Sun Valley News

Video footage from the Roundhouse Gondola Grand Opening; ribbon-cutting, jib park preview, Ski Patrol, snow cats demo, snowshoe race... Lots of smiling faces! 3,200 people took advantage of the free gondola rides.

"Time outs," "Big doody heads" ... and "Heads-on-desks time." "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." Those were the very first things I wrote down in my yellow legal pad last week after I entered Ketchum's newly-opened Petite Picasso art workshop there at 460 E. 1st Street .

The Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending that 138 acres be annexed into the city as part of a plan by Sun Valley Co.

The sleek Porsches parked in Sun Valley Resort lots finally have some competition on the mountain — the resort’s new gondola. It sails quietly over Douglas fir, climbing 1,928 feet up Bald Mountain in 6 1/2 minutes while offering 360-degree views of the Wood River Valley.

Claude Guigon, Sun Valley’s assistant general manager for many years, has been removed from the day-to-day food and beverage operations and offered a consulting position with the resort.

Always ready for action, volunteer Ketchum firefighters, from left, are David Windham, Shawn Myers, Zac Mayhew, Scott Leightner, Karly Maratea and Richard Williams.

Several Magic Valley and Wood River Valley organizations and individuals have been honored by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter. They were honored during the ninth annual Governor’s Brightest Stars Awards ceremony at Boise State University on Nov. 10.

Ketchum’s about to grow up. There are good things and bad about that, but there’s little doubt that when the community’s Planning and Zoning Commission and its City Council give final approval to the Sun Valley Company’s 138-acre River Run development and 110-foot hotel at the base of Bald Mountain — which they almost certainly will do in the next few weeks — Ketchum will have crossed a watershed.

Although the numbers fluctuated up and down, LOT revenues for the city of Ketchum were down every month of the 2008-09 fiscal year, compared to the previous year.

A contestant who was hospitalized after competing briefly on the game show "Wipeout" died two weeks later of a stroke apparently caused by a rare condition, his father said.

The David Ketchum American Legion Post No. 115 and three Wood River Valley businesses - Smith Sport Optics, Ketchum Kitchens and MBT - were honored during the ninth annual Governor's Brightest Stars awards ceremony at Boise State University on Tuesday.

Developer DeNovo Independence's plans to develop its property in the hills above Elkhorn were denied by the city of Sun Valley.

Sun Valley's Dave Meyers has become a life master in bridge, a rank described by the American Contract Bridge League as "the most highly sought level of bridge achievement." Meyers, who moved here in 1995 has been playing bridge since 2000.

HAILEY, Idaho -- A survey of the Hailey Cemetery using ground-penetrating radar has found hundreds of unmarked graves.

No other community in south-central Idaho has been hit harder by the recession than Shoshone, where the unemployment rate surpassed 14 percent in October. Blame it on Blaine County, say local and state officials.

Incumbent Nils Ribi was re-elected to the Sun Valley City Council on Tuesday, winning the most votes of any candidate.

Bobby Corker waters the 16 chickens The Community School students are raising over a 45-day period at the Sun Valley school.

The Ketchum Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending that 138 acres be annexed into the city as part of a plan by Sun Valley Co.

In the middle of a scenic riverside meadow on the frontier of Boise's stalled eastern sprawl is an elk that likes to run with the bulls.

Three Sun Valley residents will be disappointed next week, when two City Council seats are filled from a pool of five candidates. Fortunately for those who aren't elected, all the candidates agree they live in a city that is generally on the right track. "We want to make sure we continue to make this a great place to live, and part of that is having a good, solid, fiscally sound city," said incumbent Nils Ribi, 54, who previously served on the planning and zoning commission and has lived in Sun Valley for 21 years. "It boils down to livability."