Unpaved Road Spawns Highway District Fight Sandpoint Could See Dueling Snowplows Come First Snowfall

Civil warfare is breaking out over the streets of Sandpoint.

On one particularly dusty street, Roger Nichols lost patience with the Sandpoint Independent Highway District and raised his pen to do battle.

For six years, he has asked the district to pave Lincoln Street, but the road is still graveled.

Nichols spearheaded the most recent drive to get rid of the district. “We were warned that if our neighborhood wanted to secede, we could,” he said.

So, Thursday, he delivered a petition to Bonner County commissioners asking for an election to de-annex from the district.

This is just the latest move in a several-month battle for control of city streets. As some citizens and city officials try to wrest control from the district, the district is trying to expand its territory.

But Nichols didn’t stop with just the cul de sacs surrounding his home. The petition calls for all of Sandpoint and district streets within the city of Ponderay to secede, too.

That would leave just 50 yards of Ontario Street within the Sandpoint Independent Highway District.

The petition mostly contains signatures of Nichols’ neighbors, but residents elsewhere in the city are represented.

Larry Glahe, chairman of the highway district, said this latest effort will most likely wind up where the last petition did - in court.

“It’s the same,” he said. “You try to do the best you can for the best interest of the district and the taxpayers.”

The district will be chip-sealing Lincoln Street this month as a temporary fix, and is waiting for a state grant for a complete overhaul of the street, Glahe said.

“I can understand their impatience,” he said of Nichols and his neighbors. “But a lot of times, if you’re frustrated, you don’t want to listen. It isn’t as if we’ve sat on it.”

Bonner County commissioners agreed to hold a public hearing on the de-annexation petition in September. After that, they’ll have to decide whether to hold an election.

They’ve already approved an election on total dissolution of the district. That election was scheduled for Tuesday but was indefinitely postponed after the district challenged that decision in court.

Meanwhile, the city of Sandpoint has mobilized a full-fledged street department. One of the highway district’s defenses had been that there was no functioning street department to take over the district’s duties if it dissolved.

But now, the city has five full-time street employees and in October, will be fully staffed with seven employees, said Public Works Director Kody Van Dyk.

So far the crew has patched Larch Street, is currently improving an intersection on Superior Street, and will soon be fixing a weak spot on Huron Street, Van Dyk said.

“My direction from the City Council is to go on as if we are the only ones on the street,” he said.

Come the first snowfall, the city and highway district will be operating dueling snowplows.

“We have purchased equipment and will be purchasing more equipment as we speak,” Van Dyk said. But he predicts few confrontations in the snowbound streets. If plows start piling up, Van Dyk said they would coordinate with the highway district.

“It won’t become political,” he promised.

As for Lincoln Street, the city has the same long-term plan to totally overhaul the street within a couple of years. The city developed its street plan with the help of David Ohnstad, the district’s road superintendent.

Ohnstad quit the district in May, disgruntled with a big cut in his maintenance budget and other leadership decisions, and temporarily provided intelligence to the city.

While some residents attempt to undermine the highway district and the city unilaterally takes on street projects, the highway district is trying to outflank its opponents.

The district is circulating petitions to annex streets within the small town of Dover, just west of Sandpoint. Merchants at Bonner Mall have asked the district to annex the street that serves the mall, which they say is a minefield of potholes.

The district also has been looking for allies in the city of Kootenai and at Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

If Sandpoint ceases to be part of the highway district, Glahe said the district could annex railroad right-of-ways or highways in order to maintain contiguous boundaries necessary for a highway district.

Glahe said motive behind the annexations isn’t to prolong the district’s existence.

“We have been asked by Bonner Mall and Dover,” he said. “Bonner Mall definitely has a problem and we could fix that for them. Dover has a problem and we could certainly help them out, too.”