Many Shoshone County drivers mark holiday weekend with tickets

The summer season started with lots of traffic tickets and several arrests in Shoshone County over the Memorial Day weekend.

Deputies with the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Department were out in force over the holiday weekend, stopping speeders and looking for drunken drivers along the Coeur d’Alene River.

They didn’t have to look far.

Deputies made 13 arrests and issued 256 citations, not including the three teenage parties they busted, which resulted in some 30 citations of juveniles, said Sheriff Chuck Reynalds.

Most of the adult citations were for speeding, Reynalds said, but five arrests were for driving under the influence.

When the forecast came in for sunny, warm weather over Memorial Day weekend, Reynalds assigned seven deputies to patrol the river Saturday through Monday. They had help from U.S. Forest Service law enforcement and Pinehurst Police Chief Rocky Wilson, while city police departments agreed to help handle other county calls for service, according to Reynalds.

“Really what we wanted to do was send a message early in the year, set a tone for the river,” he said.

Every summer, the Sheriff’s Department has problems with people partying on or alongside the river.

Shoshone County Commissioner Sherry Krulitz said she welcomes the many out-of-state and out-of-county visitors, but she also applauds the sheriff’s zero-tolerance approach to lawlessness along the river.

“If you want to just go and get drunk,” she said, “go somewhere else.”