in Schools
Park City High School Ranks Between 14th and 19th Best Utah High School in Sage Results
The State of Utah released Sage standardized test results today. Park City High School was ranked:
- 19th best High School in the state in Language. 51.6% of students were proficient.
- 15th best High School in the state in Math. 44.6% of students were proficient.
- 14th best High School in the state in Science. 54.4% of students were proficient.
Zoom Restaurant Inspection
Summit County Health Department inspected Zoom on 9/16/2014. We have created a page on how to read the Inspection Report. We’ll highlight the things that may be of interest. Please read the full report below for a complete and accurate report.
Good Practices:
- Insects, rodents, and animals not present
- Toilet facilities properly constructed, cleaned, supplied.
Temperatures:
- Ground meat / Walk-in 36º
- Eggs/ Reach-in 39º
- Salmon / Drawer 37.6º
Observations and Corrective Actions:
- Store ground meats below whole cuts
- Bar dishwasher needs sanitizer
- Drawer temp on line above 41º
in Schools
A Park City School Board member says we are wrong about PC CAPS Building Discussion
We received a comment from a Park City School District Board member on our story School Board Postpones Decision on Professional Studies Building Indefinitely Without Any Discussion?. We had said that we didn’t feel there was discussion regarding the PC CAPS building because the meeting seemed to move from a letter stating that the vote on the building should be postponed; to a motion stating this; to a discussion about capital budgets, building and committees; to a vote on postponing the building.
The school board member took issue with our opinion. She stated that “this post is simply wrong”. She then points to a portion of time after the motion and says “Simple math – that was a 26 minute discussion on this decision”. We are the first to admit we could get something wrong, so we reviewed the video again.
The board member is correct, there is a 26 minute discussion. However, we stand by our opinion. In reviewing the “discussion” it seems to generally be about a Master Planning Committee. I don’t think we heard the words “Professional Studies Building” or “PC CAPS Building” once in this discussion. How is the “thing” that the motion and vote are about not the focus of the discussion?
From the public’s view there was vote for the Professional Studies Building that easily passed in May. We then heard there was going to be another vote to reaffirm the original vote. We then see in the meeting that a letter is read by the Superintendent saying she thinks we should wait on the building until priorities are decided by a committee. We then see a motion being made to do this. We then see a discussion about budgets and the cost of Treasure Mountain. Finally a vote is taken on delaying the building and the motion passes.
What did we expect to see? Perhaps someone explaining why they originally thought we needed the building immediately but now it was OK to hold off. Maybe comments on over crowding and how this building could be used for other things to reduce crowding so they need to go ahead. Perhaps comments on the public outcry against moving so fast, so they agree the board needs to wait. Basically, where was the discussion on why the building should or should not be delayed given its checkered past? It all seemed absent.
In our opinion, there was a leap from “we have to have this building” to “let’s delay this indefinitely” with no explanation to the public. That leaves us wondering if the discussion never happened, whether the Superintendent’s speech was so amazing that it left everyone both immediately agreeing and speechless, or whether the discussion happened somewhere else.
We are left looking at an immaculate conception. All of a sudden out of nowhere comes a baby. It’s here, so we all wonder where it came from. Call us politically perverted, but we want to see the sex.
This is of course our opinion. We are sure other opinions vary. We would recommend watching the video below and forming your own conclusion. You may want to see the superintendent read her letter at about 00:27:30. Then you may want to watch from about 1:28:30 where the motion is made to 1:54:00 where the vote on the building occurs. Do you feel you received an adequate explanation of why the board members who previously voted 4-1 on this are now willing to put it on hold? Do you believe this was the only discussion that took place that convinced four people to change their minds? Perhaps you do and you think we have it completely wrong. Perhaps you are right.
We, however, stand by our original opinion. It just seems strange.
Note: The School Board’s video does not see to work on some mobile phones. It you don’t see a video above, you can try the original link:
Park City Chinese And Thai Restaurant Inspection
Someone asked if we had a restaurant inspection for Park City Chinese and Thai. It looks like we do. Here you go…
Summit County Health Department inspected Park City Chinese and Thai on 9/16/2014. We have created a page on how to read the Inspection Report. We’ll highlight the things that may be of interest. Please read the full report below for a complete and accurate report.
Good Practices:
- Physical facilities installed
Temperatures:
- Beef /reach-in 37º
- Eggs/ walk-in 34º
- Shrimp / cold-table 41º
Observations and Corrective Actions:
- Dishwasher temp below 120º
- Sanitizer level below 50 ppm
- Need to date mark food
- Store raw products below veggies
When Basin Recreation Screws Up… People Notice
Anger is overflowing in parts of Jeremy Ranch. A field that many neighbors use to play soccer with their kids, let their kids run loose, and from all accounts, a good use of open space, has been converted into a small dog run. Residents are voicing concern, such as “It is a dog park and I cannot understand why they took the field away to do it! We used that field all the time. I wish they would have asked the neighborhood for input. Bummer! And I own a dog!” Another said, “I emailed a person at Basin Rec. I really feel they should have asked for neighborhood input prior to doing this. We play kickball and soccer on the field.”
The response posted from Basin Rec was “I can provide you a little back ground as to why we put the park in there. Through our community surveys and needs and wants assessments off leash dog areas were an item that we were lacking according to both reports. And with the county starting to put more emphasis on having dogs leashed in public areas we felt the need to provide areas where the community could legally have their dogs off leash. So our goal is to provide an off leash area in every community park to accommodate park users that bring and like dogs and park users that want to avoid dogs but still use our services. We understand that it is a change from what you have had up there but hopefully the community is able to embrace it. Please let me know if you have any other questions.” –Brian Hanton, CPRP, CYSA Recreation and Park Manager
Basically … we have orders to put in small dog parks and we did it there. We hope you’re OK with it but if not…oh well.
It highlights an issue we’ve never considered before with Basin Rec and open space. We always thought of open space as these wide open swaths of land. However, what if the open space they are buying are smaller parcels and then convert them into whatever they want? Perhaps they buy a couple of lots next to your house and build a trailhead with parking. The county needs more trailheads with parking and they hope you are OK with it. If not, sorry. What if they buy land behind your house and convert it to a dog park. There’s nothing like being woken and going to bed with the sounds of dogs.
Basin Rec has done many good things for our community. Many of us use their trails, parking lots, and facilities every day. However, this highlights the other side of the coin. At what point do they start doing things that aggravate the population. Perhaps it’s not enough for them to tell us they are going to spend $15 million of the upcoming bond on “open space”. Now we have to question what that really means too. The devil’s unfortunately in the details.
While open space always sounds good, it appears that sometimes reality doesn’t meet expectations.
As always, we don’t want to tell you how to vote on the upcoming recreation bond; however, its becoming apparent that we can’t put blind trust even in some of the things that have worked out well for us in the last decade. You may end up wishing the $25 million dollar Basin Rec bond wasn’t passed when the “open space” ends up right next to you and you have little warning and even less say … or you may love what they do with the money. Unfortunately it appears both outcomes must at least now be considered.
Just Try to Complete The Sage Test Yourself… We Dare You
We are excitedly awaiting the SAGE testing results that are due to be released next week. SAGE is a new state of Utah standardized test where our all students did so poorly that they are considering changing the grading system. It sounds like most school districts as a whole got a D or F and when the results are released to the public it’s expected that parents are going to go ballistic.
As much as we like to pile on to criticism of …well anything… we had some extra time so we went out and tried the SAGE sample tests in math. You see, we were pretty good in math back in the day. AP math classes throughout high school. Quizzed out of basic college math. A’s in every college calculus class taken. Minor in Computer Information Systems.
The state offers sample tests in the various areas quizzed on the test.We started with 12th grade math to see how “awesome” we were going to do and how easy the test was. UHHH… we had to work our way down to 6th grade math to really feel confident in most of our answers. What’s an imaginary number again?
Now, it’s true that the concepts should be MUCH fresher to our current students than those of use who graduated in the previous millennium. However, before you go all Adrian Petersen on your kid (or school district), you may want to give the test a go yourself.
You can take a sample test here. Good Luck.
Shoyu Sushi Restaurant Inspection
Summit County Health Department inspected Shoyu Sushi on 9/14/2014. We have created a page on how to read the Inspection Report. We’ll highlight the things that may be of interest. Please read the full report below for a complete and accurate report.
Good Practices:
- Variance obtained for specialized processing practices
- Utensils properly stored
Temperatures:
- Shrimp / Display 29º
- Crab/ display 35º
- Tuna / display 58º
- Salmon / reach-in 36º
Observations and Corrective Actions:
- No sanitizer bucket
- Item in ice machine
- Tuna in cold hold display over 41º
- Employee food needs designated area out of food prep area
- Remove child play equipment in back
- Use gloves during food prep
The Battle For Boyer Heats up (Again)
In the Snyderville Basin, there are roughly four obvious areas for development: Silver Creek, the area by Home Depot, land north of Highway 40, and the Boyer Tech Park. The homes are starting to pop up in Silver Creek, 1000 units are planned near Home Depot, and the Highway 40 land is awaiting treatment per the EPA. What about the Boyer Tech Park?
The Boyer Tech Park is an area between the Village at Kimball and the Olympic Ski Jump. There is over a million square feet of development approved there. The catch is that it’s been tagged for businesses related to technology, science, and R&D. In the original development agreement there are certain uses (fitting the description above) that are allowed. If it’s not in that list, then it can’t be built there. The idea was to bring high-tech, high-paying jobs to Summit County. They also wanted to ensure that they wouldn’t canibalize other areas of town like the Kimball Village. So, they didn’t allow generic office space or restaurants. Finally, they didn’t want a lot of traffic. They felt the limited types of businesses would limit traffic.
You may then ask why the one building built so far has a visitors center, coffee shop, physical therapy office and a resort check-in located in it. Please don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to. We’ll leave that one for never another time.
When the original building was built, the Summit County Council was responsible for deciding whether each individual tenant met the requirements for the “Tech Park”. They felt this was untenable going forward. The main issue with the existing process was that it required the county council to micro manage the process. Secondarily, a full plan had to be created and evaluated to see if it met the stringent requirements. This required a significant amount of money from the developer. So, about a year ago a new process was implemented.
A company could submit a “description of use” document to Summit County. This went to the Community Development Director, the County Manager, and the Chair of the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission. They would then determine whether the use described was consistent with the uses in the Development Agreement.
Over the past year, it appears there were a couple of informal discussions between organizations and the the county on whether it made sense to submit the “description of use” document. We have no definite information on those but it appears that formal requests were never made. However more recently, a brewery has formerly completed the request and was denied by the county. Since this is the first denial using the process it will be interesting to see what happens. The brewery has the option to appeal the decision to the Summit County Council. If they decide to do that we would expect to see that in the next month or two.
The Boyer Tech Park is an interesting development but perhaps is even more interesting due to the upcoming battle it represents. On one side are people who don’t want more growth. They feel it damages the character of the Basin. On the other side are those people who say we need growth. They feel that the only way to have good schools, great roads, and a diversified economy is through growth. This battle was put on hold due to the Great Recession but with the Park City Film Studio, Park City Heights, East Creek Ranch, and now renewed interest in the Tech Park, it is starting to heat up again.
The next 5 years should tell us a lot about what Park City’s future will be.
in Election
Does Our County Treasurer Need to Have a College Education?
Thursday on KPCW, Corrie Forsling, a candidate for Summit County Treasurer, mentioned she was the only candidate for the position who had a college degree. We thought we may have misunderstood her, so we checked. It appears that she is correct. Her opponent, Amy Yost, has a high school degree, while Ms. Forsling has both a college degree and a Masters in Business.
So, how important is a college education for this position? First, what does a County Treasurer do? According to the Summit County website, “The Summit County Treasurer collects property taxes, receipts and accounts for all county funds, reconciles cash balances, and invests available cash.” So, effectively they collect most of the money the county receives, tracks how much money we have and how it was spent, and invests money.
While we at the Park Rag are big proponents of experience and self-education, these are important responsibilities impacting lots of money and thousands of people. Therefore, we don’t want to be cavalier about it. We look at it this way… does having a generic college degree matter? A college degree demonstrates some ability to complete a task that took many years, that likely contained some adversity. It also shows some worldliness as whether you go to Brown, Miami of Ohio, or the U you are thrown into a situation with a diverse people, many whom are probably as smart or smarter than you. You could possibly gain that without going to college. You’d likely need to search it out, but you could find it.
However, let’s take the thought exercise a step further. If you were looking for someone to manage your money, be it an investment advisor, private banker, or the person who manages your organization’s pension fund what educational background would you want? You’d likely want someone with a business degree, or better yet some sort of masters degree related to finance. You’d want them to have both practical experience and the academic knowledge to backup decisions.
So, our opinion is that something like an Art History degree wouldn’t do much for our Treasurer. Just having a random college degree isn’t enough. In a county like ours with so much money and so much going on, we should demand the best and brightest person available. That person probably should have some sort of business degree.
in Election
Bravo KPCW! You should do this more often!
Right now (as we are writing this), KPCW has Doug Payne and Julie Eihausen, candidates competing for the School Board on the radio. Having both candidates running for the same position on the radio at the same time allows citizens to compare and contrast not only the answers to questions but each candidate’s style. At the end of the broadcast they then took calls from citizens who had questions.
It was really informative and compelling. We hope they can do more of this in the future!
Parkrag
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