Park City Council chambers Thursday night had a swearing-in ceremony to formalize the promotion of Park City Police Lt. Danielle Snelson and Sgt. Kacey Comer. Mayor Nann Worel conducted the swearings-in after Chief of Police Wade Carpenter said a few remarks about each officer.

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The Park City Day School Middle School was filled with inquisitive minds and excited participants for the 2025 Science Fair on Wednesday evening.

Middle school students presented research they had done on topics such as solutions for littering cigarette butts, solar panels on vehicles, and an inventive design to save water called the Technological Intuitive Natural Water Recycler and Purifier, or TIN WRP for short.

Other stations during the science fair included “PCDSville,” a cardboard map where students and families could create small structures out of recycled material to then add to the map. One room was dedicated to robotics, and students and parents could battle robots and see who could best drive their small robot.

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Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, producer of the Sundance U.S. documentary prize-winning film “Seeds,” looked over the room of students and documentary filmmakers sipping coffee and munching on bagels.

“Filmmaking, at the heart of it, is discovery,” Gordon said.

It was the first day of True/False documentary film festival, which every year begins the last weekend in February in Columbia, Missouri. Several of the documentaries that premiere at Sundance Film Festival in January make their next stop here, in a town much different to Park City, trading the snowy mountains for a heartland waking up to spring.

“It’s that Midwest hospitality that makes it just so special,” said Emily Edwards, True/False marketing and communications director. 

Twenty-four documentary short films and 30 documentary features were shown, including Sundance films “The Dating Game,” “Middletown,”“Predators,” “How to Build a Library,” “Sally” and “Seeds.” 

Community has been central to the festival’s mission since beginning in 2004. Edwards explained that even if documentary films aren’t what people are looking for, the festival offers a selection of musical performances, guided art walks and even a parade.

On Friday evening, Feb. 28, the festival began with the March March, an annual parade through the heart of downtown. The True/False Q Queens, a group of flashy volunteers who help with the queue lines at screening venues, led in a blur of colors and sequins, dancing to the drums and brass.

There’s little structure to the parade besides where and when it starts and that it will end in front of the historic Missouri Theatre. Paraders pulled in spectators from the sidewalks to be a part of the march and join friends, family and colleagues. 

At the theater, bubbles floated around the crowd who stayed to watch performances from Marching Mizzou, the University of Missouri’s marching band, and to maybe even join in the dance circle of the Jabberwocky Studio breakdancers. 

Soon, the crowd dispersed, offering some form of “I have to run to my next film” as they scrambled to various screening venues around downtown. True/False 2025 was in full swing.

Libraries in film, Park City to Columbia

In an effort to facilitate accessibility and community each year, the Show Me True/False film selection has reduced ticket prices and an extra emphasis on the conversation around the film. “How to Build a Library” was this year’s selection, marking the first time an international film has been featured as the Show Me screening. 

“Show Me True/False was born out of our Community Partnerships Program and a way to get those community partners notably involved in the fest,” Edwards said. 

“How to Build a Library” is centered around two women, Shiro and Wachuka, and their mission to decolonize the libraries in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The film touches on the way that libraries function as community spaces and the importance they carry. Shiro and Wachuka see libraries not just as rooms filled with books, but as something reimagined. 

Adriane Herrick Juarez, executive director of the Park City Library, shared a similar sentiment.

“I remodeled this library when I first came to Park City, and there was so much need for technological upgrade and keeping up with new sources of information,” Herrick Juarez explained. 

She sees libraries similarly to how the film does:

“Libraries are more than ever community centers — places where people can gather. You need a lot of beautiful spaces where people feel comfortable to do whatever kind of work they want to do in the library. That can mean so many different things for different people.”

Herrick Juarez is glad libraries are receiving attention. Kim A. Snyder, director of the 2025 Sundance film “The Librarians,” even paid the Park City Library a special visit during Sundance.

“I’m so thrilled that these films are being made about libraries,” Herrick Juarez said. 

Edwards drew parallels in the demographics of Park City and Columbia and how it’s important for a festival to program a healthy variety of horizon-expanding films. 

“We’re of the community, for the community, but we (are) also an international film fest,” she said. “This programming allows us to put those two things in conversation with each other. How does this place look like that place?”

The who’s who of doc film 

Filmmakers from across the country find themselves in the middle of Missouri for True/False, even if they don’t have a film showing. 

Tess Jagger-Wells, a filmmaker and recent graduate from the University of Missouri’s Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism master’s program, described how impactful the festival was to her three years ago. 

“I had never quite understood the vastness of the documentary landscape, and by the end of the fest I was bursting with inspiration and motivation to create my own film,” she said. 

Her film, “Victim,” received a Special Jury Award at the student film festival, Stronger than Fiction, in 2024.

“One of the jurors for that fest was Isabel Castro, who just won her own Special Jury Award for her film ‘Selena y los Dinos’ at the crown jewel of festivals, Sundance,” Jagger-Wells said. 

Her film will have its New York City premiere next week at the First Look film festival. 

“Film festivals are a celebration of the art of film, but they are also a testament to the strength and closeness of the filmmaking community,” Jagger-Wells said.

Robert Greene, who oversees the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism as the filmmaker-in-chief, also has ties to Sundance, as do many who attend. Greene was a Sundance Art of Nonfiction fellow in 2015 and then went on to serve on the U.S. Documentary Jury for the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Greene’s film “Kate Plays Christine” won a Sundance award in 2016, and his film “Bisbee ’17” premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. 

Greene coordinates and helps moderates Based on a True Story, or BOATS, the conference that held prior to the official kickoff of True/False. 

At BOATS this year, a panel of filmmakers from “Seeds,” a film about Black generational farmers in the American South, shared insights as to how the film came to life, nine years in the making. 

Director Brittany Shyne talked about transforming a one-woman graduate school project into something ready to premiere on the big screen at Sundance. 

“Seeds” is an intimate black-and-white film that uses the personal moments that unfold organically to highlight that the amount of land Black farmers now own is a fraction of what it once was. In 1910, landownership among Black farmers was 16 million acres.

Shyne said that a major influence for the film was listening to her grandmother’s stories growing up, which helped her forge a strong connection with the Black farmers the film documents. There were times she didn’t know what the film’s story would be, but there was a mutual understanding between her and the film’s subjects that Shyne wanted to honor the families’ histories and document their lives honestly.

Producer Danielle Varga explained that there was a level of trust with Shyne having the “intuition that there is something there.”

They had originally imagined the film as with no score to accompany the visuals, but the team decided to bring a composer on to the film to help elevate scenes, including the cotton harvesting sequence, blending the sounds of heavy equipments with bold, instrumental tones.

Her composer for the film, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, described the process of being brought onto the project as “very natural” and said he was stunned by the work Shyne had. 

“Things reveal themselves to you over time,” he said. “When you are compelled to make the thing, make the thing.” 

For Shyne, the experience of winning at Sundance and showing at True/False has been positive. She said she felt audiences had been generous.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” she said. “It feels weird.”

While Sundance’s future is still uncertain, True/False is fully engrained in Columbia. Edwards invited the Park City and Sundance communities to join in on the Missouri-based nonfiction festival in the future.

“I really hope they get to visit,” she said. “Really, it’s better seen than heard. It’s tough to talk about, but it’s a beauty to witness.”

For Edwards, True/False had been her introduction to the “weird little place in the middle of the middle of the middle,” as she called Columbia. 

“I came here, and I experienced True/False, and it totally changed the way I saw the world,” she said.

To learn more about the festival, visit truefalse.org.

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A memorial in honor of President Jimmy Carter has been set up at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and encourages people to leave a note or message in the former president’s honor. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, were involved with the Habitat for Humanity mission and organization.

The former president passed away at 100 years old on Dec. 29. On Tuesday Carter was to be taken to the U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he will lie in state until Thursday, a national day of mourning.

The store is at 6280 Silver Creek Drive in Park City.

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Culling a year in photos is never easy, so many choices. Tens of thousands of pictures were taken for The Park Record in this calendar year. Nearly every published story has at least one accompanying image, many articles have multiple images expanding the visual reporting.

A high-profile sports event might require sifting through 6,000 images for just one game. All for the hope of documenting an eye-catching fraction of a second that captures the essence of good journalism. Maybe it’s Main Street all dug-up, or maybe a lacrosse winning goal, or perhaps, as simple as a guy clearing his driveway on a real powder day.

Specifically in this year, it was a delegation of Utahns jumping with elation in Paris France when the International Olympic Committee proclaimed that the 2034 Olympics are coming back to Utah. 

The stories The Park Record tells are the stories of the Wasatch Back. The pictures of those stories are of us who cherish being here and appreciate the quality of life unique to this part of Utah and the mountain west. The regular events in the beginning of the year are rich with photo opportunities: Sundance Film Festival, FIS World Cup at Deer Valley, the spelling bee, the opening of Mirror Lake Highway, and on and on.

Here is a monthly breakdown of images that still tug at our hearts with prideful emotions and seem worthy of resharing with you, The Park Record readers.

-David Jackson

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

An Olympic summer: At home and abroad

David Jackson photographed the historic announcement of the return of the Winter Olympic Games in 2034 while Clayton Steward photographed the excitement in Utah, down in Salt Lake and at the Utah Olympic Park.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

August

September

October

November

Weathering the storm: A look inside the campaigns for Seat C

December

The last nursing home in Summit County

A new perspective

“Look at it with a fresh set of eyes” is a sentiment that I am sure most everyone is familiar with. It is also how I would describe my approach to the first six months on the job at The Park Record. I had never set foot in Utah prior to moving here, except for a quick layover in Salt Lake City once.

Seeing this landscape, the people, the conflict and the rapid changes across everything aforementioned has been a daily challenge, and opportunity, for this midwesterner. 

Photojournalism asks, at its core, one of the easiest and hardest things from a person — just show up.

Showing up can be easy when it’s the Oakley Rodeo, a sunrise hot air balloon ride or a styled shoot of a cocktail. Showing up is harder when it is to document a grieving family at a press conference, the scene of a fire that ruined a legacy business or while watching the last nursing home in the county close its doors, leaving families with incredibly hard decisions in front of them. 

It is a gift to do what we do behind the camera every single day. I feel most fortunate when I am welcomed into a person’s or family’s life to document everything from the simple moments that are usually laughed off with, “well, we aren’t really doing anything,” to those that leave me hiding teary-eyed behind my viewfinder. 

Thank you to everyone who has allowed Park Record photographers to document different moments of life. We hope to continue doing what we do best: showing up. 

-Clayton Steward

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For Park City resident Mike Flaherty, the thrill of the hunt is why he lies in wait, armed with a camera and camo telephoto lens, hoping for a wildlife moment he has yet to capture.

The 22-year Park City resident traded in the southern sights of Atlanta for the plethora of open space and natural habitats in Summit County specifically for the opportunities for photography. But it was a trip to Alaska that first got Flaherty hooked on capturing wild creatures through his viewfinder.

“In 1990 I went to a place called Brooks Falls, and that’s where you get the classic photo of the salmon jumping up into the bear’s mouth. And I really got hooked. I had a very crude film camera. It’s called an Olympus OM one, and I just got hooked,” he said. 

But what goes into capturing an image of wildlife in nature, with the sun setting just right or a fresh snowstorm moving in? 

“I get up really early in the morning,” Flaherty said. Photographers are rewarded for showing up. 

Early wake-up calls, combined with his two decades of knowledge of the patterns of animal behavior in the area, allow for the images he makes on a frequent basis. He said it is also common for friends around town to help. 

“I’ve got people that tip me off, sure, and it works a lot of time,” he said.

His process to photograph a wild animal and not disturb it includes a few tricks he has learned over the years. Using a pillow in the window to rest a 500 or 600 millimeter lens, turning off the car engine, for instance. And, of course, waiting, and waiting. 

Living just off of the Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter provides Flaherty with an abundance of wildlife right off his back porch. He is enthusiastic about the foxes, moose, elk and other creatures that live close to home, but he loves photographing during excursions outside of Summit County.

Bears and wolves in Yellowstone. Puffins in Iceland and Ireland. Alaskan brown bears in Katmai National Park. His fervor for wildlife photography has taken him to many places in that search for the next great shot. Recently on a trip down the Danube River with his wife, he met a group of people from Slovenia who described the bears that live in the Carpathian Mountains. 

“I don’t need any more bear shots, but it just seemed like it would be so much fun and enriching to go to the Carpathian Mountains, where Dracula’s from, and photograph the bears that are over there,” he said.

The photographer is humble when speaking about his work, but he is no stranger recognition around town. Flaherty often shares his work in a local Facebook forum, where residents and visitors share their excitment for his images of snow-covered elk, moose cows with little ones and other wildlife. 

“My wife is in a Bible study and when she’s introduced herself, there are women that go, ‘Oh, is your husband that guy?’ Or when I’ve worked at Park City, I’ve had people come up to me, or they see my name tag, and they go, ‘Are you the guy that does the shooting?’”

The interactions are “very complimentary and very encouraging,” but the work is his outlet for creativity, passion and interest. 

Flaherty has amassed an impressive number of photos, in the hundred of thousands. He said he knows there are projects such as books and other ways to package the images, but as he put it, “I’d rather be out shooting than doing that.” 

“I’ve got no ulterior motives. I don’t sell anything. I just enjoy sharing, enjoy networking,” Flaherty said. 

He loves photography for the in-the-moment experience, the hunt. And at 71, after having open heart surgery in July, he feels ready to see what more he can discover from behind the lens.

“When you get older, you feel like the clock is ticking. And if there are things that you want to do in terms of travel or photography, you feel like you got to get on the stick,” he said.

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The glee of Park City Mountain’s opening day on Friday turned to a bit of cold reality on Saturday as Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association members picketed on the path to day two of the new ski season.

Further talks were scheduled for Tuesday, but union leaders said they wouldn’t have any updates until later this week.

Over 60 people and an avalanche rescue dog named Piper gathered on the corners of Park Avenue and Deer Valley Drive in the wind laced with snow pellets as a promising storm approached.

Patrollers held signs with sentiments such as “Asking for respect,” “Can’t pay rent in fun,” and “Honk for solidarity.” Some skiers headed for Park City Mountain honked in support, waved to the patrollers and raised fists out open car windows. 

“We are aware that some patrollers are picketing today,” said Deirdra Walsh, vice president and chief operating officer of Park City Mountain. “There are no impacts — and will be no impacts — to our mountain operations. We are open and excited to welcome guests, with nine lifts running, 11 trails, a terrain park, and fantastic early season conditions across more than 350 acres.”

Quinn Graves, a born and raised Park City resident and fourth-year ski patroller and business manager on the mountain village side for the union, stood in front of Cole Sport.

“We’re out here because we have been in negotiations with the company Vail Resorts since May of this year, and our contract expired at the end of April,” she said. “So we’re going on nine months of contract negotiations, and we’ve met 20 times with the company.”

“Park City Mountain is negotiating in good faith with the union that represents its ski patrollers to reach an agreement that continues to demonstrate the great respect we have for our patrollers and the guest service they provide at the resort,” Walsh said. “Park City Mountain takes seriously its responsibility to care for its thousands of employees, guests and the community.” 

Amid a wave of honks, Graves described the atmosphere of what it was like to be demonstrating on the first Saturday of ski season.

“We have gotten overwhelming positive support from the community,” she said. “We are so grateful for the community.”

The organization represents more than 200 ski patrollers and mountain safety employees working without a contract.

Margaux Klingensmith, also business manager of the union with Graves, described the counter offer they received in the last negotiating session as “really disappointing,” which spurred the demonstration.

“We are out here united to fight for a fair contract and hope that in our next negotiations, we make some progress on a better proposal on wages,” she said.

Graves said a sticking point is pay. In 2022, Vail Resorts upped the minimum wage for the ski patrol to $21. The union is asking for a $23-an-hour base rate, she said.

“We felt that $23 is a fair ask to rise in accordance with inflation and cost of living,” she said.

A statement from the union said a counter offer from the company amounted to “less than a 0.5% raise and would remove foundational elements from the current contract.”

Klingensmith explained that the push for a wage increase goes beyond the finances of working as a ski patroller.

“A lot of times, folks are like, why not just go get another job?” she said. “If everyone got another job, no one would be here. And so we want to focus on improving our workplace, because we love working here. We love our jobs. We want to continue doing our jobs. We just want to be fairly compensated for the work that we do.” 

Graves said that the association’s negotiation committee will be meeting with the company again on Tuesday.

“Hopefully, we can make some progress there, but we’ll see how that progresses,” she said.

“We are proud of our company’s continued investments in ski patrol pay and benefits that recognize their specialized skills and the needs of individual resorts,” Walsh said. “Over the past three years, the average wage for ski patrollers across the company, including at Park City Mountain, has increased substantially — far outpacing the rate of wage inflation — resulting in very competitive wages. Our wage proposal includes additional increases consistent with how we reward all employees on an annual basis, with wages this year that would again outpace wage inflation. We are also proud to lead the industry in terms of benefits, perks, training, and the equipment compensation we provide to our ski patrollers. We remain committed to discussions with the union and are optimistic we will reach agreement, given that our contract offer is consistent with several other contracts accepted and ratified by our company’s unionized ski patrols.”

In the case that the negotiations still do not leave the association satisfied, Graves said they have the right to go on strike, although that is not the outcome they are hoping for. 

“We all love our job,” she said. “We want to show up to work. Everyone who is here today wasn’t scheduled to work today and a bunch of our coworkers are up on the hill, working hard to keep everyone safe.”

Love for the work itself seems to be a point of agreement.

“We look forward to delivering a great guest experience this season and are so grateful to all of our employees for their hard work and passion for Park City Mountain,” Walsh said.

Park Record correspondent Pamela Manson contributed to this report.

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This weekend, the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts is home to the colorful and rhythmic world of Dr. Seuss as the theater department puts on “Seussical: The Musical!”

Krischelle Hansen, director of the musical and theater teacher at Park City High School explained that the production began back in May with auditions, and it has been Seuss-centric since school began in August. 

“The cast is super excited,” Hansen said, as the hallway was filled with students crimping each other’s hair, putting finishing touches on attire best suited for Whoville and buzzing with excitement for opening night. 

Soon, the chatter and excitement hushed with the announcement from a crew member. “The house is open!” 

Hansen said that this is the biggest cast she has had on a production.

“We have about 84 students in total working on the show,” she said. “The costumes are crazy, the props are crazy, the set is crazy. It’s just a really big show.”

As the red seats started to fill up in the theater and the cast finished their vocal warmups, it was nearly time to bring the characters found in Dr. Seuss’ books such as “Horton,” “The Grinch,” “Thing One and Thing Two,” and, of course, “The Cat in the Hat.” 

The entire production was filled with bright colors and scenes that look like they were torn directly from a Dr. Seuss book. Soaring musical numbers, choreography with a stage full of actors and even well-timed bubbles falling from the ceiling made for an immersive experience. 

The production is largely in the hands of the students, according to Hansen.

“I really pride myself on making sure that this show is all student run,” she said.

She explained that after the curtain goes up, the only adult working during the production is the pit conductor. From the actors on stage to the musicians playing in the pit, all the stage managers to the rail operators off stage, everyone is a student. 

This is Hansen’s sixth year of teaching at Park City High School, following two years of student teaching in the district. 

“Seussical: The Musical!” debuted on Thursday night and will show again Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. with a matinee showing at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

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The Yellow Lake Fire continued to burn through the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest and surrounding area on Tuesday morning. It was also the first day that media was allowed into the closed areas of S.R. 35 with an escort from public information officer Brian Trick. Below are images from this initial media escort.

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