Boundary County To Get A Stoplight

Boundary County hasn’t had a stoplight for decades.

That’s about to change.

At Friday’s meeting of the Idaho Transportation Board, Bonners Ferry city officials got confirmation that the light will be installed.

“It’s a go,” regional engineer Scott Stokes told Mayor Harold Sims.

The light has been controversial, Sims said later. He’s not entirely sure it will help relieve traffic that can back up for a mile on U.S. Highway 95.

He’ll find out this fall.

The light will be installed at the intersection of U.S. 95 and Alderson Lane, which provides access to a main county road into Paradise Valley.

“The idea is to try to improve the left-turning traffic there,” said traffic engineer John Perfect.

Congestion is especially bad when it’s dismissal time at the high school, which is about six blocks away. Ninety percent of student traffic turns onto the highway, Sims said.

Right now, Bonners Ferry has only a blinking light at a four-way stop downtown. Before the highway was rerouted in the 1970s, there were regular stoplights there.

, DataTimes