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Show PL fi'il.U -Li i-L Park City, Utah 250 ' 1 - VoLYJI,No.38 Thursday, June 10, 1982 Two Sections, 24 Pages Countersuit raises ante 7 " r "Roses are red Violets are blue, Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Council The City Council has been working on the 1983 budget for weeks, and last Thursday their proposals were presented presen-ted for public comment at a hearing attended at-tended by about 30 citizens. More adjustments ad-justments are expected to be made today before the final public input session at 5 p.m. at the Memorial Building, after which the council is expected ex-pected to adopt next year's budget and set the mill levy. Despite Park City's continuing popularity as a recreation area, the economic trends of the nation are expected ex-pected to strike here, too. Although there has yet been any evidence of a slowdown in development, city officials of-ficials said they are taking a conservative conser-vative and pessimistic approach to this year's budget and are assuming a substantial sub-stantial decrease in development revenues. To make up for that loss, the City Council presented a proposed budget that includes a $451,000 increase in-crease in property taxes, laying off two city employees, and doubling the franchise fran-chise tax applied to utility bills to 5 percent. Park Avenue paving, in a few weeks, you won't have Park Avenue to kick around anymore ... hopefully. Community Development Director Mike Vance said Tuesday that bids were opened this week for the reconstruction work on the pockmarked pock-marked Park Avenue. It is expected the bid will be awarded at today's City Council meeting, and it is likely it will go the apparent low bidder, W.W. and W.B. Gardner of Salt Lake City, whose bid was $123,885. Vance said a pre-construction con Board, teachers reach contract agreement The Park City Education Association (PCEA) and the Park City Board of Education have reached a tentative agreement on a contract for the 1982-83 school year. According to School Superintendent Richard Goodworth, the settlement was reached about 5 p.m. Friday. Hal Smith, president of the PCEA, said that the terms of the settlement had been discussed in advance with many of the teachers in the district, and had met their approval. "It's ratified, for all intents and n ?r" f Margo Mahoney inscribes yearbook for a classmate during last day of school Friday. prepares to adopt 'bare Even with the increase in taxes, Finance Director Jon Nelson said this year's budget represents a 19-percent reduction over last year's budget. He, like several City Council members, emphasized what became the description descrip-tion of the day that the budget "has been cut to the bare bones." "Whatever way you look at the budget, it will be less next year than this," said City Manager Arlene Loble. "I don't know of any business that can do that easily. There has been substantial sub-stantial effort to make responsible decisions about the budget; so why, then, are taxes going up? Because in past years, building and planning revenues paid largely for the support of other departments." Financial Director Nelson commended commen-ded Loble for her efforts to put the city "on sensible ground" by not allowing the budget to rely on variable finances, such as development revenues. But putting the city on less shaky territory means the city's mill levy will rise a proposed 7.88 mills, from this year's total of 15.34 mills to 23.22 ference will be held Thursday with the construction company to iron out last minute details before work begins on Monday, June 14. If the work proceeds as scheduled, Vance said the repaving should be completed on or before July 2. The job will begin with a patching operation that is expected to take only a few days, said Vance. During that time, traffic should be able to move fairly normally. When the paving begins, he said, the work crews will try to keep one lane of traffic open at all purposes, uc aom. Although terms of the settlement will not be released officially until later today, a reliable source told The Newspaper that it calls for an 8.5 percent increase in the base salary, plus the addition of a new salary lane for teachers with a bachelor's degree plus 55 credit hours. The settlement also involves additional insurance benefits for the teachers. Discussions on due process rights for untenured teachers are continuing, according to Goodworth. (City to leave by Morgan Queal Park City intends to pull out of the Park City Fire Protection District and form its own department, according to a counter-suit filed in Third District Court this week. The city's decision came ina response to a suit filed last week by the Fire District against the city and Deer Valley Resort. In that suit, the Fire District is contesting the city's ownership owner-ship of the resort's fire-fighting equipment. The suit and countersuit are a result of several weeks of conflict over ownership of the Deer Valley equipment, equip-ment, with the city now threatening to withdraw from the Fire Protection District, to set up its own department. In its petition for a declaratory judgement, the district is asking the court to determine who should hold title to two fire trucks and the station at Deer Valley's Silver Lake. The city's countersuit asks the court to require the district to deposit its 1982 tax funds with the court "so the revenue may be equitably divided, according ac-cording to its source, whether city or county, so that funds are available for the operation of two separate fire-fighting fire-fighting units by the city and county from the same levy now made by the district." The Fire District, which is a volunteer volun-teer unit covering some 90 square miles in Summit County, is claiming that in a 1980 agreement, Deer Valley promised to build the fire station, buy two fire trucks and deed them to the district. In the meantime, the resort owed mills. It should be noted that 3.02 mills of this increase was previously approved ap-proved for the library bond by voters last summer. The tax impact on a typical residential residen-tial condominium or a single family home with a $15,000 assessed valuation will be an estimated $118 increase in next year's property taxes. In fiscal year 1982, that typical home paid about $230 in property taxes, and it is estimated that will rise to $348. (It was noted that only one-third of the tax bill received by residents goes to the city; half goes to the school district; the rest to the county.) At the public hearing, Loble explained ex-plained that the city's budget consists of two parts: the operating budget of $4,774,057, which includes the general fund, debt service, transportation fund, golf course fund, sanitation fund and water fund; and the capital outlay budget of $3,365,000. The chart accompanying accom-panying this story indicates where the revenues for each of those budgets is Bones to 3 take two times. Because the bids for the job were lower than anticipated, Vance said the decision has been made to use an alternate form of paving that involves a layer of fabric. He said it is not necessary to use the material, but it adds structural stability. First, a layer of hot oil is placed on the existing pavement, he said. The fabric, which he described as similar to screening, is placed over the top, then more asphalt is layered over that. As per the settlement agreement reached with the city, Bush and Gudgell, the original engineers of the failed road, reworked plans and specifications for the repaving at no cost, said Vance. Road consultant Ed Nurse worked with the engineers in determining the type of asphalt to be used. Bush and Gudgell will have an inspector on the job throughout the construction period. Vance said that citizens will be asked not to park on Park Avenue during the repaving process. "We expect that there will be no major detouring necessary," said Vance. "We will try and let people drive on Park Avenue during those weeks." Vance said that if drivers wish to avoid even a short wait on Park Avenue during the construction, they should use access roads to the west, such as Empire and Lowell Avenues. some $500,000 in development impact fees to the city, but the city agreed to waive half those fees in exchange for $247,000 in fire equipment for the new resort. Park City then offered to lease the equipment to the Fire District for a token fee, but the district refused that offer, claiming it should receive title to the equipment. The conflict is further complicated by the city's allegations that the Fire Protection District was illegally formed form-ed seven years ago, thus is an invalid in-valid entity. The state Fire Protection District Act expired June 30, 1975, but the ordinance creating the fire district under that act wasn't adopted until Dec. 30 that year, the city's suit states. But even if the district is legal, the city has never adopted an ordinance annexing itself to the Park City Fire Protection District, thus the city is not legally a part of the district, the city states in its counterclaim. Furthermore, the city claims its pact with Deer Valley came with the full knowledge of Fire District officials, of-ficials, and that they didn't contest the agreement at the time. "Numerous offers of-fers were made by Deer Valley to finance the acquisition of fire fighting equipment for the district, all of which were rejected," the suit said. In 1979, Park City purchased a $284,000 hook-and-ladder truck and turned it over to the fire district for its use in fire protection both within city limits and in the county. The city has never charged the district for use of the truck, but in its suit is asking for $63,000 in back rental fees. Expenditures $3,365,000 Redevelopment 40 Street Improvements Unallocated Parks, Landscaping Golf Course Bldg. Impr & Water rts ' WfF Expenditures if s $4,774,057 iff 18 Mp Public Works 17 Water 12 j j Comm. Dev. 12 J;33 Public Safely 12 ffi Ejf& Gen'l. Gov't. 11 $ Wtl& rjYl Golf Courses 110(7 pvyiW Sanitation 10 (3 5 Transportation 8 8 H " Recreation & Library Fire District ? Park City also is asking the district court to rule that: The Fire District is invalid because it was formed illegally. The district has no jurisdiction within the corporate limits of Park City. The Fire District has no right to title of the Deer Valley equipment purchased pur-chased by the city with the impact fees. The city be given title to the Park Avenue Fire House site, which contains con-tains the main fire station in the county- The show must go on Volunteer firemen in the Park City Fire Protection District Monday said they would do their best to serve the public in spite of legal conflicts between the city and the district. At their Monday training session, the volunteers issued a statement to residents of Park City and the surrounding area that said : "As individuals representing a group trained in the service of fire-fighting, fire-fighting, we wish to respond to the recent controversy of city versus fire commission versus Deer Valley. "It has come to our attention that these three entities raising the questions on district formation and title ownership are not the people who will supress the fires. We are. "Granted, we do need pumping trucks and equipment to fight fires. All we are asking is that this equipment provided by you, the taxpayer, be available and functional. "We as members of the Park City fire department are here to serve you and will continue to serve the public no matter what time of day or night." bonnes' bee CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS OPERATING FUND Property Tax Sales Tax Water Fund Franchise & License Fees Planning & Building 22 W 19 H 'i-"- j r i .V.i so iuto m Cash Invest. Golf & Rec. Miscellaneous The Fire District provide the court with an accounting of its funds. Tax funds be paid into the court, to be eventually divided up so the city can finance its own department. Park City's counterclaim filed by City Attorney Tom Clyde, names the three fire district commissioners, Jean Buchanan, Robert E. Burns Jr., and Herb Johnson, as defendants. Johnson also is employed by the city as fire marshal. Barney Saunders, attorney for the Fire District, has no comment on the city's allegations. iget Revenues $3,365,000 Redevelopment Agency 29 Impact Fees 28 Sale of City Property Developer's Contribution Revenue Sharing Water Dev. Fees 'It- Revenues W $4,774,057 II 23 1 Hi 17 lll 1700 Jpff 12 fi 1 10 gf I I 1 8 Iff 8 n v 5 1 |