• Item: What to do with old Interstate 90/Tom Hasslinger, Coeur d'Alene Press

Mary Souza's has issue a call to arms in a newsletter to alert her readers that Coeur d'Alene is holding a workshop with the Idaho Transporation Department at 5 p.m. today in the Library Community Room. The topic of discussion is the proposed transfer of the old I-90 (Lake Coeur d'Alene Drive) from ITD to the city of Coeur d'Alene. Mary warns:

Will they tell us the true cost of maintenance for this 5.2 miles?  The City Street Dept. estimate of $13,000/ yr. was only for the very basic jobs of painting stripes and moving snow.  They did not include the expensive top coating and overlays that must be done to roads on a regular basis.  An official from the Eastside Highway District said that they just recently finished an overlay on a similar section of road that was only 2 miles long.  That cost was $600,000.  If you apply that $300,000 cost per mile for the 5.2 mile stretch of CdA Lake Drive, the total cost for an overlay is more than $1.5 million.  And this official said the road needs an overlay now.

Question: The transfer makes sense, especially if Coeur d'Alene goes ahead with plans for a new boat launch in the Silver Beach area and local hydroplane fans are able to stage an event on Labor Day Weekend 2013. The city should control access to such things. What do you think?