Stories here are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part one, with part two set to appear online Monday at lmtribune.com.
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KAMIAH — Following an executive session discussion on Aug. 10, Kamiah city councilors voted to shift the pay of interim Kamiah Fire Rescue Chief Jared Silvis from hourly to salary.
Silvis, who assumed leadership of KFR following Chief Bill Arsenault’s July 29 injury, will be paid $5,000 per month while he serves as chief.
In a separate action, the council approved continuing full pay for Arsenault as he recovers from his injuries. According to Kamiah Mayor Betty Heater, Arsenault will be performing administrative duties remotely from his home in southern Idaho for the next three to five months.
Silvis reported to Heater and council, that KFR responded to 90 calls during July. This includes 74 EMS calls (including 52 transports), 11 fire calls, three air facility transfers and two miscellaneous or law enforcement assists. Silvis said this is a significant increase over last July, which included 58 total calls.
— Norma Staaf, The Clearwater Progress (Kamiah), Thursday
Report: Fair market rent for two-bedroom home is $981
News for Idaho renters is not good.
Idaho’s 2022 Housing Wage, revealed in the Out of Reach report, released recently by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Idaho Asset Building Network, states in order for renters to afford a modest, two-bedroom rental in the state, they need to make $18.87 per hour.
Annual income needed to afford a two-bedroom rental is $39,258. Work hours at Idaho’s current minimum wage, $7.25 per hour, to achieve this rental is 104 hours per week. In other words, two people sharing a home would each have to work 52 hours a week at minimum wage in order to afford rent.
Idaho has a total of 189,871 renters, or 29% of the population. Affordable rent for a person making $7.25 an hour is listed as $377 a month; fair market value for a two-bedroom rental in Idaho comes in at $981.
Individuals who rely on Supplemental Security Income are more likely to feel this squeeze in the rental market. Average SSI monthly payment is $894, and affordable rent at this income is listed as $268 a month.
In Idaho, only one in four households who qualify for housing assistance receive it, and those who receive a voucher are often unable to use it because of the shortage of affordable homes across the state.
—Lorie Palmer, Idaho County Free Press (Grangeville), Wednesday
State sets Cougar Island auction for Sept. 14
Cougar Island in Payette Lake will be sold at auction Sept. 14 by the Idaho Department of Lands.
The auction is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. in the Waters Edge Event Center at 287 E. Shore Dr. in Eagle.
The minimum bid for the entire 14.2-acre island has been set at $8.8 million. The island will also be offered as five lots.
Jim Laski, a Bellevue attorney, is the current lessee of the only lot on the island with a home built on it.
The minimum bid for Laski’s 2.5-acre lot is about $2 million. If Laski’s bid is not successful, the winning bidder must pay him about $1.6 million for the value of his home.
Laski told the McCall City Council last week that he is “skeptical” he will be able to place the winning bid for the cottage site he has leased from the state for nearly 10 years.
“I think you’re going to be dealing with a new owner after Sept. 14,” he said.
Laski requested that the island be put up for auction to give him a chance to own outright the land under his house, which he currently leases from the state for $34,000 per year.
Laski’s lot is valued at about $500,000 more than the other lots on the island, except for a 3.5-acre vacant lot that is valued at about $2.6 million.
The 3.5-acre lot received the highest appraisal because of the amount of lake frontage, said Sharla Arledge, a spokesperson for the lands department.
The lands department is required by the Idaho Constitution to accept the highest combination of bids at auction for Cougar Island, which is state endowment land managed to the benefit of public schools.
First sale
The Cougar Island auction is the first recommended by a state plan adopted last year that would sell 377 acres of state land around the lake within 20 years.
In May, Valley County commissioners urged the State Land Board, which oversees the lands department, to postpone the Cougar Island auction amid worries about water quality and public access.
However, the auction was affirmed at its June meeting by the land board, which is made up of the state’s top elected officials and is chaired by Gov. Brad Little.
The process
State endowment lands must be sold at public auction so the lands department gets the best possible return as mandated by the Idaho Constitution.
Endowment land around Payette Lake has been leased for use as residential cottage sites as far back as the early 1900s.
In 2010, the State Land Board approved a plan to divest ownership of leased cottage site parcels to give lessees a chance to buy the land outright at auction.
Since 2010, 154 cottage site lots have been sold, including 127 lots that were leased. The auctions have raised more than $66 million. Twenty leased cottage site lots remain.
Money from the land sales is deposited into a fund that the lands department may use to buy timberlands in Idaho or is invested in financial markets.
— Drew Dodson, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
Silvis
