1999: year in review
January
Despite excellent early-season conditions, Sun Valley Co. reports only
average skier numbers over the Christmas holiday season.
Sun Valley spokesman Jack Sibbach calls the counts a little
disappointing in light of the 54-inch base that had collected atop Bald Mountain.
#
The Blaine County Recreation District announces that in the coming
year, its goals will be construction of a Hailey Community Recreation Center, community
golf course, and completion of the Harriman Trail.
Theres a great need for a youth center in the Wood River
Valley, a place where theyre always welcome, recreation district director Mary
Austin Crofts says.
#
The Sawtooth National Forest announces that it would change its highly
controversial User Fee Demonstration Program in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and
Ketchum Ranger District to a per-vehicle pass at designated trailheads in the spring.
For the previous two years, the forest officials had implemented a
general-use pass.
We can say honestly to Congress and the public that (the general
use) kind of pass will not be accepted in this part of Idaho, Sawtooth National
Forest spokesman Ed Waldapfel says.
#
Blaine County students scored high above state and national averages on
standardized tests they took in October 1998, county assistant superintendent of schools
and director of curriculum Jim Lewis announces.
All grades tested in the district scored in the 60th percentile or
above, which means they scored better than would be expected of 60 percent of students
nationwide.
#
For the first time, Sun Valley Co. opens snowshoe trails on Bald
Mountain.
Six trails on both of the companys ski mountains provide an
alternative to skiing or snowboarding for those who want to enjoy the winter landscape
without the hassle of equipment or the cost.
#
The city of Sun Valley is one of the first Wood River Valley
communities to start talking about Y2K.
At a January meeting, the city begins to discuss the Millennium
bug and preventative measures it will take when the calendar clock turns to zeros.
In over 100 letters to locations nationwide, the city asks for reassurance from its
vendors that they will be up and running at the turn of the century.
#
Blaine Countys well-publicized gold coin dispute comes to an end
when Fifth District Judge James May awards 96 old gold coins to Jann Wenner.
Wenner is publisher of Rolling Stone and Mens Journal magazines.
In the fall of 1996, according to court documents, Wenner contracted
with Anderson Paving, a local company, to construct a driveway on his property. During the
course of the construction, Anderson employee Greg Corliss found a buried glass jar
containing the coins.
#
It snows some more.
By the end of January, several more storms have plowed through the
Northwest and Idaho. Sun Valley Co. ski patroller Mike Lloyd reports that 15 inches had
fallen in a few days and more is expected.
The skiing has been fabulous, Lloyd says. The bowls
are great, the crud is good and the groomed runs couldnt be better.
#
A panel of local business owners agrees that inexpensive housing and
recreational opportunities are the keys to attracting and keeping employees in the Wood
River Valley.
The panel was organized by the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber of Commerce
for an annual Economic Outlook Breakfast.
We know that the employee issue is a big concern for area
businesses, chamber executive director Carol Waller says.
#
A computer glitch combined with a backup-generator breakdown causes the
evacuation of riders from the Greyhawk chairlift on Bald Mountain.
About 25 skiers and snowboarders are evacuated from the lift, and no
one is injured. We just hung out and had good conversation,
says local resident Karl Weatherly, who was on the broken lift.
The entire lift is evacuated in about an hour.
#
Renovation plans for Ketchums architectural keystone, the Lane
Mercantile Building, are approved by the Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission.
It is a project the commission takes very seriously, sending architect
David Hurtel back to the drawing board four times before granting approval.
#
A blizzard produces a slew of car accidents along state Highway 75,
between Ketchum and Hailey as, yes, it continues to snow and snow and snow.
I dont think people realized how slick it was, Blaine
County Sheriff Walt Femling says. Everybody just started flying off the road.
Eighteen vehicles fall victim to the icy conditions in one afternoon.
#
The Idaho Mountain Express examines the Blaine County Commission for a
story on commissioners Mary Ann Mix, Leonard Harlig and Dennis Wright. Between them they
have more than 35 years of experience in local government.
People dont really know their government or understand how
it works, Commissioner Wright says. Most people believe the majority of
government wastes enormous amounts of money, causing the public to come away with
negative, narrow perceptions about government mismanagement. I believe that about federal
government to some extent, but I dont believe that theres a lot of waste in
local government.
#
The first of last winters cougar-related mishaps begin near the
end of January, when north Hailey residents report that between a half dozen and a dozen
domestic cats had disappeared.
Every morning there are new tracks, Hailey resident
Katheryn Leach says of her backyard. Leach reports that a domestic cat from the household
next door to hers was dismembered and placed next to a tree. The following night, she
says, the cats fur was put on the fence that divides her yard from her
neighbors.
February
A partially-built Elkhorn home is destroyed by a conflagration that
included 100-foot-long jets of flame that shot from an adjacent propane tank. The
partially-built structures value is estimated at $650,000 to $700,000.
Sun Valley Fire Chief Jeff Carnes says the propane tank
absolutely could have exploded.
It scared me to death, Carnes comments.
#
The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) receives permission from
Blaine County for stream bed alterations associated with the removal of the state Highway
75 bridge over the Big Wood River at Greenhorn and construction of a new four-lane bridge.
The commissioners unanimously approve the ITDs application for the stream-alteration
permit.
#
Between six and eight avalanches sweep down the south side of the East
Fork drainage and deal a damaging blow to three empty homes that are in their paths.
A week later, three avalanches released from the slopes of Della
Mountain in Hailey spill snow and debris across the Big Wood River.
No one is caught or injured in the slides, but no less than 20 deer
become part of the Della Mountain avalanches jetsam. It is deemed likely that the
herd of deer triggered the slide that swept them over a 200-foot cliff to their deaths.
Highway 75 over Galena Summit is also closed by avalanches that week.
Over 27 inches of snow fall in three days.
#
A cougar strikes again. Ketchum resident Gary
Vinagre reports that his prized hunting dog was killed by a cougar in his backyard.
Vinagre then killed the cat with a shotgun blast, though he says he was attempting to
issue a warning blast.
#
An ITD-hosted Highway 75 meeting goes without significant public
participation. Those in attendance hear a presentation about
planned future projects that include: Ketchum city streetscape improvements,
reconstruction and widening of the Greenhorn Bridge to five lanes as well as a portion of
the highway between Alturas Drive and Timber Way, widening of Highway 75 adjacent to the
St. Lukes Hospital site and Highway 75 widening between Bellevue and Hailey.
#
Another massive structure is approved for construction in Ketchum.
The 43,000-square-foot Private Residence Resort building, developed by
Michael Burns, is approved to be built on the Snug building site, across the street from
the Colonnade.
#
For the Mountain Express Valentines Day issue and
corresponding person-on-the-street interview, Ciebar the dog says hed need a
bone, a fire hydrant and a little French poodle if the Y2K bug struck early and all
the valleys restaurants, candy shops and flower shops were closed.
#
Idaho Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, sponsors and helps pass
transfer-of-development rights (TDR) legislation in the legislative session.
TDRs are expected to help deal with diverse land use issues. In Blaine
County, TDRs could be used to place development where supporting infrastructures exist,
but the county must first formulate an ordinance.
#
Idahos First Lady, Patricia Kempthorne, makes her first public
appearance before the Blaine County Republican Womens Association at the Valley Club
in Hailey.
Kempthorne speaks of parenting and child-related issues faced in Idaho.
I want to spend the next four years dealing with children and
families, she says. I want to talk openly and honestly about what children
need.
#
Snowfall last winter as of Feb. 24: October, 0 inches. November, 26
inches. December, 25.5 inches. January, 36 inches. February, 45.5 inches.
#
The Triumph Mine cleanup saga and the mines suspected health
risks to Triumph residents, as well as impacts on property values in the area, reach their
final stages.
After the remediation program is completed the Superfund stigma
will be gone, Triumph site manager Chris Pfahl says. Triumph will be a nice,
pretty green place, and folks can go back to life as normal.
#
The U.S. Forest Service enacts a two-year moratorium on road building.
The moratorium affects over 8 million acres in all but one of Idahos National
Forests. A year prior to the moratorium Forest Service chief Michael Dombeck declared that
roads are destructive and risky for water quality and fish, and one of the most
controversial agency issues among the public.
March
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission approves a controversial cougar
hunting season in Unit 48, which spans the length of the Wood River Valley.
Fish and Game spokesman Mike Todd points out that Fish and Game
officials had considered a lion hunt in Unit 48 for three years prior. The
commissions decision was not based on the public outcry that surged from the Wood
River Valley following last winters human-lion interactions, Todd says.
#
A trail of snowmobile tracks and fur indicates that a snowmobiler
intentionally hit and killed a coyote on private land in the Sawtooth Valley. However it
is not illegal to kill a coyote by any means or at any time in Idaho. The only law the
snowmobiler broke was to trespass on private land, an infraction for which no one is
apprehended.
#
The city of Ketchum puts a quick halt to construction of a
100-foot-tall cellular phone tower and all similar towers.
In an emergency meeting, Ketchum city officials approve a 120-day
moratorium on construction of antennas and towers 35 feet or taller. The moratorium ends
with an ordinance in place limiting antenna height to 35 feet.
#
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne stops in Hailey to sign the
transfer-of-development-rights (TDR) and Sawtooth National Recreation Area special license
plate bills.
To see such enthusiasm for this bill from such a broad base of
individuals is amazing, Kempthorne says of the TDR bill.
#
Blaine County Commissioner Dennis Wright pleads guilty to killing a doe
deer in a bucks-only hunting unit. Wright is ordered to pay $521 in fines and costs and
given a one-year hunting license suspension.
April
Bellevue veterinarian Stephen Fairbrother wins a landslide victory in
Bellevues mayoral election, garnering 75 percent of the votes. Monte Brothwell,
George Moore and Larry Plott go uncontested for their city council seats.
#
Sun Valley Co. announces that it will extend the ski season by one
week, closing the mountain on April 25.
Sun Valley spokesman Jack Sibbach attributes the extension to high
skier numbers, healthy hotel bookings and a benevolent Mother Nature. Sun Valley posts a 3
percent increase in skier numbers over the previous year, with 418,010 skiers,
snowboarders and pinheads hitting Baldy and Dollar mountains for the 1998-99 winter.
Winter snowfall totals 191 inches; an average winter garners 165
inches.
#
The Idaho Supreme Court hands the Idaho Board of Land Commissioners a
significant defeat.
In two decisions, the court denies the board the power to give ranchers
preference in granting leases of School Endowment Fund lands.
The decisions are a victory for Hailey conservationist Jon Marvel and
his Idaho Watersheds Project. Marvel calls the courts decision another nail in
the coffin of the good-old-boy policy of the West.
#
In the wake of the killings at Columbine High School, Wood River High
School administrators and faculty immediately implement crisis management strategies.
School social worker Robert Payne asks faculty to devote the first hour of school to
student concerns.
I wanted teachers to think about five questions and begin class
by asking these questions, which all of the teachers did, Payne says.
One day after the killings, a Wood River High School student is
arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at a 15-year-old girl and making threats. According
to Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling, Jonathon Wilkins, an 18-year-old Hailey resident
and a high school senior was charged with felony aggravated assault.
#
Local youths say there is a gang in the Wood River Valley schools.
Josh Buell, a 17-year-old Silver Creek Alternative School student, and
Jake Harris, an 18-year-old former Wood River High School student, claim to have been
victims in a gang-related incident involving a gun that occurred in Ketchum on April 2.
According to Buell and Harris, the alleged gang is known as the WAPs (White As Potatoes)
and has been around for two years.
Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling says his department has no knowledge
of the incident.
May
Winter is slow to leave the Wood River Valley in 1999.
Unseasonably cold temperatures and late snows in May make the snow pack
depth go up instead of down in the Big and Little Wood River drainages. Water content at
Chocolate Gulch stands at 261 percent of normal in mid-May, leaving residents to ponder
the likelihood of flooding.
Bruce Lium of American Water Resources says predicting the possibility
of flooding is like a roll of the dice, but warned that 1999 was a year to be cautious.
#
During a public hearing to consider a south county subdivision, farmers
and ranchers charge the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission with unfairly
restricting development in the Bellevue Triangle.
At the heart of the ongoing controversy is the right of south county
property owners to develop their land versus a mandate by the countys comprehensive
plan to preserve and encourage agriculture.
#
As the Save Our Open Spaces campaign intensifies in the month of May,
Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, issues a challenge to Blaine County voters: If you
want to preserve open spaces, its time to put your money where your mouth is.
The SOS concept is designed to purchase open space easements through a
property tax increase. Earlier in the year, Jaquet paved the way for the SOS bond election
by sponsoring legislation in the Idaho Legislature that allowed counties to issue bonds to
purchase open space easements. The legislation was designed to preserve open spaces
throughout the county, from agricultural resources in the south to recreation easements in
the north. As the May 25 election draws closer, however, confusion
surrounding the selection criteria to determine what lands would be preserved clouds the
campaign.
#
The U.S. Forest Service begins to enforce the newly revised user fee
program at trailheads throughout the Ketchum Ranger District and the Sawtooth National
Recreation Area.
Under the program, vehicles parked at certain trailheads are required
to display a parking pass, at a cost of $5 for a three-day pass or $15 for an annual pass.
Parking pass revenues are to go toward maintaining trailheads and
trails and to fund projects to build new trailheads.
#
The old frat house at the corner of Fourth Street and First
Avenue, once known as Sun Valleys monument to the ski bum, is torn down to make way
for the new Severn art gallery.
The structure, also known in its heyday as Animal House and the Ketchum
Zoo, served as a refuge for passionate yet poor ski enthusiasts since the mid-1970s. With
rising rents and accelerating lift ticket prices, however, the once romanticized lifestyle
of the ski bum may be a thing of the past in Ketchumand the demolition of the frat
house a signal of a dying breed.
#
The Save Our Open Spaces bond measure is voted down by Blaine County
voters in the May 25 election. The measure, which required a two-thirds vote for passage,
receives 1,028 yes votes and 1,234 no votes, an almost even split.
Following the defeat, Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, says the biggest
downfall of the SOS campaign was that properties to be purchased through the bond were not
identified. Youve got to show people what theyre
going to get for their tax dollars, he says.
June
The Blaine County Commissioners impose an emergency 30-day moratorium
on the construction of berms within the scenic corridor along state Highway 75.
The action is taken in response to amendments to the countys
zoning ordinance proposed by a berm committee, formed by the commissioners to study and
recommend action on berms, whose numbers have multiplied in recent years. Alleged
violations of the berm moratorium would follow.
#
The corporate bean makes its way to Ketchum as two of the
nationss behemoths in the coffee business, Starbucks and Tullys Coffee,
prepare to open their doors in K-town.
In a valley where coffee is a cultural fixation, many wonder if the
arrival of Starbucks and Tullys would rob the Wood River Valleys slow-paced
lifestyle of one of its most enduring charms by driving small coffee shops out of
business. Or would the loyal followings and down-home charms of longtime coffee houses
triumph?
#
After a month-long trial, a jury in a federal court in Boise awards
almost $30 million to plaintiffs Sandy and Quinn Kirkland in a medical malpractice suit
over care received from nurses at the Wood River Medical Center and from two local
doctors.
The award was probably the largest personal injury award in Idaho court
history.
The Kirklands contended that irreversible brain damage to their son,
Bryce, was caused by a medical procedure that punctured a fetal blood vessel prior to his
birth by cesarean section.
#
Ketchum becomes the first municipality in Idaho to adopt night sky
preservation laws and one of the few municipalities nationwide to have such a regulation.
The Ketchum City Council unanimously approves an ordinance that limits
light pollution by placing restrictions on street lighting, holiday lighting, landscape
lighting and household and industrial flood lighting.
#
Increasing traffic on state Highway 75 leads to a variety of proposals
for the Wood River Valleys transportation future. At a
Blaine County Transportation meeting, Idaho Transportation Department engineer Devin Rigby
declares that traffic between Ketchum and Hailey has become unmanageable for a two-lane
highway and that widening the road will be necessary to allow it to function safely well
into the future. Alternatives to widening discussed by the
committee include a bus from Ketchum to Hailey and the possibility of light rail in the
Wood River Valley.
July
Under a blazing sun, Mark Faulkner, of Faulkner Land and Livestock,
gives the signal to the 2,972 sheep he is leading north on First Street in Ketchum.
Baaa, he says, and the sheep begin to pad through town on
their way to mountain pastures, another chapter in a valley tradition that has lasted more
than a century.
Faulker, who has trailed sheep all his life, says the present state of
the sheep industry in Idaho is not what it used to be, however. There were more than two
million sheep in Idaho, he lamented. Now there are less than 200,000.
#
The ITD unveils a state Highway 75 corridor study that calls for
dramatic changes to the Wood River Valleys primary transportation vein.
The presentation is made at an open-house meeting sparsely attended by
Blaine County residents. The study proposes to widen the highway to five lanes from
Timmerman Hill to Saddle Road over the next 20 years at a cost ranging from $35 million to
$57 million.
Design options identified in the study include the installation of 15
additional stoplights along the corridor and a 36 percent increase in the width of the
highway at its current widest point. ITD officials say they are disappointed by the sparse
turnout and want to see more public interest in the project.
#
The Blaine County Recreation District discusses the possibility of
adding a hot springs pool in Ketchum and sports fields at Ohio Gulch to a bond measure
originally intended to fund a $3.5 million Community Recreation Center in Hailey.
Though the inclusion of the two projects would raise the cost of
the bond to over $12 million, rec district board members view the addition of the north
valley projects to be a means of attracting county-wide support for the measure.
#
At the 1999 Council of State Government-Wests annual conference
in Sun Valley, the Western water policy committee dives right into one of the
Northwests stickiest issuessalmon migrationas members reveal
contradicting views and whether to breach or not to breach dams.
Many scientists around the West have endorsed partial removal of Ice
Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams as the most effective way to
save the Salmon Rivers ailing salmon runs. However, Karl Dreher, director of
Idahos Department of Water Resources, says the scientific debate for breaching the
dams is, at best, ambiguous. Dreher suggests that the flow of the Snake River has not
changed significantly since the dams were built and points to other factors such as high
water temperatures in the four reservoirs, fishing in international waters and oceanic
predators as responsible for declining salmon runs.
Nez Perce tribal executive Jaime Pinkham alludes to the contest between
the economic benefits that dams produce and the ecological survival of a species of fish
that has been native to this continent for thousands of years.
August
A local substance abuse treatment provider declares that the adolescent
drug and alcohol problem in the Wood River Valley is getting worse and that the community
needs to step up to the plate and support the issue.
Kevin Boender, director of Project Respect, points to a D.A.R.E./PAL
survey that indicates the percentages of high school students in Blaine County
experimenting with drugs and alcohol exceeds state and national averages. Boender says
that despite the scope of the problem, a lack of funding and community support for the
juvenile substance abuse treatment and intervention program has it struggling just to stay
in existence. Its time for the community to totally support the issue, Boender says.
#
Public land users disenchanted with the U.S. Forest Services
National Recreation Fee Demonstration Program take part in a nationwide protest of the
program. Dubbed Recreation Fee National Protest Day, residents of the Wood
River Valley make the rounds of local trailheads to collect petition signatures from those
who oppose the fee demo program. The day is organized as a vehicle to combine and convey
citizens unified voices as they gather together against paying fees to use public
lands.
#
Two sockeye salmon make it back to the species historic spawning
grounds beneath the shadow of the Sawtooth Mountains after negotiating over 900 miles of
the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers, eight dams and numerous natural perils along the
way.
Sockeye once returned to the lakes of the Sawtooth Valley by the tens
of thousands. In 1998, only one sockeye made it back to Redfish Lake and only 16 have
returned since 1991.
#
Ketchum Mayor Guy Coles undergoes quintuple bypass surgery at St.
Lukes Regional Medical Center in Boise.
Im 75 years old, and after this Ill be in perfect
health, Coles says from his hospital bed. A few weeks after the surgery, Coles
returns to Ketchum City Hall and resumes his duties as mayor.
#
A handful of Wood River Valley locals finds themselves in a very
dangerous situation when a devastating tornado touches down in Salt Lake City.
Ketchum resident Alyson Wilson is on the Wasatch Front for an annual
summer outdoor retail show when the violent, swirling funnel cloud hits the downtown
district. The sky started doing strange things, Wilson says.
We saw the sky turn greena wild lime green, almost a neon
color, she says. We saw the clouds start to circle and gather and then the
center of the spiral started to drop toward the ground.
The tornado kills one person and seriously injures 12.
#
A wolf from the Jureano Pack near Salmon is shot after killing a calf
belonging to ranchers on the Diamond Moose allotment.
The incident marks the second time a wolf has been shot for preying on
livestock in Idaho since the wolves were reintroduced in 1995.
September
Local advocates of DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) protest
fervently after a funding shortage threatens the program in Blaine County. The shortage
follows nationwide studies that show the program, in fact, has no long-term effect on
substance abuse. Blaine County Commissioner Dennis Wright says that despite the studies,
many adults have bought into the program so heavily theyve become closed minded and
are unwilling to consider alternatives.
Its almost become a religion for DARE advocates and parents
that support the program, he says.
Apparently as a result of protests, county commissioners agree to
increase funding, but not to the degree the programs advocates had demanded.
#
Alternative worlds is the theme of the fourth and biggest
year of the Sun Valley Writers Conference. The week-long gathering at Sun Valley and
the Community School includes 39 authors, journalists and other lecturers, from Pulitzer
Prize-winning authors Jane Smiley, toas poet Mary Karr puts it doll baby
of America Frank McCourt, to award-winning filmmakers Freida Lee Mock, Jesica Yu,
Nicholas Clapp and John Kaye.
The conference is a time for attendees to compare notes, enjoy the
sound and art of the written word and commune with peers in a beautiful setting. Novelist
Anne Lammott perhaps sums it up best when she tells aspiring writers to wear
comfortable shoes and throw away your tight pants. You cannot create if you feel cramped
and shamed.
#
Blaine County Commissioners set a final budget early for the fiscal
year 1999/2000 at $11,929,138, but leave open an option to lower that figure due to a
protest over a proposed increase in the prosecuting attorneys budget.
While proposing an increase of over $50,000 for his office, county
prosecuting attorney Doug Werth says, You cant compare legal issues and
litigation in other counties on planning and zoning and civil issues with Blaine County.
Comparing Blaine County to other rural counties is like comparing apples and
oranges.
Protesting private attorneys, however, say they are perplexed.
This is an unholy, unwarranted increase in budget, Keith
Roark says, in light of the caseload handled by the prosecuting attorneys office.
The commissioners say they will hold a special meeting to discuss the
matter further.
#
After foul weather predictions, the sun comes out over Labor Day weekend and the Wagon
Days Big Hitch Parade shines.
Members of the Richfield American Legion, dressed in Union Army
uniforms, sound the start by firing two thundering volleys from a Civil War cannon. An
estimated 15,000 spectators gather along Ketchums Main Street to watch the
countrys largest horse-powered parade.
Rodeo queens, marching bands, clowns and cowboys wave, strut and smile.
The spectacle is consummated as Moj Brodie and his team of 12 spectacular percherons,
pulling rumbling ore wagons, powers its way down Main Street, with spectators following,
hoping to get one last glimpse of the ghostly wagons rolling through history.
#
Airport personnel and Hailey residents report seeing a World War II
P-51 Mustang fighter plane buzz the airports runway and surrounding neighborhoods
late in August. Airport operations specialist Terry Lafleur says in a written statement,
In my opinion, the aircraft looked to be making maneuvers more fitting for a
low-level racing course than a traffic pattern by a residential neighborhood.
The pilot accused of making the flight, Bill Rheinschild, denied being
at the airport that day. Airport Authority chairwoman Mary Ann Mix says she cant
comment on Rheinschild because of a pending investigation. However, she says, hes
one of those folks that really causes us a problem.
#
Postmaster John McDonald tells the Ketchum City Council that a new post
office will be built on the corner of Fourth Street and Second Avenue, behind Perrys
restaurant, according to a plan presented to the council on Aug. 16.
We had to get through the Postal Service approval, and it was a
challenge to do so, Postal Service real estate manager Ed Bavouset wrote to the
Ketchum mayor. It was a challenge because of the cost.
Construction of the $7 million project is scheduled to begin this
spring.
#
A week after cougar season opens, there are no reported kills by humans
in the Hailey area. The lions, however, had been more successful, with two domestic
rabbits eaten, one dog maimed and another killed, according to residents.
We live in Idaho. Cougars come with the territory, says
Broadford area resident Roberta Kay.
Wildlife biologist, Maurice Hornocker, however, says lions and people
dont mix. Eventually, he adds, someones kid could be attacked.
#
The Ketchum and Sun Valley city councils unanimously vote to subsidize
Horizon Air for up to $30,000 in losses in exchange for service between Friedman Memorial
Airport and Boise. Shortly afterward, Horizons competitor, Air Ketchum, announces it
will cease scheduled operations. After questions about the
guarantees legality, Ketchum pulls out of the deal, while Sun Valley moves forward.
Air Ketchums owner, Leonard McIntosh, accuses the city of
laundering the subsidy through the chamber of commerce so council members
couldnt be accused of breaking the law.
October
Perhaps sensing the inevitability of progress and the loss of tradition
that often accompanies it, record crowds line Ketchums Main Street on a mid-October
weekend to catch a glimpse of history in the form of hundreds of bleating sheep trotting
through town on their way from the mountains to lower pasture.
The Trailing of the Sheep Festival is a way for families in the
sheep industry to share their experiences with newcomers to the valley so they have a
sense of the community they live in, festival founder Diane Peavey tells the Idaho
Mountain Express.
#
Three lost deer hunters spend a subfreezing night in the local
backcountry in mid-October, finally emerging the next afternoon not far from Warm Springs
Road. The trio were experienced hunters from Wickenburg, Ariz., about 55 miles northwest
of Phoenix. Apparently, the only injuries sustained are to the
hunters pride. Still, in relatively high spirits after the ordeal, one hunter
recounted a telephone call made just afterwards to his wife: She assumed we were all
dead and eaten by mountain lions.
#
Following more than a year of bumpy roads, the Blaine County Housing
Authority commits 14 affordable units at the Fields at Warm Springs to
qualified applicants.
This is a particularly historic night here in Ketchum,
housing authority member Steve Pruitt says. This has been a special project so far,
and we hope it will become more a part of the tradition of this area so we can all work
and live in the same community.
Some local residents, however, are not so pleased. At least one of the
applicants claims to have received an anonymous phone call during which the caller said,
If you cant afford to live in the Sun Valley area, then leave. In light
of the comment, the applicant says she thinks people are confused about the housing.
They think this is subsidized, low-income housing,
she said, which its not.
Applicants are expected to purchase the $235,000 market value units for
$135,000.
#
Just before Halloween, the new owner of the historic Odd Fellows hall
in Bellevue discovers a human skeleton hidden in a drawer in the century-old building.
My wifes not too happy about it, he says.
Halbert Hatch, 92, one of the few remaining members of the Bellevue Odd
Fellows says in a telephone call from Twin Falls that Odd Fellows dedicate themselves to
the betterment of mankind, which includes swearing to bury the
dead. Were strictly a beneficent
organization, Hatch says. County coroner Russ Mikel says he
is surprised the group kept a skeleton, and that he isnt sure how to proceed after
the discovery.
Were going to have to find out a lot of things, he
says.
November
A roving churchmost recently Louies restaurantcreeps
through the north valley on a Monday morning as it is hauled by truck to Ketchums
park & ride lot from its original location on the corner of Sun Valley Road and
Leadville Avenue.
These are treasures, and you need to hold onto that, says
one spectator visiting from Boston. Its the heritage, and were losing so
much of that.
The old church, one of the valleys original structures, will be
stored at the lot until spring, when city officials hope to find a new home for it.
#
A natural gas explosion demolishes two houses in Elkhorn in early
October, injuring three people, one seriously. Fire officials and witnesses say it was
remarkable no one was killed.
I heard this horrendous explosion, like someone clapping their
hands over your ears, says neighbor Susan Parkinson, 53, who was in her back yard.
I looked up and saw the roof flying through the air.
Dave Nelson, an Intermountain Gas Co. technician who was working in the
area to stop a gas leak, is burned on his arms and back in the wake of the blast.
It happened so fast, Nelson says from his hospital bed in
Salt Lake City, where he was being treated for first- and second-degree burns. When
I came to, everything was on top of me.
#
During county and city elections on Tuesday, Nov. 2, voters defeat a
nearly $11 million community recreation bond. The bond would have
brought to Blaine County a north valley community pool and hot springs, a community
recreation center in Hailey and south county recreation projects.
In Ketchum, incumbent councilwoman Sue Noel is ousted by newcomer
Maurice Charlat. Richard Davis steps easily into an uncontested Hailey City Council slot,
and Craig Adamson returned to the Carey political scene after beating Corienne Marks in
the race for a seat on the city council.
Following a month of political pot shots between opponents and
advocates of the Wagon Days Blackjack Ketchum Shootout on Main Street, voters, casting
advisory ballots, agree to let the performances continue .
#
Only one week from Thanksgivingand the planned opening of Sun
Valley Co.s Bald Mountain ski runsthe resort faces a dilemma: unseasonably
warm temperatures and an extreme lack of snow.
On a typical, cold autumn day, Sun Valleys snowmaking system
pumps 3 million gallons of water onto the slopes in the form of icy snow, Wes Roberts, Sun
Valley Co. night shift snowmaking supervisor, says during a tour of the mountain. By
mid-November, however, high temperatures had allowed less than 1 million gallons to be
pumped through Baldys 522 computer-controlled snowguns. When
asked if the area would open for Thanksgiving as scheduled, Roberts says, I think
well have something open, but its hard to say how much.
#
Just three days before its scheduled season opening, Sun Valley Co.
announces that Bald Mountain, if only small parts, will open for skiing on Thanksgiving
Day. That means lower River Run lift would be operating for sure, with an 80-percent
chance the Greyhawk chairlift on Warm Springs would open, according to a Sun Valley Co.
press release.
Resort spokesman Jack Sibbach says Sun Valley Co. called its expected
guests to tell them about the less-than-optimal snow conditions.
I think our honesty has paid off for the community, Sibbach
says. People will be going to the movies and heading to town and helping to boost
the economy.
December
Discontent with an alleged surplus of local phone books erupts in
violence. The Hailey Police Department is searching for a man with a white goatee who
allegedly walked into an office shared by the Sun Valley Directory and Hailey Dry Cleaners
at 700 N. Main Street and threw a phone book at a woman he apparently believed was a
directory employee.
According to police, the book cut the womans head. Police chief
Jack Stoneback says the man yelled obscenities at the woman, complaining about the large
number of phone books printed, and then accused the company of killing the
trees. However, directory manager Sarah Gardner says in an interview that the
company runs out of directories each year. Weve never had a surplus of
books, she says.
#
December hits and skiers still wait for snow. Unseasonably warm
temperatures continue to wreak havoc on Sun Valleys ability to make snow, and Mother
Nature has yet to dump a significant snowfall on the Wood River Valley.
After Sun Valley general manager Wally Huffman announced a week earlier
that there was a 100-percent chance the Greyhawk chairlift on Bald Mountain would open by
weeks end, there wasnt enough snow to make it possible. In these current
conditions, it would be possible for skiers to go through the snowpack to the
ground, a resort press release says.
#
Wilderness past, wilderness present, wilderness in the future and
wilderness as an intangible state of mind.
During the first Frank Church lectures, a group of wilderness
philosophers, defenders and policy makers converge on Elkhorn Resort to discuss those
issues and the political reality of designating and maintaining wilderness as a physical
place.
The event was organized and sponsored by the Ketchum-based
Environmental Resource Council. Dr. Roderick Nash, author of Wilderness and the American
Mind, is a featured speaker during the event. He concluded his talk by saying there is no
environmental problem. The problem is human.
#
Contractors for the new St. Lukes hospital ask for the best
of both worlds by applying to the county for a permit to trench across the Big Wood
River while maintaining an existing permit to bore under it. During a meeting with Blaine
County commissioners, St. Lukes planner John Gaeddert says the hospital had
originally planned to bore in October based on two good contracts at the time,
but that the hospital had experienced contractor difficulties since then.
The commissioners, however, deny the application, saying they are
uncomfortable giving the hospital a blank check, and because the application
was incomplete.
Hospital contractors must resolve the dilemma before combustible
construction can begin on the new St. Lukes complex south of Ketchum.
#
Following months of negotiation, the Blaine County Recreation District
announces the signing of a development agreement with Quigley Canyon property owners to
build a golf course east of Hailey.
In the agreement, the rec district says it will construct an 18-hole
golf course and pathways for non-motorized vehicles within a planned subdivision to be
built by the property owners. To fund the golf course and pathways, the rec district says,
it is considering the following options: a lease program allowing an individual or
organization to build the golf course and then lease it from the rec district; or
incorporating a nonprofit organization in which individuals could invest in the golf
course.
#
Following an investigation, the Federal Aviation Administration accuses
pilot Bill Rheinschild of performing dangerous, high-speed maneuvers over the city of
Hailey, including Friedman Memorial Airport, last summer in a World War II P-51 Mustang
fighter plane.
During the flight, the FAA alleges, Rheinschilda highly regarded
contender in the annual Reno air racesviolated six FAA regulations. Included, the
agency alleges, was creating a potential undue hazard to persons and property,
an offense for which the FAA proposed grounding Rheinschild for 40 days. During a
telephone interview, Rheinschilds Washington, D.C.-based lawyer refuses to comment
on the investigation because, he says, previous coverage by the Idaho Mountain Express had
been damaging to his client.