Mitt Romney may tout himself as a job creator, but when he blesses a community with his presence, all work stops.
Literally.
When Romney schmoozed with fat cats at a swanky fundraiser in Park City last weekend, Utah Department of Transportation workers stopped laboring on a month-long road repair project for three days.
UDOT spokeswoman Mindy Nelson said the Secret Service requested the work stoppage, so shovels were idle Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The repaving project began June 8 on Deer Valley Drive, Park Avenue and Kearns Boulevard in the heart of Park City. Mayor Dana Williams said he hoped the work, which disrupts traffic flow, would be done by the time Park City begins its Fourth of July festivities, but now the scheduled completion date is July 10.
Romney's visit also cost the city a few thousand dollars for security provided by the Park City Police and Summit County Sheriff's Office, but Police Chief Wade Carpenter said the amount paled in comparison to past VIP visits, including the recent fundraising stop by First Lady Michelle Obama.
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How to kill business in SLC • Downtown Salt Lake City business owners like the special events that bring potential customers into the city, but city officials seem to keep coming up with ways to keep the customers away.
Leslie Motley, for example, might not return to the downtown area anytime soon.
She and a friend went to the Utah Arts Festival on Friday.
Motley found a space to park on 400 East, but a truck in front of her took up about 6 inches of her space. She squeezed in behind the truck, put her money in the meter for two hours and punched the number of her parking space into the machine.
When she returned, sure enough, she had a ticket for an expired meter and incorrect parking.
The ticket was written at 4:15 p.m. but the meter didn't expire until 4:29 p.m.
Appealing to a hearing officer at Salt Lake City Parking Services, she was able to get the expired meter ticket dismissed because she had proof the parking enforcement officer erred.
But her excuse that the truck in front of her forced her to use a little space beyond what was allotted went unheeded.
The hearing resulted in a $25 fine for Motley — and no more shopping downtown for a while.
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Now you see it ⦠• Folks in Cache Valley awoke to an array of Orrin Hatch signs Tuesday so prolific, it's as though everywhere they looked, Hatch was smiling back at them.
The Providence LDS ward alone had 30 Hatch signs in its yard, which is a problem because the law requires campaign signs to be placed at least 150 feet from a polling location. The school next door also bore many Hatch signs, as well as the Logan Regional Hospital and the Hyde Park city offices.
But by 7 a.m., when the polls opened at the Providence ward, the signs had mysteriously disappeared.
Hatch campaign manager Dave Hansen said all the Hatch volunteers have been schooled on where they can put signs but acknowledged you can't keep track of all of the volunteers all of the time.
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The air you breathe • Folks in South Salt Lake may wonder if the large dark plumes they see in the sky are from the wildfires in Sanpete County or from one of their city's maintenance workers.
A South Salt Lake employee was spotted Monday cleaning the ashes out of the barbecue grills at Fitz Park on 3000 South and 500 East, but not in a way one might expect.
Instead of scooping the ashes out and putting them in a bag, she was using a blower, creating huge clouds of ash and soot for the kids to play in.
