For the week of April 9 - 15, 2003

Deadline contemplated for old church

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Ketchum’s historic Congregational Church, which has been collecting dust in the city’s park and ride lot for more than three years, might be either moved or scrapped later this year.

To the chagrin of those who have been attempting to organize the church’s relocation and renovation as a community center, Ketchum City Councilman Maurice Charlat proposed at a Monday, April 7, city council meeting to move the historic building to the Ketchum Cemetery this summer.

Though the city council discussed the proposal, firm conclusions were not apparent. Nonetheless, Floyd McCracken, president of a group dedicated to preserving the church as a community center, called Charlat’s proposal "grossly unfair."

McCracken and members of his Save the Church group have raised $101,000 in cash and pledges for renovations. However, McCracken said the pledges were collected while telling those who pledged that the old building would become a community center. If restored at the cemetery, it would be used only for funerals or other faith-based events.

McCracken and fellow Save the Church member Dick Meyer proposed three potential sites for the old church last summer: the city park and ride lot, the "town center" site where the city visitor center is located or Little Park, a half-block park across Fifth Street from Ketchum City Hall.

The city council never acted on any of those sites.

"It became apparent to me that the building, the Congregational Church, either needs a home or it needs to be disposed of," Charlat said. "I feel that the church should be preserved."

Charlat proposed a deadline of May 1 for the Save the Church group to commit to the cemetery site.

 

Ketchum to pave, add sidewalks

The Ketchum City Council Monday night informally agreed to a summer street improvements schedule that will include construction of asphalt sidewalks on the east side of First Avenue between the Ernest Hemingway Elementary School and Perry’s Restaurant.

The sidewalks will be installed in conjunction with a 2-inch asphalt overlay that will be applied to First Avenue between River and Fourth streets. The four-block overlay will cost $110,000 compared with $40,000 the city spent on chip sealing roughly half of Ketchum last summer.

However, the asphalt overlay will last about 15 years compared to the six-year life span of a chip seal.

Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc said the city will begin a program whereby it attempts to pave all of First Avenue and East Avenue on a rotation schedule.

"The two streets we want to concentrate on are First Avenue and East Avenue," he said. "We would improve the appearance for events like the arts walk. And, for people who park in the center of those two streets, it will be a better surface for grinding tires turned with power steering."

LeBlanc said the city would also do some chip sealing and crack sealing on other streets this summer.

"We haven’t determined the exact streets yet, but it will be in the same general area as those four blocks we’re paving," he said.

 

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