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Letter to the editor

Dangerous construction

Editor,

As long-time residents of Summit Park, we are appalled at the dangerous construction projects permitted by Summit County recently. We know someone will be seriously injured or killed by these practices and that Summit County taxpayers will be stuck with the legal liabilities.

Upper Evergreen Drive is the nearest danger zone to us. Instead of requiring builders to configure houses to the natural slope of this steep terrain, county regulators are allowing builders to carve out huge pits for building pads. In at least two cases, the pads are surrounded on one side by the road, with no shoulder for parking or pushing snow, and on three sides by sheer shale walls up to 35 feet high.

Once exposed to snow melt, these shale walls will disintegrate. Unsuspecting new homeowners face a nightmare of removing snow and rock from between the shale walls and their homes, and of having chunks of rock rain down on their windows and their family members.

Also, large fir trees are left on spits of land above the road, roots exposed and vulnerable to the first wind to topple them onto passersby below. And anyone walking or skiing through the woods above these homes could easily slide or fall over the 40-foot cliffs created by these excavated pits. Then there’s the issue of aesthetics. These huge, ugly scars unnecessarily remove natural vegetation and reshape Summit Park mountainsides.

In one case, the builder is taking precautions by shoring up the shale wall, but in the other case, nothing has been done to prevent falling rock. We know from sad experience that when one builder is allowed to "cut corners" to save money, no matter how egregiously unsafe or unsightly, others will do the same.

We call on Summit County to do the right thing here and stop this kind of assault on our community.

Diane and Dennis Green Park City

Remembering Laura

Dear family of Laura Pollard,

We knew how special Laura was. She meant a lot to us and many others. She was more than just a friend, she enjoyed life and made this world more special, more beautiful, more loving a better world.

Having met Laura added value to our lives and knowing her was special to all of my family. I feel sad about her loss, very sad. I am thinking of all of you too. We love Laura so much.

The Dowie Family.

Scooter Libby’s sentence Dear Mr. President,

We disagree with the image you are putting out for younger people (it’s hard to put this nicely). You support the death penalty and sending people to jail for all sorts of crimes and yet when someone working for you is tried and convicted of a crime, and sentenced to go to jail, you commute thier sentence and that is where the message being sent to the youth of our country, and the entire world, is wrong. Your message is if you are rich and powerful and break the law it does not matter and you will not go to jail, but if you are poor and you are convicted you will go to jail. The system is not fair and you have just proved it and you don’t care. Thank you very much, Ian Weinman Zoe Weinman Owen Weinman Richard Weinman Michael Weinman Jami Weinman Rochelle Feinberg Palestine/Israel rebuttal

Editor:

I suspect that Lew Fine means well when he writes (letter 6-30/7-2) about the Israeli/Palestinian history, but he is sadly misinformed when he says the Israeli Government said to the Palestinians, "Don’t leave…you have nothing to fear. Stay and remain full citizens of the state of Israel."

In the interest of truth, let me quote the following:

David Ben-Gurion in a letter he wrote on 12-17-1938, (archives of the Ben-Gurion Research Center, Ben-Gurion University) "We must expel Arabs and take their places."

David Ben-Gurion, in his diary of July 18, 1937, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar’s, "Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet", Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157) " We must do everything to insure they (the Palestinians) never do return."

Moshe Dayan: address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Ha’aretz (Israeli daily newspaper), April 4, 1969 "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarud in the place of Huneifis; and Kfar Yehushus in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."

Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, "How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to." March 8, 1969

Golda Meir, "There was no such thing as Palestinians; they never existed." June 15, 1969.

Though about 20 percent of Israel’s population is comprised of Arabs with Israeli citizenship, they are by no means treated as equals. Education is segregated, health-care sub-standard, job opportunities very limited and movement severely restricted. They are also denied building permits as a matter of practice. Not quite the "full citizenship" Lew Fine quoted.

Bill Melville

Park City

Light pollution

Editor:

I’d like to discuss an issue that concerns me deeply: Light Pollution.

Light Pollution is caused by the improper use of outdoor lighting, is light shining where it does no good. Light Pollution produces dangerous glare and harsh lighting creates dark shadows where the unwelcome may lurk. Light Pollution results in billions of dollars of electricity wasted annually and begets other pollutions resulting from the generation of electricity. Light Pollution robs us of views of the beautiful nighttime skies we’veenjoyed throughout history. Light Pollution is waste that destroys the nighttime beauty of Summit County.

Summit County has developed very good light pollution control ordinances designed to protect and preserve the nighttime environment. The ordinances clearly spell out what is and is not acceptable. Unfortunately, the county has not been enforcing these ordinances. We expect better from Summit County. We expect the county to make every effort to preserve the beauty of the nighttime environment. We expect you as our elected official to take the lead in demanding that the county meet its obligations.

Regards and thank you for your attention. Trindl Nebeker

Thanks from Sunrise Rotary

To the Editor,

Park City’s annual 4th of July celebration is one of the best in the country! The Park City Sunrise Rotary Club is proud to be a part of this celebration and is dedicated to providing an affordable lunch to citizens after the parade.

Many thanks to Bowles Development, Smith’s Foods, Nicholas Foods and The Market at Park City who donated supplies for the luncheon. We would like to offer a particular thank you to Bowles Development their extremely bighearted donation that enabled the Sunrise Rotary Club to provide additional humanitarian service to various local, state-wide, national and international organizations.

Our Sunrise Rotary Club members are a diverse group of dedicated professionals whose service and hard work along with friends and family during the 4th of July lunch is one example of community service that occurs during the year. They are to be commended for their commitment to pooling their talents to support the community.

Mike Luers

Sunrise Rotary Club

Chairman, 4th of July Luncheon

Habitat says thanks

Editor,

Habitat for Humanity for Summit & Wasatch Counties would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Jim Thompson and Talisker Mountain Incorporated for many things!! First of all, thanks so much for your major effort with our 2nd Annual Building Balance Charity Golf Tournament at Tuhaye. Eric Hastings, John Murcko, Cory Jardine, and Mark Chitwood — all of Talisker/Tuhaye Club — worked hard to make the event a major success! And Christa Graff of Graff Public Relations, Talisker’s PR firm, helped to keep the event on track. Habitat recently broke ground on a piece of property for a needy family. This never would have happened without the planning help and advice from Kevin Jardine and Sean Tuite, also of Talisker!

We appreciate all that you have done to help Habitat for Humanity Summit and Wasatch Counties. U rock!! Thank you,

Julie Bernhard Director Habitat Summit & Wasatch Counties

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