STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Blaine County voters were generous on Election Day, approving both the Blaine County School District Supplemental Budget Levy and the Blaine Country Recreation District Levy.

But Ketchum voters turned down a bid to replace the current mayor-council form of government with a city manager-council form.

Hopefully, Pete Prekeges will treat voters to a round of burgers and schoonersat Grumpy’s as Ketchum’s new mayor. Meanwhile, Christina Giordani retained her mayoral seat in Bellevue.

Sage Sauerbrey is the newest member of the Hailey City Council, while Randy Hall will return to the City Council in Ketchum, along with Matthew McGraw. Mike Burchmore and Keith Saks retained their seats on the Sun Valley City Council, and Tyler Norman and Clayton Mecham won city council seats in Carey.

And all three local option tax measures in Sun Valley, Hailey and Bellevue passed.

About half of the county’s registered voters turned out with 7,473 ballots cast among 14,970 registered voters.

BLAINE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET LEVY

….In favor of—4,791, or 66.27%

….Against—2,439, or 33.73%

The school district is asking voters to approve a supplemental budget levy that would raise $3.85 million per year for the next two years to fund special education, preschool, full-day kindergarten, school resource officers and cybersecurity.

The previous supplementary levy totals about $2 million; School Superintendent Jim Foudy said the new one is need because the school district is dealing with declining enrollment, which means less state funding. The new levy, if approved, would cost the taxpayer $16.33 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value, per year.

BLAINE COUNTY RECREATION DISTRICT LEVY

….In favor of—4,112, or 55.51%

….Against—3,296, or 44.49%

The BCRD is proposing to nearly triple the tax on $100,000 of assessed property value from $7.81 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value annually to $21.15 per $100,000. The current levy has been in place since 1976; the new one would boost revenues by $3 million annually.

BCRD officials maintain that the additional money is necessary to maintain trails, equipment and pay for staff at a time that demand for programming is increasing. Director Mark Davidson has said increased revenues would allow the BCRD to extend the bike path to Gannett, add drinking fountains, bathrooms and better parking lots at trailheads and better tie-ins from the west side of the highway to the Wood River Trail.

THE BCRD would work with the school district to develop a sports field at mouth of Quigley, possibly put in a baseball complex at Flying Hat Ranch, do upgrades to Galena Lodge, provide a summer building for the Quigley Trails Park and build a facility to store snow grooming and other equipment.

CITY of SUN VALLEY

LOT TAX

….In favor of—420, or 68.97%

….Against—189, or 31.03%

The Sun Valley City Council is asking residents to renew the city’s current Local Option Tax on lodging, restaurant food and beverage, retail sales and ski lift tickets. This fiscal year’s LOT collection raised $2.78 million for road and path maintenance and police and firefighters. There would be no change to current rates.

CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES (two seats up for election):

….Mike Burchmore—439, or 41.77%

….Keith Saks—382, or 36.35%

….Geoff Tickner—144, or 13.70%

CITY OF KETCHUM

SWITCH TO CITY MANAGER-COUNCIL GOVERNMENT

….In favor of—666, or 39.78%

….Against—1,008, or 60.22%

Voters will be asked if they want to switch from the current mayor-council form of government to city manager-council form of government similar to that which many ski communities in Colorado and Utah and more than 61 percent of towns and cities across America have.

KETCHUM MAYOR

….Pete Prekeges—1,321, or 81.39%

…..John Wigdale—302, or 18.61%

KETCHUM CITY COUNCIL—4 Year (two open seats)

…..Perry Boyle—505, or 15.85%

….Randy Hall—577, or 18.10%

….Hannah Harris—456, or 14.31%

….Kendall Kirkpatrick—112, or 3.51%

….Matthew McGraw—533, or 16.72%

…..David Page—129, or 4.05%

….Ed Simon—347, or 10.89%

….Tracie Smith—280, or 8.79%

…..Robert Vallee—157, or 4.93%

KETCHUM FIRE DISTRICT COMMISSIONERS

Subdistrict 1

….Casey Finegan—780, or 53.61%

….Rachel  Williams—675, or 46.39%

Subdistrict 2

….Susan Scovell—750, or 51.58%

….Alex Monge—704, or 48.42%

Subdistrict 3

….Pete Schwartz—773, or 52.59%

….Slater Storey—697, or 47.41%

KETCHUM CEMETERY DISTRICT COMMISSIONER

….Harry Bolton—1,885, or 98.90%

CITY OF HAILEY

LOT TAX

….In favor of—1,838 or 75.30%

….Against—603, or 24.70%

The tax increases the local option tax on rental vehicles and hotel motel occupancy from 4 percent to 6 percent.

HAILEY CITY COUNCIL (one open seat)

….Jeff Emerick—279, or 11.77%

….Sage Sauerbrey—1,482, or 62.53%

….Joel Zellers—609, or 25.70%

CITY OF BELLEVUE

LOT TAX

….In favor of—365, or 57.66%

….Against—268, or 42.34%

Ordinance No. 2025-11 would add a 1 percent non-property tax on retail sale of food by restaurants; the addition of a 2 percent non-property tax on retail sale of liquor by the drink; an increase in the non-property tax on hotel-motel occupancy from 3 percent to 6 percent; add public safety administration to the purposes for which the tax revenue may be applied and an extension of the tax from 5 years expiring in 2027 to 15 years from its effective date.

BELLEVUE MAYOR

….Christina Giordani—377, or 60.32%

….Suzanne Wrede—248, or 39.68%

CITY OF CAREY

CAREY CITY COUNCIL (2 seats)

….Tyler Norman—123, or 34.65%

….Clayton Mecham—149, or 41.97%

…..Tara Hansen—83, or 23.38%