I saw robins this week! It is hard to believe our big el Niño winter is coming to an end; it was a delight seeing ski tracks down southern slopes for the first time in years. The big storm has passed, the days are longer and spring skiing is here along with many city projects.

 

For the first time in over half a century the U.S. Ski Team will have their Alpine Championships on Baldy! This thrilling event will be held March 22 - 27 with promises for an excellent spectator experience.

 

The number of planning applications and building permits passing through city hall indicate a positive trend in construction expectations with numbers already expected to meet or exceed 2015, which included the Limelight hotel.

 

On May 17, Ketchum voters will express their level of support for new essential services facilities for police, administration and fire. The special bond election, along with the primary election, will be held Tuesday, May 17, at Hemingway Elementary School from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., or before by absentee ballot beginning April 1.

 

Signage and maintenance of public access trails to the rivers and hillsides will be installed late spring. The program has been dubbed "Happy Trails" and has recently received additional funding from American River's "Connecting Communities to Rivers" grant program for trail signage.

 

This summer, with the assistance of Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency funding, the city will be installing sidewalks and streetlights along the west side of Warm Springs Road from Sixth to Ninth streets. In addition, aside from sidewalk maintenance, the city has funding to complete two to three new sidewalk sections throughout the community core. The city will also finalize engineering designs for sidewalks and streetlights that will be constructed with the Community Choice grant monies coming in 2017.

 

It is heating up, and with the coming seasonal change there will be a lot of activity.

It is an honor to serve you.

Nina

City Council Monday will discuss utilizing two city-owned properties in cooperation with the Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency (KURA).

 

A KURA site at First Street is currently rented to the Limelight Hotel for construction. Attachment 5.1 of KURA's 2010 Plan (the Plan) calls for 25 community-housing units and 24 market-rate housing units to be built on this site. To accommodate the number of units specified in the Plan, it is likely that the KURA would need to partner with the city of Ketchum on the adjacent lot, currently being used as public parking.  

 

The lot at 6th and Leadville is owned by the city and also used for parking. The Plan calls for it to provide 12 community-housing units and 10 market-rate units.

 

KURA has suggested that the city join with it in seeking proposals for both locations, as state law gives urban renewal agencies more flexibility in developing properties.

 

State law authorizes an urban renewal agency to sell property under a "reuse-appraisal" process, which allows the price to be based on an agreed-upon future use. If the City Council acts alone, it would be required to sell the property to the highest bidder at auction. By working together, the two entities expect to sell the property at a lower price, giving developers a construction incentive. The city and KURA could also arrange a long-term lease to a developer. 

 

If City Council agrees, the KURA and the City would enter into a memorandum of understanding or letter of intent to define the relationship and process.  The KURA suggests a timeline of at least 18 months to conclude the request-for-proposals process for both locations and select a developer.

This year's good snow year has contributed to an unusually large pile of snow at the city's current storage site at River Run. The River Run location, generously leased to the city by Sun Valley Company, has been in use for more than 20 years. However, the city continues to explore locations for storing snow rather than the River Run site.

When the city annexed the River Run property in 2010, Sun Valley indicated that it expects to develop the land at an unspecified future date. It agreed to give the city at least two years notice before ending the lease on the snow storage site.

 

Although leasing state-owned land in the Ohio Gulch area south of town appears to be the best alternative, the increase in operational costs would be significant. Additional development, increasing the property tax base, would be required to make it financially feasible.

 

The Idaho Department of Lands has said it will consider leasing property near Ohio Gulch to the city for snow storage. While the annual cost of $800 an acre is reasonable, the distance from Ketchum would result in higher costs and less efficient snow removal.

 

Right now the city budgets $145,000 a year for trucking snow to the storage area. It would take about three times as long to make a round-trip to the Ohio Gulch site and even longer if there is traffic congestion. This would raise the cost to approximately $450,000 a year for trucking and possibly as much as $520,000.

 

Another concern is that the city already contracts with virtually all the available trucks in the area for snow removal. If the driving time is tripled, it is questionable whether enough trucks would be available to maintain the current level of service in removing snow from streets.

 

The Ohio Gulch site also is a capped landfill, meaning that it is designed to prevent liquids from seeping into the ground water. It is unclear whether it is feasible to store the volume of snow collected from Ketchum on a capped landfill or whether this would create additional environmental issues. Idaho Department of Lands may have another site, an un-capped landfill, that could be a possibility.

 

The city needs at least five acres for snow storage. Several factors affect the exact amount of land needed, including the configuration and grade of the site.

 

The city has explored a site behind St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center , which is too small, and a site on Trail Creek Road on U.S. Forest Service land. Although Trail Creek is closer than Ohio Gulch and would reduce trucking costs, the road to the site would have to be plowed, and it is close to Trail Creek, a tributary of the Big Wood River. Also, extensive environmental assessments are required to use federal land.

It was a long journey - both literally and figuratively - for Josie Duesterhoeft, who is working as an intern in the Ketchum Police Department for a month.

 

Duesterhoeft is from Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt in East Germany. It is known to history buffs as one of the most important cities in medieval times and the place where Otto I, the first Holy Roman emperor, is buried.

 

She first dreamed of being a detective as a child. In her teens she switched her focus to opera and then to mathematics. Along the way, she took a break to work as an au pair in Seattle for 13 months. She was still trying to decide on a career when her mother reminded her of her original dream.

 

She currently is studying at the University of Applied Police Sciences in Rothenburg, Germany. One of the requirements is an internship. She asked Caroline and Steve Hobbs, the family for whom she had been an au pair, for help. It turns out that they now live next door to Police Chief David Kassner, who found a way for Duesterhoeft to volunteer here.

 

So far Duesterhoeft has been on the tour of City Hall and patrolled with Sgt. Michal Grigbsy, a former detective. She's found some differences. In Germany female officers must always work with a male partner. Germany makes it illegal to leave a car idling, but there is no mechanism for enforcement. The fine for using a cell phone while driving is about $100. If there are too many violations of this and other laws, you can lose your driver's license forever.

 

One of her best experiences so far? Picking up a lost dog and calling the happy owners to say their pet had been found.

The proposed bond issue for the May 17 ballot is for $23.1 million. The construction cost for two new buildings to house

 

Police, emergency communications centers and fire facilities must be secure buildings such as an airport or jail. The provisions for extra security mean that the cost per square foot will be higher than for a typical office or industrial building.

 

The public will have as much time as is needed to discuss options for new essential services facilities for police, city operations/emergency communications center, and fire facilities.

 

Mass community support must be gained through a ballot initiative before the city can fully commence the project. Citizens will be able to vote on a special election bond May 17 that would provide the city the ability to borrow money to create new essential services facilities.

If the bond issue passes, the city would have funds to contract for architectural drawings and evaluate various locations and budgets.

 

The city would begin the process by issuing a request for qualifications for an architectural firm. A citizen committee would be formed to arrange a series of public workshops for the community to choose one of the architectural firms. The committee would then recommend one of the firms to City Council. Once the contract was approved, the committee and city would facilitate community meetings with the firm to gain input on design elements and drawings.

 

"We could have public workshops before the bond issue, but it is fiscally irresponsible to spend general fund money on architect fees and facilitation unless we know the community is committed to the new facilities," Mayor Nina Jonas said.