Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part two, with part one having appeared in Saturday’s Tribune.
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McCALL — The city of McCall sent a record amount of water to its customers during June as a heat wave took hold, the city reported.
The city treated and distributed a total of 65.5 million gallons of water, the most ever in the month of June, according to city records.
Demand peaked the week of July 4, when the water system pumped a total of 26.1 million gallons of water.
That smashed the previous record of 21.9 million gallons set in 2016.
Daily demand for the week of June 28 through July 6 was about 2.9 million gallons per day, or 37 percent more than the average for the same week dating to 2015.
City water pumps drawing water from Payette Lake can handle the increased demand, but the water treatment plant at 1420 Bitteroot Drive cannot keep up, said Stacy LaFay, who manages the plant.
LaFay attributes the increased demand to an unusually dry spring and hot summer in McCall. It is also a result of growth in the city, he said.
The city began urging alternate-day lawn watering on July 6, after which usage has dropped by about 5 percent, LaFay said.
The alternate-day lawn watering law was added to city code in 1994 and is always in effect in city limits. However, it is rarely enforced.
No citations have been issued for a violation of the alternate-day watering law in the eight years McCall Police Chief Justin Williams has been with the city, he said.
The law calls for residents to only water lawns on odd or even numbered days of the month based on whether their home’s street number ends with an odd or even number.
Violation of the law is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in jail, according to city code.
LaFay said it is not uncommon for the Water Department to remind its 3,200 customers about alternate day lawn watering in July, the hottest month of the year for the city.
“We have put out public service announcements and they are generally in the July billing cycle,” he said.
The law also asks city residents to water lawns at night instead of in the mornings, which is when the water system sees the most demand, LaFay said.
Between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m., water demand reaches as high as 3,400 gallons per minute, or 53 percent more than the 2,200 gallons per minute that can be pumped from the lake by the city’s primary pumping station at Legacy Park.
When that happens, the city must turn on its backup pump station at Davis Beach to keep up with the demand, which can total nearly 900,000 gallons of water across those hours.
Combined, the two city pump stations can draw up to 6.8 million gallons of water per day from the lake, or about 4,700 gallons of water per minute.
The city also makes up the difference using 1.5 million gallons of water it stores in tanks near Whitetail Club and on Heavens Gate Lane in the Aspen Ridge Subdivision.
Another 750,000 gallons of water held within the water treatment plant also helps meet peak summer demand.
Average water demand in McCall in the last five years is about 2.5 million gallons per day in the summer, or three times as much as the average daily demand of 800,000 gallons in the winter.
The city’s water system serves 3,200 homes connected by 90 miles of pipeline.
— Drew Dodson, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
COVID-19 numbers rise in Valley County
MCCALL — Valley County’s two hospitals reported 20 new cases of COVID-19 in the past week.
St. Luke’s McCall reported eight new cases during the week ending Monday and Cascade Medical Center reported 12 new cases during the same period.
The latest numbers bring the total new cases since July 1 to 27. By comparison, 29 new cases were reported in all of June.
A total of 826 cases of COVID-19 have been reported by the two hospitals since the first case was detected in March 2020.
Four confirmed deaths and two suspected deaths related to COVID-19 among Valley County residents have been reported by Central District Health.
A total of 59 percent of eligible Valley County residents had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of this week, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reported. That compares to 58.6 percent reported vaccinated last week.
Adams County reported no increase last week over 260, the number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
Four deaths because of COVID-19 have been reported in Adams County, according to Southwest District Health.
A total of 39.5 percent of eligible residents of Adams County had been vaccinated as of this week, according to H&W. That compared to 39.2 percent that had been vaccinated as of last week.
St. Luke’s McCall offers walk-in COVID-19 vaccines from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at St. Luke’s Clinics-Payette Lakes Family Medicine, 211 Forest St., McCall.
Appointments also can be scheduled online through St. Luke’s myChart or calling (208) 381-9500 or by calling (208) 634-2225.
Cascade Medical Center offers a daily walk-in vaccination clinic Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
— Tom Grote, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
