Erica Curless

Kootenai County is providing its own security at the county courthouse after ending a long-standing contract with Watson Agency and hiring away most of the company's courthouse staff. Today is the first day the county is in charge of screening people for weapons and other contraband when they enter the two courthouse buildings on Garden Avenue.

The developer of a controversial housing project on Coeur d'Alene's Best Hill withdrew its proposal Tuesday — just hours before a public hearing — citing confusion over the responsibility of getting a flood plain study. The development company, Halko LLC, intends to resubmit the plans for the 30-acre project in time for the Dec. 13 Planning Commission meeting. Besides building 35 homes, the company wants to annex the 30 acres into the city limits. The property is located on the eastern edge of the city, at the end of Best Avenue.

Kootenai County will pay the same amount for insurance next year even though it had to shell out more than $336,000 to avoid lawsuits by two former employees. That's mostly because the insurance company—Idaho Counties Risk Management Program— looks more at the frequency of such losses when calculating premiums and not necessarily the price tag of claims.

A Kootenai County public defender who was suspended this summer for giving the county commission a greeting card along with a jar of Vaseline and tube of red lipstick has resigned. Linda Payne said Friday to give specifics about why she decided to quit now, but said she's considering whether to sue the county for allegedly violating her free speech rights.

Day-care workers in Coeur d'Alene would need an annual city license, and owners would have to disclose if any immediate family member is a registered sex offender under proposals being considered by the City Council. The council will decide Tuesday whether to strengthen local laws governing day cares, including in-home facilities.

A private airstrip east of Coeur d'Alene was made legal Thursday by the Kootenai County Commission, ending years of battles. The commission approved a zone change for the 180 acres off Borely Road and a conditional use permit that allows the private airstrip, which was the site of a 2002 plane crash that killed two friends of the owners' family.

A probation officer who worked for Kootenai County's failed juvenile drug court plans to sue for $354,000, alleging that she was verbally abused, harassed and intimidated by Prosecutor Bill Douglas. Dannie Fast Swanson filed a tort claim against the county Aug. 30, saying she was subjected to a "nearly intolerable working environment" and retaliated against when she voiced concerns about management of the now-defunct Juvenile Education and Training Court. The hostility made Swanson so uncomfortable that she felt she was forced to quit, said Doug Marfice, Swanson's attorney.

A recent ruling declaring Sanders Beach open to the public could affect private property rights on all navigable Idaho lakes and rivers. "This could mean there are no private beaches on Lake Coeur d'Alene if you can imagine that," said Greg Delavan of the Coeur d'Alene Lakeshore Property Owners Association.

Kootenai County is getting a new place for residents to dump their trash. The county wants to start construction next spring on a $12 million transfer station north of Post Falls on Pleasant View Road.

Kootenai County property owners will save nearly $5 million in property taxes next year, but that doesn't necessarily mean their tax bills will decrease. The area's hot real estate market – in which people are willing to pay higher prices for homes, land and businesses – has resulted in skyrocketing property value assessments. The consequence is that the more your property is worth, the more property tax you pay.

Kootenai County's nine elected officials will get substantial pay increases after the County Commission unanimously accepted Tuesday the recommendation of a citizens committee. The raises will take effect in October, the beginning of the 2006 fiscal year. The recommendation of the nine-member committee, consisting mostly of local business people and two residents picked from the jury pool, was similar to a suggestion made by an independent consultant hired by the county to review the salaries of all 680 county employees, including elected officials.

Open meetings and records make a healthy government, Idaho's attorney general said Tuesday during a workshop to help the public, media and government officials understand the state's laws about accessing government information. "I believe an informed electorate is best able to make proper choices," Lawrence Wasden told the 90 participants at the Coeur d'Alene workshop aimed at helping people understand the basic rules of Idaho's open meeting and public records laws. The seminar highlighted the few reasons a government body, such as a city council or county commission, can have a closed-door meeting and the procedure for asking for government documents.

Developer John Stone has begun talking to the city of Coeur d'Alene about the possibility of locating a multipurpose events center – for everything from minor league baseball to big-ticket concerts – in his Riverstone West development. Stone is working with the city to hash out what type of facility could go in his mixed-use development along the Spokane River in the former Central Pre-Mix site. In the next two months, the Coeur d'Alene City Council will appoint a committee to study the idea.

For the first time in years, Coeur d'Alene has the cash to hire three new police officers and three new firefighters in its proposed city budget. It's still not as many new hires as the two public safety departments had hoped for, but it's a start. Last year the city didn't have the money to hire any new staff.

The new owners of Arrow Point Bar and Grill plan to tear down the lakefront destination this fall and rebuild a more upscale establishment. But Arrow Point fans shouldn't fret. Gozzer Ranch Golf and Lake Club will try to maintain some of the bar's attractions like spaghetti Thursday and perhaps even some form of its signature Derailer drink – a plastic bucket of icy booze.

Farragut State Park wants to thin 900 acres of young trees to improve forest health and decrease the possibility of disease and insect infestation. But a local conservation group thinks the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation needs to give the public more specifics on the exact locations of where crews would remove trees. Kootenai Environmental Alliance is especially skeptical because of the state's 2002 plan to log the shoreline of the popular park on the south end of Lake Pend Oreille. Public outcry stopped the project.

Every registered sex offender in Kootenai County should have gotten a knock on his, or her, door by a law enforcement official in the last few months. For the first time ever, Kootenai County initiated a sweep to check to see if the area's nearly 260 registered sex offenders were living at the addresses listed on the state registry. And the news was good, said Sgt. Kent Johnston, who oversees the sex offender registry for the Kootenai County Sheriff Department.

Former Juvenile Education and Training Court coordinator Marina Kalani received a $70,000 settlement after she threatened to sue Kootenai County over an allegedly "false and defamatory" memo criticizing her job performance. The county's insurance program, Idaho Counties Risk Management, said it negotiated the March 23 settlement to prevent a potentially more-costly lawsuit. Yet ICRMP officials said Tuesday the settlement doesn't make any judgment about the content of the memo written by J.T. Taylor, who manages the District 1 Juvenile Detention Center.