STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Got ideas about what you’d like to see Festival Meadows become?
The City of Sun Valley wants to hear them.
The city will hold an open house at the five-acre site just east of Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church on Sun Valley Road from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10.
BYLA Landscape Architects will offer renderings of different ideas that would shape the site into a more welcoming public park. The new configuration could include a small amphitheater, a children’s play area that would blend into the landscape, eBike charging stations and a winding path for pedestrians.
It could also include a more attractive means by which to feature the statues of Sun Valley’s female Olympians.
Already, the site hosts a variety of events, including the Ketchum Arts Festival, a Wagon Days picnic and occasional concerts. Mayor Peter Hendricks said events like the arts festival would continue there but that the city wanted to turn the site into a place that would be attractive to people throughout the year.
The quest was instigated, he said, by a city council member who spotted a man playing with his dog on the site. Right now, he said, we’re a one-dog park compared with the dog park at Warm Springs Preserve. There's got to be something we do to make that area more attractive, he added.
Light refreshments will be served at the open house.