The CDC will invite a speaker from the Standards for Excellence Institute to train members of the CDC, and other non-profit entities in the Wood River Valley who wish to participate, in a best-practices workshop this summer. Participants completing the workshop will be certified in non-profit management.
Slack's serenity is anticipated by many Ketchum residents who long for a quieter time, when snarled traffic isn't an issue and only familiar faces meet each other at local coffee houses.
But for many merchants, slow business periods herald trouble. And for city officials, economic downturns—with their accompanying effects on employment, vitality and even a sense of community—spell increasing worry over the direction of this mountain hamlet.
A cadre of concerned citizens has stepped forward to mount challenges and create solutions. The Ketchum Community Development Corporation's newly constituted board of directors includes six committee heads, plus two city council members and a liaison to the city.
"Generally, our purpose is to undertake projects and programs that will strengthen both the community and the economy," said CDC executive director Tom Hudson. "We're a community-based organization that wants to engage our citizens, our businesses and our government as partners in restoring vitality and a sense of community in Ketchum. The six teams will engage in integrated programs to accomplish these goals."
Committees are headed by volunteer citizens whose areas of expertise lie in town design, economic development, technology, fundraising, affordable workforce housing and transportation.
"Ketchum's elected officials are fulfilling a promise that they were going to reach out into the community and bring people with certain skill sets into the solution process," said Mayor Randy Hall. "We've found these people to help us find solutions."
Dale Bates, Town Design
Even when he's not teaching partnership dance classes, Dale Bates' feet are always moving.
"I drive my car no more than once a week," he said. "I walk everywhere I need to go, or I carpool. That's why a walkable city is important to me."
Bates, 56, will lead the CDC's town design team. He has called Ketchum home for nearly three decades and is the founder of Living Architecture, a nationally ranked environmental architecture firm.
Dancing with wife, Peggy, and practicing yoga occupy his non-work hours. But those activities will now compete for time with the CDC.
Because he has lived within a half mile from downtown for all but four of those 30 years, he has a feel for the city's problems.
"I sat on a town design team 28 years ago, and nothing got done," he said. "It's been frustrating to see how poorly we've (implemented) city infrastructure ever since."
Bates said this time it will be different. "I wanted to make sure they would be an effective group and that things would get done. I'm sensing the political will."
Sidewalks and street lighting are some of the team's priorities.
"We're going to be doing whatever best serves the downtown master plan," he said.
Heidi Dohse, Economic Development
Heidi Dohse has been there. In an effort to support her ski habit, she eked out a living with several service-sector jobs—often at the same time.
"You do the three jobs to make it work," she said.
As a former member of the National Freestyle Team and a downhill ski racer, and later as an avid wind surfer on Maui, she was attracted to towns that provided superb quality of life but were hard to make a living in.
"You reach a point," she said. "I decided to go back to school and pursue a fine arts degree in Portland."
While there, she started an Internet consulting business, where sometimes she was paid in-kind.
"Will work in exchange for snowboard clothing," she said.
Her paycheck grew in 1994 when Bank of America called on her for Internet consulting projects.
Later work at other large companies sent her all over the world, but eventually she longed for a mellower lifestyle.
Quality of life in Ketchum drew her back five years ago.
"My goal was to connect with the community," she said.
Consulting for the YMCA, work at Sturtevants and spending time with husband, Matt, were her pastimes—until the CDC came calling.
"I had a tremendous desire to be a part of it," she said. "Obviously, as a community, we're at a tipping point."
Dohse, 43, will head the team that will "create sustainable business," she said. "We don't want to compete with anybody. We want to be a bridge ... to help facilitate community."
Neil Bradshaw, Village Technologies
Neil Bradshaw, 40, moved to the Wood River Valley a year and a half ago at the request of his wife, Leslie, a homeopath.
"What could I say, no?" he asked.
The pair met in Africa while he was working and she was on safari. They lived in London, coming to Sun Valley to get married in 2000. Five years later, they made the move permanent.
Bradshaw has worked as the head of global utility equity research at JP Morgan in London. Before that, he was involved in development and financing of power projects in Asia, Africa and the U.S. for a small New York-based boutique investment bank.
This summer he served on the generation subcommittee of the Energy, Environment and Technology Interim Committee. The committee involved state legislators and citizens to study Idaho's energy needs.
"I said I was happy to help in any aspect of this (CDC) because I thought it was a good idea," he said. "Having been involved in the Idaho Energy review I realized that change in energy thinking has to happen at a local level rather than at a state or federal level."
The team will, among other pursuits, find ways to provide environmentally sensitive ways to heat streets and study renewable energy sources.
"Basically, what we're trying to do is get more green energy into Ketchum," he said.
Michael Riviello, Development
Michael Riviello, 49, has money on his mind. As head of the CDC's fundraising team, he'll coordinate efforts to execute projects outlined in the downtown master plan.
Riviello and his wife, Sue, an interior designer, have two children, 14 and 6. The family moved to Ketchum six years ago from the San Francisco Bay area. Now, Riviello can indulge in all the skate skiing he can find time for in the winter, and golf and tennis in the summer.
Time, however, is not in excess.
"I love to read on a beach," he said. "I need to do that more often."
Riviello has worked as a broker, real estate developer, and investment fund manager. He started his own e-commerce software company in Silicon Valley.
"You learn by doing," he said. "You learn by making mistakes. You learn by surrounding yourself with really great people, and that's the way I'm approaching the CDC."
Riviello also served on several boards, including the American Red Cross of Greater Idaho, and holds a dual master's degree in business and real estate development from Columbia University.
Riviello says the development team's mission is vital to convincing people that the CDC is serious about accomplishing the master plan's goals.
"It's all about raising the money to be able to complete these projects," he said. The goal of his team is to look at four areas for fundraising: grants, institutional donations, employer donations and private donations.
"It's really important that we embrace this change. We can be observers or we can be participants. I wanted to become an active participant for positive change."
Michael Carpenter, Affordable Workforce Housing
When it was time for Michael Carpenter, 43, and his wife, Robin Reiners, to leave Seattle in 2001, they embarked on a search for a new hometown.
"We wanted to live in the mountains again," he said, "and we wanted a culturally rich small town."
The couple visited several such towns, none better than the ski resort town in the middle of Idaho. "We decided Ketchum was the one for us," he said.
Although Carpenter retired from the software business and sold his Internet company, he didn't come to Ketchum to goof off.
The couple opened Gallery DeNovo in Ketchum, and Carpenter signed on to the board of Advocates for Real Community Housing. On the side, he engages in real estate investing and development outside of the Wood River Valley.
When the opportunity to lead the CDC's housing team arose, Carpenter didn't hesitate.
"My work with ARCH got me educated on the housing front," he said. "I was excited by the work. We've got some things to fix before this town is firing on all cylinders."
"We have a really strong team. What we're trying to do is be the citizen group that helps to implement ... the building of actual houses for people to live in. We all look at the North Valley as our challenge."
Jason Miller, Transportation
Although he earned a degree in engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the mountains impacted Jason Miller more than the field of study.
After a job in technology sales and marketing, Miller, 34, and his wife, Suzanne, started their own passenger transportation company. The enterprise grew and was later sold to a competitor.
The couple moved to Boise in 2001, and he worked as an international sales and marketing manager for a manufacturing company. Five years later, he and his wife headed to the mountains.
"I was looking at transportation and marketing and partnership building, with the opportunity to make more of an impact," he said.
Suzanne, a nurse, transferred to St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center when Miller got a job as executive director for Wood River Rideshare.
"What happens in Ketchum affects so much outside of Ketchum," he said. "It's the key piece, so I really couldn't turn it down."
Miller stays busy with his daughter, 3—already an avid camper—and has a baby on the way. Skiing and mountain biking are his other favorite pursuits, but he saves some of his energy and enthusiasm for his work.
"It's really exciting because there's so much collaboration in this process," he said. "We're hitting the ground running, and running fast."
Dale Bates, founder of Ketchum-based Living Architecture, has volunteered to head the Ketchum Community Development Corporation?s Town Design Committee. His is one of six committees formed to tackle aspects related to Ketchum?s economic and social revitalization. ?We?re going to be doing whatever best serves the downtown master plan,? he said. Photo by Willy Cook
