Some Salt Lakers' telephones will ring soon with a question about rings.
Negative public sentiment about a controversial proposal to set the Olympic logo in lights on the Wasatch foothills prompted the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to hire polling firm Dan Jones & Associates to get a broad sample of residents' feelings.
Results could be key to whether SLOC pursues getting the five interlocking rings placed above the Avenues. Securing funding also could factor into whether the project moves ahead.
"Clearly, if there's a strong, enthusiastic response that it's a great idea, we'll keep on pressing forward," SLOC President Mitt Romney said Monday. "And if there's not; why, we'll say, 'Gee, you don't want that gift? Fine, we'll do something else.' "
But he doesn't think the latter will happen. He attributes the rancor to a vocal minority like the one that almost kept the rings off the Harbour Bridge at the Sydney Olympics.
Romney said the "great majority of people ended up really loving the rings on the bridge. Our guess is we'll have the same response to the rings on the side of the mountain."
Salt Lake City Councilwoman Nancy Saxton says Romney was "caught off guard" at a council meeting last week where residents and three council members, including herself, expressed opposition to the proposal.
"I think he was surprised," she said. "Maybe (the poll) will help him to understand" people are opposed to the project.
The idea received mixed reactions at several public meetings last week. The Greater Avenues Community Council, along with City Councilman Tom Rogan, came out strongly against the idea. "There are people who hate this thing," Rogan said of the proposed display.
Residents can voice their opinions at two City Council meetings: Tuesday night and on Oct. 16, when the council is expected to make a decision on whether to allow the hillside symbol. SLOC intends to release the poll results next Monday.
The rings' opponents "help inform the debate," Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson said. But he regrets that so much time has been spent fighting about whether the Games should come to Salt Lake City at all.
Anderson is hopeful that Salt Lakers will be informed of SLOC's $25,000 contribution to the city's open-space legacy fund, and of SLOC's plans to restore the hillside vegetation. But if an overwhelming majority of surveyed people know of those plans and still oppose the rings, the mayor said "that would have a lot of influence on my position."
SLOC has yet to solidify funding for the rings project that Romney estimates will cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars." Olympic organizers are working with several donors for the project.
Utah Power has agreed to contribute some 2,000 low-wattage compact fluorescent light bulbs for the project, which spokeswoman Margaret Kesler said would cut electrical consumption by two-thirds over incandescent bulbs.
"That's the extent of our involvement," Kesler said.
Saxton says the Wasatch range is plenty iconic, unlit by any 160-foot diameter rings.
But Anderson says the foothills won't draw much attention without them. He wants to draw the world's eyes to the hillsides and to Salt Lake City itself.
"The folks that are behind this know a lot more about (the logistics) than I do," the mayor added. "They've persuaded me that this is going to be a very powerful visual image."
SLOC wants the rings as part of its "look of the Games" that includes downtown banners and huge images of athletes on building wraps.
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