For the week of May 29 - June 4, 2002

Disdain or envy?

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When all else fails, grumpy public figures that lack an adequate vocabulary utter the names of Blaine County and Sun Valley as epithets of scorn.

In political campaigns, for example, Blaine County is apt to be caricatured disdainfully by outsiders as a hotbed of effete liberals who spend their days snacking on Brie between sips of imported Chardonnay.

The latest zinger comes from Charles Ray, of the Citizens for Valley County in the county of the same name, who showed up at a state Land Board hearing to denounce the proposed $1.2 billion WestRock resort plan near Cascade, which promoters envision as another Sun Valley vacation land.

"Sun Valley hasn’t done anything for the working people of Blaine County," sneered Ray, as he opposed leasing 2,124 acres of state land. "In fact, it (Sun Valley Resort) ran the working people out of the county."

Just a minute.

The most charitable to be said of such reckless talk is that Mr. Ray doesn’t have a clue.

Blaine County is filled with thousands of what he calls "working people" with regular jobs and occupations created directly or indirectly by the Sun Valley Resort’s activities, which act as an economic magnet.

Not the least of the direct beneficiaries are hundreds of Sun Valley Co. employees in the year-round hotel and Bald Mountain operations.

Add to that hundreds of workers in retail and commercial establishments created as part of the economic boom. Then count hundreds more working in building trades who benefit from Sun Valley’s construction growth.

The annual Allen & Co. summertime gathering of media moguls and their families at the Sun Valley Resort pumps millions of dollars into the area’s economy through payrolls, consumer purchases, major supplies — all of which create more jobs.

National magazines regularly celebrate Sun Valley as a world-class sports and vacation wonderland, undoubtedly an inducement for dozens of international winter Olympic teams to use the area for pre-Salt Lake City training as well as the area’s continued popularity for recreationists whose needs require local jobs.

Beyond economics, however, Blaine County prospers for other reasons. It is preeminent as a cultural center with national reach, including summer symphony and jazz festivals, arts and craft events, a major health conference, performing theater, renowned art galleries. All of these provide employment for people that Mr. Ray claims have been run out of the county and whom he presumably believes are non-existent.

And while this may not thrill Idaho’s natural resources extraction industries, Blaine County also is home to major, influential environmental organizations dedicated to preserving the best in nature as the state’s population grows.

All in all, Blaine County pulls its own weight, thank you, and adds to the state’s character and economic well being.

Maybe those who scorn the Sun Valley name merely reveal a deep-seated envy.

 

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.