Simpson to dedicate accessible trail
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, will visit Ketchum on Thursday. Aug. 18, to help open the new wheelchair accessible trail at Murdock Creek.
The Murdock Creek Trail is a primitive-access wheelchair trail that is designed to preserve the character of the wilderness while providing access for people with limited mobility.
Simpson will join Erik Schultz, executive director of the Arthur B. Schultz Foundation, who organized the trail's restoration and whose foundation funded the project's initial environmental assessment. The project was funded by federal dollars.
The dedication will take place at noon at the Murdock Creek Trailhead near SNRA headquarters, about seven miles north of Ketchum.
Ketchum OKs dispatch contract
The Ketchum City Council unanimously approved Monday an agreement with Blaine County for consolidated emergency communications services for fiscal year 2012.
The contract for $166,981 is $1,000 less than last fiscal year's, said Ketchum Fire Chief Mike Elle.
The agreement provides 911 call answering services and emergency responder dispatch services, plus after-hours phone coverage for the police department, according to a staff report.
Shelter funding from city unchanged
Ketchum will provide the same amount of funding to the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley in the upcoming fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, as it has this year.
The City Council unanimously approved a $2,000 contract Monday with the shelter.
"The contract hasn't changed," said Ketchum Police Chief Steve Harkins.
The funds will be paid quarterly from the Ketchum Police Department budget.
Get tickets for writers' conference
Tickets are available for three programs at the Sun Valley Writers Conference.
The New York Times columnist and PBS NewsHour commentator David Brooks, author of the best-selling book "The Social Animal," will talk about how emotion and intuition take precedence over rational thought in decisions ranging from choice of mate to choice of profession on Friday, Aug. 19, at 6:30 p.m.
David Grossman, one of Israel's preeminent writers, will talk about his novel "To the End of the Land." Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott will converse with Grossman to recreate the story heroine's trek along the fault line between two zones of the human condition: the home needs and the nation's demands. They will appear Saturday, Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m.
New Yorker author, reporter and humorist Calvin Trillin will share the difficulties of writing poetry on deadline in his talk, "Making it Rhyme in Time," Sunday, Aug. 21, at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased individually in advance at Chapter One and Iconoclast bookstores in Ketchum and at the conference at Sun Valley Resort beginning Friday, Aug. 19. Visit http://www.svwc.com.
All lectures will be held in the Sun Valley Pavilion. The speakers are here to participate in the weekend-long Sun Valley Writers' Conference, which includes talks with other renowned writers and artists as well as discussion groups.
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Hailey BAH set for Thursday
The Hailey Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours will be hosted by US Bank and Sun Valley Title on Thursday Aug. 18, from 5-7 p.m. at US Bank, 314 N. Main St., in Hailey.
The public event offers opportunities to socialize and network with business operators.
Trust urges water conservation
As temperatures rise and grass begins to brown, the Wood River Land Trust, a conservation group based in Hailey, suggests several water-conservation measures.
They include watering lawns only between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and only watering every other day. Other suggestions include letting grass grow longer, which actually uses less water, installing rain sensors to turn off irrigation systems when there is sufficient water and planting native or drought tolerant plants.
For more suggestions, visit www.troutfriendly.org.
The trust has developed the Trout Friendly Lawn Program, which encourages homeowners to be "water wise" in order to preserve water levels in streams valley-wide.
St. Luke's offers immunizations
St. Luke's Clinic will offer immunization clinics for children 18 and under on Saturday, Aug. 20, and Saturday, Aug. 27 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Luke's Clinic, 1450 Aviation Drive, in Hailey. No appointment is necessary. Parents are asked to bring their children's immunization records.
Idaho has instituted new immunization requirements for children enrolled in child care, preschool, elementary school and seventh grade. Additional information is available by calling 788-3434.
Fall chinook season opens Sept. 1
The fall chinook salmon season on the Snake and Clearwater rivers will open Sept. 1 and run until Oct. 31, according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Anglers can try their luck on the Snake River from the Idaho-Washington border upstream to Hells Canyon Dam and on the Clearwater River from its mouth upstream to the Memorial Bridge.
Anglers can keep six adult fall chinook daily, but only chinook with a clipped adipose fin (a hatchery fish rather than a wild one) may be kept. There is no limit on the total number of adult fall chinook an angler can keep during the fall season, but there is a field possession limit of 18 adult fish.
Adults are 24 inches in length or larger. Anything smaller is a jack fish. There are no daily, possession or season limits on fall jacks, but again, only jacks with clipped adipose fins can be kept.
Seasons are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information, visit fishandgame.idaho.gov.
Personal income up in Idaho
Total personal income rose modestly in both rural and urban Idaho in 2010 after significant declines in 2009.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has estimated personal income for Idaho's five metropolitan areas at $34.7 billion, up 2.7 percent from a year earlier, while personal income in the remaining 33 rural counties rose 2.6 percent to nearly $15.9 billion.
Typically, the range in income growth or loss is significant between rural and urban Idaho. The last time the two performed so similarly was 1978 when both rural and urban growth was 15.4 percent
Wages and salaries in the 11 urban counties were up 1.4 percent after falling almost 7 percent over the two previous years while wages continued to fall in rural Idaho, dropping 0.8 percent in 2010 after falling 2.5 percent in 2009.
However, rural farmers and business operators posted a 13 percent increase in their income compared to 5.3 percent for their urban counterparts.
A 17 percent increase in farm earnings and a more than 9 percent jump in earnings from health care fueled personal income growth in rural Idaho, but the increases were offset by losses in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, financial services, real estate and entertainment.
In urban Idaho, growth was more muted with modest increases spread over every sector except construction and real estate.
The biggest income gain among the urban areas was in Lewiston at 4.8 percent while Coeur d'Alene posted the smallest at 1.9 percent.
Personal income is the total of wages, salaries, business profits, investment earnings and transfer payments such as retirement, Social Security and unemployment.
