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Show : THE PARK RECORD ' 'A : SATURDAY, JANUARY 12,2002 A-ll oints. EDITORIAL Viewp Basin turned The tragic collision that claimed three lives on S.R. 224 last week has reopened an old wound. Residents along the highway are again asking why Park City's entry corridor has proven so deadly. The widened and straightened straight-ened parkway, completed less than 10 years ago, was supposed be much safer than the old two-lane entryway. Why then have there been so many fatalities? It is too easy to wag a finger and to pine for the old days when there was less traffic. There is no turning back. Additional barriers, traffic lights and other alleged traffic calming devices only confuse and frustrate drivers, making the situation even more hazardous. The underlying problem is that there are too few secondary routes between the neighborhoods neigh-borhoods that line the west and east sides of S.R. 224. Thousands of residential property owners, confined by the prevailing cul de sac mentality, must access one main artery to go anywhere at all. Almost a decade ago Summit County, largely large-ly at the behest of developers, rejected a transportation trans-portation plan calling for a pair of internal routes roughly paralleling S.R. 224. Sensing a potential profit loss, the developers nixed the LETTERS TO THE EDITOR It's no accident Editor: I have always been uncomfortable with the term "accident" when used to label occurrences such as highway injuries and death. Unableunwilling to look beyond the incident inci-dent itself, officials too often classify such tragedies as unfortunate, unavoidable, happenstance. hap-penstance. It's no "accident" when local and county law enforcement are not present on Park City's main roads and state roads in the early morningearly evening. It's no "accident" "acci-dent" when, year after year, more traffic signals, lane marking, curb-cut turn lanes, signage, permanenttemporary barriers, radar-activated speed cameras, etc., etc., are not present on our ever-increasingly dangerous dan-gerous roads. It's no "accident" that our elected localcounty officials are not pounding pound-ing the table, shouting in outrage from the rooftops each and every day to cut through bureaucracy and complacency to make things happen in this town to improve the quality of life via health and, safety issues. It's no "accident" that they don't correct the image that they are no more than "step-'n-fetch-its" for developers and would rather avoid taking on right and just causes at the risk of losing the next election. When you next see speeds over 50 within the city, red-light running, near misses, impacts, injuries and death on our state . roads, it will be no "accident" that you won't 'see our leaders take a stand, let alone hear any shouting from the rooftops. These are serious issues and I want to see and hear passion from the next candidates and ones with the spine to receive (rather than self-promote) an agenda from local citizens about traffic issues that will be accomplished within one .year in office or voluntarily resign. Jeff Rose A constant danger Editor: - How many deaths on S.R. 224 are we as a community willing to tolerate? I'm sure many of us can relate to dropping a child off at school and returning home on the corridor corri-dor of death. Last Monday morning, Teresa Smith did not survive what I'm sure was probably a routine trip. ' I lived in California before moving here to Park City. I commuted between San Diego and Los Angeles five times a month and never witnessed or passed a fatal accident. acci-dent. In the 11 years that I have lived here, I have passed many fatal accidents including an accident in which my next-door next-door neighbor was seriously injured. I can recall at least 15 deaths and now three more. I watch my daughter leave every morning and drive herself to the high school. I hold my breath praying that she For the record With a budget of $10 million, what would your movie be - lv I Lissa Felzer "A honor flick where all the women are strong and brave, the men are weak and do all the screaming. Angelina Jolie as the kick-ass female, David Hyde Pierce (Miles) from 'Frazier' would be her co-star." its back on safety plan and, for good measure, successfully orchestrated the ouster of the planner who presented it. Unfortunately, everyone likes the idea of a secondary route, but no one wants to live on one. It seems every homeowner wants to live at the end of a street and, in response to that demand, developers have created a maze of dead ends. The few times the county has entertained enter-tained the notion of opening up some internal routes, neighbors have clamored for berms and blockades. The price we are now paying for a spider web of side streets is that the only meaningful way to get to a park, or the library or to a grocery gro-cery store is to merge into freeway-speed traffic traf-fic on S.R. 224 and hope for the best. The convoluted con-voluted layout of the Basin's subdivisions also slows emergency response times. The last time anyone proposed a sensible road plan for the Basin, he was fired. It is time to dust off that map and see whether any of those alternate routes are still possible. If so, developers and existing neighborhoods should support a plan to ease pressure on S.R. 224 by finding ways to divert some local traffic to smaller and safer side streets. will return safely in the afternoon. If there are no structural changes to be made in the immediate future, can we at least place markers where people have died as a chilling reminder that the stretch from 1-80 into our peaceful mountain community is one of the most treacherous roads in the country? I cannot tolerate one more death. Which one of us will be next? Maureen Ewell 100 proof mistake Editor: I noticed that our "Little General" Frank Bell petitioned his buddies at the D.A.B.C. to close the liquor store on Main Street at 5 p.m. during the Olympics. Old Town residents, resi-dents, and others, picking up their mail or doing business downtown, often walk to Main Street to "perhaps" buy a bottle of wine for dinner after normal work hours, i.e. 5 p.m. Residents and others will now get to further pack the roads and liquor store in Prospector Square. I can just imagine the queue of people stretching down Sidewinder Drive, at the only open liquor store in town. That crowd will be uglier than anything on Main Street (with its hundreds of police) if deprived of their bottle of "Chateau du Foo-Foo." Let's see, Park City will have tens of thousands thou-sands more people in town... so we close down one of the two liquor stores. Brilliant logic! During my 20 years in town, I have seen this guy quash many an attempt at my "joie de vivre." Can't anybody at City Hall just say NO to him? Dearest Frank, sorry we've made life so much more difficult for you over the years. May you retire in a community with your no-nonsense standards... perhaps Utah County. Sincerely, Andy Byrne Old Town resident Hazardous to our health Editor: Nerve gas incinerator up for review! Your attendance at public hearing critical! Having waited for more than three years, the Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste has finally released, for public comment, com-ment, the 10-year operating permit for the Tooele Chemical Weapons Incinerator. Now is the time to demand that the Army use safer, more advanced alternatives to incineration in Utah. These safer alternatives are currently being used in Maryland and Indiana and are also expected to be used in Colorado and Kentucky soon. Come and be heard at a public hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 6 p.m., at the Tooele County Courthouse, South Auditorium 47 wtmmjmmmsa Asked on KayAnn Schell "An American Kung fu movie dubbed into Japanese. A rogue intern assassination assassi-nation plot against the President of the U.S. The woman from 'Dark Angel' would be the intern, Jean Claude VanDamme as the President." - f : THIS MUST BE THE S. Main, Tooele, or Wednesday, Jan. 16, 6 p.m. at the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Room No. 101, 168 North 1950 West, Salt Lake City. If you are unable to attend one of these meetings please write to: Dennis Downs, Executive Secretary, Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste, P.O. Box 144880, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114; or e-mail ddownsdeq.state.ut.us. Key points to make at the hearing: Safer, non-incineration technologies exist; these technologies should be used in Utah; two of the six incinerators have never worked and should not be used; advanced, non-incineration technologies should replace them; the remaining chemical weapons are the most difficult and dangerous to incinerate; chemical chem-ical neutralization technologies are much safer and better equipped to destroy these agents. Since the permit was issued in 1989, the Army's incinerator has: Released nerve agent into the air; experienced drastic cost overruns; experienced serious design flaws and breakdowns; burned nerve agent in a manner that was never tested; had four top managers report flaws with the incinerator. They burn it, we breathe it. Please join me and help fight this threat to all our lives and safety. Our children deserve the right to grow up in as healthy an environment as we can give them. Please come to the public hearing at The DEQ on Wednesday night, Jan. 16, at 6 p.m. Call 649-9661 for any questions ques-tions or carpool information. Let them know we are watching. Thank you, Rich Wyman A vision realized Editor: As we enter a new year and into my fifth year as a resident of Summit County and the larger Park City area, I am filled with tremendous gratitude for the supportive, friendly community of which I am now a part. I came with a vision, which has since materialized, into ARTS-KIDS, Inc., a nonprofit non-profit after school program for children using the arts to facilitate motivation and self-esteem. Park City Municipal Corporation and the Youth Advisory Committee provided the seed money for the first group at McPolin Elementary in April 1999. Now we serve all three Summit County School Districts offering free weekly week-ly 10-week programs for children eight- to 12-years old referred by school counselors. Professional artists from the community and many local volunteers and professionals have helped to bring the vision to fruition. Judy Summer, Art Director, and Robin Friedman joined me in sharing the dream after the first group and are critical to its current success. In a week, we will be moved into an office donated by Utah Pacific Partners and furnished by generous local citizens responding to my appeal on the new KPCW Swap Show. Prudential Utah Real Main Street and at the Ricky Owensby "It would star Tupac and Omar Eps as drug dealers, Jennifer Lopez as Omar's girlfriend. girl-friend. It ends with Tupac getting shot, Omar goes to jail, J.Lo breaks Omar out of jail and they run into Snoop Doggy Dog and Dr. Dre on the street" ' i 'MOST CREATNELX DRESSED GROUPIE' COMPETITION ! Estate and Pat Prothro (Perkins Prothro Foundation) have made it possible for us to develop a sponsor packet and new brochure. ARTS-KIDS, Inc., is entirely supported sup-ported by cash and in-kind donations from the local area. The Robert Wishnick and George and Delores Dore Eccles Foundation have helped provide us a financial finan-cial base on which to continue building our program since 1999. I cannot name here the many people who have provided us with support actively, financially and as advocates. We have a long way to go to become an ongoing program pro-gram in Summit County but we could not be bringing creativity and belief in self to the children we do serve without you. Thank you, Park City. Pat Drewry Sanger Executive director, ARTS-KIDS, Inc. Too high a price to pay Editor: While it has always concerned me greatly that intelligent educated human beings would put gold medals before feeding the starving and homeless of the world, the news I viewed on television yesterday and yesterday's Tribune regarding the rodeo planned for the Olympics has me irate and fuming to say the least. 1 understand that animals will be strapped and spurred and prodded with electric prods, and the Olympic participants will do their best not to injure the animals. What does that mean? I also understand animal activists will be standing by. Again, what does that mean? Will their hands be tied? Will there be veterinarians there also to care for the injured animals? And there will be injured animals, you can bet on that. Rodeos are a cruel and horrible blood sport sponsored by shallow insensitive individuals indi-viduals who view pain to animals as recreation. recre-ation. God help us all. I am just now getting the full meaning of Olympic Games. I want no part of it and I am sorry it is all happening in Utah. I had hoped we knew better. Karen Saaranen Concern for the locals Editor: Rumor has it that SLOC has let the contract con-tract for snow removal to an out-of-state company. Local truckers are being shut down due to a ban on new construction and now they have lost the contract with the city for snow removal during the Olympics. This is having a tremendous financial impact on these small businesses. Not many small businesses could survive a two-month shut down and what arrogance on SLOC's part! From a security position, they know the area and live here, so they want to keep it safe. Outsiders present much more of a Eccles Center about and who would star in it? If Craig Januchowski "A documentary about greed and corruption in Hollywood. No-name actors underbudget the film, embezzle embez-zle 75 percent of the money to an account in Grand Cayman and leave the country." JOHN KILBOURNP4HK RECORD security risk. It seems like the only people to reap any financial reward during the Olympics are those with power... the Earl Holdings, ei al. I thought locals were to benefit, not be punished. pun-ished. Explanation, please. Sincerely, Kathleen Tschishow The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER Editor Staff writers Andy Bernhard Nan Chalat- Noaker Jay Hamburger Tim Sullivan Jason Reade Patrick Connors Shane McCammon Jana McQuay Tom Clyde Rick Brough Teri Orr Gary Weiss Jay Meehan Karri Dell Hays Silvia Leavitt Monika Guendner Courtney Herzinger Ian McNeil Wendy Mair Patti Christensen Cathy Vanderweghe Stephanie Borders Valerie Deming Gayle Seaman Anne Cummings Wendy Halliday Leslie Schag Shanelle Russell Wade N. Hall Tricia Hintze Inkarna Thomas Kat James Stephen Zusy Scott Sine Matt Gordon Kristi Ruppert Tricia M. 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