A week ago Friday the National Weather Service put a fire weather watch on Blaine County for Saturday afternoon through Sunday evening. Gusts to 40, humidity down to 5%. Saturday at a quarter to six a duplex went up at Galena and First in downtown Hailey. Sunday afternoon a house on Daybreak Lane. Three people hurt, forty firefighters, two families out of a home.

Also this week: Bellevue's mayor came apart at a budget meeting, the county fair is in Carey through Saturday and almost nobody up-valley goes, the smoke that peaked yesterday clears by tomorrow, and the Big Wood is down to 168. Here's the week.

Top of Mind

A fire warning, then two house fires in twenty hours.

Two houses burned in about twenty hours. Saturday's call came in around 5:45 p.m. to Galena Street and First Avenue, a duplex a block off Main. It moved fast, outside to the attic of both units, and took roughly 40 firefighters, five engines and a ladder truck to stop. One civilian and two firefighters went to St. Luke's Wood River, all three treated and released the same day. Sunday at 2:30 a house on Daybreak Lane in Woodside caught, started outside, apparently accidental, out in an hour. Nobody hurt there. Both causes are under investigation.

The week before, an irrigation pump arced off North Picabo Road and put 41 acres down before 28 people and eight engines caught it. Carey fire chief Richard Kimball put it plainly: "It's so dry that it takes literally just a spark and you have a fire."

Worth keeping the categories straight, because they get run together this time of year. Those were structure fires, which happen in wet years too, and they're a separate thing from the wildland picture. On that side, here's where the rules actually stand right now. Fire danger reads Very High in both Sawtooth zones. The only Stage 1 order on the forest covers the Minidoka district, 150 miles south of here, and Blaine County has no fire restrictions of its own. Open burning is prohibited, but that comes from the DEQ smoke advisory rather than a fire order, which means it lifts when the air clears rather than when the fuels do.

Sources: Idaho Mountain Express on the fires and the weather watch, plus Sawtooth National Forest alerts

Town Hall

BellevueMayor Christina Giordani lost her temper at last Thursday's budget meeting, yelled profanities at Councilwoman Suzanne Wrede, stood over her, then walked out crying and came back ten minutes later to apologize. "It was not appropriate," she said. The fight was over cutting Administrative Services from four part-time jobs to two full-time and one part-time, which put a 12-year employee's job in play. The mayor said so with the employee in the room. That's the part that lingers. Council adopted a draft Tuesday; the final vote is Monday, Aug. 24. [IME]

KetchumCalendar this now. Southbound Highway 75 through town closes to cars, bikes and people on foot from Wednesday, Aug. 12 through Tuesday, Sept. 1 for utility work. The city's notice names two different stretches, Second to Serenade in one line and Gem to Andora in the next, so confirm the block before you plan around it. Better news in the same notice: Elkhorn Road reopens tomorrow. Questions to [email protected]. [City of Ketchum]

CountyCommissioners moved a $41.6 million budget forward 2-1, and the line they split over is the coroner. The new department's $455,000 covers $103,000 for coroner Eric Demment, $65,000 to turn an ambulance into a response vehicle, $20,000 for a refrigerator, and $67,000 for a three-quarter-time deputy. That last one is what Muffy Davis voted against, on the arithmetic: about 30 cases a year. Final hearing Tuesday, Aug. 18. [IME]

Sun ValleyThe council takes public comment on a $14.8 million budget this afternoon at 4 at City Hall. Two other things on that agenda: a vote on temporary speed limits, which nobody has published any detail about, and a mutual-aid agreement between the Sun Valley and Ketchum police departments. The second is the quiet answer to the depth problem we raised last week. Ten-person departments borrow from each other. [IME]

BellevueMarshal Kirtus Gaston is leaving after three years. Last day is Sept. 11, and he's going to Sun Valley as a patrol officer. "Serving this community has never been just a job to me," he told the council Monday. A replacement recommendation comes Aug. 24, the same night as the budget. Notice the direction of travel: the down-valley chief takes a patrol job up-valley, and that's a raise. [IME]

KetchumThe new department bought a dog. Enzo cost $25,000 with equipment, came from the sheriff's office, and is one of five K-9s in Idaho trained to detect fentanyl. Mayor Pete Prekeges said in May the unit would be retired. Now he says Enzo works community engagement, not the "invasive" free-air sniffs around parked cars the sheriff ran without probable cause. That's a real policy change and it deserves to be held to. [IME]

Out & About

This week

Tonight through Sat Aug 8  The Blaine County Fair, Carey. Free to walk in and the bounce houses are free too. Tonight: shotgun contest at 4, Big Jon's prime rib and BBQ 5:30 to 7, barn dance at 8. Friday: dutch oven cookoff at 2:15, kids rodeo at 7. Saturday: market animal sale at 9:30, fall rodeo at 7, Chuck Briseno after. [info]

Tonight, Thu Aug 6  Hailey Rocks: Boot Juice at Hop Porter Park, 6:30 to 9, free, all ages. California roots-rock, and the second to last one of the season. [info]

Tonight, Thu Aug 6  An Evening with Sutton Foster, the Music Festival's gala at the Pavilion, 6:30. The one night all season that costs money, and the reason the other thirty don't. [tickets]

Fri Aug 7  First Friday at the Sun Valley Museum of Art, 5 p.m., with Ian Janco. Free. The Circa 1971 print show is up if you want a reason to linger. [info]

Sat Aug 8  Sun Valley on Ice with Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, 8:30 on the outdoor rink, doors at 7:30. Ticketed. [tickets]

Every week

Wednesdays, 5 to 8  Summer Series at River Run, free, gondola until 7. Next up Aug 12, Ethan J Perry & The Remedy Band, with Project Bigwood and the Idaho Dark Sky Alliance. [info]

Saturdays, 9 to 10  Yoga at River Run. Free, outdoors, all levels. Register ahead and get there by 8:45, space is capped. Bring a mat, leave the dog. [info]

Sundays, 10 to 10:45  Pop Up Pilates on the lawn behind the Brass Ranch in Sun Valley Village. Free, no registration, every Sunday this month. [info]

Wed to Sun, 6 to 9  Live music at The Ram, inside the Sun Valley Inn. Free, five nights a week, and nobody outside the village seems to know it's there. [info]

Sat 10 to 2, Wed noon to 4  Wood River Farmers Market. Hailey Saturdays at Roberta McKercher Park, Ketchum Wednesdays at Forest Service Park. [info]

Also standing: Live Music in the Pasture at Hotel Ketchum, Thu/Fri/Sat 5:30 to 7:30. Wicked Wednesday at the Wicked Spud, 6 to 9:30, free.

Coming up

Sun Aug 9  Brahms's A German Requiem at the Pavilion, 6:30, free. Alasdair Neale walks through it Friday at 11 at the Community Library, also free, and that talk is the cheat sheet. [info]

Tue Aug 11  Last Ketch'em Alive of the summer, the Pisten Bullys, Forest Service Park, 6:30 to 8:30, free. [Visit SV]

Wed Aug 12  The Perseids peak. Stars Over Sun Valley on the Roundhouse deck is sold out, so the move is free: drive up a dark road after midnight and look northeast. The resort went DarkSky certified in July, first in the country, which mostly means somebody aimed the lights down. [info]

Over Galena

Tonight, Thu Aug 6  The David Henry Band takes the street dance on Ace of Diamonds, 6:30 to 10, free. Closest thing Stanley has to a weekly town meeting. [info]

Fri Aug 7  Boulder Hill on the Redfish lawn, 6 to 8. Porch Swing at the Sawtooth Hotel at 7. And at 5:30 the museum takes up George Blackmon's plans for central Idaho, which explains a lot about why the country up there looks the way it does. [info]

Sat Aug 8  Smokey Bear turns 82 and there's a party for him at the Redfish visitor center at 1. A fire ecology talk at the library at 5:30. Free music at the Kasino at 8, Neal Goldberg and Friends. [info]

Sun Aug 9  The fire ecology walk goes out to Stanley Lake at 10, the outdoor half of Saturday's talk. Mark Mueller on the Redfish lawn, 5 to 7, free. [info]

Tue Aug 11 and Wed Aug 12  Perseid Palooza at Pioneer Park, and the Stanley Observatory is open for it now: a log cabin with a roll-off roof and a donated 14-inch telescope. If you're driving for meteors anyway, drive the 75 minutes for the darkest sky in reach. [info]

Also standing: trivia at the Kasino Wednesdays at 7:30. Karaoke at Mountain Village Mondays at 9.

Mark it down

Fri Aug 14 to Sun Aug 16  Sun Valley Arts & Crafts Festival, 57th year, 126 artists in Atkinson Park. Free. Park early or walk from town. [info]

The Dirt

River and fish. The Big Wood is 168 cfs at Hailey, 63% of normal, down 24 from last week. Silver Creek is 98 and has slipped harder, from 98% of normal to 85% in seven days, and it touched 65 degrees Tuesday evening. Go early, and this week that isn't a preference. Silver Creek Outfitters puts it as the fish and the bugs taking a break once the day heats up. Tricos, micro caddis and spruce moths in the morning, hoppers after. When your thermometer says 68, quit and drive north. [Silver Creek Outfitters]

Fire and air. Yesterday was the bad one: DEQ had Ketchum at Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups. Today is Moderate and the forecast is Good from tomorrow through Sunday, so the weekend is clear and the hard exercise you skipped Wednesday goes back on the calendar. The smoke was ours this time, not Oregon's. The Tartar Fire north of Weiser is past 138,000 acres at roughly 13% contained, lightning-started July 24. Open burning stays prohibited under the advisory, fire danger reads Very High in both Sawtooth zones, and Blaine County has no fire restrictions in place. [Sawtooth National Forest]

Roads and the mountain. Elkhorn Road reopens tomorrow, and you get four days of relief before southbound 75 shuts through town on the 12th. Baldy runs lifts Wednesday through Sunday, 9 to 4, and Lookout Lodge stays closed all season. Bears are still coming down for the same reason as last month, which is that a dry year moves the groceries downhill. Trash inside, feeder down. [City of Ketchum]

Over Galena. Galena is clear and nothing on 75 between Ketchum and Stanley is under construction. The Salmon below the Yankee Fork reads 547, 87% of normal and dropping about 100 cfs a week, still floatable and wadeable from Stanley to Clayton on spruce moths and hoppers. Valley Creek is 112. Grandjean and its trailhead stay closed through Dec. 31 from debris flows off the Wapiti burn scar, so that's not your Sawtooth trailhead this month. [Sawtooth NF]

Open House

The Guyer Hot Springs hearing finally lands this afternoon at 4:30 at Ketchum City Hall, after being continued from July 16 and again from last month. David and Robert Cimino and Brian Barsotti want to rezone the ground west of the Warm Springs base to T-3000, which is Ketchum's short-term tourist accommodation zone, and build in two phases: five single-family homes first, then 12 to 15 townhomes, for 17 to 20 units total and possibly four workforce units. The zoning ask is the real story, not the unit count. T-3000 is the code's permission slip for nightly rentals, and where the city grants it decides which neighborhoods stay neighborhoods. If you have a view on Warm Springs, today is the day it's worth having in a room. [IME]

Table Talk

After three quiet weeks, an opening, and it's the good kind. Dark Sky Deli & Dogs is up at 210 N Main in Ketchum, run by Will Hemmings and Caleb Wright, who both grew up in the valley. Sandwiches, hot dogs, soups, salads. Lunch Tuesday through Sunday, 11 to 3, dark Mondays. Here's the number to write down: Thursday through Saturday they're open 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., close to the only kitchen in Ketchum working at that hour. They say on their own site they're chasing what the town lost with RJ's Hot Dog Adventure Company, and Perry's, which closed in 2022 after 37 years for a development. Naming your ghosts before you've sold a sandwich is a confident way to open. [info]

Know a new spot or a shuttered one? Hit reply. Tips are how this section stays honest.

The Party Line

One from last week. We put the North Picabo Road fire at 34 acres. That was the number while it was still burning; the final figure is 41.1.

If you do one thing this week, go to Carey. The fair runs through Saturday, walking in is free, and it is the one week a year the rest of the county is supposed to show up for the south end. Tomorrow's cookoff is worth the drive on its own.

The air clears tomorrow. Bring the trash in anyway, the bears are still working.

See you next Thursday.

The Bigwood Brief

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