Constructive Move New County Building Will End Need For Costly Rental Units

Kootenai County commissioners broke ground Monday on a new $3.7 million administration building that two of them campaigned against during their 1994 election race.

In front of 40 county employees and a citizen committee that had tried for years to solve the county’s space crunch, Commissioners Bob Macdonald, Dick Compton and Dick Panabaker eulogized the county’s original courthouse and kicked off an 11-month construction project for its replacement.

When the original building was under construction in the 1920s, “I’m sure everybody talked about it in the coffee shops,” Compton said. “It’s certainly done its job.”

Next year, the three-story building that now houses most county offices will be given over to the county’s prosecutor, public defender and court system.

The new 40,000-square-foot building will house the rest of the county’s departments and eliminate the need for a half-dozen rental units that cost the county $240,000 a year.

Construction of the new building - which will cost about $500,000 less than expected - is being paid for through a 10-year lease-purchase agreement with the Idaho Association of Counties.

In September 1994, Compton and Panabaker, then candidates, called a joint press conference on the courthouse steps to oppose that plan. They argued it first should be taken to the voters.

In January 1995, after taking office, Compton acknowledged that the financing plan - the brainchild of County Administrator Tom Taggart - actually was a sound financial move. He also said voters never would agree to spend that kind of money - necessary or not.

But Monday, Compton and Panabaker were proud of the new building, which they were able to start with more than $1 million they had set aside without raising taxes.

Panabaker had but one complaint.

“It’s 20 years too late,” he said.

But, he added, “we would have outgrown it if it had been built 20 years ago.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo