Albert’S Place Owner Not One For Technicalities Shoshone County, Health District Say Sorry, But Rules Are Rules

Bert James sees himself as a hard-working businessman whose efforts have been stifled by bureaucrats at every turn.

He wants to expand Albert’s Place bar into a restaurant, but the health district says no. When he saved a neighborhood store from destruction, he ended up facing $4,200 in fines and the ire of the county planner.

James is a former logger from California. He and partner Ann Oderkirk bought Albert’s Place two years ago.

“We always had a dream of making something nice, family-oriented. When we bought this place, there were hypodermic needles up and down the road,” he said.

Shoshone County commissioners chairman Jim Vergobbi agrees that James has cleaned up the grounds of his bar, store and campground.

“He’s ambitious. He’s got a lot of ideas,” Vergobbi said. “Things can be done. But things should be done properly.”

James hasn’t done things properly, say officials at the county and the Panhandle Health District.

Albert’s Place, which gets its name from a long-ago owner, is about two miles north of Interstate 90, on the west side of a narrow bridge that spans the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.

The riverside location is both an attraction and limitation. It’s the perfect place to launch a raft, splash in the river, sit at a a picnic table. But it’s a bad place to dispose of sewage. There is no sewer line, only a drainfield in shallow soil on top of solid rock that’s too close to a flood-prone river.

The situation puts public health at risk because wastewater could seep into the river, according to health officials.

After the drainfield washed out in 1996, the previous owner didn’t make adequate repairs, said Ken Lustig, environmental health director of the Panhandle Health District. In the aftermath of the flood, Lustig said, the health district didn’t take a hard line with property owners and make them upgrade to current septic standards.

Rocks put on top of the drainfield offer some protection from floods, Lustig said, but they also crush the underground system. Recreational vehicles also are parked on it.

Health officials don’t think the drainfield even adequate to serve the toilet and dishwater from the bar. So they were upset when James began remodeling the bar to add a full-service kitchen.

“He told me he was going to put in a kitchen whether I like it or not,” said health inspector Nick Motzny.

Motzny warned James that if he proceeded with expansion, he risks prosecution and could lose his liquor license.

James contends he needs restaurant revenue. Summertime profits from the campground and bar aren’t enough to keep him in business. He doesn’t own the only obvious new drainfield site up the hill, and even if he did he couldn’t afford to build it. He’s heard construction estimates of $20,000 to $70,000.

James acknowledges that, before buying the property, he never asked about the status of the drainfield. Nor did he contact the health district about the restaurant expansion.

“They’ve told me they’d like to see this place burned down, it’s been such a thorn in their side,” he said.

He attributed that statement to Motzny, who denied it. Motzny said the health district has bent rules to help James, including allowing him to live in his store, thus adding household sewage to the drainfield.

Albert’s RV Country store has landed James in hot water with the county. For one thing, he hasn’t applied for the necessary zoning change to operate it. James contends that the store is just a part of his campground, which he has a permit to operate, so a zoning change isn’t necessary.

Shoshone County also contends that James owes it $4,200 in fines related to the store building, which used to be called the Bear Paw and was located on the other side of the river.

The county ended up owning the store after the 1996 flood, when the state gave the county money to buy out the owners of flood-damaged property.

James agreed to pay $250 for the store and move it within two months or pay fines. He said he agreed to the time limitations because if he didn’t the county was going to burn the building. But he had trouble getting a moving contractor. The county gave him a four-day extension, but he ended up taking an extra 42 days.

County Commissioner Jack King said the county had to take a hard line, because it feared losing flood mitigation money if it didn’t meet rules for clearing the land.

James said he won’t pay the fines.

It was against this backdrop of disagreements that James wrote a polite letter to the commissioners in March. He asked whether he could put speed bumps on the Old River Road to slow down dangerous traffic and paint over graffiti on the bridge. He asked the county not to put in a dump station down the road, suggesting that his business should be allowed to offer that service.

When the commissioners didn’t reply within two months, he sent a second letter, this time suggesting that speeding-related injuries would be “on the county’s head, not mine.”

Commissioner King fired back, calling James’ correspondence “inflammatory, outrageous, misleading and counterproductive.”

“I am totally amazed of your demands for a person who does not comply with planning and zoning requirements, public health district requirements and has not paid our back assessment or late fees that you owe the county, for not removing the old store,” he wrote. “I feel you are not a truthful and trustworthy person.”

The most recent run-in between James and the county came in June, when he and auto dealer Alex Smith promoted a Jet-Ski “poker run” along the North Fork. Sheriff Dan Schierman called it off, saying it was an illegal form of gambling.

James saw the cancellation as a way to bring in customers and raise money for charity. He considers it one more sign that the county is against his business.

“I’m going to keep fighting until they shut me down,” he said.