In brief: Coeur d’Alene to vote on school safety, security levy

The Coeur d’Alene School District’s board of trustees approved a resolution Tuesday to place a levy on the March 12 ballot to improve safety and security measures at schools – without installing metal detectors.

The two-year levy, if approved, will cost taxpayers an additional $1.4 million over the first year.  It would replace an expiring levy.

The extra funds would be used for entry systems and door access technology upgrades, fencing and enhancing emergency communications and parent notifications, among other upgrades.

District spokeswoman Laura Rumpler said there is one item which was on the list of improvements at the beginning of the month that is no longer on the table.

“We are not looking at metal detectors now,” Rumpler said.

Property owners would pay $2.08 per $1,000 of assessed property value for the first year of the levy. During the second year of the levy, property owners will pay $1.87 per $1,000 of assessed property value, the same rate they pay now.

The board’s vote to place the levy on the March ballot was unanimous. Trustee Ann Seddon was absent.

In Idaho, levies need a simple majority of 50 percent plus one vote to pass.

Post Falls man sentenced for burglary, meth possession

A Post Falls man was sentenced to up to eight years in state prison last week for burglary and possession of methamphetamine.

Paul M. Best, 22, pleaded guilty to the charges in November following an incident in which he and another man entered a home in Coeur d’Alene to confront two men in the home. Best held a knife while the other man held the two victims at gunpoint, prosecutors said: The other man assaulted one of the victims while Best held the gun and watched the other victim.

District Judge Lansing Haynes ordered the first three years of the sentence to be fixed and the remaining five would be indeterminate, with credit for time served.

Best’s criminal history includes grand theft and felony escape.