Metal detectors needed in schools

Editor:

On October 9th, 2015 I wrote an article calling for mandatory metal detectors in our Park City schools. I grieve for all the innocent children murdered since that article. Just think how many children, and staff, would be alive today if America would have installed metal detectors in schools since the Columbine massacre in 1999. I wonder how many more school shootings we will endure until metal detectors in schools are as commonplace as they are in airports. Unfortunately America is building a tolerance to such horrifying news that should be bringing us all to our knees. We should be demanding action, not asking for it.

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Working on mental health is always a good idea, but we saw in Florida that glaring red flags of mental instability didn’t stop Nikolas Cruz from walking into a school and becoming a mass murderer. He literally posted that his goal was to become a “professional school shooter.” Students said they knew if anyone was capable of this, it was Nikolas Cruz. Teachers were warned that he was not allowed in the school, especially with a backpack. If all of that wasn’t enough, the FBI was alerted. The FBI.

If alarms would have sounded the second he attempted to bring his weapon into the school, lockdown would have ensued, police would have been on the scene and Nikolas Cruz would have be arrested for attempted mass homicide. Today, families would be eternally grateful for that fateful decision to install metal detectors instead of planning funerals for children. And those 17 victims would be going about their day right now. I don’t know about you, but I am on my knees in agony over the suffering of those families. How much longer?

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Linda Giebe

Park City

Apology for ticket mishap

Editor:

In response to Anna Lea Kantor’s message, my apologies. As head usher it is my responsibility to ensure the theater is full and the movie starts on time, neither occurred. During the thirty minute process of loading the theater it customary for an usher to ask neighboring individuals if a seat with stored personal belongings is available or if the individual has set them down to preserve their own seat. Personally, I asked dozens of individuals three to four times if persons were “ticketed and in house.”

As head usher, I knew the “click counter” at the front door indicated dozens of others could be placed into the theater, which means some of the patrons were being dishonest. Feeling the pressure of many friends at the door waiting to get in house, I tried the unconventional by explaining to the patrons “there are no saving seats,” “the theater is closed” and further explaining “if you are saving seats for your friends, your friends will not be allowed in house because there are no reported available seats.” Upon hearing this explanation, many seats opened up, though not all. Much to my embarrassment, a few minutes before the movie was to start, the director of the movie asked why there were so many empty seats and I explained it is because some people in the theater are being dishonest.

My apologies to Anna Lea and Howard and the others who were turned away from the Townie Tuesday experience.

Cheryl Dejno

Head usher, Redstone Theater Team B, 2018 Townie Tuesday

Resident grateful for emergency care

Editor:

I just want to thank the medical providers of both the Insta-Care and Main Intermountain Hospital Emergency Care units this past weekend when I needed their help. We should all be thankful for their presence in Park City. Residents and visitors should feel confident of the care they will receive if needed. Thank all of you again for your help.

Willis Richardson

Oakley

Coyote slaughter unethical

Editor:

Utah taxpayers have been subsidizing coyote slaughter since 2012. Hunters are paid $50 bounties from a fund established by the “Mule Deer Protection Act” (Senate Bill 245). The fund tops out at $750,000 annually. 74,460 coyotes have been slaughtered since 2012 thanks to Utah tax dollars — that’s an average of nearly 15 thousand dead coyotes every year.

Coyotes are killed by trapping, shooting and poisoning with no end in sight of this ethnically indefensible and fiscally foolish bill. “Coyote hunting contests” are held annually “for entertainment” and even youngsters are invited to participate in the slaughter. Taxpayer money is being squandered for the “entertainment” of a minority of citizens while peer reviewed science proves mule deer decline is rooted in lack of adequate food sources, caused by climate change and human development. A Care2 petition was initiated at https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/765/960/256/.

“Trophy hunting” harms our ecology and is senseless slaughter. Utah “values”? No thank you.

Maria Roberts

Park City

Treasure is a headache

Editor:

The 1986 approval by the Park City, City Council of the Sweeney Master Plan, aka Treasure Mountain, was a completely different proposal, compared to the Disneyland like 1,000,000 square foot plus plan that has been attempted lately. Even with the previous much smaller approval, the project was still subject to conditional use permits. Those permits have never been approved.

Given the increased density and traffic, I seriously wonder if such a conditional use permit would ever be granted for this obsolete 31 year old approved plan.

Now we learn of secret back room deals with our City officials offering a non-refundable immediate $6,000,000 payoff to be applied against a voter approved $64,000,000 purchase.

The citizens of Park City reject this offer.

The times have changed.

Simple Solution: Either the City Council, or if they won’t do it, the voters will amend the zoning map per City ordinance number 15-1-7, and designate the entire land which is the subject of this controversy, be restricted to only 1 (one) 2,000 square foot house, consistent with local architectural guidelines, may be built on the property.

The result: Consistent with the legal standards in the two applicable U.S. Supreme Court decisions of Agins v Tiburon 447 U.S. 255 and Lingle v. Chevron, 544 U.S. 528, this will ensure that the city has no legal exposure to any eminent domain actions, because the Treasure Mountain applicants will not be completely deprived of “all economically beneficial” interests. They get to build the one house.

The tax payers of Park City, assuming the $6,000,000 has already been paid out, will save $58,000,000, this headache will be over, and we can move on to more important things.

Steven Miller

Park City

Congress has role in opioid battle

Editor:

Kudos for your February 15 editorial (Opioid fight will be long, but Utah Legislature is on the right track) for noting that many steps are needed to address the opioid crisis.

There is also an important role for the U.S. Congress here. For more than a year, it has been well documented that large amounts of opioids enter America, from China, via mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. We need to do a much better job tracking this mail and intercepting fentanyl and other drugs.

The way to do it is to require — not suggest or hope for but require — advanced electronic data (AED) on all incoming mail. This is trackable information about the shipper, contents and destination.

With AED and advanced analytics, law enforcement is much more likely to find and seize this poison. The Postal Service’s refusal to support this measure, even though private carriers are already required by law to provide this information, is troubling. AED is also a relatively simple technology to implement.

In Congress, a bipartisan group is pushing the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Protection Act (STOP Act) to require AED, thereby helping law enforcement work more efficiently to protect more people.

Paul Steidler

Senior fellow, Lexington Institute