20 Years Ago
From April/May 1980 issues of the
Idaho Mountain Express
"Lester the Arrester" dies
Former Ketchum City Marshal Les Jankow—for 15 years the only law in
town—died April 7, 1980 after a sudden illness in Twin Falls. He was 65. Military
graveside rites were held April 10, 1980 in Ketchum Cemetery with Chaplain E. Weston Scott
presiding.
Known as "Lester the Arrester," Jankow was one of the most
beloved and respected figures in Ketchum. He was the city’s only full-time employee
for many years after he was hired in 1953 as the city marshal.
With only a part-time clerk, no deputies and no radio in his car, Jankow
was informed of trouble in town by a red light on top of the Alpine Café (now Whiskey
Jacques) on Main St.
In addition to his 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week duties as city
marshal, Jankow also did the street work—hauling gravel, grading and doing anything
that needed to be done.
Sometimes he combined jobs.
Jankow arrived at one arrest in the front loader he had been using to do
street work. Because his car was at the jail, he loaded the offender into the bucket,
raised it and drove the chagrined 20-year-old to the lock-up.
Back in the days when Ketchum was a small town and people knew each other
well, Jankow seem to know everybody. He was able to stop most trouble before it started.
But ingenuity in handing troublemakers was part of Jankow’s one-man
style.
Louie Mallane, proprietor of Louie’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant,
said he remembered one night when a fight broke out at the Sawtooth Club, a Main St. bar
which at the time featured go-go dancers. Jankow had been out Warm Springs and arrived at
the scene after the brawlers had departed. Undaunted, Jankow surveyed the blood on the
floor, went to the hospital in Sun Valley and arrested the fighters who had gone there for
treatment.
"In the days when I was city marshal," Jankow once said,
"we didn’t have strict rules that judges put out today. For persons who were
breaking the law, a policeman had to use his own judgment on whether or not they were
guilty."
Jankow first came to Ketchum in 1943 as a patient in the U.S. Navy
convalescent hospital in Sun Valley. He had been wounded during service with the U.S.
Marines "Carlson’s Raiders" assaulting ammunition dumps on Pacific islands.
Survivors included his wife, the former Iris Lease of Ketchum, who ran the
State of Idaho Liquor Dispensary in Ketchum for many years after her husband’s death.
Sawtooth Auto technicians
In an advertisement, the Sawtooth Auto Sales service department of Hailey
singled out its technicians, boasting 151 years of experience.
They were Steve Dick, Mike Hamlin, Bill Roberson, Des Rady, Gerry Follett,
Randy Bird, Rusty Baird, Robby Wood, Mike Williams, Neil Shurtz and Lee Jones.
Masseur "Dutch" Perigo
Sun Valley Lodge masseur Gail "Dutch" Perigo, 56, has throughout
his life recognized the value of innovate health techniques. From 1973-1980 he has
practiced him on clients at the resort, working seven days a week during the season in a
room near the Sun Valley Lodge pool.
A native of Evansville, Ill., Perigo attended the College of Swedish
Massage in Chicago from 1949-51 and then returned to his hometown to work as an assistant
in a health club there. The practice of massage wasn’t in great demand at the time,
so Dutch developed volleyball, handball and exercise programs while giving massages.
In 1957 he went to work in Billings, Mont. There he turned the YMCA there
upside down.
He introduced jogging to music. He tested hearts with a machine and
measured fat and performed step tests on a bench.
"I did all this before it became popular," said Dutch. "I
was considered a nut."
Perigo claims he introduced jogging in three different
states—Montana, Wisconsin and Boise. While working at the Boise YMCA, he coached and
led an Idaho team to a marathon championship. He taught massage to blind students.
Coming to Sun Valley Lodge in 1973 was a chance for Perigo to concentrate
on massage, only, for the first time in his life. He investigated the mental and spiritual
effects of exercise, trying to encourage the total well-being of the client. Holistic
health became a big Perigo priority.
Bottom line, however, is that Perigo enjoys the people and the work. He
affectionately refers to the ski crowd as "The Army," because they all get up at
the same time, eat at the same time, ski, and then want their massages at the same time.
Haggling over transit money
The city of Ketchum continued its negotiations with the city of Sun Valley
over funding for the valley’s mass transit system, called "The Bus."
At the root of the haggling was Ketchum asking Sun Valley to contribute
more than its 50% share to support "The Bus." And the prospect of the transit
system sustaining a $35,000 loss running on its regular schedule, without any cutbacks.
Arguing that Sun Valley collects more money in option taxes because it has
large convention facilities, Ketchum city administrator Jim Jaquet said the newly-enacted
option tax proceeds failed to meet original projections in his city.
Last winter, he said, Sun Valley collected $169,679 in option tax revenue.
Ketchum collected $112,559. Ketchum suggested that the city’s respective
contributions should be in the same approximate proportions, in other words, 60% for Sun
Valley and 40% for Ketchum.
Sun Valley Mayor Dick Heckmann countered with the argument that Ketchum is
spending option tax dollars on projects like buying a new city hall. He said he
didn’t understand how the city could justify using the tax revenues for capital
expenditures.
The back-and-forth continued between Jaquet and Heckmann until a sandpile,
of all things, became a negotiating tool.
A Sun Valley official noted that the city’s sanding trucks must be
kept indoors in the winter to prevent the sand from freezing in the trucks at night. The
city is looking for a place to store those trucks.
Ketchum Mayor Jerry Seiffert suggested that Sun Valley could leave its
trucks outdoors and use Ketchum’s heated sand pile near the street department
headquarters along Warm Springs Rd.
The sand is piled on a cement pad heated by water pumped by hot springs.
It’s ready to go for slick-road sanding at any time.
A surprise wedding
Participants in the second annual Peter Rabbit Relays/Easter Decathlon at
Eagle Creek were greeted by a surprise spring snowfall and another surprise—the
wedding of relay organizers Patti Hurst and Peter Ahrens.
The 100-plus partygoers were shocked and stunned when Dan Alban presided
over the wedding of Hurst and Ahrens.
The wedding was the first scheduled event, but it was quickly followed by
three-legged races, obstacle courses, ski jumps and Easter egg hunts.
Winning relay team consisted of Beth Duke, Sean McCoy, Diane McElroy and
Jessie Reeves. Jeanie Thoren took home the Klara Klutz Easter Bonnet award. Dan Walla won
the coveted Mr. Toad Trophy. And the Good Egg Awards went to Marilyn Gregg, Tom Denker,
Robin Bosworth and post-function host Jim "Chopper" Morton.
Gardening tips from experts
For the past 23 years, Joe Shurtz and his wife Lela have been raising
flowers and vegetables at their house behind the Homelite Chain Saw Service shed, just
below Warm Springs Rd. in Ketchum.
Their 25-foot by 60-foot garden plot is a Shangri-La of raspberries,
violas, sweet peas, beans and zucchini.
Lela raised seven children on this homegrown produce.
Joe has earned a reputation for sharpening his customers’ chain saws,
then sending them away with bags of surplus potatoes or Jerusalem artichokes.
They said frost is the most dangerous enemy early in the growing season.
They identified moths, grasshoppers and robins as the most troublesome area pests.
In fact, Joe takes direct action against the moths—going after them
with an old-fashioned butterfly net. Lela does her part by sprinkling a little wood ash on
cabbage and broccoli after sprinkling, to stop the moths from laying eggs in the
vegetables.
It’s not that hard to grow a garden, if you’re willing to spend
the time, Joe said.
He said, "Ninety percent of raising a garden is working on it and
learning."
