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Show A-2 Wed/Thurs/Fri, December 2-4, 2020 The Park Record Continued from A-1 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. 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Phone: 435–649–9014 Fax: 435–649–4942 Email: circulation@parkrecord.com Published every Wednesday and Saturday Violations discovered It’s for the viability of the businesses.” When Herbert issued the statewide mask mandate, his office also issued an emergency Utah Occupational Safety and Health division rule enabling that office to enforce a mandate that every employee wear a mask while at work. Olson said that a state official had reported that the Utah Department of Labor received hundreds of complaints about noncompliance in the weeks after the rule was issued Nov. 9. She indicated that the specter of state enforcement hastened the county’s enforcement actions. “We’re giving businesses notices that enforcement is coming, giving them every chance in the world to comply before the state comes in,” Olson said. She added that no fines have yet been levied. Olson said the county was moved to act in response to the statewide surge in cases and concurrent dwindling of hospital capacity that also inspired the governor’s order. When the statewide order came down late on a Sunday night in early November, Summit County’s mask mandate had already been in place for months. Local law enforcement officials say that, by the fall, wearing masks had become routine for most residents, and that they hadn’t seen the kind of anti-mask disputes that have led to police involvement in other regions. The Park City Police Department and Summit County Sheriff’s Office reported that they haven’t issued any citations regarding the local mask mandate, and that after a bumpy initial rollout, mask-wearing has become “the new normal.” “We haven’t had any enforcement issues,” Park City Police Captain Phil Kirk said in an interview Monday. “We get occasional requests to check out a situation. When we contact the individuals involved, people are pretty cooperative and people are willing to comply with restrictions. It might be some type of misunderstanding, but nobody’s gone to the level of issuing a citation.” Sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Wright added that the office hasn’t dealt with many complaints. “We feel like people are doing their part, or at least seem to be doing their part, in wearing them,” Wright said. “Our stance has been what it has always been since the beginning: We enforce through education, let them know what the local mask mandate is.” Both lawmen reported that a handful of officers had contracted COVID-19, but that none experienced severe complications and that all are back to work. Kirk reported that Park City officers still carry extra face coverings and will hand them out to people who might need one. Wright expressed gratitude that the area has not experienced the anti-mask vitriol that has roiled other areas of the country, saying it indicated that Summit County residents knew what was required to keep local small businesses open amid the pandemic. He added that big-box stores like Walmart and Home Depot had helped lead the way in requiring customers and employees to wear masks. Continued from A-1 Program powers up into a service agreement that extends beyond 15 years, something the firm building the solar farm, D.E. Shaw Renewable Energy Investments, said was necessary to secure financing for the project. That’s longer than allowed under the rule governing these sorts of renewable energy agreements, so the parties sought an exception. Widerburg said the utility, developer and customers agreed on the proposal before submitting the application, making the commission’s decision easier. This agreement covers municipal uses, like Park City’s electric buses and the lights at the County Courthouse, but doesn’t extend to residential customers. That, too, might change in the near future, as Summit County, Park City and Salt Lake City, along with four of the five eastern Summit County municipalities, are members of a group of 22 communities statewide engaged in an effort to power the homes and businesses in their communities with renewable electricity. Yoder has been updating East Side city councils on the Community Renewable Energy Program’s progress, and indicated that the residential program isn’t as far along as the municipal one. She said that a group of lawyers is hammering out a governance agreement to try to get the 22 jurisdictions on the same page when it comes to sharing political power — and sharing costs — in the arrangement. Continued from A-1 Winter starts in dry spell melting of some of the snow at lower elevations of south-facing slopes in the Park City area. Merrill said a La Nina pattern of weather has taken hold this winter. In La Nina years, he said, the Northwest typically receives precipitation that is above normal while the Southwest experiences below normal precipitation. Utah is in between the two. The National Weather Service forecast for Park City early in the week called for sunny conditions through Monday with high temperatures mostly in the 30s and 40s. Merrill said there are early signals the jet stream could move south in the Direct Importer of the World’s Finest Rugs A t t h e H i s t o r i c Vi l l a T h e a t r e COURTESY OF BRIAN DOLL, SWINERTON RENEWABLE ENERGY Park City and Summit County, along with four other partners, recently cleared the last major administrative hurdle to building an 80-megawatt solar farm in Tooele County to provide their power needs. It will look substantially similar to this solar project in Emery County, a spokesperson says. The project is slated to provide 100% renewable energy to the partners starting in 2023, and upwards of 90% of Salt Lake City’s energy needs. Yoder expects a draft governance agreement will be circulated to the communities in early 2021, paving the way for negotiations with Rocky Mountain Power about the program’s costs. The communities had to pass a resolution last year to opt into the project, which five of the six Summit County cities did. But the first financial commitment remains on the horizon. That may be a key decision point for the East Side communities. The antici- pated costs are relatively small — less than $2,000, on average — and can be spread over multiple years. Kamas’ portion, for example, would be around $2,700, according to minutes from a City Council meeting this fall. Yoder told the council that the cost could be spread over two or three years to ease budget burdens. The money would pay the utility and state commissions to move forward in determining the rates that residential customers would pay for renewable energy. Residents would be able to opt out of the program if they choose not to pay increased energy bills. Summit County and Park City have expressed commitment to their renewable energy goals and almost certainly will pay their portion of the upfront costs, which were estimated to be $21,520 and $13,485, respectively. Those numbers would increase if any of the 22 partners opt out of the program, which Yoder said one already had done. middle of December, meaning the storm track would more likely move across Utah. The dry start to the winter is especially notable at the outset of the first full ski season since the spread of the coronavirus forced an early end to the 2019-2020 season. Park City Mountain Resort is requiring reservations for skiers and snowboarders. The resort has limited terrain open at this point as it awaits the snows. Once more terrain is open, the resort is expected to increase the number of available reservations. The lack of early snow could also influence those who are considering whether to vacation in Park City during a difficult time for the travel industry. Area public works managers, meanwhile, closely watch snow totals since the spring runoff supplies drinking water and water for irrigation in the summer. Merrill noted it is early in the water year, the 12-month period that starts each year on Oct. 1 and is used for annual measurement purposes, with time to build the snowpack. “Things can change pretty quickly,” he said. Continued from A-1 three agreements or contracts related to the arts and culture district. It seems that preparations for a demolition could move forward even as the discussions are ongoing about the arts and culture district since the buildings would likely need to be removed under any of the scenarios since a redevelopment of some sort will be pursued. The concept for the arts and culture district includes housing, transportation upgrades and a limited amount of commercial space like artist studios alongside the Kimball Art Center and the Sundance offices. City Hall earlier submitted an application to the Planning Department for the project. The Park City Planning Commission review has not started. A previous owner of the land encountered Planning Commission and public resistance while seeking a development approval. Park City sees the district as something that would further solidify the community as a destination for arts and culture as well as help diversify the local economy from one that is heavily reliant on the ski industry. Demolitions readied City Hall in November outlined topics for a series of City Council meetings addressing the arts and culture district. The meetings are tentatively scheduled to start on Dec. 15. Another important meeting would involve the City Council considering a resolution about the future of the district, with staffers outlining resolution possibilities like proceeding with the first phase of construction in 2021, pausing the efforts until May or delaying the efforts for an unspecified amount of time. The tentative timeline runs through the middle of January, when the City Council could be asked to approve BUY IT SELL IT TRADE IT RENT IT LOCALLY! To set up your personalized classified ad contact Jennifer at the 3092 So. Highland Dr., Salt Lake City (801)484-6364 888.445.RUGS (7847) Mon.-Sat. 10 am to 6 pm Park Record 435.649.9014 ext. 125 Monday-Friday or anytime at ParkRecord.com |