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Show Insidious Rumors Prove Extremely Frustrating By Geoffrey Miller Rumor is an insidious thing it starts with a core of truth or near-truth, but as it passes from mouth to mouth, layer upon layer of embellishment is added on until the final product is distorted, dis-torted, blown up, and often very damaging. What is especially unfair about rumor is that it is anonymous-not what "I" say but what "they" say so people can't be called to account for what they cir-culate. cir-culate. And the person against whom the rumor is directed has difficulty correcting cor-recting the public record. A frequent target for rumor, perhaps because of its size and power, is the Resort Company. This article ar-ticle is not meant as a defense de-fense of the GPCC. It is simply a chance for Resort officials to respond to certain widely circulated rumors ru-mors about their company. The Resort once tried to close its slopes to local residents. GPCC President Warren King responded, "Never once did I or anyone in the company com-pany ever say we wanted to close the ski-slopes to the townspeople. We wanted to get the townspeople to agree with us that there had to be some control over use of the ski lifts." "We have offered to make them a part of a vested interest in-terest in having ski rights available to them," King said. He added that what the GPCC wanted to avoid was a situation like last New Year's Eve day, when a canyon can-yon slide closed Brighton, Alta, Solitude and Snowbird, leaving the Resort and Park West the only areas open. "A mountain has a capacity just like a cup of coffee," King said. "Too much coffee, or too many people, and it's a mess." The GPCC bussed loads of hippies to Coalville to vote and Warren King drove the bus. King denied it. The Resort, though it claims never to have made a profit, showed a $900,000 profit on its skiingoperation which it later erased from the books. Resort off icials pointed point-ed out that an'operatingpro-fit" an'operatingpro-fit" should not be confused with net profit. It is possible to show an operating profit without making a net profit. King said the GPCC's books are given a certified audit each year by an impartial accounting firm. The Resort tried to steal the Arts Festival from Main Street by offering it their facilities. GPCC Communications Director Dale Zabriski denied den-ied this rumor catagorically and pointed out that the Re sort donates its busses and parking lot totheMainStreet Festival. The Royal Street Corporation, Cor-poration, which supplies the Resort with much of its management man-agement and which is also a major GPCC stockholder, did some development inAs-pen inAs-pen and then "pulled out of town." King said that Royal Street was not in the business of operating a resort in Aspen like the GPCC is in Park City. Royal Street developed two areas in Aspen, and, running run-ning out of land, they left but, according to King, they didn't "pull out". - Park City Ventures has discovered a huge deposit of copper under the ski slopes and is secretly preparing to turn the mountain into an open pit mine. Not a real rumor, this story was invented by Victor Buck, who one day became disgusted with the absurd rumors believed around town and decided to invent the most outrageous, unbelievable unbeliev-able one he could imagine. Park City is still, as Mayor Price pointed out, a town run partly by rumor. But it is more in keeping with the democratic ideals of our country that the town should be run according to fact rather than fantasy. We should try to keep as high a level of truth as possible in our town. |