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Show B-1 INSIDE THIS EDITION! With autumn on the horizon in Park City, check out our latest Home magazine to learn how to give your place a fall fix-up THERE’S FUNNY BUSINESS IN THE MEMOIR OF THE MAN WHO FOUNDED COMEDY CENTRAL REAL ESTATE & MOUNTA 2020 IN LIFESTYLES | FALL DECORATING IDEAS TO BOOST YOUR HAPPINESS – LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, A-13 COLUMNS, A-12 CHANGES, AND NOT FOR THE BETTER TIP A CAP TO TRADITION ART SMARTS FOR EVERY BUDGE T – Park Record. GET A HEALTHIER HOME IN AN INSTANT Time to give your home a hug The PA R K C I T Y, U TA H Park City voters set to help decide who will succeed Rob Bishop JAY HAMBURGER The Park Record Many voters in Park City and surrounding Summit County are readying to pick either President Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden for the White House. But the voters also have a decision to make regarding who will serve in the Capitol. The 1st Congressional District seat is on the ballot in November. The district covers a wide swath of northern Utah and includes the entirety of Summit County. The incumbent, longtime Republican Rep. Rob Bishop, is retiring, leaving the seat open. Republican Blake Moore and Democrat Darren Parry emerged from the nominating contests and will appear on the ballot in November. The 1st Congressional District is heavily Republican, and Moore is seen as the overwhelming favorite to win the seat. Bishop won by wide margins as he repeatedly was reelected. Moore is from Salt Lake City and is a management consultant. He has said the top issue for the campaign is economic recovery. Moore has also said his background provides the experience needed to address issues like balancing a budget and spurring economic growth. He has said the top issue for Park City and Summit County is economic recovery as well. He has said the focus should be on the tourism and hospitality industries. Parry is from Providence and works in business development for the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. He has said the top campaign issue is the environment, arguing that the planet is struggling with air pollution and other environmental problems. He has also said the top campaign issue for Park City and Summit County is the environment, especially in the context of public lands policies. Moore was the top finisher in Summit County in the June primary election, easily beating the Republican field in the countywide totals. Parry, though, narrowly lost Summit County in the primary but won elsewhere in the district to take the nomination. Summit County is one of the reliably Democratic places in the state, and the Democratic nominees in the 1st Congressional District over the years have enjoyed some of their best results in the county. Summit County, though, accounts for just a small percentage of the overall votes in the 1st Congressional District, which encompasses the population centers of northern Utah like Ogden. Although Summit County may again back the Democratic nominee, it is expected the Republican on the ballot will enjoy strong showings elsewhere on the way to a win on Election Day. It is not clear whether there will be politicking in Park City or Summit County this year as the candidates campaign amid the continued spread of the novel coronavirus. The 1st Congressional District candidates traditionally spend much more time in northern Utah than in Summit County. The candidates are expected to press a range of issues. The coronavirus and the economic havoc it has caused will be especially important to the campaign as the two nominees outline plans to stop the sickness and restart the economy in the district. They will also address issues that are standards W W W. PA R K R E C O R D . C O M Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, September 12-15, 2020 Serving Summit County since 1880 Congress seat is up for grabs | Classifieds .............................. B-6 Editorial................................ A-13 Restaurant Guide.................... B-7 Weather .................................. B-2 Vol. 140 | No. 64 $1.00 Hideout initiates new annexation Action is likely to draw another legal challenge from Summit County ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record Hideout began a new process on Thursday night to annex hundreds of acres in Summit County, attempting to take advantage of a tight window before a state repeal goes into effect and such annexations are once again illegal. Its previous attempt, which took officials from neighboring jurisdictions by surprise when it was begun in July, is currently barred by court order resulting from a lawsuit from Summit County, and the county has indicated it would sue to stop this attempt, as well. Hideout Town Councilors Jerry Dwinell, Chris Baier and Bob Nadelberg voted to support a new, pared-down an- nexation that covers 350 acres in Richardson Flat. Councilor Carol Haselton opposed the move. The new annexation straddles Richardson Flat Road and extends about a mile south, just west of the hillside separating Park’s Edge and S.R. 248 from the rolling hills and rangeland of Richardson Flat. The town has been working with developer Nate Brockbank on the project and, if it is successfully annexed into Hideout, Brockbank proposes building a mixed-use development with commercial and residential components. The original annexation covered 650 acres, and Brockbank said he had removed acreage included in the original annexation that is or could become subject to legal challenges. Thursday’s vote was the latest twist in a controversy that has involved multiple lawsuits, accusations of wrongdoing and recriminations from elected officials and questions of misrepresentation on Please see Annexation, A-2 MAP DATA COURTESY OF GOOGLE MAPS AND THE TOWN OF HIDEOUT The Hideout Town Council Thursday began the process to annex 350 acres in Richardson Flat, shown in blue. The red shows the outline of the town’s previous annexation attempt, which was barred by court order. Developer Nate Brockbank, who hopes to build on the land if it is annexed into the town, says he removed lands from the annexation area that are subject to legal challenges. Main Street businesses hang Panel calls for on through economic slump denial of Tech Center project Planning commissioners claim benefits of proposal are lacking, send issue to County Council ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record TANZI PROPST/PARK RECORD Business on Main Street during the summer was better than some had anticipated amid the continued spread of the novel coronavirus. There remains concern, though, on the street and the leader of the Historic Park City Alliance, a business group centered on Main Street, says there is uncertainty about the approaching ski season. There initially were worries that several establishments may not last through summer JAY HAMBURGER The Park Record Main Street was still struggling in late June, the traditional start of the busiest stretch of the summer-tourism season in Park City, after the novel coronavirus forced an early end to the ski season and widespread business shutdowns in the spring. There was little activity on the shopping, dining and entertainment strip, and some businesses remained closed by choice with sales on the street still slow. The leader of the Historic Park City Alliance, a group that represents businesses in the Main Street core, at about that time indicated there were approximately 10 businesses under threat of closing permanently based on the drop in sales on a year-over-year basis. Alison Kuhlow, the executive director of the organization, at the time called the future uncertain for the approximately 10 businesses, which represented a range of industries like restaurant and retail. As Park City enters the fall shoulder season, a stretch when sales usually drop from the summer, Main Street is in a stronger position than it was entering the spring shoulder season, Kuhlow said in an interview. The summer was better than anticipated along Main Street, she said, explaining that there remains a danger to some businesses even as others appear to have shown resiliency during the warm-weather months. The sales in the summer were crucial for the long-term viability of some of the businesses that had been seen as threatened earlier in the year. She said the numbers in July and August especially prepared them for the stretch between Labor Day and the scheduled start of the ski season, when business normally jumps. “For some, I heard it’s been able to get them there, to feel comfortable making it to December,” Kuhlow said about sales in the summer, adding there is a desire for the ski season to be better than some project. “We’re all hopeful the winter season is going to surprise us.” Kuhlow made the comments regarding the possibility of permanent closures on Main Street in June, at a point when the economic damage from the early end to the ski season was becoming clear. Unemployment numbers in the Park City area had soared, City Hall had released dire budgetary projections and it was unknown whether visitors would return so quickly. In the three months since the June comments, Park City has enjoyed a striking comeback even amid the cancellations of a series of special events like the Park Silly Sunday Market, the Park City Kimball Arts Festival and the Tour of Utah bicycling race. City Hall, in a move designed to draw people to Main Street, launched weekly pedestrian days on the street in the summer and fall that have proven to be popular. The community has appeared especially busy on the weekends, with Main Street looking jammed on many evenings. The unemployment numbers dropped sharply even as they remain elevated, and the municipal financials likely have at least stabilized even though projections have been downgraded. According to Kuhlow, though, the Main Street sales numbers remained depressed during the Please see Businesses, A-2 Please see Congress, A-2 2 sections • 24 pages FALL FIX-UP After a year of meetings, hearings and presentations about a large-scale development proposal at Kimball Junction, the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission forwarded a negative recommendation regarding the project to the Summit County Council Tuesday night. That was likely welcome news to the large contingent of the public, including former elected officials, that has spoken out against the project, which they claim does not deliver enough benefit to the community to warrant relaxing standards that have thus far largely prevented development at the site. In recent meetings, however, a younger-seeming crowd has welcomed the project, saying it would provide a much-needed boost to the local housing market. Commissioners opposed to the proposal cited traffic concerns, a lack of community benefits and insufficient affordable housing in their denial. Commissioners who supported the project said the current Tech Center concept is not working for the community and that the proposal would likely be improved during the planning process Commissioner Crystal Simons said that it represented a good chance to bring a sense of place to the undeveloped land and the general Kimball Junction area, which she said lacked soul. Commissioners John Kucera, Joel Fine, Ryan Dickey, Canice Harte and Thomas Cooke opposed the Dakota Pacific Real Estate application to expand the uses on the Tech Center site while Simons and Malena Stevens supported it. The proposal will go next to the County Council, Please see Tech Center, A-2 COURTESY OF DAKOTA PACIFIC REAL ESTATE The proposal for a new neighborhood in Kimball Junction rendered on top of the existing land, with Walmart on the right, the Sheldon Richins building in the foreground and the Park City Visitor’s Center to the left. The Snyderville Basin Planning Commission gave the proposal a negative recommendation in forwarding it to the County Council on Tuesday. CORONAVIRUS TRACKER Summit County Utah Known cases: 905 Hospitalizations: 53; Deaths: 1 Known cases: 55,675 Hospitalizations: 3,288; Deaths: 431 DATA AS OF SEPT. 11 SOURCE: UTAH DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH |