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Show BUSINESS, A-8 C-1 B-2 CASE MADE TO HONOR SKI MUSEUM DIRECTOR SKIER HAD A TOUGH CLIMB THIS SEASON RESTAURANT GUIDE Check out our restaurant guide on page B-6. Learn more at bit.ly/eatpc COLUMNS, A-26 EXPERTS ONLY: HOSPITALITY WORKERS HONORED TOM CLYDE DESCRIBES AN EPIC TRIP TO COLORADO Park Record. 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 Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, March 30-April 2, 2019 Serving Summit County since 1880 Taser use is found to be appropriate | Vol. 139 | No. 16 50¢ Lawsuit says cleanup bills remain unpaid Miners stick out The Sheriff’s Office completes review of two recent arrests The Justice Department sues United Park City Mines in effort to recoup costs of tailings work ANGELIQUE MCNAUGHTON JAY HAMBURGER The Park Record Deputies with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office commonly use force to gain compliance from individuals resisting arrest or not following commands, says Lt. Andrew Wright, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office. In the last four months, deputies deployed Tasers on two people while placing them under arrest, a use of force that is rarely utilized by the Sheriff’s Office. The Park Record obtained internal reviews of the incidents through an open records request. The reviews indicated deputies used reasonable force in both situations. In January, Jose Trinidad Patino-Perez, of Park City, was tased three times after he locked himself in a room and resisted arrest, according to a Sheriff’s Office report from the incident. It was believed he had a knife, the report stated. Charges were later dismissed against Patino-Perez. Omar Altamirano, of West Valley City, was tased in November after he attacked several people in Kimball Junction, including a deputy. He recently pleaded guilty to intoxication and assault on a peace officer or military service member. The Sheriff’s Office conducts an internal review of any incident where the use of force is employed, Wright said. The term “use of force” can refer to a variety of methods deputies may employ when placing a suspect under arrest, such as placing hands on someone to put them in a wrist lock, deploying a taser or drawing a weapon. The internal reviews include an audit of the officer’s account of the events that lead up to a use of force incident, as well as a review of body camera footage and witness reports. “It is never with the intent of getting a deputy in trouble, but more with the intent of accountability,” Wright said. “Do we need to focus training on a specific area? Do we have a deputy that is displaying a consistent pattern of bad behaviors? It allows us to dive in to, not only the incident, but the behaviors of our deputies.” Lt. Justin Hemingway, division commander with the Sheriff’s Office, performed the reviews of the November and January incidents. Hemingway found that the deputies used reasonable force to gain compliance during both arrests. The 28-page report about the Patino-Perez incident included a detailed account of the events that transpired Jan. 3 when deputies entered his Kimball Junction apartment and eventually tased him three times. Wright said footage taken from the body cameras was also reviewed. Please see Taser use, A-2 3 sections • 48 pages Business ................................. A-8 Classifieds .............................. C-8 Columns ............................... A-26 Crossword .............................. C-4 Editorial................................ A-27 Events Calendar ..................... C-6 Legals ................................... C-11 Letters to the Editor ............. A-27 Restaurant Guide.................... B-6 Scene ...................................... C-1 Scoreboard ............................. B-5 Sports ..................................... B-1 Weather .................................. B-2 The Park Record sold at market prices, allowing City Hall to put the revenues back into the housing program. The market rates that will be attached to the six units will, essentially, reduce the amount of City Hall subsidy required for the overall project. The Park City Planning Commission on Wednesday held its first meeting about the second phase of Woodside Park. The meeting was cordial and the Planning Commission did not appear to have significant issues with the project. The Planning Commissioners at later meetings will delve into the details. It seems likely the panel at the upcoming meetings will dwell on standard issues in Old Town development debates, such as the traffic a project will generate and the overall designs of a project. The project team on Wednesday provided an overview, discussing environmental highlights like plans to generate electricity through solar power and the desire that the designs flow with the rhythm of the streetscape as well as the scale of other buildings on Woodside Avenue and Empire Avenue. Laura Suesser, a member of the Planning Commission, at the meeting on Wednesday indicated she is concerned about pedestrians crossing Empire Avenue as they head toward Park City Mountain Resort. Douglas Thimm, another member of the Planning Commission, noted the project is pro- The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against United Park City Mines, the modern-day successor to Park City’s historic silver-mining industry, claiming the firm owes the federal government nearly $900,000 for cleanup work in the Silver Creek corridor. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, claims United Park City Mines owes the Environmental Protection Agency $848,797.57 plus interest and owes the Bureau of Land Management $46,814.41 plus interest. The EPA bills were amassed between 2014 and 2017 while the BLM bills date to between 2014 and 2018. It also charges that UPCM did not perform work that it agreed to pursue in 2014 as part of a settlement with the federal government. The Department of Justice wants a magistrate judge to declare United Park City Mines is liable since it was the owner and operator at the time of the disposal of the mine tailings. It also wants a $50,000 judgment, plus interest, against United Park City Mines as a penalty after the EPA took over the work. The case centers on Richardson Flat close to Quinn’s Junction, one of the locations where tailings taken from the silver mines eventually settled. Richardson Flat is part of the Silver Creek watershed, and the EPA and City Hall have for decades been concerned about the danger of the tailings to the watershed. The lawsuit says the tailings contained metals like arsenic, lead, zinc and cadmium. Silver Creek as well as its tributaries brought the tailings down the stream corridor, depositing the tailings throughout the Park City-area watershed, the lawsuit says. The Department of Justice claims tailings remain along a stretch of Silver Creek covering six miles. In some places, the tailings are nine or more feet deep, the lawsuit says, estimating there are between 1.5 million cubic yards and 2.6 million cubic yards of tailings that are contaminated along the Silver Creek corridor. The arsenic concentrations are up to 10,308 times the EPA’s level for residential uses while the lead concentrations are 124 times the level, the Department of Justice claims. Surface water and groundwater showed elevated levels of contaminants, the lawsuit outlines. “At the time UPCM and its predecessors operated or owned the facilities, as result of the mining, milling, and processing of its ores, it disposed of tons of tailing containing cadmium, zinc, arsenic, lead and other metals into . . . Silver Creek, tributaries to Silver Creek, mountainsides and other surface areas that drained to Silver Creek and its tributaries, and conveyance ditches leading to Richardson Flat,” the lawsuit says. It says the tailings from United Park City Mines loca- Please see Blueprints, A-2 Please see Cleanup, A-2 TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Park City High School’s Jessie O’Neal, right, jockeys for the ball against American Fork’s Bekah Sheperd during the first half of a matchup Wednesday at Dozier Field. The Miners beat the Lady Cavemen 10-7. Park City housing proposal, an ambitious project, nicked A critic says the development would be shoehorned into a tightly packed neighborhood JAY HAMBURGER The Park Record A City Hall panel on Wednesday night reviewed the municipal government’s blueprints for a workforce or otherwise restricted housing development in Old Town, receiving a small amount of split testimony at an early point in the talks about a project that is proposed for a tightly packed part of the community. Park City intends to build a second phase of the Woodside Park development. It would stretch across the 1300 blocks of Empire Avenue, Norfolk Avenue and Woodside Avenue. It is expected to be one of City Hall’s largest housing developments. The plans call for 58 units of housing. Of the total, 52 of the units would be priced at levels determined to be affordable or attainable, and buyers will be required to qualify through their income levels. City Hall will eventually set prices and income ceilings based on the area median income. The other six units will be In a roundabout way, Distinguished day talks turn to a tunnel County Courthouse considers options for Kilby Road upgrades ANGELIQUE MCNAUGHTON The Park Record Summit County has announced plans to build a pedestrian tunnel under Kilby Road as part of the upcoming project to construct roundabouts at the Jeremy Ranch and Pinebrook interchanges. But, the county still needs to secure some of the land surrounding the tunnel to make the project come to fruition. The proposed pedestrian tunnel would start on the north side of Kilby Road and end in Quarry Village. The Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District has agreed to fund construc- tion of the tunnel. It is estimated to cost about $1.5 million. However, county officials are still in negotiations with Associated Fresh Markets, Inc., the company that owns the property where the tunnel would end. Tom Fisher, county manager, said the county is requesting to secure some of Associated Fresh Markets, Inc., land or at least get permission to complete the tunnel. He said officials have wanted to construct the pedestrian passage for some time, but the funding was not available. “We certainly heard from the community that a tunnel would make the project more complete and we always had that in our concept,” he said. “The County Council wanted us to find a way to fund it so we did.” Officials are hoping to construct the Please see Talks, A-2 DAVID PERRY/U.S. AIR FORCE U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Timothy “TJ” Eaton, a Park City resident, receives the Distinguished Flying Cross from Gen. Mike Holmes during a ceremony at Hill Air Force Base on March 21. According to the Air Force, Eaton is credited with saving 62 lives in Afghanistan in 2008 by providing air support from a B-1 bomber to U.S. troops under Taliban attack. “His efforts significantly slowed the enemy attack and allowed friendly forces to regroup and repel the largest enemy attack in Afghanistan at that point in the war,” the release states. VISITOR GUIDE Slide into your seat for a history lecture Scientist Bob Blek will give a lecture about Utah’s landslides at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3, at the Park City Museum’s Education and Collections Center, 2079 Sidewinder Dr. The event is free and open to the public. For information, visit parkcityhistory.org. |