Susan Drumheller

A face lift is in store for dock and launching facilities at three local lakes if the state awards the Kootenai County waterways department three grants worth $207,818. The department also is requesting $37,885 in state money to purchase new buoys, buoy lights and a midsize work boat. Kootenai County typically nets the biggest share of the statewide Waterway Improvement Grants - as much as a third of what's available statewide.

Small-time gold-diggers are hoping to strike it rich off placer gold in the Red River, a tributary of the South Fork of the Clearwater River. Flecks of gold tend to collect at the bottom of the stream bed, requiring a vacuum-cleaner type of dredge to bring them to the surface.

Mining companies in Idaho will get a break from new ground water quality rules if a proposed rule change makes its way through the Legislature. The change would make mining exempt from certain ground water quality standards in active mining areas.

It's a tough job ... There's only one site in Kootenai County where septic tank sewage may be dumped, and that's this area on the Rathdrum Prairie near Round Mountain. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Hepatitis A has struck again at a local restaurant - this time Riverbend Grill in Post Falls. A food handler at the restaurant was positively diagnosed with the flu-like virus, and as many as 300 customers may have been exposed, according to the Panhandle Health District. The exposure would have occurred after 5 p.m. on Jan. 9, 12, 16 and 17. But a shortage of immune globulin, which can prevent hepatitis A, means that not all exposed customers can get the shot.

Four candidates are vying for three open positions on the Kootenai Hospital District board in the district's Feb. 3 election. Three of the candidates - Betty McLain, Jim Curtis and Paul Anderson - are incumbents. John Fox, who retired from the hospital's engineering department last year, also filed for candidacy.

A new test for pertussis is giving health officials a better idea of the number of actual cases in North Idaho. As of Thursday, the Panhandle Health District had 52 positive tests for pertussis since Dec. 1.

New heavy snow on top of an already unstable snowpack means high avalanche danger in the back country this weekend. "I wouldn't travel in the backcountry this weekend," said John Pucci, director of the ski patrol at Schweitzer Mountain Resort. He described avalanche danger as "high to extreme."

Larry Belmont has tended to the health of the Panhandle Health District for 27 years. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

VISTA volunteers Lisa Welle and Holly Beliveau have started "North Idaho Success in Child Care." Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

The Rock Creek Mine would put the squeeze on grizzly bears, put an unsightly tailings pile next to the Clark Fork River and put the waters of the river and Lake Pend Oreille at risk. But a mine on the edge of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness also would provide about 350 jobs, bring tax dollars to Sanders County and feed the nation's appetite for copper and silver. Government officials are leaning toward approving the mine under a revised plan, outlined in a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement re leased last week by the U.S. Forest Service and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Best foot forward. Jean Harrison gets advice from Lonnie Johnson on how to do a snowplow at Farragut State Park during the state's free ski day. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

1. Some ice would be nice. For the seventh time in as many years, Eddie Keith of Coeur D'Alene plunged into Lake Coeur d'Alene on New Year's Day. There was no snow, but there was a chilly wind. Photos by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review 2. Michael Armon Jr., 9, runs in the Hangover Handicap in Coeur d'Alene on New Year's Day. He ran the course in 39.32, one second faster than his father, Mic Armon.

Sen. Gordon Crow

The Arrow Point Marina can move to the choppy waters of the Lake Coeur d'Alene channel, the state Department of Lands has decided. The agency issued the opinion despite opposition from several Arrow Point condominium owners who use the marina, and advocates for unimpeded navigation of the crowded lake.

New pertussis cases are cropping up at an average of one a day this month in Kootenai County. As of Monday, the Panhandle Health District reported 28 cases of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. Normally, the health district might report half a dozen pertussis cases a month.

Backcountry travel The exposure death of a Lakeland High School student two years ago on Rathdrum Mountain prompted Spokane Mountaineer Chic Burge to do his part to prevent future deaths. The 16-year-old boy died after becoming separated from friends while snowboarding in the backcountry.

Sanders Beach property owners have private property rights on their side. But beach users have history on theirs.

A potentially dangerous form of bacteria has infiltrated the water in a neighborhood above Hayden Lake, prompting health officials to issue a boil-water advisory. About 100 families on the Allied Water Inc. system were notified late Friday of the boil-water advisory after tests confirmed E. coli in the water system. Allied Water serves about 2,500 households, but only 103 are affected by the contamination. The customers live along Lookout Drive, Westview Drive, Sundown Drive, Sundance Drive and 15th Street.

Whooping cough never disappeared from North Idaho after last spring's outbreak. So far this month, Panhandle Health District has received 11 reports of the disease, which officially is known as pertussis. Pertussis often starts with normal cold symptoms but progresses to a cough that can persist for weeks. Since the outbreak which killed a Post Falls infant and sickened more than 100 people, the health district typically has learned of five or six cases each month, said Jeanne Bock, director of family and community health.

Chenoweth

Warring parties in the lawsuit over Coeur d'Alene River basin pollution are taking tentative steps toward cleanup. Next week, the various factions will go to Seattle for a meeting hosted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to talk about how they can work together.

Three Idaho conservation groups are swimming against the current by nominating the Clearwater River as an American Heritage River. The Idaho Conservation League, Clearwater Biodiversity Project and Friends of the Clearwater submitted an application to the Clinton administration this week, two days before the deadline.

Coeur d'Alene tribal members took the stand Monday to tell a federal judge how important rivers and Lake Coeur d'Alene are to their traditional culture. For food and spiritual matters, the water played a vital role, tribal members said. The Coeur d'Alene Indians even have a holiday just to celebrate water potatoes.