“I’m announcing a change in our color-coded guidelines We are going to make a modification t the orange guidelines to accommodate Salt Lake City School District and those schools within the district limits so they can open up.”

Park City is a tourism economy. We depend on Sundance

You have to love Utah. Rich, entitled developers manipulate the legislature to make up rules that can make them millions. One of their last names is Romney.

Such is the case with the town of Hideout.

Hideout is a town of about 900 people, near the Jordanelle Reservoir, on your way to Kamas. I knew of it, from a few years ago, as a place where you may live if you couldn’t find anyplace else to live. It seems the town wants to grow up, but like most adolescents, it is doing it in a stupid way. Hideout is trying to add land, that they can control, which isn’t adjacent to the town. They want to annex parts of Summit County, that don’t touch Hideout, whichare actually in Summit County, even though Hideout is in Wasatch County.

It would be like if Park City wanted to annex the Kennecott Copper Mine near Herriman. “Dude, can you imagine the money we could make if we annexed a mine?!!!!! Eff- Yeah!”

So, with joy, I read the motion Summit County filed in the 4th District Court to stop Hideout’s abomination. Summit County wants to stop Hideout from annexing parts of Summit County and laid it out in real terms. I’m often at odds with what Summit County does, but in this case, their filing is an absolute treasure.

The motion opens with the following: “Plaintiff Summit County will be immediately and irreparably harmed unless the Court enjoins and restrains the Town of Hideout in Wasatch County from taking any action to annex portions of Summit County over the objection and without consent of Summit County.” That’s standard legalese that says that our county has standing to object to annexation.

Then they go for the jugular immediately, “The Town of Hideout, a nefarious and arguably unconstitutional hamlet of 900 persons located on the eastern banks of Jordanelle Reservoir in Wasatch County is seeking to annex non-contiguous lands located in neighboring Summit County which until just weeks ago was prohibited by law.”

The motion then says, “Much like the scheme used for the creation of Hideout in 2007 through special-purpose legislation, Developers Nate Brockbank and Josh Romney through surreptitious and deceptive means , spearheaded the passage of HB 359 in an amended form during the 2020 General Session of the Utah State Legislature.”

They are basically saying that the entire town of Hideout is some forsaken spawn of power and the legislature.

Then they say, “Knowing that the Governor and Utah Legislature potentially intend to repeal that deceitfully obtained provision during the 6th Special Session currently scheduled for August 20, 2020, Defendants have initiated and hope to complete a 700+ acre cherry stem annexation and thereafter grant to Developers Romney and Brockbank, a high-density urban level development ten time the size of the current town and landing the monstrosity on the doorstep of Park City, Utah.”

Basically, Mitt Romney’s kid wants to take advantage of “a mistake” and get entitlement rights while he can, knowing that in a couple of weeks, those rights will probably go away.

You can read through the 105-page motion to draw your own conclusion, but as a local, political junky, I love it. Here are some highlights from Summit County’s motion:

“On information and belief, Romney and Brockbank intentionally sought to thwart the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act, Utah Code §52-4-101, et. seq. (the “Open Meetings Act”) by meeting with individual members of the Hideout Town Council, so that their meetings, discussions, negotiations, deliberations, and decisions with respect to the Annexation would be in secret and not subject to public scrutiny.”

“According to Romney, he concluded that ‘there was no hope to getting something done in Summit County, because the Chair of the Summit County Council was not willing to meet with him secretly and outside the public process.”

I’m not sure which chair that was, but if that was Kim, Chris, Glenn, Doug, or Roger … good on you — whoever it was. You REPRESENTED.

Then came the following in the motion, “On information and belief, Romney, Brockbank and their attorney Bruce Baird (“Baird”) used lobbyist Michael Ostermiller (“Ostermiller”) for the purpose of influencing the Utah Legislature to unknowingly adopt tailored-made special purpose legislation which benefited Romney and Brockbank in their Enterprise.”

It continues, “Based on Romney and Brockbank’s interactions with Hideout during this same time period, Plaintiff believes the Application to Summit County was a subterfuge to redirect the focus of Summit County away from Hideout, all the while waiting for the legislative scheme to unfold which would allow them to proceed with the Annexation over the anticipated objections of Summit County, Wasatch County, and Park City Municipal Corporation.”

“Hideout, Romney and Brockbank seek nothing less than to overturn decades of careful land use planning and community development: with non-contiguous land in Summit County they do not own.
The import of this cannot be overstated. From the available information, which is scant, Romney and Brockbank intend to put its North Park development, a high-density mixed- use development on approximately 655 acres of land in Summit County near the junction of State Route 248 and US-40 (Quinn’s Junction) to attract thousands of additional residents and workers. Part of the stunning scam in HB 359S1was that it removed the ability of counties to withhold consent and protest annexations under Utah Code §10-2-418(3) to the Boundary Commission”

So let’s review some of the terms and phrases used by Summit County to describe what Hideout is doing:

• Nefarious
• Unarguably unconstitutional
• Scheme
• Until just weeks ago was prohibited by law
• Through surreptitious and deceptive means
• Chair of the Summit County Council was not willing to meet with him secretly and outside the public process
• Benefited Romney and Brockbank in their Enterprise.

Of course, I’m only citing from Summit County’s motion against Hideout. I don’t believe Hideout, Romney, or Brockbank has responded. So, I will leave it up to you the reader to imagine their responses to this.

One last statement from Summit County’s motion is important. “Hideout does not have the current capacity to provide municipal services to the Development Parcels and does not currently provide for itself the following municipal services: water, sewer, law enforcement, fire and ambulance, transit, animal control, public health services, justice courts and prosecution services, recreation, or libraries.”

What that means is that Summit County would need to provide these services to Hideout — whether we want to or not. Our tax dollars would fund essential services for people who don’t live here, while millionaire’s children get richer.

That may be the Utah way, but it is not the Summit County way.

For the counter argument, please read Hideout Mayor Phil Rubin’s Editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune.

My opinion is that Hideout should go to Hell. You’re a parasite attempting to suck on the success and tax dollars of a successful community. You are trying to benefit from either a knowing or unknowing Utah Legislature that provided developers with an advantage to enrich themselves at the expense of us regular people.

Hideout, I hope you disappear into the sands of time.

For those who are/were part of Hideout,

Margaret Olson, David Thomas, and Jami Brackin, I salute you.

I have followed local government for a long time. Sometimes you hate the outcome but often you respect the people involved and the process. People throughout Summit County and Park City governments are generally competent. They know the game and are respectable.

Tonight I listened to a special meeting from the Hideout Town Council about annexing land in Summit Country. They are the ones that want to annex a whole bunch of land in Summit County and build hundreds of units and hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail by Quinn’s Junction. Their first attempt to annex the land was placed on hold by a judge and they seem to be driven by some force to try again. Tonight’s meeting was an attempt to restart a new annexation plan.

The meeting began with a cover-your-ass session that was enlightening. The Hideout town council voted to agree that the developer, Nate Brockback, was liable for any legal fees incurred from their first attempt to annex parts of Summit County. What? The fact that the town won’t accept the legal responsibilities, and the developer will, tells you everything you need to know about this. How can it be anything but developer-driven? Does Hideout want this or does Nate Brockback and Josh Romney want this?

Then the town council members spoke, well at least two out of the three. One couldn’t be there because he was flying. It was one of the most important moments in Hideout’s history and a third of the town council wasn’t there. That left two members of the council and the Mayor. Given that, any decision had to be unanimous to go forward.

The town council discussed rescinding the original annexation agreement. One member hoped by rescinding the annexation that Hideout, Summit County, and Park City could all work together going forward. Yet, about 15 minutes later the town council was discussing a different plan to annex land in Summit County.

Finally, Ron Winterton and Tim Quinn, from the Utah Legislature came on the line and told them that the intent of the legislature is that this annexation shouldn’t take place right now. Yet, it sounds like they may try again on Thursday to approve annexing pars of Summit County.

What I think is going on is that Hideout has Napoleanic disorder. They are small but they don’t feel small. Members of the Town Council repeatedly said they wanted a seat at the table to influence what is going on around them. They said that they felt more like Park City than Heber and they wanted to influence where they lived.

Unfortunately for Hideout they are what they are. They have 900 people (maybe). They are in Wasatch County. The folks in Heber do control their actions. It has been that way since way before Hideout became a town in 2007.

The way to garner support from Park City and Summit County is not a land grab that costs tax payers thousands of dollars in legal fees. For the Hideout town council person that said, “we just want to get along”, that time has passed.

To put it bluntly, I frankly can’t believe your process. The Snyderville Basin Planning Commission puts in more thought into the grade of a driveway than it seems you have into this idea. Tonight you were asking the developer about traffic impacts and it sounded like you took their answer at face value. In the Snyderville Basin there would have been five meetings about this with the Planning Commission before it ever got to your level. Do you know how long the debate was in the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission about whether there should be a roundabout at Whole Foods?

You are out of your league. I don’t trust you. I don’t trust the developer. This isn’t good for our community.

If we need development there, I will trust Summit County to build it. I don’t always agree with Summit County Planning Director Pat Putt, but I know he is competent. We can at least have a fair discussion about it.

After listening to tonight’s discussion with the Hideout Town Council, I wish I could say the same for them. They appear to be led at the nose by their developers. That never works out well.

If you want to listen to the meeting, click here.

It’s been a surreal 2020. I think most of you’d agree. It became more surreal on Sunday morning. Outside Run-a-muck, the world’s Utah’s best off-leash dog park, there was a gentleman from Basin Rec putting notices on car windshields who were parked along the street. They read:

WARNING

PARKING
REGULATIONS ARE
CHANGING!

PARKING IS NO LONGER
ALLOWED IN THIS AREA

VEHICLES OUTSIDE
OF DESIGNATED ZONES
SUBJECT TO
TICKETING AND TOWING

I spoke with the nice gentleman from Basin Rec, who ensured me that I was not being cited today. He said that too many people were parking at certain trails around the Basin and they were trying to encourage people to park in proper places. Therefore, it was likely that no parking signs would be placed in areas around some trails.

Because both parking lots for Run-a-muck were full, I had parked on the shoulder of the road that heads up to UOP. Evidently this is an area that soon won’t be available for parking.

Our trails are overcrowded. This was evident before Corona times and has become even more obvious regulations were lifted in May.

Many readers likely remember the Mountain Accord. It was a multi-faceted process that touched everything from watershed to transportation in the Wasatch Mountains. It drew members from almost every group imaginable including the legislature, local governments, outdoor groups, and ski resorts. It also drew ire from many Parkites about a proposed gondola between Big Cottonwood Canyon and Park City.

Proponents said that it would reduce traffic coming into Park City since visitors wouldn’t need to drive up I-80 to get to our resorts. Opponents said it would hurt Park City economically because people wouldn’t stay and dine here. There were also concerns over environmental impacts.

The Mountain Accord process was put to bed, with few actual agreements in 2015. Out of it, however, came the Central Wasatch Commission (CWC). It essentially is doing many of the same things as the Mountain Accord — without the baggage attached. The Mountain Accord was famously non-transparent and settled a lawsuit accusing it of violating Open Meeting Laws.

Recently the CWC published a draft document

There are a few days where you can be number one or two at anything! Today, Summit County is number two. Tomorrow we could become number one if everyone is willing to help.

Today we had 38.2 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents. That puts us in the number two place behind Utah County — and well ahead of the number three challenger Salt Lake County.

If we try really hard, we may be

Party on Park City!

Today we hit the highest number of Coronavirus cases ever in Utah with 1,411 new cases reported. Our schools reached a new record as well, with the high school reporting 2 new cases, bringing the total to 5 at PCHS. Ecker Hill had 3 cases and Treasure Mountain had 1, the same number as of yesterday. The total across the district is 9.

The number you have to pay attention to is 15. State guidelines suggest that schools shutdown and go online when their total COVID numbers hit 15. You have to believe that given what happened at Corner Canyons in Salt Lake that Park City High School will be shut down at 15 or before.

For those not familiar, the Canyon’s school district decided not to close Corner Canyon High after they hit 15 cases. Those 15 cases turned into over 50. A beloved teacher, “Mama J” then came down with Corona, is in an induced coma, and last we heard, is fighting for her life.

The Park City School District will shut the high school down at 15 cases or before, without a doubt. That would last for at least two weeks. If schools are shut down for an extended period, it makes it that much more likely that resorts won’t open. If resorts aren’t open, tourists won’t come.

If tourists don’t come, and Sundance is some shell of its former self, many businesses are going to go under. Many friends and families are going to be impacted. It won’t be pretty.

So, yeah. Party On Park City. It’s your god-given right.

We are entering dark days in Utah related to the Coronavirus. Each day, and every day, over 2,000 people are testing positive for Covid-19. That will only get worse as we enter flu season and people misattribute symptoms. In our schools, teachers are doing the best they can. Parents are doing the best they can. However, that doesn’t stop the reality. People are getting sick.

A couple of weeks ago we heard the story about high school basketball tryouts. Normally,

Call to Action: If you or someone in your household tests
positive for Covid-19, pick up the phone and spread the word.
Don’t wait for someone else to do it.

Contact tracing during the widening spread of Covid-19 is hard,
if not impossible at this point.

If you test positive

Remember who you could have exposed in the last week or so,
then call and inform them so they can get tested. They also need
to look out for signs and symptoms.

If your child (a PCSD student) tests positive

Remember who your child could have exposed in the last week
or so, then call in inform them so they can start looking for signs
and symptoms. Also, call your PCSD school secretary.

All positive test results automatically get shared with the
Summit County Health Department, according to a nurse at one
of our testing sites. Summit County reports it to Utah’s
Department of Health. Your positive case becomes a number

entered into county and state systems and third-party
dashboards.

On August 24, 2020, PCSD sent an email to district parents
announcing new healthAttend software, an attendance
portal which can also help track Covid-19 cases. It read:
‘Park City School District is implementing new tools to
help ease communication between parents and the
schools regarding absence reporting and potential
symptom monitoring from home. If your student will be
out of school, we ask that you use our online system to
report their absence(s). This greatly alleviates the strain
on front office staff during critical times of the morning
routine and enables us to focus our attention on COVID
precautions and getting your child safely to class. It also
helps our nurses monitor symptoms and cases, in an effort
to mitigate potential illness outbreaks.’

In reality, healthAttend is a stand-alone database that PCSD
nurses use to enter Covid-19 cases. Is not ready for parents
quite yet. HealthAttend became a company just one month
before PCSD decided to adopt its graphic database. There
is no interface between healthAttend and PCSD. Parents
still have to call and email school Attendance Secretaries
to report an absence or illness, then talk to the school
nurse to discuss and confirm a Covid-19 positive case.
According to one of the district’s Attendance Secretaries,
‘HealthAttend is an external program that does not link to
our school software therefore requiring manual entry.’

After a school nurse confirms the case, he/she enters it into
healthAttend. Late each night, the healthAttend system
gets refreshed, so data entered today is displayed tomorrow
for most people. District administrators have also
confirmed this information and that healthAttend is
stand-alone and displays only an aggregate of
school-entered numbers. After all that, the school
administration decides who to email about quarantining
other students who were in contact with your child during
school hours.

PCSD protocol Recently, a PCSD student tested positive.
The parent entered the information into healthAttend, but
PCSD did not see that entry. The parent called the school
right away, but it was on a Sunday. By the time the school
applied protocols and procedures and finished notifying
parents whose kids were exposed during unmasked time
together, it was late on that Monday afternoon after
exposed students were back in school, possibly spreading
this virus in classrooms and hallways.

Timely notification and action is what can prevent viral spread.

Have school protocols changed?
Yes. There will be no more quarantine unless unmasked
exposure happens.

PCSD changes protocols as often as the state changes them.

According to the state as of 12/3/20, students may return to
school before 14 days of quarantine only if ALL three
criteria below are met:

1. The school verifies the person who was exposed and the
   person who tested positive were both wearing a face mask
   as defined by the State Public Health Order on masks in
   schools. (Our student athletes were exposed without
   masks.)
2. The person who was exposed tests negative for
   COVID-19 at least 7 days after the last day of exposure.
3. The person who was exposed does not have symptoms of
   COVID-19.

On 12/3/20, Dr. Gildea issued a letter to teachers stating:
‘…With Mask to Mask contact, there will be 0 school
based quarantine – effective immediately – other than
lunchtime contact. The social distance in a classroom is
not a factor in whether or not to quarantine re: seating
chart. So, the only contact tracing schools will be doing is
potential lunchtime or school activity based exposure….If
our athletes practice WITH masks, there is 0 quarantine for
team based exposure.’

Where can I find real Covid-19 case counts?

Case counts reported at the state, county, and school district
levels vary because of the different procedures and timelines for

notification. You can find PCSD case counts at both the state
and county level. Often they report higher numbers than PCSD.
This varies. Word of mouth spreads faster than computer data in
the case of PCSD. Teachers may have a more accurate count
than healthAttend given their proximity to information in the
school.

State Dashboard

Summit County Dashboard

PCSD healthAttend Dashboard

It’s up to friends and community to call each other, through
word of mouth, if we want to notify and learn quickly about
Covid-19 cases.

Call everyone you know who may have been exposed—the
old-fashioned way! Post it on social media the new-fashioned
way! There’s no shame in it. This is a public health concern. To
meet the challenge of not spreading this virus, a phone call is
quicker than entering data into a void and hoping it goes

somewhere. It’s faster than a PCSD email. The most
responsible party is YOU.

Let’s pick up the phone, reach out to friends, and spread the
word, not the virus! Love our community.

The Park Record announced, “Sundance 2021 brings no movie stars, film moguls or corporate bigwigs to fill hotels.”

Is that what it was about? Filling hotels? Seeing stars? Airbnb-ing your second home’s mortgage so you could ski once a year? Enabling corporate takeover of Main Street? Sales Tax revenues? Transient Room Tax?

It sounds so far from what Robert Redford seemed to want in 1978. He wanted a competition for independent American films. He wanted filmmakers to be able to talk about their work. He wanted to provide an opportunity for those people outside the Hollywood system.

The 1978 festival featured a number of films that many of us remember today: Deliverance, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Midnight Cowboy.

I don’t think Redford ever worried about the fate of the Waldorf Astoria.

Now the Salt Lake Tribune is wondering, Could Sundance Leave Park City?

Granted, Redford was shown the door a couple of years ago. That was all too apparent when he was ushered off the stage during his opening comments at Sundance 2019. Redford has since sold the Sundance Resort to Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners this December. He has said he found the right people to maintain his legacy. I’ll have to trust him on that.

Today, Sundance seems much more like a business transaction that an art project. If the Sundance contract falls through, then so be it. If online streaming allows Netflix and HBO Max to make more money, then so be it. If we really care about the fate of Sundance, we should be worrying about the loss of art this year — not the money.

Yes, many Parkites’ living was made whole by Sundance. Yet, it seems to me the soul of Sundance has been eroding over the years. The foundation was weakened because it is being built on money and not the original purpose.

If we truly want this part of Park City to thrive, maybe we should worry more about the movies and less about the hotels. It’s not about the number of Uber rides a person can sell or how to maximize space in a restaurant. It’s about the movies. It’s about the art.

If it’s not about the art, then it’s a transaction. Those are heartless. We likely need to focus a little more on why Sundacne came her ein the first place if we hope to keep it.