Ketchum voters were clearly in a mood for change Tuesday when they elected Randy Hall as their new mayor. And change they should get.
For years, the city has acted like a sailboat without a rudder, blown with no direction by changing winds through City Hall.
The new mayor should join with the City Council and waste no time in ending the city's drift and readying it to confront pressing challenges. A lot can be done in four years, and Ketchum can't afford to waste a day.
But nothing can be done without a clear set of priorities and timelines that make sense to the public, along with a commitment by city leaders to get things done.
City leaders should be thinking, "Housing and hotels, hotels and housing."
The mayor should instill a sense of urgency at City Hall. He should offer city staff encouragement and support, while expecting only their best efforts and advice in return.
There's a backlog of work that needs to be done if Ketchum is not to become an empty anachronism.
The city needs to come up with an aggressive strategy for building and promoting development of workforce housing in its own downtown—not somewhere else.
It needs to examine plans in place in other resort communities in other states and adapt them for use in Idaho.
It needs to revise zoning downtown to promote a reasonable balance between retail and residential development, and to allow development of new hotels.
It needs to come up with a financing strategy and a firm timeline for building sidewalks, lighting and other downtown improvements.
The city has made a good start on saving downtown by imposing a moratorium and hiring an experienced consultant.
However, no matter what the consultant recommends, it will be up to the mayor and council to put mechanisms in place to achieve the goals. They should not allow the recommendations to become the newest study to gather dust in City Hall.
Ketchum should also work hard with the city of Sun Valley to develop KART into a countywide transportation system. Overall, the city's goal should be to become the most lively and livable mountain community in the nation. It should be a place people want to visit for fun and recreation.
The new mayor and his council can lead the city there—or not.
The mayor and council should work quickly to establish solid and realistic goals, devise financing and zoning strategies, and timelines for meeting the goals.
Then, they should just do it, because process without progress is just blather.
