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Show LA Uk UA Ws Lt i Libal RA |Snow Connie - County Goes To Fly at PCMR- One year after first-ever cancellation, Zo "Hunting for a Water eee 8, 2000 look good - for America’s Opening ~ Czar : soars Race Department manag: | paces snow like mad.” er. PCMR typically covers 45 perCOURIER STAFF . ae addition to the racing, cent of the mountain with artifi- 2) America’s Opening will once © cial snow. Recently, the resort work with the planning — gg year after one of thie TIM WESTBY again feature the popular public COURIER STAFF. department to confirm | A: . most dismal ski seasons augmented their snowmaking that the claims made by : in memory —punctuat- pipes, hydrants and guns in the © draw, street dance and concert at about the ‘ed by the first-ever cancellation of Eagle Race Arena where next the bottom of Park City’s historic ‘ith continued developers the America’s Opening World -week’s World Cup will be held. Main Street. This year’s event WV strong growth : amount of water available — Cup at Park City Mountain With low temperatures, like the will feature Credence Clearwater | and growing for new projects. current lows in the teens, the Revisited, and will start at 6:30 Other duties for the | _ Resort — - Utah’s winter Wasatch | water woes, p.m. on Friday, Nov. County is looking for the $46,000 to $50,000 a year | seems to be coming back. £é. With a week remaining © equivalent of a water czar ‘position, include adminis- | Flanders said the ‘season’s | tering the county’s pro- |— before _ this to oversee the county’s early snow bodes — portion of the Central scheduled races at water resources. well for the U.S. Ski U tack 16-19), ~ PCMR,. (Nov. According Project, Team, whose mem- Mother Nature is cooperto the county’s “I think he anil: bers will get to ski direct all | ating and snow, both artijob _ descripPCMR as a final tunewater | ficial and real, is flying. F tion, the new | up before the 2002 resource More than 30 inches of Wye oe ee Winter Games. activities of snow fell during a threeFESOULCES “It has to-be done Service: day stretch last week, vircoordinator a of the oe fin Park City this tually guaranteeing the | will oversee all valuable people Area #1, # year,” he said. “With coordinatraces will take place. : of the county’s the Olympics coming oe eee: - everyone water resource in the county,” ing the | next year, it will be | county’s bieaittned a sigh of relief activities. As a . the es chance for a test event.” snowmaking system can cover 33 result, says MIKE KOHLER. restoration when they saw that storm last Meanwhile, according © to acres with snow in a single 24one _ county County . workon the week,” said Scott Flanders, | Rafferty, America’s Opening will hour period. commissioner, Commissioner . Pre ¥-0 spokesperson for the U.S. Ski be a boon to Utah’s overall ski This summer, the area of the the county will | River, and and Snowboard — Association. industry. He said last year’s lastrace arena known as the “dog not have . to | | working the | “We've got 10 times more snow minute transfer to Copper - hire outside water specialirrigation’ companies. now than we did at this point last leg” was widened and re-graded Mountain in Colorado due to lack from two-thirds of the way down ists or attorneys when ~The job description calls 7 _ year.” of snow, spelled doom for winter - for someone with a backIn addition to the early storm, ‘the course to the finish line. The problems arise. tourism. “That was sort of the work was done to create more ground -.in water | snowmaking guns at the resort “We need someone to nail in the coffin that made it a have been cranking out the white ‘room for Olympic infrastructure, resources, land planning, make: sure that we are including the snowboarding half- - bad season,” Rafferty added. administrative functions. stuff for consecutive days. Due to making the best use of the _ But with snow already piling and “above average man_ the below-normal temperatures, _ pipe venue. © _ water we have,’ County many “The finish area of the Eagle - up in the mountains, agement, negotiation, PCMR has been able to cover the Commissioner Mike resorts are planning to open and . organizational | entirety of CB’s Run with 18 inch- Race Arena is now significantly Kohler said. “This guy including “Sialig.“t es of snow. | steeper than it was, making it. early . this year, will pay for himself many Brighton on Nov. 9 and PCMR on possible for the racers to finish ~ “ think he will-turn out {It’s looking good,” said _ times over.” . Nov. 11. That, Rafferty said, faster at this year’s America’s to be one of the most valuNathan Rafferty, director of comKohler says one of the should put Utah’s reputation for Opening than they have in the able people in the county,” ‘munications for Ski Utah. “I wake most important jobs of the snow back on solid ground. past,” said -Karen Korfanta, | says Kohler. up every morning ‘and they are “new person will be to BY DEREK JENSEN “i lid turn out to be — ad, bal POET UT ; ‘ AN ASP Map i __ WASATCH COUNTY COURIER Ae. PHONE TOWERS ing to look at a cell tower from his front porch. CONTINUED FROM A1 Strict ordinance or not, Wacsieh | County Planner Sharon Atkinson’ long as no one can tell it’s a cell tower. : expects to see more and more. cell. The ordinance goes.a long way towards tower applications hit her desk. Just a answering the single biggest complaint couple of years ago there was no more _ county officials hear about cell towers: than nine towers to serve all of Wasatch | visual impact. County, and most of those were on a During a public hearing before the section of industrial land between Wasatch County Commission two Midway and Heber. weeks ago, a representative for The floodgates ope about a year Voicestream Wireless pitched an idea - says — for a tower high on a ridge in Provo ago, Now, Canyon. The proposed site, which is on Atkinson. there are three private: land, would be smack in the view corridor. of residents: in the just for the that. there are currently about 1,000. sites in the state that could see towers within the next year. | ‘From Sachs’ perspective. finding appropriate sites is not the problem; it’s working with local governments. “It’s getting harder to get approval,” he says. “[County officials] are so used to taking an adversial position to anything new. If they just step back and take a longer view they'll see there isn’t ansiting, to fear.” So. adie S If they just step back and take a longer_ driving complained about the possibility of hav- isn’t alone in the trend. Sachs estimates ~ and $200 to $300 a month for the every tower after that. “It would have been my house pay- ment.” But then as if to underscore the problem with towers,-he adds, “In a way, I'm glad I didn’t do it because everyone would get mad at me.” | ) The Wasatch County School District has also tried to get into the game. But the increase in cell tow- _a recent Midway ordinance and public ers? ‘Besides increased | concerns over the health risks of. cell evolving _towers killed the district's proposal to _ popularity, lease the roof of Midway Elementary _ technology in wireless School. As a result, the district lost out communication also area Canyon Meadows and Wildwood devel- -Jordanelle with at least anoth- opments. — A means more towers are er two planned. However the tower gained the Jan necessary. Wireless port of the planning department and . Another three or four are planned at isn "t antici to companies are rushing _ barely raised a ripple of public concern . to embrace digital comafter the Voicestream representative | other county loca-_ ions... She ll ear.” munication - devices explained that the tower would be made acknowledges that 7 that give better quality to look like just another pine tree on the companies in A S ACHS — sound and offer more _ ridge — only this would be made of plas- _ the options for cell users often complain — tic and steel. Canyon Communications, LLC | like Internet access. about the county’s | _ Voicestream is following an industry But digital technology strict ordinance, - trend, as more communities require carries 2: Fiat distance, which means stealth technology. Ceil towers are now _ but they still keep coming. | more towers are needed. Towers are “Anytime we have ameeting there increasingly made to fit in with things also limited in the number of sub-. seems to be several representatives like flagpoles, steeples and even palm saying _scribers they can handle, and that also trees. You name it. Anything pointing [from wireless companies] _ skyward coyld one day bea cell tower they'll be next,” says Atkinson. “To lis- means more towers.. _ But when wireless companies come ‘ten to them we'll have another 20.” in disguise.knocking it can be a kind of cash crop Park City resident Ira Sachs runs At that same hocians two le ago, for landowners. Atkinson says wireless the Commission also heard about a pro- Canyon Communication LLC, a compacompanies are paying anywhere from posal from Sprint to erect a temporary ny that finds tower sites for six different $700 to $1,000 a month for leasing a wireless companies. Sachs works | tower on Stringtown Road near Midway patch of land-that usually isn’t much throughout Utah and even Moscow, for the 2002 Winter Games, but since the tower is not stealth it did not get” Russia, where he says the demand for bigger than the average-size living cell towers is even stronger. room. much support. from the planning County Mathis tells how he once tried to get Wasatch: that out points He department. Also a. nearby resident view they'll see there property in Midway. The idea fell through after nearby residents balked _ at-the idea, but he says he could have made $700 a month for the first tower approval for a cell tower or two-on his ' on an estimated $20,000 a year. School - officials now say they’re looking at alter- native sites on school-owned land in the © proving that the potential _ county, income is just too much for ‘property owners to resist. The health risks that ‘Midway residents worried were over electro-mag- _ netic radiation. Atkinson acknowledges that she hears those worries often. _ There is little county officials can do, | however. Federal law forbids communi- ties from refusing equipment like cell towers for health reason if the Federal ‘Communications Commission _ has approved it. “Until it’s proven by the medical community, we can't turn it down,” says: 3 Atkinson. In the end, no one expects the demand for cell tower sites to die down anytime soon. Says Midway City Planner Brian Preece, just seems that’s where oe world’s going.’ oe |