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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KOOSKIA — Although the vacant lot on the corner of Main Street and A Avenue here is still empty, there are significant plans going forward for a new Kooskia Community Library by the Prairie River Library District.
Ellamae Burnell, director of PRLD, and Dawn Stryhas, a trustee and member of the Friends of the Kooskia Library (FoKL), attended the May meeting of the City Council to report to Mayor Tina Ulmer about the status of the project.
“We are really excited to have this started,” said Burnell. “There is a survey available that can be picked up at the circulation desk at the Kooskia library now, and it can also be accessed on the PRLD website. We see it as a multi-use facility.”
Residents of Kooskia and nearby communities can let FoKL and the library district know what they would to see in the new building.
The donors of the lot, Dawn and Bart Stryhas, envision much more than books. In a follow-up interview, Dawn said:
“More people are reading books online or listening to them, so we want to offer much more than books, like more programs for the people and to make it a community center. We especially want to have collections of Idaho and local histories.
“The new library will become a place for activities like crafts, presentations by guest speakers, meeting rooms for other organizations, and we would like to display art and artifacts from private collections, rotating exhibits that would keep people interested and coming back to see more.”
Burnell spoke to the City Council about fundraising to begin this summer. A sign is in the works proclaiming, “Future Site of the Kooskia Community Library,” with the architectural drawings and information displayed for the public to see by the time Kooskia Days rolls around.
Burnell let the City Council know they are planning a gala to begin the fundraising in the fall. It will be a dinner and a silent auction.
— Lyn Krzeminski, The Clearwater Progress (Kamiah), Thursday
Haunted Palouse to return at Palou
PALOUSE –– The nonprofit event Haunted Palouse has been confirmed to take place this October.
Haunted Palouse meetings were held the last few weeks to tentatively decide whether the event, which had been postponed and canceled in 2023, would take place in 2024.
In addition, the open positions for a board of directors have been appointed and filled. The following people will assume the positions of:
Director, Will Perry; stakeholder, Jaimie Gaber; building manager, Bob Brown; trail manager, Wil Edwards; street manager, Stephanie Frost; vendor manager, Beth Carson; marketing and content manager, Jaide Wilhem-Row and Leslie Senp; and volunteer coordinator Lacey Watkins.
“If there is a board in place and everyone can come together, it will be for the betterment of Haunted Palouse,” Perry said. “I fully believe these people can make the best of this moving forward.”
Many meetings will be held to discuss the planning and preparation as the summer rounds out.
This year as the planning continues, many changes are up for debate including a 75-25 split to organize funds in which volunteer groups would receive more proceeds. In addition to this, concerns for Shady Lane Trail and its health this year were addressed.
Bruce Pemberton, of Palouse, suggested that another solution to preserve the trail would be to move the Palouse Paintballers to another part of town.
Palouse Paintballers first appeared at Haunted Palouse in 2022 and made $101,000 from the lane it organized.
But Shady Lane recently received a $100,000 grant to rehabilitate the trail and plant new saplings to replace the dead trees.
Shady Lane’s permit process is in place and although the actual event is not expected to cause too much harm to the trail itself, there could be some overlap with planting the seedlings.
— Olivia Harnack, Whitman County Gazette (Colfax), Thursday
