Highway District Hearing Detoured By Late Proposal County Wants To Hold Election On Whether To Dissolve District

A last-minute proposal from the Sandpoint Independent Highway District cut short a court hearing Monday in the case of the district vs. the Bonner County Commission.

The question at hand was whether the county could hold an election on the continued existence of the highway district.

Attorneys for the parties said they couldn’t divulge the details of the proposal, which the highway district’s attorney raised just a few minutes before the hearing was scheduled to begin in 1st District Court.

Judge James Judd agreed to give the attorneys time to negotiate a settlement in the case.

If the issue can’t be resolved, the judge said he will review briefs filed by both sides and make a ruling before the end of the year. That would give the county adequate time to prepare for an election, which could be held the first Tuesday in February.

Following two public hearings last spring, Bonner County commissioners initially scheduled an election for August 2000.

Citizens had petitioned the county to hold the election, complaining that the highway district was inefficient, slow to improve streets and an unneeded layer of bureaucracy.

The highway district appealed the election decision and won a stay from the court.

But the district lost a major court ruling last week when Judd ruled that the city of Sandpoint has jurisdiction over city streets.

The highway district boundaries are nearly the same as the city’s boundaries, except for two stretches of road: a portion of Ontario Street and Schweitzer Cut-off Road.

The highway district had been working toward annexing the city of Dover’s streets and Bonner Mall Way in Ponderay, but those efforts were postponed as a result of the litigation.

In addition to the election, Judd also still needs to rule on whether the highway district can continue to collect taxes from city residents.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

STATUS REPORT

Crews keep busy

Sandpoint Independent Highway District Commission Chairman Larry Glahe said district crews are keeping busy maintaining equipment and the district’s two remaining streets.

Sandpoint’s street department, formed after the public hearings last spring, cleared the streets after the first big snowfall.