It could be mere weeks before snow begins to pile up in the Wood River Valley, and Ketchum officials are trying to figure out how to organize snow removal efforts on two blocks of Fourth Street the city renovated last summer.
Members of the Ketchum City Council on Monday informally agreed the city should pay for snow removal throughout renovated portions of the new Fourth Street Heritage Corridor during the first winter season following construction.
This winter that will mean the blocks between Walnut and Leadville avenues, but businesses along parts of Fourth Street to be rebuilt in future years would receive the same treatment.
What it all means is that business owners will not be responsible for clearing snow in the 10-foot public right of way in front of their stores as would typically be the case.
Council member comments followed a request by Fourth Street business owner and Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commissioner Deborah Burns.
"We're not exceptionally happy about getting into a discussion about whether or not we should maintain the first 10 feet and then the city maintaining the rest of it," Burns said of herself and some of the business owners near her store at the corner of Fourth Street and Walnut Avenue. "We all need some help from the city economically. Our pockets got pretty empty during that construction."
Ketchum City Administrator Ron LeBlanc said it sounded like an equitable request.
"I think it's fair for the city to consider, in the first year after construction, to pick up the cost of snow removal to offset the inconvenience of the construction," he said. "This amount of money to clear our sidewalks is a very small percentage of our total snow removal budget. It might be a good investment in terms of public relations for these businesses."
As part of the snow-removal discussion in mid-October, the City Council considered how a Business Improvement District would work to help facilitate snow removal.
LeBlanc explained at an October 15 City Council meeting that a business improvement district is created by petition, which must be signed by those owning or operating businesses within the proposed district that would pay at least 50 percent of any proposed special assessments. Unlike a local improvement district, which the city has used to build sidewalks in the downtown, business owners must initiate a business improvement district.
The city agreed that such a district could not be put in place for the upcoming winter, but that it should be considered next year.
"It's going to take a lot of time to talk with all those businesses," said Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Carol Waller. "It's going to take a lot of dialogue to work through something all the businesses in town can work with."
In the meantime, Ketchum may pick up the tab.
Councilman Baird Gourlay pointed out that if the city pays for snow removal this winter it will compile numbers that could be used to consider the costs associated with implementation of a business improvement district next year.
LeBlanc said the city estimates 13 "major snow events" of 3 inches or more each winter.
