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Show A-2 The Park Record The Park Record. Serving Summit County since 1880 The Park Record, Park City’s No. 1 source for local news, opinion and advertising, is available for home delivery in Summit, Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties. Single copies are also available at 116 locations throughout Park City, Heber City, Summit County and Salt Lake City. Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, April 21-24, 2018 A principal tapped as interim schools chief David Gomez held top post at Parley’s Park for six years CAROLYN WEBBER SUBSCRIPTION RATES In Summit County (home delivery): $56 per year (includes Sunday editions of The Salt Lake Tribune) Outside Summit County (home delivery available in Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Utah counties; all other addresses will be mailed via the U.S. Postal Service): $80 per year To subscribe please call 435–649– 9014 or visit www.parkrecord.com and click the Subscribe link in the Reader Tools section of the toolbar at the bottom of the page. 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Contents of The Park Record are Copyrighted 2015, Wasatch Mountain News Media Co. All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the managing editor or publisher. The Park Record (USPS 378-730) (ISSN 0745-9483) is published twice weekly by Wasatch Mountain News Media Co., 1670 Bonanza Drive, Park City, UT 84060. Periodicals postage paid at Salt Lake City, Utah, 84199-9655 and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Park Record, P.O. Box 3688, Park City, UT84060. 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: $56 within Summit county, $80 outside of Summit County, Utah. Subscriptions are transferable: $5 cancellation fee. Phone: 435–649–9014 Fax: 435–649–4942 Email: circulation@parkrecord.com Published every Wednesday and Saturday The Park Record The Park City Board of Education on Tuesday appointed David Gomez as interim superintendent of the Park City School District. The Board voted unanimously to approve the appointment during its public meeting. Gomez had been the principal of Parley’s Park Elementary School since 2012. He said he has worked in education for 25 years and has served as a principal and assistant principal at other elementary and middle schools in Utah. He began as interim superintendent on Wednesday. The Board and outgoing superintendent Ember Conley made the decision to appoint an interim superintendent together, said Andrew Caplan, president of the Board. The Board is currently in the process of hiring a new superintendent. “It’s been an ongoing discussion with Dr. Conley,” he said. “We came to a mutual agreement.” Caplan said that when Conley announced in December that she would step down from her role as superintendent, her plan was to remain through the transition of the new superintendent. Last month, she accepted a position as superintendent of Mesa Public Schools in Arizona. The position begins at the end of May. According to a press release from the district, Conley will be available to assist Gomez, then the new superintendent once one is hired. Gomez said that he is excited and honored that the Board selected him for the position. He will focus on academics and Todd Hauber, business administrator of the district, will focus on budget and policy issues. Gomez said in a message to district staff that his goal is “to continue the excellence that Park City School District is known for, while improving upon some areas of need in order to provide for a smooth transition for the next superintendent.” “We’re building a path that the person can land on, which will just help us succeed even more,” he said. Gomez plans to return to his position as principal of Parley’s Park Elementary once the new superintendent is hired in a few months’ time. Caplan said that the Board consid- Continued from A-1 County sued for gate gate, was approved in 1997, according to court documents the plaintiffs filed in the lawsuit. “The gate was erected within The Trails development. In connection with the construction of the gate an application was filed for approval of an electrical permit,” the documents state. “Although the county cannot find a record that the permit was approved, it was inspected by the county and ultimately installed.” The homeowners association is asking Fisher to reconsider his decision and allow the reinstallation of the gate. The Direct Importer of the World’s Finest Rugs A t t h e H i s t o r i c Vi l l a T h e a t r e 3092 So. Highland Dr., Salt Lake City (801)484-6364 888.445.RUGS (7847) Mon.-Sat. 10 am to 6 pm ANGELIQUE MCNAUGHTON/PARK RECORD Mike Owens, center, talks about the responsibility of homeowners to protect their home against the threat of wildfires during a Thursday forum. COURTESY OF PARK CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT David Gomez, principal of Parley’s Park Elementary School, was recently appointed as the interim superintendent of the Park City School District. ered several candidates for the position, but Gomez’s work leading Parley’s Park Elementary stood out. “He is an excellent building leader,” Caplan said. “And it’s an opportunity for him to step up and participate on a district level.” Gomez started working in education as an education specialist for atrisk Title I students with the Utah Office of Education. He has a master’s degree in public schools and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. The release also stated that Tracy Fike will serve as interim principal of Parley’s Park Elementary through the end of the school year. She is the school’s instructional technology coach. Gomez said that Fike is prepared to serve as principal because she has held several positions around the school. She has served as the technology coach since 2016 and has also been an administrative intern at Parley’s Park, Ecker Hill Middle School and Park City High School. She also worked as a reading intervention teacher at Ecker Hill. She has two master’s degrees in instructional leadership and business administration. The Board has selected its first round of finalists for the superintendent position and plans on holding interviews on May 5, Caplan said. It is creating a 10-person committee to assist in the interview and selection process. It will consist of five district employees and five community members. Applications to serve on the committee are due on April 23. A final selection for the superintendent position is scheduled to be made on May 18. suit is also asking the county to cover the attorney fees and costs associated with the gate’s removal and reinstallation. “It is a gated community and it has been marketed as a gate community,” Brotherton said. “Members of the Summit County Building Department have been driving through this gate to inspect properties since it was first installed. I believe in my heart we will prevail.” John Meyer, another homeowner at The Trails and member of the homeowners association, said he’s not sure why the issue could not be resolved before reaching district court. He said he’s lived in the community for 18 years and the gate has operated for 17 of them. “If it was something that was controversial, then let the courts decide,” he said. “But, I don’t see that there is much controversy here when we have all of the appropriate documentation proving that it was approved. We have spent thousands of dollars in legal fees taking the gate off and a huge amount of time researching this.” Wildfire risk heats up throughout the county People urged to take steps to protect their own residences ANGELIQUE MCNAUGHTON The Park Record It doesn’t matter where residents live in the county. They are always in danger of being involved in a wildfire. But, it is the homeowner’s responsibility to protect their home, as well as their neighbors’ home, against the risk, according to Mike Owens, Park City Fire District’s fire marshal. “We all sit here and say, ‘It won’t happen to me’ or ‘I feel bad for our neighbors,” Owens said. “While Summit Park is the poster child because it is dense and there are a lot of trees up there. Any neighborhood is at risk. That’s why we live here because we like to live within our forests. But, by doing so, we take the risk of that upon ourselves.” Owens’s comments were part of a broader discussion on Thursday, hosted by the Project for Deeper Understanding. The forum, titled The Era of Mega-fires: Is Summit County Next?, explored the county’s susceptibility to a devastating wildland fire. The discussion touched on various wildland fire-related topics, such as homeowner responsibility and the importance of forest management. Nearly 60 people attended the event at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, including Summit County Council Chair Kim Carson. The other panelists were: Darren McAvoy, extension assistant professor of Wildland Resources at the Utah State University; John Blazzard, of Blazzard Lumber in Kamas; Daniel Jauregui, district ranger for the Heber-Kamas District of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest; Summit County Fire Warden Bryce Boyer; Summit County Emergency Manager Chris Crowley; and Ryan Torcicollo, owner of a local tree service company. County Council member Glenn Wright served as the moderator for the event. Wright suggested the amount of snowfall that was received over the winter could lead to the soil and vegetation drying out sooner than expected. “It seems like the fire season has expanded 40 to 80 days in the West,” he said. “While our fire season isn’t as long as the rest of the West, we do have the real possibility of it affecting us in June, July and August.” Summit County’s fire season typically lasts from June through October and peaks in August, with the lower elevations typically seeing the most wildfires. Fire officials receive fire season predictions year round, but they really begin to paint a clearer picture of the situation for the upcoming season around this time of the year. The discussion was divided into two parts, with the first half focusing on the Wildland Urban Interface, which identifies areas that are more prone to blazes. Some of the biggest causes of wildland fires are fireworks, lightning strikes, out-of-control agricultural burns and sparks from dragging chains. As the county’s emergency manager, Crowley said he works with local agencies to ensure additional resources can be brought in if there is a large fire. But, like Owens, he emphasized personal responsibility among community members. “We all have to mitigate against fires,” he said. “It is your responsibility to protect your community, your family and your home by taking steps to make sure you reduce those hazardous in and around your home.” The panelists highlighted the local programs that are available to homeowners to help reduce those hazards, such as Park City Fire District and Summit County’s chipping program. Both programs help residents create a defensible space around their homes by disposing of branches, logs and small trees. The second half of the discussion centered on the health of the forest and how that can impact the spread of a wildfire. When asked what the state of the forest is, Blazzard replied: dead. “From my perspective, we used to have seven or eight saw mills in Kamas and now we only have one left,” he said. Jauregui said the biggest challenge facing the Forest Service is the removal of dead trees. He said a fire could wipe out all of the dead vegetation and no new trees would grow back in their place. “We are struck in a situation where we need to come out and look at it from a different perspective. It’s a big issue and it’s a big problem that is affecting the whole district — 500,000 acres,” he said. “I don’t have people coming into my office asking why we are cutting down trees. They are asking why are you not cutting down (dead) trees.” Fire officials discussed how prescribed burns and cutting down trees actually improves the forest’s health, and can help reduce the spread of larger fires. But, one of the hurdles officials face in Utah is the quality of the air dictating when burning can be done. Throughout the discussion, management of the forests’ health was viewed as a long-term solution, while panelists continued to highlight the role homeowners play in preventing the spread of a devastating wildfire. “It’s an important issue that we have to face in Summit County,” Wright said. “My attention has really been raised in terms of how a fire could devastate a community and the area around us.” BE A LOCAL HERO Volunteer for a local non-profit |