STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

There may be a glimmer of hope for commuters who have sat in standstill traffic heading into Ketchum in the morning and outdoor enthusiasts who have had to restrict hiking to trails south of Ketchum.

Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw told those attending a Chamber-organized Coffee Talk at Carmen Finegan Architecture this week that the City Council has approved a resolution approving work at night on the project redoing the roadway from Elkhorn Road through the Trail Creek Bridge.

The Council will send ITD a letter saying the city is open to night work to speed up the project, which is slated to conclude in time for the Trailing of the Sheep Festival in mid-October.

Night work could result in noise when it comes to cement trucks and the like, but it could shorten the project’s duration, decreasing the pain for those who have seen their commute time increased by an hour in some cases.

Road construction work on Main Street between 4th and 6th streets is on schedule for lanes to be open by July 2, said Ben Whipple, senior project manager for the City of Ketchum.

“We’re treating the Fourth of July as a sacred time,” he said. “We’re hoping to get it all done by the Fourth, but there will be some residual sidewalk work that may require intermittent road closures for the southbound lane after the Fourth until July 18.”

Only the northbound lane will be open from Serenade Lane into town for a seven- to 10-day period ending by June 13. This is a trial for a prolonged closure in August to accommodate work on expanding the roadway in the area of the Trail Creek Bridge.

Idaho Power Company is continuing its work to build a redundant line into Ketchum and underground a power line on the east side of Highway 75 to mitigate wildfire risk.  In fact, the company plans a power outage from 10 p.m. Tuesday, June 10, to 6 a.m. Wednesday, June 11, that would affect all of Ketchum and Sun Valley.

Residents and business owners can find tips for preparing for the outage at https://www.idahopower.com/outages-safety/outages/be-prepared/.

The utility company experienced a hiccup when the federal government issued a new directive requiring all the products it uses to be manufactured in the United States under the Buy America plan. It added a half-million dollars to a project that was already slated to cost $1 million.

Bradshaw said the company is wrapping up work on undergrounding lines on Spruce Street outside The Community Library. The neighborhood contributed $200,000 to the project and the city $100,000, as part of ongoing work to underground electrical lines in the city.

“Of course, we still need to find a place to hang our shoes,” he quipped, referring to the tennis shoes hanging over a line on Fourth Street.

Whipple said heavy equipment is being moved into the Warm Springs Preserve with work on riparian restoration to start in July. The city has been waiting for one signature on permits for six weeks, Bradshaw said.

The work will also include bridge work and culverts, floodplain restoration, irrigation, utilities and the building of a new connector trail to Bald Mountain and an ADA-accessible trail into the popular dog park.

Restrooms and a welcome/maintenance building will be built when funding is raised. To learn more, visit https://www.projectketchum.org/warm-springs-preserve/.

“We’re getting very close to raising the money we need for riparian restoration. I think, when people see the work started, we will hopefully get over the line in funding,” Bradshaw said.

The newly created Ketchum Fire District, which consolidated a few valley fire departments, will eventually create a $900,000 annual savings that can be put into infrastructure, Bradshaw added.

Meanwhile, the city plans to go ahead with chip sealing in downtown Ketchum and along Saddle Road June 16-18 despite the ongoing highway and Main Street construction. To defer would mean more costly road work in the years ahead, Bradshaw said.

Bradshaw praised the host, Carmen Finegan, who set out a spread of scones, sweetbreads and oat milk lattes for the gathering in her colorful airy Lewis Street architect and design studio filled with unusual chairs, footstools and other eye candy.

“It’s incredible to see what you have created—your reputation is fantastic. –a tremendous success story,” he said.

Finegan, who received an architectural degree from Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogota, specializes in contemporary architecture. She fell in love with Idaho while traveling abroad and was mentored by several local architects before she got her license in 2011.

She tends to every detail down to the selection of fixtures, furnishings, cabinetry and custom fireplaces.

The Ketchum Coffee Talks, organized by The Chamber, are held at 9 a.m. on the first Tuesdays of the month.