ning Commission for tabling a decision in the first and third meetings. "I don't think people should be led on with a carrot of approval," she said. "If a project doesn't meet the code, it should be denied." She said she felt the Silver Pine developers were not given clear directions by the commissioners. Councilman Bob Wells pointed out that the city's professional planners made a recommendation of approval ap-proval for the project that originally was presented. But Commission Chairman Greg Lawson, who attended the council meeting, seemed irritated by the comment. "I got the implication from your remark that it was the Planning Commission's job to accept the staff recommendation," recom-mendation," he said. Councilman Bill Coleman said he favored the first design of the project, but didn't favor having the council receive appeals to a decision that had yet to be made by the commission. He suggested that the commission com-mission "get its house in order" or-der" for the March 10 meeting, and if the developers were dissatisfied with the outcome, that they appear before the council the following day. But Councilwoman Tina Lewis made a motion to approve ap-prove the appeal and accept the original Silver Pine design. Before a vote was taken, Councilwoman Alvarez Alva-rez said she felt "very uncomfortable un-comfortable voting on these appeals and having Planning Commission policies coming before us." But, she said, the appeal may have been warranted, war-ranted, based on the length of time that had elapsed, and the commission's "inability to make a decision." All members of the council voted in favor of the appeal, with the exception of Coleman, who said he felt approval was inappropriate without a vote by the Planning Plan-ning Commission. "But I do think the Planning Plan-ning Commission needs admonishment," ad-monishment," he said. |