BY KAREN BOSSICK
Have you found yourself having increasing difficulty finding a parking space in Ketchum?
Have you found yourself making larger and larger concentric circles around downtown as construction workers and Sun Valley Community School students crowd in during the lunch hour?
Is your gas-guzzling Ford F-150 running out of gas? Your Tesla losing its electrical charge?
No need for road rage. A new valet service in Ketchum aims to solve the problem.
K-Town rabblerouser Justin Pisteoff became tired of playing musical chairs with other vehicles competing for an ever-diminishing number of parking spots. So, he took a page from Allen & Company, which brings in dozens of high-flying jets owned by the likes of Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey for a week-long conference every July in Sun Valley.
Pisteoff, like so many of us, has watched how pilots bring in the jets to Atlantic Aviation next to Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey. If all the parking spots are taken, they drop off their passengers, then head to Twin Falls where they park and wait for the call to come back.
And, so, Pisteoff is launching the WTF (Wood River/Twin Falls) Valet Parking Services.
Beginning today, Pisteoff will hire a small army of valets to line the streets of Ketchum, offering to park people’s cars in Twin Falls while car owners shop in Ketchum. The valets will be easily identifiable in distinctive illuminous yellow vests emblazoned with the WTF logo.
The service will debut during the lunch hour between noon and 2 p.m. near Ketchum Town Square.
“The day will come when there are zero parking spots in Ketchum—WTF Valet will be the only solution,” Pisteoff warned.
WTF will park not just the cars of shoppers but the cars of those who commute to Ketchum to work and are sick of moving their car every two hours.
Early analysis suggests that the valet service will be a boon to local retailers. While shoppers wait for their cars, they will spend more time wandering Ketchum shopping. Car owners also benefit, as they may take advantage of a car wash and detailing service so that, when the cars are returned, they are shiny new.