Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part one, with part two scheduled to appear in Sunday’s Tribune.
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POMEROY — The Garfield County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) issued an emergency proclamation and discussed flooding repairs at their meeting on Feb. 24.
The BOCC approved resolution 2025-10, issuing a proclamation declaring a state of emergency due to extreme weather conditions including excessive rain and melting of snow. The proclamation allows emergency response from departments including spending over budgeted amounts that would otherwise draw a penalty to the department. The commissioners announced that beginning Feb. 21, flooding and runoff caused extensive damage to county roads and private property, including fields, culverts, roads and more.
The BOCC discussed flooding repair with County Road Crew Superintendent Steve Gormsen. The road crew will be focusing on getting roads repaired, prioritizing paved roads, then bus routes, then mail routes, then other roads. Chairperson Justin Dixon urged Garfield County residents to be patient. “It’s going to be a long repair,” Dixon said. The county will create a report that details what needs to be repaired and the approximate cost of the repairs.
“Let’s give a shout-out to the county road crew for being out Saturday and Sunday with water on the roads, unplugging and cleaning culverts,” Commissioner Larry Ledgerwood said. Gormsen stated that the road crew opened up approximately seven plugged culverts over the weekend, many plugged by tumbleweeds and other debris.
In further business, the BOCC approved an agreement with Shockey Planning Group to review an application for an alternative energy project. They also stated that a work session meeting with the county planning commission will be held in their chambers at 1 p.m. Monday to discuss alternative energy code.
— Naomi Scoggin, East Washingtonian (Pomeroy), Thursday
Snow and showers: Winter Carnival wraps up test-period
McCALL — Despite varying weather conditions, hundreds of people celebrated the annual McCall Winter Carnival last weekend.
Several classic carnival activities were held over the three-day event, including the Ice Sculpture contest, the Mardi Gras parade on Saturday and the Children’s Torchlight Parade on Friday.
The weekend ends a two-year test period of a one weekend format in February. The McCall Chamber of Commerce changed the format last year from the traditional 10-day carnival at the end of January.
The Chamber recently sent out a community wide survey to gather feedback on the one weekend format to poll people on whether they want a three-day or 10-day festival in January or February.
The survey can be found at visitmccall.org.
The Chamber will also host a Winter Carnival Community Conversation at 5:30 p.m. on March 12 at the McCall Public Library Community Hall.
The event will allow the public three-minutes to give feedback for the Winter Carnival. Once the feedback is gathered, the Chamber will review and make a decision by the end of March for the format of the 2026 Winter Carnival.
Debra Staup, a McCall resident, has been going to the Winter Carnival for more than 40 years and enjoys the weekend of events and activities.
This year she thought the Mardi Gras parade was more colorful and energetic than parades before.
“I thought the parade was absolutely delightful,” said Staup, 72. “This one just felt really fun, very colorful, the energy was great and everyone around me was enjoying it.”
Despite the rain, tourists and locals were enjoying sledding, skating, eating at vendor row and walking in town, she said.
Staup said the weather always affects Winter Carnival, no matter what weekend it has been held.
“You can’t predict the weather, it does not matter when you would plan it,” Staup said.
“The weather is going to be what it is going to be,” she said. “You will never find the perfect weekend because winter weather up here is unpredictable.”
One group that did not mind the rain included the 29 dogs that participated in the McPaws Monster Dog Pull on Sunday.
“People will turn out for any weather, especially the locals,” said Kattie Kingsley, McPaws development director. “We are happy people came out in the rain, it was still a lot of fun.”
Dogs of varying sizes, from tiny chihuahuas to towering husky malamutes participated by pulling a weighted sled across the short course.
Karen Golden drove up from Boise to see the Winter Carnival for the first time. She had difficulty finding the 22 sculptures spread around town, but she had fun walking through the row of vendors and sledding at Art Roberts Park.
“I’m a little disappointed there aren’t more sculptures, but I love the weather,” said Golden. “I’ll come back.”
With the increase of crowds, the McCall Police Department had a near 70% increase in calls for service and traffic stops over the weekend, said McCall Police Chief Dallas Palmer.
The police department handled 137 calls and 21 traffic stops from Friday to Sunday. The types of calls over the Winter Carnival weekend were the same as other weekends, but with higher frequency, said Palmer.
“Public safety is our absolute priority and it’s paramount that our community remains safe during these times of great influx such as Winter Carnival weekend,” he said.
McCall Fire and EMS received two calls during the weekend, which is a normal amount of calls, said deputy chief Mike Bertrand.
The calls included one non-injury vehicle accident and a small electrical fire in a structure on Rio Vista that was quickly contained with no injuries and minimal structural damage.
Although traffic was slow and heavy on Friday and Saturday, McCall Fire did not have any issues or delays responding to the two incidents, said Bertrand.
— Sierra Christie, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
