The year that was 2000
January
A month of planning and $100,000 worth of explosives
precedes a mammoth fireworks extravaganza over Dollar Mountain on New Year’s
Eve.
For four days previous to the show, snowcats carry 90,000
pounds of tents, explosives, mortars, wire, tin foil, Pepsi and pizza to
the launch spot on the mountain. The show was funded by local cities, Sun
Valley Co. and private donors.
#
A Seattle developer proposes to build a four-story,
139,000-square-foot hotel in Ketchum, on the site of the existing Clarion
Inn. If approved, the 150-room hotel would be Ketchum’s largest downtown
building.
Though the city has a height maximum of 35 feet, the
proposed hotel could obtain an additional five feet of height by providing
underground parking.
#
The U.S. Forest Service reports it collected $238,284
dollars during the first three years of its user-fee program. The fees
funded 18 per cent of the 1999 recreation budgets of the Ketchum Ranger
District and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
During 1999, the two entities spent $18,300 on compliance
efforts and collection of the fees.
By mid January, however, the U.S. attorney in Boise
announces she will freeze prosecutions on fee violations on the grounds
that the prosecutions cost more than they’re worth. Previous to the
announcement, 80 out of 140 cases of fee violations in Idaho had been
dismissed.
#
The city of Ketchum on Jan. 7 proposes construction of a
three-lane highway as an alternative to the Idaho Transportation
Department’s five-lane proposal. At issue is a section of the highway
between Alturas Drive and Timber Way, including Greenhorn Bridge.
The city’s engineer, Dick Fosbury, voices his dissent,
saying the road should be expanded to five lanes throughout to accommodate
future growth.
#
Two feet of snow fall on the valley on Jan. 10 and 11.
Lifts on Baldy open one hour late as the ski patrol reports quite a bit of
avalanche activity.
Patrol director Bruce Malone reports "the skiing is
deep and soft and getting better and better."
#
A slab avalanche 150 feet wide and three feet deep sweeps
down Lookout Bowl on Bald Mountain on Jan. 14.
The slide travels 1,000 vertical feet down the bowl,
narrowly missing one skier. The Sun Valley Ski Patrol does a meticulous
search of the area with transceivers, dogs and probes, but finds that no
one was buried.
#
During a public hearing, Hailey residents blast a proposed
golf course and residential development in Quigley Canyon.
The proposal, which would comprise 300 homes around the
course, was part of a deal between the Blaine County Recreation District
and Quigley Canyon Ranch owners.
Rec district board president Keith Perry tells hearing
attendees that development will occur in the canyon with or without the
golf course.
#
Four skinned coyote carcasses are found in the Big Wood
River beneath the Glendale Road bridge on Jan. 26.
Department of Fish and Game officers and local law
enforcement agencies say no laws were broken either in killing the animals
or in dumping their bodies in the river. The killer remains a mystery.
#
On Jan. 26 and Jan. 31, 23 Blaine County citizens are held
in contempt of court for not showing up for jury duty.
"It is vital to the functioning of the judicial
system that you come to court and serve when you are called," Judge
James May tells the errant citizens.
#
Local avalanche forecaster Janet Kellam is buried for
almost five minutes in a backcountry avalanche on Jan. 28.
Kellam was swept about 400 feet downhill after triggering
the slide on a ridge near Baker Lake, in the Smoky Mountains. Kellam was
dug out from about 15 inches down by her two companions, Anne Marie
Deveraux and Kelly O’Neil, who located her with transceivers.
February
In response to too much building, too fast, the Ketchum
City Council on Feb. 7 announces interim regulations on height and mass
for new downtown construction.
The interim regulations will be in place for 120 days and
are designed to moderate growth until a new city comprehensive plan is in
place.
The interim regulations reduce basic floor area ratios
from 1.4 to 1.2, and maximum building height from 40 feet to 35 feet.
#
Ketchum releases a new draft comprehensive plan. The city’s
current plan, written in 1983, is viewed as nearing the end of its useful
life span.
Among the issues addressed by the plan are growth,
transportation and housing.
About a week later, in response to what it had perceived
as too fast a pace of construction of buildings that were too big, the
city of Ketchum imposes emergency regulations on buildings’ height and
mass.
The interim regulations are designed to moderate city
growth until a new comprehensive plan is in place. City officials express
confidence that the plan will be in place by early summer.
#
After four hearings before the Blaine County
commissioners, South-county resident William Leet is told on Feb. 7 that a
decision on his subdivision application will be postponed to yet another
meeting.
Leet had proposed to divide his 104 acres into four lots.
At issue is the role played by the county’s
comprehensive plan in deciding subdivision applications. Leet’s
attorney, Gary Slette, argues that the county should decide such
applications based solely on their degree of conformance to planning and
zoning ordinances.
A week later, the commission denies Leet’s application
on the grounds that it did not comply with the comp plan’s directive to
preserve south-county agriculture.
However, the Idaho Supreme Court later supports Slette’s
point of view in a decision on a similar case.
#
A natural gas explosion at a house near Greenhorn Gulch on
Feb. 15 is strong enough to move the house off its foundations.
The explosion threw the house’s owner, Bob Dougin, 15
feet through the air. Dougin is treated and released at Wood River Medical
Center.
His house is condemned.
#
The Hailey City Council votes to adopt residential water
meters.
City engineer Tom Hellen says Hailey’s water stores
become low enough during summer to jeopardize fire-fighting capability.
The city decides to install test meters during the summer
to measure their effect on consumption.
#
After sitting idly for three years, Bald Mountain’s
original restaurant, the Roundhouse, reopens.
The Roundhouse opened in 1940 for Baldy’s second season
of skiing.
#
The Ketchum City Council on Feb. 29 unanimously votes for
the city’s staff to draft a no-smoking ordinance to prohibit smoking in
any public building, including bars and restaurants.
Ketchum Police Chief Cal Nevland said enforcing such an
ordinance would be an "absolute nightmare" and "close to
impossible."
March
Sun Valley Co. signs a settlement agreement with champion
ski racer Picabo Street.
Street’s suit, filed in federal court in Boise in
December, contended the resort should pay damages to her for the
unauthorized use of her name in its magazine and Internet advertising.
Wally Huffman, the resort’s general manager, didn’t
disclose the financial amount of the settlement.
Street grew up in the Wood River Valley and began her ski
racing career with the Sun Valley Ski Team.
#
St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center officials propose
to construct a 40,000-square-foot medical office building at the site of
their new hospital south of Ketchum.
St. Luke’s spokeswoman Hillary Furlong says the proposed
building was on the master plan for the site ever since St. Luke’s went
before the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission seeking a
conditional-use permit to build the hospital, which it obtained in January
1999.
#
The Sawtooth National Forest sets Oct. 1 as the deadline
for skiers and snowmobilers to resolve backcountry use conflicts. On that
date, forest supervisor Bill LeVere said, he will take action, whether it’s
based on recommendations from the sports’ participants or not.
SNRA information specialist Ed Cannady says, "The
only alternative to some kind of enforcement is people cooperating."
He called the skier and snowmobiler conflict the
"highest conflict" on the SNRA.
#
Angry bar owners chastise a proposal by the Ketchum City
Council to draft an ordinance prohibiting smoking from all of the city’s
restaurants and bars.
"If you brought this to the Statehouse, I bet you
could hear the laughter at least in Meridian," Grumpy’s manager
Peter Prekeges told the council.
#
A silent killer is working its way through the Salmon
River canyon in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Its name is the
mountain pine beetle, and it’s attacking lodgepole pine trees.
Sawtooth National Forest timber program manager Jim
Rineholt estimates that 60 percent to 70 percent of the lodgepoles in the
Salmon River campground are infected by beetles or are already dead.
#
Police remain baffled about the motives of a 50-year-old
man who allegedly blocked four lanes of commuters on Main Street in Hailey
on March 13 while he spun donuts in his pickup truck.
The truck eventually blew a tire and careened over a
three-foot-high boulder in front of King’s discount store, causing the
truck’s underside to burst into flames.
A Blaine County Sheriff’s deputy reported the man had
been temporarily transported to Pocatello for psychiatric evaluation.
#
Idaho Department of Fish and Game conservation officer
Roger Olson confirms that at least one wolf is in the area of Cove Ranch,
a couple of miles south of Bellevue.
Olson used a spotting scope to view a wolf feeding on an
elk carcass on Bureau of Land Management land near the Cove Ranch.
The wolf was defending its kill from three coyotes.
#
During an interview, two-term Blaine County Commissioner
Leonard Harlig discusses his decision to retire from office.
Asked if he got satisfaction from his years of service,
Harlig said, "There’s a lot of satisfaction. Otherwise, why would
anybody do this kind of work, for that kind of money?"
#
A collision involving three skiers on Bald Mountain on
March 21 nearly costs two of them their lives.
The skiers involved were Sun Valley ski instructor Peter
Schneeberger, Reno, Nev., resident Kathleen Clark and part-time Ketchum
resident Paul Wiley.
According to Wiley, he and Clark had just begun to ski
away from the cat track on Race Arena when Schneeberger came off the track’s
lip in the air and hit them from behind.
#
The city of Ketchum survives a court challenge to its
partial funding of the Sun Valley/Ketchum Chamber of commerce.
Local resident Craven Young and group calling itself
"Burdened Tax Payers" had claimed that the funding violated the
Idaho constitution.
In a March 28 opinion, Fifth District Court Judge J.
William Hart rules the funding to be constitutional.
April
The Boulder Creek Yurt, owned by Bob Jonas of Sun Valley
Trekking, is destroyed by a suspected arson on April 2. Located one and
half miles up Boulder Creek in the Boulder Mountains, and approximately 10
miles north of Ketchum, the yurt had been used by backcountry travelers.
The Blaine County Sheriff’s Office opens an
investigation while the apparent crime exacerbates tensions between
backcountry skiers and snowmobilers.
#
Filmmakers who made history in the world of documentary
film lecture at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum, during the
Sun Valley Documentary Film Festival.
Among the films that these pioneers in the industry made
are Gimme Shelter, Don’t Look Back and On the Road with Duke
Ellington.
#
A new home being built by Gap CEO Mickey Drexler on
Ketchum’s Knob Hill raises questions about building height limits.
After eight months of negotiation, the zoning laws will be
adjusted by the city of Ketchum to more strictly measure building heights.
#
In what conservationists called an "Easter week
shootout," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authorizes elimination
of the White Cloud wolf pack.
The pack had been deemed habituated to preying on
livestock.
#
Strong and sudden wind gusts topple trees onto cars at
Dean Tire & Auto on April 27. The type of wind is known as a
micro-burst and lasts just a few minutes.
"The sky was black for two or three minutes like a
mini-tornado was blowing in," said Dean Tire owner Brent Anderson.
May
The Blaine County voters narrowly pass a school
levy by 132 votes. It calls for $40 million for schools in the Wood River
Valley, specifically a new high school to open in the fall of 2003.
Bellevue was the lone dissenter of the four voting districts in the
county.
#
Seven towering and old spruce trees are felled to make
room for the new construction of three private homes in Ketchum. Eight
other trees on the lot were not cut down. The builders say they will be
planting 28 new spruces on the lot eventually.
#
The Blaine County Planning & Zoning Commission denies
St. Luke’s 40,000-square-foot medical building in McCanville, south of
Ketchum, where the new hospital is being built.
Commissioners said the proposal did not meet legal land
use standards, among them a sense of harmony with the surroundings, cited
traffic issues and said the building would change the area’s character.
The commissioners agreed the main reason for voting "no" was the
proposed building’s large size.
#
A ski-boat runs aground at Magic Reservoir after a
Saturday night party.
The two occupants suffer minor injuries, but don’t
report the mishap until Sunday morning after precariously spending the
night in the beached craft.
#
Gail Severn opens a controversial 25,000-square-foot
gallery on First Avenue and Fourth Street in Ketchum. The modern-style,
concrete building is three stories and includes underground parking,
22-foot-high ceilings, office suites, and an outdoor courtyard.
June
After reviewing a bevy of complaints leveled against
Yellow Lab Cab owner and operator Geoffrey Schultz, the Ketchum City
Council votes unanimously to revoke Schultz’s franchise permit to
operate in Ketchum.
Lt. Mike McNeil of the Ketchum Police Department says he
found approximately 375 violations of overcharging people for fares in the
Ketchum and Hailey area.
#
Tyler Jones, a Wood River High School junior, summits
North America’s tallest peak, 20,320-foot Mount McKinley.
Jones, 17, says, "It’s always been a big dream of
mine to climb McKinley."
Along with the nine other climbers on his team, Jones was
one of the last to summit and get off the mountain before a
life-threatening storm hit, cutting off communications between climbers
and the rest of the world.
#
The 120-unit Balmoral affordable housing project starts
with a groundbreaking ceremony in the Woodside subdivision of Hailey.
Leases are expected to run from around $300 to $750 a
month, depending on tenants’ incomes and the size of the unit, among
other things.
#
Someone finally finds the solution to the old Alpenrose
Hotel.
The entire structure is scheduled for demolition to make
room for 67 condominium units called Thunder Springs.
Rich Robbins, Thunder Spring’s developer, says,
"Nothing’s going to make us happier than to take this sucker
down."
#
The Community Library in Ketchum reopens after being
closed for 10 days while 25,000 square feet of new soft gray carpeting was
laid down.
"It was a quite a nightmare project,’ says Ollie
Cossman, library director. An army of helpers, including 15 library
staffers, about three dozen board members and a crew of high school
volunteers moved 75,000 books back and forth to complete the project.
Of the carpeting, which hadn’t been replaced in 14
years, Cossman said, "It had to be done. It was getting really
raggedy."
#
By next spring, selected Idaho ranchers should be able to
shoot rubber bullets at wolves that pose a threat to grazing livestock.
Nationwide, rubber bullets and buckshot are commonly used
to discourage undesirable black bear behavior, such as eating trash or
raiding bird feeders.
According to Idaho Department of Fish and Game
conservation officer Lee Frost, rubber bullets "do seem to have the
desired effects."
#
The Blaine County Sheriff’s Department is investigating
the shooting of 10 head of cattle, which occurred in two separate
incidents.
Sheriff Walt Femling said six Black Angus cattle were shot
and killed June 9 on Bureau of Land Management grazing allotments along
the Picabo Desert Road south and east of Timmerman Junction. Four
Herefords were shot on a grazing allotment in the Ohio Gulch area on June
22.
Rancher Mary Mizer said, "They just gut shot them, so
they suffered for days."
#
The Hailey City Council votes unanimously on June 26 to
deny an annexation and development request for 62 acres of land located
west of the Hailey airport.
The Airport West office and industrial park was denied
annexation because the council could not reach agreement with developer
Ron Sharp over the amount of annexation impact fees he should pay the
city.
#
Ketchum’s dark sky ordinance goes into effect for
commercial property owners, and the Ketchum planning department compiles a
list of those who aren’t yet in compliance.
Ketchum senior planner Tory Canfield says she will send
letters to property owners who are in violation to make sure they are
aware of the new restrictions.
"We really want to work with people rather than doing
enforcement," she says.
#
North Hailey Plaza passes go after the Hailey’s Planning
and Zoning Commission gives the plan preliminary subdivision approval on
June 27.
The plan for the plaza calls for 85,000 square feet of
commercial floor area and 240 parking spaces to be built adjacent to Main
Street north of Empty Saddle Trail.
#
A visibly frustrated Blaine County Commission grudgingly
approves the Baseline Ranch subdivision application after Fifth District
Court remands the application to the commission.
The commissioners originally denied William and Mary Helen
Leet’s application to subdivide 104 acres of farmland in the heart of
the Bellevue Triangle into four 26-acre parcels.
The denial was based on the Blaine County Comprehensive
Plan’s mandate to preserve productive agriculture in the south part of
the county.
July
After a month-long investigation by regional law
enforcement officials, eight Wood River High School students are cited for
underage drinking at a backcountry beer bash June 3 about 60 miles north
of Ketchum. A raid by Custer County Sheriff’s deputies, Idaho State
Police and U.S. Forest Service officers netted about 40 of the 100 to 150
juveniles reported to be attending the Saturday night party.
Additional illegal alcohol consumption citations are being
considered by Custer County authorities. Forest Service officials said
federal citations may be issued for allegedly destroying fragile ecology
due to vehicle damage to a meadow in the Fourth of July Creek drainage.
#
Several south county ranchers and farmers lead the charge
by Wood River Valley residents appealing dramatic increases in their
property taxes. Picabo ranchers Bud and Nick Purdy, for example, saw the
assessed value of their property rise from $17,000 in 1999 to $301,728 for
the year 2000.
Blaine County assessor Valdi Place says the property tax
increases stem from a clarification by the State Tax Commission of a rule
concerning property evaluation of south county land. But Nick Purdy argues
that enforcing the new tax law based on the speculative purchase values of
farmland conflicts with the county’s comprehensive plan and its mandate
to preserve productive agriculture in the south county.
The Board of Equalization later upholds six of the 28
assessments that were appealed, and the remainder are reduced, some
substantially.
#
A made-in-Hollywood dispute plays a scene in the scenic
Sawtooth Valley when four members of the Screen Actors Guild form a picket
line across Hell Roaring Creek Road to protest the filming of a Chevrolet
Blazer commercial. The protest is in support of an actors guild strike
against the advertising industry that began in May.
#
James Atkinson, of Portland, Ore., awakes with a surprise
in his tent at the North Fork Campground, north of Ketchum, when a black
bear nips him on his right thigh. Atkinson is treated for two small
puncture wounds on each side of his thigh.
Fish and Game conservation officer Roger Olson’s
investigation of the incident determines it was not a bear attack. He said
the bear apparently was sniffing through the campground looking for
something to eat.
#
Cody Boyd, a 9-year-old Hailey boy, loses his life after
his bicycle collides with a flatbed truck hauling a utility trailer at the
corner of Bullion Street and Second Avenue.
Law enforcement agencies search for the truck driver and
the vehicle.
#
Ketchum’s old Congregational Church--formerly Louie’s
Restaurant--is assigned a new home by the city council. It decides to
relocate the historic 18880s structure to a piece of city property at the
south end of East Avenue.
The old church has been sitting in a parking lot at the
corner of Warm Springs and Saddle roads since it was uprooted from the
city’s center last fall. But the council said the cost of moving and
restoring the church would have to be paid by private sources.
#
Severe drought plagues Wood River Valley farmers and
ranchers, who have watched their parched crops wither as irrigation waters
dropped drastically and, in some areas, canals dried up. Gov. Dirk
Kempthorne proclaimed a drought emergency for Blaine County to provide
some relief.
Meanwhile, to conserve water, Ketchum, Sun Valley, Hailey
and Bellevue impose restricted watering schedules for landscape
irrigation.
August
Police believe they have identified the driver and truck
that collided with and killed 9-year-old Hailey bicyclist Cody Boyd three
weeks earlier.
Capt. Brian McNary says a 39-year-old man telephoned the
Hailey Police Department to declare that he might be responsible for Boyd’s
death.
Police would not release the name of the man, but McNary
described him as a 6-foot-3-inch-tall, 200-pound Caucasian.
#
Fire-fighting crews at the Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) gain the upper hand fighting an
18,000-acre wildfire that had forced the evacuation of 1,800 INEEL
employees.
No one was injured and no radiation release was detected
at the 890-square-mile compound, INEEL spokesman Brad Bugger says.
#
In an interview with an Idaho Mountain Express
reporter at his Shoshone home, police suspect Jerry McClure describes his
anxiety over being unable to figure out if the 42,000-pound truck he was
driving ran over and killed 9-year-old Hailey bicyclist Cody Boyd.
McClure felt tormented about deciding whether he should to
talk to police.
"If I let this whole thing go—okay?—it’s a sad
thing all around," McClure said. "But there was nothing I could
do. I didn’t go forward [for two weeks] because I didn’t see anything
or hear anything. There was nothing I could have told [the police]."
#
The Hailey Police Department says it had all but concluded
its investigation into the fatal collision between a tractor-trailer rig
and 9-year-old bicyclist Cody Boyd.
Boyd’s death was an accident, they said, and the driver
didn’t know what he had done.
Boyd was killed July 12 at the corner of Second Avenue and
Bullion Street. Police earlier stated that the truck had the right-of-way
and Boyd apparently did not obey a stop sign.
#
Nearby wildfires around Atlanta and in the Yankee Fork of
the Salmon River drainage remind locals that the Wood River and Sawtooth
valleys are not immune to the blazes, despite their clean record all
summer.
Ashes from the roaring fire, which burned four
Atlanta-area homes, had fallen on Alturas Lake and Smiley Creek for the
previous week. On several occasions, smoke drifts into the Wood River
Valley.
#
Firefighters from Wood River Fire and Rescue, Carey, the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service worked for seven
hours to extinguish flames on Timmerman Hill at the intersection of
Highway 20 and Highway 75. The fire is believed to be the work of
arsonists.
Though no homes or structures are caught by the flames,
several ranches lie just a few miles east of the charred hillsides.
A helicopter, airplane and ground crews are called to the
scene shortly after 3 p.m. and gain the upper hand in the fight early in
the evening—but not before the flames consume 900 acres of grass and
sagebrush.
A Richfield man who was part of a team operating a cannon
fired to initiate the Wagon Days Big Hitch Parade loses all the fingers of
his right hand when the cannon’s black powder charge explodes
prematurely.
Bill Johnston, 50, is transported by ambulance to the Wood
River Medical Center in Sun Valley. From there, he is airlifted to
University Hospital in Salt Lake City, where he is placed in the hospital’s
intensive care unit after surgery.
September
One of the Wood River Valley’s hottest recreation
disputes appears to be on the cusp of resolution.
Sliding in just under the deadline set by Sawtooth
National Forest supervisor Bill LeVere, the Winter Recreation Coalition
announces it has reached consensus on the long-disputed shared use of
public lands in the Wood River Valley by backcountry skiers and
snowmobilers.
With final approval from LeVere, the proposal gives skiers
and snowmobilers a new map and boundaries to adhere to for the coming
winter. The boundaries are designed to keep the two winter recreation
groups separated.
#
The Blaine County School District contemplates building a
$19.6 million high school on the existing Wood River High School’s
sports fields if problems buying property from neighboring land owners
persist.
While acknowledging that the district may not get the land
it originally wanted, schools superintendent Jim Lewis says the district
may build the new school on the sports fields for a different reason—because
that would create an efficient campus.
"It’s more and more evident that the new school
needs to be closer to the old school," he said.
#
Pocatello-based National Weather Service meteorologist
Thomas Andretta calls the season’s first snow an anomaly.
Wood River Valley residents awake to a smidgen of new snow
on the valley floor, but the mountains stand out on what could be
considered the quintessential Sun Valley autumn day: dazzling sunshine,
azure skies, green and gold foliage and mountains smothered in white.
October
Despite nationwide concerns about flu vaccine shortages,
the South Central District Health Department in Twin Falls announces it
will receive enough vaccine from its Pennsylvania-based supplier to
fulfill the expected demand of 6,500 doses for its eight-county region,
one of which is Blaine County.
Vaccine clinics are scheduled starting Oct. 17 in various
locations around Hailey and Carey. Linda Chapton-Frazier, Health
Department immunization coordinator, says the vaccination dates would
allow recipients to develop an immunity before the flu season, which
generally hits in late November.
#
Bellevue Marshal Jeff Gunter announces his resignation
from the Bellevue force and his plan to join the Hailey Police Department.
Gunter is widely credited for helping develop Bellevue’s
reputation as the slow-down town. The average speed through the city had
been 37 to 39 miles an hour in the early 1990s. A survey in June revealed
the average speed had dropped to 31 to 32 miles an hour.
#
After proposing new regulations to put stricter limits on
the sizes of commercial buildings, the Ketchum City Council is strongly
criticized by attendees at a public hearing.
The council had proposed to reduce building floor area
ratios (FARs) from 1.4 to 1.3. Of the 30 people who spoke during the
meeting, 22 were critical of the proposed change.
"I’m pretty much offended by this document—very
offended," says Ketchum developer Beppy Dolsot. "This is an
amendment to the Constitution that says developers should not make
money."
#
Sun Valley Co. is fined $80,000 by the Environmental
Protection Agency for failing to report the storage of 4,000 pounds of
ammonia, 37,000 pounds of gasoline and 400,000 pounds of diesel.
Sun Valley Co. general manager Wally Huffman says, "I
don’t know the answer" to why the resort stopped reporting the
substances. "That is the question."
#
The state and the U.S. Forest Service join forces to
purchase the 73-acre Stanley airport. The government entities pay $650,000
to the Stanharrah Corp. of Reno, Nev. The Sawtooth National Forest pay an
additional $1.6 million in the form of a conservation easement on the
property.
Gov. Dirk Kempthorne makes an appearance in a vintage Red
Baron-style biplane as part of the celebration.
#
A fire almost destroys a Sun Valley home, inflicting over
$8 million in damage. The 10,000-square-foot home is owned by Orange
County, Calif., resident George Argyros.
Sun Valley fire chief Jeff Carnes says the fact that the
home was so well constructed added to the difficulty in fighting the
blaze: "It was built like Fort Knox. That house is so well
constructed and so beefy and heavy. Fires got into areas where it would
stay in for a day or two and then pop back out again."
November
Sawtooth National Forest supervisor Bill LeVere
announces he has implemented measures designed to alleviate long-standing
conflicts between skiers and snowmobilers in the Wood River Valley.
LeVere fully implements a recommendation from the Wood
River Valley’s Winter Recreation Coalition to divide the northern Wood
River Valley into use-specific areas.
The pact established areas closed to winter motorized use,
areas closed to winter motorized use through March 15 and areas that are
open to all winter uses.
#
With one emergency room set to replace the existing two in
Hailey and Sun Valley, county agencies brainstorm ideas for emergency
transport of patients to the new St. Luke’s hospital, scheduled to open
later in the month.
The sheriff’s department works on a traffic management
plan that would help ambulances move quickly along congested Highway 75.
The sheriff office plan includes "implementing
traffic control and alternative route plans as quickly as possible"
and good communication both among emergency responders and between
emergency responders and the public.
#
The Wood River Medical Center and the Idaho Department of
Health and Welfare investigate the causes of infections that left two
local residents blind in one eye following consecutive cataract surgeries
at the Hailey hospital.
Dr. Stephen Graham, the Ketchum-based ophthalmologist who
performed the operations on July 25, says alpha strep bacteria infected
both patients and caused the blindness. Graham says the patients were two
of six on whom he performed cataract surgeries that day. Authorities have
not yet determined the source of the infections.
#
The Wood River Medical Center’s hospitals in Sun Valley
and Hailey close permanently.
Replacing them is the new St. Luke’s Wood River Medical
Center hospital.
Located at 100 Hospital Drive, adjacent to Highway 75
about two miles south of Ketchum, the hospital offers the valley’s only
emergency care, among other services.
Patients staying at the Hailey and Sun Valley hospitals
are relocated to the new 32-bed facility by ambulance.
#
Ken Retallic, former reporter and editor for two of the
West’s top award-winning newspapers, becomes the new editor of the Idaho
Mountain Express.
He succeeds Ron Soble, who resigned to take an editing
position with the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico.
#
During the 2000 election, Blaine County lives up to its
reputation as an enclave of liberals surrounded by conservatives. The vote
tally also reaffirms something else people already knew about the county—that
it’s more conservative in the south than it is in the north.
But there are exceptions to both those assumptions.
Dennis Wright, incumbent Democrat running for re-election
to his south-county commissioner seat, was aided by north county votes to
triumph over challenger James Super, an independent.
Wright and north county commissioner candidate Sarah
Michael were the only Democrats to win contested races in Sun Valley, an
island of Republicans that favored Texas Gov. George W. Bush over Vice
President Al Gore 240 to 196 for president.
Whatever leanings they may have, both the north and south
county helped reelect Republican Mike Simpson to the Second District of
the U.S. House of Representatives, with 3,898 county votes against 3,561
cast for Democratic challenger Craig Williams.
#
The fate of 700 feet of oversized berms along Highway 75
at Greenhorn Gulch is still uncertain, following three and a half hours of
public deliberation in a packed old Blaine County Courthouse.
The berms have been the target of public criticism since
October, mostly because of their height—up to nine feet more than
allowed, county engineer Jim Koonce says.
The issue has held up final subdivision approval for Gold
Eagle Ranch II subdivision, five miles south of Ketchum. That approval
would allow developer Harry Rinker to begin selling lots, priced at
between $450,000 and $1.5 million.
December
For the first time in 40 years, Elkhorn Creek above
the Lane Ranch Pond flows, if only for a day, representing near completion
of a project designed to repair the creek’s ecosystem.
In two phases, the project involves modification of a pond
located near the Sunrise subdivision and restoring the ecosystem
surrounding the creek by allowing the stream to resume its historic,
meandering course.
"These alterations are designed to create a healthier
riparian area and improve winter trout habitat," Wood River Land
Trust executive director Scott Boettger says. This spring, overflow will
resume the stream’s historic course.
#
Ketchum Mayor Guy Coles is hospitalized for the second
time in two years for heart problems. Coles, 76, is released from St. Luke’s
Regional Medical Center in Boise following a week and a half of treatment
and supervision. He is expected to return to his mayoral duties in early
2001.
#
In a case pitting development rights against those of
nearby homeowners, a federal magistrate’s recommendation buttresses the
city of Hailey’s effort to preserve as open space an 80-acre parcel at
the southeast corner of Woodside.
The report recommends that a federal district judge grant
Hailey’s motion for summary judgment against developer Judy Hartley
Castle, in a suit she filed over the city’s September 1999 denial of her
subdivision application. The Hailey City Council contended at the time
that the parcel had been dedicated as open space by a former owner in a
1973 annexation agreement with the city. "The report and
recommendation upholds the concept of common-law dedication, and has
important implications for the valley," says Hailey city attorney
Susan Baker.
#
Logging, forest thinning and controlled burns are the
methods suggested to decrease the danger of wildfires in Idaho and
throughout the West during a wildfire conference titled "The Fires
Next Time" in Boise.
"The reality is Americans would rather not have
destructive wildfires in the first place," Texas forester James Hull
said. "We’re all going to fail if we don’t work together. We’d
better all get behind [revised management efforts] and make sure we don’t
fail."
#
A crowd of 200 gather at the Sun Valley Lodge Sun Room to
bid Blaine County Commissioner Len Harlig farewell, from political office
at least.
During seven years as commissioner and nine on the county
planning and zoning commission, Harlig helped make major land-use
decisions in the county. Set to replace him in January is Sarah Michael,
who has an extensive background working on conservation and transportation
issues in Blaine County and northern California.
#
A couple’s late-afternoon drive in the desert reaches a
tragic end when a 34-year-old Richfield woman dies of exposure after their
car ran out of gas southeast of Carey and they tried to hike out.
According to the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office, searchers found Rhonda
J. George lying in the sagebrush after her boyfriend, Jeremy Sortor, 29,
had hiked for 18 hours across lava fields in a blizzard to seek help.
