Ken Olsen

It may be another week before divers resume efforts to find the body of the man who jumped off a cruise boat on Lake Coeur d'Alene last week. Weather and intense boat traffic have Kootenai County Sheriff's deputies considering whether it would be better to let the Fourth of July pass before resuming the search for Chad S. Burgad, 23, of Bonners Ferry.

For the second time in a month, bomb experts have been summoned to Winton Elementary School to defuse explosives found on the school grounds. Last Friday night, the Spokane bomb squad used its robot to defuse a device that resembled a pipe bomb. The explosive was constructed from a combination of legal and illegal fireworks, said Coeur d'Alene Police Capt. Carl Bergh.

Sheriff's deputies and divers will take to Lake Coeur d'Alene with sonar early today to try to locate the body of a man who jumped from a cruise boat Friday night. The sheriff's department is not optimistic it will find the body of Chad Sebastian, 23, of Bonners Ferry, because of the depth of the water where he disappeared and because a location is difficult to pinpoint.

1. Emergency personnel take Susan Gero to an ambulance after she and her husband, Steven, were involved in a boating accident on Hayden Lake. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 2. Emergency personnel take Susan Gero to an ambulance after she and her husband, Steven, were involved in a boating accident on Hayden Lake. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review (This photo appeared in the Spokane edition only)

Car salesman Jerry Miles was so bothered by the city of Hayden's attempt to keep trucks off Dakota Avenue near his car lot that he erected a speed limit sign of his own to irk City Hall officials. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

It seared 51,000 acres in a single night, charring as much as a square mile of trees in as little as three minutes. A bulldozer operator and a fire boss were killed after futilely digging themselves a trench that they covered with the dozer blade. Bonners Ferry was nearly evacuated as a result of the lightning-sparked fire. If firefighter camps had been established the night the inferno made its long charge, many more would have died.

Voters will decide in November whether hydroplane racing is banned on Lake Coeur d'Alene, the City Council decided Tuesday. Without a word of discussion, the council unanimously voted to let a proposed initiative appear on the general election ballot. The measure prohibits the races from returning to the waters below the city's much-revered Tubbs Hill. Protect Our Lakes Association successfully gathered more than 3,200 voter signatures on the initiative. That forced the council to adopt the measure by mid-July or allow the initiative to appear on the general election ballot in November. Attorney Scott Reed, who helped draft the measure for Protect Our Lakes, gave the council the perfect out. "If you chose to enact it, that's just fine with us," Reed said. Some of the 50 volunteers that gathered signatures encouraged even hydroplane racing supporters to sign petitions in support of the initiative on the grounds that it would allow the community to vote on the sport, Reed said. "We still think the community is with us," he said. But the measure can go on the November general election ballot for minimal extra cost, he said. Reed also praised city attorney Jeff Jones for his work reviewing the language of the proposed ordinance and city clerk Susan Weathers for checking some 5,500 voters signatures. The Diamond Cup races were held in Coeur d'Alene from 1958 to 1968. The city showed thunderboats the door, however, after spectators turned the show into an excuse to party and riot. In other business late Tuesday, the council reacted with surprise when asked to approve construction of a new $3 million library at 15th Street and Garden Avenue. That land is now home to Person Field, used for baseball. Councilman Kevin Packard said he was under the impression the library was leaning toward remodeling and expansion of the library's current home on Harrison Avenue. "I'd like a little bit of time to think about it," he told members of the Coeur d'Alene Library Board and the Library Foundation Board. The council decided city staff and the General Services Committee will review the project, maintenance costs, and what the loss of Person Field means to the parks department before moving ahead. Major Al Hassell also warned that Coeur d'Alene residents could face watering restrictions if the Locust Avenue well continues to malfunction and temperatures climb. Hassel wants people to voluntarily cut their water use as soon as it gets hot again to avert restrictions. The Locust Avenue well supplies 20 percent of the city's summer water supply. The pump there developed electrical complications Jan. 16 and was returned to the manufacturer. After some effort, the well still isn't operational and it could be at least 30 days before the problem is resolved.

A proposed ban on hydroplane racing goes to the City Council tonight, giving city lawmakers first shot at permanently preventing the controversial sport from returning to Lake Coeur d'Alene. The Protect Our Lakes Association successfully generated more than 3,225 signatures on petitions to put the hydroplane racing ban before voters. The group needed 3,199.

Test results Wednesday confirm an 8-year-old Orofino, Idaho, boy hospitalized at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane has meningococcemia. The unidentified elementary school student has strain C of the deadly bacterial disease, which often is mistakenly called meningitis. There is a vaccine for strain C, meaning people exposed to the youth can be treated.

An Orofino, Idaho, elementary school student is suspected of having the third case of a deadly bacterial infection reported in Idaho in little more than a week. The boy, who authorities won't identify, was hospitalized Sunday for treatment of meningococcemia - often mistakenly called meningitis. Several people in the community are being treated with antibiotics to prevent the spread of the infection.

First, it was floods. Now, it's foreclosure. Cindy and Wayne Wilson, who sacrificed their home to help save Orofino, Idaho, during the February deluges, still do not have a place to call their own despite months of assurances that a solution was imminent. Meanwhile, the mortgage company is circling and the federal paperwork is dragging.

It's summer, the sun is shining, tourists are returning and detour signs are sprouting. Soon crews will begin patching, paving, widening and reconstructing city streets and local highways. If you can't spell alternate route, look up detour and delay.

Mike Knolla signs Walk Minnick's petition to raise the minimum wage. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Mayo

With a week to spare, hydroplane racing opponents squeaked in with enough signatures to get an initiative on the November ballot calling for a permanent ban on racing on Lake Coeur d'Alene. The city clerk's office Friday ruled Protect Our Lakes Association had 3,202 valid signatures - just three more than necessary.

Soggy roads, snow and a late spring will make some campgrounds on the St. Joe District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest inaccessible for several weeks. There is still several feet of snow at Gold Pass and the road is icy and rutted. The Red Ives Road - Forest Service Road 218 - is in poor condition with many rocks, slides and failing road shoulders. Travelers should have high clearance vehicles and be prepared to move rocks and trees out of the road, the Forest Service said. Water and other services won't be available in some St. Joe area campgrounds Memorial Day weekend because the Forest Service hasn't been able to get to the campgrounds. Those campgrounds include Conrad Crossing, Fly Flat, Beaver Creek, Line Creek Stock Camp and Spruce Tree.

Senate Majority Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi is flanked by Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., and Sen. Alphonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., on Wednesday. Photo by Associated Press

The abundant moisture of winter and spring means more grass, shrubs and flowers in Idaho's forests and rangelands. And that means higher fire danger below 5,000 feet, the Bureau of Land Management says. As Idaho's population has grown, the number of homes and cabins bordering wildlands has increased, increasing the risk from wildfires. The BLM is suggesting people reduce that risk by: Clearing flammable vegetation up to 30 feet from your home. Making sure trees and shrubs are planted at least 15 feet apart and clear branches up to a height of 15 feet so they do not carry fire from vegetation to buildings.

Lynn Bodine hangs a bat box on his Hauser Lake property. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

It took a rare, tie-breaking vote from Mayor Al Hassell to keep the city from increasing the number of children allowed in home day-care operations. There was a proposal to change city zoning rules to increase the number of children from nine to 12. The mayor, along with council members Chris Copstead, Dixie Reid and Susan Servick, voted not to change the rule.

Local health clubs worry a proposed community center will turn into publicly sponsored competition. "I think there's a lot of unknowns out there as to what a community center is going to consist of," said Jim Johnston, a partner in Ironwood Athletic Club, who took his concerns to the City Council Tuesday. "If it's a health club, private businesses should do that."

Magnuson Properties is suing a Nevada construction company for allegedly misrepresenting its ability to build a massive apartment complex. The Russell Corp. committed to building the 150-unit ParkPlace Apartments and said it could get a performance bond, Magnuson said in a suit filed in Kootenai County District Court on May 3. Russell also agreed it would take its profit from income from the apartments instead of upfront, the suit said.

If Spokane is a leader for bad air, North Idaho is its sweet cousin. There are problems with particulates in the Coeur d'Alene-Post Falls area, Sandpoint and Pinehurst. The latter two are bad enough to be considered out of compliance by the Environmental Protection Agency.

City day-care licensing may be revoked by the City Council tonight, leaving laxer state rules to govern who's watching the city's children. State law, for example, requires only one adult for every 12 infants. City ordinance says there should be one adult for every six infants.