Spirit Lake sees INB as a welcome town addition
SPIRIT LAKE – Since the mid-1970s when Kevin Miller moved to Spirit Lake, he’s had to make countless trips out of town to do his banking business. Same goes for most in the sleepy, North Idaho town.
That’s about to end, however, when the community welcomes later this year its first depository, Inland Northwest Bank, in almost 70 years, allowing locals to take the back roads to the business and still save time.
“I know that I’m excited about it because I won’t have to drive to Post Falls twice a week anymore,” said Miller, owner and manager of the Spirit Lake grocer Miller’s Harvest Foods, where he said he’s been fielding frequent customer inquiries about the new bank since construction began. “I know the community is really excited about it.”
Just off Highway 41 on Spirit Lake’s south entrance, the nearly 3,000-square-foot bank is nearing the finish line as work on landscaping, exterior and interior details grinds on. Three drive-through lanes and a drive-up ATM will be available to customers.
As the community has grown, it was just a matter of time before the town added a community depository to its mix, said Randy Fewel, chief executive officer of the Spokane-based INB.
The area’s demographics are similar to the Deer Park community north of Spokane, where there are a total of three banks with nearly $60 million in deposits among them, Fewel said.
“That really got my attention,” he added. “The more we looked at it, the more we liked it.”
The proposal to add a Spirit Lake branch to the bank’s expanding area of operation was put forth in the summer of 2006 by Ron Jacobson, senior vice president of Coeur d’Alene’s INB. After touring the area and noticing the town’s residential development, “We decided it was a good move,” Jacobson said.
The lone hitch in the building process came in the bank’s exit options, as the Idaho Department of Transportation required a center turn lane on Highway 41 along the front entrance to allow for two ways in and out. At a cost of $72,000 for INB, construction is back on track with an expected grand opening around year’s end.
As the first full-service bank in the area in decades, the small branch and its four-odd employees will retain a community focus and commitment, he added. “I think being a small bank; we’ve got the ability to do that.”
Taylor Brewer, a Spirit Lake resident for the last eight years, is another local looking forward to doing his banking business within city limits, instead of several jaunts a month down the highway to one of their southerly neighbors.
“It beats going to Rathdrum or Coeur d’Alene any time you need to bank. I probably will (change banks),” he said, while waiting for his wife in Miller’s parking lot.