Question of the Day: Will Ebola Impact Park City Tourism?
We received a message from a citizen today asking whether we thought Ebola would impact Park City tourism. We don’t think Ebola will but we wouldn’t be surprised if EBOLA FEAR does. The CDC has requested an interview with 132 passengers who flew on a flight with a nurse (that hasn’t tested positive) but who treated the Dallas Ebola patient who died. This, combined with all the other media (over) coverage that sinks into people’s minds could make people be less likely to book trips right now.
Even we have some business trips planned and aren’t that excited about hopping on a plane. We wouldn’t be surprised if people postpone their early season trips and wait until Spring to see if this all blows over. It’s not too hard to imagine a family in New Jersey not wanting to get on a plane at Christmas time.
About the only comparison we have is the SARS epidemic from 2003. Air travel was down about 10 percent in the US.
So, who really knows… but if things continue down this path, it will likely at least shift when visitors come this year.
Supporters of Light Rail Up Parleys Must Be Smoking the Ganja While Watching Their Warren Miller Films
The promise of light rail is alluring. Hop on a high speed train in Salt Lake and be effortlessly transported to Park City. No traffic. No stress. Pure Bliss. There’s only one problem … Distance X’s Dollars.
First, let’s talk distances from Salt Lake to Park City. The closest TRAX station (to us) in Salt Lake is near the University of Utah. Let’s use that as a starting point and say that light rail would run from there to a new stop in Jeremy Ranch. That distance is 20.5 miles. If we go further to Canyons it is 23.7 miles. If we run it all the way to PCMR it’s 27 miles. Now they could build some sort of park and ride at the bottom of Parley’s Canyon but we’re not exactly sure where that would go or why people would drive part of the way to Park City and then ride. So, we’ll figure they’ll want to connect the Park City route to the rest of TRAX.
Now, let’s talk money. According to Wikipedia, “Over the US as a whole, excluding Seattle (which was much more expensive), new light rail construction costs average about $35 million per mile.” In Salt Lake they were able to do it for under $20 million a mile; however, we will go with the national averages since it has to be harder going over a mountain than merely around a valley.
Finally let’s multiply these together to figure out what it would cost to build the various routes:
SLC to Jeremy Ranch —-> $717,500,000
SLC to Canyons ———–> $829,500,000
SLC to PCMR————–> $945,000,000
If we are really concerned with reducing traffic in the Snyderville Basin, it won’t do much good to stop at Jeremy Ranch or the Canyons for that matter. People will want to ride into Park City. The cost to do that is almost a cool BILLION DOLLARS. That’s the entire budget of Park City and Summit County for almost 7 years. They could buy every household in the Snyderville Basin an electric car for half that.
Frankly, it’s insane. Just think what could be done with a $945 million. That’s a lot of open space. That’s a lot of education. That’s a lot of teachers. That’s a lot feeding the poor. That’s a lot of animals saved. That’s a lot of affordable housing….
Whatever your thing is… a billion dollars buys a lot of it.
There has to be a different solution. Oh, and how well does it work in 2 feet of snow at 5°F? Good luck with that.
Thoughts on Chris Robinson’s Appearance on KPCW
Last week we were pretty negative on Summit County Council candidate Craig Williams’ appearance on KPCW. We didn’t (and still don’t) agree with his stances on how he would improve relations with the east-side of Summit County, County finances, and the General Plan. This morning his opponent in the election, Chris Robinson, appeared on KPCW and we thought we would provide some random thoughts on questions he answered during the interview:
- Mr Robinson described himself as a co-owner of the Ensign Group. During previous elections, Mr Robinson’s land development and cattle business background came up. Interestingly we haven’t heard any concerns about that. Maybe his tenure on the Council have laid those fears to rest?
- Speaking of business interests, while we were looking to see if anyone was bringing up his business background, we did find that Mr Robinson appears to partly own a non-profit water company in North Salt Lake (Oquirrh Mountain Water). We don’t know exactly why this bugs us. It’s likely because Mr Robinson negotiated the Weber Basin water agreement and we weren’t aware of this connection (maybe others were). That being said, we can’t put our finger on why it would be a conflict of interest. Some might even say that the experience he has there is beneficial. It just took us aback a bit.
- Leslie Thatcher from KPCW asked Mr Robinson about his biggest successes in office. He led with the increase in open space during his tenure as one of the the biggest achievements. Most people would probably agree with that.
- Ms Thatcher then typically follows up with a question about the impact open space has on affordable housing, and she did here too. Mr Robinson said there was affordable housing added in places like the Village at Silver Creek and Liberty Peak Apartments. We understand Ms Thatcher’s line of questioning and understand how less available land drives up prices. However, it seems like the real culprit in the lack of new affordable housing is the ability to pay a fee in lieu of building. Instead of building affordable housing, you simply pay money. The County then chooses how to use this money but rarely does it build a new set of affordable houses or condos. If Mr Robinson, or anyone, really wanted affordable housing to accompany all development, they would work to get the fees-in-lieu option removed from the development code. However, we’re not sure what portion of residents here actually want that.
- Ms Thatcher asked Robinson about the interaction with the east-side. He said it was getting better. In our opinion, it appears that it has. We’re not sure if that is directly due to Mr Robinson but he is part of the team making that happen.
- Ms Thatcher asked him whether the General Plan should be advisory or binding. He said it should be advisory because otherwise there would be two sets of codes competing and that would cause problems. We agree. It took something like four years to make an advisory General Plan. We can’t fathom how long it would take to make it both regulatory in nature and bullet proof.
- We think Mr Robinson left out his most valuable contribution to the County Council when asked by Ms Thatcher. Over the past couple of decades it appears the County has got itself into bad contracts more than once. We have witnessed Mr Robinson go line by line through 50 to 60 pages of contracts during a meeting, nit-picking every detail — so much so that other council members have asked if he could do that before the meeting. Yet, this diligence has likely saved the County already and will continue to over the coming years. Even if you don’t like Mr Robinson’s politics, this may be reason enough to vote for him.
So as we always say, we don’t endorse candidates. Everyone has their own experiences and issues that matter to them. We just hope in the upcoming election you’ll rise up to make the decision for the candidate that you think will serve your needs the best — whether that’s Craig Williams or Chris Robinson.
in Film Studio
Park City Film Studios Says They Are Resuming Construction
Park City Film Studios issued a press release today stating that “Construction Development Continues After Brief Cessation”. The press release says the studio came to an agreement with Gary Crandall, the owner/developer of Newpark Town Center “to advance completion of this project”.
Construction company Sahara, L.L.C. has confirmed (according to the press release) that they will begin paving so that construction can continue through winter.
We are glad that someone had stepped into assist and hopefully this is good news for the development. That said, we will wait to see the black of the asphalt before we get too excited. The Press Release is Here.
h/t to the citizen that tipped us off to this info
Note: We’ve updated our studio timeline of events with this new information
in Scams
in Basin Rec
Cancer Concern on Basin Rec Fields?
Would you let your kids play on a pile of old tires at the land fill? How about the synthetic turf at the Basin Rec Fieldhouse, Quinn’s Junction, and Matt Knoop Park? Did you know that most synthetic turf uses those same recycled tires? They make up part of the crumb rubber that flies up from the turf as people run, dive, and roll. The potential danger of synthetic turf was highlighted by an NBC News report and makes us wonder about the safety of the fields which are used by not only used by our community’s athletes but our smallest children during Toddler Time.
The NBC report begins with Amy Griffin, a University of Washington Soccer coach visiting two female goalies who had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Griffin was helping one of her players pass time during a chemo session, when the nurse who was hooking up the chemo machine, said “Don’t tell me you guys are goalkeepers. You’re the fourth goalkeeper I’ve hooked up this week.” Griffin then starts investigating further and finds 34 young goalies who have come down with cancer like lymphoma or leukemia. She begins to wonder whether this could be attributed to the crumb rubber that goalies dive into, get in their eyes, and ingest throughout every practice and game.
NBC investigated it and “was unable to find any agreement over whether crumb turf had ill effects on young athletes, or even whether the product had been sufficiently tested”. The industry group for synthetic fields says its safe. The EPA looked at the issue 5 years but are backing away from claiming it’s safe because their studies were “limited”. They now says that it is a state and local issue and more research should be done.
There appears to be a couple of issues. First, tires can be made of dangerous substances like mercury, lead, benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and arsenic. The vice President of Marketing for FieldTurf, a name brand synthetic field say that the chemicals are vulcanized and become inert, so therefore they pose no danger. Others aren’t so sure. The second issue appears to be VOC gasses that the fields give off. A state of Connecticut report on the subject concluded “that ‘the use of outdoor and indoor artificial turf fields is not associated with elevated health risks,’ but that more research was needed to better understand chemical exposures on outdoor fields during hot weekends and in indoor facilities, which showed higher levels of chemicals in the air”.
These concerns have led New York City and Los Angeles to stop installing the fields. San Francisco and New Jersey are putting the issue of whether to continue to use synthetic fields on this November’s ballot so voters can decide.
This is an important issue for the residents of Snyderville Basin. Most of our kids will play throughout their young lives on Basin Rec fields. On one side we have the industry group behind these products saying they’re safe. On another side we the EPA who says they’re not sure anymore. On another side there are correlations that seem to be screaming that something is going on. Then there are the parents of Park City who wonder if they should let their children use the fields at all.
In November, Basin Rec is asking for a $25 million bond for another sheet of ice at the ice rink, open space, additional parking, and a multi-purpose gymnasium. However, money for Basin Rec may be better spent figuring out an alternative to our field turf. If not, its not too hard to envision someone who has regularly used the fields and develops cancer to bringing a lawsuit against Basin Rec and Summit County for negligence because the potential issue is known (whether it was the cause or not). Basin Rec and the County would then be on the hook for at a minimum fighting that lawsuit and more likely settling it — as well as potentially contributing to causing cancer in one of our young adults.
We know it’s not an easy path but its one we hope Basin Rec would at least look into. They’ve done such a great job in our community and it would truly be a shame if people stopped using their facilities because of this issue.
Please see the eye opening NBC video here:
in Skiing
Epic Ripoff… Don’t Get Taken When Buying Your Pass
Many of us in Park City are rushing to buy our Epic Passes. Unfortunately, many people are paying more than they have to — and yes you can blame this on Vail. An Epic Local pass is $569. As you can see below, we’ve added two passes to our shopping cart. Can you spot the ripoff (you may have to click the image for a bigger version)?
You may think we are complaining over $2 of Additional Products added to the shopping cart. Nope, that actually goes to Mountain Trails. Look above that. $1,178 divided by 2 passes is $589 per pass. Isn’t it supposed to be $569? If you click the small plus sign, you will see Vail has automatically added $20 of pass insurance to each pass without asking or telling you explicitly.
Then if you click to remove one, it hides the box again. You may think you have removed both, but you have to do it again for the second pass.
Everything about this process is designed to grab an extra $20 per pass. This isn’t to say that no one wants pass insurance, because someone might. However, that choice should be made willingly and not by tricking people into buying it.
Imagine if you went to Cole Sport and bought a sweater for $100 and when you checked out they put a pair of gloves in the bag and charged you an extra $20 for them without mentioning it. You wouldn’t stand for it.
This sort of practice isn’t what you would expect from a good company. As our community goes forward in lock-step with Vail we have to remember these sort of practices. If they are willing to do that to their customers, what will they do to you as a vendor, partner, city, or county?
Now our eyes are wide open.
in Election
1,225,644 Reasons to Vote This November
Non-presidential election years always suffer from low voter turnout. Yet, important positions, especially local ones, are determined during these elections. This year we have the many positions up for election ranging from Auditor to a Representative in the US congress.
One would think there are enough important positions to warrant a vigorous turnout, but if not, consider this…the total compensation paid to the winners of these positions is over $1.2 million per year.
Many people think that these are unpaid positions but nothing could be further from the truth. Using the most updated information from Transparent Utah we find the following gross compensation (salary + benefits):
- US House of Representatives – $174,000
- Utah District 53 – $26,000
- Council Council – 2 seats – $35,000 – 42,000 each
- Assessor – $128,000
- Attorney – $158,000
- Auditor – $124,000
- Clerk – $123,800
- Recorder – $125,600
- Sheriff – $125,600
- Treasurer – $116,700
- School Board – 2 seats – $23,000 each
Note: Compensation can vary a little based on what benefits a person chooses to receive.
So while some people call elected positions thankless jobs, and they can be at times, we as tax payers do provide them thousands of dollars in thanks every year.
So if you can’t figure out a reason to vote, you could at least take solace that by voting you are deciding who wins a pretty nice lottery.
in Film Studio
Time Is Running Out on the Film Studio
As we were walking Round Valley this morning, we turned and looked back at the shell of Park City Film Studios and wondered what would become of it. Unlike what was promised weeks ago, there doesn’t appear to be any asphalt laid. The roof is also open in a number of places, allowing water to get in at the foundation of the structure. We are sure it’s not what anyone had hoped but perhaps what should have been expected.
As we continued, the rain turned to ice-pellets and the ice-pellets turned to snow. Winter is truly coming. Nothing seems to have happened at the site in the last month. It appears that will likely continue until at least the Spring.
It’s not looking good for the supporters of the film studio.
in Park Rag
Was Yesterday’s Article on Craig Williams Fair?
I received a question on yesterday’s article What Craig Williams, Candidate for Summit County Council, Got Wrong Today. Essentially, the person asked whether we had written an assessment of any other candidate who had been on KPCW? They were implying that what we wrote about Craig Williams was unfair because we hadn’t written about other people.
While we have written about local politicians appearing on KPCW, I don’t believe we have written on any other candidate. We’ve heard other interviews of people running for office such a David Brickey and Robert Hilder, who are both running for County Attorney. We didn’t write anything on those people, because frankly we don’t have anything to offer. It’s not a topic we have any experience with.
In Mr. Williams case, he brought up 3 topics we are very familiar with, where we thought we could add value to the discussion. We also did go to Mr. Williams website to check his platform to see if it was consistent with what he said on the radio or perhaps whether we had misunderstood a point. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any stances on issues on his site.
That said, if anyone has a different view on positions by Mr. Williams or other candidates, please email us and we will be happy to print it as long as it follows our rules. We aren’t looking for, “I’ve know Joe for 83 years and he is a great guy”. We are sure he is. However if you want to analyze what a candidate has said or perhaps how they voted or handled themselves in office, that would serve to educate both the Park Rag and the community.
We don’t have the time, ability, or knowledge to write something on everyone running for office. So, please help us.
Parkrag
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