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Show A-10 Wed/Thurs/Fri, April 22-24, 2020 The Park Record Meetings and agendas Red CaRd RobeRts TO PUBLISH YOUR PUBLIC NOTICES AND AGENDAS, PLEASE EMAIL CLASSIFIEDS@PARKRECORD.COM By Amy Roberts Oh, that’s rich AGENDA SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL Wednesday, April 22, 2020 NOTICE is hereby given that the Summit County Council will meet electronically, via Zoom, on Wednesday, April 22, 2020, at the anchor location 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) To view Council meeting, live, visit the “Summit County, Utah” Facebook page 2:25 p.m. OR To participate in Council meeting: Join Zoom webinar: https://zoom.us/j/772302472 OR To listen by phone only: Dial 1-301-715-8592, Webinar ID: 772 302 472 1:20 PM Closed Session - Personnel (10 min); Security (45 min) 2:15 PM - Council Members log into Zoom meeting 2:25 PM Work Session 1) Pledge of Allegiance 2) 2:30 PM - Legislative update; Jami Brackin (30 min) 3) 3:00 PM - Discussion regarding County Stabilization Phase Working Group and community requests; Janna Young and Rich Bullough (20 min) 3:20 PM Convene as the Board of Equalization 1) Discussion and possible approval of Property Tax Exemption Request by Great Salt Lake Council - Boy Scouts of America; Michael Howard (20 min) Dismiss as the Board of Equalization 3:40 PM Convene as the Governing Board of Mountain Regional Water Special Service District 1) Discussion and possible approval of the Mountain Regional Water Special Service District’s COVID-19 Leave Policy in response to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act; Lisa Hoffman (15 min) Dismiss as the Governing Board of Mountain Regional Water Special Service District 3:55 PM Consideration of Approval 1) Discussion and possible amendment to Summit County Employee Chart of Positions - Assessor’s Office; Brian Bellamy and Stephanie Larsen (15 min) 2) 4:10 PM - Council Minutes dated March 26, 2020, March 27, 2020, March 30, 2020, April 1, 2020, April 7, 2020, and April 8, 2020 3) 4:15 PM - Council Comments 4) 4:30 PM - Manager Comments 4:45 PM Work Session, continued 1) Continued review of County curbside collection alternatives; Tim Loveday, Derrick Radke (45 min) 2) 5:30 PM - Continued discussion regarding 2020 Budget Amendments, to reduce expenditures in the County operating budget in response to updated revenue estimates due the COVID-19 Emergency; Matt Leavitt (30 min) 6:00 PM Public Input If you would like to submit comments to Council, please email publiccomments@summitcounty.org by 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22nd. If you wish to interact with Council at 6:00 p.m., please follow the “Public Comment Instructions”. Members of the County Council, presenters, and members of public, may attend by electronic means, using Zoom (phone or video). 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 Utah jobless numbers have broken records each week 106K have filed for benefits over the past month BRADY MCCOMBS Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — Unemployment slowed in Utah last week but jobless claims remained at historic levels as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the worldwide economy, state officials said Thursday. About 24,000 more people filed for unemployment benefits in Utah last week, bringing the four-week total to 106,000. That staggering figure easily surpassed yearly totals for each of the last five years when the state averaged about 73,000 claims a year, state figures show. The claims filed each of the past four weeks were more than any single week on record, including during the height of the Great Recession in 2009 when the high was about 5,000 in one week, said Kevin Burt, Utah Department of Workforce Services’ Unemployment Insurance Division director. Yet there are indications the worst may have passed in Utah. The total for the week that ended April 11 marked a 27% decrease from the week before. This current week is also trending down, Burt said. Utah’s woes mirror national trends. The U.S. government said 5.2 million more people applied for unemployment benefits last week. The four-week total of 22 million is easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record. The losses amount to about 1 in 7 workers. The state has paid out $26 million in benefits over the last four weeks, state figures show. An additional $6.4 million went out this week from the federal stimulus funds that provides an additional $600 a week to people. Utah is taking 21 to 30 days to process new claims, Burt said. Nearly 8 out of 10 claims came from five counties: Salt Lake, Utah, Weber, Davis and Washington, according to state figures. At the outset of the unemployment spike, about half of claims came from the food service industry. But since then, job losses have been spread across industries, Burt said. Last week, people in the office and administrative support industry and sales accounted for the largest percentage of claims, state figures show. Over the four-week period, the food service industry accounts for more claims than any other industry with 17% of the filings, figures show. The next-hardest hit industries are office and administrative support (12% of filings), sales Looking (10%), management occupations (9%), and personal care and service (8%). In other coronavirus-related developments: — Republican House Speaker Brad Wilson said during a special legislative session Thursday that lawmakers would be “creating framework and guidelines to start opening up our economy carefully, methodically, as quickly as possible and responsibly by the end of the month.” Utah state epidemiologist Angela Dunn called targeting end of April a “great goal” but said health officials will have to watch data points. “Hopefully we see a slowing of the growth over the next week or so followed by a decline in cases,” Dunn said. “Those are great signs that we can start looking into the slow reopening as long as we are vigilant about our data collection and testing.” Confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Utah have dropped since a peak in the first days of April. But the state still hasn’t seen a steady decline. The number of daily reported cases have been going up and down. Utah is working on a state-specific plan that should be released soon that would enable the state to safely reopen the economy in a staged approach that would allow state officials to loosen or tighten up restrictions based on data, Dunn said. Check our for a HELP WANTED JoB in ? section CLASSIFIEDS ! I have a dear friend who is British, and every time I speak with him, I feel like a peasant. It’s not because of what he says, but rather the way he says it. I’m not sure if an accent can be coiffed, but if it can, his is. It’s the most elaborately posh version of the Queen’s English I’ve ever heard. He could make a conversation about diarrhea sound uppity. He frequently uses typical British phrases. He’s “knackered” or I’m “cheeky.” Often, he will “fancy a cuppa” or deem something “utterly rubbish.” It’s nothing you wouldn’t hear listening to a podcast narrated by Ricky Gervais. But there’s one phrase my friend drops particularly often that always makes me feel like we’re having afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace. “Oh, that’s rich,” he’ll often say as an expression of ironic amusement. I have always wanted to casually drop “Oh, that’s rich” into a conversation, but the context has never been quite right. To use it correctly, you need to be referencing outrageously obvious hypocrisy of some sort, which can be difficult to find out in the open. Most people are at least marginally aware of their double standards. Otherwise they wouldn’t go to such great lengths to hide them from everyone else. But with last weekend’s demonstrations in states across the country, including one in Salt Lake City, where about 1,000 people gathered to protest stay-at-home orders they believe to be unconstitutional, well, now I finally get to use the phrase. And with gusto. The crowd’s general message was this: The government has no right to make decisions about my health care. Many protesters even carried signs that read “My Body, My Choice.” Oh, that’s rich. While no official poll was taken to assess the political affiliation of those in attendance, judging by the number of those donning MAGA apparel and waving yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, it’s a pretty fair bet most in the group subscribe to right-wing ideology. Which isn’t the issue. The issue lies in their suddenly very prochoice belief the government should not have a say in the personal decisions they make about their health. Many have claimed it’s their body and therefore their right to decide what they do with it. This argument sounds oddly familiar. It’s almost like women have been screaming something similar for decades. It’s almost like women have been screaming something similar for decades.” As for the very real possibility they could be a carrier and infect someone else who later dies from the disease, well, none of the protesters seemed too terribly concerned about that. In fact, many of the them seem to confuse a Google search with a medical degree, claiming they’ve “done the research” and only those with a weak immune system are likely to die. How very pro-life of them. Even more ironic, many of these protesters are the type of people who have spent the better part of their lives stockpiling guns, ammunition, and canned foods preparing for doomsday. They have written manifestos and own an assortment of military grade tactical gear. Yet the survivalists who claimed they were ready for Armageddon are the same people who stormed state capitals because they want to go to the Olive Garden. This was supposed to be their moment to shine, and they were the first to crack. Indeed, that’s rich. I’m aware there is no shortage of real, irreversible damage being done by keeping things locked down. For every new case of COVID-19 that is prevented by a quarantine, there’s a tangible cost on the other side: A job lost, an isolation suicide, an addict who will relapse. Right now, many of us are trying to figure out what is the least-worst option. I don’t know what it is, but I am pretty confident it is not spending 30 minutes on the Internet and deciding you’re basically an epidemiologist now. 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. WRiteRs on the Range By Jerry Brady Pandemic shows Idaho’s split personality Some say there are two states of Idaho. It’s true that the Gem State divides by mountains, desert and a time zone; it’s also true that it’s split by radically different political temperaments. On the one hand there’s the spirit of cooperation and belief that government can help, on the other there’s outright contempt for anything governmental. And though other Western states also exhibit this mostly urban-rural split, Idaho’s extremes can seem extreme indeed. In the state capitol of Boise, population 225,000, where I live, signs of a positive response to fighting the Corvid-19 pandemic are everywhere, with American flags flying on some streets to show this is a time for patriotism. After Gov. Brad Little stepped up on March 25 to close non-essential businesses and order Idahoans to “stay at home as best you can,” helping-out initiatives have been so numerous in Boise that our two local newspapers (yes, we have two!) can’t document them all. Consider just one: Residents began sewing protective masks well before the recent recommendation by the Center for Disease Control. Boise’s mask-making campaign enlisted 1,300 participants in 13 days, and one woman alone cuts out 800 cloth masks a day for others to add strings. The initiative expects to provide 10,000 masks to clinics, hospitals and retirement homes. In Idaho Falls, population 62,000, a group called the Sewing Sisters is filling a request for 4,000 masks from nursing homes and other care centers. The 200-person Idaho Falls Chinese Community raised $9,500 to buy masks from around the world for hospitals. Under Little’s order, construction continues full-tilt in this fast-growing state. The hospitality industry has slowed to a crawl, though we still can buy takeout cocktails at local bars, yet enough of us are working from home that it appears the governor’s order has been mostly followed, at least in southern Idaho. In more rural, northern Idaho, where about a quarter of Idahoans live, it’s a different world. Mary Sousa, a state legislator from Coeur d’Alene, told the Idaho Statesman that not a single constituent has spoken to her in support of the governor’s order. Tim Remington, another Recovery will be largely dependent on the federal government, and that will be a bitter pill to swallow for the disaffected government-haters of this state.” Coeur d’Alene legislator and a pastor, defied the governor’s order by holding in-person church services. In nearby Bonner County, Sheriff Daryl Wheeler not only supports mass church services, but, in a letter to the governor declared it was also “unconstitutional” for him to prohibit healthy people from going to work. Not surprisingly, Ammon Bundy, the rancher who organized the occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge four years ago, defied the governor by holding a rally in Emmett, Idaho, on Easter Sunday for about 100 people. He said people needed to challenge government orders that infringed on constitutional rights: “We want to be with each other,” We thrive on that. It’s part of our life. It’s part of liberty,” reported the New York Times. Moreover, Northern Idaho is the center of what’s called the Redoubt Movement. This movement of well-armed survivalists imagines a future in which adherents from eastern Washington and eastern Oregon, along with partisans from western Montana and western Wyoming, will join with Idaho in self-defense when society inevitably disintegrates. During this pandemic, Redoubt advocates have purchased ever more arms and ammo, saying they need to be prepared to fight outsiders coming for their food and land. Meanwhile, this year’s session of the Idaho Legislature appropriated $2 million for virus testing but otherwise paid little attention to the pandemic. It did, however, prevent transgender persons from changing their sex on a birth certificate, authorize concealed carry of weapons for non-residents, and came close to defunding public television. At issue was the children’s cartoon Clifford the Dog, which apparently offended because the dog visited a lesbian couple. North Idaho’s extremists have many friends in the state Legislature. Yet here in Boise there is a “school’s out” quality to these radiant spring days, though hard times lie ahead: This is a state that ranks near the bottom in most categories of education and social wellbeing, and where about a third are renters living paycheck to paycheck -- and now without paychecks. Recovery will be largely dependent on the federal government, and that will be a bitter pill to swallow for the disaffected government-haters of this state. Like it or not, we are all in this together, and most of us want to help each other, not run away or stockpile more guns. Jerry Brady is a contributor to Writers on the Range.org, a nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He published the Idaho Falls Post Register for 25 years. |