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For the week of Nov. 3, 1999 through Nov. 9, 1999

Steamroller blues


In May 1996, local voters overwhelmingly approved a site south of Ketchum for a 30-bed hospital.

We were told that votes in favor of the site and turning operations over to a private nonprofit corporation would end 20 years of wrangling and coffer-draining competition between the two public hospitals in Sun Valley and Hailey. We were told that the site, though not perfect, was a good compromise.

We were told development on the site would be part of a larger master plan for the McHanville area to be put together by the county.

We were told the hospital would be a lodge-style design. We expected it would be a modern version of the valley’s old cozy, unobtrusive hospitals.

We expected the hospital to have to play by the same rules as other developers.

It seemed oh-so-sensible. What’s happened since has not been sensible at all.

Steamroller government took hold in Blaine County with Commissioner Len Harlig manning the controls.

The county did no planning for the site and the surrounding area even though they were not zoned for a hospital or office buildings.

Ordinarily, the county would have reviewed its comprehensive plan, drafted amendments, drafted ordinances and held public hearings before any development was approved. Had that happened, a plan everyone knew about would have been in place before the hospital was built.

Instead, the county commissioners made it up as they went along—something they never do with other developers.

A few examples. The hospital got a building permit even though its sewerage plans were far from complete. Only with the hospital half-built did the public learn that the hospital wants to bore beneath the Big Wood River or through the bike path for its lines.

The hospital even got permission for a 24,000 square foot office building in addition to the hospital—a clear violation of the county comprehensive plan that prohibits commercial development outside city limits. Now the hospital wants to enlarge it to 40,000 square feet—nearly a full city block.

The hospital is building a 110,000 square foot building that looks more like an urban mall than a mountain lodge.

Now, under pressure from the hospital and landowners, the county commissioners are entertaining opening nine acres in McHanville—about nine city blocks—to commercial development.

Last week, Blaine County Commissioners Harlig and Mary Ann Mix held an illegal meeting with no public notice with McHanville landowners. Harlig called it a "workshop." Only handpicked participants were allowed to speak. We call it steamroller government in action.

Faced with the steamroller, the Ketchum mayor and City Council—-the only ones who can stop it by annexing the whole area to control its effects—-turned chicken and ran. They squawked excuses.

The commissioners are flattening democratic processes and the laws that have guided development and protected the valley. If someone doesn’t sugar the gas tank soon, residents will wake up with a bad case of the steamroller blues and a valley scarred beyond recognition.

 

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