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Show 1 Bl i Newspaper 1 ?- ;! j it Vol. VIII, No. 25 Let me see! , ' c Jl ' i ' . .7" , . 1 . - - r " , 1 V':-. V':-. v Is Ineroes threat by Jeff Howrey It seems these days that herpes is everywhere. The media has had a field day with this one. It's got all the right elements for high-interest appeal to readers and television viewers. It's a real-life social melodrama. There's sex involved, of course. There's also a strong dramatic tone running throughout the herpes story. It's incurable. You're stuck with it for life. The pen of William Shakespeare couldn't have come up with more poignant pathos. The dramatist behind the herpes syndrome is brutal fate. It seems that herpes is waiting for all of us. (At least all of us who are sexually active with more than one partner. In Park City, that accounts for a major chunk of the population.) Herpes is supposedly everywhere. As the cover of Time magazine boldly proclaimed a few months back, an estimated 20 million Americans now have herpes and the number of new initiates is growing daily. The media has called it a plague and by Rick Brough A Salt Lake television station doesn't like Summit County's request for money to help build new translator facilities on Quarry Mountain to replace the aging system on Rossi Hill. The objection was voiced by station representatives Tuesday in a meeting with the County Commission and the county's engineering adviser, Milt Davis. The county has asked for $5,000 for each of the four Salt Lake television stations to help buy translators for Quarry Mountain, northwest of Park City. So far, KUTV. KCPX, and KUED have agreed. This brought a comment from KSL advocate Bill Loveless. "Of the four, three have caved in to your blackmail." black-mail." Loveless is director of engineering engineer-ing for Bonneville Corporation. In a different vein, KSL manager Bill Murdock assured the panel, "We believe you're doing this for the good of the county." The station argued it's bring made to finance a system that is too expensive KSLb 3UCEJ Parley's Park Elementary students are all eyes as Lynn Koshland prepares than for movement exercises. See A8. an epidemic. "The New Scarlet Letter" was the pronouncement Time had for the disease's unfortunate and numerous victims. Has the herpes syndrome been overhyped by the media? According to a recent "Communicable "Communi-cable Disease Newsletter" from the Utah Department of Health, mavbe so. At least in terms of the herpes danger within the state of Utah. According to the results of a study conducted by the state health department depart-ment recently, perhaps herpes isn't that widespread a tragedy in the state of Utah as was previously estimated. The state's newsletter, dated January, Janu-ary, 1983, notes that, "Genital herpes publicity during 1982 resulted in increased public anxiety about the disease and the potential for transmission. trans-mission. Clinic data does not indicate (however) that herpes is a major concern in Utah." Herpes not a major concern in Utah? The Newspaper contacted Diana Maxell, director of the Park City Community Clinic, to see if the state health department's pronouncement alks at anyway Davis has proposed to the commission commis-sion that the Quarry Mountain site replace the translator site now at Rossi Hill, which is being eliminated by Deer Valley development. The Quarry site would use new UHF translators. The county is asking the Salt Lake stations to pay part of that bill. Davis is a general manager for KUED, but said there was no favoritism shown to any station. In opposition, Loveless said the UHF machinery, costing more than $100,000, would be expensive overkill. Summit, he suggested, could move the present VHF equipment now at the Rossi Hill site. "Make it work on Quarry Mountain, then make the long-term problems work as they come." In any case, he suggested most of Park City's needs are supplied by cable and the Iewis Peak translator Davis stuck by his UHF proposal, saying it would be able to service the most number of residents for years to come. Calendar A15 Sports Bl Classified .... B15 Tube Times . . . B13 Limelight B7 Viewpoint A2 Thursday, exaggerated? jived with her knowledge of the herpes problem locally. "To begin with, it is indisputable that the instances of herpes throughout the nation is on the increase," she commented. As for the recent state study, she expressed some surprise over their results. "We took part in that study, which the state conducted just a short while ago," says Maxell. "I think that they didn't find as many active cases of herpes as they thought they might." Maxell stresses that the study was conducted to specifically search out new cases of herpes and doesn't take into account the thousands of people who already have the incurable disease. "Maybe during the three-month period the state conducted the survey there just weren't that many active cnses around," she suggests. "I know that as far as we're concerned, during the three-month period covered by the study, we had fewer new cases than at other times about 15. There have been other periods of time when far payment for He said the old equipment would run into signal interference from Salt Lake stations, and with a low-watt output, would not cover the entire county. Commissioner Gerald Young said the government had a duty to provide TV service to the whole county. "It would be a disservice to some groups to tell them, 'You're in the dark.' We may provide a big output for small amounts of people, but it's an obligation." He said the request for $5,000 was not unreasonable. "If the stations don't help us pay for it, we'll have to come to the taxpayers to bail us out," added Young. KSL representatives had another major problem with the $5,000 payment. pay-ment. If they finance Quarry Mountain, Moun-tain, they said, more than 100 other translators fed by Bonneville will ask for money. Milt Davis suggested the money could be made as a donation to Lewis Peak, since it is a major "backbone" transmitter. "They have never contributed con-tributed to Lewis. It is a legitimate backbone, broadcasting to northeast March 10, 1983 ales tax legislatttioim passee Now it's up to Gov. Matheson. The Utah Senate passed two sales tax bills Wednesday that could mean an increase of up to IV4 percent in the sales tax paid by Park City residents and visitors. The Senate vote follows similar action by the House earlier in the session. The bill most closely Identified with Park City is House Bill (HB) 185, which allows certain resort communities com-munities to raise their own sales tax by up to one percent. This so-called Resort Communities Sales Tax Bill applies only to those communities where the number of transient beds exceeds the permanent population. At present it involves only three Utah cities: Park City, Brian Head and Alta. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Glen Brown at the urging of Park City officials, of-ficials, who saw it as a way to shift the local tax burden from local property owners to visitors. "The tourists are going to pay the . saHc tax but they're noMjwng to pay the property tax," Brown observed Wednesday. Under Brown's guidance, the bill passed the Utah House Feb. 28, without more new cases showed up at the clinic." Maxell stresses that whatever the case may be in other parts of the state, there is justification for real concern over herpes locally. "Herpes is a significant problem in Park City. We see a higher instance of herpes per capita than most places in the Intermountain West," says Maxell, qualifying the assessment by noting that there are no statistics available to bear her contention out. But years of conversations with others in the health field elsewhere in the Rockies have convinced her that Park City is a hotbed for herpes. "We definitely have a higher rate of herpes than most places in Utah. The resort town atmosphere contributes to it. People in Park City have a lot of mobility they get around the country. We have a great concentration of single, sexually-active young adults. They're the most likely candidates to get venereal disease in general. Right now, they're especially prone to picking up herpes." Utah and Wyoming. The county can then defer its costs from that." (Loveless said there could still be problems. "The FCC is particular about how contributions are made.") Another disagreement arose over the amount of power the site needs. KSL advocated 20 watts, but Davis said 100-watt UHF power is needed. Under the lower wattage, he said neighborhoods neighbor-hoods like Jeremy Ranch wouldn't get the signal. KSL's idea will pass on the cost of the system to residents, Davis asserted. In outlying areas, they will have to buy an outside antenna, for $14-$50, to get reception. With 100-watt UHF transmission, trans-mission, residents will only need a small loop antenna. Davis said the older equipment can't be moved from Rossi Hill. "That's extremely poor engineering," he said. The equipment will pick up interfering signals from Salt Lake. Davis projected a total list price for the equipment he proposed to the county. The tab, he told the Newspaper, News-paper, would be $92,222. Bill Loveless Bump skiing is only for ; kids? Don't you believe it. toy beeate amendment, by a 48-16 margin. From there it went to the Senate, where it was shepherded through by Sen. Glade Sowards, who happens to be the chairman of the Rules Committee. Although the exact vote tally was not , available at press time, Brown said it passed the Senate by a comfortable margin. "It's just a matter of the governor signing it now ," he said. Brown said there was no question in his mind that Matheson would sign the bill. "He's not going to veto it, unless somebody should come up with a nice letter saying that it's unconstitutional." uncon-stitutional." Also passed by the Senate Wednesday Wed-nesday was HB 13, an attempt to settle the annual debate in the Utah Legislature over tne distribution of sales tax revenue. Of the retail sales tax collected by the state, ?4 of one percent now returns to those communities where the tax originated (the point of sale). While this arrangement is fine for Park City, it has drawn protests from communities com-munities with large populations but no substantial retail sales districts. These How's business? If you have detected a little enthusiasm bubbling out of the Park City ChamberBureau lately, there's a reason. Business is booming. According to Craig Badami, director of marketing for the Park City Ski Area, business as of March 6 was 74,000 skier-days ahead of the same point a year ago, "which represents approximately a 30 percent increase. "We have a good shot at surpassing our best year ever if we have a good April." For Deer Valley, this is already a record year. Park City's newest ski area attracted 112,000 paying customers in its inaugural season, 1981-82. This year, it has already drawn 115,000, as of Sunday . "We projected this year we would do 160,000," John Miiller, Deer Valley executive vice president, said Monday. "I think we're going to make that easily." However, Miiller warned that there were too many variables to make an accurate comparison between this year and last. "It's like comparing apples and oranges." Miiller noted that Park City is finally being recognized in the same league with areas such as Aspen. "The town is starting to mature," he said. "I'm really excited about the number of people who are staying in town. That means people are starting to accept Park City as a place to go." Meanwhile, at ParkWest, Mountain Manager Wayne Ragland said that receipts are also up about 15 percent ahead of last year. "We have had a lot more destination skiers than we did last year," he said. "Now, let's hope that it doesn't stay 70 degrees for a week or two." translator said the price would be between $100,000 and $120,000. Davis told the commission his scheme was endorsed by other television engineers such as Kent Parsons and Bob Giles. "Milt, those are vendors for UHF equipment," said Loveless. "They also sell VHF equipment," Davis noted. But UHF equipment costs more, said Loveless. "It costs five times more than VHF. One watt on VHF broadcasts as much as 100 watts of UHF. And VHF is easier to tune." Loveless suggested that perhaps the Park City area didn't need a local translator. Cable and transmission from Lewis Peak covers almost the entire audience. "Maybe you could turn off Rossi Hill and see who complains." County Clerk Reed Pace replied, "A caterpillar cut the cable there once, and our phones never stopped ringing." ring-ing." "There will always l t1 iso peopU' who don't want cable," said Davis. j 250 Two Sections, 32 Pages areas argue that sales tax re.wiue should be distributed according to population, not point of sale. HB 13 is designed to placate both sides. It calls for a gradual change in the formula so that, by 1988, the so-called so-called local option sales tax would be distributed 50 percent by population and 50 percent by point of sale. The legislation includes a "hold harmless provision" which stipulates that no community will receive less sales tax revenue than it does now. So, while Park City would not gain from HB 13, it wouldn't lose either. To make the hold-harmless provision work, the bill calls for a statewide I4 percent increase in the sales tax. HB 13 was passed earlier in the session by the House, and now has been passed by the Senate. However, Brown pointed out that the Senate version ver-sion is slightly different : it includes a provision to require communities to lower property taxes to compensate for increased sales tax revenue. Brown said the bill would be referred to a joint conference committee to resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions. Loveless conceded that older residents resi-dents won't take cable. But then, he said, they will also have problems adjusting to the UHF systems Davis proposes. County Planner Stan Strebel observed ob-served it was ironic that KSL was advocating VHF transmission. Strebel said he talked to a Rich County commissioner who was happy with their UHF system. Under their old VHF signal, the commissioner said, the county didn't get a decent signal from Thai" ;1S The county is hoping the arguments will have stopped by today. The commission set a deadline of March 10 for the TV stations to answer, so Summit could order the equipment for the spring. In an interview with KPCW, Commissioner Com-missioner Clif Blonquist said KSL would not be knocked off Quarry Mountain transmission if they said "no." But it's possible, he added, their slot in the translator station could be oPWed! t'liPfh:.nn l'1 1 .a.p |