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City Hall: green, for sure

by Jay Hamburger OF THE RECORD STAFF

The light-green shade of a recently distributed City Hall publication seems to have been chosen for heightened effect.

Inside the brochure, Park City officials describe some of their environmental efforts.

The brochure’s title: "Park City’s Green Scene."

The local government sent the brochure to about 7,000 Park City addresses, and people received them in the past several weeks.

City Hall, especially during the administration of Mayor Dana Williams, has trumpeted its work to make Park City a more environmentally friendly place. The brochure highlights some of the notable programs.

"The community generally wants to do things that are good for the environment. That’s the kind of town we are," says Diane Foster, who directs City Hall’s green programs.

The brochure touts the successes of a well-publicized program promoting wind-generated power, saying that nearly 10 percent of Parkites have joined, and it mentions that the Park City police station uses the Earth’s internal to heat and cool the building, a system known as geothermal.

"The key to success is that we all start by making some small changes and work our way into larger citywide efforts. This cannot be accomplished by the government alone," Williams says in comments published in the brochure. "We are a dynamic, involved and progressive community that has the ability to achieve great things by working together."

The brochure points to City Hall’s renown conservation program, which has set aside more than 6,400 acres of land as open space, it talks about energy-efficient municipal buildings and it provides an overview of the free bus system, which uses buses powered by cleaner-burning fuels.

It also mentions Park City voters passed a $15 million bond in 2007 to upgrade pedestrian and bicyclist routes. Leaders expect that the improvements will influence more people to walk or bicycle in Park City cutting traffic and pollution.

"The already-concerned environmental person can get something out of this," Foster says, noting that the brochure includes a list of environmental and related organizations, including Recycle Utah, Utah Moms for Clean Air and the Summit Land Conservancy.

She says people considering trips to Park City frequently want to understand the community’s environmental commitment. She says the Park City Chamber/Bureau receives calls from people inquiring about environmental programs.

City Hall’s environmental programs are longstanding, and they have been widened in recent years. Officials frequently refer to the efforts as City Hall’s ‘sustainability’ program.

The supporters generally say reducing the impact on the environment has widespread benefits such as slowing or reversing global warming. Locally, they say the ski industry could someday be threatened by global warming.

The brochure indicates upcoming City Hall efforts will include environmentally friendly work force housing, research into broadened use of cleaner-burning energies in city facilities and a reduction in carbon emissions.

The brochure was printed on recycled paper, and it says wind-power purchases offset the carbon emissions generated when it was printed.

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