OCR Text |
Show (City Soverment Improves Service (Last of a two part series) If the water situation appears ap-pears to be under control, at least for the near future, what about the sewers and the roads? The state of the roads was the primary concern expressed ex-pressed by residents interviewed inter-viewed in the NTDS random poll. As it turns out, these potholes which break axles, blow tires, and ruin suspensions sus-pensions result from a variety var-iety of causes. Physically, a pothole is caused when water seeps into a crack in the road surface. The water expands when it freezes, making the crack bigger. Several freezes and thaws create a full-fledged pothole. In addition to climate, Park City's roads are bad, Mayor Price pointed out, because be-cause of history. The town was built next to the mine so the miners could walk to work, and no one cared that many roads were on extreme ex-treme grades, or that many were very narrow. In the 1950's and 60's, when Park City was a "depressed area," little work was done to maintain the roads, and they were allowed to deteriorate. de-teriorate. There are other problems than the legacy of history or the harsh climate. Until this week, Park City has been able to transport asphalt from Salt Lake only in four-ton four-ton loads not enough for any major repair. However, the city should have by now received delivery de-livery of a heavy truck capable cap-able of hauling 16-18 tons of asphalt. City Manager Wayne Mathews thinks this $27,900 truck will considerably speed up repairs by the town's four-man road crew. A final factor contributing to the state of the roads is the prohibitive cost of repairing re-pairing them. Most roads need complete repair rather than just spot patching, Mathews said, and even with the improved city finances, full-scale repair would be prohibitively expensive. Seventy-six thousand dollars dol-lars out of the $408,000 town budget were allocated this year for the roads, and Mathews Math-ews thinks next year that figure will be higher. City officials think the sewer system's problems are the least pressing among city services. Since Park City was annexed into the Snyderville Sewer District, it was relieved of the obligation ob-ligation to build a new treatment treat-ment plant according to Environmental En-vironmental Protection A-gency A-gency standards. The Snyderville District's plant, scheduled for completion com-pletion in 1977, will have three stages of treatment and will produce an effluent near drinking water in purity. The city's present facility, a primary treatment plant with about 500,000 gallons capacity, is often seriously overloaded. Mathews said during the winter months the plant often has to process over a million gallons a day. Luckily, according to Mathews, the cold winter weather removes almost all risk of infection from the effluent, ef-fluent, which is dumped into Silver Creek. Mathews said that this summer the plant has not been overloaded because the dry weather has prevented much ground water seepage getting into the system. Mathews said the town, while keeping its present plant, can improve the quality qual-ity of the effluent by spending spend-ing between $20 and$30,000. He doesn't think the condition of the sewage facilities will hold up development in town. Representing Park City on the Snyderville Sewage District Dis-trict are Clem Hansen, Jan Wilking and Burnis Watts. |