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Show C-1 B-1 FOLLIES’ FUNNY COMES TO A VIRTUAL STAGE NONPROFIT WAITS TO GET OUT AND PLAY COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD Despite restrictions caused by COVID-19, many businesses are still providing goods and services. Head to bit.ly/prbulletin for information about open businesses. COLUMNS, A-10 UNCERTAIN FUTURE, A-8 PC TOTS ESSENTIAL BUT CLOSED NONETHELESS AMY ROBERTS SEES A RICH IRONY IN PROTESTS 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 Wed/Thurs/Fri, April 22-24, 2020 Serving Summit County since 1880 Vol. 140 | No. 23 $1.00 Plan to guide Main Street’s return crafted Business group details timeline that calls for 3-phase recovery over the course of many months JAY HAMBURGER The Park Record Alex Meza, an employee at The Market at Park City, restocks bananas in the produce section during his shift. T he majority of Summit County residents have been confined to their homes for the better part of a month, apart from trips for necessities like food or seeking fresh air in the outdoors, as part of the effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Still others wake up each day, get dressed and carry on in roles that have been deemed vital, even as life has grinded to a halt for most people. Their duties range from protecting neighborhoods to replenishing grocery store shelves to providing health care to delivering mail — and the list goes on. They are doing their part, while in many cases risking their own safety, to keep the community functioning during a crisis with no modern equivalent. They are Summit County’s essential workers. For more, see page A-6. Emily Burney, owner and operator of Auntie Em’s Baked Goods, carries a freshly baked pie and cookies to a curbside-pickup customer. ALL PHOTOS: TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Dustin Lewis, left, and Tony Piscitelli, Grade 4 operators with the Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District, service sewer lines using high-pressure cleaning tools. Emily Burney, left, and Stacee Johnson package baked pies and cookies while taking calls for curbside-pickup orders. Oscar Salinas, a transit dispatcher, helps keep the buses of Park City moving, snow or shine. Latinos confront pandemic’s fallout They are disproportionately hit by virus’ economic and health effects, officials say ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record Many Summit County residents might be marking May 16 on their calendars, the day after Gov. Gary Herbert’s moratorium on evictions is set to expire and, for some, the day that thousands of dollars in rent bills might jeopardize the roof over their heads. The governor’s April 1 order forbade landlords from evicting tenants for a time, but it did not forgive rent payments. And some people among the county’s most vulnerable populations who rely on service-industry work to pay their bills, and who haven’t seen a paycheck since March, might be facing three months of rent payments. The Park City community has come together to help vulnerable populations, stocking food pantries, bolstering basic needs assistance and donating more than $1 million 2 sections • 22 pages Classifieds .............................. B-8 Editorial................................ A-11 Weather .................................. B-2 in a month to a response fund created by the Park City Community Foundation. But the impacts of the pandemic have hit the Latino community disproportionately hard, both financially and physically, community leaders say. The support services are taxed to their limits and last week, three multi-unit apartment complexes that many in the Latino community call home were labeled hot spots for COVID-19. Enrique Sanchez grew up in Park City and is a community specialist for the city government. He said the financial impacts of the pandemic have been particularly challenging for the area’s Latino community. “Basically, more Hispanics have lost their jobs, or had a pay cut, which is affecting them hugely due to, in part, that they have jobs that are more service driven, service-industry driven,” Sanchez said. “They don’t have that luxury of working from home because there really is no way to work from home for those jobs.” He said the economic shutdown has hit his family, as well, with his dad out of work after the restaurant where he works closed down. Support services have been helpful in pro- viding health care, information and food, Sanchez said, but rent remains one of the biggest worries for many residents. “I think what I’ve seen would probably be that rent is at the top of their list,” he said. “If you can definitely provide food for your family, without a roof over your head, that’s where more of a problem would begin.” Local elected officials have indicated they’d like to address the issue but have limited legal authority to do so. County Councilors have pursued meetings with local landlords to try to influence them to cut renters some slack. The elected officials have acknowledged that landlords face financial pressures, as well. An online petition started by a young Parkite that asks Park City landlords to lower or postpone rent has gathered more than 1,000 signatures since March. The Latino community’s disproportionate representation in service industry jobs might have health effects, as well, said Beth Armstrong, executive director of the People’s Health Clinic, which serves people who do not have health insurance. Please see Latinos, A-8 The group that represents the interests of businesses in the Main Street core has drafted a plan to guide the recovery from the economic impacts of the novel coronavirus, outlining a months-long blueprint designed to reignite the shopping, dining and entertainment strip after what has been a deep downturn on the street. The Historic Park City Alliance distributed the plan as an important Tuesday meeting of the organization approached. The plan is broken into urgent, stabilization and recovery phases and lists a series of steps for each of the phases. The district is currently in the urgent phase, calling for innovative ways to conduct business and ensuring safety measures are incorporated into public-relations efforts. The urgent phase is expected to last for up to 12 weeks dating to mid-March. The stabilization phase is projected to last between 10 weeks and 14 weeks, starting once health officials lift the stay-at-home order. The phase is perhaps the most crucial of the three as it is the period when Main Street would effectively reopen for business. It will be a critical step that will have broad ramifications as there will be a better understanding at that point whether the impacts of the illness on business will extend into the summer. The Historic Park City Alliance in the stabilization phase wants to attract more pedestrians to Main Street with messages promoting locally owned businesses and small businesses. The organization wants to launch a marketing campaign, including noting the sanitization practices. The stabilization phase steps include coordinating three days a week that businesses with the ability to operate are open. The plan calls the three days “Vibrancy Days.” It also calls for installing more sanitization stations, encouraging flower planting by businesses and increasing the number of restroom signs. The Historic Park City Alliance wants City Hall to eliminate parking charges as part of the stabilization phase, saying in the plan “customer traffic to Main Street will be reduced and many shoppers will be budget conscious.” The recovery phase, with a timeline of between eight weeks and 10 weeks, is designed to stress the importance of small businesses with continued marketing. The target audience includes the Park City area, the Wasatch Front, people who own vacation homes in Park City and markets within driving distance. The recovery phase blueprint includes more “Vibrancy Days” and a focus on promoting businesses rather than special events. The idea to promote businesses rather than special events is an intriguing inclusion for a commercial district that is typically seen as benefiting greatly from the large event crowds. The plan offers an explanation indicating it wants events scheduled annually to take place if possible. “However, the HPCA is not supportive of adding additional events to the calendar. Many events include third party vendors selling wares and food. The HPCA would like all efforts to be placed on utilization of existing businesses to provide services for special events,” the plan says. Please see Main Street, A-2 TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD There has been little traffic on Main Street since businesses were temporarily shuttered in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The group that represents businesses in the Main Street core has drafted a plan to guide the recovery. CORONAVIRUS TRACKER Summit County Utah Known cases: 335 Hospitalizations: 31; Deaths: 0 Known cases: 3,296 Hospitalizations: 277; Deaths: 32 DATA AS OF APRIL 21, SOURCE: UTAH DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH |