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Show A-2 The Park Record Saturday, March 17, 2001 Building named after Richins County to bring the name of a former commissioner from Henefer to the Basin Summil County will bring a little nl the east side into the Snyderville Baari this spring, when it n.imes the new count) services building the Sheldon D. Richins County Services Building." I he Summit County Commission agreed to name the building after Richins, a longtime county commissioner commis-sioner from Henefer. in Thursday's meetings. ' He's a good hearted person.'' said Commissioner Patrick Cone, who served on the commission with Richins loi seeial years. "He had the public interest in heart,' Cone added. Cone said it will be good to tie RkhfflS to the west side Ol the COUn-ty, COUn-ty, in older to begin breaking down some ol the w.ills that divide the east side of the county and the Basin. He said it will be especially significant to put Richins' name on the Snyderville building because Richins saw the major changes that the area has sustained sus-tained over the last decade. Rjchins, who served on the county coun-ty commission for 12 years, has also been closely involved with the planning plan-ning and construction of the new services building. The building will be located on S R. 224 at Kimball Junction and will include the Spring Creek Library, the Summit County Health Department, the Department of Motor Vehicles and other services. The building was supposed to be completed last July, but it looks like it will open about nine months late. The contractor, Canada-based Granville Constructors, underwent a series of personnel changes that delayed construction. Problems with subcontractors also contributed to the building's tardiness. The latest word on the building's progress from Summit County Engineer Derrick Radke is that the county is waiting for an updated schedule of completion. The latest schedule, said Radke, puts completion in late March. While he said this isn't likely, he declined to speculate on a completion comple-tion date until the contractor updates its schedule. Radke said the subcontractors are currently finishing the sheetrock upstairs and putting on the primer coat of paint downstairs, as well as "tinkering around" with the building's build-ing's exterior siding. He said subcontractors are continuing con-tinuing to work on the fire sprinklers because they haven't yet been able to achieve the 200 pounds per square inch pressure required by the Park City Fire Service District, citing various vari-ous leaks. While the county commissioners agreed to place Richins and architect Bill Mammen's names on the building, build-ing, they also voted to not include Granville's name. Chamber hands off events by Vanessa R. Conabee OF THE RECORD STAFF In a gradual policy shift away from special events-production. The ( lumber of Commerce will no longer produce two popular sum-in.'! sum-in.'! activities, the Concerts in the Park Series and The Farmers Market. I his week, the Chambers Board ol Directors decided to turn the concert series over to the Park City Performing Arts Foundation. According to Shawn Stinson, Communications Director for the Park City Chamber, The Farmers Market will most likely be taken under the wing of Park City Mountain Resort or the Main Street Merchants Association. "We aren't getting out of events, lust out of producing them," said Stinson. "We will still support them, financially or through marketing mar-keting efforts, but we want someone some-one else to be laying the tape out and working on those kind-of details." Both events have made Wednesday evenings a night locals look forward to during the summer. sum-mer. From 3 to 7 p.m., a gypsy-like camp of delicious produce and hand-crafted products has comprised com-prised the Farmers Market, conveniently conve-niently located across the street from City Park in the Park City Mountain Resort parking lot. After stuffing picnic baskets full of farm fresh fruits, vegetables, and fresh baked-bread, friends and families head over to the park, setting set-ting up blankets and chairs in preparation for summer evening concerts. "It's a wonderful satisfier for locals and people visiting. Nobody really knows who puts it on," said Stinson. "As long as its seamless to the farmers and producers, and people can still find it, it will be wonderful regardless of where it is. The major concern is that there will be good visibility and foot traffic for the farmers." Teri Orr, Executive Director of the Park City Performing Arts Foundation, stressed that the concert con-cert series will still remain a "by locals for locals" event. "It's a feel-good kind of evening, "said Orr of the concerts in the park. "We havent programmed summer events in the past because we felt as though there were already quality events and that people just wanted to be outdoors. This is a good match for us." Crowd gives thumbs-up to bridge Continued from A-1 Hie resort plans to bring additional addi-tional details of the bridge to the task force next month. Hie hearing came as PCMR tries to win a conditional-use permit per-mit from the city to build the. bridge, which was approved in concept in llW within an overall plan for the Town Lift area. Only the design remains undecided. PCMR wants to build the bridge this summer in anticipation of the Olympics. Hie resort, which is hosting skiing ski-ing and snowboarding events over six days during the Games, sees the Town Bridge as an important way for skiers to exit the resort during tne Ulympics. Groundbreaking could be as early as June 1 with completion in the fall, resort officials have said. The bridge would connect PCMR's Town Lift runs with the -Town Lift ! PJaau vChe .piojecW would close part of Woodside Avenue and necessitate rebuilding 7th Street. PCMR plans to install snowmaking. During the meeting, the task force talked about a number of design issues concerning the bridge. There were questions about how the area will be landscaped and members said they wanted the bridge to not be obtrusive. "Let's keep it as simple as possible," possi-ble," said Linda McReynolds, a member of the Historic District Commission who sits on the task force. HDC member Steven Swanson Mwanjs. the bridge influenced by Park City's history while Planning Commissioner Diane Zimney said the structure should blend with its surroundings. Planning Commissioner Chris Larson said the bridge should be as thin as possible. pos-sible. The task force did not make a decision at the meeting. The public hearing was kept open until a future meeting. Transit center opens to bus riders Continued from A-1 Inside, transit riders are greeted greet-ed with information about the city's buses Route maps are available, as are a digital board w ith additional information and a number of signs pointing riders to the right buses. Meanwhile crews are still completing touch-up work in the building, Cashel said. The transit center is located one block off Main Street. There are several access points, including includ-ing Heber Avenue and a walkway between the two streets that's located on the east side of Main Street next to the Silver Junction Mercantile building. A bronzed bear on a bench marks that walk- With buses running through the transit center now, the city is warning motorists not to turn onto a road that leads into the building that is restricted to city buses. Also, buses are using the roundabout at the intersection of Deer Valley Drive and Marsac Avenue. Cashel said bus drivers are praising the new facility but are acclimating themselves to the changes. "Right now, they have to get used to the change in routes and the roundabout," Cashel said. Rob Christensen, the city's transit-operations supervisor, also said bus drivers are happy. "Everything seems to be running run-ning smoothly," he said. "It's working well." Christensen said buses will continue to stop at the Main Street-Heber Avenue intersection intersec-tion into next week but afterwards, after-wards, the buses will abandon that stop. He said bus drivers are complimenting com-plimenting the amount of space at the transit center compared to Heber Avenue and Main Street. Christensen said drivers are pleased they are avoiding the intersection. "There's plenty of room in there," he said about the transit center. "And they don't have to deal with traffic on Heber Avenue." The opening comes after almost a year of work, which included the building, the roundabout, round-about, an extensive environmental environmen-tal cleanup and a significant amount of stonework. A dedication is scheduled ne.xt Friday. That ceremony is expected expect-ed to draw local and federal officials, offi-cials, including Sen. Robert Bennett, Utah's Republican senator sen-ator who was credited with helping help-ing the city secure federal funding fund-ing for the project. Washington paid for 80 percent per-cent of the $11.8 million project. SBPC hears concurrency plan Buildina community expresses support for advisory committee's recommendations by Karri Dell Hays OF THE RECORD STAFF For once, the building community communi-ty had some nice things to say about water concurrency in the Snyderville Basin. The Water Concurrency Advisory Board presented recommendations recom-mendations to the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission last Tuesday night with a new ordinance for water concurrency in the Basin. The WCAB said it hopes the new plan will alleviate many of the concerns with the present ordinance, ordi-nance, enacted last May as an emergency measure. The concurrency ordinance, known officially as Ordinance 4X), established zoning regulations for the approval of subdivision plats and building permits in the Basin. Developments without a water supply sup-ply concurrency assessment program pro-gram or an established water system sys-tem viability and conservation program pro-gram were suspended. The ordinance angered many, and the WCAB was formed to hear these complaints during a series of meetings. At Tuesday night's meeting, meet-ing, it presented its findings, and consequently its plan for a new ordinance. The WCAB recommendations included four major points, pre sented to the SBPC by WCAB member Steve Clyde. The first step, Clyde said was to immediately suspend Section 4. (2) c. of Ordinance 400 that requires a Plat Note. On behalf of the board, Clyde also suggested that Summit County contract with the Department of Environmental Quality to hire a District Engineer who would oversee and assist the county in the state and county regulations reg-ulations and requirements to better address the existing shortages. The WCAB also said that the existing water distribution systems should be immediately interconnected intercon-nected to facilitate the movement of available water throughout the Basin to areas where there are shortages. The plan would also call for the creation of a bank of water surplus to address short-term loan of water among water service companies. com-panies. Finally, the WCAB suggested that the SBPC continue to process new development plats for the Snyderville Basin, but not approve them until January 2, 2002 or until the ordinance can be fully implemented. imple-mented. It came as a surprise to the SBPC that the proposed plan was well-received by members of the building community, most of whom have been vocal in opposing water concurrency in the Basin. "I'd like to thank the board for taking the bull by the horns," said resident Marvin Maxell, "and establishing a system without penalizing us." President of the Park City Homebuilders Association, Brad Sanders, also was pleased. "It's an excellent effort, taking the burden off the homeowners," said Sanders. Contractor John Riley offered a suggestion. "I suggest you standardize the installation of the pipelines so that when the county inherits them, they all work together," said Riley. The commission asked the building community how it felt about not approving projects until January 2002. Sanders said that it was fine with the Homebuilders Association because the way it is written they can still go through the process that would take them just as long to get through anyway. WCAB member Fran Amendola added that the commission commis-sion should consider enforcing stricter guidelines on conservation efforts and landscape requirements. "We give it a lot of lip service but dont ever do it," said Amendola. He added that Basin residents should remember that they live in a high desert community where drought is a common phenomenon. The SBPC will review and vote on the recommendation at its next meeting. City wants to keep Sundance Continued from A-1 diamonds as far away as Rifle. The producer is quite busy with that tournament and the Boys' Championship and it's a great fit for us," he said. Team members often travel as families and spend extended stays at the tournament location, ideal for Park City's predominantly pre-dominantly condo-based lodging. But Park City isn't giving up the Sundance Film Festival without with-out a whimper. Stinson said the ChamberBureau is working with City Assistant Manager Tom Bakaly and City Attorney Mark Harrington on a presentation to the Sundance Institute within the next month or so. "We will make a presentation to them sometime in April," Bakaly coftfift&td; "BefbreM thatf,'-' we'll be looking' to fry Council x for irtpiit." H Hi " II: "We are pulling together various vari-ous groups - mainly the Park City Area Lodging Association and the Restaurant Association - and bringing them to the table to help address Sundance's issues where we can," Stinson explained. Whether or not the Sundance event moves down the mountain, spin-off festivals such as Slam Dance and others have said they would remain in Park City. Stinson said it's impossible to sort out the Sundance-only impact to the city, and he doesn't think Sundance impact would depart entirely. "I think some of the hospitality events would continue to go on here - the MGMs and other large entities will want to continue with their banquets and parties in Park City," he said. "But it's still obvious that there would be a huge void to fill if Sundance left," Stinson said. Sundance now beats the Christmas-New Year's holiday when it comes to filling up the town, "and we can't buy the international inter-national name recognition for Park City that Sundance brings us." According to numbers released by the Sundance Institute, festival-goers spent more than $36 million across the state in 2000. This was the first year that Sundance released Park City-spe cific numbers; surprisingly, they are nearly $150,000 higher than were last year's state-wide figures from the organization- $37.7 million. mil-lion. As is typical with destination visitors, lodging expenses were the largest single expenditure made by attendees: $21.1 million, or 56 percent of the total spent. Since the bulk of Sundance attendees atten-dees stayed in Park City, the majority of those funds likely flowed through local lodging properties' tills. And Sundance attendees spent big bucks for food and related entertainment, according to the Institute's figures: fig-ures: slightly more than $5 million went to restaurants, grocery stores and caterers. Getting attendees to and from the SffieSH3 Turgr;tK)-:L transportation expenses in general gener-al "'ptft afiot'her$2.9 million info the economy, Sundance said, about 7.3 percent of the total spent by attendees. The second-largest second-largest category of spending by Sundance Film Festival attendees was discretionary - everything from clothes for those unprepared for a Park City winter to souvenirs sou-venirs of their visits to Park City. About 17.2 percent - more than $6.5 million - of attendees' spending spend-ing went into this area. The meaning mean-ing of this category is clear: Sundance attendees might have the reputation of doing little more than drinking coffee, watching films and attending parties, but the reputation is wrong: they spend money in places other than restaurants and lodging facilities. Locals have long voiced the opinion that the best time to go skiing or snowboarding is during the Film Festival, and the Institute's demographics bear it out. Even though lodging is 90-plus-percent occupied by the event, attendees spent a paltry $627,750 on skiing-related activities, activi-ties, a mere 1.6 percent of the $37.7 million-plus they spend for their time in Park City. "We're looking at their numbers, num-bers, to see if they are close to what we gauge as the impact," Bakaly said. At a city sales tax rate of 2 percent of $6.5 million in general sales and 1 percent on $5 million in restaurant food sales, he estimated an impact of more than $175,000 for the city. An additional 360U,OUO or so is collected col-lected for Summit County in transient tran-sient room tax. "But these numbers are not in a vacuum," Bakaly said. "It presumes pre-sumes that - if Sundance leaves -nobody would replace their departure. I doubt that would be the case." A survey of Sundance attendees atten-dees during the 2000 festival . showed that 30 percent of them listed annual incomes of $100,000 or more. Thirty-one percent replied that their income was $51,000 to $100,000 a year, and 15 percent said their income was $36,000 to $50,000. About 24 percent per-cent said their annual incomes were under $35,000. goers said they were fiTmmakersV anotner 10 percent sajd theyfwere ; producers. Six percent listed their occupation as actors, 3 percent -said they were film distributors and 28 percent listed their occupations occu-pations as "other film-related." Non-film-related visitors made up 20 percent of the attendees, while 12 percent said they were students. stu-dents. Thirty-six percent of those attending Sundance 2000 were age 26 to 35, 24 percent were 36 to 45, and 12 percent were 46 to 54. Those over age 55 made up 9 per-. cent of the attendees, while the-18-to-25 age group comprised 19 percent of the total. "I think we .would take advantage advan-tage of the fact that skier numbers are down during festival week and go after displaced skiers for that period - highlight that our slopes are uncrowded at that time," Stinson said. "In the beginning, Sundance was an ideal fit because January is typically a down part of the season so it was great to be able to boost the number of people in Park City, even if it wasn't so great for the ski areas." "We would very much like to see Sundance stay with us - we believe the relationship is good for both of us and we believe we are very competitive with what Salt Lake City can offer," he added. "But it's not our decision to make - it's the Sundance Institute's decision." 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