Ketchum residents
speak up
Affordable housing,
transportation top town meeting issues
By GREG
STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Transportation
issues and affordable housing in Ketchum dominated the open mike portion
of a town hall meeting last week. And a Highway 75 consultant agreed
Ketchum is sure to be problematic when the time comes to determine
eventual expansion plans for the road inside city limit.
Ketchum
Mayor Ed Simon kicks off the city’s town hall meeting last week. Express
photo by David N. Seelig
"It
makes me nervous every time I drive across that Trail Creek bridge,"
Highway 75 environmental study coordinator Diana Atkins said. "Land
uses there are pretty tied up."
The town
hall meeting Feb. 20 was the first of what Mayor Ed Simon said will be
regularly scheduled forums for citizens to air concerns.
"Not
only do we want to hear from you, but we want your involvement," he
said.
Atkins didn’t
offer any sneak peeks of her National Environmental Policy Act study of
the corridor, but said she will have a "pretty good idea" by
April of what the Highway 75 transportation system needs to be.
Thereafter,
"we’re going to get real," she said.
"Like
most things in life, the solutions are going to be multifaceted," she
said. "Right now, we don’t have a lot of answers in terms of what
it’s going to look like."
Atkins
admitted that part of her job is fighting the mistrust the Idaho
Transportation Department (ITD) instilled in the valley on earlier
expansion efforts.
Ketchum
City Council members gave the community the spotlight at last week’s
town hall meeting and mostly listened. Express photo by David N. Seelig
"I
guarantee we will tell you the truth," she said. "I don’t want
any surprises. We don’t want any surprises."
That didn’t
convince everyone.
"We
have to be careful about what ITD does, because they are kind of
sly," Karen McCall of Ketchum said.
Ketchum
Councilman Randy Hall said ITD’s earlier efforts put the project before
the process. But the environmental study is bringing the valley together.
"This
whole community is starting to work together. We’re all sitting around
the same table now."
The meeting’s
other hot topic, affordable housing, centered on Ketchum’s proposed town
center affordable housing project.
Councilman
Maurice Charlat is the only city official who has voiced opposition to the
project. But roughly half of those at the meeting showed opposition to the
project during an informal straw poll.
Skip
Weinbel of Ketchum questions the Ketchum City Council about affordable
housing and downtown building sizes. Express photo by David N. Seelig
Those who
objected to the project said the site is improper for that type of
project, and the city is overstepping its fiduciary responsibilities.
Simon
argued the points.
"The
issue of the site is really a red herring," he said. But he
acknowledged fiduciary issues are serious and must be resolved before a
project is ever approved.
"The
city doesn’t have enough land to build enough units," he said.
"I go into Atkinsons’ for a sandwich and the people serving it say
‘We need a place to live up here.’ I can’t ignore that voice
either," Simon said.
Approximately
75 people attended the town hall meeting.