Street superintendent urges end to hand-weeding on bike paths; council approves budget cuts and examines paving choices

Street Superintendent Whitesell showed photos of weeds on the bike path and told the council he did not think hand-pulling the weeds was effective, urging the council to pursue other control options. "He does not think pulling the weeds is effective and that Council should address other options," Whitesell said.

The council agreed to include the Milestone estimate in the noxious-weed-control line and discontinue manual weed pulling, reducing that budget by $5,000. They also decided to eliminate a redundant $4,000 part-time wages line. Councilors debated chip seal versus friction seal for road maintenance and discussed the possibility of using bond funds to cover some Roads & Paths work; Council Member Keith Saks suggested more serious consideration of improvements to the path between Sun Valley and Ketchum if the city does not pursue a road-transfer route with ITD.