2010 Grand Marshal Ron Fairfax didn't go to the Hailey parade last Fourth of July.
"I missed it for the first time in 25 years," he said.
For seven of those years, Fairfax was in the parade lineup, and normally hopped on his Zamboni just in time to ride in front of Elbie's bucking Gran Torino.
"I was so busy running back and forth that I've never actually seen the parade," he said.
Huntington Beach, in Fairfax's native Southern California, was celebrating its centennial year with a Fourth of July extravaganza last year, which Fairfax didn't want to miss. After making sure his responsibilities were covered, he headed to the coast. This year, Fairfax and the decorated Zamboni will ride at the head of the parade, in the grand marshal's spot of honor.
Fairfax has a long past with Hailey's Fourth of July events.
"I used to roast a pig on a spit," Fairfax said, referring to the Hailey Chamber of Commerce's Fourth of July Barbecue.
He'd take a trailer and the pig to Hop Porter Park, where he'd spend the night grabbing catnaps and stoking the fire so the pig would be ready in time. Fairfax also served on the chamber's board of directors from 1999 to 2005.
But more than that, Fairfax's main community involvement has been with Hailey Ice, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the cause of providing Hailey with a public ice rink. Hailey Ice was founded by Fairfax and three friends in 1999, and the organization's first big purchase was a Zamboni.
This Zamboni is the same one that Fairfax will decorate and ride in the parade this year. That is if he can get a new engine installed in time. Fairfax does all of the maintenance on the machine, replacing parts and tuning it up as needed.
Fairfax blames actor and part-time resident Bruce Willis for getting him started in ice making. In 1997 and 1998, Willis flooded his land where the Wood River Inn is now located, creating the first Hailey ice rink.
"I couldn't get my kids off of it," Fairfax said.
Suddenly, they were obsessed with hockey, a sport they played until high school. Hailey Ice opened its first rink in 1999.
"We had no idea what we were doing," Fairfax said.
Making the ice and preparing the rink took three weeks before the surface was functional. Now, Fairfax said, with the right conditions, he can get it done in four days.
The rink has opened every year since, but, Fairfax said, they only had about 40 useable days of ice.
"A lot of people are disappointed when we lose [the rink] in February and it's still cold out," he said.
That's why he began pushing for a refrigerated rink. Fairfax was an instrumental part of the campaign for the Hailey rodeo bond, which includes an ice rink in its plans. Fairfax said he helped hang posters and that Hailey Ice members, especially Diane Heiner, called "friends, friends of friends, anyone we could think of who would vote." The bond passed in May. The new ice rink will be open five months of the year, from November until April.
Between the lobbying and the maintenance, Fairfax admits, the rink is a fairly labor-intensive process. He worked all day on Christmas last year to ensure the park would open on time—and it did, late on the evening of Christmas Day. He works hard, he said, because the park had more than 7,000 visitors in the eight weeks it was open last year.
"There were days when we'd give out 250 pairs of skates," he said. "That's what keeps me going."
Though the Zamboni serves as a symbol of Fairfax's dedication to the ice rink, it's not the only vehicle Fairfax has accompanied in the parade. One year, his experimental RANS S7S, a single-seater plane Fairfax built with Randy Johnson in 2006, came down Main Street on a trailer.
"I had a little extra time, so I built a plane," Fairfax joked, a reference to the fact that he built the plane right after he left the chamber board of directors.
Fairfax has been a pilot for 29 years, and has owned planes for 24. He keeps his RANS S7S and another plane, a single-engine, four-seater Beechcraft Bonanza, at Freidman Memorial Airport.
Fairfax has been on the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority board for nine years, mostly, he says, because he had experience both with commercial flights and general aviation. He visited Sun Valley many times in the years before making the move with his family in 1996, often flying into Freidman.
"That airport was dear to me as a place to visit friends," he said.
Fairfax grew up in Southern California, where he had an established dental practice for 17 years.
"I always said I'd never do two things," he said. "Start a practice from scratch and have my wife work for me."
He ended up doing both, giving up his Whittier practice and starting from scratch in Hailey. When asked if his wife still works for him, Fairfax laughed.
"She got laid off," he joked.
Still, he said, she's been incredibly supportive of his various endeavors.
"I have to thank my wife for helping me, especially with the ice park, but also for allowing me the time to do these things."
Even though Fairfax isn't originally from Hailey, he's been there long enough to see some significant changes.
"Hailey has become a city in its own right," he said, adding that the town has added new high-quality buildings like Bullion Square, and the number of amenities has grown.
It used to be that one could only find good restaurants in Ketchum, but now, he said, "We can decide to go out to dinner in Hailey and not even know where we're going yet. But we'll find somewhere."
Fairfax was voted Best Dentist by readers of the Sun Valley Guide in 2009, and is a past Hailey Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.
"He's just a stand-up good guy," said chamber Executive Director Heather Deckard.
Katherine Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com
Dentist Ron Fairfax, shown here at his Hailey office, has been chosen as this year’s grand marshal for the city’s Fourth of July parade. Fairfax is deeply involved in the community, especially with Hailey Ice, a nonprofit group dedicated to providing an ice rink for Hailey residents.
