Boise Residents Get Inundated With Warnings
What would you do if, just as you were getting to bed, you heard what sounded like loudspeakers moving up your street blaring, “Attention, residents! There has been a flash flood warning! You are requested to evacuate!”?
Pack up and go? At least 40 or so in the Boise foothills did.
We walked outside and discovered that the cars broadcasting the warning actually were going up a road several ridges over, in the area threatened by the recent foothills fire and now at risk for flooding when rain washes down the blackened hillsides.
Those must’ve been very loud loudspeakers. Our neighborhood wasn’t the only unaffected one to hear them. Some of the people who evacuated were even farther away from the danger than we were.
Boiseans seem to enjoy the civic spirit evoked by disasters, and hundreds of volunteers have been out filling sandbags and otherwise preparing for flooding.
So far, no floods.
The wheels of government?
Dave Kletzien gets lots of calls from folks concerned about political issues, matters of concern to state government, outrages that must be addressed right away.
The only problem is, he’s not in the best position to address them. He’s the manager of the Bruneel Tires store on Vista Avenue in Boise. It’s just his phone number that seems official - it’s one digit off from that of the governor’s office.
“It happens a lot,” Kletzien said of the wrong numbers. “A lot of times they don’t even realize who they’ve called, and they just start going off.”
Kletzien is kind enough to stop the callers and, most of the time, tell them the correct number for Gov. Phil Batt’s office.
Asked if he’s ever been tempted to just take on the governor’s mantle and deal with the callers himself, Kletzien said, “I’ve thought about it, but I pretty much stay quiet.”
Coeur d’Alene, take note
Public swimming pools are expensive to build and maintain, but that hasn’t stopped Boise. The city has five outdoor swimming pools, plus a new $5 million indoor aquatic center complete with a lap pool, play pool and 30-person spa.
And now, Boise is poised to add a swimming pool on its fast-growing southeast side, thanks to an anonymous donor who’s putting up $600,000, about half the cost.
The donor already gave the city $65,000 in stocks in the past four years, which the city sold and used to redo the plumbing and make other improvements at two of its oldest pools.
“The donor, I believe, has grown up here in Boise and had kids,” said Jim Hall, the city parks and recreation director. At some point, the kids were swimmers, he said.
Hall has been showing the donor plans for an elaborate, play-oriented pool complete with fountains, toys, slides and possibly artificial waves. That’s the latest thing in recreational swimming pools, he said.
The donor “wants to provide better facilities for kids.”
It’s just the latest in a Boise tradition of major donations for parks. The city’s lovely string of riverfront parks - the 360 acres known as Julia Davis Park, Ann Morrison Park and Kathryn Albertson Park - all were donated by Boiseans who named them in honor of their wives.
Why do Boiseans step forward to give the city something as significant as a park or a swimming pool?
“People believe in their community, I guess,” Hall said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
, DataTimes MEMO: North-South Notes runs every other Saturday. To reach Betsy Z. Russell, call 336-2854, send a fax to 336-0021 or e-mail to bzrussell@rmci.net.