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Show Promoters promise better handling of ParkWest concert parking problem by RICK BROUGH Record staff writer Promoters of the ParkWest concert con-cert series said Wednesday they will utilize an improved parking control to avoid problems seen at the June 10 Howard Jones concert held outdoors at the resort. J' J.C. McNeil, president of United Concerts, and Wayne Ragland, general manager of ParkWest Resort, made the pledge after addressing concerns raised by the Summit County Commission at the commission meeting in Coalville June 19. The Jones concert was the first of eight programs now scheduled for the ParkWest Summer Concert Series, sponsored by United Con-- Con-- certs, Pepsi and PM Magazine. The next concert, with Emmylou Harris and David Allen Coe, is set for this Saturday. Ragland acknowledged a problem developed on June 10 when 24 parking attendants allowed parking to sprawl over the area and concert goers to park along the main ParkWest road. This restricted the ability of cars to travel to designated parking areas, which caused drivers to park in large numbers along Utah Highway 224. Summit County Sheriff Fred Eley had expressed concerns about the concert aftermath in which swarms of people moving down the Park-West Park-West road shared the space with slow-moving cars. In the future, Ragland said, barricades will be set up along the ParkWest road and traffic advisories will be posted along Highway 224. He also said cars will be kept out of the condominium areas. A 150-space parking lot in the north condo area of ParkWest will no longer be used. On a related topic, Ragland strongly denied that a new procedure for selling beer was abused at the concert. In previous years, beer was sold and consumed in a restricted area. For the 1985 series, the county allows concert goers to buy beer and take it back to their seats on the hillside. The customers can purchase only one beer per I.D. at the concession stand. However, Commissioner Tom Flinders said citizens told him the rule was evaded by having more than one beer stand. Ragland said the charge wasn't true, and there was only one beer stand. The real alcohol problem comes, he said, from concert goers drinking before they enter the concert area. Flinders asked why beer sales were needed at all. Because, said McNeil, if it were prohibited audiences would create a worse situation by sneaking in alcohol. Ragland said the promoters would be willing to post an officer, at their expense, to watch beer sales. Sheriff Eley said his force of seven officers wasn't enough to handle the large concert crowds. In response, Ragland said he was willing to pay for, additional metv, from the sheriff's patrol, or provide money above overtime pay to county officers already working long hours. "Time and-a-half (for overtime) isn't enough," he said. "We're asking for another chance," he said. Ragland stressed the concert series is vital for the economic survival of ParkWest. "If we don't have concerts, we won't have a ski resort." Commissioner Stan Leavitt said of the June 10 show, "To put it very bluntly, we don't want it to happen again." Both he and Flinders expressed interest in looking at a future concert. |