Idaho Voices

For the week of March 16-20. Coeur d’Alene School District

Stereotyping would have the elderly sitting in rockers, legs covered with an afghan. That may or may not have been true in past years. With better health care and diets, people are not only living longer, but staying active at a later age, too. The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program is a part of a larger group. The parent organization is the National Senior Service Corps, a federally-funded organization. People over the age of 55 volunteer for a number of activities through RSVP, in schools, law enforcement, gardening skills training and community health organizations.

BOISE – Mike Rush, director of the Office of the State Board of Education, says rather than “stimulus package,” he likes to refer to the federal bill as “the stem-the-bleeding package.” He told lawmakers recently, “We think it will act much like a Band-Aid does – in other words, stop the bleeding and protect the wound” so healing can occur.

Ah, hinting about a “secret” is fun. It’s amazing how many readers try to weasel the information. Last week the clue was about an upcoming, large store – well, here it is. Maybe. WinCo Foods is filing the preliminary paperwork for a 95,000-square-foot store in the northeast corner of the intersection of Appleway and Ramsey Road in Coeur d’Alene. The physical store itself is at least two years away in the acreage that now is a combination gravel-sand pit.

The North Idaho Enological Association will hold a wine tasting Friday at the Lake City Senior Center, 1916 Lakewood Drive, at 6 p.m. The event includes a variety of wines, hors d’oeuvres and John Allen of Vino! A Wine Shop.

Though spring is just around the corner, winter weather has definitely been hanging tough across the Inland Northwest. Four to six inches of snow fell across the area earlier this week, fulfilling the snow “average” for the entire month in both Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

Filings from Feb. 13-18: Chapter 7 (liquidation petitions)

Coeur d’Alene

It wasn’t too long ago that a cancer patient living in Sandpoint had to travel to Coeur d’Alene for all of his or her appointments and treatments. But a lot in this community has changed over the last decade, and that includes cancer care. Deb Schoonover is a nurse at the Sandpoint clinic for Kootenai Cancer Center, formerly North Idaho Cancer Center. When she was hired at Kootenai Medical Center in 2001, Schoonover recalls Leslie Daniels, who was then the director of the Cancer Center, telling her it was her dream to one day open a satellite office in Sandpoint. That dream, driven by the increase in demand for services, quickly turned into a reality.

Upcoming CUMC Senior Social Potluck – March 24 at noon at Community United Methodist Church, 1470 W Hanley. Lunch, fellowship and entertainment. (208) 765-8800.

Greater Hayden’s Desperate Housewives, an event planned by the Hayden Chamber of Commerce, will be held next Saturday, instead of the previously announced date of April 18. This day of select shopping starts at 9 a.m. and goes until 6 p.m. Named after the popular television program, “Desperate Housewives,” this event showcases seven local businesses that have banded together to provide a luxurious day of shopping for women.

The Coeur d’Alene School District’s Safe and Drug Free Schools programs and the Lakes Middle School Parent Teacher Student Association will hold two assemblies on Wednesday, about Rachel’s Challenge. Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her father, Darrell Scott, developed Rachel’s Challenge after approaching a Congressional House Judiciary Committee on issues regarding school violence. The nonviolence school program was created in memory of his daughter.

It is often said, that the month of March “comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb.” We see wild swings in weather across the Inland Northwest this time of year, and though we may have a few days that offer a hint of spring, March is definitely more of a wintry month in terms of temperatures and precipitation.

On Feb. 24, voters in the Lake Pend Oreille School District went to the polls and with approximately 60 percent voting yes, they expressed their desire for a replacement levy to help keep certain programs and staffing in place. But even with its passage, there will still be cuts to teaching staff, elementary school counseling programs, as well as a reduction in the number of computers in the district.

The sputtering economy has really changed transportation. All around Kootenai County and points beyond, public transportation is becoming more popular. The Citylink bus system served more than 500,000 round trips in 2008. The stops often have people waiting. The problem is that they have to stand there – sometimes for a long time.