Could the merger of the Sun Valley and Ketchum police departments help spur economic development?
That was the question floated by Sun Valley Councilman Dave Chase at a council meeting last Thursday.
"We are headed toward an economic iceberg," Chase said. "This is not a time to crawl into a cave and shut down."
The appropriate action, according to Chase, would be to spend more money to market Sun Valley and use the downturn as an opportunity to gain market share, as Chevrolet did during the Great Depression.
"We need to pour money into economic development," Chase said.
However, this plan runs into trouble when there isn't a plentiful amount of cash on hand.
Chase suggested that Sun Valley and Ketchum work together to find a creative solution, part of which could include a merger between the cities' police departments.
"Ketchum has a vacancy for its chief and Sun Valley has a professional chief already in place," Chase said.
Bringing the two departments together under Sun Valley Police Chief Cam Dagget, Chase said, would free up funds that would otherwise be spent on hiring a new chief in Ketchum. Before he resigned his post, Corey Lyman was earning $110,380 as the head of the Ketchum Police Department.
"There are obviously a lot of details to work out," Chase said. "But it would be worth opening an exploratory discussion with Ketchum if the city is receptive to the idea."
Chase said one possible use for the money could be to attract more "rubber tire" visitors, or those that are within driving distance from the resort. To accomplish that, Chase said, buses could be subsidized from Boise, as well as lift tickets for visitors coming from within a prescribed distance.
"In the past 40 years, we never would have entertained this idea, but I think that all bets are off now," Chase said.
Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich said he would contact Ketchum Mayor Randy Hall to discuss the possibility of a police merger, as well as Sun Valley Co. General Manager Wally Huffman to determine how the cities could work with the resort to increase visitors this winter.
However, some of Chase's fellow councilmen did not share his enthusiasm for the idea.
"To be honest, none of this makes sense to me," Councilman Nils Ribi said of the plan to bring the two departments together. "If we need to work on marketing, fine, but the Ketchum police chief situation is a Ketchum problem."
Willich said he agreed with Chase's idea of pursuing an aggressive marketing campaign to combat the economic downturn, but did not offer any vocal support for the merger.
However, the Ketchum mayor did not dismiss the idea after speaking with Chase about it informally.
"I have an open mind when it comes to anything that will save taxpayer money," Hall said at a Ketchum City Council meeting on Monday. "I need to work with Wayne (Willich) as to where we're going with this, but cities around the country are having trouble balancing their budgets and are looking at consolidating departments."
