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Show Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, October 17-20, 2020 A-15 The Park Record Continued from A-14 Dust dispute tions, and establish a hotline for residents to report dust incidents. In addition to visual impacts, the crystalline silica released when rock is pulverized poses a serious threat to human health when inhaled. Macfarlane says these sharply fractured particles can damage lung tissue and cause cancer. All the quarries are required to submit a fugitive dust mitigation plan with DEQ, which conducts annual inspections and responds to complaints, according to agency spokesman Jared Mendenhall. Benjamin’s plight Most of West Mountain’s quarries are clustered on its southern tip near Payson. On the mountain’s east slope to the north, Kilgore Cos. operates the newer Benjamin Pit, now steeped in controversy over its approved expansion from 44 to 97 acres. Kilgore opened the pit in 2011 to secure materials for reconstructing Interstate 15 through Utah County. Residents were led to believe the pit and its related asphalt plant were temporary, according to Benjamin resident Debi Brozovich, who helped start a grassroots group with Sainsbury called South Utah County Community Voice. In 2016, Kilgore sought and eventually won approval from the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining and the federal Bureau of Land Management to expand onto adjacent public land. Under pressure from area growers, the Utah County Commission then changed the zoning to confine mines to their existing footprints, but that ordinance does not apply to federal land, which predominates West Mountain. The grassroots group contested the Kilgore expansion before the Board of Oil, Gas and Mining, but that industry-centric panel rejected the challenge on procedural grounds last month, enabling Kilgore to move forward. “We have become saturated with mining activity, and it is negatively impacting our community,” Sainsbury said at a recent hearing refereed by DOGM Director John Baza. She showed pictures of the quarry releasing dense dust clouds in apparent violation of opacity standards. “Having a dust-mitigation plan and implementing a plan are two different matters,” she said. “There is inadequate dust suppression going on.” While conceding they could do more to monitor emissions, Kilgore officials said the quarry is meeting DEQ’s environmental safeguards. “We follow and are in compliance with the permits we have,” Kilgore’s lawyer Graden Jackson said at the hearing. “We pledge to you we will continue to be in compliance. We are a large operation. We have no desire to be out of compliance. We live in these communities we serve.” Those assertions mean little to growers and residents who say dust is coating their orchards and neighborhoods and that haulers operate unsafely without consequence. Gravel quarries could take steps to better control and monitor dust emissions, but operators opt not to, and no agencies are requiring such measures, says Kylara Papenfuss, a field adviser for a fruit-growing cooperative. “They can treat the loads to keep the dust down. They can put up sensors,” she says. “We have examples where they automatically report dust levels and if they are not within the permit, they can get fined.” While many in Benjamin are unhappy with the mining, some residents of nearby cities support the Kilgore expansion. “As Utah County continues to grow, having ready access to building materials is crucial to keeping costs manageable,” Woodland Hills resident Debra Dimmick writes in an email to DOGM. “The pit provides good jobs for residents of the county and has been a good neighbor to the surrounding area.” West Mountain is not only a rich and convenient source of aggregates for Wasatch Front builders; it is also the geographic feature, rising above Utah Lake’s southeast shore, that creates a microclimate ideal for fruit production, resulting in a bounty of apples, peaches and, most famously, tart Montmorency cherries, marketed as “Monties.” Utah is the nation’s second-largest producer of tart cherries after Michigan, and most of this harvest comes from Payson Fruit Growers, an eight-farm cherry-processing co-op to which Rowley and many of his cousins, uncles and aunts belong. These growers account for about 40 million pounds of cherries, most of which are dried, put into jams or juiced, then sold around the nation. “We’re in a sloping valley, which protects us from frost. As the winds blow, it moves that cold air out of here. And you can’t just pick any spot down in the valley and plop a cherry tree because they like to be warm. They can’t be froze out,” Rowley says. “These trees do like to go dormant. And so we need that snowpack in the winter. They need a break. So tart cherry trees love hot summers and cold winters, but not too cold.” His great-grandparents were fruit farmers who came from England and established orchards in Utah. Don Rowley, Ryan’s grandfather, and his brothers grew fruit in Orem until the 1950s, when the arrival of the Geneva Steel plant displaced orchards with subdivisions. So the Rowley growers established new orchards in Payson, where they discovered ideal fruit-growing conditions under West Mountain. Today, several of these growers’ children and grandchildren are still in the fruit business here and hope to remain. “This is more valuable to me than a stack of town homes and cookie-cutter houses,” says Ryan Rowley, gazing over the orchards fanning out from the mountain. “This is a livelihood. This is food on the table. This is the opportunity for us to give back to the community as well as to hire kids and schoolteachers during the summer to help us harvest.” The orchards’ survival is under pressure by foreign competition, food-safety regulations, drought, and now gravel quarries and dust emissions pushing up costs and reducing yields. “It’s just a madhouse around here. I just want to see them have some regulation and follow (the rules) that keep everybody safe,” Rowley says. “I understand that we need the dirt and the rocks and the gravel to grow, but as we lose this green space around here, we’re never going to get it back. And the quality of life around here is going to go down.” Ryan’s 160-acre operation, called Rowley’s Fruit Farms, yields about 1 million pounds a year and supports three families. “This has been the most blessed way to live ever, to work the land, be out here. I love my office,” he says. “I want to be able to pay that forward to my kids and their future generations. Utah County needs to decide whether or not this industry is important to them. I feel like we’ve been overlooked. We haven’t been heard.” LIVE LUXURY Your best life begins with a home that inspires you. KELLY ROGERS 435.640.7600 Global Real Estate Advisor Kelly@LuxuryParkCityRealEstate.com www.LuxuryParkCityRealEstate.com ©MMXVIII Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sotheby’s International Realty® is a licensed trademark to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates, Inc. An Equal Opportunity Company. Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Copyright© Summit Sotheby’s International Realty 2018. Thankful? Frustrated? Want to highlight an issue? Think you have the solution to a problem? The Park Record wants to hear from you Send submissions to editor@parkrecord.com A solid financial plan will survive the noise of 2020 Jodi Vleck, founder and CEO of Beta Wealth Group, comments on her firm’s perspective of the current volatility of 2020 and how to stay steady in any market condition When choosing a financial planner, do your homework BY LAUREN GLENDENNING Brought to you by Beta Wealth Group A global pandemic, social unrest and a pending presidential election have made 2020 rife with uncertainty, but a strategic, long-term wealth plan could provide much-needed stability during trying times. Jodi Vleck, Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), aims to help her clients reach ultimate financial freedom through holistic, comprehensive planning. That means counseling them through tough times to ensure rash decisions don’t lead to financial catastrophes. “This is an industry where it really pays to hire a certified expert rather than attempt DIY investing,” said Vleck, founder and CEO of Beta Wealth Group. “It’s not easy Beta Wealth Group founder Jodi Vleck has been recognized for outstanding wealth planning services by Forbes, Barron’s, wealthmanagement.com and others. She recently expanded her wealth management firm to Park City. Jodi Vleck, CFP®, Founder and CEO at Beta Wealth Group. for a DIY investor to remain savvy about markets and investing — managing wealth is a science.” Vleck has expanded her San Diego-founded wealth management firm to the Wasatch mountains, moving here full-time with her husband and two sons after calling Park City a part-time home for many years. She’s excited to introduce her firm to the community. “Beta Wealth Group is so much more than portfolio construction Jodi Vleck has expanded her San Diego-founded wealth management firm to the Wasatch mountains, moving here full-time with her husband and two sons after calling Park City a part-time home for many years. Vleck advises anyone looking for a financial planner to look for someone who’s going to put a comprehensive plan together rather than just pitch products. She said it’s important to use a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) because they act as fiduciaries and don’t get paid commission. and management. We aspire to ensure that our clients truly understand what we are doing and why,” she said. “That is how we build trust. That is how we build life-long relationships.” Managing economic overreactions With so much volatility in the United States in 2020, Vleck educates her clients to plan for a successful future by considering the bigger picture.. “For us, our goal is not letting our clients emotionally react. We want them to think more like institutions,” she said. “Retail investors (the DIY crowd) tend to get out of the market almost habitually. It’s human emotion and it’s hard when the headlines are glaring.” Being stuck at home during pandemic shut-downs has seemed to make it worse, she said, whereas in 2008-09, most people didn’t pay attention to the headlines unless it impacted them personally. “I think the biggest mistake is trying to guess the market and therefore getting out,” Vleck said. “If you’re in a properly diversified portfolio, whether the stock market is doing well or bad, you should have something on the other side of your portfolio that’s working for you.” Who will have the biggest impact on investments, Biden or Trump? Despite what you read in the news, Vleck said the market is not reacting to biden as much as it did the other candidates. Vleck now has her sights focused on the election results, which she has a suspicion won’t be known until later in the year or even early 2021. “I think not knowing the result of the election will create some chaos in the stock market; uncertainty is the worst for the market,” she said. “But, I don’t think it’s going to be a long-term pullback. We will find out who the president is, it’s not going to go on forever. And then the markets will have an opportunity to recover.” Vleck added that there’s no precedent to suggest that the stock markets would rally or decline based on a presidential win by one particular party over the other. “Be mindful of where you get your information,” Vleck said. “There’s a lot of sensationalized media out there. Don’t react to the day-to-day headlines.” To help clients and the community prepare for how the election could impact financial management, Beta Wealth Group is hosting an open house event (see factbox). Sponsored Content Retirement concerns One of Vleck’s greatest joys as a financial planner is when her clients are able to retire and enjoy their success. Depending on a retiree’s situation, the kind of uncertainty we’re seeing in 2020 could have a big impact without a solid plan in place. “Most retirees are drawing from their investments, using their portfolios for income. When there’s a 30% drop in the markets and you start selling because you need to live on that income, it can have a major impact — especially if you’re taking those draws on a down market,” Vleck said. Beta Wealth Group will go to the drawing board with clients who may need to consider other options — such as taking social security earlier, going back to work or putting off that kitchen remodel — until the markets rebound. “We’ve been hosting calls as a firm every Monday to help provide clarity for our clients,” Vleck said, “to reassure our clients to stay the course with their financial plan.” Election implications on the stock market Join Beta Wealth Group for a Happy Hour to meet Jodi Vleck, CFP®-Founder and CEO, where she will be discussing potential election implications on the stock market. WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 29, 5 to 7 p.m. WHERE: OP Rockwell, 268 Main St., Park City. Due to COVID-19, space is limited and reservations are required. Please RSVP to victoria@betawealthgroup.com or call 858-207-3377. The information in this article is for informational purposes only. The information is not intended to be used as the sole basis of investment decisions and is not a recommendation to buy or sell. Recognition from publications should not be viewed as representative of any one client’s experience and should not be taken as an indication of performance by Beta Wealth Group and any of its clients. New Equipment is expensive The Park Record’s “Help Wanted” section has the jobs you need to support your gear addiction |