Friday, January 29, 2010

Our community, our future


Joan Lamb is a member of the Sun Valley City Council.

By JOAN LAMB

It is imperative for the well-being of our county, our residents and our visitors that we work together and focus on what benefits us rather than on what divides us.

Last week, a presentation was made at the Sun Valley City Council meeting that shows a 10-year downward trend in economic performance in both Sun Valley and Ketchum, as measured by LOT receipts adjusted for inflation. A similar analysis by the editorial staff of this paper recently reached the same conclusion. At the same time, costs of government have increased such that Sun Valley is running an operating deficit for the second year in a row; its annual revenues do not cover the cost of operating its government. Ketchum has successfully scaled back its expenses so that it is generating a substantial surplus, but it had to postpone expenditures to accomplish that. How do we reverse these trends and manage our collective resources more wisely?

Sun Valley Co. and other developers are working to replace the hotel rooms that have been lost over the past decade. Many hard-working people are volunteering their time to enhance the resident and tourist experience by developing the Ketchum Town Plaza into an appealing public gathering place. People are opening new restaurants. Others are working to improve the transportation connectivity to and within the county, including evaluating a gondola or trolley system and by adding bus service to Twin Falls and the Boise airport. Many are engaged in economic development through Sustain Blaine, WREP, the CDC and other initiatives, such as an educational partnership with the College of Idaho being incubated at The Community School, an energy institute in its formative stages and other ideas that will attract people who appreciate our unparalleled natural surroundings, but are not exclusively tourist-based.

To continue to appeal to new businesses and visitors, we need to maintain the quality of our schools, infrastructure and municipal services and find new ways to do so that maximize efficiency and minimize cost. We need to use new technologies such as the countywide consolidated dispatch and rethink how we deliver essential services to the community. The elected administrative heads of all our jurisdictions must be the ones to provide this leadership, and particularly the mayors of Sun Valley and Ketchum. When this collaboration occurs, the community will benefit from a more efficient use of taxpayer funds, a reduction in redundant efforts and high-quality services that attract residents, visitors and businesses.




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