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Show Blurred Page s Park Record Thursday, October 8, 1987 Page A15 JLi-1 Setting a poor example ILetttieirs it itHne Miton I.... I 1 n Pool isn't necessary Editor: I cannot justify support) he idea of a community pool Sjecaasf I think that the tax dollars couM f c spent in a more practical way. I don't think that the pool is necessary considering that within a few years there will be a reservoir within minutes of Park City that will serve mo6t of our outdoor swimming needs. If we really want a pool, let's consider building one at the high shcooL This would benefit the most people year-round. Let's not increase our already high taxes for a luxury item that would benefit some people during our short summer. If anything let's acquire more land to preserve the ever-decreasing open space left in our valley. Rand Moorhead PC out of city limits Editor: There has been considerable discussion recently regarding the PC which has been placed on the hillside east of Park Meadows. For the record, the letters are outside the City Limits. Neither the city council nor the staff approved, encouraged, en-couraged, or discussed the placement place-ment of the letters. Nora Seltenrich, Principal Planner Park City Municipal Corporation Autumn Fest big fundraiser Editor: The Park City Band Boosters would like to thank Dave Krueger, Bill Moore, and the staff of the Autumn Fest for including us in the event this year. It was our most successful suc-cessful fundraiser so far, and really helped the kids in their efforts to earn enough money to go to the Freedom Bowl in December. We also want to thank Dan and Chris Parker, who donated several hundred t-shirts from' their stock at the Village Store and Village Gifts. Albertsons showed that they are already supporters of this community communi-ty by donating a large amount of baked goods for us to use for prizes, and the pet store helped us out with equipment to keep our gold fish alive and well. We appreciate you both. Finally, our thanks to whoever took care of the weather. We couldn't have asked for a finer weekend. Dave Hanscom Kids on the loose Editor: Park City, be aware! Irresponsible Irresponsi-ble parents are letting their unresponsible kids run loose in our town. The auto burglaries are out of control. In my experience, both of my autos have been broken into. I shouldn't say "broken into" because these kids haven't the brains of a rock and couldn't get into a locked car or truck. They took the coins and things from the ashtrays. No big deal. Maybe $2 or $3. What's got me P.O.'d is they took my ashtray! That's right, an ashtray!. From a 1956 Ford Truck, this isn't something you can easily replace. Needless to say, I'm locking my autos now. Something I haven't had to do since moving to Park City in October of 1973. It's a bummer! Arne Anderson Thanks to special people Editor: We would like to take this opportunity oppor-tunity to thank all the people who assisted at the cardeer accident last Friday night. Fortunately, our son, Todd, walked away virtually unharmed; unfortunately, his new car required a great deal of assistance. It was a classic advertisement adver-tisement for all of us to remember to always use our seat belts. Cars we can always replace. Special thanks to the unnamed gentleman who helped Todd from the wreakage; to Sargeant Bruce Bennion; Police Chief Frank Bell; the Park City Fire Department; and to all the many friends who stopped by or called to express their concern and to give emotional support. It is truly the very special people here in Park Gty that make it such a wonderful place to live. , The Mullen Family Thanks to Miles Rademan Editor's note: below is a letter written writ-ten to City Planner Milet Rademan from president of the Historic Main Street Association, Sheila Haloff. Dear Miles: The Historic Main Street Merchants Mer-chants Association would like to publicly thank and acknowledge you . and your fantastic staff for doing such a superb job of so extensively beautifying Park City. In particular the lovely pocket parks on Main Street have enhanced our street, and it is such a pleasure now to walk and rest on Main Street. So, a huge thank you from the entire en-tire group of Main Street Merchants. Sincerely, Sheila Haloff president Thumbs up to panel Editor: I would like to thank and congratulate con-gratulate all the members of the panel which met on Tuesday, Sept. 28, to discuss issues facing our community com-munity regarding youth recreation. The panel was comprised of representatives from the County Commissioners, the Park City School Board and the Park City Council. I was very pleased with their cooperative attitudes and their apparent ap-parent desire to pool resources to provide a quality recreation program pro-gram for our children. When I first became involved in youth recreation, recrea-tion, I was told repeatedly that it was politically impossible for all three entities to work together toward this goal. While it's too early to consider the battle won, there was a highly encouraging atmosphere of openness and risk-taking that bodes . well for the project. Thumbs up to the panel and keep up the good work! Sincerely, Deanna Carter Help avoid fires Editor: Americans are usually proud when our nation leads the world, but here's one statistic that should be cause for concern, not complacency: complacen-cy: The United States has the highest fire death rate in the world! In fact, it's double or triple the rates for Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and many countries in Europe. Any way you look at it, fire is one of . this nation's leading problems. Every year more than 2.6 million fires occur in the United States. They are the biggest cause of death and injury to children, and cause twenty times more death than all floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes combined! Each year, fires destory more than 700,000 homes and cause more than $7 billion in property losses. If these statistics are new to you, that's part of the problem. Americans' unfamiliarity with fire hazards and lack of information about fire prevention explains why we suffer greater losses of life and property than any of the other advanced ad-vanced industrial nations. Any our problem is preventing fires, not fighting them. Compared to the rest of the world, most American fire departments take much less time to answer alarms and do a better job of fighting fires once they arrive on the scene. Consequently, Conse-quently, casualties per fire in America are lower than average for the rest of the world. But our fire death rates remains the highest in the world and that is tragic. The tragedy i3 that the lessons of fire prevention are simple enough, if only people would learn them. Here's what people need to understand: unders-tand: how to install and maintain smoke detectors; how to avoid obvious ob-vious hazards at home, at work, and while traveling; what to do when a fire occurs; and how to unlearn bad habits-such as smoking in bed. If Americans would only learn these lessons, thousands of lives and hundreds hun-dreds of millions of dollars would be saved. You can observe National Fire Prevention Week by contacting the Park City Fire District to learn more about Ore prevention and safetywe'll safe-tywe'll be glad to help. Together, we can prevent our homes, our life savings, and even our lives from going up in smoke. Sam Coleman Fire Marshal Park City Fire District Utah education in trouble Editor: For most of the long-suffering taxpayers tax-payers in Utah, a collection of cartoons car-toons which recently ran in the Deseret News snowing Johnny spelling spell-ing "beder edukashun" while teachers lament mat waitresses make more money pretty well tells the story of public education in this state. We believe as Secretary of Education Educa-tion Bennett recently stated that the National Education Association is the greatest obstacle to education reform in the country. Of course the Utah Education Association following follow-ing in big brother's footsteps plays the same role in Utah. The UEA's idea of reform is to pour money into a system that hasn't done a good job in twenty-five years and then convince the taxpayer tax-payer that things will get better. Such procedures as stressing achievement, assessment and accountability, ac-countability, measuring performance perfor-mance of both students and teachers, allowing parental choice in school selection are all anathema to the union. Another cartoon quoting a New York universary study that found only one percent of recent education budget increases have been spent on reforms is also about typical of our state. The career ladder, which in theory is a "reform" and into which taxpayers were forced to pump 40 million new tax dollars this year in actuality takes teachers out of the classroom more often, occupies their time with what is often contrived contriv-ed work, provides no objective measure of teacher proficiency and, according to some who ought to know, has not helped a single student stu-dent learn more. Teachers are caught in a terrible position. Many of them know that things are not right in education and they would like some real reforms. Many would like the standards of the pro-" pro-" fessiorf "upgraded Many of them deserve increased pay and would be happy to demonstrate superior performance per-formance to justify it rather than compiling a scrapbook as they do with career ladder. The union, however, along with those at various administrative levels who owe either their jobs or their allegiance to the union stand firmly in the way. Output not input is the heart of real reform. What we need is increased in-creased student performance not more money indiscriminately thrown at the system. Until real reforms are made, however, teachers will continue to be wrongly saddled with the failures of the system. Failures which rightly right-ly belong at the feet of UEA and NEA. Mrs. Mary Ann Murphy Organizational Chairman Bike 'n Tie not up to par Editor: Fitness events, such as foot races and bicycle races are vital to Park City's summer economy. These sports activities may draw thousands of people to our community communi-ty throughout the summer. It is therefore important that these events are well organized to help give visitors a positive impression of our city. Ideally, people will leave with a desire to participate in the next Park City sports events. Unfortunately, one Park City event failed to meet the criteria this summer. Namely, the Utah State Bike and Tie series. While it is a great idea, this combination running and cycling strategic event left a bad taste in the mouths of many participants, par-ticipants, as well as Park City residents. A forty-five dollar entry fee should have been enough to deter most participants, even though 10,000 in prizes is hard to resist. For those who took the plunge, there would be many surprises to follow. Pre-race jitters can be exciting for a few minutes, but an hour and a half is tortuous. Since the start was delayed at the last minute, this is what participants were subject to. Maybe this is what caused several racers to start prematurely. Why not? It is only' cheating if you get caught. The next little surprise only affected af-fected those who could decipher the course map in advance. A last minute change can really add a twist to an event which requires as much strategy as it does fitness. For the people who spent previous days previewing the course, all of their efforts ef-forts were wasted. The grand finale was iwl;ed e prize ceremony. Participants were anxious to receive their cut of the $10,000 purse. Again, disappointment disappoint-ment was the key word. Unless you had plans for a new geodesic dome home, $1,000 redeemable at Oregon Dome was less desirable than a six pack of Coke. Many people left the prize ceremony infuriated. Even those Park City residents who did not participate had reason to be upset. Many of the course markings, none of which are biodegradable, still remain on private land around Park City. The future of other organized sports events depends greatly upon the performance per-formance of past events. I picked up many of the Bike and Tie course markers myself. The Bike and Tie has great potential poten-tial as a fun way to draw visitors to Park City. In the future, however, it may be necessary to set up a review board to ensure that sports events such as this one are properly organized. Do we need a board of Park City Race Ethics? I should hope not. Chas T. Jones The Park Record welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. We ask that the letters let-ters adhere to the following guidelines: They should be submitted to the Park Record offices at 1670 Bonanza Drive or received receiv-ed in the mail (P.O. Box 3688, Park City, UT 84060) no later than 5 p.m. on Monday. They must be signed and include the name, address and telephone number of the author to allow verification of authorship. They must not contain libelous material. No letter will be published publish-ed under an assumed name. No letter longer than 350 words will be published. We reserved the right to edit letters if they are too long for the space available or if they contain statements we consider unnecessarily offensive offen-sive or obscene. Or Cross-Lites says: When you pray, pray to God as "father". We, For (Mf?' 2o years, Cnuar an (vfikmy mm- been fteefity die Oleid c'mW' weds of Jheojheu.st dejiw. re wytty or vedu. ae (oori tard o in cofttjkdt your (jmIk . (xd ard 1 aft iw ajbjbiwttneftt today. Editor: I have watched with much amusement amuse-ment and some disappointment the recent arguments in the Record over the "PC" on a hill east of town. The amusement comes from the intensity intensi-ty of feelings on both sides and the disappointment from the personal tirades of one Kathleen Deweese. As a 14-year resident of Park City, one of the things I have liked best about out town is our ability to listen and attempt to understand criticism from both residents and nonresidents non-residents aliLe. First Ms. Deweese tells us that tourists have no right to comment on Park City (love it or leave it), then she resorts to name calling ("pseudo-environments") when the writer is a Park City resident. resi-dent. It seems Ms. Deweese has taken this issue personally. Whether one favors the "PC" or not (I don't), or whether one likes the ski runs and lifts on the mountain sides ( I do) , it is certainly their right to comment on these issues. By her letters, Ms. Deweese sets a very poor example for my children of how a community-minded individual should react to criticism. AKo to Simulate. A 6.1 TOrtofc DUJWToOAYS EAKJHQVfcE. DRILL UC. U1SH TO UEUOME.TYCPCHS Football tim who uiu.be DoYJG CALISTHENICS oYov DESKTOPS. 7 nj" "I can't tell a policy from a polyp" If iasurance talk sounds like a foreign language, come to the Farmers Iasurance Group of Companies, including Americas third largest home and auto insur ers. Our professional agents can show Apry Sfwof 4 $tsstn$jw Svttft HA America can depend on Farmers. Judy Hanley- Agent 649-8656 Holiday Village Mall Sel Meal Sstate die, 0d SFcwuoned lArt 64 y -4660 Peace, love and a little more understanding Ms. Deweese. Bob Bailey Looking forward to Art Fest '88 Editor: The Kimball Art Center thanks the 30 Main Street business people who attended the Park City Art Festival Public Input meeting last Wednesday Wednes-day evening. Their constructive and cooperative spirit should help to make the '88 Festival run every more smoothly than this past summer's sum-mer's event. Dr. Larson, the Art Center's festival consultant, presented the results of K. AC'S in-depth survey of festival visitors. Kimball invites any Park City business to take advantage advan-tage of the wealth of information Dr. Larson has gathered about this $2,000,000 summer weekend. If you'd like details or special information from the survey please call the Kimball Kim-ball Art Center. Thanks again ' Main Street Merchants" Mer-chants" for your creative ideas and willingness to help make the Park City Art Festival one of the nation's premier festivals. Sincerely, Susan Fuelner -A you a wide varien oi'.ii'fbrd-able oi'.ii'fbrd-able p ilicies to a vcr y. ur needs, including !:k 'insur ance, lalk to a harriers X Agent today. And see for ourself wtiv America can depend on Farmers. cftiu 1 J G lAtwtei, S7 Si VI |