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Show Viewpoints The A-13 Park Record. Wed/Thurs/Fri, February 14-16, 2018 editorial Legislature is right to put spotlight on the opioid epidemic O letters to the editor School board is on right path Editor: Unfortunately, the new Park City School Board has been criticized by a few members of the community. Some have even called it dysfunctional. Nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, it is well on its way to getting the Park City School District back on track following the first ever failure of a school bond in 2015. I have attended many PCSB meetings over the last two and a half years and I am confident the current board has turned things around and is on the right path to regain the trust of the Park City community. This is a dedicated, intelligent group of citizens that do their homework and listen to the community and the teachers. In a letter to the editor, several teachers thanked the new school board for “giving them a voice”. The new school board recently updated the Strategic Plan after asking the community for ideas at several public meetings. Our community is fortunate to have such a qualified school board. Once they have hired a new superintendent the team will be complete. There will be plenty of opportunities for the community to participate as our school board plans for the future. This is the time for us to speak up so that when the next school bond appears we can all vote yes. Our kids deserve the best. Go Miners! Jim Tedford Park City Many benefits to meatfree diet Editor: February 14th marks the beginning of Lent, the 40-day period before Easter, when Christians abstain from animal foods in remembrance of Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness. The call to abstain from eating animals is as current as the teaching of evangelical leader Franklin Graham, yet as traditional as the Bible (Genesis 1:29). Methodist founder John Wesley, Salvation Army pioneers William and Catherine Booth, and Seventh-day Adventist Church founder Ellen G. White all followed this higher call. A meat-free diet is not just about Christian devotion. Dozens of medical studies have linked consumption of animal products with elevated risk of heart failure, stroke, cancer, and other killer diseases. A United Nations report named meat production as the largest source of greenhouse gases and water pollution. Undercover investigations have documented farm animals routinely caged, 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 Copy Editor ............................ James Hoyt Engagement Editor.........Kira Hoffelmeyer Photographer .........................Tanzi Propst Office Manager ..................... Tiffany Piper 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 Production Director ..................Ben Olson Production .......................... Patrick Schulz Linda Sites crowded, mutilated, and beaten. Today’s supermarkets are well in tune with the call to abstain from eating animals. They offer a rich array of plantbased meats, milks, cheeses, and ice creams, as well as the more traditional vegetables, fruits, and grains. Entering “vegetarian” or “vegan” in your favorite search engine provides lots of meat replacement products, recipes, and transition tips. Paxton Ryker Park City Open letter to noise wall voters Editor: I am dismayed that UDOT actually wants to put a berm/wall reaching 20 feet in height in some areas, on I-80 westbound approximately 3,200 feet in length. I understand that those people who voted in favor of a wall would like peace & quiet. That can be achieved WITHOUT a huge ugly wall, in a way to benefit everyone who hears ANY highway nose. I was in Arizona last week and drove on roads that were remarkably quiet. I got information on their road surfacing, which was given to UDOT. UDOT indicated that if they could work with the voters on this project, maybe something other than a wall would work. Noise on I-80 is a genuine concern for ALL residents of Jeremy Ranch. An effective way to reduce road noise is to choose an appropriate asphalt-based mix that incorporates both durability and noise dampening characteristics. A dense-graded asphalt mix results in a quieter surface. This type of mixture can reduce road noise by as much as 8 db. This is a much greater reduction of noise than a noise wall, according to UDOT’s own noise study. The asphalt industry continues to research and develop pavements that are quiet for drivers, neighborhoods and businesses adjacent to busy roads. These surfaces are currently being used in Arizona and other states as well as countries in Europe and Australia. Our technology in road surfaces, electric vehicles, self-driving cars, etc. will have a much greater effect on road noise than a wall. But the wall will continue long after road surfacing has elevated beyond today’s scope. I would ask the people who voted in favor of a wall, to explore this option with UDOT so ALL of us would hear less noise and not have to look at a huge wall. Daniel Bass Jeremy Ranch Community must act fast to save farm Editor: The McPolin Farm. Round Valley. Bonanza Flats. These are remarkable examples of our community having the vision to do the right thing at the right time. Daily, we’re grateful that we collectively had the courage to preserve these precious open spaces. Now, with the fate of the Osguthorpe Farm, the last un-platted parcel of land on Old Ranch Road, hanging in the balance, our community must act quickly to save the “green heart of the Basin.” The Summit Land Conservancy has done extraordinary work in securing federal funds to get us to this goal – but they must receive matching funds of $200,000 by February 28th in order for the effort to continue. We urge everyone to do your part in saving these important 158 acres of open space by donating today at http://wesaveland.org/osguthorpe/. We also ask you to strongly encourage the Summit County Council to use existing BOSAC bond money (which was expressively dedicated to fund open space purchases) to save the Osguthorpe Farm. Lesley Christoph and Ed Pouquette Snyderville Basin ne of the most important topics the Utah State Legislature is tackling in its 2018 session is literally a matter of life and death. Lawmakers this year have put the opioid epidemic in their crosshairs, highlighting a range of related issues, such as the danger the drugs present to our youth, the role medical providers must play in order to curb the crisis and the state’s responsibility to take legal action against reckless opioid manufacturers. All the commotion won’t mean much unless significant legislation is ultimately signed into law, but the attention is encouraging given the destruction opioids have wrought in communities throughout Utah — including Park City. One of the most intriguing efforts comes from Rep. Joel Briscoe, D-Salt Lake City, who last week requested the House Public Education Appropriations Committee provide $300,000 over the next two years for an opioid crisis education curriculum for adolescents. The curriculum would be taught in middle and high schools, where teachers currently lack the materials to properly address the issue in their classrooms. During a committee hearing, Amy Jenkins, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah’s Genetic Science Learning Center, laid out the stakes: As recently as 2015, she said, Utah ranked seventh in the nation for overdose deaths, causing a tremendous strain on the healthcare system. That’s not to mention the pain inflicted on families across the state. Properly arming students with knowledge is critical if Utah is to dramatically reduce the devastation opioids cause here, Jenkins said. The logic is easy to follow, and lawmakers should do whatever they can to find room in the budget to fund the curriculum. A Summit County lawmaker has also joined the fight. Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, whose district covers Park City and much of the county, sponsored a Senate resolution that touches on the dangers opioids prescribed by doctors can present. His legislation, S.C.R. 4, urges the state to study postoperative respiratory depression, a potentially fatal side effect sometimes seen in patients who take opioids after surgery. The resolution has passed both houses of the Legislature and it is now awaiting the governor’s signature. Some of the other pieces of opioid-related legislation are aimed at things like improving statewide substance abuse treatments and increasing the requirements doctors must follow before they prescribe opioids. Utahns shouldn’t expect the epidemic to go away with the flick of a politician’s pen. Defeating it will take many more years of sustained focus. Considered together, though, the efforts on Capitol Hill this winter represent an encouraging measure of progress. guest editorial Continued growth and accompanying tax burden threaten our once-quaint home ANDRE PALAI Park City I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Janulaitis’ letter regarding having continuous tax increases for infrastructure, to support multi million if not billion dollar resort owners such as Vail and Deer Valley. Who are we kidding, and why should I, like many other full-time residents, support any of the resorts’ building measures, when we get nothing in return, other than a continual drain of income and a higher tax bill to support an increase in the resorts’ services? It’s bad enough, the city and county officials find plenty of ways to waste money and promote growth, for a city that doesn’t even have existing infrastructure to handle even its own growth. It seems like much of the accountability, in keeping taxes low, and using funds in a manner that makes sense, like adding trails, limit building, protecting the remaining open space, designating protected wildlife areas, and restricting building in areas already over run with traffic like the soon to be Quarry Village and I-80 exit, among others, (which will not be cured by building roundabouts), is overshadowed by hair-brained ideas like Woodward Park. In addition to bright lights wiping out starry skies, loss of trails, a ski lift, (which is absurd), increased traffic, disturbing wildlife patterns, and knowing builders always try to skew given parameters to make things bigger, think of the eye sore a 52,000 square foot building will be on land which should remain as open space. It’s bad enough we’re wasting money on a build- ing noise wall for residents who bought next to a freeway. Did those residents expect it would be silent living next to a major thoroughfare? What about the conservation of water, taxing the schools by increasing class size, and further creating an economic gap, which ultimately would lead to building more housing? What about the continued disregard by city and county officials to protect the land and surrounding communities that make up Park City, Pinebrook, Jeremy Ranch, and the Snyderville Basin. Do the elected officials think about any of this? Or is their motto build baby build? In reading letters, opinions, and attending the various meetings held each week, the frustration among full time residents is growing, especially with the continual growth facing our once quaint area. Had Treasure Hill been protected to begin with, we wouldn’t be taxed with having to spend 64 million which will only increase our tax bill further. All this shortsightedness in the past and its continuation now is coming to roost with no end in sight. Since the city and county heads seemingly do nothing to keep the coffers filled, why should we as residents continue to vote for increases out of our pockets, to make up for the shortfall created by appointed officials’ inability to make smart decisions. It begs asking; are the city and county politicians (which is what they really are as opposed to officials), elected to represent and hear the community, or is their mission simply to make the aforementioned areas a metropolis with lines of traffic, increased smog, and buildings which at the rate we are heading, might slowly grow to skyscrapers? guest editorial Coping with it all PEPPER TRAIL High Country News How are you doing? I confess that I’m having a rough time. Everything I care about is under attack by the regime in power. Whether it’s wilderness preservation, endangered species protection, action on climate change, the integrity of science, corporate accountability, separation of church and state, access to health care, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights — all, all are in danger of being torn to shreds. Trying to keep up with the litany of horrible news is like drinking from a fire hose spewing toxic waste. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless, which is exactly what those in power are counting on. So, how to move past that trap? For our friends who are struggling, we need to be supportive and understanding — and also offer encouragement that resistance is helpful. I don’t try to deny my depression when it comes, but I try not to feed it. Usually after a few days or a week, outrage cuts through the fog, and I’m awake again. But then what? Looking around me, I see three basic coping strategies. I call them after the species that best exemplify them: armadillos, the tigers and the ants. The armadillo is famously covered with an armor of tough scales, and when attacked it tucks its head under and rolls up into a protective ball. This is, of course, the strategy of denial, and lots of people I know have shut down and become armadillos. I’m lucky to live in a beautiful small town, where it’s easy to feel insulated from unpleasant reality. If you never pay any attention to the news, you can live here very happily, tending your garden, going out for coffee, taking a nice hike. There are a couple of problems with being an armadillo, however. First of all, there are some very strong-jawed monsters out there, and I submit that the current administration in Washington, D.C., is such a monster. Second, sooner or later, every armadillo has to uncurl and go about its life. Like me, a lot of my armadillo friends are in their 60s, and I think they’re betting, consciously or not, that they won’t be around when the worst comes to pass. Perhaps that’s what counts as optimism these days. Then there are the tigers. Tigers are fierce and uncompromising. Some fearless people — my wife, for one — have become tigers. A pediatrician with a demanding practice, she still spends hours every day telephoning not just our own worthless representative but also leaders in Congress like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. She goes to rallies and makes sure I come, too. She donates money to an ever-lengthening list of activist groups and promising candidates. She gets, on a good night, four hours of sleep. I am in awe of her passion and that of the other tigers I know. But not everyone can be a tiger, burning so brightly without burning out. That leaves the ones like me, the ants. Like our totem animal, we may be small, but we are single-minded and we are legion. The most encouraging discovery of this terrible year has been how many of us there are, working in local networks to form a national resistance. Every week, I take at least three or four actions — I write a letter, make a call, go to a meeting. That’s a level of activity I know I can sustain. I focus on environmental defense, while my friends and allies swarm into action on health care, racial justice, immigrant rights, and all the other issues under threat. In the long run, I believe it’s the collective work of these people, some of whom have never been politically active before, that will save our country from its present nightmare. So, I say: Join us. Shoulder your small burden, one that is not so heavy that it will leave you broken, and make a path that works toward change. Don’t forget to thank the mighty tigers who inspire the rest of us, and as you pass the armadillos, give them a little kick to wake them up. We have nothing to lose but our despair. Pepper Trail is a contributor to Writers on the Range, the opinion service of High Country News (hcn.org). He is a writer and retired forensic biologist in Oregon. |