For the week of Nov 28 - Dec 4, 2001

Gourlay, Corrock vie 
for Ketchum council

City’s first runoff election Tuesday

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Baird Gourlay

Age: 43

Biography—Bachelor of Art in economics from Middlebury College, Vt.; Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission for 2.5 years, local business owner.

 

 

• For local business support through contract for services with Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber of Commerce. The contract "is important," he said.
  
  

• For affordable housing in all parts of Ketchum and from all community groups.
  
  

• For alternative modes of transportation: high occupancy vehicle lanes, three-lane entrance to Ketchum, mass transit from Bellevue to Ketchum, metered parking, underground parking and peripheral parking structures.

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Anne Corrock

Age: 45

Biography—Wood River High School graduate, Greenwood Beauty School, owner of Anne Corrock Hair Design, Sun Valley ski instructor, 31-year Ketchum resident.

 

 

 

• Wishes to scale back city contract for services with Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber of Commerce.
  
  

• For employer-generated and managed affordable housing and against increased zoning densities to accommodate housing. "I feel my position on affordable housing is, I’m interested in being part of the solution, but I don’t know the solution."
  
  

• For alternative modes of transportation: "We need reliable, consistent and frequently run year round transportation both in town and valley-wide to be a realistic and attractive alternative to the car."

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

Ketchum voters will be asked Tuesday to cast ballots in the city’s first runoff election for a city council seat.

Baird Gourlay, 43, and Anne Corrock, 45, are seeking election to Ketchum City Council Seat 1. On Nov. 6, Gourlay, Corrock and Millie Wiggins vied for the job, but none of the candidates received more than 50 percent of the total votes cast for the seat.

Gourlay amassed 460 votes to Corrock’s 379, an 8 percent margin in Gourlay’s favor. Wiggins drew 193 votes.

According to the city’s recently revised election regulations, a city council candidate must obtain more than 50 percent of the votes cast to win a seat. The 50 percent mark was 516 votes on Nov. 6.

The runoff election is the result of city policy both candidates said is in need of further revision.

Assuming identical voter turnout, which is improbable, the election could be decided by which of the two candidates Wiggins’ Nov. 6 supporters decide to support.

Wiggins said last week she will vote for Gourlay, "because of his position on open space, quality community housing and building size limits. We are for a lot of the same things."

Though both candidates agreed the extra month of campaigning is unnecessary, Gourlay pointed out that it has afforded them opportunities to meet more prospective constituents and to further establish platforms, which differ significantly on several issues.

While Gourlay advocates local business support through the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber of Commerce, Corrock said the city’s contract for marketing and visitor information with the chamber should be scaled back.

"I just feel we’ve put too much emphasis on the contract for services and not enough on the infrastructure of our town," she said. "I would like to see the chamber be more diverse in its work in the business community, and not just focus strictly on tourism. We’re losing our community businesses."

Gourlay said the city’s marketing and visitor information contract "organizes the marketing for businesses, but also helps organize peripheral community benefits that are unseen."

"It is important," he said.

Another polarized topic for the two candidates is the development of affordable community housing. Both said affordable housing is needed, but they disagreed on suitable sites and the eventual scale of the city’s program. While Gourlay said a shortage of affordable housing is the entire community’s problem and responsibility, Corrock said employers should carry the brunt of the load.

"(Affordable housing) has to be a lot of different places," Gourlay said. "It has to be everywhere. Everyone has to be responsible, from the business community to the residential community to the development community."

And, challenging Corrock’s position that affordable housing is not suitable for residential neighborhoods, he added, "If you want your kids to live here, don’t you want them to live in a residential neighborhood."

For her part, Corrock said she is a strong supporter of zoning, and will not vote to change zoning densities, even for affordable housing. She said she is also against the city’s proposed Town Center affordable housing project, which would glean 15 affordable rental units along with new offices at the corner of Fourth and Main streets. Main Street is not an appropriate location for housing, either, she said.

She also said she is against developer incentives to build affordable housing.

"I feel my position on affordable housing is, I’m interested in being part of the solution, but I don’t know the solution," she said. "It should be the responsibility of the large-scale employers to be part of the solution.

"By pursuing the developer incentives for affordable housing and the focus on marketing for visitors, we are kind of defeating our purpose of the small-town atmosphere."

On transportation issues, both candidates are nearly mirror images of one another. Both are searching for progressive, alternative methods of getting people in to and out of Ketchum.

Finally, Gourlay said it is paramount that the city begin cooperating with the valley’s other cities on major issues.

"We live in a valley of more than just Ketchum," he said. "We have to open lines of communication with the other governments, because a lot of things we do in Ketchum will affect a lot of lives other than the people of Ketchum."

Both candidates stressed the importance of continued citizen involvement in the runoff election.

Wiggins agreed.

"It’s your town," she said.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.