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Show A-8 Wed/Thurs/Fri, January 9-11, 2019 The Park Record Meetings and agendas Core saMples TO PUBLISH YOUR PUBLIC NOTICES AND AGENDAS, PLEASE EMAIL CLASSIFIEDS@PARKRECORD.COM NOTICE is hereby given that the Summit County Council will meet in session Wednesday, January 9, 2019, at the Sheldon Richins Building, 1885 West Ute Blvd, Park City, UT 84098 (All times listed are general in nature, and are subject to change by the Council Chair) 3:00 PM – Council Members to attend the Rocky Mountain Power Blue Sky Customer check presentation event, to celebrate the completion of solar panel installation at Richins; Lisa Yoder [meet in the lobby outside the auditorium] 5) 6) 5:35 PM - Council Comments 5:50 PM - Manager Comments 6:00 PM Public Input 6:30 PM - Joint meeting with Snyderville Basin Planning Commission to discuss work tasks and deadlines for 2019; Pat Putt (60 min) 3:45 PM – Move to Room 133 3:55 PM Closed Session – Property acquisition (40 min) 4:35 PM – Move to auditorium 4:45 PM Work Session 1) Pledge of Allegiance 2) 4:50 PM – Discussion regarding Summit County’s response to Utah State Auditor’s Office; Michael Howard, Corrie Forsling, and Matt Leavitt (20 min) 3) 5:10 PM - Discussion regarding Summit County/North Summit Fire Reserve Wildland Firefighter policy; Ken Smith, Jami Brackin, and Brian Bellamy (20 min) 4) 5:30 PM - Council Minutes dated December 5, 2018, December 6, 2018, December 10, 2018, December 12, 2018, and December 18, 2018 One or more members of the County Council may attend by electronic means, including telephonically or by Skype. Such members may fully participate in the proceedings as if physically present. The anchor location for purposes of the electronic meeting is the Sheldon Richins Building auditorium, 1885 W. Ute Blvd., Park City, Utah Individuals with questions, comments, or needing special accommodations pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act regarding this meeting may contact Annette Singleton at (435) 336-3025, (435) 615-3025 or (435) 783-4351 ext. 3025 Posted: January 3, 2019 Candidate sues after Navajo opponent wins county race Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY – A Republican is suing after losing an election to a Navajo candidate in a Utah county dogged by allegations of discrimination against Navajo voters. Kelly Laws wants a judge to overturn Democrat Willie Grayeyes’ victory in the San Juan County commission race over questions about whether he is truly a Utah resident, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday. County officials had tried to remove Grayeyes from the ballot before the election, saying an investigation sparked by a complaint from a different Republican hopeful found that he lives primarily over the nearby Arizona border. A federal judge reversed that decision after deciding the county clerk falsified the complaint by improperly backdating it. U.S. District Judge David Nuffer did not rule directly on the residency issue, however. The new suit was filed last week in Utah state court. Grayeyes said the residency question is a political attack as Navajos are poised to form a majority of the three-person commission for the first time. He has been registered to vote in San Juan County since he was 18 and held leadership positions in Utah for decades, his lawyers have said. Grayeyes acknowledged that he owns property in Page, Arizona, but said Navajo Mountain, Utah, is his home. He compared his residency to that of newly elected U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, who has owned homes in several states, including his current residence in Utah. “Why don’t they go after him too?” said Grayeyes, who is set to be sworn in Monday after winning the race in the lightly populated county by 159 votes. Leaders of the sprawling Navajo Nation, which stretches into New Mexico and Arizona, have supported Grayeyes and pointed out that many people in the remote area must cross state lines for work, errands or even to collect mail. Laws, though, argues in the lawsuit that Grayeyes lacks a Utah driver license, spends time with his girlfriend in Tuba City, Arizona, and owns a horse that he keeps at his uncle’s home in Arizona. Laws’ attorneys, Peter Stirba and Matthew Strout, did not immediately return messages seeking comment from the Salt Lake Tribune or The Associated Press. The dust-up comes after the first general election since another federal judge re-drew county voting districts, saying the old ones were illegally created based on race and minimized the voices of Navajo residents who make up more than half the population. County officials have denied treating Navajo voters unfairly. They argue the new boundaries discriminate against people in the county’s largest city of Blanding. They are appealing the ruling. Park Service taps into entrance fees to operate Associated Press WASHINGTON – The National Park Service says it is taking the extraordinary step of dipping into entrance fees to pay for staffing at its highly visited parks in the wake of the partial government shutdown. P. Daniel Smith, deputy director of the service, said in a statement Sunday that the money would be used to bring in staff to maintain restrooms, clean up trash and patrol the parks. He acknowledged that the Trump administration’s decision to keep the parks open during the weekslong budget impasse was no longer workable and so more extreme measures were warranted. Parks have been relying on outside help for security and upkeep. “We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected, and that visitors can continue to access parks with limited basic services,” Smith said. Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana warned Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Saturday of “significant risk to property and public health” without funding. Three Utah Republican congressmen also asked Bernhardt to restart regular operations. Democrats want the parks fully opened. But Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, the incoming chair of the subcommittee overseeing Interior ap- By Jay Meehan Yosemite clean-up crew AGENDA SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL Wednesday, January 9, 2019 propriations, said Sunday that dipping into user fees was “not acceptable” in this situation, and likely violates the law. Parks supporters called the administration’s move misguided. “Instead of working to reopen the federal government, the administration is robbing money collected from entrance fees to operate our national parks during this shutdown,” said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO for the National Parks Conservation Association. “For those parks that don’t collect fees, they will now be in the position of competing for the same inadequate pot of money to protect their resources and visitors. Draining accounts dry is not the answer.” “It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man.” – President Theodore Roosevelt (after camping with John Muir in Yosemite) As with most dreams, the surreal prevailed. Normally sequential events assumed the non-linear. Colors, no matter where aligned along the visual spectrum, attached themselves to the unfamiliar. Except, of course, orange. Its mothership, the current presidential wig, had cameos in most every scene. Once, flying over the Sierras on a flight from Salt Lake to Oakland while searching out the plane’s window for Hetch Hetchy but instead capturing Yosemite Valley from 36,000 feet, I easily picked out the usual suspects. There they were, all in a row and pretty much aligned with the flight path: Half Dome, Glacier Point, Yosemite Falls (dry in the fall), Sentinel Rock, El Cap, etc. Which, of course, made the recognition of the dreamscape that much more instantaneous. As I mentioned, even with the color scheme totally removed from my accustomed vividness scale, I deduced the plotline. The ex-first family, in bright orange jumpsuits, were individually serving out their sentences in Yosemite National Park cleaning up human waste accrued during the government shutdown. Once a gander at Dad availed itself, identifying the rest of the clan, especially those of the female persuasion, came without a hitch. Ivanka’s involvement with the Russians gained her entrée but why Melania also ended up in an orange one-piece never made itself clear. Dreams don’t always come with a program. The sons of anarchy exhibited troubles even negotiating the footpaths from their campsite to the shuttle stop. Rumor had it that they even had to dress themselves, cruel and unusual punishment to say the least. As near as I could make out (deep slumber comes with a heavy fog your understand), they shuffled chain-gang-like from one crap-rich environment to the next singing Woody Guthrie’s nod to Donald’s father Fred, “Old Man Trump.” An anti-racism ditty (go figure!), their gospel-like chants echoed off the valley’s granite cliffs. Now if the Trumps had been required to remove all the bull excrement they left in the general vicinity of the White House, next-generation hazardous waste protection no doubt would have been required.” Not unlike Emile Zola’s famous “J’Accuse” open letter to the President of France in defense of Alfred Dreyfus during the late 19th-Century, Guthrie’s “Old Man Trump” accused ol’ Fred of blatant racism in his latest housing project, “Beach Haven.” The repetitive singing of that particular song had been part of the original sentence, and even survived the avalanche of appeals that followed. Not surprisingly, Woody Guthrie fans also joined in the brief as a friend of the court after hearing the Trump family version. Blasphemy, they called it. Now if the Trumps had been required to remove all the bull excrement they left in the general vicinity of the White House, next-generation hazardous waste protection no doubt would have been required. But as it was, their backpack loads of Lysol, scrub brushes, telescopic-extension mops, gas masks, latex gloves, vacuum pumps, and schnoz-guards (to protect from having their noses rubbed in it), helped keep the family scowl firmly in place. When others on the cleanup crew volunteered to build an adobe-like wall around the Trump family compound utilizing the refuse in question, many among the returning park employees also raised their hand to join what they thought of as a community service. They figured the real “stink” of the place could be corralled. And, wouldn’t you know, the gift shop couldn’t keep enough “Russia Will Pay For It” paraphernalia in stock to meet the constant demand. Of course, with Californians harboring the love they do for the Trumps, additional lookouts with spotting scopes had to be installed. Not to mention location sensors implanted along with their individual lip-augmentation procedures so as to aid the visitors in detection. Yellowstone wolf collars seemed a bit over the top. As is most often the case when exiting the dream world, not all of the empty squares get filled in. Many questions remain. Many rumors unconfirmed. Now if only they were serialized and you could have friends over for a weekend of “binging.” But as we have learned, the images that occur during one’s REM sleep phase are involuntary in nature. Of course, that’s just “science” talking. And if the Trumps taught us anything, it’s that science is fake news. If only Donald could have spent the weekend with Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir. l Jay Meehan is a culture junkie and has been an observer, participant, and chronicler of the Park City and Wasatch County social and political scenes for more than 40 years. red Card roberts By Amy Roberts J-1 in danger of becoming J-none This weekend I woke early to take advantage of my first powder day of the season. Before the resort opened, I met a friend for coffee in the lodge. As we sipped away our sleepiness, I noticed dozens of resort workers running about — wiping tables, salting the sidewalks, whacking the lift chairs with brooms to rid them of the overnight snow. No doubt there were hundreds more I did not see out preparing the mountain for guests, in some form or another. Our thigh-burning morning was followed by a belly-expanding lunch, which was followed by a series of après ski toasts at ski-in/ski-out hotel. The meal and the drinks were delivered to us by a gentleman wearing a nametag stating he was from Peru. Nametags noting a foreign country as home are more common than not during a Park City winter; they’re noticeable at the top and bottom of each lift, proudly donned by those preparing our food, and pinned to the lapel of those cleaning up our messes. All in all, my day of caffeinating, skiing, lunching, and drinking on the mountain probably consumed around five hours, and in that time, I would guess it took at least 30 J-1 visa holders to make it all happen. Given their cheery dispositions and service-with-a-smile mantra, it can be easy to forget they likely rose before the sun to start their 16-hour workday. Most of these seasonal workers have two or three jobs, all requiring some form of discomfort — freezing temperatures, heavy lifting, long days and sometimes entitled customers. If they’re lucky, they’ll get a few hours of sleep before doing it all over again. But where that sleep happens is of increasing rarity and concern. Recently, a Park City Council member informed other officials of a group of J-1 workers who had been taken advantage of by a landlord. There were 14 workers sharing three bedrooms, and a couple who rented a “private room” ended up getting a utility closet with no heat. Sadly, this story isn’t unique. There are several studio-sized condos holding up to 10 seasonal workers. Not long ago, the owners of the former Colby School were caught housing more than 50 seasonal workers, dormitory style, in the building. If they’re lucky, they’ll get a few hours of sleep before doing it all over again. But where that sleep happens is of increasing rarity and concern.” While it’s easy to say the city should do something, that employers are responsible to supply lodging, or suggest J-1 visas shouldn’t be granted until housing is secured (all are common cries each time the exploitation of seasonal workers makes headlines), none of those solutions are that simple. For starters, the J-1 visa program is sponsored by the State Department, which is managed by the federal government. And even when the government is not shut down, it’s pretty useless. After granting a J-1 visa, the State Department passes the torch of responsibility for the visa holders to the sponsors. In Park City, these sponsors are largely the resorts, hotels and restaurants. While I do think the companies benefiting from this labor force need to put people before profit, with over 1,300 J-1 visa workers in Park City this season, securing housing for each one isn’t realistic. To put it in perspective, the Montage has 154 rooms. Even if you converted the spa, bowling alley, and conference space into employee housing, you’d still need a comparably sized building to house 1,300 people. As a community, we all seem to agree seasonal workers are vital to our economy and we don’t want them driving in from nearby towns and adding to our clogged roads, yet even the slightest whisper of workforce housing rallies the NIMBYs quicker than ski bums on a powder day. We can’t demand employers offer housing in one breath and then protest and preserve every realistic patch of land considered for such a project in the next. Then there’s the often-stated claim, “City Hall should do something!” But what is “something,” exactly? The only suggestions typically offered are a mix of unrealistic and unwise. “No visas without housing secured first” doesn’t work considering a municipal government has no authority over the federal government. That’s like expecting City Council members to fast track your passport application because you had the photo taken at the local post office. It’s pretty unlikely a small-town mayor would be able to influence the State Department and demand J-1 applicants submit a signed lease prior to receiving a visa. Beyond that, I’m not convinced there should be a J-1 visa real estate department at City Hall. It’s easy to point fingers, shift blame, and pass the accountability hot potato, but ultimately, we all benefit from seasonal workers and it is on all of us to ensure they have a safe place to lay their heads, before they devote 3/4 of their day to serving us. Amy Roberts is a freelance writer, longtime Park City resident and the proud owner of two rescued Dalmatians, Stanley and Willis. Follow her on Twitter @amycroberts. |