SVEA Mission Statement
The mission of the Board and Staff of the Sun Valley Elkhorn Association shall be to maintain and enhance the quality of life in Elkhorn by:

• Providing excellent facilities, amenities and accompanying services.
• Preserving the beauty of Elkhorn by guiding the design of attractive residences and landscaping and by protecting Association owned land.
• Proactively keeping members well informed of issues affecting them and the broader Elkhorn community.
• Managing prudently the finances of the Association.

Update on Harker Center Facility Upgrade
As part of the new SVEA Board of Directors’ outreach program we continue to attend sub- association annual meetings. The topic of upgrading the Harker Center is one of the key items of discussion. The response from those meetings and from owners who have taken time to contact us, indicates there is strong support for this project. Your Board is continuing work on these plans. Out of an initial field of eleven architects we have reduced it to three for final consideration and hope to have it narrowed to one by early November. By the time of the Annual meeting we hope to be able to show you schematic plans of the facilities. As many of you know, moving forward with construction will necessitate a favorable vote from the majority of the membership. We hope to be prepared to present a complete package for your consideration and vote sometime in the first half of 2007. We very much look forward to sharing these exciting plans and hope to see many of you at the Annual Meeting.

Annual Meeting
Please plan on attending your annual Homeowners meeting! Your 2006 Annual Meeting will be held, as always, on December 30^th at 4 p.m. The location for the meeting will be the American Legion Hall on 220 Cottonwood Street in Ketchum. We will present the most current information on the Harker Center Facility Upgrade, elect new Board Members, and review the annual budget. The proxy and other information pertaining to the meeting will be sent to you in early November. If you are not able to attend, we ask that you please take a moment to review and then complete and return your proxy. This will help to establish the quorum of 51% that is required to hold an official meeting.

Budgets
The Board of Directors approved the 2006-07 Operational and Capital Budgets on October 2, 2006. For the last six years we have been able to operate our facilities without raising dues, despite a compounded inflation rate of over 20% during that time. In order to fulfill our mission of "providing excellent facilities, amenities, and accompanying services" we now need to increase dues. These dues will fund:

• Increases in utility costs to heat our two pools, hot tubs, saunas and steam room
• Increased maintenance/replacement costs for aging equipment (and avoid the disruption of key services as we had this summer)
• Improved staffing programs at the two pools, including incentive programs to maintain lifeguards throughout the entire season (again, avoiding disruption of services for one of our most popular amenities)
• Additional management staff member to help manage the increase in programs and activities for an increasing Elkhorn population, significantly improve our community/homeowner outreach activities, and allow for appropriate management attention to developing our ten year capital improvement program.
• These items will cost each homeowner less than $10 a month; the new amount is reflected in your current bill. The Board of Directors takes its fiduciary responsibility very seriously and feels that these investments will improve both the enjoyment of your property as well as contribute to enhanced property values. We thank you in advance for your support.

Help us deliver the services you want to see!
Approximately 70% of Elkhorn owners are non-residents. In an effort to improve our communications we are upgrading our website to make it more informative, and are very interested in your input. So far, we have been given some great ideas, including putting together a comprehensive site for children’s activities, developing a thorough guide to SVEA to ensure that homeowners are getting the most they can out of their stay here, adding a link to sub-associations’ websites, and adding a calendar for local events. Please email us at svea@cox-internet.com  or call us at 208-622-7420 with your ideas.

Board Member Applications
If you have a desire to participate more directly in the governance of the SVEA community, consider volunteering for a Board position. Call the SVEA office if you are interested in more information or apply online www.elkhorn-assoc.org/Board_of_Directors.htm.

Help Us Save Trees
Please help our efforts to lessen the use of paper products and postage by requesting our quarterly newsletter by email only. If you wish to be on our list, please contact us at svea@cox-internet.com  with your name, email address and "no hard copy" entered in the subject line.

Places to Go and Things to Do
Winter is headed our way and as usual we look forward to the traditional events planned for the holidays, and especially, to the opening of the ski lifts on Thanksgiving (weather dependant). On November 4^th attend the Galena Winter Benefit Dinner & Auction or on the 30^th visit the Wood River Festival of Trees Gala at the Limelight Room at 6:30 PM in the Sun Valley Inn. On December 2^nd the 15^th Papoose Club Holiday Bazaar will be held at the Hemingway Elementary School. Or, may we suggest joining in the celebration at the Sun Valley Lodge terrace for Christmas Eve festivities. A Sun Valley ice skating exhibition opens the event, followed by the Dickens' Carolers, an appearance by Santa, the torchlight parade and a display of fireworks for the grand finale.  Everyone is welcome.

Fire Safety Precautions
Prepare for winter by cleaning and inspecting your chimneys, vents, and fireplaces. Have chimneys inspected and cleaned when necessary by a professional chimney sweep. Creosote is an unavoidable product of wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. Creosote builds up in connectors and chimney flues and can cause a chimney fire.

Install Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms. Installation of smoke alarms is not enough – the battery should be replaced every 6 months. A good time to remember to do it is in the Spring and the Fall when the time changes. CO usually comes from faulty heating appliances but may also come from fireplaces or cars running in attached garages. CO cannot be seen, tasted or smelled, so the only way to detect a CO problem is to have a CO alarm.

If you have any questions about alarm types or monitored fire alarm systems feel free to contact Jeff Carnes, the Sun Valley Fire Chief, at 622-8234.

Safety first-Ponds And Thin Ice
Autumn has come to Sun Valley and with winter conditions just around the corner, we want to take this opportunity to again caution you of the dangers of thin ice. There are many ponds and water ways in Elkhorn, and we want to encourage you to carefully supervise your children and pets around these areas.

Keep Our Star Gazers Paradise
The people who live in and near Sun Valley value the natural environment, including the beauty and high quality of the night sky. The City of Sun Valley finds that unnecessary and improperly designed light fixtures cause glare, light pollution and wasted resources. Please check your property with the thought of minimizing the effects of light trespass, direct glare and excessive lighting. The Dark Sky Ordinance went into effect on October 15, 2005. For further information on the new regulations, go to www.sunvalley.govoffice.com/.

SVEA’s Exterior Lighting Guidelines must also be met when remodeling or constructing a home, or simply changing your outdoor lighting fixtures. If you select a partially shielded fixture the glass must be translucent so that the light source (bulb) is not visible. Please refer to Schedule F of the ADC Manual www.elkhorn-assoc.org/CCR.htm  for complete information or contact Jan Kaas at 208-622-7420 with any questions you may have.

Holiday Lighting
As we enter the fall season, many of you will begin planning for the winter holidays. We offer this friendly reminder regarding your holiday lighting. Your seasonal lighting is subject to the SVEA Exterior Lighting Guidelines. "Decorative holiday lighting used on the exterior of buildings and in plantings is permitted during the winter months from November 1^st until March 15^th, provided a timer is used to insure that the seasonal lighting is turned off by 11:00 p.m. each evening". The document also states that the use of seasonal lighting shall be kept to a minimum so as to meet the intent of the Exterior Lighting Guidelines (avoiding light trespass onto adjoining neighbors). Thank you all for complying and for being considerate to your neighbors.

Winter Hot Tub and Spa
We know you are all looking forward to the opening of the Winter Spa with a steam room, sauna, and outdoor hot tub! The Village Spa will re-open on November 24th. The hours of operation will be from 3:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. daily through mid April. Please remember to bring your up-to-date amenity card, and to request passes for your guests. Call us at 208-622-7420 if you need help with either of these items. Your Pool Committee will be meeting this winter to begin planning for next summer. If you have comments or suggestions, please mail them to PO Box 1708, Sun Valley, ID 83353 or email them to svea@cox-internet.com .

Keep Elkhorn Beautiful!
We need your help. Trash cans that are not returned to an enclosed structure or appropriately screened from view following Elkhorn’s Tuesday trash pickup continue to generate many complaints from your neighbors and to be the most repeated violation of the Elkhorn restrictions. Other common infractions include non-complying real estate signs, dogs running at large, and during the winter months, snow blowers and snowmobiles being parked where visible. We just want to take this opportunity, and a small area of your newsletter, to remind you that living in a planned community such as Elkhorn comes with certain responsibilities to ensure that property values remain at optimum levels.

Winter X-Country Skiing at the Golf Club
In our last survey, many homeowners expressed an interest in cross-country skiing. The SVEA Board of Directors and Staff are working with the Elkhorn Golf Course to examine the possibility of opening the golf course to cross-country skiing this winter. Look for updates in our next newsletter.

Sunshine at Elkhorn Springs As you know from our past communications, CG-Elkhorn is now involved in the future development of the Sunshine Parcel. We expect to receive the ADC submittal package in the very near future for Sunshine @ Elkhorn Springs.

News from the city of Sun Valley
From the Mayor
I want to encourage citizen interaction with City Hall. To help meet this objective, I am initiating a Mayor’s Brown Bag Lunch, an open forum to be held at noon the 3^rd Thursday of each month at the Sun Valley City Hall. Your suggestions for discussion topics of interest will be welcome; we’ll talk about everything you’re interested in. Bring your own lunch; liquid refreshments will be provided.
Cordially, Mayor Jon Thorson

Elkhorn Golf Club
Elkhorn residents have Golf privileges! The SVEA Board of Directors and Staff have negotiated for 6 tee-times per day (2 early morning, two late morning, and two early afternoon) for homeowners, houseguests, and renters. Reservations may be made up to six days in advance and can be secured with your credit card. In order to play at those times and receive the reduced rate, all players in each group must have an amenity card. The reduced fall rate is now $99 and will remain at that price until the course closes for the winter. Closure depends on the weather but the Golf Club hopes to remain open until the end of October. Elkhorn Golf Club user information indicates that Elkhorn residents are using less than half of the spots allocated to them. So, if you are interested in playing, there are plenty of times available. Call the Golf Shop at 208-622-3300 for additional information or to reserve your times.

Elkhorn Springs
Phase I Elkhorn Springs has completed its first building in Phase I, Hillside Terrace North, and 17 of the 18 units have sold.  The second building in Phase I, Hillside Terrace South, is nearing completion and residents will start moving in during November.  The Phase I Paired Homes are nearly complete and we anticipate residents will also start moving into their new homes in November. The Country Store construction is expected to finish up by the end of October. We anticipate that the store will open in the spring of 2007.  The restaurant construction is under way and will continue through January of 2007. Hennessy Company is currently discussing leasing options with potential store and restaurant owners and hopes to have operators for both buildings by next spring.

Phase II Framing on Phase II has started and we are currently looking at completion of the project by the end of 2007.

Phase III Plans for phase III will be submitted to the SVEA ADC on October 25, 2006. Currently, the projected finish date for the third phase is the end of 2008.

Bonne Vie Pond For the residents that are concerned about the Bonne Vie pond, we wanted to let you know that the pond has been sealed and that it will be filled before winter.
Thank you, CG-Elkhorn LLC