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Show , N A-14 The Park Record Saturday, July 8, 2000 More Dogs on Main Street By Tom Clyde 13 Moon dust and brown lawns ii." ! Workshop Wol TVeotmmts or Specialty j Turniture Lean how to paint designer finishes: antique glazing, suede texture, faux linen, stippling rag rolling, faux marbles, etc. call for further questions Certified teacher-20 yrs. experience References available Session i July 11-13 10a.m.-5p.m. (all supplies provided) or Session z July 13 & 14 5p.m.-10p.m. July 15 10a.m.-5p.m. (all supplies provided) Pre-registration required $50 non-refundable deposit $350 balance due Call Plain Jane s Design Company 435-649-0708 Boy. do we need some rain. It's as dry as I can ever remember around here. The trails are covered with a thick layer of moon dust. A short walk will coat y our legs with it up to the knees. A bike ride covers your w hole rxxly in it, not to mention the amazing ability of this stuff to wear on chains and other bike parts. There just isnl any moisture in the soil at all. There isn't any moisture in the air. either. Even with the bathroom cold in the morning, it's so dry that a hot shower won't fog up the mirror. Clothes from the washer wash-er are almost dry before I get them hung cut on the line. Bread turns to toast in the time it takes to make a sandwich. sand-wich. It hasnt rained any significant amount all summer. We've had some impressive huff and puff storms. I remember being in Albertsons when one hit. The automatic auto-matic dixir opened, and the wind picked up a pie-Fourth of July potato chip display and threw it toward the back of the store. I was nearly crushed by a life-threatening, jumbo-sized bag of sour cream-and-onion chips. But for all the wind, dark skies and threat, there wasnl enough rain from it to settle ii thing on the basis of either abnormally low or abnormally abnor-mally high water levels. But it's good to know where . things stand. This will be the year when we find all the : weak links in the systems. It will answer a lot of ques-; tions we were probably happier not asking. Drought isnl one of those weather phenomena that makes the news. That guy from the Weather Channel, w ho is alw ays clinging to some light pole for his very life as a hurricane rages on, probably wont be visiting Summit County. It's just not the same. In the hurricane, his jacket is whipping in the wind, his official Weather Channel baseball hat is in danger of blowing away, and the rain is pounding. Waves charge over the pier. In a drought, all he can do is pour a handful of our moon dust through his hands and say "sure is dry around here." Weather Channel coverage of the drought would ' probably show people suffering terribly as they hike or ' bike on one sunny afternoon after another, never worry-ing worry-ing about rain as they go about, unburdened by rain gear. I hey mignt get In the hurricane, his jacket is whippinq in the wind, his official Weather Channel base-b'sil base-b'sil hat is in danger of blowing away, and the rain is pounding. In a drought, all he can do is pour a handful of our moon dust through his hands and say 'sure is dry around here. " Tom Clyde the dust. 1 watch the flow or the Provo River pretty carefully. In the spring. 1 watch it because some day it could be flowing through the living room. Once the hk.h water is off. I watch it because we irncate the ranch from it. As the river drops, the work involved in tmammmmmmamm keeping the canal running run-ning increases. In a normal year, by mid-July we are rolling rocks and installing hay-bale dams to keep the water flowing into the headgate. it's a job that always coincides w ith the arrival of the deer flies, who take big chunks of flesh out of my back while I'v e got both hands occupied rolling a big rock into position. If I let go of the rock to sw at the flies, the rock mashes a toe. If I leave the flies alone, they gnaw right down to the bones. This year, we were rolling rocks and installing the dams in mid-June. It was deer fly-free, but the mosquitoes mosqui-toes were out in force. At high water this year, which wasnt very high, the flow of the Provo River going into Jordanelle was 2.S57 cubic feet per second. That was kind of puny compared to most springs, but that was the peak this y ear. On the Fourth of July, il was flowing 66 cubic feet per second. Thai's low for late September. By contrast, my neighbor told me about an accident a long time ago when a guy backed his car into the river, trying to turn around after stay ing too long at the infamous infa-mous Kamp Kill Rare bar. The nver was big enough to carry ihe car downstream about 1G miles before it finally final-ly washed to the bank. That was on June 30. 1 think you could drive across the river most places in a Konda Civic this year, and barely wet the tires This year w ill be a real test of the local water utilities. The county commission has adopted theii new water ordinance with an eye toward making sure that every building permit has real, wet water behind it. That was long ov erdue. This may not be the year to draw any permanent per-manent conclusions. We shouldn't be planning every- some loo.age 01 tnc water hazards on the t golf course being a little low. but that doesn't compete very well with those folks roasting rats on "Survivor." "The ( people here in Summit County are really suffer-' ing through this , drought." he would-1 report. "That water haz-i ; tmmmmmmim ard on the coif course is beginning to smell like . low tide. If your ball lands in there, you'll smell like pond ' scum all afternoon." Then they cut aw ay to people in the hurricane belt being blow n sideways. You know when a hurricane hits. Tornadoes are hard to ignore. Drought kind of sneaks up on you. Exactly ' when did the drought start? How much rain does it take ' to end it? The Silt Lake airport weather station reports just over 10 inches of rainfall since last Oct. 1. That's about 75 percent of normal. There s nothing in sight on the long range forecasts. If we had a real agricultural economy; it would be an economic disaster. Instead, since the primary "crop" in Utah has become the clippings clip-pings of suburban lawns, the dry conditions may actually actual-ly be an economic boost. Since the lawns aren growing ' like they normally would they don1! need to be mowed as often. That additional leisure time ge!s spent elsewhere. else-where. Park City is being pretty gentle in urging water con- servation. the odd even law n watering schedule is hard-" ly the same as rationing. I have a friend who lived in Santa Barbara in one of their droughts. He described capturing the waste water from the washing machine in buckets, then using that to flush the toilet. 1 think they went to an odd even schedule for showering and brushing brush-ing their teeth. I hope w e dewrt get to that around here. , The funny thing about water is that when it's gone, it's gone. Tom Clyde is s former city attorney ami author of fore Dogs on Main Street. " He has been a columnist -for The Park Record for more than a decade. Don't get me started By Gary Weiss Deer-Valderonde (?) -. v Take it from someone who's been on both sides of that approvals process, the speculators spec-ulators have the right to exclude, and the government gov-ernment can, quite legally, make the process a living, breathing Hell. Among those attributes concerning private property, proper-ty, perhaps the most fundamental is the right to exclude others. And among those powers granted local gov ernments, one of the most important is the ability to condition what occurs on private property. The clash between those opposing characteristics is an ongoing drama, continually played out in council chambers and courtrooms all across this country. It's been that way since at least 1915. when the U.S. Supreme Court weighed into the property rights conflict on the side of local governments, by stating: "It is to be remembered that we are dealing with one of the most essential powers of government It may, indeed, seem harsh in its exercise, usually on some individual, but the imperative necessity for its existence precludes any limitation lim-itation upon it when not exerted arbitrarily.-" Summit County. Utah, certainly could NOT be considered con-sidered as part of the leading edge of the restrictive zoning zon-ing struggle, despite having spent at least a million dollars dol-lars on various planning exercises. We've been unsuccessful unsuc-cessful as opposed to the way for instance, Pitkin County. Colo, (containing Aspen), has been. It remains, nonetheless, a prime conflict here. And that conflict has. most recently, begun sw irling about a proposed pro-posed development in Round ValL-y called "Valderonde." To my high delight, the current flash point issue is trails, iMMMaMi and their accessibility accessibili-ty to the non-Valderonde public. I was delighted because up until quite recently, both Summit County and Park City have done a less than adequate job in the creation of trails, despite the unquestionable unques-tionable desire for them across all sectors of the community. com-munity. However, I'm beginning to sense that this is starting to change. I'm beginning to sense, with both of these governmental units the city and the county a new commitment to the acquisition of trails. For that reason, this Valderonde situation is a perfect one with w hich to make a very strong statement. Coming at a time, for instance, w hen Deer Valley feels compelled, for some weird reason, to gate-off its parking lots, as if we (the barbarians at the gates) were determined deter-mined to steal them, one chunk of asphalt at a time. And on the heels of king both the formerly extensive Telemark Park and Flagstaff trail complexes, the time is right for the government to use the very powerful tools the law has given them to make sure this project serves the trail-using public at large, as well as the residents of this particular development. Delighted, because just when I thought local activism had gone into sleepy hibernation, more than 75 avid trail users showed up at a hearing for the project, and made their feelings known without any shadow of doubt And because even though this proposed project is, for the moment within the county s jurisdiction. Park City has gone on record as intending to hold hearings of its own. A part of the county regulations give the city the right to explore proposals when they take place in areas des ignated for joint planning. As far as I know, this is the first time this has happened. That's important, because it seems both governmental entities remain aware of the message from the last citv . council election: that the process for the Flagstaff mon-" strosity was unacceptable: and that the speculators push-; ing Flagstaff did some heavy forum shopping, pitting the city against the county to get what they wanted. It worked for them and. as a result, the electorate changed the makeup of the city council. Now. there can be no doubt that this is an important issue for the kxal recre-ation-ista's. There is no question that the developers of this proposed pro-posed scheme hav e the absolute right to exclude the rest ' of us. That s black-letter law. But the truth of the approvals process is that somewhere along the line. probably more than several times, these speculators will " need, perhaps desperately, some flexibility on the part of the governing entity. That's just part of the real-life situ-' ation. Because of that we, the people, through our elected government, have much power. Take it from someone w ho been on both sides of that ' approvals process. the speculators have the right to exclude.-and exclude.-and the government ' can. quite legally.' make the process a living, breathing; Hell. " ; ! was especially pleased that, among the trail-wanters. mv Gary Weiss old friend and col- i league on this paper, Tom (Hyde, stood up. Although an excellent attorney, Tom is of that rare "come let us rea-' son together" school of negotiating thought. He encar sulated the situation just about perfectly, w hen he stated; "You can either wwk with us on this issue and become a part of this community, or you can try to keep the fence . up and cut yourself off from the support of the commu- nity." Again, this is the perfect time for both the city and the . county to join forces, presenting a unified front. In fact '. if I was King. I'd demand, not only public access, but . that these speculators agTee to build a pedestrian Nidge " across the highway, creating a seamless link between the Rail Trail and Round Valley. This would be a huge step towards creating a fully integrated trail complex that '. would begin in Old Town and run through the entire Snyderv ille Basin. Creating the structure that would give -us and our paying customers, winter and summer vis-:.' itors a truly world-class trail system. When reasonable, articulate people and colum--nists like Tom Clyde all stand together, it s very like- ' ly that these: speculators will blmk first. This issue is a real-deal test for both our local governments. I only, hope they understand this, and make a determination to tap into their large reservoirs of power. The time is right the issue is right, and the public is right The gov-" eminent can, and should, do whatever it takes to make this thing happen. Gary Weiss is the former owner of DoBvs Bookstore and has served on the Summit Co. Planning Commission. i .jMaiKfejnMt,jehj, MfcMJ-- v.p,& J |