The County Lines
WASHINGTON
ADAMS COUNTY Ritzville
The cool weather of June was no problem for Ritzville kids; the local swimming pool was closed for emergency repairs anyway. The pool, which has undergone temporary patching of leaks and holes, opened one month behind schedule. The city has some big decisions to make about the aging pool - replacement, repair or demolition are all options.
FERRY COUNTY Malo
Move over Doc Holliday. Darius “Doc” Young has the hottest hand in the nation. Young is the 1999 NRA National Indoor Conventional Pistol Champion. He out-shot 1,398 other gun enthusiasts with a score of 887 out of 900 possible points.
GRANT COUNTY Ephrata
Water is a big issue in arid Grant County. Hoping to break the state’s hold in processing water-right change permits, the county is looking to the Department of Ecology to create local water conservancy boards. Conservancy boards would put decision making in the hands of county governments. The state would have a final say, but the process would be much faster, supporters say.
LINCOLN COUNTY Davenport
A long-talked about project to rehydrate the Lake Creek water system is getting serious attention from the state. Dubbed the Reclaimed Water Demonstration Project, treated water from the Spokane Waste Treatment plant would be pumped across northern Lincoln County through a series of polishing ponds, and finally into the heart of Lincoln County’s grazing lands. The state and county are studying potential impacts.
PEND OREILLE COUNTY Newport
If Jan Griffitts has her way, everyone could take a vacation to the scenic Selkirk Loop. Griffitts has been hired as the marketing director for the Selkirk Loop. In her research, she’s found that vacationers like “loops.” Griffitts plans to bring communities along the 280-mile loop much closer together. The Selkirk loop features camping, fishing, skiing and sight-seeing throughout Bonner and Pend Oreille counties.
SPOKANE COUNTY Spokane
The American Music Festival celebration in Riverfront Park over the July Fourth holiday succeeded in raising enough money to pay all the bills in its $232,000 budget.
STEVENS COUNTY Colville
A formal complaint criticizing a plan to clearcut 5,000 acres and log 20,000 more acres of the Colville National Forest and Idaho Panhandle has been filed. The Lands Council of Spokane, along with nearly a dozen other forest conservation groups, have joined forces to protest the logging, done in the name of the Bark Beetle. The groups believe the forest service is using supposed beetle damage as an excuse to cut down more trees.
WHITMAN COUNTY Colfax
Agricultural burning is a hot topic with the county’s agriculture burn task force. The task force says applications for burn permits have expanded from one to nine pages since the state decided to cut ag burning by 50 percent over the next seven years. The county, burdened financially, wants out of the burn permit business. The county processed 300 applications to burn 70,000 acres in 1998.
IDAHO
BENEWAH COUNTY St. Maries
The 10th Annual St. Maries Festival of the Arts will be Saturday and Sunday at Cherry Bend Boat Park. The festival will include art and crafts booths, a clothesline art sale, children’s hands-on art, food concessions and a variety of local and regional live entertainment. The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
BONNER COUNTY Sandpoint
The Sandpoint Fire Department has presented the city’s Public Safety Committee with a proposal for a monument at City Hall to honor deceased firefighters and department benefactors. The memorial will be named after Marvin Vandenberg Jr., a former city councilman and past chairman of the Public Safety Committee. Firefighters intend to put the monument near the fire station entrance, but may opt for a location more visible to people visiting City Hall. The Sandpoint City Council will discuss the project at the July 21 meeting.
BOUNDARY COUNTY Bonners Ferry
The Boundary County Farmers’ Market is open from 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays through Oct. 3 in the Bonners Ferry city parking lot at the corner of Kootenai Avenue and Highway 95. All items are locally grown and crafted. To reserve a space, call Marsha Semar at (208) 267-7698.
KOOTENAI COUNTY Coeur d’Alene
Coeur d’Alene Hastings will sponsor the second annual “Imagine Literacy” benefit concert in Coeur d’Alene Park July 23 from 4 to 8 p.m. Local bands No Bare Feet, Gil, Ty Kovach and Area 51 will perform at the concert, which is free to the public. The concert will include a raffle, with all proceeds going to the North Idaho College Adult Basic Education GED department and the English as a Second Language program. For information, call Renee Scott at (208) 664-0464.
LATAH COUNTY Kendrick
A Kendrick, Idaho, World War I veteran, Alonzo Wilson, was presented last week with one of France’s top honors, the Croiz of Chevalier. The Legion of Honor medal was presented by Emmanuel Delloye, the French cultural minister. The award was for Wilson’s Navy service in France during World War I. Wilson, 103, was drafted into the Navy in 1917. He shoveled coal into the boilers of transport ships as they brought troops to Europe and took sick, injured or dead soldiers home.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are an estimated 3,200 living American World War I veterans. More than 300 veterans applied for the award that Wilson received.
SHOSHONE COUNTY Silver Valley
Lutheran Social Services is seeking a new shelter home in Shoshone County. The person currently providing the service is no longer able to help. The shelter can be a home with either one or two parents, as long as the care is available at all times. The shelter facility is the first home that a child is taken to after he or she is removed from their own home and are in need of immediate care and assistance. For information, contact the Lutheran Social Services at (208) 667-1898.