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Show A-16 The Park Record Continued from A-1 Get your subscription to The Park Record! Mail or Home delivery within Summit County (Includes a free Sunday Tribune and e-Edition subscription) 1 Year $56 2 Years $98 Mail delivery outside of Summit County (Includes a free e-Edition subscription) 1 Year $80 2 Years $138 Home Delivery within Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Wasatch Counties (Includes a free e-Edition subscription) 1 Year $80 2 Years $138 Call us today and ask for Lacy 435.649.9014 Bill raised voters’ ire ty’s representatives at the Capitol from Jan. 27 through Feb. 13, the beginning of the session to one day after the bill to scale back Proposition 3 passed. The emails provided show a widespread dissatisfaction among voters contacting Summit County’s lawmaker.“A democracy ceases to be democratic if its leaders enact legislation that does not represent the will of the people,” one emailer residing in Salt Lake City wrote to Christensen in opposition to the bill on Jan. 28. “That’s an abuse of power. That’s corruption.” Christensen differed on that definition. “Please do your homework,” he wrote in response. “We are not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic that means we elect representatives.” Another emailer, a constituent from Ogden, urged the senator he helped put into office to reconsider his proposal. “The people voted to pass Proposition 3,” the constituent Continued from A-1 Parking disputed The resort exceeded the allowance, triggering City Hall on Tuesday to inform Deer Valley it cannot allow the overflow parking on Deer Valley Drive. The resort said it received a formal letter from City Hall outlining the prohibition. Matt Dias, the assistant Park City manager, on Friday said City Hall starting that day no longer permitted overflow parking on Deer Valley Drive outside of Snow Park Lodge. He acknowledged to the mayor and City Council on Thursday it would be a “sudden change” for Deer Val- Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, March 16-19, 2019 wrote. “I voted yes on Prop 3. I also voted for you.” While Christensen’s inbox was largely filled with opposing opinions, one Ogden constituent wrote to thank him for introducing the legislation and for “setting some limits on the Medicaid expansion.” “Thank you for your comments,” Christensen wrote in response. “I could use a lot more like them.” Other exchanges turned tense. “Please reconsider your actions regarding the Medicaid expansion, it literally is a matter of life and death for so many of us,” one emailer wrote on Feb. 11 in an email with the subject line “What would Jesus do?” Several messages later in the exchange, Christensen gave his thoughts on that opening question: that Jesus was decidedly not socialist. “Jesus would do as he always did and advise people take care of the poor but he never ever advocated that money be taken from some people and given to others,” he wrote. Though Heber Rep. Tim Quinn, Park City’s representative in the House, took a back seat in the debate, he voted in support of Christensen’s proposal. One constituent had a suggestion: Make up for the money spent on Medicaid expansion by privatizing liquor sales. “Right now it appears that you are NOT representing the stated desires of your constituents,” wrote Robert Chamberlain, who is the vice chair of the Summit County Republican Party, in an email to Quinn from an address associated with a firm he runs in Park City. “When our elected officials cease being puppets for an unelected religious lobbying group and start becoming Republicans we have the opportunity to triple state revenue from alcohol sales.” Chamberlain clarified to The Park Record that he was speaking as a private citizen, rather than on behalf of the Summit County GOP. Quinn responded that he believed an amended version of Christensen’s proposal was adequate in staying true to the spirit of Proposition 3. “The public, when drafting a proposition, has no requirement to pay for things much less to balance a budget,” Quinn wrote. “On this issue, we did what prop 3 asked with some caps to prevent cost over runs.” Meaghan Miller, a Park City Democrat who challenged Quinn in his reelection bid in 2018, also appeared in the representative’s inbox. “Prop 3 passed Wasatch County by 6,089 votes — I received 4,335 which means 1,754 people who voted for you want Medicaid expanded,” Miller said. A search of the emails provided to The Park Record did not yield a response from Quinn. State Sen. Ronald Winterton, a Duchesne Republican who represents Park City, also became a prominent figure in the narrative early on. A freshman senator coming from a position as a Duchesne County commissioner, he was appointed chair of the Senate Health and Human Services committee. Winterton responded to many of the hundreds of messages received with a form letter explaining his support of the legislation, as did Croydon Rep. Logan Wilde, whose district covers much of eastern Summit County. “I am committed to finding a solution on how to sustain the voter approved expansion long term in a compassionate and responsible manner that makes sense for all Utahns,” Winterton’s responses concluded. Wilde’s responses echoed the sentiments of many Republican legislators who supported the bill. “If you would like these programs to run for a few years and dissolve because they don’t have enough funding to maintain the services provided to the citizens. Then leave them alone,” Wilde’s responses stated. “But I for one am not going to provide a service with a promise to citizens of this state then leave them with nothing in a few years.” ley skiers. Steve Issowits, the director of real estate and resort planning at Deer Valley, appeared on behalf of the resort on Thursday evening, outlining the situation from the Deer Valley perspective. Issowits told the elected officials it is difficult for an operation the size of Deer Valley to make such a shift so abruptly. He said Deer Valley must address skier parking as well as work on agreements for shuttle service. Issowits said there have been 27 days during the current ski season that required overflow parking onto Deer Valley Drive. In an interview, he said 12 of the 27 days were on days that the road into Big Cottonwood Canyon, Little Cottonwood Canyon or both were closed due to weather or avalanche-control work, influencing skiers who would have otherwise headed to the resorts in the Cottonwoods to instead drive to Deer Valley. Another seven of the days were during the World Freestyle Championships or during the setup for the competitions while two days were during the Sundance Film Festival, he said, adding the other six days were especially busy days for Deer Valley. “It’s directly attributable to the snow. We’re having a great year with a great economy,” Issowits said. “And people are having fun. We certainly don’t want to discourage any of that.” During the final weeks of the ski season, he said, City Hall will post signs with electronic messages directing skiers to parking at Treasure Mountain Junior High on the weekends. The skiers would be shuttled to the resort from the school. It appears, though, Deer Valley and City Hall will review the issue in a broader fashion before the start of the next ski season. The resort will apparently need to engage the Park City Planning Commission since the restrictions on parking are within the Deer Valley planning and zoning documents that originally date to decades ago. Issowits told the elected officials there is a possibility the resort will consider building more parking at Snow Park, something that is envisioned in the documents. The issue arose during what has been a busy ski season for Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort. Issowits told the elected officials lift-ticket sales at Deer Valley are up approximately 11.5 percent from the previous ski season. The strong resort business has coincided with a winter of heavy snow as well as the debut of the Ikon Pass, which offers holders access to resorts across North America and abroad. Deer Valley is included. The weather has caused numerous parking issues across Park City as snow piles on the sides of the road narrowed the available space for parking. |