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Show EsptWi Politics- at iocal Candidates Niglit Park City's six City Council Coun-cil candidates took their politics,; platforms and personalities per-sonalities to the public once again this week at a "Meet the; Candidates Night' held Tuesday at the Holiday Inn. Although the event sponsored spon-sored by the Park Chamber of Commerce way advertised as being opn to "Chamber members, their employees and guests;" the majority of the approximately 200 people in attendance appeared ap-peared to be just plain Park City folks concerned about the coming election and the future of their community. Moderating the forum was Rod Decker, Deseret ? News Columnist and Salt Lake media personality. Mr. Decker opened the session saying that each-candidate would first give a two-minute, two-minute, speech which would be followed, by a series of . , pre-submitted questions ,? to be answered by all six candidates. He would then . accept i-.. questions from the floor and return to ; pose additional pre-submitted questions to specific candidates. candi-dates. -f take responsibility for the future of Park City, saying "I'd like to bring the people in Park City together to accept that responsibility." Tina Lewis, well known community activist, said that she is "enthused and proud of Park City." She said she felt she had the talent and energy to solve Park City's problems, stressing her ability abi-lity to work with others as a means to that goal. "What we need is some old-fashion hard work to solve our problems," she said. Concluding the two-minute speeches, businessman Tom Shellenberger said that his community involvement with the Fire District, Volunteer Volun-teer Fire Dept. and Ambulance Ambu-lance Crew are important qualifications for the job of City Councilman. The first question posed to the' candidates asked about the relationship between zoning and the development of tourism in Park City. Tom Shellenberger, Tina Lewis and Eleanor Bennett concurred that tourism is presently the backbone of Park Citv's economv Admit. ly along those two planes. Next, candidates were asked if the city should buy the Park City Golf Course. To that question, incumbent Councilman Eleanor Bennett responded with a definite "yes" adding that there was a good possibility that half the cost could be born by federal grants. Tina Lewis was also in favor of a city-owned city-owned golf course because it would preserve the area as green open space for all time. Greg Lawson was also in favor of a city-owned course, but stressed the need to analyze' the economic feasibility of the, project as it relates to other Park City recreation priorities. Both Bill Bertagnole and Helen Alvarez were in favor of the concept of open space arid public recreation, but felt the city should have taken steps in the past to zone the course ".as open space which would . insure its perpetuity at: no cost to the city. Tom Shellenberger simply said he was in favor of the city taxing action on the golf course proposal v Candidates were next asked! ask-ed! to assess the : balance between thegrowth of business and the demand for municipal services, ; Greg Lawson said . he felt that given thecurrent irate of growth in Park City, fees generated by I new business and construction would eventually even-tually fail to keep up with the demand for services. He advocated federal and state grants as a means of making up the difference. . Tina Lewis on the other y hand,, stressed the need for, far-sighted planning in the development of additional services in Park City, more. -, economical and efficient use of the resources currently available. Tom Shellenberger admit-, ted that expanded business V meant an increased demand for services. He said he felt business should pay for. the increased demand through impact fees, adding that Park City has to look' at the capacity in which existing services and resources can , be developed. Bill Bertagnole Bertag-nole charged that the city had wasted money in the past and also advocated a more efficient use of municipal munici-pal resources in the future. Eleanor Bennett said the problem could be solved by carefully anticipating the future demand for services; by being selective about new developments; and by continually con-tinually updating and improving im-proving existing city services. ser-vices. Helen Alvarez said only that the City should accept only those developments that will pay their own way. Addressing the topic of an adequate bus system in Park City, Eleanor Bennett said recent criticism of the system was unwarranted, adding that she would like to see the system expanded to the smaller streets. Helen Alvarez Al-varez thought more signs were needed as well as reliable scheduling. Tina Lewis added "the system must work", saying that money should not be spent on an ineffective system. Tom ' Shellenberger said he felt additional maintenance facilities were needed to keep the system operational, and Bill Bertagnole concurred concur-red that ' ; the system is a necessity but additional maintenance facilities were needed to keep' the service regular arid operational. Greg Lawson maintained that the issue was broader than just the bus system and it should be expanded to include mass transportation in general. He said he felt mass transportation was the answer to Park City's present pre-sent traffic problems. - - When asked if Park City should annex Snyderville and Summit Park, the candidates were unanimous-ly unanimous-ly opposed. All agreed that Park City should concentrate its energies on effectively dealing with what already lies within the city limits before taking on other challenges, - Before accepting questions ques-tions from the floor, Mr. Decker asked the six political hopefuls how they proposed to solve Park City ' s moderate income housing shortage. Helen Alvarez thought the problem could be; solved by offering incentives arid credits cred-its to developers to encourage encour-age the development of employee and moderate income, in-come, housing within the business sector. Eleanor Bennett on the other hand, . advocated the need for a "nice" mobile home area, but didn't know where it could be located nor did she know how such a development develop-ment could conform to city ordinances which prohibit such a facility. Bill Bertagnole Bertag-nole thought that stipulations stipula-tions for low to moderate income housing should be included in any new annexation. annexa-tion. Tina Lewis called the problem 'sticky" but thought that incentive programs pro-grams for developers could be .a solution. She was adamently opposed to Miss Bennett's mobile home proposal. pro-posal. Greg Lawson said that we can't expect private developers to solve our housing problems, advocating advocat-ing the need to look into federal grants as a solution. He also felt that large developments like Deer Valley Val-ley should be required to provide housing for their employees. Tom Shellenberger also attacked' Eleanor. Bennett's mobile , Home ? plan, saying that he was confident that Park City's ; creative and capable minds could come up with an equitable solution to the growing problem. " The first question from the floor asked the candidates if they would r port waiving fees as ina tive for light industry to locate in the area. Both Tom Shellenberger and Bill Bertagnole responded respond-ed negatively to ' the question, ques-tion, saying that everyone should be treated fairly and that all new developments should be required to pay their own way. Tina Lewis said she supported an aggressive municipal policy to attract "safe, light industry" indust-ry" and Greg Lawson said he was in favor of more diversified sources of employment em-ployment in the area. Eleanor Elea-nor Bennett advocated the development of light industry indust-ry but not waiving any fees. She, instead, said she would like to see fees possibly waived in the Main Street area to encourage building on the street's many vacant lots. Helen Alvarez said she did not know of any space within the city supporting the proposed industrial park in the County which would provide employment for residents re-sidents outside the city limits. Plsase Turn to Page 5 A Beginning alphabetically, '. Helen Alvarez was first to . offer her two-minute speech. ,: Mrs. Alvarez, who runs the Timberhaus Ski Shop with . her husband Matt, said she v wanted to bring "qualilty ' " V to ParkiCity and City Hall. She cited' the Park High football team, the summer Utah ? Symphony concert in . the tent, and the general r natural environment of Park City as examples of "quality." She concluded saying that she felt the pervasive atmosphere of , discontent ' amongst local - residents was due to the fact - that "they got improvements but riot quality." " Speaking ; next, Bill Bertagnole Ber-tagnole stressed his long - standing Park City roots and his ability to work with County officials. He said that "Park City has outgrown its expertise in certain areas" - - and advocated "slowing down growth to a point where our own expertise can deal with it." Bertagnole also said he strongly supported sup-ported programs which , would protect our residential . areas. Greg Lawson, a member of the Planning Commission, told residents that they must : a .:. . . . j ----- ting however that the industry indust-ry creates inherant problems of. traffic, parking and circulation. All three candidates candi-dates said they thought that the older sections of Park City' should be zoned to encourage permanent family - neighborhoods and that the area near the resort should be zoned to accomodate tourist-related facilities, v Greg Lawson agreed that tourist-oriented facilities should be located at the north end of town, but asked "how much larger are we prepared to get to accomodate accomo-date tourists?" Bill Bertagnole Bertag-nole also favored locating tourist facilities near the, resort and stressed the need for the cify to provide expanded snow removal facilities, fac-ilities, Helen Alvarez, on the other hand, said that the main tourist attraction in Park City is "old town." She advocated the continued development of the area as a tourism center, adding that she strongly favored : the development of the area as a quality residential neighborhood. neighbor-hood. She said that by restricting conditional use, the older section of town cpuld be developed positive- -t.i (-:-Jptl V;it' more capcaidates was indeed sympathetic and harmonious to the heavy beamed buildings erected during Park City's silver rnining heyday; Bill Bertagnole was then asked "why he resigned from the Planning Commission Commis-sion in 1975 and what assurances do the people of Park City have that he won't resign his Council seat if elected?" Mr. Bertagnole told the audience that he was forced to abdicate his commission com-mission post because his ranching business had prohibited pro-hibited him from regularly attending meetings. He vowed that his business interests had since changed, leaving him free to devote his time to municipal matters should he be elected. Councilman Eleanor Bennett Ben-nett was then asked "if she felt a need to overcome a pervasive anti-city hall sentiment senti-ment amongst voters during her current re-election bid?" Miss Bennett responded that she was "sorry that thought came up" and stressed a need for greater communication communica-tion between the residents and city hall. She admitted that maybe people had been mistreated at the municipal offices because "everyone has been so busy" and vowed to give more personal attention to all residents. ;:'ti- j- ti?f ' , ' i; ; . . Plsass Turn to Psss 7A next, candidates were asked from the ' floor- about the future development of park land in the city. Bill Bertagnole thought the city should "definitely" acquire more park land and advocated legislation which would require developers to deed portions of their projects pro-jects to the city to be used as parks and open space. Eleanor Bennett on the other : hand, thought that park land should be developed near the school sites for greater use. Greg Lawson also favored acquiring more park land. Helen Alvarez was of the opinion that the city had spent more money on cemetery ceme-tery maintenance than on park up-keep last year. She thought that a professional supervisor should be hired to oversee Park City's parks and that the private open space in Deer Valley should be deeded over to the city. Tina Lewis stressed the need to concentrate on What we have now. "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right," she said. "We have to complete what we now have and make them all first class recreation facilities." . Tom Shellenberger conclud-,. ed that it was his opinion that the responsibility of developing develop-ing recreational open space should be shared by the developers. . The fmal question answered- by all the candidates involved the need for. a public swimming pool. Eleanor Bennett said that if the land and money were available she would be in favor of a pool, but added that it was her understanding understand-ing as a Councilman that a pool was not economically feasible at this time. On the other hand, Helen Alvarez insisted that "if we want it badly enough, we can get it." She said that the people should be a top priority and suggested that city explore alternative means of financing financ-ing the project. Tom Shellen- oerger saiq ne presently would like to see a public pool in Park City but thought the city had other priorities which' -should be delt tvith first. Tina Lewis said she felt a need to look at the present n e e d s: -a nd : w ants, of I the community before making a decision on the pool, and Bill Bertagnole felt the question should have been posed on the; ballots: of this election. Greg Lawson was in favor of the pool, but questioned finances. He, however, admitted ad-mitted that other communities communi-ties smaller than Park City have public pools. Finally, each candidate was asked a particularly-directed particularly-directed and somewhat pointed question selected from the hundreds submitted prior to the evening's activities. activi-ties. First, Tina Lewis was asked "given her extensive involvement in the arts community, if she felt she was knowledgeable enough about community issues to function effectively in the political community?" She responded that through her involvement, which had not been exclusively arts-oriented, she had become very familiar with the problems currently facing Park City, and that her involvement had given her an insight into the solutions to, many of. those problems. . ' "., , Next, Helen Alvarez was asked "why, if she seemed Jo advocate historical preservation preser-vation so vehemently, did she and her husband employ seemingly modern architecture architec-ture when remodeling their Park City ski shops?" Mrs. Alvarez said she advocated the preservation of Park City's historic flavor but added that his flavor can be preserved most effectively in new buildings by following an architectural design sympathetic sym-pathetic to the old and not by simply creating copies of what once was. She said she felt the Timberhaus addition ; n if , V 1 ; s -' J ft If "' r With his noodle in the noodles, this Don fell victim in the saucy slaying: the Saturday Massacre. candidates Next, Greg Lawson was asked "if he felt he could adequately represent the business interests of Park City given the fact he makes his living in Salt Lake?" Mr. Lawson said that in his position as a planner, he has worked professionally with many other communities and that through his job he has gained important insight and experience which would be beneficial to the Park City business community. Finally Tom Shellenberg-er Shellenberg-er was asked "to explain why the Fire District with which he is involved, recently, approved a number of new units with inadequate water Ccntinusd frcRi P;j SA systems?" JrUhaLMr. Shellenberger responded that the Fire District is in certain instances unfamiliar with the design of the city's water system and that they have to rely on the City Engineer for assistance. He said that approvals are given by the Fire District which are contingent upon a subsequent subse-quent review by the Engineer Engi-neer at which .time any unforseen complications are brought to light. At this time, the evening was adjourned with candidates candi-dates leaving to ponder the effectiveness of their responses, re-sponses, and residents to consider their choices on Election Day. |