Spokesman Quick Hits
How are we to "Experience Idaho" now? Citing a tight budget, Idaho state officials have decided to end funding for the Old Mission State Park in Cataldo. Completed in 1853 by Catholic missionaries and members of the Coeur d' Alene Tribe, the Old Mission building, visible from I-90 had nearly 100,000 visitors last year. As reported by The Spokesman-Review, "Just three years ago, then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne pushed expansion of Idaho’s state parks system through his $26.5 million “Experience Idaho” plan. With Idaho’s tax revenue set to fall 9.5 percent this year, Gov. Butch Otter aims to cut the state’s general fund share of Parks and Recreation funding by $9 million, or 56 percent, starting July 1." The question DTE asks is what this will mean for the proposed Eastern Mission Flats Repository; a hazardous waste storage facility that will hold contaminated soil from a century of deceitful mining practices, proposed under a federal Superfund cleanup order.
Consider us one of the 5 percenters. The Spokane Country Commission on Tuesday voted to hire CH2M Hill Constructors Inc. to design, build and operate a new sewage treatment facility, a contract that will ultimately be the county's largest, and most critical. As reported by The Spokesman-Review, "because the question remains whether state regulators will ever allow the county to discharge treated water into the Spokane River, the commission also voted to direct staff to pursue three alternatives for discharging water once the plant is completed." The three alternatives are carefully explained in the Spokesman's story. But one statement at the end really took DTE by surprise, Commissioner Mark Richard commented that, "he believes about 95 percent of the community supports the wastewater plant, while about 5 percent might take legal action to stop it over environmental issues." 5 percent Commissioner Richard? That seems a little low giving the overall significance that a project of this magnitude generates.
Needless to say DTE will be sure to keep tabs on these two stories.
