STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Dick Fenton was quick to approach Willy Cook as the latter edged his truck up East Avenue in Ketchum looking for a parking spot. Fenton was soon joined by Nick Harman.

“We’ll take it to Twin Falls for you,” said Harman, who like Fenton was wearing a bright yellow-green parking valet vest with the initials WTF (Wood River-Twin Falls) emblazoned on it.

Cook looked confused.

“Why do I get a feeling there’s a question to be asked?” he responded.

“We’re just tackling the parking congestion and I think the nearest parking place is in Twin,” said Fenton, who as a realtor is very familiar with available property in Ketchum.

Several parking valets took to the streets of Ketchum on Tuesday, trying out a pilot program in which valets will take people’s cars to Twin Falls where they can be filled with Costco’s cheap gas and, perhaps, stuffed with shopping items people can’t get in Ketchum while awaiting the call to return.

It was inspired by the Allen and Company conference held every July in Sun Valley where pilots ferrying the likes of Oprah and Bill Gates take their planes to Twin Falls when the parking spots have run out near Friedman’s Memorial Airport. The pilots wait in Twin until they get a call to return to pick up their passengers.

The new parking program offers car owners a chance to relax and enjoy the beautiful town of Ketchum without rushing about to move their cars every two hours, said Harman. And it promises to be a boon to retailers and restaurant owners as people spend more time shopping and dallying at restaurants, said Gary Hoffman, who wore a black suit and bow tie underneath his vest, a top hat on his head—all part of an old Groucho Marx costume.

Ann Scales was one of the first to arrive.

“I was talking with a friend about this after we read about it, and we thought it was a spoof at first. Now, I see it’s for real,” she told the parking valets as she handed over her keys.

Another motorist pulled up and, agreeing it was a good idea, asked for a business card.

“I think it’s great because I don’t like to drive to Twin,” said Rae Kozlowski. “This way I can have my car filled up with gas at Costco and I don’t have to take it there myself.”

Ron Greenspan looked a little peevish as a few people wearing valet vests ran up asking him for his keys.

“I thought you were trying to take my Tesla away!” he quipped.

Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw said that he was delighted by the actions of WTF Valet Parking.

“It led to a huge availability of additional customer parking and allowed the Idaho Transportation Department to install new lights at Sun Valley and Main Street Tuesday,” he said. “This is another example of a Ketchum resident’s creativity, innovation and resilience in the face of our city’s parking challenges. Kudos to team WTF!”

Hoffman noted that if rich corporate people can have their planes taken to Twin, the poorer  people living in the Wood River Valley should be able to have their cars taken there.

“This new service will even wash and detail cars while they’re in Twin, and I can’t guarantee that service for airplanes,” he added.

Harman said that Justin Pisteoff, the Ketchum rabblerouser who dreamed up the parking valet scheme, was in Shoshone on Tuesday trying to arrange parking there so there could be a faster turnaround time for car owners who wish it.

“So, when are they going to find out it’s not real?” asked one of the valets.

“Very funny. But it actually might be a good idea,” said one observer.

Indeed, this is the tenth year of April Fools pranks in Ketchum.

The first debuted on April 1, 2015, with the Ketchum Cruiser campaign--a play on the green cruiser bikes that were made available for locals and tourists to borrow for two years in 1997 and 1998. Harman placed 15 brightly colored green walkers around town, spoofing all the talk about how Ketchum’s youthful ski demographic was greying.

A news crew from Boise came to cover it, and Harman was impressed with how serious they appeared to be.

“I told them at the end, ‘You played along with it really well,’ and the female reporter looked at me, her hand over her mouth. ‘I thought it was real! I’m so glad you told me—I would have been so embarrassed.’

The cruisers were eventually rounded up and donated to Parks and Rec Department, which used them for young skaters learning to ski.

Harman followed that up with the PUBER campaign, which was a spinoff of the emerging Uber service. The idea was that those who wanted a ride up and down the valley were supposed to wave colored flags provided at street corners to get the attention of Good Samaritan drivers.

One of the most colorful April Fool’s pranks took place in 2019 when Harman placed 10 dumpster homes throughout Ketchum, outfitting them with chimneys, carpets and chairs as a bid to solve the affordable housing problem.

Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw consented to an interview for Eye on Sun Valley in which he noted that the dumpsters could be put on a trailer so the owners could take their homes with them on vacation.

While some viewers were indignant that anyone would consider dumpsters for affordable housing, even today Eye on Sun Valley gets inquiries about the program from people who see the reruns of that segment on Cox Cable Channel 13.

The campaign that elicited the most calls, however, was a giant sign that Harman posted on Irving Hill in downtown Ketchum across from the Burger Grill.

“McDonald’s is coming soon,” it said.

“People were taking pictures of it—they really made a to-do about it,” he said.

Harman said he loves dreaming up April Fools Day jokes every year.

“When I retire, I want to open a Museum of April Fools pranks.”