The Kootenai County Commission broke ground Monday for a $12 million garbage transfer station intended to serve the fastest-growing area of the county. The garbage drop-off, expected to open next fall, might also become the new workplace for commission Chairman Gus Johnson. Voters booted Johnson from office in May, leaving him unemployed starting in January. "I may apply for a job with solid waste," Johnson said after he and the other commissioners used gold-painted shovels to turn over chunks of the frozen field off Pleasant View Road and Prairie Avenue. "Just as a worker, not a manager." Solid Waste Director Roger Saterfiel said Johnson, a former Kaiser Aluminum worker and Post Falls mayor, is welcome to apply but he's not guaranteed a job. Saterfiel added that he's already promoted Sam Cook to manage the new transfer station when it opens and that he has the budget to hire 21 employees. Cook is assistant manager of the Ramsey Road transfer station -- Erica Curless, Spokesman-Review.

DFO: We're indebted to you HBOers for this little nugget of info re: Gus, to lead an otherwise mundane story about the ground-breaking for a new transfer station. We received a tip yesterday morning from a regular here that Gus might be landing a cush job as boss of the new transfer station. That wasn't so. But I hear that Roger Saterfiel's eyes got pretty big when colleague Erica Curless asked him about the possibility. Gus was reluctant to talk about it. But it seems fairly innocent. He's applying for a job. It'll be interesting to see how many others apply and who's the most qualified to get those 21 positions.

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