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Show ' " ' ' ' ,' ' ' " '"" ' '". ' ' ' . ' . ... ' j ' r - . ' ' (nil I r- i ij j: ... - .. . - Z Ladt ml !, in i i umI Mt Ulimmmtiimm mmtiJH d m,rm m kit! onrisiopnerbmarl This helicopter hoisted 32 ski lift towers up to the Park City Ski Area. New Town Lift changes cityscape by CHRISTOPHER SMART Record staff writer After years of debate and planning, what seemed to be a monumental task was accomplished bylunchtime. It's in, it's for real the Town Lift will be carrying skiers up the mountain from Park Avenue just as soon as nature supplies the prerequisite (snow, that is). Early Friday morning, Aug. 2, the whirlybird from Rocky Mountain Helicopters fired up its rotors and plucked, with precision, 32 ski lift towers from a staging area near the Depot. Working with relay team coordination, ground crews from CTEC Construction Co. hustled up and down the mountain, fastening the huge towers in place. One after another, all morning, the towers were picked up, airlifted and installed along a line parallel to the towers, which once were the aerial tramway used to bring ore out of the Silver King Mine. The new triple chair will have a capacity of 1,800 skiers an hour. ' From one perspective, the lift is seen as the impetus to revitalize the , Historic Main Street commercial 1 area. It is hoped by merchants the Town Lift will be reason enough for vacationers to stay in the Main Street ' area. ; The Town Lift is the centerpiece of plans to develop the Depot area into a lodging and commercial center. But it also is believed that projects like the Park City Redevelopment Agency's proposed Marsac Hotel will be more attractive to visitors because a chair lift is within sight a brief trolley ride away. Yes, even the trolley, which will arrive about the time the lift is cranked up for the first time, is part of the overall scheme of things, of which the Town lift is the focal point. Change is in the offing. And as the old ore tram and the Silver King Coalition Building changed the landscape, so has the Town Lift and those projects to follow. But history and change were not on the minds of CTEC and Rocky Mountain Helicopter crews as they retraced their steps to install cross members with pulleys on the towers that now stand in a line to the top of the ridge near the gondola angle station. From the base station on Park Avenue, the triple-chair rises 1,234 vertical feet. Park City Ski Area future plans call for another chair lift, which will connect the Town Lift to the Pioneer triple-chair lift, which was installed last summer by CTEC. The Town Lift is also capable of downloading those who want to come to the Main Street area but don't want to ski down Quittin' Time nr the new Creole run into OM T |