WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2017
Volume 42 | Number 104 | 4 sections | 44 pages s u n
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IDAHO MOUNTAIN
New life for planned airport in Camas
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Sun Valley set to start winter season
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Groups gather food for holiday meals Page 18
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City earmarks $800K for housing project Ketchum City Council lauds project By PETER JENSEN Express Staff Writer
Express photo by Willy Cook
CAREY PANTHERS CHARGE TO CHAMPIONSHIP Carey High School senior running back Hilario Ruiz, surrounded by Tri-Valley tacklers, bulls his way into the end zone at Middleton High School on Saturday afternoon during the IHSAA State 1A Division 2 eight-man football championship game. Ruiz’s six-yard scoring run and subsequent two-point conversion pass caught by Tanner Mecham gave Carey’s undefeated Panthers a 22-12 second-quarter lead on their way to a 50-42 victory over the Titans from Cambridge. Tri-Valley defenders, from left, are Parker Cornwell, Chip Mitchell, Cody Nixon and Teddy Ertel. To read a story with more photos of Carey’s sixth state football title, turn to Page 21.
Hammer, Ribi settle case for $79,000 Judge considers settlement agreement in lawsuit By PETER JENSEN
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Express Staff Writer
lawsuit between a former Sun Valley city administrator and city councilman is drawing to a close in Blaine County 5th District Court. Almost exactly six years since she first started suing the city government and city officials, Sharon Hammer has reached a settlement agreement with former Councilman Nils Ribi. The agreement, if enforced by District Court Judge Ned Williamson, will end her lawsuit accusing Ribi of civil assault. After holding a hearing on the case Monday afternoon in Hailey, Williamson will issue a ruling this week on whether to enforce the agreement. The ruling had not been issued as of press deadline Tuesday afternoon.
Background Hammer worked as the city administrator from 2008 until 2012, when she was fired.
bers. When Hammer wanted In November 2011, she to go speak with the mayor, and her husband, attorney Ribi is alleged to have raised Jim Donoval, began filing his arms and said, “No! You lawsuits in state and fedwill not talk to the mayor,” eral courts targeting city according to the Supreme officials, including former Court ruling. Mayor Dewayne Briscoe, In August 2017, the 9th former Councilman Bob Circuit ruling revived part Youngman, former City of a lawsuit that Hammer Attorney Adam King, forhad filed in federal court mer Treasurer Michelle alleging that then-Mayor Frostenson and others. SHARON HAMMER Dewayne Briscoe and Ribi In total, she filed 10 lawmade stigmatizing and suits, eight of which have been dismissed. In August, two cases false statements related to her termiwere revived by successful appeals to nation from the city. The Circuit Court the Idaho Supreme Court and the 9th remanded the case to Judge Edward Lodge in U.S. District Court in Boise on U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Idaho Supreme Court revived the grounds that Lodge had not stated the civil assault claim against Ribi, rul- clear reasons for his dismissal of some ing that the District Court had improp- of the suit’s claims. At the end of 2016, the Idaho Supreme erly dismissed the suit. Ribi denied Hammer’s accusation, Court denied an appeal of a separate which stemmed from a City Council lawsuit from Hammer, and awarded the meeting in September 2011 when Ham- city of Sun Valley $69,000 in attorneys’ mer and Ribi got into an alleged verbal fees and costs. Hammer and Donoval altercation outside the council chamSee LAWSUIT, Page 14
A new affordable-housing project in Ketchum is going to get a major boost from the city government. The 18-unit Galena Lofts project will be on Leadville Avenue and Seventh Street, and is currently planned to have three community-housing units. But the Ketchum City Council pledged Monday night to give the project at least $800,000 in city funding to increase the number of community housing units to eight. The City Council did not vote Monday to spend any money, but it did direct Susan Scovell Architect staff to continue working with the architects for Galena Lofts, Susan Scovell and Rebecca Bundy. The $800,000 will come out of the city’s in-lieu housing fund, which developers can pay into to satisfy their community-housing requirement. Ketchum budgeted about $1.8 million in the fund in July, though that amount has increased as more payments have come. The Thunder Spring residential development on Saddle Road is nearing completion, and has paid the city about $1 million of in-lieu funds. The Auberge Resort Sun Valley hotel project also paid the city about $1 million of in-lieu housing funds. Former Mayor Dave Hutchinson, a representative of Thunder Spring’s owners, told the council that he supports the Galena Lofts project. Bundy and Scovell have spearheaded development of the housing project, and said they decreased the cost per square foot of each unit because they’re not trying to make a profit. Bundy said the cost-per-square-foot for Galena Lofts is $414, while it would be $584 for a private developer. Hutchinson said the project is an effective use of the city’s in-lieu funds. The city has collected $4.8 million since the in-lieu fee began in 2005, and it’s spent $3.08 million. Some $1.8 million was spent on real estate acquisition for the Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency, while $683,000 was provided to the Blaine County Housing Authority. $325,000 was spent on two units of community housing for ARCH Community Housing Trust, while $213,610 went to architectural and consultant fees for Northwood Place in 2009 and 2010, as well as the Bavarian Village investigation in 2007. “It is exactly what in-lieu fees are intended for,” Hutchinson said of Galena Lofts. “They’re basically a nonprofit. You’re looking at subsidizing a private enterprise that is technically a not-for-profit. We
“We’ll start in the spring, if it works out. It’s in the bag. It’s on the way.”
See HOUSING, Page 15