Park City leaders honored the late Colin Hilton on Thursday, offering comments about the role he played in winter sports circles and the wider community, as the area continues to grapple with the loss.

Hilton died by suicide on Aug. 21 at 58. He was the president and CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation and a veteran of the organizing committee that staged the 2002 Winter Olympics. He worked for the Park City municipal government in the post-Games era before returning to the winter-sports realm. Hilton played a key role in the early efforts toward the 2034 Winter Olympics.

Mayor Ryan Dickey and members of the Park City Council recalled their work with Hilton over the years.

Dickey said he was a member of the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission during discussions about development at the Utah Olympic Park that involved Hilton.

“I had a great time working with him and his team. And then, of course, beginning to work on this Olympic-planning effort and spending a lot of time with Colin, really getting to know him,” Dickey said.

The mayor also noted Hilton’s service for the municipal government in economic development.

“He’s known so much for his Olympic legacy. And sometimes a little bit lost is that he was part of our city team here,” Dickey said.

City Councilor Bill Ciraco remembered that, as a relative newcomer to the community, Ciraco was told Hilton could assist him as he became more involved in the community.

“He always took my calls, was just an amazing resource for me in terms of getting to know the broader community and the history of the Olympic effort here,” Ciraco said.

Ciraco said he approached Hilton with a concept for an aerial route involving the Utah Olympic Park and learned that Hilton had already compiled information about the topic.

“I said, ‘Hey Colin, I’ve got this great idea. Like, you know, what do you think about a gondola from Kimball Junction up to UOP and then continuing on to The Canyons,’” Ciraco said. “He goes, ‘I think that’s a great idea.’ And he turned around and pulled the plan off the shelf in his office, and he put it on the table. And there was the plan.”

Ciraco added: “There was a lot about Colin that I respected, and he will be terribly missed. This community was well served by him, and we will miss you, Colin.”

Tana Toly, another city councilor, was emotional.

“I do want to just make it through without crying. But I just want to really pay my respects to Colin Hilton. We lost an amazing person in this community … It was really hard for all of us to learn about it,” she said.

Toly noted that September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. She listed the 988 phone number for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

“There are just so many people who do care and who are here to support each other. And even when we don’t agree, I know that there is so much love in the community and so much support for one another. So, I hope we hold that in our hearts. Man, I will miss Colin a lot, so just wanted to say that,” Toly said.

Hilton’s life and legacy were also honored at the Park City Chamber/Bureau annual meeting on Thursday morning. Chamber/Bureau President and CEO Jennifer Wesselhoff and Myles Rademan, who founded and directed the Park City Leadership program for more than 25 years, remembered Hilton for his hospitality and impact on Park City as well as his dedication to the winter sports industry.

The post Park City leaders honor late winter-sports executive appeared first on Park Record.

It was the middle of February of 2020 when the roster of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games was named during an event at the state Capitol.

Figures representing a range of backgrounds and industries were tapped to pursue a second Winter Olympics in the state. It was a high-profile assignment with Salt Lake City, Park City and the wider region appearing confident that another Games was possible.

Which edition would make the most sense, perhaps the Games of 2030 or those of four years later, was not clear. There was, however, hope, possibly even an expectation, that the Olympic flame would be lit again in the capital city.

One of the prominent Park City-area names called that day was Colin Hilton, a winter-sports executive who brought vast experience to the task. Hilton, who died at 58 on Aug. 21, was a veteran of the organizing committee that staged the 2002 Winter Olympics and spent the intervening years in important roles in the winter sports realm and in local government. He eventually became the president and CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, the organization that oversees the Utah Olympic Park, the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center and the Utah Olympic Oval.

Hilton during the event at the Capitol was appointed one of two vice-chairs of the board of directors, a post that helped ensure the Park City area was represented at the upper echelons of the bid hierarchy. Hilton, understanding the magnitude of the day, delivered remarks about the continued use of the competition venues from the 2002 Games. He credited elected officials, sports officials and businesspeople across the decades.

“From the Salt Lake Valley to the Heber Valley, from Ogden to Provo, we have figured out a way to find sustainable uses of these unique sport facilities. And not only kept them operating but having molded them into true assets in their communities,” Hilton said.

He spoke of the bidding that was looming for the Winter Olympic region, saying, “Our future Games will provide us an opportunity to align visionary goals of our state and local communities, and I look forward to joining together, rallying around a common cause and seeing what new successes we can achieve when we set our minds to it.”

The International Olympic Committee, a little more than four years later, awarded the Games of 2034 to Salt Lake City, with the Park City area selected as one of the key locations.

It is difficult to grasp, or to overestimate, just how significant a figure Hilton was in Games circles in a state with a Winter Olympic past and future. The mere presence of the nationally recognizable, politically polished Mitt Romney as the leader of the 2002-era Salt Lake Organizing Committee overshadowed Hilton and everyone else involved in that group. And Hilton later did not command the name recognition of the gold-medal winners who hailed from Utah, even with some of them greatly benefiting from the facilities under the umbrella of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation he led.

But Hilton nonetheless would come to stand as a unique luminary in the field.

Hilton arrived at the Salt Lake Organizing Committee after serving in a role with the group that staged the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and, earlier, working for the organization that hosted the 1994 World Cup soccer tournament in the United States. It was precisely the sort of background that would lead someone to the 2002 Games and into the current era of the 2034 Winter Olympics.

There is hardly anyone in the state with the same level of understanding of the mechanics of the Games. As a speaker, he could seamlessly move between Winter Olympic eras and between global sporting events, explaining the anticipated similarities and differences. Hilton’s resume was unparalleled.

He directed the Salt Lake Organizing Committee operations in Park City and surrounding Summit County. It was a crucial position with the community’s pivotal role in the Games. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park were competition venues, and the community was critical to the transportation, security and celebration plans.

Hilton essentially was the organizing committee’s point person for the area. He worked with the leadership of Park City and Summit County, a host of other governmental institutions and the mountain resorts as the plans for the ultimately wildly successful Games were crafted. The events at the three competition venues were virtually sold out. Main Street provided the setting for a popular pedestrian-only celebration zone. The logistical plans, the most elaborate to date in the Park City area, essentially worked as designed.

“Quite frankly, we could have sold 40% more tickets to many of the events, maybe more. The demand was huge,” Hilton said in early 2003, as the organizing committee released the final report about the Games.

Hilton later worked for the Park City municipal government, overseeing the construction of the China Bridge garage expansion and the Quinn’s Junction recreation complex. He returned to the winter-sports field in 2006 and spent the rest of his career there.

It is unclear what sort of role Hilton would have played in the seven and a half remaining years of preparations for 2034. The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation duties alone would have kept him at the forefront of the work. His deep knowledge of the 2002 Games would have been vital to any exercises comparing or contrasting the plans of 24 years ago to those under consideration for 2034.

Prior to his death, it was hard to envision a scenario in which Hilton was not, in some capacity, integral to the effort.

The notion that the state could host a second Winter Olympics arose during the previous Games era, but the talk of that possibility seemed to become more prevalent at certain points over the decades. The start of each Winter Olympic year spurred at least some conversation of a future Games, as did the arrival of notable anniversaries of 2002.

In 2014, as the Games in Sochi, Russia, opened, Hilton was among those in Utah touting the idea of another Winter Olympics. He was a member of a Games exploratory committee and perhaps the 2026 event was a potential option, backers indicated then. Hilton at that time described the state’s Olympic facilities as having remained busy in the 12 years since 2002 and said Utah had the infrastructure needed for a Games.

“We have essentially served as a great example of an Olympic city that got it right,” Hilton said that February.

The post Winter Olympic effort lost unparalleled experience, knowledge with Colin Hilton’s death appeared first on Park Record.

The Park City Police Department has begun discussions about possibly developing a facility to serve as an emergency operations center for the region.

Mayor Ryan Dickey and the Park City Council are scheduled to receive a presentation about the concept at a meeting on Thursday. A purpose-built, standalone emergency operations center does not currently exist in Park City. The one envisioned would essentially become a hub for a variety of functions critical to emergency response.

The concept appears to be in the preliminary stages, and further internal discussions are likely required before it could be brought back to the mayor and City Council for additional talks.

The discussions, if they advance, are expected to address funding possibilities and potential locations. Officials would also discuss the specific functions housed at the facility, such as incident command; support for canine operations; functions related to hazardous-materials responses and decontamination; the distribution of emergency supplies and triage operations; services related to the reunification of families; the expansion of response capabilities to wildfires; and the deployment of drones as well as “counter-drone” capabilities.

Police Chief Wade Carpenter drafted a report in anticipation of the City Council meeting that acknowledges that staffers are “not seeking funding, design direction, or project authorization at this time. The department remains in the early planning stages and has not developed a scope, timeline, or cost estimate.”

“As Park City continues to grow and regional emergency response demands evolve, the Police Department has identified the future need to evaluate and plan for a Regional Emergency Operations Center … The concept would provide a centralized location for emergency coordination, multi-agency training, specialized public safety operations, and disaster response functions. The facility would support daily operational readiness while increasing the region’s ability to respond to large-scale incidents, natural disasters, major events, and public health emergencies,” the report says.

It also says the Police Department sees a project as something that would be a partnership involving agencies like the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and the Park City Fire District.

It also appears future discussions could involve the development prospects for linking the emergency operations center to the community’s preparations for the 2034 Winter Olympics.

The police chief also mentioned the Games in his draft report. The passages state:

• “… We believe it is important to place this potential future need on Council’s radar as discussions continue regarding Olympic planning and related infrastructure investments. While no funding request is being made at this time, future opportunities associated with Olympic preparedness, regional emergency management, or public safety infrastructure could emerge and may warrant evaluation as the concept develops.”
• “Given the potential relevance of an (Regional Emergency Operations Center) to future large-scale events, we request that the Council keep this project in mind as Olympic planning progresses and as any Olympic-related funding streams are identified.”

Federal monies often flow into communities preparing for the Olympics, as was the case in the 2002 Winter Olympic era. Park City used monies from Washington, D.C., in the years before 2002 to develop the Old Town transit center, for example. Leaders see there being the possibility of securing funding for infrastructure projects as the state prepares for the 2034 Games as well. Much of the focus has seemed to be on transportation improvements before the Winter Olympics, but the police chief’s report highlights that the municipal government sees broader Games-related possibilities.

A potential location has not been finalized. Carpenter, in response to a Park Record inquiry, said the Fire District and the municipal government own adjacent land in the area of Round Valley, close to the Peace House. That ground could be considered, as could other, unspecified locations, he said.

The post Park City considers creating emergency operations center, citing 2034 Olympics in reasoning appeared first on Park Record.

By the end of the year, the 2034 Winter Olympic organizing committee intends to reach agreements covering all the lodging that it will need for the event.

Utah 2034 provided limited information about accommodations in a recently released Games Plan. The entry is nonetheless notable in the Park City area, which is expected to be a popular option for bookings by the Games crowds.

The Games Plan says the organizing committee “will deliver Games time accommodation by securing all hotel rooms required for Games in 2026 while continuing to take advantage of the rapid growth in the accommodation industry in Utah.” The passage applies to the entire Winter Olympic region, which is centered in the Salt Lake Valley and stretches into the mountains, rather than any specific locale.

“Utah 2034 will work to ensure availability, fair rates, and accessibility for all accredited stakeholders. This foundation enables reliable accommodation for all stakeholders, as well as the operation of the Athletes’ Family Village and the provision of alternative high-altitude lodging for athletes,” the Games Plan adds.

Utah 2034 said it has secured 21,000 rooms, anticipating it would reach an overall goal of 24,000 rooms in 2026. The organizing committee said it is not publicly detailing the geographic breakdown of the rooms.

Darren Hughes, who is the organizing committee’s vice president of Games delivery, in response to a Park Record inquiry, said Utah 2034 is “in process of ramping up our program to attract additional accommodation suppliers in Summit and Wasatch Counties over the summer — with a goal of securing another 1,000+ rooms for the 2034 Accommodation Program.”

There has been sporadic information publicized about the lodging efforts. In late 2023, months before the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games, the Utah committee that successfully mounted the bid said it had secured commitments from lodging properties across a large swath of northern Utah. At that time, the commitments involved the period around the 2034 Games as well as the period of the 2030 Winter Olympics. The 2030 Games were once a possibility for Utah before they were ultimately awarded to the French Alps.

The bid committee at that time indicated it had reached agreements with six lodging properties in the Park City area and another five in Wasatch County. The Park City-area properties, taken together, involved places offering a range of price points. The bid committee outlined that the agreements with the lodging properties stretched for up to 33 nights, from 14 nights immediately before the start of the Games to two nights after the closing ceremony.

The bid committee explained that the agreements were attractive to the lodging properties due to the length of the time periods involved. It also said at the time lodging properties were required to commit at least 60% of rooms to the Games and that the bid committee agreed to pay higher rates as individual properties committed more rooms. The committee said it approached every hotel in Park City and surrounding Summit County with at least 50 rooms and at least a two-star rating.

The Park City area will be critical to the Games, and occupancy will likely be high. Lodging in the area of the venues, as well as in Old Town, will likely command premium rates based on the locations. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park are identified as competition venues, as is the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Wasatch County. Main Street, meanwhile, is expected to be one of the locations where crowds gather to celebrate.

The organizing committee is securing large blocks of lodging, but there are expected to be numerous options for Games crowds in Park City regardless of the Utah 2034 effort. The rooms the bid committee secured in the Park City area accounted for a small percentage of those available. The bid committee indicated there were hotels that decided against signing an agreement. The hotels that reached agreements with the bid committee kept some rooms out of the deals. The bid committee mostly tapped traditional hotels.

As the awarding of the Games of 2034 approached, the International Olympic Committee addressed lodging in a wider 2024 report about the Salt Lake City bid. Details included the projected rates for rooms, calculated on average and in 2034 dollars:

• $313 for a two-star property
• $439 for a three-star property
• $762 for a four-star property
• $838 for a five-star property

The report said the “average projected rooms rates for Games time appear to be on the high side.” The rates covered the entire Winter Olympic region. Park City’s resort-driven lodging industry has long been considered to be toward the top of the price scale in the state, particularly during the ski season.

The post Utah 2034 intends to secure the hotel rooms it needs for Winter Olympics by end of year appeared first on Park Record.

Sen. John Curtis on Wednesday indicated he will work to toward ensuring the 2034 Winter Olympics are staged successfully in the state.

Curtis visited the Park City area as part of a statewide walk marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The route brought him in view of Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park, three of the identified competition venues for 2034. The senator on part of the walk made his way along S.R. 224, a state highway that will be a critical route in and out of Park City during the Games.

“Absolutely committed to do my role, and a lot of my role, quite frankly, is bringing in resources. And absolutely committed to make sure that I’m doing my part,” the first-term Republican senator said in an interview with The Park Record.

He added: “There’s specific ways the federal government traditionally has helped. Transportation and security are two of the big ones.”

The comments generally align with the broader thinking in the state regarding the Games. The federal government has traditionally provided monies to places that are readying for an Olympics. Much of the funding typically is provided for transportation and infrastructure projects that can assist during a Games and then be part of a community for decades afterward.

The Park City area is interested in tapping federal funds should they become available in the pre-Games period, but it is unclear what precise projects could be pursued. Leaders are engaged in continuing talks about infrastructure projects, including transportation upgrades, that could eventually be pursued prior to 2034.

A similar strategy was employed in the years before the 2002 Winter Olympics. Park City, notably, constructed the Old Town transit center largely with federal monies. Road improvements at Kimball Junction and Silver Creek Junction were also undertaken.

The Park City area will have an outsized role in the Games, as was the case in 2002. The three competition venues will be bustling, and the community will be crucial to the transportation, security and celebration plans.

The prospects of the availability of federal monies in the years before the Games have been of consequence to the state’s congressional delegation and leaders in local-level government. Timelines, though, are not known. Projects would need to be identified and then monies secured from Washington through the federal process.

Another member of the congressional delegation, Rep. Mike Kennedy, addressed the topic during an appearance at the Marsac Building in late 2024. Kennedy, at the time a congressman-elect who took office shorty afterward, told Park City’s elected officials he was “very happy to be your advocate to fight for every dime that I can bring to this place to build the things that we’ll use for two weeks during the Olympics and then for the next 70 years after that, that our state of Utah and our people can benefit.”

Curtis arrived in the Park City area Wednesday afternoon as part of a planned 250-mile walk across Utah.

The post Utah senator ‘absolutely committed’ to assisting with Winter Olympic effort appeared first on Park Record.

The 2034 Winter Olympic efforts this year and in 2027 will continue to move from the successful bidding for the event to the preparations for the Games.

The two years that follow — 2028 and 2029 — will involve a broad effort designed to prepare Utah 2034, the organizing committee, for the work required to stage the second Winter Olympics in the state. And the tasks after that will move to the details of the blueprints for the Games.

Utah 2034, as part of the recently released Games Plan, provided an outline of a timeline for the next eight years that illustrates the work to take the group to the Winter Olympics and then the period afterward. The timeline shows what the Games region should expect over the course of the planning even if it does not include details.

The Games effort will become one of the overriding issues for the region, with the organizing committee, various levels of government, the resort industry, businesses and residents all having large stakes. Park City and surrounding Summit County will have an outsized role in the Games, and the organizing committee’s timeline will be of consequence across the community.

Utah 2034 succeeded the committee that successfully bid for the Winter Olympics and has been moving through early tasks, including seating the leadership hierarchy and developing the Games Plan. The plan identifies a Strategic Horizon One, running from the present through 2030, and a Strategic Horizon Two, stretching from 2030 until 2034. Utah 2034 lists wide-ranging items in each of the horizons that, combined, bring the organizing committee through the Games and then to the eventual disbandment of the committee after the Olympic flame is extinguished. The Games Plan is the first version and there could be modifications to the timeline of the work.

The Strategic Horizon One involves two time periods.

The transition to the organizing of the Games runs from the present through 2027. Some of the planned work includes continued relationship building with various parties, fundraising, steps toward commercial programs for the Games and broadening “community engagement to inform impact and legacy priorities.” The organizing committee also intends to prepare for possibilities that could arise from the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

A two-year period of strategy follows in 2028 and 2029, with the organizing committee saying some of the key topics of the Games will be addressed. The Games Plan says there will be “high-level, long-term strategic thinking, scoping, securing resources, public engagement and communication, stakeholder experience plans, and infrastructure and venue design work.”

The organizing committee also plans to “activate commercial sponsorship and licensing programs and grow revenue sources” and “maximize opportunities” of the Games in Los Angeles. The period will also involve the development of “delivery strategies for important functions and services of the Games” like transportation and security.

The schedule for Strategic Horizon Two shows that stretch of the planning will be more granular.

“Horizon Two, to be developed in greater detail in future Games Plan versions as we approach 2030, will take us through the operational planning and readiness processes, the delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and the transition to Games legacy realization,” the Games Plan says.

There are four time periods in Strategic Horizon Two:

The planning, covering 2030 and 2031. The work will include:

• “Integrated planning to detail what, how, when, and where services will be delivered, and how events will be operated.”
• The development of “detailed operating plans for each functional area, including resource requirements.”
• The development of the organizing committee’s plans for its workforce and building the team.

The readiness, running from 2032 until October of 2033. The work will include:

• Building “competence and confidence in people and teams.”
• Testing the “fields of play, technology, and workforce preparedness.”
• Building “teams and test operating plans, technologies, and Games workforce.”

The Games time, covering October of 2033 until March of 2034. The period covers the Winter Olympics in February of 2034 and the Paralympics that will follow shortly afterward. The work will include:

• The delivery of the Games and the engaging of operations for the event.
• The staging of the “Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relays, competitions, ceremonies, etc., including the transitions between the Games.”

The dissolution and the legacy, starting in 2034 and running indefinitely. The Games Plan says work will continue “with partner and legacy organizations to realize post-Games benefits as the (organizing committee) winds down.”

Each of the steps in both of the strategic horizons will have impacts in Park City and Summit County. Three competition venues — Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park — are in the Park City area. The community will also be critical to the organizing committee’s plans for transportation, security and celebrations.

In many cases, the steps outlined in the Games Plan will involve officials at the city and county levels. They will also involve the management at the competition venues and various interest groups. The leadership of Main Street, as an example, would likely play a role should celebration plans involve the shopping, dining and entertainment strip, while tourism officials would be anticipated to work with the other parties to ensure the crowds are welcomed.

The selection process for the Games of 2034 changed between 2002 Winter Olympic era, when that edition of the Games was awarded nearly seven years in advance of the opening ceremony. In the current era, the selection was made nearly 10 years before the event, giving the organizing committee that much more time to plan.

The post Winter Olympic organizers outline a timeline taking them to the post-Games era appeared first on Park Record.

Main Street was one of the attractions during the 2002 Winter Olympics and it will almost certainly draw the crowds when the Games return in 2034, though the specifics of the street’s eventual Winter Olympic role are not known.

Utah 2034, the committee organizing the Winter Olympics, this week released a document called the Games Plan, covering numerous topics related to the upcoming work in the region. The Games Plan uses the term “live sites” as it addresses the celebrations that will be planned alongside the competitions.

The document provides limited details about the possibilities of the live sites, but the inclusion is notable nonetheless.

Live sites are typically centralized locations where crowds gather to celebrate large special events like an Olympics. They usually involve entertainment, sponsor installations, photo opportunities and other attractions. Live sites also are oftentimes free to attend, meaning people with or without tickets to the actual special events can be part of the excitement.

Park City is expected to be one of the central hubs of the 2034 Games. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park are identified as competition venues. The community will also be crucial to the transportation, security and celebration plans. Main Street is widely expected to be an important element to the overall plans for the Park City area.

The efforts to date have been at a high level, with the bid committee that secured the Games and the organizing committee addressing tasks like creating the conceptual venue map, the fundraising work and relationship building. The Games Plan released this week continues that work but also broaches topics that will be important as various parties begin considering the early details.

The passages in the Games Plan noting live sites include:

• “Collaborate with Utah communities to design celebrations and live sites that welcome everyone to experience the spirit of the Games.”
• “Collaborate with cities and commercial partners to deliver a statewide network of live sites and city celebrations that extend the Games experience beyond competition venues and provide free or low-cost access to Games viewing and celebration. Public live sites provide unique opportunities for communities and commercial partners to showcase how they interpret and interact with the Games and its brand.”

The organizing committee this week said there is not a precise timeline for the operational elements of the Games, such as the design of the live sites. Operational elements like live sites are anticipated to be crafted in 2030 and 2031, the organizing committee said.

It seems certain the eventual planning for live sites would involve heavy consideration of Main Street for one of the locations. The shopping, dining and entertainment strip is a natural gathering spot during large events, offering a quaint, scenic backdrop for crowds. It is also within walking distance to the venues at Park City Mountain and Deer Valley, and on bus routes that will be important during the Games.

Main Street has been a traditional anchor during large events like the Park City Kimball Arts Festival and Sundance Film Festival as well as for celebrations such as Independence Day and Miners Day.

The street was also the location of a pedestrianized celebration zone during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The celebration zone 24 years ago was wildly popular, drawing more than 500,000 people. There were temporary sponsor setups like a Coca-Cola pin-trading building and a Chevy Hot Zone, the Budweiser Clydesdales wowed the crowds and there were fireworks in the evenings. Main Street during the Games in 2002 likely provided a preview at some level of a sort of live site that could be considered for 2034.

Any discussions in Park City about live sites, perhaps one on Main Street, would ultimately need to address a wide range of issues. The organizers of a live site on Main Street, as an example, would have to ensure there remains access to businesses, residences and lodging properties. There would likely be some sort of restricted vehicular access to the neighborhood surrounding Main Street. The programming — possibly temporary sponsor installations, concerts and video boards — would need to be devised. Logistical matters, like deliveries to businesses and access to the Main Street post office, would also require planning.

Some of the interest groups that would be involved in the discussions include business owners in the Main Street core, the workforce, Old Town residents and the organizing committee itself.

The Park City municipal government is in the early stages of preparing for the Games and sent a delegation to the Winter Olympics in Italy in February. The travelers learned about aspects of the planning and execution of a Games, including the celebrations. The Alpine community of Cortina d’Ampezzo, an internationally known mountain resort, was of special interest since it in some ways resembles Park City.

The post Winter Olympic organizers mention live sites for 2034, but will there be one in Park City? appeared first on Park Record.

The Park City municipal government could tap someone to lead the planning for the 2034 Winter Olympics, but it is unclear when that may occur.

The new Park City manager, Adam Lenhard, addressed the Games efforts in an interview, speaking about the prospects of creating some sort of staff position that would be assigned duties related to the preparations for 2034. Lenhard did not provide details and cautioned that leaders have not discussed the topic in any depth.

The mayor and Park City Council would be expected to ultimately decide the timing since the elected officials would need to consider budgetary matters related to a new post within the municipal ranks. A decision like that would be a high-profile one and would likely encompass talks about the overall direction of the planning for the Games in addition to the potential role of a staffer. Lenhard acknowledged the mayor and City Council have not authorized him to move forward with a staffing strategy.

It seems that such a discussion could occur as the municipal government’s annual budget is crafted in the spring and early summer. The topic was not addressed in the budget talks that recently unfolded, and it would be unusual for the elected officials to reopen the discussions later in a fiscal year for a topic like Games planning.

“The Olympic Games deserve an incredible amount of care and attention, and we want to get that right. I’m going to be looking for somebody who likely has direct experience with previous Winter Olympics,” Lenhard said. “This would be a position that would have a very prominent position in our organization, and I think we ought to give it the resources it deserves.”

Lenhard added: “We’re going to want to dedicate resources towards positions, right, whatever it takes, within reason. I mean, we’ll be sensitive to our budget position and things like that, but … this will be one of our absolute top priorities going forward.”

He said there are skilled staffers at the municipal government and people in the community with experience from the 2002 Winter Olympics, saying “we do have incredibly talented individuals who had prominent roles in the 2002 Games” remaining in the community.

“I have a feeling we are going to find some incredible, talented people to apply and potentially fill that position. I wouldn’t make any presumptions about who that individual would be, but I bet we’ll be pleasantly surprised when we get there … This is something that deserves so much thought to get it right. How do we organize it? Is it an entire department or just one person … It’s going to be a huge effort, is what I would say, and we’ll continue to think about that. But I think we’ll be … all over it,” he said.

The city manager said there are also talks ongoing between the staff as the municipal government prepares for upcoming Games-related steps.

“For us as professionals, I think the chance to be involved in something like that, we’re going to have our moment to shine, and it’s our goal to be ready. We are asking that question internally: How do we meet the moment of the Olympics? 2002, I think, is widely viewed as a success. We saw the community come together. We actually have a lot of that institutional knowledge still here in our community, and we’ve been having conversations with many of those people. And those will, the frequency of those conversations, will increase,” he said.

Lenhard also spoke about Mayor Ryan Dickey’s spot on the Games organizing committee, talks with Summit County officials regarding the Games and the work of the organizing committee.

“One thing I think is very interesting is right now the Utah Olympic committee is taking the lead role, and they’re communicating with us as their partners and stakeholders in the Olympics … I think very clearly the Utah Olympic committee right now is in the process of actively establishing those timelines where the city participation becomes more formal.”

He added: “We’re not going to wait for that. We’re obviously already thinking about how can we be prepared? How do we meet the moment?”

The work toward the Games will eventually become one of the key tasks for the municipal government. The Park City area is poised to have an outsized role in 2034, as was the case during the earlier Winter Olympic era. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park have been identified as competition venues. The community will also play a key role in the transportation, security and celebration planning.

It seems almost certain leaders will research the strategies used during the work before 2002 as they craft their own ideas for the 2034 efforts. The earlier group of officials opted to create a full-time municipal staff position dedicated to Olympic planning. The police chief at the time moved into that role and the second-ranking member of the Police Department became the chief. The creation of the Olympic-planning post was eventually seen as an astute decision as the Games work became more intense.

The Winter Olympics of 2034 were awarded on an earlier timeline than those of 2002, providing a lengthier lead up to the event. The additional time has provided an opportunity to discuss high-level topics and visions for the event before the various institutions in the Games region move toward the detailed planning.

The post Park City manager describes early vision for the municipal Winter Olympic work appeared first on Park Record.

It cost Park City taxpayers nearly $27,000 to send an official delegation from the municipal government to the Winter Olympics in Italy, a summary provided to The Park Record shows.

Mayor Ryan Dickey, Park City Councilor Tana Toly and Jodi Emery, who was the acting city manager at the time of the trip and has since returned to a deputy city manager role, traveled to the Games as part of the delegation.

The dollar figure — $26,889.23 — is the total cost of the three. The municipal government said airfare, lodging and meals were the top spending categories.

The delegation participated in an observers program organized by the International Olympic Committee designed for figures involved in the planning of a future Games. The Park City travelers joined others from Utah on fact-finding missions as part of the effort to prepare for the Winter Olympics in 2034.

The Milano Cortina Games were notable as the first Winter Olympics since the the 2034 Games were awarded to Utah, and it being one of only two Winter Olympics prior to 2034.

“We heard from Utah 2034 that it was important for us to be part of that,” Dickey said about the observers program.

Funds for the trips by the three officials came from an earmark in the municipal budget meant for Games preparations.

City Councilors Bill Ciraco and Diego Zegarra attended the Games as well but did not travel as part of the official delegation. They paid for the trips themselves and did not seek reimbursement. Both of them earlier indicated they would self-fund their trips.

Travel to both the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics is a standard practice for a community planning to host a Games. Officials are able to witness, in person, the successes and challenges of staging a Games. They typically learn about transportation systems, security, business trends and the celebration. The observations can then help guide some of the subsequent planning.

Dickey described the trip as an “every-day grind” and said the travelers opted for lodging well outside Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the Alpine venue communities, to reduce costs.

“This was a work trip. I was happy when it was over,” he said, describing the commute between the lodging and Cortina d’Ampezzo as taking approximately one hour by bus.

The Games in Italy were the second observation opportunity for Park City, following the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The mayor at that time, Nann Worel, traveled to the French capital for research purposes and to be in attendance as the IOC awarded the Games of 2034 to Salt Lake City.

It seems likely Park City will send officials to the upcoming Games — the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps and the 2032 Summer Olympics in Brisbane, Australia — as well. Travel was also one of the key sources of information as an earlier generation of Park City officials planned for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The Park City area will have a significant role in the Games of 2034 with Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park identified as competition venues. The community is expected to be crucial to the transportation, security and celebration plans. Park City is in the early stages of preparations.

The Park City travelers in the official delegation to Italy spent time in various locations across the Games region, but there seemed to be special interest in the Alpine community of Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the locations where competitions were held. It is an internationally known mountain resort that in some ways resembles Park City.

During the Games in February, Toly reported learning about transportation and infrastructure with observations in Cortina d’Ampezzo. She said, as an example, “Even with strict vehicle limits in Cortina proper, moving people was hard. Narrow roads. Venues spread out. Long travel times. You could feel the strain on the system.” 

The post Park City spent nearly $27,000 to send officials to Winter Olympics in Italy appeared first on Park Record.

The new Silverlode Express and Eagle lifts at Park City Mountain that were approved this week are expected to be well-established routes up the mountain by the time of the 2034 Winter Olympics.

The role they may play in the Games, though, is not yet known.

The Winter Olympics were mentioned during the difficult discussions that culminated in the Park City Planning Commission approval of the lift upgrades on Wednesday, but the Games were not one of the key issues.

As Park City Mountain, Winter Olympic organizers and Park City officials eventually begin detailed planning for the Games, the upgraded Silverlode Express and Eagle lifts could be of consequence.

The Eagle lift, essentially located at what will be the resort’s Games competition venue, would need to be addressed as the resort and the organizing committee craft those blueprints. The Silverlode Express lift is well outside the terrain where the competition venue will be put, but it could nonetheless be vital during the Games, as skiers and snowboarders navigate around the venue. The vast majority of the Park City Mountain terrain is expected to be open for recreational skiers and snowboarders during the Games, as it was during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

“Utah 2034 is supportive of the lift upgrades at Park City Mountain as it provides a better experience for winter sport guests to our Olympic and Paralympic region. It’s too far out to the Games to speak specifically about the impact on Games operations,” the organizing committee said after the approval in a response to a Park Record inquiry.

Four years ago, during an earlier round of talks about the lift upgrades and before the Games had been awarded to Salt Lake City, the possibilities for the lifts during a Winter Olympics were mentioned. A leading winter-sports figure in the state at that time provided input to the Park City municipal government regarding the topic.

The president and CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, Colin Hilton, submitted written input in support of the upgrades in 2022. He addressed the Eagle lift, saying an upgrade “would improve the capabilities of Park City Mountain to host a venue for a future Olympic Winter Games.”

Park City Mountain is identified as the venue for snowboarding halfpipe, snowboarding slopestyle, freestyle skiing halfpipe and freestyle skiing slopestyle.

The detailed designs of the Games venue — those that will be the basis of any necessary permitting — will likely not be crafted for several years. By then, the resort and the organizing committee will be able to draft the plans, taking into account the upgrades.

The Planning Commission approval on Wednesday involves replacing the existing Eagle and Eaglet lifts with a six-passenger lift and installing an eight-passenger lift as a replacement for the current six-passenger Silverlode Express lift.

There appeared to be broad support in the community for the upgrades as the Planning Commission prepared to cast a vote, with backers saying the improvements would better manage the flow of skier and snowboarder traffic on the slopes.

The post Winter Olympic organizers support Park City Mountain lift upgrades, though the role in 2034 Games is unclear appeared first on Park Record.