Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part one, with part two set to appear Sunday.
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GRANGEVILLE — As 2023 begins, Idaho County commissioners Skip Brandt, Denis Duman and Ted Lindsley reflect on 2022 and look forward to the year ahead.
Planning for a new jail, a revised airport layout plan and a decision to validate the Milner Trail are some 2022 highlights.
Duman said securing federal funding and beginning the design for a new sheriff’s office complex was a big step forward. The current jail, located in the Idaho County courthouse, was built in 1954.
“It served its purpose back in the day,” Brandt said.
Duman noted the need to meet Idaho jail standards, which have changed over time. Funding the sheriff’s office complex locally would have required going to the voters for a bond, according to Brandt. Without funding, the jail would have eventually closed.
“It was just a matter of time,” said Duman.
Duman said the drug problem has caused an increase in crime. Brandt explained that the addition of dogs to the sheriff’s office has led to more arrests during traffic stops, often people passing through the county on U.S. highways 12 and 95.
“Everyone is smoking, snorting or shooting something,” Brandt concluded.
Increased demand for public defense is another result of more arrests. Duman said the county added a second public defender to keep up with the workload.
The completion of an FAA-required airport layout plan will guide the development of the Idaho County Airport for the next 10 years. The county established a five-member airport advisory board to advise commissioners on priorities.
Lindsley said he believes most people were happy with the decision to validate the Milner Trail, a popular ATV and snowmobile trail south of Grangeville. A series of discussions, a review of historic documents and maps and a well-attended public hearing occurred before the decision.
Duman said that in 2023 Idaho County changes in solid waste management will continue. A shift to staffed sites began in 2021 with the construction of a community drop-off site in Kooskia, which replaced two dumpster sites. Opening a Riggins community site in 2023 and the development of sites in the Grangeville and Cottonwood areas are planned. The Warren dumpster site will also be decommissioned.
With people asking for increased road maintenance and snowplowing, Brandt is looking into how to increase funding for Idaho County Road and Bridge Department. They currently manage nearly 500 miles of roads in the county that are not part of a road district. The question is whether county residents are willing to pay more for increased maintenance.
Norma Staaf, Idaho County Free Press, Grangeville
McCall rezones for school district housing
A plan to rezone land on Stibnite Street in McCall for use as employee housing by the McCall-Donnelly School District was approved last week by the McCall City Council.
Specific plans to build the housing will require a review before the McCall Area Planning and Zoning Commission. A formal application has not yet been submitted, city planner Brian Parker said.
The zoning change approved last week by city council allows the school district to build up to 74 units on 9.4 acres it owns on Stibnite Street at the corner of Mission Street, or just south of McCall-Donnelly High School.
However, the district plans to sell half of the land to fund construction of the employee housing, council members were told during last week’s meeting.
“This is labeled as teacher housing, but it would be staff housing as well for the custodians and maintenance workers,” said M-D operations director Jason Clay.
Conceptual plans aired last week to the city council showed three buildings containing 24 apartments and nine sites for single-family homes. The homes and apartments would be rented to M-D teachers and staffers who cannot afford other housing in the area.
The district has 115 certified staffers with an average salary of $64,000 per year and 65 other staffers with an average salary of about $34,000 per year, Clay said. Between nine and 15 M-D staffers will be eligible for retirement within the next five years.
The M-D Board of Trustees set aside $4 million in September to start developing staff housing on the property and hired Pivot North Architecture of Boise to design the development.
The Stibnite Street property was previously zoned as “civic,” which limited development to “governmental, cultural and recreational facilities.” Council members questioned why the district did not seek to rezone the land to high-density residential zoning, as called for by the city’s future land use map.
High-density zoning would allow up to 16 units per acre, or twice as much as allowed under the zoning change approved by council members. However, the topography of the Stibnite Street property and public comments from neighbors led the district to settle for medium-density zoning, council members were told.
Any future developer of the southern parcel would have the option to rezone to a higher density or to increase density through McCall’s Local Housing Density Bonus Program.
Nobody spoke in opposition to the rezone application at a public hearing held at last week’s city council meeting.
Drew Dodson, The Star-News, McCall
