Milt Adam
Age: 72
Occupation: Adam retired as a mechanical design engineer with 42 years at National Laboratories in Idaho and Illinois. "I have been a resident of Sun Valley 32 years. Over that time, I have been involved in many civic matters in Sun Valley and in Ketchum. Over the years, my civic
and community involvement was also elsewhere in Idaho and in Illinois."
Motivation for campaign: "It is my interest and desire to serve my fellow Sun Valley residents as their city councilman, for their benefit."
Dave Chase
Age: 42
Occupation: Chase is an incumbent city councilman and a member of the Ketchum Community Development Corporation (Village Technologies Team) and he owns SunValleyOnline.com. He is also a partner with Altus Alliance—a venture consulting firm. "If you Google 'Dave Chase,' there are links to a few bios of me at the top (I'm not the Sopranos guy though)."
Motivation for campaign: "In a nutshell, my biggest motivation is ensuring that Sun Valley is the greatest place on earth and what I referred to as the healthiest community in America in my post entitled 'My election plans' that went into significant detail on my vision for the community. My other more specific reasons are outlined ... in my past posts."
Idaho Mountain Express Questions
1. In light of the city's linkage fee ordinance being deemed unconstitutional, what, if anything, should Sun Valley do next to promote affordable housing?
2. Where do you stand regarding Sun Valley Co. efforts to pursue paid golf, either through a Forest Service land swap or otherwise?
3. Is the city's vision for the future (as mapped out in the comprehensive plan) coming to fruition as hoped? Why or why not?
4. How do you view the city of Sun Valley's role in the context of regional planning?
5. Should the city of Sun Valley adopt a waste-management ordinance that aims to increase recycling?
Milt Adam
Sun Valley has in place an inclusionary ordinance for 15 percent affordable housing in a development. The city could acquire land to lease to a housing authority for affordable apartment housing. Also through a housing authority, apartments for city employees could be constructed above leased space at the Elkhorn fire station and the equipment building at city hall.
2. The matter is totally out of any local hands. The golf course land acquisition will be totally decided in the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.
3. The city is and will be gradually accomplishing and accommodating many of the desired items in the Comprehensive Plan. The pace is OK. Some of the items may never come to fruition, because they are unreasonable and impractical.
4. The city's role in regional planning and achieving desirable regional goals should be as an active and cooperating participant and not as an activist leader driving and imposing its own particular will and visions onto the rest of the Wood River Valley region.
5. Already 55 percent of Sun Valley's eligible housing units participate in recycling and are paying an extra premium to do so! That is a higher percent than elsewhere in the region. It is unreasonable and impractical to try to force with a special punitive ordinance a higher recycling compliance due to only 25 percent of all the housing units in Sun Valley being occupied full time.
Dave Chase
I addressed this in my election plans post. I believe my approach is pragmatic and will actually produce results as opposed to the glacial pace that things have been moving at now. Another way to characterize my approach is to ask "how much of the issue can be tackled with market tools and have that be the first focus, not the last focus?"
To my knowledge, the city of Sun Valley (and its council) doesn't have a vote on this matter. It's for the Forest Service to decide. I have commented more generally on the relationship with Sun Valley Co. and my thoughts would apply here as well.
The city developed, with tremendous energy, hours and input from its citizens, the Comprehensive Plan. There has been great progress towards those goals. A huge percentage of Sun Valley's land (especially that is undeveloped) is owned by Sun Valley Co. See my previous comment regarding the relationship with the Sun Valley Co.
Regional issues are like squeezing a balloon full of water. If you squeeze in one area, it will just expand in another area. I consider "my community" to not be limited to the city borders. Should Sun Valley participate in regional issues? Absolutely. Transportation is a great example. Whether the issue is road or air transportation, Sun Valley is impacted even if the topic at hand may be Highway 75.
Yes, though to achieve the goals to make a significant impact, we need countywide collaboration. For example, the capital required to buy a recycling sorter should be weighed against the cost of a new landfill. A sorter, such as what is used in many communities, allows for one bin to have co-mingled recycling, which greatly increases the ease of recycling.
