OCR Text |
Show - imy Park Record Thursday, January 14, 1988 Page A13 Amid id Itt (Ben o o o Illliy-IHf II - H -H --f J I ' " " I ' ' - ,,Mlry.f iwii : Ind BY TOM CLYDE ustria strength dough I recently overheard a couple of guys talking about the local economy, and how tough it was to find a decent year round job in Summit County. It was hard to hear ' all that they were saying, but the little bits and pieces went something like this : "Lots of seasonal jobs In Park City center around the resorts, the hotels, and the stores." "Not much of that lasts beyond the end of the ski season." "There's always Salt Lake, but the trip takes an hour and the cost of get-' get-' ting there eats half the paycheck." "Besides, things aren't all that hot on the job market in Salt Lake, either." "Maybe we ought to get us one of them industrial in-dustrial parks, like they got in California. Lots of jobs there around those parks, I hear." - He's right in a way. Industrial parks were a big deal a few years ago. All you have to do is drive through rural Utah, and you can tour a dozen or so empty industrial parks. It used to be that the Federal Government would finance an industrial park for any city with a population of more than 20, Including horses and dogs, if 10 of them were unemployed or swaybacked. The theory said there was an enormous demand for industrial in-dustrial sites in the small towns of the nation. The Feds seemed to believe that if you spent a couple of million on utilities and streets, major industry would follow. It is kind of the twentieth century version of the maxim that settled the West and created the dust bowl: The rain will follow the plow. Break the sod, plant crops, and the rain cannot be far behind. That same logic would lead one to built a ski lift in Nebraska, in hopes that the earth would tilt in response. These industrial parks are a kind of dust bowl of the nineteen seventies. There's one all finished over in Heber. It's a nice little park, even if it is empty. A great picnic spot if ever I saw one. General Motors has not arrived ar-rived yet, but when they make the inevitable decision to locate in Heber, the industrial park is ready and waiting with all its federally funded utilities rusting into the ground. It's vacant as the moon with all the comforts of home. Maybe if they installed street lights, it would flourish, and turn into Cleveland overnight. "Yup, if we had one of them industrial parks right here in Summit County, things would sure be better." The feds quit building them a few years ago, you know, so if we want one, we'll have to pay for it ourselves. The County is trying to work a deal on some land out by the new sewage treatment plant, the kind of spot where you can build a sewer treatment plant and not offend anybody. It just looks like a site that corporate executives fly over, and say to the guy in the next seat, "You know, if the county would just pave a few streets there, I'd build my new factory right down there next to that sewer plant, but, what the hell, I guess I'll build in Chicago, next to my major market and a labor pool of millions, even if it doesn't make sense." The Sewer Plant Park has one real advantage over most industrial parks around the state. We actually have two companies who say they are maybe-sorta-kinda thinking about possibly someday building plants here in the sagebrush. One company will build an aircraft parts factory there, as long as the County can get them free land, and build and equip the factory without any cost to the company, and waive property taxes until the Second Coming. They probably want us to guarantee the profits, too, and there was something about the Commissioner's daughters that figured into the deal. If we don't pony up the cash, they will build someplace else, like maybe next to a factory that makes airplanes. The other maybe tenant is Randy Fields' Frozen Dough factory. The plan is to make frozen bread dough out there next door to the sewer plant, and ship it all over the country, maybe even the world, for use in a chain of bakeries he owns. Sounds great, aside from the fact that neither the ingredients for the dough or the bakeries that will bake it are close. But flour travels well. I can see a simple solution to both of these companies' space needs, assuming they really want to locate in the wilds of Summit County for some reason. Why don't the airplane guys take over the Heber City industrial ghost town? They cold move in tomorrow and put up the plant, and everybody saves a fortune in utility construction. Why doesn't the frozen dough factory move into the old elementary school in Kamas? The building is sitting there vacant, and the School District would probably give it away. All the utilities are there. All Randy would have to do is plug in the mixers and break the eggs. Kamas may not be a prestige address, but $7 will rent a post office box in Park City, if anybody cares where the frozen dough really comes from. Frankly, I like the idea of it coming from an old school in Kamas a whole lot better bet-ter than having it roll off the assembly line next door to the sewer plant. But what do I know? Needless to say, with these two almost free options sitting sit-ting there for the taking, I was a little puzzled why we were looking at publicly subsidizing (with local bucks, not Uncle Sam's) yet another rural Utah industrial park. We're talking about some industrial strength dough, here, too, not just peanuts. I called a who had headed up Lyndon Johnson's Department of Industrial Parks, and asked what was up. "Well, it's all very simple. Industrial parks built right in small towns all over the nation have been dismal failures. The theory is that they are too close to the workers to be successful. The modern theory is that an industrial park that is out in the middle of nowhere, preferably next to something obnoxious like a slaughter house or a sewer plant, it will be successful. The farther it is from both a labor force and the market for the products pro-ducts made, the better it is. You want your work force to drive a minimum of thirty miles to get there. You see, that spurs some additional spin off industries, like gas stations, auto repair places, and of course, traffic jams. We all know that there is nothing better for business than a good traffic jam. Just look at the success Los Angeles has had." Snninmiiffliitt &s SumnmiMfiit COMPILED BY HEIDI WEST Skico appeals $5 million loss THE ASPEN TIMES Aspen Ski Company (Skico) attorneys are claiming paraplegic former skier Les Peer, crippiea irom a iswi skiing accident on Aspen Mountain, lied under oath and is ignoring state law. Peer has already won a settlement of more than $5 million in a jury trial held in October, and Skico has appealed ap-pealed the decision. Peer broke his back when he fell on Ruthie's Run on opening day in 1981 when the run intersected a road. He claims Skico had an obligation to warn him of the road crossing. But Skico says it has new evidence that Peer's claim it was his and skiing companion Rick LaVigne's first trip down Ruthie's Run that day is false. They have three locals, they say, who will testify they saw the pair ski down the run earlier in the day and so already knew about the road. Skico lawyer William Maywort says state law shows they had no legal obligation to put a sign at the intersection intersec-tion of the run and the road, because the road is deemed "a natural feature of the mountain," and not a man-made man-made one. The company further says Peer was at fault for violating the 1979 Ski Safety Act which requires skiers be responsible for knowing their own abilities and skiing within those abilities so as to avoid other skiers and obstacles. Skico says Peer admitted to violating the act when he testified he was skiing too fast. The appeal asked the judge to overturn the jury's decision deci-sion that the accident was 100 percent the company's fault, plus the award of damages, or order a new trial based on the new evidence uncovered by Skico. VP defends furriers The fur coat industry helps rather than harms, the animals it uses, according to Stacy Lippin, vice-president vice-president of the furrier company Lippin International. Lippin held a sparsely attended seminar in Aspen to start a positive dialogue about the the business she represents, but only two people showed. She noted that 90 percent of the animals used in the industry in-dustry are raised in captivity and are not trapped. Of those that are trapped, most are caught using a padded - trap, she said. "We're not into any kind of cruelty to animals." ' Aspen recently passed an ordinance specifically to prohibit the sale of furs from animals caught in leg hold traps. Lippin also noted that the animals in captivity were treated well and were healthy. "We want the healthiest animal possible," she said, "because that's what gives a beautiful pelt." She said the industry uses wildlife management programs pro-grams to keep populations of fur-bearing animals low in the wild. The programs were humane, she said, and cruelty was a question of values. To a furrier, trapping animals to keep the population down is kind. To an anti-fur anti-fur advocate, that means killing them in the name of luxury, lux-ury, shesaid. " "If the animal becomes more important than the human being, it ruins credibility," she added. Lippin is the niece of American Fur Industry president Elliot Lippin, who recently wrote consituents that "The fur industry in this country has just begun to come under attack from the forces that would and could put us out of business." THE &L TRAIL Vail Two more high-speed lifts for Vail Vail Associates is debating whether or not to install two more high-speed detachable quad lifts this year, or wait until next. The detachable chairs would connect LionsHead and Eagles Nest. One would connect LionsHead with the mid-mountain and the second would parallel the gondola to the top. The gondola has apparently been under stress lately as more and more visitors use, it to access the area of Vail , mountain served by the increasingly popular detachable chairs already in place. VA may wait until next year to install the lifts because the exchange rate for the dollar against Austrian currency, curren-cy, where the quad chairs are made, is poor now and may improve. But, there is apparently no doubt the company com-pany will put in the two new lifts eventually. ?1D Tahoe 12-hour search locates lost skiers Two downhill skiers got confused and lost in a snowstorm when they tried to ski back to their cabin via out of bounds territory at Sugar Bowl. The men, Jeff and Mark Cawdrey, ages 30 and 31, left the ski area at about 3:30 p.m. bypassing signs which marked the boundaries to ski to their Donner Lake cabin. They were reported lost by relatives at about 6 p.m. Sugar Bowl notified authorities who began a search which lasted until 3:40 a.m. the following day when the brothers were found "safe but cold" in the Coldstream drainage. "They had never skied the out-of-bounds route before and were dealing with poor visibility and a steady snowfall of about two inches per hour," said Sugar Bowl's marketing director, Peter Bachman. w I mn 9M fv i 1 412 Main Street. Park City. Utah 84060 Appearing this week at Mileti's Social Club Friday during Dinner Barbara Danielson Sunday & Monday On Beyond Zebra Tuesday & Wednesday Mark Chaney Jazz Trio Thursday John Bateman For more information call 649-8211 MM , B i I N tr T I 6. K E T ft I i . iuii.1 .i ii i- limn i m.tmmm Mvmmrn 'W-iw O Appearing this month: Fri. & Sat. Jan. 15 & 16 JOE HOUSTON Sun&Mon. 4 JR. WALKER Ian. 17 & 18 and the ALLSTARS Wednesday Jan. 20th RAINMAKERS K Fri. & Sat. Jan. 22 & 23 MITCH ROCKETS WOODS '88 Sun. & Mon. Jan. 24 & 25 IOHN BAYLEY Thursday Jan. 28th CRAZY 8 s For reservations and shuttle information Call Mileti's 649-8211 301 South West Temple 355-2882 a |