I just read with great delight that Jim Jaquet has agreed to become the interim city administrator for the city of Ketchum until a search can be completed to hire a new one. What a pleasure. It has occurred to me that there seems to be a common thread among the people who have important and influential jobs in our valley—they all have a wonderful sense of humor.
Jaquet is one of the best storytellers around and his quiet, quick wit has livened up many a boring meeting over the years. He spent 25 years as Ketchum's city administrator, retired and looked forward to enjoying his twilight years celebrating life with all that is important to him—Wendy, his kids, the history of the valley and baseball. A longtime San Francisco Giants fan, Jaquet was also a player. He excelled in the game and helped to make his high school team in Washington a championship one. He later played for the University of Washington Huskies and performed in city leagues wherever he resided. In his late 50s and early 60s, he could still rip a line drive with the best of them. Now, as a public service, he has returned to help guide the town of Ketchum for a while. We'll all be fortunate that he has decided to do so.
There's quite a few other folks who have this gift of humor that they lend to their everyday activities. At The Community Library, there are Colleen Daly, the executive director, Lisa Edelman, the children's librarian, Norma Douglas, the board's president and anybody at the front desk. These people kept me amused for seven years. And have you ever sat down and kibitzed with Kristin Poole of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts? This is a very funny woman. How about Heather LaMonica and Ellen Gillespie at Sun Valley Events—funny! There's Rob Santa at Sturdevant's, Rick Davis, the mayor-elect of the city of Hailey, R. L. Rowesy of the Company of Fools and all the Wygle sisters. Bill Nagel is hilarious. Craig Spiller at the Sun Valley Wine Co., Realtor Dick Fenton, Dick Fosbury, the Olympian engineer, Jack Sibbach, the marketing guy at Sun Valley, Donna Simms at the Heritage and Ski Museum and Teddy Daley of the Blaine County Museum—these are some of the jolly people of the valley.
Of course, I'm omitting so many others, but you all know who you are. You're the kind of people who make life a little easier for all of us while just doing your jobs. We're lucky, here in this festive holiday season, to have all these folks with this one common thread. Love them! Mean it!
Nice talking to you.