Ken Olsen

Anti-smoke advocates have a new conundrum to smolder over. The air in Post Falls was worse last Tuesday than it was in Sandpoint. That's the same day clean-air activists in Sandpoint, who get the brunt of smoke from grass fields, say they were smothered by pollution from the annual torching of the Rathdrum Prairie.

Barely a month after a new grass burning peace treaty was signed, antagonism threatens to unravel North Idaho's smoke management program. This, just a week into the annual torching of area bluegrass fields.

They are showing up to vent their frustration in record numbers - two here, three there, a half-dozen elsewhere. From the city of Hayden to the Post Falls Fire District, at least a few people are darkening the doors of budget hearings to press for lower property taxes and less spending.

When Ray Bradley and his wife built their dream home on the Spokane River seven years ago, the tax man said it was worth $112,000 and the annual property tax bill was $1,800. This year, the same home commands a $337,000 valuation and a $5,800 tax bill, Bradley told the City Council on Thursday night. If the trend continues, it means that by the time Bradley retires in the year 2010, his home will have an assessed valuation of $15.5 million and the taxes will cost $277,000 a year, he said.

Taxpayers get a shot at questioning, applauding or criticizing the city of Coeur d'Alene's annual budget tonight. The first of three budget hearings on the $33.4 million spending plan begins at 5:15 p.m. in the City Council chambers at city hall. While citizens turn out for hearings on annexation requests and development proposals, they rarely show up for budget matters, city officials say. "I would say if you don't attend any other council meeting in the year, you should attend this one," said John Austin, city finance director. The public hearings will show people where their tax dollars go and "I don't think anything hits people harder than what comes out of their wallet."

Eight years before an industrial solvent turned up in public and private water wells, state and federal investigators were told that serious amounts of pollutants had been dumped in a local septic system. A 1985 probe by the Environmental Protection Agency found heavy metals and volatile organic compounds in the septic tank and a dry well behind Deming Industries. The company said it dumped the materials before changes in the law made the practice illegal.

Helen Chenoweth accused of "inflammatory rhetoric." File/The Spokesman-Review

The Wine Cellar will install a wheelchair lift, but won't have to take other steps to upgrade handicapped access, the Coeur d'Alene City Council ruled Tuesday. That decision is in keeping with the spirit of a 1992 agreement between restaurant owner Jim Duncan and the city, council members decided. The agreement basically required Duncan to install the elevator-like platform if he ever sold a companion restaurant across the street - Jimmy D's.

Putting cops in schools sends the wrong message to students, City Councilwoman Dixie Reid said Tuesday evening. Reid's comments were in response to a plan to put two uniformed officers at Coeur d'Alene's high schools.

Joy Richards of Coeur d'Alene picks up her purchase. In foreground, another work of art awaits shipment. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

When Jim Duncan got approval to build The Wine Cellar in 1992, he agreed to install handicapped access in the future. Now he's sold his other restaurant - Jimmy D's - and handicapped people can't simply go across the street to get the same menu as at the Wine Cellar. So, Duncan's agreement has kicked in.

The prospect of wet weather will delay the traditional start of grassfield burning this week. "It looks like we are going to get a lot of rain this week," said Terry Christianson of the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality. That weather front prompted state officials and the Intermountain Grass Growers to agree to meet again next Monday to set the dates for torching bluegrass and turf grass fields in the area. Once field fires are lit, North Idaho farmers have 14 burning days, over a 45-day period, to burn their fields. Washington farmers have no time limit for the first time due to changes made by the 1995 Washington Legislature.

A substantial plume of an industrial solvent pollutes part of Coeur d'Alene's ground water and is moving toward Post Falls and Spokane. Public and private wells are contaminated, and more may be tainted as the trichloroethylene (TCE) moves west in the Spokane-Rathdrum Aquifer, according to a report recently released by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. At worst, one of Coeur d'Alene's most productive wells may have to be relocated, at a cost of at least $500,000.

For the first time, Idaho grass growers who break the burning rules face fines. Burning without a permit or torching fields on a "no burn" day will fetch a $500 fine, plus a penalty of $10 for every acre burned, said Terry Christianson of the state Division of Environmental Quality. Burning after hours, using poor fire management, or violating other permit conditions draws a $250 fine.

Home buyers will pay more and wait longer for new houses if the city of Coeur d'Alene adopts new building codes, area contractors say.

City officials recommend against planting Douglas fir trees along a street because they shed too many branches. But the City Council still won't allow an Ash Avenue couple to remove 19 Douglas fir, some growing only 12 feet from the Tardinis' home. "I'm personally concerned with the number of trees being logged off of private property" within the city, Mayor Al Hassell said.

Roger Tardini walks past some of the 19 trees fronting his property at Ash and 12th in Coeur d'Alene. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

City tax rates won't increase next year, despite a $4 million budget increase that includes pay raises for staff and administrators. That's because most of the increased spending goes for things like water and sewer projects. Those operations pay their own way with money from utility bills, Mayor Al Hassell said.

It's well-known that the state's residents are willing to take Uncle Sam's dollars to build logging roads and subsidize farming. But an overwhelming majority of Idahoans still have little confidence in the federal government, according to the results of a Boise State University opinion poll released Wednesday. BSU conducts the annual Public Policy Survey to measure government performance and citizen concerns.

After apparently contracting a parasitic disease, George Menkello of Coeur d'Alene is upset with a firm that markets bottled water. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Facing hard realities. Whitman County farmer Clark Miller, who depends on government payments to help offset the high cost of running the family farm, looks over a crop of ripening winter wheat. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

The maximum prison term for spiking trees on national forests would quadruple to 40 years under federal legislation introduced Friday. Sen. Larry Craig and Rep. Helen Chenoweth, both Idaho Republicans, said their bill was a response to threats of sabotage earlier this week. Announcing the bill in a telephone news conference, Craig and Chenoweth cited a letter sent earlier this week to Forest Service officials.

Lucy Lepinski's daughter has asthma that is aggravated by dust. So Lepinski is disappointed that paving of the street in front of her house is going to be delayed another year, she told the Coeur d'Alene City Council on Tuesday evening.

Developers of the controversial Beauty Park subdivision lost another bid for annexation Tuesday evening before the Coeur d'Alene City Council. The council voted to reject, with prejudice, annexing the subdivision in its current form, meaning the developers cannot ask for the same deal for at least 12 months. The move was the annexation's fourth defeat before a government body. The developers, however, can come back at any time with a less dense housing proposal.