Huckleberries: Nothing slight about slip fees

For those of you keeping score at home, the answer is – four times as much. Boat-slip rental at the Coeur d’Alene Resort marina has increased that much since Duane and Jerry, ahem, took over Bob Templin’s hospitality empire in the mid-1980s. Usually, I don’t run with resort marina boaters. But one of them hangs out at Huckleberries Online when he’s slumming. He told Huckleberries that he paid $650 per season for slip rentals when the resort opened, April though October. Last year, the Berry Picker paid $2,400 for that same slip. But there’s a catch, he said: “In order to maintain a slip at the Resort, you now must also store your boat with The Boat Shop for the off months. For the winter. If you want to store your own boat, you can, but you still pay the 12-month fee.” So, out the door last year, the Berry Picker paid about 3 grand for moorage. He feels privileged, too. Sorta. Kinda. Seems there’s a long waiting list at the resort, what with developers making formerly public resorts private at Arrow Point, Squaw Bay, Black Rock and even Carlin Bay now. By comparison, the Berry Picker said, North Idaho Marine charges him $1,750 per slip per season. When it comes to private moorage on Lake Coeur d’Alene, it appears the adage holds: If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

Noisy minority

Ron Nilson of Ground Force Manufacturing had a head of steam as he rabble-roused Pachyderm Clubbers to declare war on North Idaho College’s proposed education corridor last Friday. A coupla Berry Pickers in the audience told Huckleberries that impassioned Nilson challenged the uber-conservatives Pachyderms – his so-called “the silent majority” – to stand and be heard. Incredibly, he misapplied the famous words of Edmund Burke to describe the situation: “The easiest way for evil to triumph, was for good men to do nothing.” All this while an, ahem, “axis of evil” – education corridor supporters Mayor Sandi Bloem, Councilwoman Deanna Goodlander, and City Administrator Wendy Gabriel – listened in the audience. Nilson’s drum-beating had an effect. Prior to his Power Point spiel, he asked the Elephants where they stood on the plan. Four were in favor, 18 opposed, and 18 undecided. Afterward, a recount showed four still in favor, 30 opposed, six undecided. Seems Nilson & the Pachyderms are out of step with the real “silent majority” in this county that voted overwhelmingly to re-elect NIC Trustees Mic Armon and Judy Meyer, who put their political careers on the line last fall by running on a platform of support for the corridor. Yeah, Armon ran unopposed. But Meyer crushed corridor opponent Richard Phenneger.

Huckleberries

Poet’s Corner: Said a Tel Aviv spokesman named Gus,/“We regret this unfortunate fuss,/but Hamas is to blame/that we bomb, kill and maim – /and besides Hitler did it to us” – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Gaza Offensive”) … Huckleberries hears – that outgoing prosecutor Bill Douglas didn’t attend successor Barry McHugh’s swearing-in ceremony Monday … You may know that ex-state Repub exec Sid Smith is returning to his hometown CdA to run Jim Risch’s regional office. But did you know that he and wife Stacy (nee Chambers) will bring a new tax deduction with them – the couple’s first child, son Taylor Carlin Smith. Taylor was born Friday in Boise … Also, Sid will be working with his former grade school librarian at the new senator’s office – Vicki Fulton. Who loves to joke with fellow Repubs that she taught the 1996 CHS grad all he knows. If so, she did very well.

Parting shot

Speaking of babies, CdA Councilman Mike Kennedy has another mouth to feed. Baby Ronan (pronounced Ro-nen) James makes seven little Kennedys. Ronan – who joins Will, 13, Nora, 11, Maggie, 9, Max, 6, Quinn, 3, and Jack, who turns 2 Jan. 30 – arrived at 8 pounds 5 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long at 3:22 p.m. Saturday. Of consequence, Mike told Huckleberries, Ronan’s head was 14 1/2 inches in circumference. Which made for a long delivery. Mike said he’s trying to increase the population of Demos in North Idaho despite wife Kathleen’s stand as an Independent. At the swearing in ceremony for new Prosecutor Barry McHugh Monday morning, Mike told Barry that his large family is a result of two things – old-fashioned Catholicism and whiskey. Dead-panned the new Repub prosecutor in response: “You should tell your wife to quit drinking.”