For the week of August 21 - 27, 2002

Ketchum council adopts city preliminary budget

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

The Ketchum City Council unanimously adopted Monday night the city’s preliminary $12.1 million 2002-2003 fiscal budget, which is 6.1 percent higher than the current fiscal year. Councilwoman Chris Potters was absent.

The increased spending includes sidewalk, medical insurance and emergency services expenses, Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc also used the meeting to clarify that a budget spreadsheet that had been issued to the public had been confusing. That spreadsheet had the appearance of a $9.8 million budget, which did not include $2.3 million of capital improvement funds.

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Members of Save the Church met resistance yet again when they proposed Monday that Ketchum’s historic Congregational Church could find a permanent home at the city’s town center site.

The site, at the corner of Forth and Main streets, is home to the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber and Visitors Bureau (CVB), but the CVB is vacating the property this fall. Ketchum’s old city hall, which occupies the site, is almost universally considered old and decrepit.

Ketchum Mayor Ed Simon said, however, that the city will not consider potential uses for the property until the chamber leaves.

"It is a win-win situation for the city of Ketchum, as the church would be preserved, the park maintained, a community center established, and the church would be located just two or three blocks from where it was for 118 years," said Save the Church Co-Chairman Floyd McCracken.

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Following Ketchum’s tar-and-chip mess on city streets this summer, Ketchum’s insurance company has received 22 claims totaling an outside amount of $100,000.

"We’re not denying there’s a problem out there," said Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc. "We’re trying to do what’s best for the community."

LeBlanc said the city is still evaluating what happened and has slated meetings with the oil provider and the city’s insurance company, Idaho Cities Risk Management Pool.

Additionally, LeBlanc is studying a range of options for paving or chip sealing in summers to come, and he will present his findings at a city council meeting sometime this fall.

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Also Monday night, Mayor Ed Simon swore in Greg Schwab as Ketchum’s new fire chief. Schwab, who was Ketchum’s assistant fire chief for a year and a half, replaces retiring Chief Tom Johnson.

 

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