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Show C-1 B-1 MAKE CONCRETE PLANS TO ATTEND EXHIBIT EDUCATION, A-7 VOTING ENDS THURSDAY! DROP BACK, PASS AND REPEAT ON EVERY PLAY COLUMNS, A-12 Our annual survey of Park City’s Best is open until May 31. Visit bit.ly/pcsbest2018 to vote. 2018 Park Record. THE WILDCATS CLUTCH DIPLOMAS IN THEIR CLAWS AMY ROBERTS IS AT HOME IN AFRICA The PA R K C I T Y, U TA H W W W. PA R K R E C O R D . C O M Wed/Thurs/Fri, May 30-June 1, 2018 Serving Summit County since 1880 Eagles and birdies, but a moose? | Heroic flight recalled Vol. 138 | No. 33 50¢ UDOT delays start of work on S.R. 248 COURTESY OF EMILY CLEARWATER An image taken from a video shows a moose trotting toward a golf cart at the Park City Golf Club on Monday as the cart drives away. The moose is one of several seen at or close to the golf course recently. Golfers flee as animal closes on cart, one witness reports JAY HAMBURGER The Park Record There were likely some birdies, even some eagles, at the Park City Golf Club on Monday as players enjoyed the end of the three-day holiday weekend. But there was definitely a moose. The animal was spotted on holes four, five and six, the assistant pro at the club, Shawn Andreason, said. The moose, described as young, was one of several seen at or close to the course recently. Andreason said a cow moose and two calves as well as another cow and calf have been reported. “Usually it’s just hanging out, eating trees, laying down,” he said, describing that the one seen on Monday was acting differently. “This one sounds like it’s pretty aggressive.” Golfers typically work around the animals as they play on. “You just kind of wait and be patient. ... You just let it do its thing,” he said. The moose on Monday caught the attention of golfers and people in at least one residence just off the course. In a rare episode in Park City, the moose was seen trotting at a brisk pace as golfers riding in a cart appeared to drive away in an effort to elude the animal. A Park City visitor staying at a family house nearby the golf course recorded a brief video of the encounter. The video shows the moose seeming to tail the golf cart as the driver moved down a fairway. It continues to follow the cart before stopping as the vehicle leaves the screen. The animal remains close to a sand trap as the 45-second video ends. Emily Clearwater, who lives in Phoenix and was visiting family in Park City, said the moose was seen at approximately 11 a.m. She shot the footage from a back patio. She looked up and saw the moose on the fairway. It was the first time she has seen a moose from the house. Clearwater said the golfers also saw the animal and hopped into the cart. “They saw the moose coming at them, got in the cart as quickly as they could,” she said. They left the golf balls on the fairway and returned to play several minPlease see Golfers, A-2 3 sections • 34 pages Classifieds .............................. C-8 Columns ............................... A-12 Crossword .............................. C-4 Editorial................................ A-13 Education ............................... A-7 Events Calendar ..................... C-6 Legals ................................... C-11 Letters to the Editor ............. A-13 Restaurant Guide.................... B-6 Scene ...................................... C-1 Scoreboard ............................. B-5 Sports ..................................... B-1 Weather .................................. B-2 ANGELIQUE MCNAUGHTON/PARK RECORD The Utah Department of Transportation announced last week it would be delaying the start of a chip seal project for S.R. 248 for at least a month. The project is expected to take up to a month and cause rotating lane closures. TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Summit County Councilman Glenn Wright, left, and Park City Museum’s Sandra Morrison unveil memorial plaques in the Park City Cemetery during Park City’s annual Memorial Day program Monday morning. World War II-era accident on Iron Mountain remembered at poignant ceremony JAY HAMBURGER The Park Record It was just weeks before Dec. 7, 1941, when a B-18 bomber flew into a terrible storm above the Park City mountains, crashing into Iron Mountain in an accident that killed two of the seven crew members. The Nov. 17, 1941, crash, largely forgotten by or unknown to the generations of people who have moved to Park City since, remains one of the worst disasters in the city’s history. A well-attended Memorial Day service on Monday at the Park City Cemetery on Kearns Boulevard recalled the accident, providing a chilling backdrop to what is already the solemnest of national holidays. The sacrifices of the two airmen who died, Maj. Robert Pirtle and Sgt. Jack Anderson, were poignantly noted, and the other five aboard the bomber were honored alongside the two who were lost. Family members of some of the airmen were in attendance on Monday, one of the reasons for a crowd that was larger than is typical for a Memorial Day ceremony in Park City. Some of the most moving moments of the event came from Rory Murphy, a Park City resident who suffered a serious injury as an Army paratrooper in the 1980s. Murphy, dressed in uniform, described what would have been the hellish moments as the people on the bomber realized the danger. “In the dead of night and engulfed in a raging storm, the B-18 bomber was going down and the order was given to abandon ship. These aviators had to jump out of a plane that was on fire with parachutes into a black, stormy night with gale-force winds,” the text of Murphy’s prepared remarks said. “None of them had jump training and the conditions they were forced to jump into were as hostile as they could be. The courage and fortitude it took to make that jump into those conditions exemplified heroism and the spirit that is the United States armed forces.” He said one of the men who perished, Anderson, is believed to have been knocked unconscious as the plane buffeted before falling to the ground. Pirtle told the others to bail out of the plane, Murphy said. His body was found in the area that is now the cemetery where the ceremony was held, he said. “When the men jumped, the now pilotless plane began to bank sharply to the left. As the men drifted three miles north in freezing rain, the plane circled 180 degrees around and dropped in altitude until it intercepted the parachutes at exactly the wrong time at precisely the right altitude. The odds of that occurring are almost impossibly remote,” Murphy said. He spoke about his experience as a paratrooper as well, describing a jump from a plane during a night of a storm with heavy winds. He suffered a broken back and a fractured hip. The accident ended his military career. “To this day, I can remember every moment of the almost paralyzing fear I felt during that jump. Not before or since have I had such an experience and it was easily the most terrifying thing I have ever endured. The difference between me and these airmen was that I was a very highly trained and very experienced paratrooper with the best airborne division in the world,” Murphy said. A flyover of the cemetery in honor of Memorial Day was done in the missing-man formation as the Please see Heroic, A-2 Crews want warmer weather before beginning project from Quinn’s Junction to Kamas ANGELIQUE MCNAUGHTON The Park Record The Utah Department of Transportation announced last week it would be delaying a chip seal project targeting a significant portion of S.R. 248 between Quinn’s Junction and Kamas for at least a month until the weather warms up. The project was planned last summer to coincide with the replacement of the asphalt between U.S. 40 and S.R. 32 in Kamas. Road crews milled and resurfaced the road to extend the life of the pavement and provide a smoother driving surface as part of a nearly $7.8 million on the project. But, early snow prevented it from moving forward. “The reason we didn’t do the chip seal back then is because we got a lot of heavy snow in September and were bracing ourselves for a heavy winter,” said Tim Beery, UDOT’s Region 2 communications manager. “The reason we are putting it off now is because we are waiting for temperatures to be above 60 degrees and we will probably be getting there pretty soon.” Chip seals are common in Summit County because of sporadic weather changes and frequent freeze-and-thaw scenarios, according to Beery. “The chip seal is the most appropriate and cost effective approach to preventing any problems in the future,” a UDOT press release stated. “It gives roads a little bit of durability,” Beery said. Beery emphasized that the chip seal project is not connected to the water seepage that occurred on S.R. 248 after the repavement was completed. UDOT officials have stated that water seepage is commonly associated with the type of asphalt that was used. “It is not related to that water seepage issue,” he said. Please see Roadwork, A-2 Interstate 80 snarled Binoculars and birds by weekend crashes Three hospitalized as wrecks back up traffic during busy stretch BUBBA BROWN The Park Record A pair of crashes on Interstate 80 near Parleys Summit over the weekend snarled traffic and sent three people to the hospital, including one who was listed in serious condition. On Sunday, an eastbound driver in a gray Toyota Scion lost control and flipped their vehicle near Parleys Summit. A Utah Highway Patrol release stated the vehicle, which was traveling too fast for the wet road conditions, entered the median and rolled, skidding on its roof into the westbound lanes. The vehicle then hit a Gold Cross Ambulance before spinning and colliding with a jeep. The crash happened at about 1:19 p.m. The driver of the Scion was taken by ambulance to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City in serious condition, according to the release. The Gold Cross Ambulance was carrying a patient when the crash occurred, but no other injuries were reported. An update on the driver’s condition was not available as of Tuesday afternoon. The crash caused officials to close I-80 in both directions for nearly a halfhour, and all three westbound lanes remained closed until 2:50 p.m. Traffic was diverted through a nearby exit while cleanup of the accident was completed. Please see Wrecks, A-2 TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Ashleigh Hammond, volunteer coordinator at the Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter, points out a pair of sandhill cranes on the preserve to Leyla Newman, 6, during a nature walk Saturday morning. Newman and her family, visiting from Eagle, Idaho, spent the weekend exploring Park City. VISITOR GUIDE Saddle up for a camp at the Kimball Art Center Arts-Kids will host a day camp on June 2 at the Kimball Art Center. “Cowboy Ted” Hallisey will lead an array of activities including buffalo hunter and cowboy rodeo clown tag, reading time and a dream catcher craft. More: kimballartcenter.org and www.arts-kids.org. |