OCR Text |
Show Viewpoints The Park Record. Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, December 9-12, 2017 editorial y e I n . Debate over education spending deserves a statewide spotlight . e n e I m e s d d e A-19 letters to the editor d t Officials responsive t p bus problem to g Editor: e It’s a joy to live in a community where our elected officials and staff work hard . every day to do the right thing. Last season, in an effort to provide safer and more efficient transit service, the Pros, pector Red bus route was changed. The k change didn’t work well, so this year our f transit planners staff changed it again. That change didn’t work well either, so w they put their heads together once again and fixed the problem. We now have . the very best service EVER and I hope a you’ll join me in riding the bus more often to show our appreciation. This year has been marked by some rather dramatic changes designed to reduce traffic and I applaud those efforts. e s Paid parking on Main Street is a powerful tool. Paid parking accompanied by increased transit efficiency is even more powerful. Yesterday’s news that automobiles have replaced electric generating plants as the primary producers of air pollution is a strong signal that we’re making progress in generating electric power. Using public transit, which includes those 6 amazing electric busses is the way we can say “thank you” to our amazing elected officials and our very The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER ....................... Andy Bernhard Editor ................................... Bubba Brown Staff Writers ......................Jay Hamburger Scott Iwasaki Angelique McNaughton Ben Ramsey Carolyn Webber Contributing ............................. Tom Clyde Writers Jay Meehan Teri Orr Amy Roberts Tom Kelly Joe Lair Nan Chalat Noaker Copy Editor ............................ James Hoyt Engagement Editor.........Kira Hoffelmeyer Photographer .........................Tanzi Propst Office Manager ....................Tiffany Rivera Circulation Manager ............. Lacy Brundy Accounting Manager ......... Jennifer Snow ADVERTISING Classifieds/Legals ............. Jennifer Lynch Advertising Director ........... Valerie Spung Advertising Sales ......................... Lori Gull Jodi Hecker Erin Donnelly Lisa Curley Olivia Bergmann Digital Products ..................... Mike Boyko Manager Production Director ..................Ben Olson Production ...................... Nadia Dolzhenko Patrick Schulz Linda Sites talented, caring staff members. Thank you. I’m riding the bus. Sally Elliot Park City Colby School project is an overreach Editor: I wanted to reach out to my fellow Parkites and let you know that there is a planning commissioners meeting to be held on Tuesday 12/12 at the Sheldon Richens Building (Kimball Junction Library) at 4:30. On the agenda is an application to fully develop the old Snowed Inn/Colby School property off of HWY 224; the applicants are requesting a vote so that they can move forward with construction. My concern with the vote on Tuesday is that if this application goes through, everyone who uses HWY 224 will see the effects of this project as they are hoping to max out the density, intensity and uses. It wasn’t until a few months ago that the county planners finally agreed to what was already opined by the county attorney and outlined in our county code to reign in this project to 15 rooms or less. However, that doesn’t change the additional 11,000sq feet of additional commercial space contained in two new buildings. The applicants hope to operate a hotel, public gym, 5,000sq ft restaurant/bar, event center and nightly lodging. This may not seem like a big deal until you realize that this lot is still zoned rural residential, on the opposite side of HWY 224 of where commercial operations are intended to be hosted as outlined in Summit County Master Plan, and outside of the Resort Core where intense density is meant to be. The applicant has also failed to complete a formal, and current traffic study to provided real life traffic impact on HWY224. Please attend this meeting and listen to the application for your self (share your thoughts if you like) as if this goes through, anyone living in RR zoned communities in Summit County could see a new precedent of giant non-conforming structures being built, an over reaching use of property and commercial operation in their neighborhood. Jessie Bost Park City Development threatens neighborhood Editor: I urge all Summit County citizens who care about the dangerous trend of allowing exception to the General Plan For the record t’s no longer a secret that Utah is dead last in per-pupil spending on education. It’s a reality administrators, teachers, parents and — most importantly — students have had to live with for years. A group of business leaders and other Utahns are trying to change that, however, through the Our Schools Now initiative that aims to generate roughly $700 million annually for education through increases to the state income and sales taxes. The group must gather 113,000 signatures statewide to put the idea before voters on the 2018 ballot, and efforts are underway to rally support for the petition in Summit County . If asked, Summit County residents should sign on the dotted line, even if they aren’t entirely sold on the initiative. The Legislature has failed for years to dramatically improve the state’s abysmal per-pupil spending — lawmakers have allocated more money to education in recent years, but not enough to boost Utah above any other state — so Utahns deserve a prominent stage to debate whether increasing funding for education is important enough to pay more taxes. There are, to be fair, reasons to cast a skeptical eye on the Our Schools Now proposal. Detractors say the tax hikes — the income tax rate would be raised from 5 percent to 5.45 percent, while the sales tax rate would rise from 4.7 to 5.15 percent — would be a burden on Utah families and would ultimately hurt the state’s booming economy. Meanwhile, supporters also present a strong argument, countering that the roughly $1,000 per pupil the measure would generate is critical to ensure students are prepared to succeed in the competitive 21st century job market. They say it would also help slow a teacher shortage caused by educators leaving the field at an unprecedented rate, often because they aren’t paid enough or aren’t given the proper resources to do their jobs. If the initiative makes it on the 2018 ballot, residents can decide which side of the issue they’re on and vote accordingly. But regardless of the proposal’s merit, education spending is a worthy debate, and we would be well served by having it under the spotlight of a midterm election. Even if residents ultimately decide not to support the measure, it’s possible the attention will spur new ideas of how to funnel more money into the classroom or encourage lawmakers to find a better legislative solution to our woeful spending. As any teacher or parent can tell you, last in the nation is not good enough. Whether Our Schools Now ultimately succeeds or not, a signature to allow voters to decide its fate sends a clear message that it’s time to talk about how to do better. guest editorial Fight to save Bears Ears land continues ROBERT LUCERO Director, Ute Indian Tribe Political Action Committee This coming Tuesday, December 12th, the Ute Indian Tribe Political Action Committee (Ute PAC) will be holding a public meeting at the Park City Library, 1255 Park Ave Room #301, at 6:30 pm. Ute PAC was chartered by the Business Committee of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation (Ute Tribe) in the summer of 2016 to fight the attempt by Congressmen Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz to steal over 100,000 acres of Ute Tribe land through the Utah Public Lands Initiative (PLI). Buried within the details of the PLI was an additional sneaky proposal to turn over the “management” of Indian trust lands to non-federal control, breaking the trust obligations in federal-tribal relations. Despite repeatedly being told by federal courts and tribal leaders that these reservation and trust lands were under sovereign control of the Ute Indian Tribe and the U.S. Federal Government through treaty and trust obligations, Rob Bishop and various Utah state and local officials chose to ignore these Constitutional and legal realities. The PLI failed in 2016, but with the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, Bears Ears became their next attempt to both undermine tribal sovereignty and silence Indian voices. The Ute Tribe is one of the five tribes that comprise the Inter-Tribal Coalition on Bears Ears, a historic alliance of tribes that fought to get the establishment of the Bears Ears National Monument. On December 28th 2016, after the abysmal failure of the Bishop/Chaffetz PLI, President Obama used the Antiquities Act to declare the Bears Ears National Monument. This past Monday, President Trump visited Salt Lake City and issued proclamations announcing five balkanized, “mini-monuments” to ostensibly nulto voice your opposition to the unnecessary expansion of commercial uses proposed at the former Colby School/ Snowed Inn. The Colby School CUP application seeks to expand non-conforming commercial uses by adding a large stand-alone restaurant/bar, a designated event center, and fitness/ spa structures that will maximize the commercial footprint on this parcel zoned as rural residential. The development proposal would be detrimental to the character of adjacent residential neighborhoods surrounding the property on three sides, as well as traffic safety and congestion on Hwy 224. The representative for the owner has stated that their proposal is consis- lify and replace the Grand Staircase-Escalante and the Bears Ears monuments. Later that same day, the five tribes filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the legality of the new monuments, arguing that the existing monuments be retained over the new, illegal creations. “The proposal to shrink the Monument will leave hundreds of thousands of antiquities, archeological sites and cultural resources unprotected and eviscerate the years of collaborative work that was undertaken by the members of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition”, states the press release issued moments after Trump’s announcement on Monday. It goes on to say that the purpose of Bears Ears was “to establish a monument that recognizes the unique cultural and spiritual contributions that Native peoples have made to the history of this great Nation”. In the aftermath of the actions by Trump, Americans from all over the continent have contacted Ute PAC to express their profound displeasure with the President’s actions, one person from the Great Lakes region realizing, “there’s no more Indian land like that over here.” And that’s the point. The Inter-Tribal Coalition on Bears Ears seeks to save what is to Natives a living landscape; to non-Natives, it’s one of the most unique windows into the past on the entire planet. Monuments under the Antiquities Act were designed to be such living museums. The Ute Tribe’s press release also noted: ‘“The President promised to drain the swamp,” said Luke Duncan Chairman of the Ute Indian Tribal Business Committee, “but with this unilateral action at the request of a few powerful Utah politicians the swamp is only getting deeper.” Chairman Duncan continued, “We refuse to become the forgotten people of this land and the President should recognize and respect our voice in this matter as the first Utahns.”’ Robert Lucero is the founder and director of Ute PAC. He can be reached at robert@utepac.com. tent with uses allowed in the Canyons SPA, effectively expanding the SPA’s density to the east side of 224. During 2010 neighborhood meetings, held to obtain public opinion on the future of Summit County, less density was cited as one of the top 5 priorities of the community. Consideration of the proposed expansion of existing Colby site buildings and commercial uses, with development of new large buildings and significantly enlarged commercial uses, blatantly defies the wishes of the larger community. A Public Hearing will be held by the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission on December 12, 4:30 pm, at the Sheldon Richins building in Kimball Junction (Co Library building). Please come support the neighborhoods threatened by the commercial desires of the current owners of the land, and inform the SBPC that you do not support the owner’s plan effectively expanding the Canyons’ commercial characteristics outside the boundaries of the SPA and into residential neighborhoods. If this type of expansion of previously established non-conforming uses is allowed on this parcel, then every citizen of the county should be concerned about what could happen in their own neighborhoods. Kathryn Sonzini Snyderville Basin Photos by Kira Hoffelmeyer Asked at the Newpark Town Center Do you think the Olympic Committee handled the Russian doping scandal appropriately? Jenae Ridge Salt Lake City I don’t feel like I really know, but I think it’s important to take action now before it could get worse. Ann Futch and Hoby Darling Park City I think it’s awesome to see clean athletes can still compete, and not let the actions of some of the people in their country get in the way. Duane Fox Park City Olympians deserve to compete if they’re clean. Martha and Jim Kupferschmidt Park City I think it’s a great solution — and it’s fair and ethical. They’ve worked their whole lives to compete. See these photos and more by following The Park Record on Facebook.com/parkrecord and Instagram.com/parkrecord |