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Show ..Wednesday, June 12, 1996 The Park Record A-15 EDITORIAL Private sector must chip in, too Contrary to popular opinion, domestic domes-tic violence remains an issue that pervades even the most affluent societies--even Park City, as evidenced by Patricia 'Blanchard's murder last fall. We are fortu-' fortu-' nate to live in a community able to support 'an organization like the Domestic Peace Task Force and Peace House. There is little lit-tle question as to the importance of a 24-'hour 24-'hour refuge for battered women and children, chil-dren, which should have the resources necessary nec-essary to be adequately and effectively staffed. But community resources cannot be called upon as the primary sustenance for the operation of Peace House. ' The task force is slated to receive ,$16,000 from Park City this year, $6,000 more than last year, and has made an 'effective plea to the Summit County Board of Commissioners to allocate another $20,000 from its 1997 budget. However, if only one-third of those who utilize Peace House are from Summit .County, then let the city and county contributions con-tributions reflect approximately one-third of the incurred expenses. The funding of a not-for-profit should be reflective of those for whom it serves. In this age of govern mental conservatism, it must be understood under-stood that charitable organizations-no matter how essential they might be--need to organize creative fund-raising. In an ideal world, groups such as the Domestic Peace Task Force, Friends of the Animals, and the Park City Counselling Center would always have their necessary funding provided by county, state and federal governments, gov-ernments, allowing them to operate at the fullest potential. Unfortunately, this is not feasible in our debt-ridden country, where the coffers are already overextended. Perhaps an effective appeal needs to be made to all of the communities serviced by Peace House, a request for help in the plight of their sisters and children. Are these other communities even aware of the inestimable benefit made to the community com-munity by this shelter and the Task Force? Peace House is, inarguably, saving lives. But when we live in an area where the average cost of a new home is $500,000, can't we assume there might be some spare change on one of the dressers in a 7,500-square-foot house? Certainly, all of the fiscal burden cannot be placed on the shoulders of benevolent citizens, but this cannot remain an untapped resource. Other organizations rely heavily upon private-sector assistance. The task force cannot can-not continue to hide behind anticipated funding from the municipality and the county; they must move ahead and raise funds through "grassroots" efforts. Before another plea is made to the Park City Council and the Summit County Board of Commissioners to hold wide open their purse strings, extensive empirical empiri-cal data needs to be provided to the mem- bers of this community explaining how the money is being used. According to Summit County Attorney Bob Adkins, a trial the caliber of the Blanchard murders can cost the county $40-60,000 in legal fees. The community shouM look at a figure fig-ure like this and realize their monetary donations might one day prevent spending money on murder trials and instead spend it on programs that circumvent the need for spousal murder trials. If the task force were to publicly "toot their own horns" for the sake of funding, citizens might realize why they need to pitch in, especially when those most directly affected are usually our neighbors, co-workers and friends. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The bridge: a view from England I TSw 0 -tVtij rtfTt JjofT & fH f W"Y n I . go cj r itci fry ) Editor: '. Beset as it is with problems in Northern .'Ireland and the prolonged recession, it would be stretching credibility to say that . Great Britain is aghast at the Park City " council's decision last week to turn down the Park Avenue Bridge. For a Park City , lover and watcher living in England, how-' how-' ever, I could scarcely contain my disbelief. Hence this letter. I first visited Park City in 1955 when it was a sleepy little ghost town. Silver mining min-ing had become unviable, the place was ' derelict, a fellow student was offered a house just off Main Street for $100 (which he could not afford) and Americans had not yet discovered the commercial potential poten-tial of the now world-famous powder snow. ' When I returned on two separate occasions occa-sions in the intervening years things had changed dramatically. The ski resorts in Park City became established, Wolf Mountain and Deer Valley were developed, devel-oped, and the city began to wrestle with the problem of how best to preserve its historic heritage whilst catering to a new ' Jype of incomer. People wanting either to I yisit to savour its charms for holidays or ! Actually to sell up their former homes and live there. The dichotomy became acute. Does one forbid all new development in the ; heart of the city and try to preserve it in . aspic or accept growth and change and try - to make sure the new is sympathetic to the old? It is clear that Park City has opted for r the latter, the most outward symbol of that . is the successful struggle to secure the 2002 Winter Olympics. Residents who want no new development and to reverse the tide will be as doomed to failure as was King Canute. . The significant step in the acceptance of change was the city's decision to let Main Street jump Heber Avenue and allow major development in the shape of new ,, retail, residential and parking provisions down to and including the Town Lift. It will all be substantially complete by this - time next year. - It was in the process of formulating these plans that the brilliant idea of connecting con-necting the Town Lift ski run to the heart of Park City evolved. The present unsatis-. unsatis-. factory, dangerous and uncomfortable ter-. ter-. mination at Woodside could be discontinued discontin-ued and the ski run continued by closing Woodside at the point of crossing and let- - ting skiers carry on and over a bridge onto a plaza by the lift itself. In one stroke this .would eliminate the danger and discom- fort to skiers. They would no longer have to cross two roads (one of them a busy state route) in their ski gear. They could . both take off and down load in complete : safety next to ski shops and associated facilities. A further (and under-emphasized) ben efit accrued. Park City has for some time been eager to market its summer holiday potential. The new bridge facility enabled 0 green landscaped "tongue" to reach right down to the heart of town and provide a perfect take-off point at the plaza for hikers hik-ers and cyclists to assemble. At day's end, they descend the mountain, cross the bridge in complete safety straight into the waiting cafes, shops and restaurants on the plaza and on Main Street. , When I was last in Park City in April, the council had just approved, by a resounding majority, the principle of the , bridge. All the technical officers were in favour of it and the designers were getting to crips with design options (I was particu larly attracted to a light-weight, cable-stay design like the super Dewey Bridge over the Colorado River upstream from Moab: very redolent of the practical mining structures struc-tures that were such a feature of old Park City). What I now understand has been the stumbling block is an argument over the width of the bridge. Park City Ski Lift Company (who have the responsibility of running the bridge in winter) wanted 40 feet to ensure safety for skiers coming down. With some reluctance they have now conceded that 33 feet would be just about an adequate width (leaving a bare 30 feet snow passage when the structure and balustrades are taken into account) but the city council has dug its toes in at an overall of 30 feet. It appears that a quarrel over three feet is threatening to scupper a concept that has the overwhelming support of the people peo-ple of Park City and their elected representatives. repre-sentatives. Surely we should all demand that the parties re-convene with a request that they negotiate an acceptable solution. The alternative prospect is that, for all time, generations of skiers, hikers and cyclists will be denied the unique facility of a leisure "finger" connecting the city center cen-ter to the mountain. Surely two or three votes in an acrimonious meeting on the evening of Thursday 6 June 1996 should not be allowed to blight the future of Park City. Yours sincerely, N. Keith Scott CBE Preston, England A matter of personal taste Editor: I am dismayed to learn that UDI agent Heber Smith was only able to find pornography pornog-raphy "worse than anything else for sale in Utah" at Park City Home Video. Well, no one should have to tolerate poor quality porn! If P.C.H.V. carries only the "worst example of pornography seen anywhere in the state," have Heber give me a jingle. As chair of the Park City chapter of "Sex Without Partners," I know where to get the good stuff. Our motto: "Onanism Now!" How much safer can it get? S&M, B&D, water sports and hot lunches; whatever what-ever makes Heber's socks roll up and down. Very truly yours, Claudio vianello Generous and caring friends Editor: An incredible thank you to the caring, generous people of Park City who have extended their help and friendship to our family during this difficult year. After a decade as local residents, we moved to Texas in March due to extreme financial difficulties resulting from divorce after 23 years. In Texas, we had a chance to regroup, experience a different culture and spend time with elderly grandparents. We'd lost our home but not our pride not our friends. In May, in order to attend court, we returned to Park City, completely amazed by the welcome we received from the community, com-munity, the schools, and the many friends who contributed to airline tickets for my 8th grade twins, Cody and Dillon Case. A heartfelt thanks to Chris and Mike DeVoy, Janet and Dean Faulkner, Sally and Dave Rajamaki, Colleen and Ed McKenna, Annette Sneed, Roy and Corinne Crandall, Tom and Emily Martinez, Bob and Kim Isleib, Chris and Susan Hartle and Susan and Dale Townsend. A special word of appreciation to Evelyn Richards who generously let my graduating son, Brian Case, reside with her these past months. Also, thank you to Lou and Mardi Hudson, who kindly lent us their Ford pickup truck. And, especially, thanks to Jim Baker for feeding my children fish, elk and deer and to Dr. Keith Marshall for his kind, invaluable invalu-able support to our family. Park City will always be home in our hearts. Jean Case Honor roll standards Editor: On learning that over 80 percent of all children at TMMS made honor roll this past year (are you all sick of this story yet?) I discovered that the site-based committee com-mittee at TMMS had lowered the standard to 3.0 so that more children could achieve honor roll status and therefore their "self-esteems" "self-esteems" (their own words) would be raised! Until this point I was fairly pleased with our school system. I fed into the belief that Park City had the best district in Utah (it doesn't) and that all is well in Zion (it isn't). After speaking to the site-based committee com-mittee about how I felt self-esteem was truly developed, the policy was changed. It was changed, though, only because I reported to them that my research showed all the schools in Salt Lake City started their standards at 3.5. My issue about not lowering standards to boost self-esteem was ignored. I received their reply and explanation in the mail and after pondering ponder-ing what to do next, I filed for the school board race three days later and one hour before the deadline. Since this time, I have spent countless hours researching volumes of literature written about this national trend of "lowering "low-ering the bar" and how devastating it has been to our country. The purpose or goal in "lowering the bar" is to create an environment envi-ronment in which all children can achieve, but which in reality creates mediocrity. Park City is not knee-deep in this movement move-ment but our feet are very wet. Consistently, whenever a policy or reason for not holding children responsible has GUEST EDITORIAL Farmers and environmentalists by LARRY WERTSCH Re: Utah Farm Bureau Federation guest editorial, Thursday, April 25. Like many economic-interest advocacy groups, the Utah Farm Bureau Federation attempts to paint themselves "green" by exploiting the language of the environmental movement. The trouble with this strategy is that it is amusingly transparent and completely ineffective. UFBF's model environmentalist is a highly-educated (Cornell, ag-econ) natural natur-al resource steward, also known as a farmer. To him and to UFBF all Earth Day was ever meant to do was get people to do something to protect the Earth as long as it was limited to recycling. It wasn't was-n't meant to "go awry" and expand into a general awareness of man's impact on the earth. It wasnt meant to address clean water and air, restoration of vanishing species, or protection of rare and beautiful places ill-conceived "play toys" in the informed judgment of UFBF. It wasnt meant to interfere with economic activity. UFBF and their model environmentalist would prefer that people stop pointing fingers and just limit their concern for the Earth to recycling. This paltry model is UFBF's definition of environmentalist. Thus, the reasoning proceeds, if recycling makes one an environmentalist, envi-ronmentalist, then anyone who fetches an empty container from a park or roadside and places it in a recycling container is an approved environmentalist. Since most people do this, then we're all environmentalists environmen-talists and why don't we just stop pointing fingers and get along, UFBF wonders. UFBF further distorts the concept of environmentalist by saying that on the farm is where people will find "the real environmentalists." Not a day goes by, says UFBF, when farmers don't "celebrate "cele-brate the earth," "deal with natural resources," and "protect Mother Earth." But UFBF is confused and misses the point: a true environmentalist is motivated motivat-ed by the love of and for nature, not by the dollars that nature's "resources" can produce. UFBF probably would have liked my father. He was a good farmer. Before tilling till-ing hillsides, he terraced them to prevent erosion. He didn't plow right up to the fence rows, thereby providing a marginal strip of habitat for small animals. He worried wor-ried about how much 2-4-D and Atrazine was too much and fretted when cattle lot runoff occurred in a rainstorm. He rotated crops and even let some acreage go fallow now and then to restore balance to the soil. He loved trees and planted many of them he hated the tornadoes that destroyed some of them. He liked sunrises sunris-es and sunsets, storm clouds, and fragrances fra-grances accompanying spring planting and fall harvesting. But these things do not make him an environmentalist. He was a farmer, and, like all farmers, his primary pri-mary motivation was economic gain. He did what he had to do to provide for his family, and I am grateful for that. But much of what he did was not good for the environment. In a cynical way, I suppose you could argue that it could have been worse, he could have cut down all the trees and killed all the animals and planted plant-ed all cotton until the soil, too, died. But that's like saying we should applaud the developers around here for putting up only 300 new homes on a parcel instead of 500. Like my father, I am a farmer. I am also an environmentalist, but not because I am a farmer. It is no more honest to say that an Earth Firster is a farmer because he grows some vegetables than it is to say that a farmer is an environmentalist because he rotates crops. UFBF should stick to the business of promoting economic interests. There is a need for that. But it should not try to sit at the table with the environmental movement. move-ment. For me, every day is Earth Day, and for all their excesses I will take the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, the EPA, Interior Department and all the other barricades erected since Earth Day, 1970, against man's irrepressible irrepress-ible urge to consume and expand instead of achieving equilibrium on this finite planet with its finite environment. QUOTES OF THE WEEK "I guess the first step would be to reincarnateBrigham Young to tell us how to do it. " Summit County Commissioner Tom Flinders, regarding the plan for creating a coordinate - system for Park City streets 1 just can 't bake cookies decent in that gas stove. When they took that old stove out I just couldn't watch. I sat here in the living room and cried. " Long-time Parkite Emma Lemon, who had her antique wood-fired oven removed just seven months ago come to my attention, the term "self-esteem" "self-esteem" has been connected to it. Because of the immensity of this potential poten-tial problem (does outcome-based education educa-tion ring a bell to anyone?) and my passionate pas-sionate interest in it, I have decided to remove myself from the school board race at this time. I would like to start, and actually actu-ally have started, a parents and advocates coalition for a more responsible education. I believe that all my efforts directed in this "adventure" would be more effective. This decision has not come easily, and only after hours of talking and reading and pondering. pon-dering. I sincerely feel from speaking with many, many people, that there is immense concern and frustration about the direction direc-tion our district is taking. Many parents and teachers feel extremely alone and isolated iso-lated not knowing where to turn or what to do. As a united group, we can be more effective in bringing changes to policies and bringing issues to light, than maybe I could as one board member. In speaking with many of the board members, I feel confident at this point that they have either been unaware of many of our concerns con-cerns or have many of the same concerns and would actually welcome our input as a collected group. Although we already have an incredible broad base of committed parents and teachers we are still in the stages of organizing orga-nizing and preparing our own mission statements, goals, etc. If you have any ideas, topics of concern (remember, we are interested in policies or practices, not in attacking individuals) we would love to hear from you and do extend an invitation to our first planning meeting on June 20 at 7 p.m. If you just have questions or want to know more, please call Allison at 649-8144 or Sara at 649-9112. My sincere hope is that the coming years will prove to be a time when we can confidently send our children into a world that they are truly prepared for. Sincerely, Allison Larsen The Park Record Staff PUBUSHER Editor Staff writers Contributing writers Office manager Classifieds manager Subscriptions manager SubscriptionsFront desk Advertising director Advertising sales Asst production manager Production Editorial production Circulation CartoonistsIllustrators Andy Bernhard Nan Chalat-Noaker Lisa Antonucci Cornelia deBruin Adam Elggren Brian Fryer Laurie Staton Kirsta Bleyle Tom Clyde Rick Brough Debra Harris Jack Fuell Kim Dudley Beverly Robison Rachelle Eickhoff Kim Hamm Tracy Harden Donna Berger Mary Hall Sharon Paterson Angela Swensen Courtney Wheaton Amber McKee Scott Aste Camilla Ducharme Jason Osbum Yvonne Ruth Daintrie Zega Anna Penry Kat James Dick Elgin Karen Yetter Michael Draper Tim Peterson The Park Record (USPS 378-730) (ISSN 0745-9483) 0745-9483) is published twice weekly by diversified Suburban Newspapers, 1670 Bonanza Dr., Park City, Utah. Periodicals Postage paid at Park City, Utah. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Park Record, Box 3688, Park City, Utah 84060. Entered as second class matter. May 25, 1977 at the post office in Park City, Utah 84060, under the Act of March 3, 1897. Subscription rates are $32 inside Summit County, $60 outside Summit County, Utah. Phone (801) 649-9014. Published every Wednesday and |
