Old Prison Still Has Tiffs

Which is better for Idaho, a peaceful English garden or a historically significant 1907 heating plant?

Believe it or not, two well-intentioned organizations here have nearly come to fisticuffs over questions like that. The problem is that the Idaho State Historical Society and the Idaho Botanical Garden both are operating on the same turf: the grounds of the Old Idaho Penitentiary.

The turf war would bring smiles to the ghosts of Idaho’s worst murder and mayhem artists who passed their days here.

Three years ago, the Botanical Garden folks demolished a baseball diamond, backstop and dugouts that were part of the old-time inmates’ athletic field, saying the old structures were an “eyesore.”

The Historical Society demanded that they be rebuilt just as they were. (They weren’t.)

Several different mediators have tried to bring the two groups to a meeting of the minds on how to use the grounds.

The latest tug of war has been over a 1950 building on the penitentiary grounds that the Botanical Garden wants to use for an administrative office, botanical library and gift shop. The Historical Society is renting the building to the state Agriculture Department.

Last week, Botanical Garden representatives came to the state Land Board for a blessing of their plan to expand the gardens, including taking over the building. They said the differences have been ironed out.

But the Land Board opted to wait until it hears from the other side, just as a precaution. “There’s been a huge fight,” said Gov. Phil Batt.

Pass the music

Ada County has three Republican commissioners, just like Kootenai County. But Ada’s three are constantly at each other’s throats. Their relations are so strained that one recently called another “evil.” So Ada Commissioner Roger Simmons was wistful after hearing his Kootenai County counterpart Dick Compton give a speech in which he gushed about how the three Kootenai commissioners are so united.

“I appreciated Dick’s comment about all three commissioners singing off the same page,” Simmons said. “Believe me, I’d love to work in that atmosphere.”

Idaho’s Baltic twin?

State Controller J.D. Williams spent his vacation in October in Estonia, where he and four other state finance officials were flown by the U.S. State Department to teach government finance to government types there.

Williams said the Baltic state has some similarities to Idaho. It’s got 1.5 million people, its national parliament has 102 members (roughly the size of the Idaho Legislature) and it’s heavily agricultural, with potatoes a principal crop.

But the biggest surprise, Williams said, was how modern the country is. Because the phone system doesn’t work well, “everyone uses cellular phones.”

In the Estonian city of Tallin, a portion of the old city has remained intact since medieval times. “Right at the gate of the old city was a McDonald’s.”

, DataTimes MEMO: North-South Notes runs every other Sunday. To reach Betsy Z. Russell, call 336-2854, send a fax to 336-0021 or e-mail to bzrussell@rmci.net.