2020: The year beyond COVID-19

It would be easy to forget that numerous events beyond the worldwide pandemic made the news in 2020.

From peaceful protest in Lewiston to a new high school opening for area teens, Macy’s and J.C. Penney joining the list of chain stores failing, a highway-closing rockslide and devastating wildfires, record-setting voter turnout and the seemingly unending debate over salmon and dams all pushed their way to the forefront.

Students move into new LHS and technical education center; LCSC center to open

Lewiston High School students started the new academic year in a new building.

The gleaming 204,000-square-foot building with a 1,500-student capacity and more than 50 classrooms was several years in the making.

After multiple failed attempts, Lewiston voters approved a $59.8 million bond measure in 2017 to construct a new school building along Warner Avenue in the Lewiston Orchards as well as the adjacent A. Neil DeAtley Career Technical Center.

Lewis-Clark State College also finished work on its own career and technical education center on land next to the new LHS complex.

Community members and statewide leaders gathered in frigid temperatures in October to witness a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a facility that Idaho Gov. Brad Little said would create a pipeline of opportunity across the state.

The more than 86,000-square-foot Schweitzer Career and Technical Education Center will open its doors this month to students in seven of LCSC’s 10 career and technical education programs.

Macy’s, J.C. Penney join growing list of national chains to depart the region

Lewiston and the Lewiston Center Mall lost two of its national chain department stores this year as brick-and-mortar retailers continued to struggle in the face of the pandemic and an economy increasingly geared toward online shopping.

Macy’s announced the closure of its Lewiston store in January and J.C. Penney announced its departure in August. Both were anchors and bookends at the mall. Macy’s had about 50 employees and was part of the retail community in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley for more than 40 years. Penney’s was a go-to-store for area shoppers for more than a century. It first opened in downtown Lewiston in 1911 and later moved to the mall.

Peaceful protest takes place as armed individuals patrol downtown Lewiston

Downtown Lewiston and the nearby Lewiston Levee were the backdrop for two protests in June.

More than 1,000 Black Lives Matter protesters marched on the Lewiston Levee to protest police brutality and the killing of George Floyd and other unarmed Black men and women during confrontations with police. The march was one of hundreds held across the country from urban to rural areas following the well publicized death of Floyd.

At the same time, more than 100 armed second amendment supporters patrolled the streets of downtown Lewiston saying they were there to protect businesses from would-be Antifa rioters who never materialized. The armed men and women also expressed their support for local law enforcement.

Although there were a few heated arguments, the two groups largely kept their distance from each other and there was no violence.

Salmon and dams issue resurfaces with state governors vowing collaboration

The federal government completed another controversial plan to balance operation of Snake and Columbia river dams with needs of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead.

At the same time stakeholders from across the region participated in collaborative talks aimed at finding solutions that will help recover the imperiled fish. They included efforts by Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

Both governors also pledged to take part in talks involving the governors of Oregon and Montana and the region’s Native American tribes.

Rockslide blocks for months Idaho’s north-south highway south of Riggins

Idaho was a state divided for several months when a rockslide south of Riggins spilled across U.S. Highway 95 blocking the state’s main north-south highway.

During the initial aftermath of the July 3 slide, people were forced to take hourslong detours if they wished to reach northern or southern Idaho from either side of the slide.

More manageable detours were later established, some using the highway and some taking the Old Pollock Road, but the slope about 6 miles south of Riggins remained too unstable for the highway to fully re-open. Crews from the Idaho Highway Department and contractors eventually stabilized the slope through blasting and scaling and the highway re-opened without traffic controls in November.

Fire season proves short but devastating for residents of Malden, Pine City

North central Idaho and southeastern Washington were spared the massive wildfires that plagued Oregon and California during the summer of 2020, but some of the fires that did occur here were unusually damaging.

More than 10 hours of sustained strong wind combined with flames on Labor Day to wreak havoc in several places. The wind-whipped Babb Fire wiped out 80 percent of the structures in the Whitman County communities of Malden and Pine City. More than a dozen homes and 30 outbuildings were leveled by the Clover Fire near Orofino on the same day and about two homes were destroyed at Colfax. The Whitetail Loop Fire, also near Orofino, had earlier destroyed one home and an outbuilding.

Incumbent sheriffs shown the door; voters turn out in record numbers

Voters in north central Idaho replaced two multiple-term sheriffs during a local election season that was largely dominated by the triumph of incumbents.

In Idaho County, longtime sheriff Doug Giddings was beaten in a spring primary election by one of his employees, Lt. Doug Ulmer. Ulmer went on to win the sheriff’s race in the fall election by beating Casey M. Zechmann Jr.

Bryce Scrimsher defeated incumbent Joe Rodriguez on Nov. 3 and will become Nez Perce County’s new sheriff. Scrimsher, 47, ran as an independent against the two-term Republican.

Scrimsher once worked as undersheriff to Rodriguez but was fired in 2018.

The 2020 general election saw voter turnout hit record levels. The presidential race contributed to that, but pandemic-inspired steps to ease voter access — such as encouraging mail-in or expanded absentee ballots — also played a role.

Turnout in Idaho hit 81.2 percent, the highest level since at least 1980. Washington topped out at 84.1 percent, second only during that same 40-year period to the 84.6 percent turnout in 2008.

Nationally, 66.2 percent of the eligible voter population cast ballots, marking the highest turnout since 1900.