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Show Park Record Thursday, April 9, 1987 Page A13 Aimdl n Hit (GJe by Tom Clyde There goes the neighborhood I have never been to Alaska, but I have an image of the place that is probably too good to be true. It's a romantic fascination with the place, a sense of the wild. Alaska is the last frontier, it even says so in the license plates. Most of my mental image of Alaska comes from magazines and stories from people who have visited there, and from a great book about it, John McPhie's Coming into the Country. I expect to see fish the size of large dogs leaping out of raging rivers into waiting boats, and even though I don't much care for fish it would be exciting. In my mental Alaska, moose wander down the main streets, stalling traffic for hours, and that traffic jam consists of two rusted out trucks and a couple ' of dog sleds on their way to the great race. Elk would munch on the moss growing in the edges of thick shingles on low log cabins, built by the pioneers types who live there. The cities of the Alaska of my mind are mostly log cabin villages, snug and warm. The wood pile is bigger , than the house in the fall, and is reduced to nothing but splinters by spring. The sun shines all summer. It is colder col-der in the winter than Park City folks can even imagine. Still, all year, the people are out basking in that great expanse ex-panse that is Alaska. McPhie describes perfect little mountain villages, complete with piles of rotting machinery left over from the gold rush days. It is all in storage for spare parts. Who knows when a guy could use the rear end out of a 1946 Willys. I see eagles swooping over the villages, baring their talons at the huskies, letting them know who is boss around there. A recent newspaper story from Alaska described a mid-air collision between a jet landing at Juneau and a large fish, which had been dropped by an eagle as it fled the jet's flight path. That's the kind of Alaska I dream of. I'm almost afraid to go there, for fear that I will stand in the middle of it, soaking it in, and not bother to get my moose, or build a cabin, and will freeze to death when winter comes. Still, that's not a bad way to may be too late, now. Another news item from the same week suggests that the last frontier has been conquered. con-quered. The article said something about the residents of a "posh subdivision" in Kenai uniting and getting all Up in arms over a proposed trailer and motor home park planned for their area. They did not want the trailer people peo-ple living near them, even if it was only for the vacation season. When I read that. I assumed I had misread the dateline. That kind of story is common all over the lower forty eight states, and I thought maybe it was from Arizona or Alabama. No, it was really from Alaska. We have all seen zoning fights to keep the wrong kind of people peo-ple out of the right kind of neighborhoods. Even little Park City is not immune from that. If you want to start a good fight, just use the words "employee housing" and "Holladay Ranch" or "Solamere" in the same sentence at Sneakers. Then keep your head down. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, but give them some place else to live. It's old news, but not when it comes from Alaska. What the hell kind of wilderness are they running up there, anyway? Those trailer people can be a problem, you know, retirees in their Winnebagos, catching fish and whooping whoop-ing it up all night. You know how those retired folks can get. The Sun City people are a real problem for law enforcement en-forcement here in the summer months, and it's probably just as bad in Alaska, although they probably wear sweaters instead of Hawaiian shirts. The trailer park area and the "posh" subdivision started out at about the same time, quite a distance from each other around the shore of a lake. They have grown over the years, closing in on each other, to where the trailers are visable from the tastefuly designed houses, and the tastefully designed houses are visable from the trailers. The house people don't like it, no matter who came first. The trailer people don't much care one way or the other. The people who ought to care about all of this are the log cabin people. I called my Alaskan correspondent, Yukon Bonnie, and she explained that the cabin people had been out fishing, hunting, and racing their sled dogs while all this happened, and when they rattled back into town on the dirt roads in their old pickup trucks, they looked down on the lake, and saw the changes progress had brought on their little village. On one side, there were Winnebagoes by the dozen, ready for the summer, but not so firmly rooted that they would be there next November. On the other side were the "posh" houses, with tasteful designs, quality materials, and in full compliance com-pliance with the Deer Valley design guidelines. There were no pickups, no trasn cans, no rustea out mining equipment, and no kennels for the sled dogs. There were no windlasses in the front yards to hang the moose from while gutting and cutting it up. These were the homes of rich people, with satellite dishes and propane tanks instead in-stead of wood piles, and lawn mowers. It must have been a tragic site. All my friend Yukon Bonnie could say, looking down on the new Alaska was, "Well, there goes the neighborhood." Smunmmnintt ta Simmmmnmtt $ freed up to buy Tahoe lands TAHOE WORLD 1 i After having been frozen by Congress for three months, mon-ths, $7 million slated for purchasing environmentally sensitive lands around Lake Tahoe were finally released in mid-March. The so called Burton-Santini funds were held by Congress Con-gress because of White House budget cuts made Dec. 15, according to Jeff Reiner, a grant administrator with the U.S. Forest Service in South Lake Tahoe. The $7 million is less than half the money Tahoe will eventually get in 1987 to buy sensitive lands and complete com-plete environmental pollution control projects, said Tom Martens, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe. There is about $7.5 million in past Burton-Santini funds which has still not been paid to the Forest Service, and $1.4 million in erosion control project money is now being considered by a House committee. According to a Forest Service spokesperson, a total of $30 million in funding has been spent on land acquisition and $5 million on erosion control since 1984. Bighorns do a bottoms up THE &L TRAIL Well, all who see it admits it's a little unusual, but it does seem to be a reality. A group of nine bighorn sheep near Vail have apparently ap-parently dug a large hole in the side of a hill and persist in sticking their front ends into the hole for a good portion por-tion of the day. No one, including Bill Andree, a Colorado Division of Wildlife official, can figure out why the sheep are doing this, but they have to admit it is quite a site. What Andree An-dree saw when he discovered the phenomena was, well, nine bighorn rear ends sticking out of the hill. "It's amazing," he said. "I don't know why they're doing do-ing it, but I'll find out." Group explores meld of Aspen, county THE ASPEN TIMES A group of citizens, government officials and resort leaders have combined forces to explore melding the city ci-ty of Aspen and Pitkin County . Their objective, "to bring about more efficient and economical government in Pitkin County," is fueled by a desire for cutting the $47 million spent by various taxing entities in Pitkin County annually. And they are serious enough to consider combining Pitkin County and the city of Aspen in as many ways as possible. . Already, the city and county share some services, including in-cluding public safety, data processing, zoning enforcement enforce-ment and environmental health. And it is working well. But, Aspen Mayor Bill Stirling is cautious about taking the arrangement any further, noting it could create a "super government" without the flexibility a dynamic community like Aspen requires. The group advocates taking the consolidation process a step at a time to see what works and what does not. For instance, Aspen City Manager Bob Anderson comes from a town in Michigan where a joint government center was built to house both the city and county. It worked well, and said Anderson, "saved taxpayers money." 'Old-West' proposed for Jackson 'Y' Jacta Hole Guide A $24 million shopping and hotel complex in an "Old West" motiff has been proposed for an intersection area in Jackson called the "Y". California architect Frank Laulainen and partner Dave VanDermyden have already approached the Jackson Town Council to request road easements vacated in preparation for their "master plan," but the request was met with some skepticism. "I want to know more about his (Laulainen's) past projects," said Nancy Feldman, a local opponent of the project. "I want to know how his development has affected af-fected the environment in other places." In response, Laulainen, who has among other things renovated historic buildings in Los Gatos, a northern California community of 26,000, said "With all my work, I am environmentally and ecologically minded." The property in question is zoned general commercial, and apparently the town council would have a hard time blocking the development unless it instituted a city-wide building moratorium to prevent strain on city water and sewer services. But, said Laulainen, "We've been working work-ing with the town staff to resolve cncerns about the sewer and wa ter capacities. ' ' Laulainen said he hoped to integrate the design in Jackson with his "Old West Village" project. "Jackson is a beautiful little town and it just needs to be tied together," he said. Calling the west Jackson area presently "an architectural mess," he said he thought his project would "create more unification for the whole downtown." Tahoe, Jackson may ban county smoking Both Placer County in California and Teton County in Wyoming will consider no-smoking ordinances this week. Placer, which includes parts of the Lake Tahoe area, will look to restrict smoking to one special area of each county building, whereas Teton, which includes Jackson Hole, will seek a complete prohibition of smoking in county buildings. Jim Carey, Placer County director of personnel, was instructed by the Board of Supervisors there to discuss the no-smoking policy with the Placer Public Employees Association (PPEA) and try to negotiate a settlement before the board decides what to adopt. A spokesperson for PPEA said negotiations on several aspects of county worker contracts will begin in April, and the no-smoking issue will be discussed in greater length as part of these dealings. The Teton County Commissioners are responding to suggestions by Public Health Nurse Jayne Ottman who asked for action because of a serious passive smoke problem pro-blem with the Social Services building. "As director of a health office, I feel it is imperative to promote wellness and to exemplify this thought to the public," said Ottman. Ott-man. Reaction to both proposals was mixed. In Teton County, Coun-ty, though, even smokers admit a ban "would probably be good" for their health. In Placer, one of the supervisors called a no-smoking ordinance unenforceable, saying "For me, it's like the big brother syndrome. The people who work for the county should be telling us if something's wrong." it's a Boston Clam Chowder & Chili Cookoff it's a J? it's a it's a WM m for Jennifer on into the 0 e (Formerly the Memorial Building) PRODUCTIONS Registration - Rio Grande, 649-9668 or Tom, 649-3472 (Mes (folksy THE ULTIMATE LOCATION FOR CONVENIENCE! ! This 2 bedroom. 2 bath. 1 1 54 sq. ft. condo is steps away from skiing, ice skating, shopping and dining. Bus transportation to anywhere in Park City also available. Excellent rental property. PRICE REDUCED $115.00011 CALL IMMEDIATELY! KATHLEEN NOLTE 649-8895 ilk SECLUUtU FAMILY LIVING This 3 bedroom. 3 bath 2200 sq ft. home is in excellent condition with a 2 cai garage, automatic garage door openers, gas heat and a new low maintenance aluminum roof, cedar finish interior and sits on a 13 acre lot. Priced at $105,000. CALL IMMEDIATELY! SUSAN BOGIE 649-7374 PARK MEADOWS AREA! Come day or night to see this well kept furnished 3 bedroom condominium on the Park Meadows golf course. Enjoy great views under clear skies from the large sunny deck by day and a warm fire by either of 2 fireplaces in the evening. A great rental investment for only $89,900. IERRY OBERT 649 6684 JESS REID J E A L ESTATE Park City, UT 84060 1910 Prospector Avenue 649-3000 or at our new office location at the Resort Center |