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Show Viewpoints The A-11 Park Record. Wed/Thurs/Fri, April 3-5, 2019 editorial Speak up now as plan to revamp Kimball Junction hits vital phase W letters to the editor Adult supervision needed Editor: It looks like the Summit County transportation department and UDOT are at it again. This time it is a $10 million project to build two roundabouts at the Jeremy Ranch exit of I-80 to accommodate future growth of subdivisions that have pretty much maxed out. These would be the perfect complement to the ugly scar of a noise barrier demanded in this same area by a couple dozen residents of Jeremy Ranch to deal with the noise they didn’t notice when buying a home on a major highway, just like their brethren who bought homes under the glide path of a major airport and then complained about the noise of jets taking off and landing above their homes. We all get to pay for their mistakes. But this is in line with the disaster of the dangerous snake river that Kilby Road has become, leading to the world’s most expensive parking lot to nowhere located across from Ecker Hill which is still undergoing “improvements” over tunnels seldom used going to the dozen or so cars parked there every day. Just up the hill at Summit Park, you can find a multi-million dollar bridge used by a couple dozen critters once in a while that UDOT said was the best way to prevent them from crossing the highway instead of high fences and cattle grids at a fraction of the cost. A better project would be painting lines on I-80 or funding law enforcement to issue citations for the hundreds of people who make dangerous and illegal left-hand turns at the junction which would reduce the number of accidents there. Maybe some of the money could go towards paying for snowplows to go through subdivisions enough to widen them beyond single lanes. It’s time for some adult supervision of this dangerous department before they do even more damage. John Adams Park City A physician assistant is not a doctor Editor: Having worked with physician assistants and nurse practitioners for over 30 years, I felt I needed to correct some misinformation in the article “‘The Providers’ focuses on clinic in New Mexico.” Armstrong is mistaken The Park Record Staff PUBLISHER ....................... Andy Bernhard Editor ................................... Bubba Brown Staff Writers ......................Jay Hamburger Scott Iwasaki Angelique McNaughton Ben Ramsey Carolyn Webber Alder Contributing ............................. Tom Clyde Writers Jay Meehan Teri Orr Amy Roberts Tom Kelly Joe Lair Copy Editor ............................ James Hoyt Engagement Editor..Christopher Samuels Photographer .........................Tanzi Propst Circulation Manager ............. Lacy Brundy Accounting Manager ......... Jennifer Snow ADVERTISING Advertising Director ........... Valerie Spung Advertising Sales ................... Jodi Hecker Erin Donnelly Lindsay Lane Sharon Bush Events Manager ................. Julie Bernhard Production Director ..................Ben Olson Production ........................Chelsea Babbitt when she states “a PA can do anything a doctor does. They go through the same in-line training.” In fact, a Medical Doctor (MD or DO) completes four years of undergraduate education, four more years of medical school, followed by three to 15 years of additional training, which encompasses internship (one year), residency (two to six years) and fellowship (one year or more). PA school can be entered usually after four years of undergraduate studies and is typically completed in 1 1/2 to two years. Some, but not all, elect to do a PA residency, usually one two two years; PAs in fact can and do specialize in surgical care, orthopedics, emergency, etc. In addition, PAs require supervision by a physician, which may entail direct supervision or simply cosigning orders and charts after reviewing the patient’s evaluation by the PA. Don’t get me wrong: I have the utmost respect for the PAs with whom I have worked and currently work. During my emergency residency at L.A. County-USC Medical Center, I was taught the finer techniques of suturing and placing chest tubes by PAs who had been medics in the Vietnam War; I continue to learn from the emergency residency trained PAs with whom I currently work. But for students considering medicine as a career or people considering a mid-life career change and don’t want to put in 10-15 years of training, becoming a PA might be a terrific pathway, because, no, it’s not “the same in-line training as a physician.” Mary Kaye Ashkenaze, M.D. Laguna Niguel, California Circus of indignation Editor: This past week has been an amusing mix of indignation, embarrassment, offense, denial of intent and lame explanations. Lucy: Obviously you were uncomfortable with the whole neck rubbing, hair sniffing and hair kissing affair. I understand that you might not want to make a scene on stage at a hi-viz political event. But did you say anything directly to Uncle Joe immediately afterwards? Did you tell him that it made you very uncomfortable and pleasedon’t-ever-do-that-to-me-again? You want to be a public figure, but don’t have the gumption to confront someone directly when you are offended? And then you wait several years before going on TV to be offended? You damage the reputation of women everywhere as strong, capable leaders of organizations! Joe: Let’s face it, you are a semidirty old man. I realize that Nancy Pelosi says that you’re an “affectionate person,” “times have changed,” and her “grandchildren love you.” You’ve continued this touchy-feely behavior your entire life. Has no one ever called you out on it? Did your political antennae never tell you that some people are uneasy with and do not appreciate this conduct? Time for another apology tour, Joe. Confess the sins of your past (Anita Hill), and maintain that you’ve seen the light and won’t ever do it again. News Media: Thanks for another circus of indignation and moralizing. Skip over the suspicious timing of the allegations, lame explanations and endless moralizing of politicians and talking heads. Spend more time on issues of importance to our country. Then again, maybe this whole affair is a cleverly disguised attempt to cull an old white guy from the bus-load of presidential candidates. (But that would be age bias, gender bias, and sex discrimination...) Ken Miller Park City hat is the future of Kimball Junction? That’s a question a committee made up of community members attempted to answer as it spent a year and a half crafting a comprehensive plan meant to serve as a guiding document for development and redevelopment in the area. Given the importance of Kimball Junction, everyone in the Park City area has a stake in the answer. That’s why residents need to pay close attention as the process enters a critical phase. On April 10, the Summit County Council will examine the draft of the plan for the first time, kicking off what is expected to be a months-long series of discussions, after the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission gave it a stamp of approval in February. While transforming Kimball Junction, with its scattershot layout spanning both sides of S.R. 224, into a cohesive neighborhood won’t be easy, the committee’s blueprint offers a number of exciting ideas. The overarching theme is to make Kimball Junction more vibrant and appealing by mixing commercial and residential development with public gathering areas and weaving it all together with pedestrian and bike pathways. One of the most intriguing elements of the plan, for example, specifies that future development should be guided by a pedestrian-first philosophy. Developers would be tasked with outlining how they would accommodate that objective and how their projects would fit in with surrounding developments and the transportation infrastructure. Likewise, owners of existing properties would be encouraged to make the area more walkable by adding amenities like benches and missing sidewalk links. Centralized parking facilities, meanwhile, would be located near developments that generate a lot of vehicle traffic, providing easy access for cars and allowing patrons to park and reach other areas in the neighborhood by foot or bike. Another critical component of the plan, adding more housing at a variety of price points, would go a long way toward both making Kimball Junction active during all hours of the day and giving it the feel of a distinct community rather than a collection of retail developments. Certainly, fixing the problems stemming from the current haphazard development footprint will take years. And the plan is unlikely to please everybody, given its scope and the variety of interests it must juggle. But the solutions the committee detailed represent a significant leap forward. It is now up to residents to let the County Council know what they like and don’t like about the plan so the elected officials can polish it in the coming months and, hopefully, usher in a bright future for Kimball Junction. To view the draft of the Kimball Junction Master Plan, visit summitcounty.org and click on the plan in the “Spotlight” section. perspectiVe Turning off the light won’t save the world after all. Nonetheless, the idea is profound. PAUL ANDERSEN Aspen Times Detractors, skeptics, cynics, naysayers, you need not put it down. Turning off the lights for an hour last week did not save the world. Then again ... An ambitious initiative took place Saturday. The idea was simple yet profound. Acting together, each of us was asked to draw attention to the global environment by switching off our lights March 30 at 8:30 in whatever time zone we live in. I was bike touring in Death Valley during Earth Hour, where there were no human lights, so I didn’t get to see what organizers are calling the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment. Started as a symbolic lights out event in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour today inspires millions of people to be conscious of the biosphere. While most of us didn’t witness the results as a swath of night sweeping across the globe, the idea is imaginative. The best view would have been from a space station orbiting in sync with the darkening of the globe, but those seats are rather exclusive. Earth Hour may sound a little “woo-woo,” but there is a hopeful, kumbaya kind of appeal to a collective act of humanity that cost nothing. “Every year millions of people, businesses and landmarks set aside an hour to host events, switch off their lights and make noise for the Earth Hour movement. This year, we want to celebrate the diversity of life on Earth.” This innocent request for environmental awareness had no hard edge, no ax to grind, no vindication or name calling. The idea was to throw a global party and invite everyone who cares enough to make it an event by simply turning off their lights. Those who took part hosted candle-lit dinners, went stargazing, or simply switched off their lights for an hour in an act of solidarity for the planet. This feel-good approach is open to cynicism, but what else is there to do in the face of a pending global calamity? If this feels like a youthful endeavor, it most likely is. It is the youth of our world who are claiming the high moral ground by making noise about environmental awareness. It is the youth of the world who are brassy enough to assume a moral stance and ask something unifying of each of us. “We love this planet and everything that lives upon it. Join us and, together, let’s spark never-before-had conversations on nature and the unique diversity of life we share our home with!” Increasing global consciousness is an evolutionary trend toward environmentally friendly laws and policies, and even crowdfunding for a better future. As organizers stated, “Earth Hour’s greatest strength is the power of people.” Earth Hour could have been hatched when I was young, when the peace movement, civil rights, Earth Day and a rising social and ecological consciousness were cool and hip, hopeful and idealistic. There was power in that kind of movement, a power that most of my generation later abandoned to the pursuit of career advancement and the unprecedented consumerism that is the source of climate change. “Most of the resources we use come from the environment. That’s why we have to do our part to protect the world around us. People are just one part of Earth’s vast web of life. Let’s get back in touch with our roots and nurture nature by helping to conserve wildlife and their habitats.” How else can a global issue like climate change generate a buzz without a universal, concerted gesture that says we care enough to turn off our lights for an hour in honor of the Earth? There’s humility in that and a benign sense of engaged activism. And, who knows ... when the lights went out and it was dark enough to see the stars, there might have been an opportunity to glimpse the space station and see if they had their lights out. Even in Death Valley, I turned off my headlamp and watched the stars turn. There’s nothing like gazing at the starry heavens to shed light on the challenges we face on good old planet Earth. Paul Andersen is a columnist for The Aspen Times, a Park Record sister paper based in Aspen, Colorado. The Park record Pulse Here’s a sampling of the conversation readers are having on our Facebook page. To visit the page, go to Facebook.com/parkrecord/. Yes, all over. I thought I lived in a real ski town, but apparently not. … Where I grew up in Oregon and at Squaw / Mammoth, they turn at least one lift until there’s no snow left. The closing of a hill when there is still snow on the ground is contrary to my upbringing! It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the concept that a hill with so much ski history, home of the US Ski Team, tons of park talent, etc., throws in the towel so early, lol. So I’ll hit the Bird, Squaw, and Mammoth and am looking forward to it. Let’s hike, too.” Ever consider that folks who work at our resorts might have made plans based on announced closing dates and that staffing would be a challenge for a last minute extension? Or that most folks who would ski extended days would be on season passes and thus the economics don’t work? Such a sense of entitlement ... ugh.” Ted Forbes, on “For the Record: Are you planning on skiing after the Park City resorts close?” David DuBois, on “For the Record: Are you planning on skiing after the Park City resorts close?” Yea so happy !! Would break my heart to have to drive by it everyday and see houses. You all worked so hard. Glad to be part of this one!” Margie Frontz Yapp, on “Summit Land Conservancy secures easement for Osguthorpe Farm in Basin” Are bobcats not permitted to carry rabbits in Park City? Sounds like an ordinance crafted by someone who also writes state liquor control laws.” Jeff Wooster, on “Park City police investigate sighting of bobcat carrying off rabbit” The Park Record attained permission to publish these comments. |