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Show Wednesday, September 18, 1996 The Park Record EDITORIAL Spirit of giving is alive and well It may be called the "off season" by some, but for local nonprofit groups, fall is the high season for fund-raising. fund-raising. It is also a season Park City should be very proud of. Each year local residents turn out by the hundreds to support handicapped sports programs, animal rescue leagues, the arts, schools and young athletes. - With all the parties and pledges, raffles raf-fles and auctions, it can be quite exhausting exhaust-ing and expensive but that hasn't stopped this community. This weekend, for instance, many already over-committed locals will spend Saturday evening at the Yarrow supporting the Make a Wish ' Foundation, a group dedicated to making happy memories for children whose lives have been touched by tragedy. Last weekend more than 200 residents turned out for the National Ability Center's Mobster Bash, raising thousands thou-sands of dollars to benefit sports pro- ., grams for handicapped individuals. .Although the group provides activities from all over the country it counts on local residents for much of its funding. .And last Sunday more than 700 residents LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Trailhead dedication Editor: On Saturday, Sept. 7, the Leadership 2000 Class of 1995 dedicated the Patty Coon Blanchard trailhead at Hailstone Point at the Jordanelle State Park. This community celebration was open to all Parkites in honor of a beautiful friend. ' The Leadership 2000 Class of 1995, together with the Coon family have spent tireless hours planning this event. We wish to thank members of this community communi-ty for their efforts, time and money in order that made it possible for us to realize real-ize the dream of dedicating a trail and plaque at a beautiful scenic overlook in the loving memory of a friend and member mem-ber of the Leadership 2000 Class. Thanks to Lewis Brothers Transportation who generously donated transportation to the Jordanelle Park Marina, Steve Carpenter, park manager, for all his efforts and the promise to assist us in finishing and maintaining the trail in GUEST EDITORIAL Cops? What cops? : by JIM SCHEFTER ' The drums are beating, the pressure is mounting, and the words are inflammatory: inflammato-ry: Dangerous intersection. Jammed traffic. traf-fic. Public safety. And it's a safe bet that a few vocal minorities, arguing strongly from emotion, emo-tion, will eventually get their way. The issues dear to their hearts are banning all traffic from Main Street, and installing a traffic signal at S.R. 224 and Thaynes Canyon. Both are dumb ideas. Problems in either place could he handled if the Park "City police simply did their jobs. The problem on S.R. 224 is not cross-! cross-! traffic. It's speeders. Park City cops spend more time at lunch than they do writing tickets on 224. The problem on Main Street is people who park illegally either too far from the curb, or over the posted time limit. The former reduce the width of the traffic lanes. But they never get ticketed. The latter get ticketed so seldom that the time limits are a joke. In the absence of local authority, the traffic-signal drum-beaters turn to the state for a solution that may he worse than the problem. The Utah Department of Transportation recently completed a survey at 224 and ThaynesSnow Creek. Results will he announced soon. .'; Yes, there was a fatal accident there. Any death is tragic and traumatic. It ' should not have happened. But one accident acci-dent does not make a dangerous intersection. intersec-tion. ' It may not matter. In the three days that thru-traffic and right-turn traffic was counted electronically, how did UDOT count the most dangerous traffic cars turning left into either Thaynes or the Snow Creek shopping center, or turning ; left onto 224? According to UDOT regional director Jim McMinimee, a couple of people sat there for three hours and observed. Their 1 numbers conveniently during a lunch hour when more folks are coming and going will be extrapolated to provide an "official" number. Anyone three weeks into a freshman statistics course knows that the word applied to such a number is "insignificant." " (Note that a certain business in Snow Creek would benefit from a new light and has reportedly offered $25,000 to help pay ' for it in the interests of community safe QUOTES OF THE WEEK "What we tend to do is elect people who have no political skills, thinking the less you know about politics, the better you'll do in office. That's like choosing a symphony orchestra based on how little the musicians know about music" Dan Kemmis, director, Center for the Rocky Mountain West attended Conexion Amigo's celebration at the Park City Racquet Club. The recently-organized group is working to improve communications between Park City's Anglo and Hispanic communities and organizers were delighted by Sunday's overwhelming show of support. Next weekend, in addition to the Make a Wish Foundation event, local animal lovers are being asked to support the Summit County Friends of Animals. The organization, which provides foster care for abandoned animals as well as supporting the county animal shelter, has planned a fun-filled day at the Park City Resort Center. October's calendar is also jammed with fund-raising events beginning Oct. 5 with the 15th-anniversary celebration of Park City Performances. The community theater group is currently raising money to renovate the historic Egyptian Theater on Main Street. The following weekend there is a benefit for the Park City Education Foundation which, among other activities, helps to raise money for the schools and for scholarships scholar-ships to send local students to college. the years to come. Thanks to Scott Cote, Doug Whitney and Terry Hoffmeyer for their water taxi and champagne opening services and of course their spouses who acted as any back-seat driver ought to. Charlie Wintzer and John Whitley prepared pre-pared the dedication site, selected and moved all the rocks into their current location and it is lovely. When you visit this site, you'll realize what an incredible task this was. We thank you from our hearts for your sweat and hard work on Patty's behalf. Thank you Park City Ski Area for the chairs, Jan's for the donation of a bike to patrol the trail. The plaque was spearheaded by Jan Jones and was attached to its permanent home by Charlie Wintzer and gang. The celebration wouldn't have come together without the generous donations of Albersons, U.S. Ski Team, Resort Property Management, Rich Wyman, Nick Caravaglia, Park City Municipal Corp., Sally Elliott, Fr. Bob Bussen of St. Mary's Church, KPCW, KUTV, The Park Record, Summit County Bee, La Mar and Shirley Coon and Patty's kids, Michael and Emery. ty, of course.) Would a new traffic signal help? McMinimee often points out that traffic signals frequently create more problems than they cure. In this case, the cure is simple: Park City's police should focus on speeders along S.R. 224 (and on parking violations on Main Street) instead of doing whatever whatev-er it is they do. Even in peaceful Park City, there's never a cop when you need one. Have you written to a public official lately? More important, have you gotten an answer? I'm a letter writer. When something bugs me, I write to my congressman, to the county commissioners, to state legislators. legisla-tors. What bugs me now is the way almost all of them have decided that they can ignore correspondence with impunity. Take the county commissioners. In the last two years, I've written or faxed comments com-ments and observations to all three on three separate occasions. Number of answers received: Zero. I've written to Congressman Bill Orton nine times since the last election. True, five of them were to complain about not getting a reply to the other four. Three of the letters went to Orton's e-mail box at the House of Representatives. Number of answers received: Zero. Now that the next election is getting close, I did get a flyer from Orton extolling his accomplishments of the last two years. It was printed and mailed at taxpayer expense. What a guy. I wrote one letter to our state senator, Alarik Myrin. He didn't answer. I wrote twice to Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Bob Bennett. Both answered, though Bennett's first response addressed issues I had not raised and ignored the issue that concerned me. My second letter, pointing this out, was answered promptly and was to the proper point. Finally, I wrote once to State Representative David Ure. He didn't write back. He phoned. He discussed my concern knowledgeably and told me what he was doing about it. And then he invited invit-ed me to testify at a committee hearing, should things go that far. They didn't and I didn't. But it was nice to know that he cared. And come election day, it'll be helpful to know who doesn't. October 19 is what many consider the official kickoff for the ski season Jans Winter Welcome, a benefit for the Park City Ski Team. The local ski team, by the way, has sent several graduates off to the U.S. Ski Team. During November Park City will once again demonstrate its unbounded generosity gen-erosity at Kimball Art Center's 20th Anniversary Gala. The art center itself plays host to numerous fundraisers for other organizations and has long nurtured nur-tured Park City's cultural spirit. The U.S. Ski Team's annual Utah Ski Ball is scheduled sched-uled for Nov. 30 and, as always, promises to give our athletes a rousing send off for the season.. And, while those who attend these events definitely deserve a pat on the back, special recognition should go to local merchants, who time after time are asked to donate merchandise and services ser-vices as auction items, raffle prizes and premiums. Their generosity has gone a long way toward making Park City more than just a resort town, but also a community com-munity that is known for its commitment to a wide variety of good causes. Patty would be proud of these efforts made in her memory. This will be a wonderful won-derful asset to the Jordanelle and a trail that our community and visitors can use and enjoy for years to come. Thank you members of the Leadership 2000 Class, especially Teri Whitney, Rhonda Sideris and Paul Lammers. Thanks too, Park City, for your never failing fail-ing community spirit. Dan Meehan More accountability in our schools Editor: On Tuesday, Sept. 10, I was in attendance atten-dance at the Park City School District Board meeting to participate in the public input portion of that meeting. As I waited for my turn to be called on, I listened to several parents of high school students voice their concern about the new attendance atten-dance policy instituted this year at the high school. Since I have a student at the high school, I was more than a little interested inter-ested in their comments. The parents who addressed this issue had done some preliminary groundwork ground-work polling parents at a school function func-tion to determine if there were others who felt as they did. calling the State Public Health Department for an opinion about health issues and preparing written information to give to the School Board. They were intelligent, calm and well prepared. pre-pared. Each of these parents assumed that they were voicing their concerns in the proper forum. It was obvious to me that each of them felt that the School Board was aware of the policy and most likely involved in the development of it. However, they were told that the policy was developed and instituted by the Site-Based Site-Based Decision Making Committee at the high school. Some members of the school board, who have students at the high school, even admitted that they didn't know about the new policy until, like the rest of us, it was sent home at the beginning begin-ning of school. I think it is unbelievable that elected members of our school board had not seen or reviewed a new policy that would be in place at the beginning of the school year. I am in complete agreement that there are problems with the new attendance policy. These problems need to be addressed and reviewed by the Site-Based Site-Based Committee. (The next meeting of the Site-Based Committee is Monday, Sept. 23, 4 p.m. at the high school.) But, I wonder if any of these concerned parents recognized the bigger problem involved with the implementation of the new attendance policy? As I see it, there is a definite problem with the ability of a Got something on your mind? The Park Record welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. We ask that the letters adhere to the following guidelines: They should include the address and telephone number of author. No letter will be published under an assumed name. They must not contain libelous material. Writers are limited to one letter every 28 days. Letters must not be longer than 350 works and should, if possible, pos-sible, be typed. We reserve the right to edit letters if they are too long or if they contain statements we consider unnecessarily offensive or obscene. All letters will be printed, unless the number exceeds our space limitation. SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION 1 Year inside Summit County, $32, outside Summit County, $60 Mastercard Exp. or Visa No. - - - Date: Name Mailing Address Mail to: The Park Record, P.O. Box 3688, Park City, Utah 84060, (801) 649-9014 KEVIN NCOlU PARK RECORD group of approximately 25 people to institute policy affecting 100 percent of students and their families at a school with a population of over 900 without being required to submit that policy to the School Board for review and public input. This process is an excellent example of the broad scope and power of Site-Based Decision Making committees. They can implement policy with little accountability accountabili-ty to school patrons. They are not elected, but selected. This is also a perfect example of one of the reasons that Parents for Responsible Education (P.R.E.) was formed. Along with other issues, we are concerned about an elected, and thereby accountable to all of us, school board that has given up some of their power and accountability to Site-Based committees. The next general meeting of (P.R.E.) will be held on Thursday, Sept. 19. 7 p.m. at the Marsac Building. Our meetings are open to all concernc"cT parents. Connie Buie, secretarytreasurer Parents for Responsible Education Video store closes its doors Editor: As most of you know, we closed Park City Home Video on Sept. 15. Park City Home Video was one of the oldest video stores in Utah having opened up nearly 15 years ago. We'd like to thank our friends and customers cus-tomers who helped us make it through this very difficult year. Our main regret is that we will not be seeing as much of our many friends that we met by owning and operating Park City Home Video. We will greatly miss the association we have had with our employees and wish them success suc-cess in their future endeavors. We had many highlights. We sponsored spon-sored Park City High School's Basketball Player-of-the-Week and a fan three-point shooting contest. One week, the coaches selected our son, Brian, as PCHS-PCHV Player-of-the-Week. Another was when another son, Spence, was selected to represent rep-resent Treasure Mountain Middle School's Wetlands Restoration Project and receive a national award in Tampa, Fla. To our surprise, TMMS won first place and Spence accepted the award on live prime time television. He flew home the next day and accepted another award Payment must be received before subscription sub-scription begins. Thank You "Gridlock will get bad on its own, let's not help it out. After all, they're stop lights, not go lights. " Park City engineer Eric DeHaan, on U DOT'S decision to noUnstall a signal at S.R. 224 and Thaynes Canyon Drive as TMMS student-of-the-year runner-up. We sponsored and coached many softball and volleyball teams and had a great deal of fun while doing so. We have no definite plans for the future as we have been focused on resolving resolv-ing our differences with th&tate of Utah and liquidating Park City Home Video. We do plan to remain in Park City at least until the end -of the school year when Spence will graduate fronf Park City High School. Our memories of Park City will always be fond ones. Gary and Mayleen Krall Thanks from the Friends Editor: Just wanted to say thank you to everyone every-one who had a hand in making this year's Friends of the Park City Library Used Book Sale a wonderful success. Thanks to the hard work of those who prepared and the devoted readers who bought bags and boxes of books, we managed to raise over $4,500 for the Park City Library. Donations of books and magazines are taken throughout the year at the library. Volunteers are always needed to help sort these donations. Anyone at the library can get you in touch with a "Friend" if you're interested in pitching in. There is also a rack of wonderful used books and magazines for sale in the library year round. All the donations, contributions and volunteering is appreciated. Thanks again. Terry Moffit, co-chair The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER Editor Staff writers Andy Bernhard Nan Chalat-Noaker Lisa Antonucci Cornelia deBruin Adam Elggren Brian Fryer Kirsta H. Bleyle Bruce Lewis Christopher Thomas Tom Clyde Rick Brough Debra Harris Jack Fuell Kim Dudley Beverly Robison LeahSzwec Rachelle Eickhoff Tracy Harden Donna Berger Mary1fW Sharon Paterson Angela Swensen Courtney Wheaton Contributing writers Office manager Classifieds manager Classifieds Subscriptions manager Advertising director Advertising sales nam Daintrie Zega Anna Penry Melissa Briley Tricia Symes Melissa Hyde Editorial production: ,KaWame8. ftiotortyntfr'lSi'' Circulation Dick Elgin Karen Yetter CartoonistsIllustrators Michael Draper Tim Peterson - h ' The Park Record (USPS 37fc-fn'SSN 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. Subscriptions are transferrable; $5 cancellation fee. Phone (801) 649-9014. , Published every Wednesday and Saturday. , |