The County Lines
WASHINGTON
Adams County
Ritzville
Women who may be interested in getting hunting licenses are being sought for a special class. Fish and Wildlife officer Dennis Whiteman is gauging interest for an adult women’s hunter education class. He feels many women want to get a license, but don’t want to take the class with youngsters. To register, call (509) 659-1346.
Ferry County
Curlew
All citizens interested in forming a port district, or just learning what they can do for the county economy, are invited to a public meeting. The North Ferry County Enterprise Committee will host a town hall Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Curlew Civic Hall.
Grant County
Moses Lake
There weren’t as many zeros on the paychecks as sugar beet growers had wanted this year. The first checks cut by the Pacific Northwest Sugar Company were about half of what farmers hoped. Higher than expected operating costs, new machinery and a skewed production schedule took their financial toll on the revenues of the 1999 sugar beet harvest. Still, officials at the refinery are optimistic about the future. They hope 2000 will be free of such problems.
Lincoln County
Creston
The school district will ask voters March 14 for approval of a biannual maintenance and operations levy. The district is asking for $177,000 for two years. That breaks down to $2.60 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Pend Oreille County
Newport
Local merchants oppose some proposed requirements for purchasing a business license. They feel the city passed the license ordinance without properly notifying the public. The city says information was published in the local newspaper and no one came forward until after the ordinance was passed. The city has shelved the licensing plan for now.
Spokane County
Nine Mile Falls
The Northeast Washington Small Farms Association and Stevens County Rural Library District have joined forces to place a selection of books on market gardening, rural economic development and small-scale farming at the Library of the Lakes in Loon Lake and at Lakeside Community Library in Nine Mile Falls. For more information, call the library district at (509) 233-9621.
Stevens County
Colville
Local police were led on a low-speed chase recently by a pot bellied pig. The porker was cornered twice by officer William Emily, who received assistance from two young helpers to finally nab the swine. The pig is a guest of the county animal shelter while awaiting someone to claim him.
Whitman County
Pullman
Pullman teacher Kristi Rennebohm Franz will be featured in a PBS documentary. Rennebohm Franz of Sunnyside Elementary School will appear in “The Digital Divide,” a national documentary on equal access to technology in schools and society. Her classroom was chosen as a positive model of meaningfully integrating and supporting technology in education. The documentary has aired on KUID and will run on PBS stations nationwide. Rennebohm Franz will be interviewed on KUID Thursday at 7:30 p.m. about the documentary and her program. For information, contact her at (509) 334-1800.
IDAHO
Benewah County
St. Maries
The St. Maries Joint School district will receive about $31,000 to hire new teachers as part of a national initiative to reduce class size in schools. Idaho received about $6 million of the $1.3 billion approved by Congress. The money must be used to hire teachers in grades one to three or to provide in-service training.
Bonner County
Priest Lake
The West Bonner County Snowmobile Groomer Advisory Board is applying for two grants; an Off Road Motor Vehicle and a Recreation Trail Program grant. The grants would be used to buy a maintenance/storage building for the trail groomer. The proposed location for the building is by the fire station at Nordman. Comments or suggestions can be made by calling (208) 443-2200 by Jan. 17.
Boundary County
Bonners Ferry
The Christmas bird count by the North Idaho Audubon Society showed a slow migration of waterfowl out of Canada. The society reasons the mild winter and unfrozen ponds has kept migration slow. Their records show 38 different species in the area with only one sighting of each of the following: great blue heron, immature bald eagle, sharp-shinned hawk, rough-legged hawk, merlin, black-billed magpie, red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatch and a song sparrow. The most sighted bird was the mallard duck, at 514.
Kootenai County
Coeur d’Alene
Local junior and senior college students looking for internship credit to pursue advanced medical or medicalrelated degrees may apply for one of seven paid internships at Kootenai Medical Center.
Interested students may contact Kathryn Knudson at (208) 666-2050.
Latah County
Moscow
Four Moscow teachers and one Potlatch teacher achieved national certification. On top of their regular jobs, the teachers committed themselves to more than 300 hours of work proving their proficiency through a written portfolio, videotaped classroom lessons, submitting students’ work samples and a day-long written exam. The reward for Idaho teachers who achieve certification is $2,000 per year as a stipend for five years.
Shoshone County
Wallace
The Wallace Business Community Association is looking for recipes to include in a cookbook. Recipes may be left at the Idaho Silver Shop on Sixth Street. The WBCA is also sponsoring a crab and salad bar dinner between 5 and 7 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Wallace Elks Lodge. The dinner is a fund-raiser to earn money for new Christmas lights for the downtown area.
MONTANA
Lincoln County
Libby
The jobless rate in Lincoln County for November was 9.9 percent. The rate is more than double the reported unemployment rate for the state, according to statistics from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry’s office of Research and Analysis. The U.S. average unemployment rate for November was 4.1 percent. In Lincoln county there were 720 unemployed in 1999, compared to 778 in November of 1998.