Mayor, City Councilor tapped to represent Park City in Olympic talks

Mayor Dana Williams and freshman Park City Councilman Andy Beerman on Thursday night were tapped as City Hall's representatives to the discussions about a bid for an upcoming Winter Olympics.

The mayor and full City Council did not hold a lengthy talk about the Olympic discussions, and it is not clear what sort of involvement Williams and Beerman will have with an exploratory committee that is considering whether the state should mount a bid for the Games in 2022 or 2026. Williams became the mayor the month before the 2002 Winter Olympics.

A conference call led by Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker is scheduled on Tuesday and is expected to include the mayors of cities that hosted Olympic competitions during the Games in 2002. Williams is unable to participate in the conference call.

Park City played an important role in 2002 and would almost certainly be crucial to another bid for an Olympics. Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley Resort hosted competitions in 2002 while Main Street was one of the Olympic region's celebration hotspots. The Utah Olympic Park in the Snyderville Basin was also a critical athletic venue. The Park City area is well-represented on the exploratory committee.

The mayor and City Council, meanwhile, discussed a future Olympics during a wide-ranging session focused on City Hall issues held in February, according to the minutes of what was known as a visioning session.

The minutes indicate the elected officials agreed to include exploring another Olympics in City Hall's work plan for the year.

The International Olympic Committee typically awards an Olympics seven years before the event, meaning that the host of the Games in 2022 would be selected in 2015 and the host in 2026 would be chosen four years later. Cities vying for an Olympics put together their bids long before the selection date.

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