Ketchum voters pass YMCA plan
Cemetery tax increase wins in close vote
By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer
Ketchum voters decisively said yes Tuesday that they want the city to confer to the Wood River Community YMCA approximately one-quarter of the city-owned Park and Ride lot to accommodate a state-of-the-art recreational complex and community center. The final tally came in at 2:25 a.m. Wednesday recorded 1,174 yes votes and 704 no votes on the advisory ballots that had to be hand counted at the Blaine County Courthouse election headquarters.
In a broader election, voters residing in the Ketchum Cemetery District endorsed a temporary, two-year property-tax increase to pay for a planned $1 million cemetery improvement project. The measure passed with 1,807 yes votes to 951 no votes, just meeting the 65 percent approval required to pass.
Interest in the YMCA vote had been running extremely high up to the Nov. 2 advisory election, ultimately determined the fate of a decade-old initiative to build a public activities facility in central Ketchum.
The advisory ballot question asked Ketchum voters if the city should ?enter into a 99-year lease for $1 a year with the YMCA for a recreational and cultural facility to be built at no cost to the city on approximately 25 percent of the Park and Ride lot??
The Ketchum-based YMCA organization has proposed to build an approximately 85,000-square-foot structure on the vacant Park and Ride lot, located at the intersection of Warm Springs and Saddle roads.
The planned two-level YMCA structure would include an ice rink that converts to a 2,500-seat indoor event center, two indoor pools, a gymnasium, a fitness center, a climbing gym, a day-care center and numerous other facilities.
YMCA officials said getting the public land on which to build the facility is critical to reaching their goal of breaking ground by next spring.
The results of the Ketchum Cemetery District election?decided by voters residing in a wide-ranging area that includes all of Ketchum and numerous subdivisions in northern Blaine County?will now permit the district to fulfill its goal to expand and improve the historic Ketchum Cemetery.
Specifically, the language in the ballot measure asked district voters if they support an increase to .000138 from .000009699 in the district-specific property-tax levy.
The proposal called for the levy increase to be in place for two fiscal years, from 2005 to 2007, when it would then revert back to its existing rate.
The plan to expand and improve the Ketchum Cemetery?located north of downtown on the east side of Highway 75?calls for erecting a new administration building and a small amphitheater on the southwest corner of the property, as well as adding numerous burial sites and public paths.
