STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Ketchum residents decided to try out a new mayor and two new city council members.

Neil Bradshaw, president of the board of the Ketchum Community Development Corp., ended up with nearly double the votes of Ketchum Mayor Nina Jonas.

Bradshaw received 833 votes and Nina Jonas, 472.

"Together we recognized that our town requires change in economic vitality and vibrancy, while maintaining the heart and soul of Ketchum," Bradshaw said after the last vote had been tallied. "We live in la small but powerful community that is united by our love for the balance in our lives that we enjoy here."

Bradshaw added that contested elections are not about establishing winners and losers but about establishing what is important to the community.

"Everybody wins when the issues that matter to the community are raised and debated openly," he said. "What ultimately allowed us to win was a community-inspired campaign. And this is just the beginning of a more community-inspired City Hall. We can make City Hall more responsive to the community and I welcome the chance to hear from voters on housing, City Hall, police and fire facilities and more."

Meanwhile, two fresh faces ended up taking the two open cities on Ketchum City Council. Ketchum lawyer Amanda Breen, who pledged to find solutions to housing and economic development issues, got 585 votes and Courtney Hamilton will bring a 26-year-old voice to the Council, thanks to the 578 voters who put their trust in her.

The two incumbents Baird Gourlay and Anne Corrock received 466 votes and 368 votes respectively.

Realtor Shannon Flavin got 213 votes; designer Shawn Phillips, 160; retiree Mickey Garcia, 72, and Wood River Community YMCA communications specialist Anastasia Horan, 65.

HAILEY residents decided to stick with a veteran city council member on Tuesday, while giving the nod to a woman who has had her thumb in a lot of civic pies over the past couple decades for a vacated seat.

Hailey voters retained Martha Burke, a retired teacher who has spent two dozen years on Hailey City Council, in addition to serving on the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority.

She got 647 votes to challenger and Chamber Director Jeff Bacon’s 376 votes.

Kaz Thea, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service preservationist who heads up the valley’s Farmers Markets and got Mountain Ride bike share program up and running, got 726 votes in the seat being vacated by Don Keirn. Her opponent—Thunder Springs facilities manager Henno Heitur—got 310 votes.

An initiative that would eliminate and refund development impact fees for commercial development went down 921 votes (88.39 percent) to 121 votes (11.61 percent).

Voters also turned down an initiative to end recurring yearly business license fees of $50 by 810 votes (76.20 percent) to 235 (23.80 percent).

SUN VALLEY voters retained Sun Valley City Council President Keith Saks with 267 votes and City Council member Brad Dufur with 274 votes. The two men run unopposed.

And Sun Valley voters passed a bond giving the city authority to issue and sell general obligation bonds to finance the replacement, reconstruction and improvement of roads, bicycle and pedestrian paths and bridges. The bond received 235 yes votes or 67.14 percent and 115 nays (32.86 percent).

BELLEVUE voters retained restaurateur Shaun Mahoney and political consultant Kathryn Goldman as aldermen. Mahoney got 65 votes; Kathryn Goldman, 59. Ned Burns, running unopposed for a vacated seat, received 51 votes.

CAREY voters gave 21 votes to Mayor Randall Patterson, who ran unopposed. They retained Council incumbent Lane Durtschi with 23 votes and elected Duane Edgington, who ran unopposed, 18 votes.