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Show THE PARK RECORD www.parkrecord.com WEDTHURSFRI, FEBRUARY 25-27, 2004 B-9 BUSINESS EDITOR: Monika Guendner 649-9014 ext 1 10 businessparkrecord.com E Briefs Hoffman joins Tastefully Simple Colleen Hoffman of Park City recently became a consultant for Tastefully Simple, Inc., a national direct (sales company based . in Alexandria, Minn. Hoffman conducts in-home presentations pre-sentations of upscale, convenience-driven convenience-driven gourmet foods, during interactive interac-tive taste-testing parties, guests receive easy meal ideas, recipes and entertainment suggestions. For more information, call Hoffman at 655-0558 or log on to www.taste-fullysimple.com. www.taste-fullysimple.com. Charter conversion brings credit union America First Credit Union has opened its first branch in Summit County, following conversion to a federal fed-eral charter. Like other credit unions, America First was prohibited from serving Summit County under its old state charter. The new branch, located inside the Dan's Foods at 1 500 Snow Creek Dr., is possible because of America First's conversion to the federal fed-eral charter earlier this year. UDABC to meet -The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control will hold their next commission meeting on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. Among the items on the proposed agenda are: Single event permit application, not requesting a waiver: Knights of Columbus, Park City for St. Patrick's Day Dinner & Dance at St. Mary's Parish Hall on March 13. Non-tavern on-premise beer application, appli-cation, late renewals: The Canyons, Park City. ' SOHO Group to meet SOHO Group Utah will meet Wednesday, March 3. Registration and networking begins at 8 a.m.; the meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. ' The guest presenter is small busi-ness.marketing busi-ness.marketing guru, Kathleen Gage, who will speak on "Finding the Pot 'O Gold." ' The meeting will be held at-Mimi's Cate, 5223 S. State St., Murray. The cost is $10 and includes continental breakfast. For. more information, log on to www.SOHOgroups.org or call (801) '' 588-0424. Busy Schedue...our program only takes 30 minutes Cardiovascular aerobic trainingburns body fat Strength Trainingpermanent results Fun...will stick to the program Comfortable, caring environment Achievable Curves is the largest fitness and weight loss Franchise in the World! Guinea World Records 2002 'AOVO WOMEN , -30 Htmttt Rmtu Pnjit Lou Cimm 1776 Park Ave. 22 Park City 435-658-2811 Offer based on first visit enrollment. 1 2 mo. c.d. High Mountain officially declares Lodging properties offer accommodations despite possibility of no payment By MONIKA GUENDNER Of the Record staff As projected. High Mountain Properties closed its doors on the corner of Deer Valley Drive and Park Avenue for good on Wednesday, Feb 18. According to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy as High Mountain, LLC, voluntarily vol-untarily on Friday, Feb. 20. Blaming aggressive action on federal and state tax liens. High Mountain Property owner Bart McEntire closed the doors of the property management company com-pany during one of the peak weeks of the winter season. McEntire announced that the company would not be honoring any reservations, nor refunding any deposits. The Utah Tax Commission had filed more than $766,000 in tax liens against High Mountain. Federal tax liens were also filed against the company. Rather than leave arriving guests stranded for accommodations, employees of the company, the Park City ChamberBureau and several other property prop-erty management companies pitched in to notify and house those guests. Companies such as Ski West, Lespri Resort Property Management, R&R Property Management and Identity Properties were among those who were credited for offering lodging without a guarantee of payment. "I think we did a great job; in most of those peoples minds it's probably not an issue," said Bill Malone. executive director of the ChamberBureau. "I didnt run into any lodging companies who said, 'it's not my problem.'" Although the President's Day week reservations were fulfilled to the best of Malone s knowledge. High Mountain still Two Senate bills propose to Summit County businesses in favor of tax to increase tourism stimuation; SB60 may be competition By MONIKA GUENDNER Of the Record staff Utah's quest to produce funding in an effort to better market the state before the "Olympic halo" fades completely away is facing some challenges. Senate bill 208, "Funding For Tourism." was introduced on Feb. 12 by Sen. Peter Knudson (R - Brigham City) to generate a source of funding that would go toward marketing, mar-keting, branding and promoting Utah at the state level. A rough draft of the bill that circulated through the Park City lodging and restaurant restau-rant industries in January proposed raising money through new taxes, diverted taxes and a general fund appropriation. The unin-troduced unin-troduced bill proposed a statewide 0.25 percent per-cent restaurant tax, a 0.5 percent lodging tax, a diversion of l10th of the l64th-percent Olympic Sales tax and a contribution of the rental car tax. The bill also appropriated $3.5 million from the General Fund. The goal was to raise between $12 million and $15 million expressly for marketing purposes. pur-poses. The unintroduced bill also restructured restruc-tured the board of directors of the Utah Division of Travel Development (commonly known as the Utah Travel Council) from an advisory board to a policy-making board. The Park City Restaurant Association, the Park City Area Lodging Association and the Park City ChamberBureau supported that bill with the caveat that the bill remained unchanged. Members from each organization cited concerns over the multiple multi-ple funding sources getting cut, with only the two taxes remaining and the impact of the initiative weakened. 'Ilie bill did change by the time it was introduced, and some funding sources were lost, but as of Tuesday, none of the associations associa-tions had pulled their support. e"Mext s "to program - v ( ' . - : ftCASC fiTli W MSt '-It V 1 J tad l Windows are dark and doors are closed at the former property management had reservations throughout the rest of the season. The lodging community has continued con-tinued to step up and offer help so that every reservation has been either placed or is in the process, said Malone. At properties like Shadow Ridge Resort Hotel and Prospector Square Lodging and Conference Center, where High Mountain once handled reservations and property management, the home owner associations have stepped in so that no reservations were lost and no services were lacking. Malone had even heard that some of the company's employees were The diversion of the rental car sales tax and the portion of the Olympic sales tax were dropped by the time the bill was intro-"3uced:-'s ' ' "' ' The deletion of those funding sources would only drop approximately $500,000 in revenue, according to Kim McClelland, a board member of the Division of Travel Development and the president of Premier Resorts of Utah. Dropping those tax diversion diver-sion avoided putting the bill m opposition of the Utah Department of Transportation, and strengthened its chances of getting passed, said McClelland. "We kind of felt the changes were pretty insignificant," said Bill Malone, executive director direc-tor of the ChamberBureau. The General Fund allocation of $3.5 million and the text regarding A Legislature 1 the Division's board of directors remains intact. A similar initiative, also introduced by Knudson, was pulled last year after concerns raised by the hospitality industry showed a lack of support for the bill. None of the Summit County organizations had supported support-ed that bill. The Division of Travel Development has been arguing that the current funding level of $800,000 - $900,000 was inadequate to effectively market Utah's tourism aspects outside of the state. As a comparison, the Park City ChamberBureau spends approximately approxi-mately $2.4 million annually to advertise Park City. The taxes generated from Summit County alone would add about $750,000 to FAIRWEATHER NATURAL FOODS 0 (iff HEALTHY WEALTHY THIGHS! Get into SLOPE SHAPE at Fairweather's Organic Lunch Bar Delicious sandwiches, salads and soups made fresh daily PLUS a full organic juice and smoothie bar. All at affordable prices! Serving Park City, naturally, since 1992. Mon-Fri 9-7. Sat 10-6. Sun 12-6 12 70 Ironhorse Drive 649.4561 CAic 1306 of rehired by the HO As. Park City's image will not suffer any tarnish because of High Mountain Property's closing, according to Malone. While the lodging community had a hand in accomplishing that, the High Mountain employees were also an integral part. According to Prospector Squares director of operations. Shane Clevengcr. several employees continued working on notifying and placing guests even after the company failed to pay them for two weeks. About 20 employees were laid off at that location by High Mountain, mostly in the tax lodging and restaurants the state coffers - $250,000 from the restaurant restau-rant tax and $500,000 from the lodging tax. Restaurant and lodging industry members mem-bers were willing to be taxed for the chance to better market the state. 'Hie new lodging tax would bring the total tax on a room to 10.85 percent; other taxes include a 6.35 pcr- cent sales tax, a tnree percent county transient tran-sient nxm tax and a one percent resort tax. The new restaurant tax would bring the total tax on prepared fcxxls to 8.6 percent. In addition to the propose 0.25 percent state tax. other taxes include the 6.35 percent sales tax, the one percent resort tax and the one percent restaurant tax. ( )ne of the advantages to the new tax for the lodging industry is that total sales tax remained under 11 percent, according to Lodging Association president presi-dent John Rogers. Although there is no know magic number that turns away guests, breaking into a higher whole-number tax range can'create a perception percep-tion that Park City is getting get-ting U-u pYrvnstvi ....s . -r.... With that perceived metal ceiling so close, another bill propose yet another tax on the lodging and restaurant industries has received opposition in Summit County. S.B. 60, "Sports Development and Tourism, Recreation, Cultural, Convention and Sports Facilities Tax." proposes a 0.5 percent lodging tax and a one-percent restaurant tax that can be added on by the counties. Outside of Salt Like County, the new taxes would follow the same rules as the existing transient room tax, but the county would have to impose both taxes at the same time. The money would remain at the county level with the exception of a portion that would be directed to the Department of RETAIL - Approximately 3,100 square feet on the ground floor. Established show room or retail office location. $24 per square foot full service. OFFICE - Approximately 1,350 square feet on the second floor. Perfect for professional office uses. S2 1 per square foot full service. TI allowance for long term lease Attention Physicians, Oral Surgeons and Dentists 77ns building is directly, across the street from the Park City Medical & Office Plaza home to Health South s Surgical & Diagnostics Centers and The Rosenberg-Cooley Orthopedic Clinic t For information contact your broker or Mark Sletten, MBA, GRI 435.647.8080 Direct 435.640.0930 Cell Chapter 7 GRAYSON WESTRARK RECORD company's headquarters. housekeeping department, said Clevengcr. He added that Sharon Ottoson. who took on the difficult task of dealing with customers cus-tomers l'ace-to-face during the last days of the company's operation, continued to field phone calls even after the bankruptcy was announced. As of Monday, there were no criminal actions reported through the county attorney's attor-ney's office, nor was the state's Attorney General's office involved, 'lite Park City police, however, received a complaint from a guest, who was upset because there was no dinner buffet available to her. Community and Economic Development with the purpose of attracting and organizing organiz-ing destination sport competitions and exhibitions exhi-bitions (i.e. the Utah Sports Commission.) The bill reads as a piece of legislation that would mainly benefit Sail Lake County, which is trying to add on to the Salt Palace anu create a new utKeung system lor me Cottonwood Canyon ski resorts, and was expanded to gain the support of rural counties, coun-ties, said Malone. Because the taxes are dictated by the individual counties, the bill may be a non-issue non-issue for Summit County now. but may bring implications in the future, said Malone. The ChamberBureau dtx;s not support the bill, in part because the cumulative cumula-tive tax may be seen as negative by area businesses. SB60 may also lie seen as a threat to SB208 because of the overlap in industries being taxed. A senator or representative could see SB60 as a way to increase tourism funding without being directly responsible for increasing the tax on the state level. Frank Zang from the Utah Olympic Park said that the park may indirectly benefit bene-fit from the bill because the park has received grants from the Utah Sports Commission in the past, but there are no plans or actions to lobby for the passage of the bill. This week Rob Slettom. owner of Identity Properties, went down to the committee meeting last Tuesday to lend his supixrt for SB208. He reported generally positive feedback feed-back from the legislators about the bill. McClelland was scheduled to meet with Representative David Ure (R - Kamas) Tuesday and reported that Senator Beverly Evans (R - Altamont) is in favor of the bill. The ChamberBureau has begun discussions discus-sions with the county commissioners about SB60, according to Malone. Both bills were slated to be read by the Senate for a second reading and debate yesterday yes-terday afternoon or today. |