OCR Text |
Show A-2 The Park Record The Park Record. Serving Summit County since 1880 The Park Record, Park City’s No. 1 source for local news, opinion and advertising, is available for home delivery in Summit, Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis and Utah counties. Single copies are also available at 116 locations throughout Park City, Heber City, Summit County and Salt Lake City. SUBSCRIPTION RATES In Summit County (home delivery): $56 per year (includes Sunday editions of The Salt Lake Tribune) Outside Summit County (home delivery available in Wasatch, Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Utah counties; all other addresses will be mailed via the U.S. Postal Service): $80 per year To subscribe please call 435–649– 9014 or visit www.parkrecord.com and click the Subscribe link in the Reader Tools section of the toolbar at the bottom of the page. To report a missing paper, please call 801–204–6100. Same-day redelivery is possible if you call during the following hours: * Weekdays: 6:30–8 a.m. * Saturday: 7–8 a.m. * Sunday: 7–10:30 a.m. To request a vacation hold or change of address, please call 435–649–9014 or email: circulation@parkrecord.com THE NEWSROOM To contact the newsroom, please call 435–649–9014 or email editor@parkrecord.com For display advertising, please call a sales representative at 435–649– 9014 or email val@parkrecord.com To place a classified ad, please call 435–649–9014 or email classads@parkrecord.com For questions about your bill, please call 435–649–9014 or email accounts@parkrecord.com The Park Record online is available at www.parkrecord.com and contains all of the news and feature stories in the latest edition plus breaking news updates. The Record’s website also hosts interactive entertainment, restaurant and lodging listings and multimedia features. Contents of The Park Record are Copyrighted 2015, Wasatch Mountain News Media Co. All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written consent of the managing editor or publisher. The Park Record (USPS 378-730) (ISSN 0745-9483) is published twice weekly by Wasatch Mountain News Media Co., 1670 Bonanza Drive, Park City, UT 84060. Periodicals postage paid at Salt Lake City, Utah, 84199-9655 and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Park Record, P.O. Box 3688, Park City, UT84060. Entered as second-class matter, May 25, 1977, at the Post Office in Park City, Utah, 84060 under the Act of March 3, 1897. Subscription rates are: $56 within Summit county, $80 outside of Summit County, Utah. Subscriptions are transferable: $5 cancellation fee. Phone: 435–649–9014 Fax: 435–649–4942 Email: circulation@parkrecord.com Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, June 20-23, 2020 District slashes budget despite pushback Issue could be revisited after expected cuts from state didn’t materialize ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record The state Legislature on Thursday, two days after a sometimes contentious Park City Board of Education meeting at which the board slashed more than $3 million from next year’s budget, backed down from a potential 10% cut in state aid due to the coronavirus pandemic and instead increased funding for the state’s school districts. Todd Hauber, Park City School District’s business administrator, said it appears the state portion of the district’s budget will stay roughly the same as in the 2019-20 fiscal year, and because of growth in property tax revenues, the district will actually have about $1.3 million more in revenue to spend. The Board of Education meeting Tuesday occurred after the elected officials in a recent letter froze salaries next school year due to expected state funding cuts and stopped contract negotiations with the Park City Education Association, the union representing teachers, to replace the current one expiring at the end of the month. District employees can, and have at times, worked without a contract in place, and would continue to get paid, but many questions remain about how that would work. The meeting remained cordial, but both the union and board expressed their views with conviction. It took place before the Legislature convened its special session Thursday morning, but after the session had been called. Board President Andrew Caplan said at the meeting that cuts to the district’s funding were a near certainty and has said that the board halted the negotiations because it would be unable to give teachers a raise. “Asking or demanding a raise right now is just not appropriate,” Caplan said at the meeting. “... We need to be all on the same page, and it’s not helpful to try to create this divisive narrative because there are no two sides, there’s one side — it’s for education. As soon as we can pay more, we will. It’s not that we’re tax hawks and we don’t want to pay. ... This is not a school board decision, this is the result of state action.” Park City Education Association leaders have expressed frustration with the board’s actions and offered two main complaints at the meeting. They said the lack of a raise amounts to a pay cut because of previous promises and increases in the cost of living, and that the contract negotiations had been unilaterally suspended in defiance of the current collectively bargained agreement. Before the meeting, representatives from the teacher’s union asked the board to wait to approve the budget until guidance from the Legislature about state funding was clear. Julie Hooker, co-president of the Park City Education Association, said her group wanted a seat at the table after the special session. “There were some real hurt feelings,” Hooker said at the meeting of the negotiations being suspended. “... We just want to be part of the solution.” Jen Bramson, another union representative, said there were many questions about how to operate without a contract in place. She said the current contract included multiple pay raises and wondered whether those would be carried over to the next school year. She also pushed back against the board’s suspension of contract negotiations. In a letter to the board, union representatives requested the resumption of talks after the state concluded its special session. Caplan said at the meeting he was open to that idea. In an email to The Park Record, he indicated that, depending on what the Legislature passed, the board would look to continue negotiations. On Tuesday, the board passed a preliminary budget that included the worstcase scenario, 10% cuts from the state, totaling about $3.1 million. That budget now will likely be revisited in light of lawmakers’ funding decisions, but the board isn’t scheduled to meet until Continued from A-1 business in the summer and early fall. Park City leaders and tourism officials are also worried about the ski season, far more lucrative than the summer. They want to guard against further spread of the sickness locally in the months before the traditional November start to the ski season in a bid to ensure winter tourism is not further jeopardized. It would be difficult to correlate the mask-wearing numbers at the Main Street pedestrian zone on the first day to any sort of tourism trend, but Park City’s elected officials quickly became concerned with what was seen on Sunday. Mayor Andy Beerman and the Park City Council on Thursday briefly addressed the Main Street pedestrian zone, focusing their comments on mask wearing, but they were not scheduled to hold a detailed discussion or make decisions. It was a quick response to concerns about the scene at the pedestrian zone and more talks could be held later. Park City Manager Matt Dias said City Hall staffers this Sunday will distribute masks to those without them and will post additional signs, and larger ones, regarding protective measures. Becca Gerber, a city councilor, spoke extensively about the Main Street pedestrian zone on Thursday, indicating there was discomfort expressed with the small number of people wearing masks while she was there on Sunday. Gerber claimed most of the people without masks were not from the Park City area. “I did notice that most of our workforce ... I’ll just say all the workforce, all the locals that I ran into on the street, were wearing masks, and none of the visitors were,” Gerber said. Gerber also said some Park City visitors have been “treating our workforce poorly when they are wearing masks” and there has been conflict. “We’re going out of our way to protect each other and to protect others, and I don’t feel like the people that are coming to our community are trying to protect us. And I think that it is causing some fear and making people uncomfortable, making our locals uncomfortable,” Gerber said. Other elected officials also expressed concern. City Councilor Tim Henney said he saw Park City people without masks on Main Street on Sunday while Max Doilney, another city councilor, said he has seen many without masks at various other places in the Park City area, including businesses. He said he is “fearful for our future considering the behavior of people who are visiting.” “We paid a heavy price and now everybody wants to come here, and I’m happy to have them. But if there were anything we could do as a government to force people to wear masks, I would be in favor of it at this point because, quite frankly, people aren’t doing it out of the kindness of their heart,” Doilney said. would be calm.” She and Brey both said they don’t try to scare people with the seriousness of the disease and try to work with people rather than make demands they can’t meet. They’ll ask to make sure the patients have enough food to stay home for an extended period of time, for example, and if there isn’t, work with them to find solutions. If the patient can’t isolate from their family, Brey and Hurt might suggest wearing a mask. “I find that if I can show compassion for the situation they’re in and for what public health is asking them, that goes a lot further than scare tactics or coming down with an iron fist,” Hurt said. “Most of the time the compassion works.” Both contact tracers said they don’t react well when they’re out in a public place like a grocery store and see people without masks, characterizing wearing a mask as a move to protect others. Brey said she’s glad to be part of such a widespread effort to combat the illness. “I think I will miss (contact tracing) a little bit,” she said. “In some ways, we’re all facing this challenge together and nobody’s left out of that, and being part of that and feeling like I was helping with something that was so universal was a neat experience.” Masks are oh-so-April The Park Record conducted three walk-throughs on Sunday covering the length of the pedestrian zone at different times of the day, finding approximately one out of every five people, or just more than 20% of the attendees, wore masks while they were on Main Street itself or on the sidewalk. Mask wearing appeared to be more widespread inside businesses, but, outside, someone could walk for several blocks at many points and see only a scattering of masked people. Health experts since the start of the spread of the disease have urged people to wear masks as one of the key protective steps. But masks have been politicized as the nation wearies of protective measures and longs for a return of some sort of normalcy. In Park City, meanwhile, leaders are urging people to continue to wear masks. They say the spread of the coronavirus remains a threat even as the community and the state reopen after the shutdowns in the spring and early summer. The coronavirus worries and the economic convulsions caused by the sickness struck hardest to this point in the spring and early summer, normally a slow stretch in Park City’s tourism-dependent economy. Summer business in Park City is expected to drop sharply as a result of traveler concerns about the coronavirus and the cancellations of a string of special events. The Main Street pedestrian zone that debuted on Sunday is one of the steps designed to boost Continued from A-1 Contact tracers Published every Wednesday and Saturday mid-August, after its summer break. Hauber said it would be helpful to have an amended budget in place before the school year starts to allow the district to re-implement programs that were cut or reduced in the budget adopted Tuesday and allow the district to hire staff if necessary. Part of the cost-cutting measures included not hiring positions that come open naturally, like if a staff member retires. New growth in the area has netted the school district about $1.3 million more in revenue for the upcoming fiscal year compared to last year. That money was initially earmarked for a raise for the district’s employees, but that plan was nixed after state leaders told school districts to prepare for cuts in state aid of 2%, 5% or up to 10% — cuts that ultimately did not materialize. In March, the Legislature approved a 6% increase in per-pupil aid to school districts. The bill passed Thursday includes instead a 1.8% increase. Before the special session, Hauber said there would be room to have negotiations about how to spend the increased tax revenue if state funding was not cut. “If the Legislature did nothing — didn’t give us 6%, didn’t cut — we’d have money to have a compensation conversation, which is where we were up until last week,” Hauber said. JAY HAMBURGER/PARK RECORD City Hall wants people in the Main Street pedestrian zone on Sundays to wear masks in an effort to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, posting a sandwich-board sign featuring a masked “Franz the Bear” sculpture advertising the message. Park City leaders on Thursday expressed concern about the low number of people wearing masks in the pedestrian zone. 2025 Canyons Resort Drive #B8 Red Pine Condos Convenient Banking Stop by or use our online banking or mobile app. Bank the way that’s best for you. 2 B D | 2 B A | PAT I O | O F F E R E D AT $ 4 8 5 , 0 0 0 SCOTT RABIN Realtor® 435.659.1099 Scott@UtahRabin.com UtahRabin.com Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed accurate. Buyer to verify all information. People Banking With People Bank with the Local, Experienced People You Can Trust grandvalleybank.com 1225 Deer Valley Dr. 435-615-2265 |