Park City is setting snowfall records with more on the way. It’s a beautiful sight for a ski town but for full-time parents, it poses challenges.
Kayla Jacks lives in Silver Creek and said she would love to take her toddler to ski at Park City Mountain but the cost and crowds have become barriers.
“And in the past couple years, I've been attempting to get him on skis, you know, mostly just to get him outdoors, get him exposure, get him interested in something, something that we can do together,” Jacks said. “And this year with the mostly, with the introduction of the PCMR paid parking, that kind of has gone away. I've gotten him to the mountain three times this year so far. And with all this great snow, it's pretty sad to say that.”
Then Jacks got inspired one day at Trailside Park when she saw a toddler on skis.
“I ran into a gentleman who had his 3-year-old just cruising down the little hills by the soccer field. And like this is so good. How did you do this, you know, and we kind of got to talking and he's like, I have been trying to encourage a bunny hill in this town forever.”
A few weeks later, Jacks decided to take matters into her own hands.
“So based on the weeks that went by after that, and how I was not able to get my son out because of nap time, because of the times that the resorts closed because of the parking, because of the lack of access or convenience to get to and from a mountain and to their bunny hills, all sorts of different pain points, I decided to go ahead and start the petition just to see what kind of interest there would be.”
Jacks’ petition is now circulating through Change.org. It lists issues including an overall lack of convenience as reasons why a standalone bunny hill should be built for the community.
Ken Fisher is recreation director for Park City. He said a kids bunny hill has never been mentioned in community surveys over the years. He added that it would be difficult to recommend public tax dollars go towards such a facility when there are many competing interests.
At the time of this report, Jacks’ petition was more than halfway to her goal of 1,000 signatures.
Jacks admitted that she had no idea this petition would get so much support and awareness so quickly. She’s currently weighing options for which entity to approach for funding. Her first stop is Basin Recreation’s open house to meet with the strategic plan committee on March 2.
