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Show TtBno IM fitiopir Letters Policy The Park Record welcomes letters let-ters to the editor on any subject. However, we ask that those letters let-ters adhere to the following guidelines: They should be submitted to the Park Record offices at 419 Main Street, or received in the mail (P.O. Box 3688) no later than 5p.m. Monday. - -They must be signed. --They must not contain libelous material. We reserve the right to edit letters let-ters if they are too long for the space available, or if they contain statements which we consider unnecessarily offensive or obscene. ob-scene. A cheap shot To The Editor: Although the letter to the editor signed by J.M. Walker in last week's (10 Nov.) Record was a swipe at the policies of the school board and Dr. Dozier for being more interested in athletics than academics, I feel it is an indictment of everything I have attempted to bring to fruition during the seven years that I have been at Park High namely, to make the mathscience department tops in the ' state. During my tenure three new math courses were instituted: trigonometry, trigo-nometry, college algebra and calculus. Initial enrollments in these courses were two for calculus and four for trigcollege algebra. Name another high school in the state whose principal would have permitted two courses to be taught having an enrollment less than 10-not cost effective. This year the only worth it, most of the time it's actually fun. I can, however, wait another year before hitting the pavement again! In addition to those of us who babysat the lovely Jeep that now resides at the deserving Mullin home and sold theatre tickets on the street, there were many whose shoe leather is worse for wear after pounding pavement in search of First Nighters and Season Ticket buyers. These include Jonny Totten, Madeline Smith, Roxanne Shapiro, Maggie Reno, Ruth Ann Fitzgerald, Jerry Howells, Patricia Campbell, Judy Troup, Susan Dudley, Jess Reid, Carlyle Morris, other PCP Board Members and Supporting Cast. Special thanks goes to Dick Lueck who managed to corner every Rotarian in sight! In addition to the many volunteers whose hours of work make our drive a success, my sincere thanks go to each of you who purchased everything from a $2 bumper sticker and one chance on the Jeep to $200 First Nighter Couples. We'll try our best to live up to your expectations by presenting the finest in community theatre. Speaking of that, in my opinion one of our finest community theatre experiences has two more days to run. .."Death Trap" will play today (Thursday) and Friday at the Egyptian Egyp-tian at 8 p.rri. While I'm at it, I'll thank Craig Clyde, director, and actors Richard Scott, Robin Riley, Dan Balestrero, Dan Rogers and Vicki Balestrero for a fine show. Mike McKinney's set is simply fantastic! Love notes always end with "hugs and kisses" and "yours forever," so I'll say all that and more to you, Park City. You are great! Ann MacQuoid President PCP Board of Trustees Speaking up for teachers Dear Editor: I can't keep quiet any longer. In response to Mr. Walker (see Nov. 10 letter to the editor) I have this to say. Money is a problem. If you think a teacher stays with his job for money, think again. Could you support four children on a salary of $16,000 a year? In Park City? You talk of the large turnover of teachers money is the reason. Examples: In Idaho the coaches get 9 percent of their pay for coaching. In Wyoming it is 10 percent. In Park City it is only 6 percent. The principal doesn't show preference for sports unless you call going to games and showing school spirit preference. I call it moral support and a love for the kids. If something is not done to rectify the problem of money, you may wake up and be stuck with the task of teaching your own children. The teachers love their students and try their hardest to help them learn what they need to be leaders. Sports help a lot. It teaches disciplines, respect for rules and hard work. Now, are you willing to pay to keep good teachers or do you just want to complain about the turnover and football? Marilyn Critchlow Becky Burns A rebuttal to a rebuttal Editor's Note: Due to space limitations we were not able to print Mrs. Lehmer's response a rL tit i j . t i ii n r . . o ; lni enrollments for these courses have increased to 11 and 25, respectively. Through the largess of the school board and the long range planning of Dr. Dozier, the high school now has one of the finest computer science programs pro-grams in the State with 14 microcomputers, microcom-puters, 60 plus students enrolled in beginning computer science and several others taking advanced computer com-puter science. Next year, Miss Margaret Haun, the computer science teacher, will be offering Advanced Placement Computer Science using the PASCAL language. . As a gauge of the math ability of Park High students, they have taken state and region titles in the State Math test by wide margins over the past two years. Our science program has not responded as well to growth, primarily because of a lack of adequate laboratory equipment. Our new science teacher, Mr. Bill Kahn, has done an outstanding job in "jury-rigging" current equipment for his chemistry and biology courses. He takes his 15 Physics students to the University of Utah Physics lab to conduct their experiments using complex, com-plex, sophisticated equipment which the high school could never afford. In addition, these students receive college credit for this. So, we are making do in science labs but we still need an infusion of much new equipment if we expect to have one of the finest labs extant. For Mr. Walker to state that Dr. Dozier is more interested in athletics than academics is not only in error but a "cheap shot." Dr. Dozier has had a master plan for developing Park High into the finest available, maintaining a delicate balance between academics and athletics. A high school without varsity sports is a sterile environment. Sports are a rallying point for school spirit. In addition, by being athletes x hours per day, they minimize the possibility of becoming participants in the Big D. If that were the only reason it would be sufficient; however, by participating in sport, youngsters develop self-discipline, a sense of personal accomplishment and self-confidence-all attributes to equal their educational accomplishments. I am not acquainted with Mr. Walker but I am disappointed that he "shot from the hip" rather than evaluating the source. He, and anyone else for that matter is invited to visit the math science classrooms to determine whether his youngsters are receiving a quality education. We know they are. CW "Moose" Smith Head, MathScience Dept. P.C.H.S. To Park City, with love Dear Editor: This letter is a "love note" to Park City! We at Park City Performances love you all and thank you more than we can say for helping us achieve the most successful season ticket drive in the history of the "new" Egyptian Theatre. It's really an experience to put yourself and your organization on the line day after day, right in front of the post office, risking rejection, frostbite and canine attention. But, as Nancy Harris (I really love you, Nancy), Val Thurnell, Faye Evans, Steve Chin, Sue Keye, Frank Harris, Richard Scott and I learned, it's not Time for a change Park City Voters: The election is over. By now most of the second guessing is finished and Blair is looking for new subjects to keep off guard with his interviewing skills. Congratulations to Jim, Al, and Tom. You got your messages across. Your campaigns were excellent and I hope your energy levels and courage levels will remain high. I think a word of appreciation is due to Tina and Helen. They did not lose as much as they got caught in a backlash that they were not totally responsible for. Most everyone recognizes the work that Tina has done for the city in the last four or five years. It would take a full column just to list her accomplishments. accomplish-ments. (I am happy that she failed in the big bond election a few years back). Although I have had some disagreements disagree-ments with Helen, I am very cognizant of the level of her commitment to making Park City a better place. Thank you Tina and Helen. We will still count on you for contributions to the city. The voters have signaled that they want a change. I would like to see a broad-based change. The only way this will happen is if Arlene Loble resigns and I call upon her to do that. Anyone who has observed the operation of city government in the past few years realizes that Ms. Loble has been a strong city manager. There is nothing inherently wrong with this and it may have been necessary when she took over. However, there are changes to be made and I am afraid that she will use her influence to stay the course. It is difficult for someone to preside over and make decisions about changes that effect programs that they were instrumental in activating. A new city manager would be in a much better position to work with our new City Council and help them analyze what is best for the city in the years to come. It would be unfair of me not to recognize the good work that Ms. Loble has done. I believe that it was Helen who said that every drawer contained a can of worms when Ms. Loble assumed her responsibility. She effectively effec-tively took care of some of these worms. Unfortunately she created some barrels of snakes in the process. Some of these snakes are going to be biting us for years to come. I think it is time for athange. Large corporations often change successful executives who are in dynamic positions. Their replacements (if they are smart) build upon the solid bricks but change the bricks that show signs of weakness. In other words, much of what Ms. Loble has done has been extremely beneficial but I do not think she is the person to replace the weak bricks or to kill the snakes. Regards, Walt Bishop Thanks Dear Editor, No election campaign can be a success without the help of many people. To those of you who worked so hard, and gave freely of your precious time and energy, we will always be grateful. Sincerely, Al & Bonnie Horrigan to doo wens letter oj ivov. a in mat week's paper. Dear editor and citizens: By the Monday deadline this letter is handed in, the election results will not be known. I hope only that none of you were swayed to vote for Helen or Tina based on the misrepresentations which Bob Wells gave you in his letter of last week, which letter I could not rebut for you before the election and which I could not rebut on the air Sunday night because of the ground rules laid down for KPCW's candidates debate. E To set the record straight, I report the following. The 1968 budget Mr. Wells used in an attempt to discredit the $50,000 city budget I said existed when I arrived as city attorney in January, 1968 was not the same budget I used. Budgets are adopted for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The $50,000 budget in place in January 1968 was adopted July 1, 1967, one year prior to the budget he used as his figure to contradict mine. You don't compare apples to oranges. I said the condition of our roads is no better now on our $8 million budget than they were then on a $50,000 budget. He replies, "We only had 7V2 miles of roads when I arrived late in 1970 and now we have about 30 miles." Before he ever came to town, we had over 12V2 miles of city roads and the state was paying us Class C road funds on that amount. The state makes actual measurements of the roads in use before it pays its funds. Wells disputes my statement that the council has increased its 1968 salaries of $50month per councilman and $75month for mayor by 500 percent to 1000 percent increases. He says $50month to today's $300month per councilman represents an actual increase of only $16.67 per year. Wells is supposed to be a bookkeeper, but my elementary public school arithmetic tells me that $300month minus $50month equals $250 per month, or $3,000 per year. This is a 500 percent increase. And considering that council-men council-men report only part of their $300month salary and denominate part of it as nontaxable "expense" account then their spendable salary income exceeds a 500 percent increase. I am informed that Mayor Green receives a present $12,000 per year salary, or $1,000 per month plus his "expense" account. If this is correct, doubling the mayor's $75 salary to $150month would be a 100 percent increase, but raising it by $1,125 month more is a 1,600 percent Increase. This is not including his "expense" account nontaxable extra benefit. Mr. Wells should have taken up a different occupation than accounting. Mr. Wells attempts to draw a portrait of the "professional" council of which he is a part by comparing it with, the $50month councils. He attempts to deprecate them by saying they met once a month, approved the bills, occasionally had a fight, and went home. If Mr. Wells' research is so poor (and that of his co-councilmen? ) and his misinformation so great, no wonder, no wonder his council's fiscal sanity, Aerie decision, etc., are so suspect. In the first place, the council met on the first and third Thursdays of each month, as required by city ordinance. If all they did was approve the hills and have an occasional fight, then why did council meetings frequently run from 8 p.m. and until 1 or 2 a.m.? Mr. Wells Letters to A5 uaDimiiiiimiineaii mrapiiim . . . 1 city 6 percent of the land of each development so the city would have land for anticipated , needed public parks, city offices, library, fire stations, police stations, etc., and could sell surplus land for money needed to build such buildings, etc. One of the 19 proposals applied only to your company com-pany (which owned the only ski resort in town) and required you to sign an agreement that your ski company would keep its ski hill open to the public in perpetuity. When these 19 propositions were presented to the public, Ed Vetter, who was attempting to develop Prospector Square, jumped up and said, "Bring the contract. I'll sign every proposition that applies to me. I can't sell a square inch of ground without city amenities, and it doesn't cost me a cent. I pass it on as a cost of doing business when I sell lots." Your boss, Mr. King, didn't like the propositions at all. Instead, he offered to let the public use his proposed golf course upon payment of green fees, offered the city one million dollars at interest to help the city "work out its problems," and offered the city for a fire station site a Wa acre lot, 75 percent mountainous and unbuildable, and next door to the sewer treatment plant where no one would buy it for a residence. Within a week, to my and many other's disbelief, my four fellow councilmen reneged on their unanimously-adopted practical and necessary neces-sary 19 resolutions and accepted GPC Co's proposal instead. However, there was so much subsequent public outcry that they didn't have the guts to sign such a contract with GPC Co. The matter languished until May, 1976, when councilman Jan Wilking, who was in the employ of GPC Co., proposed an alternative solution which would purportedly take care of all the needs the 19 resolutions were designed to cover. He proposed an impact fee of 2 percent of all building costs. He and I had a detailed debate where I detailed to him and Bob Burns, Rich Martinez, Leon Uriarte and whoever the remaining remain-ing council member was, how ridiculous ridicu-lous this proposal would work out in attempting to accomplish the aims of the original propositions. But common sense not being common, these four "representatives of the people" voted to adopt the 2 percent impact fee instead! So, Mr. Wells, you can please do your homework now and find the 2 percent land dedication fee you say my council adopted was in fact a proposal in the resolutions of 6 percent, and the 2 percent of building cost impact fee adopted "later" was actually adopted on Jan's proposal in May, 1975. 1 would appreciate your reviewing it in those minutes and learning for yourself all the things it was supposed to provide, and as I predicted; alfitt'tf Was better thaV'hothingfjyitG ifjdptWed pretty -worthless as concerned your council's failure to collect during your past four years in office even one cent of the million of dollars in uncollected impact fees, site plan inspection fees and building permit fees which the County Attorney's office and the grand jury uncovered and presented to you for your further action. I regret that the 5 p.m. Monday deadline does not permit me to demonstrate the misrepresentations contained in the balance of your letter. I can assure the readers it's just as incorrect as the first part of your letter which I have addressed. Mary Lehmer 1 1 1 Letters from A3 obviously wouldn't know. During the 2k years I served the council as city attorney and during my 4-year term as councilman from 1972-1976, I never sawMr. Wells in attendance at a single "councirmeflng. As for occasional fights, you can bet on it! Councilmen listened to everyone present in the audience (they weren't straight-jacketed as they are now to speak their piece only at 5 p.m., which may be hours before their subject comes on the agenda and the councilmen have had ample time to forget what they paid) , they listened to each other, then each councilman formed his decision, and they vocally and steadfastly maintained their position and voted on it. The public knew where each one stood on each individual issue and knew how to vote on a man's record at the next election. I consider that healthier than what we've been given since a unified clique. Think about the many council vote tabulations you have seen in the newspaper and try to remember an instance where any councilman voted in opposition to his buddies in the clique. Helen tried to explain this away by bragging on the air Sunday night that "we meet (before the public council meetings) and convince each other and then come out with a consensus." The public obviously can't be trusted to know their individual thinking, if they have any. In my first letter, I drew a disparity, which relfected unfavorably on this administration, between what this administration is costing us and what it costs the citizens of Tucson, Airzona, a similarly rapidly-expanding city in an arid desert with water problems as great as ours which the council leans upon to justify many of its massive expenditures and its new water rates which Lamont Gunnerson accurately stated are fast approaching the amount of his monthly mortgage payment. Mr. Wells didn't like my figures, so he gave you in his letter what he represented were the "true" figures on Park City's population and total current general and capital fund budgets and then Tucson's population and total current general and capital fund budgets. I don't know why he bothered. His figures didn't help him or his council justify their rampant budget expenditures (even omitting the $2 million RDA costs). If you bothered to do the arithmetic on Mr. Wells' figures, you would have found that Tucson is costing each man, woman and child about $600 per year to operate Tucson, while Park City's present administration is costing us around $3,000 per year for man, woman and child in Park City.. I have every cenfirf!he)Vl?elievenbis1repi) would accept his figures as support for debunking me and would not take the pains to make the two additions and two subtractions needed to reveal the alarming disparity I drew attention to. Mr. Wells challenges the official U.S. Census figures of population for Park City in 1980. Park City itself challenged the preliminary census figures and caused questionnaires to be sent out to every residence in Park City to unearth missing, allegedly unreported "bodies." Two months after this exercise, the official U.S. Census figure stood at 2646. Mr. Wells knows more than the U.S. In his letter, he stated, "All other research indicates a resident population in 1980 of approximately approxi-mately 3,800. For example, we had over 2,000 registered voters in the city limits." If this is all he has to offer in support of his "all other research," forget it. He'd better go research the 1980 list of registered voters. The last time I had occasion to do this, I found scores of persons who had long since moved out of Park City but continued to vote here to protect their property interests or simply never bothered to transfer their registration and remained remain-ed on the polls. Since we adopted nonpartisan politics for city elections in the mid-'70s, we lost our statutory two-party system right to appoint Mr Wells-continues: "The inspec-tion-Jes and building permit fee increases that Mrs. Lehmer claims credjl for were normal fees set forth in the Uniform Building Code and charged by essentially all jurisdictions." jurisdic-tions." You are all wet, Mr. Wells. I wa .instrumental in Park City adopting adopt-ing the Uniform Building Code. It is a thick book. I have never read it through. My knowledge of its contents is that it provides minimum standards of performance, which standards Park Oitj neecfcd and dfd -.not have. If it coiftairis tnormal fee... charged by essentially all jurisdications," that is news to me. No other councilman knew U egttftrmr mentioned it Otherwise, I woffTCNiavV learned if then, not now. We knew we had abysmally low fees based on our latest revision of city ordinances adopted back in 1942. We adopted whopping increases in fees independently of whatever the building code may have contained, for reasons which included getting up to date with 30 years' post-war inflation which intervened after those pre-war poverty level fees were set. Mr. Wells' next effort to prove how stupid I am or else how much I twist th fruth ' is this' Statement: "The 2 percerit 'impa'dt' 'fee adopted by Mrs. Lehmer's, administration was a 2 pefcVit )ahd dedication fee ... This was lat changed to the present 2 percent of1 building cost.'" Ii.' yoit and your colleagues base your decisions on this brand of misinformation and lack of research, no wonder you have brought us ito, ,tjhexo'itantl costlv condition wl? n9w,njoyc7), :'i, ; .;The, truth of the matter is well known to youBoBYu 'were present when all of the fdlroVing Events t6ok place. You came to tqwn with Greater Park City Co, whiph was intimately and provoc-auyejymvolved provoc-auyejymvolved with the events that followed After Ed Morgan left your company ypu sat on the right hand of Gbd 'fWarren King, President of GVfC.jCo.) and J. J. JohiWon sat on the other Kand. Your Holy Trinity decided to rule fhis city of kicks, which you ca'm'e into a fully-developed city of adequate services for its inhabitants and a 196 water and sewer treatment plant bond issue adequate for future expansion of all the undeveloped lots in Park City, with, infrastructure and taxes and service and connection fees adequate to support it. In 1971, in its naivete, that council allowed you to annex 300 acres of Thaynes Canyon into the city without assessing you for any of the costs that would be inflicted upon the existing city for the increased water, sewer treatment, and all the other city amenities the people you would bring to those 300 acres would cost the city. You obtained permits to build within 1500', of the Thirist Springs water . source Which water you needed for devel6pmefltsof your : 300 acres When ' you needed to tap this water, the State Board of Health said buildings with 1500' of the souurce cotaminated it; it could not be used without a water treatment plant. So Park City had to pay for the water treatment plant you rendered necessary before you could use the water. Then the Holy Trinity advised us that no one except persons who bought land or leased rentals from you could use your ski hill, except that permanent residents of Park City who completed and filed your application form would be given permission to ski your facilities and lodge owners would be required to pay you $100 per year per pillow for their guests to use your hill. The light was dawning. In May 1973, my council, in the only moment of sanity it ever exhibited, unanimously adopted 19 resolutions whereby all developers, subdividers and annexees would have to bear the costs of meeting the demands made on the city to serve the needs of the new-coming waves of people. These resolutions included among other things that each such developer, etc., had to procure and deed to the city water sufficient for each development, provide a private park commensurate with the size of each such development, deed to the representatives from eacn party to challenge illegal voters. Other means are available, but I know of no one who has involked them except in one instance. When I as a councilman with no conflicts of interest and no selfish interests (not shared by the majority of the councilmen with whom I served) voted in the best interests of the community when an issue conflicted with the proposals of Greater Park City Co. (then a subsidiary of, and now the predecessor of, Park City's present Royal Street Co.), such votes were invariably 4-1. Although my vote did not prevail, Greater Park City Co. and then-Mayor John Price, could not stand the embarrassment of my Letters to the Editor where I exposed each issue for what it was and the reasons I voted against it. They circulated a petition around town to get me off the council by charging primarily that I was not a legal resident of Park City. In 1977, a grouof citizens circulated a petition to put my name on the ballot for councilman when I chose not to run. My detractors raised the furor anew claiming that I was not a legal resident of Park City. The City Recorder asked for an opinion from the Attorney General of Utah. Based on my sworn affidavit anany conflicting evidence presented, the "Attorney General opined that no court in the land would fail to find that I was a legal resident of Park City. This is the only instance that I know of where anyone's legal residence resi-dence and right to vote in Park City was challenged. |