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Show A-10 The Park Record MeetingS and agendaS Wed/Thurs/Fri, October 28-30, 2020 Sunday in the Park TO PUBLISH YOUR PUBLIC NOTICES AND AGENDAS, PLEASE EMAIL CLASSIFIEDS@PARKRECORD.COM By Teri Orr The meditation of many miles, part one AGENDA SUMMIT COUNTY COUNCIL Wednesday, October 28, 2020 NOTICE is hereby given that the Summit County Council will meet electronically, via Zoom, on Wednesday, October 28, 2020, (All times listed are general in nature, and are subject to change by the Council Chair) Consistent with provisions of the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act, Utah Code Ann. §54-2-207(4), the Summit County Council Chair has issued written determinations supporting Summit County Council’s decision to convene electronic meetings of the Council without a physical anchor location. Due to the health and safety risks related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and considering public health orders limiting in-person gatherings, members of the public should not attend Council meetings in person. However, members of the public are invited and encouraged to view and participate in the Council’s electronic meetings as described below. To view Council meeting, live, visit the "Summit County, Utah" Facebook page at 12:55 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 11:40 AM Closed Session - Security (20 min); Litigation (45 min) 12:45 PM - Council Members log into Zoom meeting 12:55 PM Work Session 1) Pledge of Allegiance 2) 1:00 PM - Presentation by Summit County Junior Livestock Committee; Jim Brooks, Chase Black and Tyler Orgill (15 min) 3) 1:15 PM - Budget discussions regarding capital projects, including major road and facilities; Matt Leavitt, Derrick Radke and Michael Kendell (60 min) 4) 2:15 PM - Update on the Weber Watershed Conservation Financing Project with United States Forest Service and other partners; Janna Young, Scott Morrison and Jessica Kirby (30 min) 5) 2:45 PM - Update regarding CARES Act and distributions; Janna Young (20 min) 6) 3:05 PM - Summit County Fair Council art awards; Richard Pick and Brennan Flach, artists (20 min) 7) 3:25 PM - Continued discussion regarding the Dakota Pacific proposal to amend the 2008 Summit Research Park Development Agreement density, volumetrics, massing (DA vs proposal); Jeff Gochnour, Applicant; Kirsten Whetstone, County Planner (60 min) 4:25 PM Convene as the Board of Equalization 1) Discussion and possible approval of 2020 stipulations; Stephanie Larsen, Travis Lewis, and LoraLea McKnight (15 min) Dismiss as the Board of Equalization 4:40 PM Consideration of Approval 1) Discussion and adoption of Proclamation No. 2020-10, a Proclamation Recognizing Martha "Marti" J. Gee for 34 Years of Public Service to the Citizens of Summit County, Utah; Lisa Hoffman and Scott Morrison (10 min) 2) 4:50 PM - Continued discussion and possible action regarding appeal of the Community Development Director’s denial of a building permit to extend the deck of Appellant’s twin home condominium unit in the development known as The Cove at Sun Peak at Parcel No. CSP-8B-A; Michael J. Radford, Appellant; Pat Putt and Jami Brackin (45 min) 3) 5:35 PM - Council comments (15 min) 4) 5:50 PM - Manager comments (10 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, October 28th. If you wish to interact with Council at 6:00 p.m., for public input or the public hearing, please follow the "Public Comment and Public Hearing Instructions". Public hearing and possible action regarding a 4-lot subdivision; NS-599-C; Cade Sargent, Applicant, Kirsten Whetstone, AICP, County Planner 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. 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 WriterS on the range By Laura Pritchett Living with evacuation, smoke, helicopters, fire I live on a county road near the evacuation perimeter of what is now Colorado’s largest wildfire. Yesterday, the sheriff’s deputy was outside, his lights flashing red-blue-red, giving my house a strobe light effect. He was directing traffic as people fled the mountain with trailers filled with cattle and horses and goats and belongings. The wind was roaring, first one direction and then another, which is why this fire blew up again. The Cameron Peak Fire has been burning for two months — a long two months — leaving me and most of my neighbors with a hacking cough and guts that feel like they’re filled with clay. When we get the occasional blue sky day, I’m so relieved that I play hooky from work and walk up this county road, getting in exercise while I can, trying to clear my head while I can, obligations be dammed. I truly find it hard to care about anything, which is saying something, given my personality. Even work is difficult on smoky days — my brain feels gritty because of ash and helicopters overhead and the grim anxiety in the air. It’s hard to process things, to be productive, to think. I thought I’d be better at this, more resilient, less fazed. A Colorado native, I’m used to wildfire. Plus, I know that these forests needed to burn. Not like this, sure, but we all knew they were a tinderbox, and it’s just a flat-out, predictable truth that they were going to go. On top of that, we know climate change makes it worse. All ten of the largest wildfires in Colorado have happened since 2000, this Cameron Peak Fire at 207,000 acres as of this writing, followed by Pine Gulch, Hay- man, West Fork Complex Fire, Spring Creek Fire, High Park Fire (which had me evacuated in 2012), Missionary Ridge Fire, 416 Fire, Bridger Fire, and Last Chance Fire. And as I wrote this essay, the Lefthand Canyon Fire, the CalWood Fire, and the frightening East Troublesome Fire sprang up, , driving thousand from their homes. Such pretty names, sending remnants of trees into our lungs. No wonder most of my novels written over the past 20 years contain wildfires, because they truly have been part of my lived experience. I’ve always believed that it’s expectation which causes suffering, that we only are sad when things don’t go the way we want, and thus I feel I shouldn’t be suffering now. But living it, and expecting it, are two different things. Familiarity doesn’t make it any easier. When the body senses biological threat, the result is cortisol, inflammation, pain. After all, particles are daily being lodged into our lungs. People are truly suffering here, in body and in spirit. Honest admissions of despair are rampant, and nobody is embarrassed about it. COVID makes it harder. Let’s be honest: Our friends don’t really want us evacuated into their little homes and sharing air, nor do we want to put them in that position. So we stay put, always on the edge. I never thought I’d take breathable air for granted. Lowering my expectations that far seems, well, sad. Some things help. Friends, offers of assistance, memories of the good days, and, yeah, air purifiers. We can also think ahead to prescribed burns, thinning, fuel reduction, forest management, fire resiliency, and Aldo Leopold’s idea of “intelligent tinkering,” where we make forests more resilient to climate change via smart restorations of natural landscapes. All this is good, but what would help most of all is to have others extend their empathy and make green-living the priority. Wouldn’t it be a miracle if the whole damn world banded together and realized climate change was the number one priority? Accepted that science was real? Got it together, made some changes at home, such as not buying anything unnecessary? Because that is part of the true fix. At some point, drastic measures will happen, because the suffering will extend to all, and to such an extent that it cannot be ignored — though I wish that weren’t necessary. This morning, I woke up to birds still at the feeder, a fawn walking by, winds calmer. It’s creepily quiet, with no traffic because everyone west of me is evacuated. It is still a sad time and I feel broken, but the air quality has moved from Hazardous to Moderate, which has me thinking that perhaps we, as a people, could move in that direction, too, especially during the clear-sky times when we can think and get to work. Laura Pritchett is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, a nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She is a novelist and directs the MFA in nature writing at Western Colorado University. The car is happy again. I know this. I have neglected her for months with only the smallest of excursions — to the market and post office and gas station. Three years old and she had only 20,000 miles on her. Which screams failure to me — not great trade-in value. When I left Park City on a Thursday, the car was clean and road ready. When I returned and drove through the car wash the following Thursday — there was red dust everywhere. And it came off all the outside surfaces but in the wheel wells and running boards and the carpeted floor in the backseat — there is still red dust. I hope it lasts all winter. I started in Blanding for three days of exploring secret, steep, rocky paths within the Bears Ears (former) National Monument area with a Hopi guide arranged by the sister of my heart. That story is part two. I left there and took Lee’s Ferry across Lake Powell to Bullfrog and climbed (in the car this time) up the Burr Trail, inside the boundaries of the twin declassified monument — Grand Staircase Escalante. I was headed to Boulder. My happy place for almost 20 years. The Boulder Mountain Lodge, owned by Dave Mock, is a model of tranquility and civility. It includes an 11-acre bird refuge where I have seen the most elegant and sassy creatures exchange conversations and flight plans for so many years. The cattails and willows sway with the sunflowers and hollyhocks. It is a kind of sophisticated rustic without pretense. And the famed Hell’s Backbone Grill restaurant grew there about 20 years ago. Two women determined to create a respite with recipes from the best of the southwest. It was pretty much farm to table from the start because they sit in the most remote town in the lower 48 states with about 180 people. Garfield county with 5,000 square miles is home to about 5,000 people. Lots of open space in the red dust of the red state. Lots of ranchers ... and these two female restaurateurs. There is no confusion when you drive off the pavement of Highway 12 onto the gravel driveway that you have entered a blue zone. There are signs — Black Lives Matter and Biden and Harris and for their Congressional district Kael Weston — a name that was new to me. The staff reflect the signs — they are a rainbow of interesting kind humans. On my first night dining there was a kerfuffle on the patio. It had to do with issues of white privilege and supremacy. Service was refused. The whole restaurant was engaged in the unappetizing debate of prejudice. The unwelcome patrons stayed at their table for almost two hours with no food or drink until they were finally encouraged to leave. It was tense and uncharacteristic of the refuge but not the times. Night Two was idyllic. First, I stumbled into a farm meeting about how to wind things down for the season — a kinda tie up the horses and lock up the liquor conversation with the small tight-knit family of employees. Then, dinner with my friends who have created this magical place. I had a southwestern beef chili stew and a side of perfect fall weather. And the surprise to each of us — the arrival of the I didn’t know all the names of what I was seeing but the stars filled me with awe.” daughter I did not give birth to and her husband — who had run away for a night from their home in Kanab and ended up at the restaurant as I was sitting on the porch. My final evening took a switch when I was invited to be part of a small 10-person dinner with congressional candidate — representing District 2 — Kael Weston. A Utah blue guy that is so exciting and principled that I want to vote for him. Twice. But I can’t at all since he doesn’t represent Summit County. Weston was born of pioneer stock from Milford. He graduated from the University of Utah in political science in ’96. Then received a master’s from Cambridge, was a Fulbright scholar in Amsterdam — and worked on his PhD at the London School of Economics. He spent seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan in “one of the most dangerous assignments of any State Department officer worldwide” — according to his commander, Robert Ford. He never carried a weapon he said — just a notebook. But here’s where it gets especially interesting for me. Yes — he was on the ground at the Battle of Fallujah but he also wrote for Tina Brown at the Daily Beast, and New York Times and just in December — he published a book, “The Mirror Test,” which the NYT selected as an Editor’s Choice and Military Times chose as Best Book of the Year. And I have since discovered he did a “Fresh Air” segment with my NPR hero, Terry Gross. Be still my heart. And all those things would have been enough to make him — at 48 — a pretty interesting dinner companion but because I am convinced Park City is cosmic velcro in the universe, there was the “just dessert.” When he learned I lived here he confessed he used to volunteer ... at KPCW. He said it was in the days of the basement at the Marsac and he was living in Cottonwood Canyon. He would drive the dirt road (Guardsman) over to deejay in the late-night slot. When I asked him why he did that — he said simply “because it was the only place where I could listen to the BBC.” Weston had his assistant Tyler with him — who also served in Afghanistan but didn’t know Kael there. When Tyler learned about my role presenting talent for years, he asked me who was the hardest to book and what was my favorite night. I confessed — it was one in the same — Edward Snowden. Then we chewed on the politics of intelligence and should Snowden be returned to the States and stand trial. When I left that dinner table, comforted with delicious conversations, I wandered to my room under the protected dark skies. I didn’t know all the names of what I was seeing but the stars filled me with awe. When I woke up at 4 a.m. — I did as I had been encouraged earlier — I wrapped up and went outside on the grass, next to the pond and looked up at the Orionids meteor showers. There were shooting stars — everywhere. I knew I had also just met one at dinner. If you know anyone in the giant second district who hasn’t yet voted — encourage them to give Weston a lookover. He wants to keep serving his country. It would be honorable for us to find a place for him at all the tables. And regardless of this election outcome — I am gonna encourage Kael to come up and see how KPCW has changed but the BBC is still right here for the listening — each Sunday in the Park... Teri Orr is a former editor of The Park Record. She is the founder of the Park City Institute, which provides programming for the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Center for the Performing Arts. East Canyon Park becomes Utah’s 14th dark sky park Jordanelle also plans to apply for the designation MITCH SHAW Standard-Examiner MORGAN — Officials from East Canyon State Park believe darkness is a natural resource worth protecting. The northeastern Utah mountain recreation preserve was recently designated an International Dark Sky Park — a classification that means East Canyon’s nighttime skies are free enough of light pollution and have an “exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and nocturnal environment,” according to the nonprofit that grants the classification. “(The) designation means that East Canyon State Park has beautifully dark night skies that allow visitors to clearly view the Milky Way and other celestial objects,” reads a press release from the International Dark Sky Association. Partly inspired by the sci- ence fiction television series “Star Trek,” East Canyon State Park Manager Chris Haramoto said work to get the parked tabbed with a dark sky designation took about a half-decade. “It took our team about five years to complete and it was a very long process,” Haramoto said during a dedication ceremony last week. Haramoto, park staff, and a team of interns and volunteers had to meet strict programming, monitoring and infrastructure requirements spelled out by the IDA. In 2014, the East Canyon officials began hosting “Star Park Academy” courses for the public — a series of handson, informational classes on astronomy. In 2016, the crew also started measuring the quality of the darkness within the park. From 2017 to 2019, the group worked on changing out old park lights for new, dark sky-friendly fixtures with soft tones, full cut-off shielding, motion detectors and timers. The new lighting system helped to enhance the natural darkness within the park. Call Classifieds at 435-649-9014 ext. 125 between Monday-Friday or anytime at parkrecord.com Utah now has 14 official dark sky parks, more than any other state. “Utah ... leads the state park systems of the United States in terms of total designations,” IDA Executive Director Ruskin Hartley said in a statement. “Not only is this an important achievement for East Canyon State Park, but it is a testament to the commitment shown by Utah State Parks to elevate the importance of dark-sky protections among its constituent park units.” Northern Utah alone boasts three dark sky sites. North Fork Park in Weber County was named an International Dark Sky Park in April 2015. Most recently, Antelope Island was tabbed in April 2017. According to a press release from the Utah Division of Natural Resources, Fremont Indian State Park, Goosenecks State Park, Gunlock State Park, Jordanelle State Park, Kodachrome State Park, Rockport State Park and Wasatch Mountain State Park will all submit International Dark Sky Park applications in November. |