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Show Viewpoints. A-15 WEDTHURSFRI, DECEMBER 3-5, 2003 THE PARK RECORD EDITORIAL County needs to be decisive at Quinn's Summit County has weathered this type of storm before. The litigious thunderhead currently jooming over Quinn's Junction and along Park City's eastern entry corridor is a mirror image of the tempestuous tempes-tuous debates regarding all of the commercial and residential resi-dential development proposals that rained down on the Snyderville Basin in the early 1990s. Then, as now, large swaths of land previously considered con-sidered 'out in the boonies' were suddenly being reappraised reap-praised as 'prime real estate.' Landowners in the Basin were quick to realize that their financial future depended depend-ed on partnering with developers who had the wherewithal where-withal to hire architects and engineers, pay application and connection fees, build infrastructure and promote their projects. At first the developers were welcomed with open arms by a county that was actively seeking economic development - but the development boom quickly turned out to be too much of a good thing. Citizens began calling on their elected representatives to put a halt to any further growth. But, as it turned out, that was easier said than done. Zoning promises had been made, density entitlements had been assumed and there was a lot of money on the line. During those frustrating years more than a dozen lawsuits were filed against Summit County by landowners landown-ers and developers. Consultants were hired to quantify public sentiment and convert it into a mappable general gener-al plan, planners came and went - some of their own volition others not. And few politicians escaped unscathed as public sentiment swayed back and forth between growth and preservation, between individual property rights and the public good. That same scenario is playing out now along Park City's eastern border and apparently we have not yet found a better way to balance the need for economic vitality with the desire for open space. The political winds are blowing back and forth again - some say Quinn's Junction represents a viable location for commercial com-mercial development while others want the rolling pastures pas-tures reserved for recreation. The landowners are lining up their lawyers and one consultant has already been sent packing. The only thing everyone seems willing to agree on so far, is that no one wants to turn Quinn's into another Kimball Junction. But that is exactly what will happen if citizens force the courts to do their planning for them. Unfortunately, bowing to political pressure, the county has spent the last decade and a half tooling and retooling the general plan to suit the moment. That must stop. The Snyderville Basin Planning Commission and the county commission need to have the courage to play for keeps - to write a plan that is extremely specific specif-ic (not based on a shifting matrix of bonuses) and to guarantee its zoning parameters for a precise length of time. And the place to start is Quinn's Junction. Skip the consultants. Lock the commissioners in a room until they agree on a detailed plan for Quinn's Junction including precise density limits for every parcel and make it clear to developers that this is a one-time offer - that the plan has a sunset date and the next administration may or may not be as generous. JOHN KILBOURNPAftK RECORD LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Worldwide candle lighting Editor: Tens of thousands of people around the world, united by grief, are preparing for The Compassionate Friends (TCF) Worldwide Candle Lighting Sunday, Dec. 14. The United States Senate has declared the second Sunday in December as "National Children's Memorial Day." TCF is an international nonprofit support group for families dealing with the death of a child. Our goal is to assist families in achieving a positive resolution of their grief. The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting is an annual event, held the second Sunday in December, where persons around the globe light candles for one hour to honor children who have died. The candles are lit at 7 p.m. local time, starting in New Zealand. As candles burn down in each time zone, they are then lit in the next. This creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as the observance continues around the world. "While this is a global event, it all starts at the local level as members of TCF chapters across the country observe this special day, whether alone, with friends and family, or in an organized candle lighting ceremony," says TCF Executive Director Pat Loder. "Our hope is that through this combined act, people will realize that they are not alone and that their child, grandchild, or sibling is remembered during the difficult holiday season. We invite all people to join in this GUEST EDITORIAL An appeal to Park Record readers By ROBERT NEWMAN Dean of the College of Humanities University of Utah This holiday season, I would like to invite all Park Record readers to help "first-generation" students go to college by contributing contribut-ing to a special scholarship fund. You would be helping high school graduates gradu-ates who are the first in their families to pursue pur-sue a college education. These may include, but are not limited to, students who are Latinoa, American Indian, African American, and Asian-Pacific Islander. Some of these students are the children of undocumented workers. Regretably, there is precious little financial finan-cial support to help these students come to the university and to keep them here. With your help, we can change this and have a lasting impact on their lives. Please support our "Community Scholarships for Diversity" initiative. Why is diversity important? As a community, commu-nity, we benefit when every segment of our society has leaders who are well educated. For university students, a diverse learning environment promotes personal growth by challenging stereotypes, broadening perspectives, per-spectives, and fostering mutual respect. And, for first-generation students in particular, partic-ular, it represents economic opportunity for a better life for themselves, their families and the entire community. The fact is, our community is diverse. This is something we embrace and celebrate. cele-brate. It is also something for which we continually con-tinually prepare students. Within the humanities at the University of Utah, we are educating all of tomorrow's graduates to communicate clearly and to solve problems prob-lems in just and creative ways. As a member of this community, we ask that you please join us in our scholarship drive by offering a gift of any size. One hundred hun-dred percent of your gift will go to scholarships scholar-ships that will be awarded next year. Moreover, your gift will be matched, dollar for dollar, by the Roger Leland Goudie Foundation in Salt Lake City. And, your name will be gratefully acknowledged in the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret Morning News on Dec. 24. All of us can uphold the idea that we must "learn" our way into a better society and better world. Help us provide the opportunity opportu-nity for first-generation students to learn with us... and to teach us. Let this be one of the most hopeful and important holiday gifts you give this year. Thank you, and happy holidays. Please send your gift to: Diversity Scholarships, College of Humanities, University of Utah, 255 S. Central Campus Dr., Room 2100, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112; or call (801)585-3988. Summit County Offices Animal Control 336-3985 Library 336-3900 615-3985 615-3900 Assessor 336-3235 783-4350 615-3235 Motor Vehicle 336-3296 Attorney 336-3206 615-3940 615-3828 Personnel 336-3265 Clerk 336-3204 615-3265 615-3204 Planning 336-3124 Commission 336-3220 615-3124 615-3220 Building Permits 336-3122 District Court 336-3205 615-3122 615-4300 Public Works 336-3970 Data Processing 336-3242 615-3970 615-3242 Recorder 336-3238 Engineer 336-3250 615-3238 615-3250 Senior Citizen Facilities 336-3299 Coordinator 336-3025 615-3299 615-3025 Fair 336-3221 Sheriff 615-3221 Administration 336-3500 Health Admin. 336-3222 615-3500 615-3222 Jail Administration 336-3700 Health Clinics 336-3234 615-3700 615-3910 Treasurer 336-3268 783-4321 615-3268 Historical 336-3015 USU Extension 336-3217 615-3015 615-3217 Justice Court 336-3800 615-3800 (6 1 5 numbers are local Park City calls and do not require 435 area code.) The Park Record welcomes letters to the editor on any subject. We ask that the letters adhere to the following guidelines:They must include the address and telephone number ot 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 words (guest editorials, 550 words) and should if possible, 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. In addition, thank you letters may be limited In length with regard to businesses and event sponsors. moving tribute." With the theme "...that their light may always shine," the event is now in its seventh sev-enth year, with each observance larger than the last. The Summit County Chapter will host its fifth candle lighting this year. Last December, more than 50 people gathered on the steps of the Summit County Courthouse to honor and remember their loved ones. Please join us in this 24-hour memorial by lighting a candle wherever you are at 7 p.m. on Dec. 14. You may also join us at our candle lighting that evening at the Summit County Courthouse in Coalville. (Please note, that because of some scheduling conflicts, our service this year will begin at 5 p.m.) Please bring a candle and a small ornament, orna-ment, perhaps containing a picture of your loved one, to hang on the "Donor Tree," and dress warmly. It doesn't matter if the person you are remembering is your child, grandchild, sibling or friend. It doesn't matter the age of your loved one or the manner of their death. We welcome anyone any-one who wishes to join us as we meet to honor the memory of our children. For more information about the candle lighting light-ing or our chapter meetings, please call me at (435) 336-2635. Sincerely, Dena Simister ReMillard's propaganda tour Editor: Jay Hamburger's article on Frances ReMillard's and Evelyn Richard's so- GUEST EDITORIAL Downwinders deserve right to resist renewed nuclear testing By MARY DICKSON I carry a credit card-sized map of the United States in my wallet. It's from Richard L. Miller's' book, "Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing," and it shows where radioactive fallout went during the 12 years of above-ground atomic testing in the 1950s and 1960s. Utah and Nevada are almost completely blacked out, but the black ink spreads as far north as New York and Canada, showing how heavy doses of fallout rained down on hundreds hun-dreds of cities throughout the country. I carry that map as a reminder, not so much to myself, but as a way of bearing witness and as a warning to remain vigilant. vigi-lant. If the Bush administration has its way, we will see another round of nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site, along with the hollow assurances that it is safe. I don't need any reminders of what fallout did to people living in those areas of black on Miller's map. In the spring before my 30th birthday, I was diagnosed diag-nosed with thyroid cancer, the most common cancer in those exposed to fallout fall-out as children. In the following years, other tumors necessitated a hysterectomy. hysterecto-my. I keep a list of people I've known who have become sick or died. That list is still growing. It includes my sister who died in 2001, friends, neighbors, and 42 people who grew up in my Salt Lake City neighborhood on the rim of Parley's Canyon. One thing we all have in common are the years we lived downwind. down-wind. Radiation works in strange ways. It doesn't always kill you out right. It attacks cells that mutate and sometimes take decades to manifest as a variety of cancers, leukemia and auto-immune diseases. dis-eases. The genetic damage it causes can be passed on to future generations. We are still living with the effects of four decades of nuclear testing. Most Americans mistakenly think that atomic testing affected only southern Utah. Radiation does not respect arbitrary arbi-trary lines on a map. The radioactive debris in those huge mushroom clouds was picked up by the jet stream and carried car-ried across the country. That's how it got to northern Utah, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, and as far east as Massachusetts and New York. According to Preston J. Truman, head of Downwinders, Ogden and Salt Lake City received fallout levels as high as, sometimes even higher than, those received by some counties in southern Utah. Anyone with the Internet can find the National Cancer Institute's data from its 15-year study, "Estimated Exposures and Thyroid Doses to the American People from Iodine-131 in Fallout From the Nevada Atmospheric Nuclear Bomb Tests." At www2.nci.nih.govfallouthtmI, you can click on Utah, then on your coun ty and type in your birthdate to see what doses of Iodine-131 you received from different nuclear tests, including underground under-ground tests. Keep in mind that fallout contained 300 other radioisotopes, many far more lethal and with much longer half-lives than Iodine-131, which causes thyroid cancer. More than 100 nuclear blasts were conducted above ground at the Nevada Test Site. Atmospheric testing was banned in 1962, but underground testing continued until 1992. According to Department of Energy data, nearly half of the 804 underground tests leaked, including the notorious 1970 Baneberry shot which spewed radioactive debris 10,000 feet into the sky. The heaviest fallout from that test hit Park City, Snyderville, Heber City and Utah's ski resorts. There's really no such thing as a "totally underground test." It's impossible to prove how many cancers or other illnesses across this country may be linked to fallout. The NCI study estimates that 212,000 cases of thyroid cancer alone likely are related to testing. Equally shocking are declassified declas-sified documents showing that government govern-ment officials knew the facts about fallout fall-out and that they systematically lied to the American people, assuring us "there is no danger." American civilians became the expendable victims of the Cold War. As downwinders, we have earned the right to be outraged at this administration's administra-tion's callous abandonment of the hard-won hard-won ban on nuclear testing. At the president's pres-ident's request, Congress lifted the ban on "mini-nukes," fully-funded research for a new "bunker buster" nuclear weapon, and authorized spending $25 million to upgrade the Nevada Test Site so that it can be ready to resume underground under-ground testing within 18 months. The wheels are being set in motion, and the only member of Utah's delegation to speak out against resumed testing is Jim Matheson. Not only is such a plan a disastrous and hypocritical step backwards that gives other nations an excuse to follow suit, but, according to Princeton University physicist Robert Nelson, an explosion caused by even a small nuclear device could blow out a crater and send a huge cloud of radioactive dust and debris into the atmosphere. If our government resumes nuclear testing, we once again become expendable expend-able in the name of "national security." If we learned anything from being the unwitting subjects of the massive experiment exper-iment of atomic testing, it is that we are all downwinders. We have a choice. Remain silent and wait for the fallout to hit again, or speak out now to protect ourselves and our children. Mary Dickson is the author of "Downwinders All" in the anthology, "Learning to Glow: A Nuclear Reader, " published by the University of Arizona Press. called "Truth Mission" to the Holy Land was disappointing, but predictable. For over a year now I've been aware of the Utahns For a Just Peace in the Holy Lands anti-Israeli rhetoric and their notes of their visit read exactly as I had expected expect-ed them to read. I presume that Mr. Hamburger and The Park Record stand by the biased coverage in a manner that would defend the printing print-ing of a pure one-sided affair as something some-thing that is consistent with journalistic ethics. I'd suggest the choice of both to provide pro-vide Ms. Millard a blow horn is irresponsible irrespon-sible and serves something other than journalism. I do not doubt some of the examples of the article, but how easy would it be to tell an entirely different story? If Mr. Hamburger were a worthy journalist, maybe he would have thought it important to investigate who paid for this trip. Maybe he would have asked why the contingent chose to spend a majority of time in Palestinian areas looking look-ing through the Palestinian perspective. There was a brief attempt to portray the trip as balanced, but that portrayal fell flat and exposed itself for what it was. It's amazing to me how easily The Park Record has been manipulated in this instance; even more stunning is Mr. Hamburger's acceptance to be a tool in the process. Sincerely, Patrick Lovell The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER Editor Staff writers Contributing writers Editor's assistant Classified advertising Office manager Circulation manager Accounting manager Advertising director Advertising sales Editorial production Photographers Production director Production Distribution Cartoonist Andy Bemhard Nan Chalat-Noaker Jay Hamburger Pat Parkinson Monika Guendner Jennifer R. Merback Casey Basden Brett Larsen Tom Clyde Teri Orr Jay Meehan Joan Jacobson Silvia Leavitt Linda Gorton Linda Jager Bern's Samples Courtney Herzinger Inkarna Black Alice Hummons Patti Christensen Michael Duffy Kate Keesee Valerie Doming Wendy Halliday Ian McNeil Anne Cummings Cathy Vandeweghe Christy Wilson Molly Ballard Erin Donnelly Ellen McCauley Kat James Scott Sine Grayson West Matt Gordon Kristi Ruppert Scott Schlenker Katie Perhai Jason Plawecki Kyle Burress Carrie Winston Justin Deuel John Kilbourn Contents of the The Park Record are copyright 2003, Diversified Suburban Newspapers. All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced in anv form without written consent of the managing editor edi-tor or publisher. 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 $37 inside Summit County, $70 outside Summit County, Utah. Subscriptions are transferrable; $5 cancellation fee. Phone (435) 649-9014 or fax (435) 649-4942. Published every Wednesday and Saturday. |