New Waterways Ordinance Won’T Float Bonner County Commissioner Walks Out Of Hearing Scheduled During Business Hours

An attempt to tighten Bonner County’s waterways laws keeled over Thursday when Bonner County Commissioner Bud Mueller walked out of a scheduled public hearing.

Mueller objected to holding the public hearing during business hours, when working people interested in the proposed changes couldn’t attend.

Changes in the ordinance would extend the no-wake zone along shorelines from 100 feet to 200 feet and limit the age of vessel operators.

Mueller said the proposal was too restrictive.

“I’m going to walk out of here,” Mueller warned, when Commissioner Dale Van Stone suggested they start the hearing and continue it later.

“This thing is so ridiculous,” Mueller said of the proposed ordinance. “It can’t even fly, it’s so bad.”

When Mueller got up and walked out, it left Van Stone alone at the table, because Commissioner Brian Orr is at a conference in Sun Valley.

“Well, I can’t do this solo,” Van Stone said. His motion to adjourn the meeting died for lack of a second.

Patti Rahn, a grant writer for the county, said that postponing the hearing could mean the county would lose a $5,000 state grant it has already received.

The grant was for a map and brochure of county waterway facilities and laws. A subcommittee of the county Waterways Advisory Board came up with the draft ordinance last spring to bring Bonner County’s laws in line with Kootenai County’s.

That way, a boater on Lake Pend Oreille will have consistent laws, even though the lake is in two counties.

“To spend the grant money now and print old laws, to me that’s unrealistic,” Rahn said after the meeting.

The money has to be spent before the end of September, and that doesn’t leave enough time to advertise and hold another public hearing to approve the ordinance, she said.

The Waterways Committee handed the draft ordinance over to the county’s civil counsel, John Topp, last spring. But Topp only recently finished his review of the document.

Aside from the shoreline no-wake zone change, the biggest change in the proposed ordinance is establishing an age limit for the drivers of boats and personal watercraft.

The new law would prohibit operation of a motor-driven vessel by anyone under the age of 12, except under direct supervision of an adult.

The law also would prohibit anyone under 15 from operating any watercraft powered by a motor with a horsepower greater than 10, except under direct supervision of an adult. That effectively prohibits anyone under 15 years old from operating a personal watercraft, except with an adult on board.

The ordinance is not dead. Rahn plans to check with the state and see if there’s still a way to postpone the project.

“It’ll get done eventually,” said committee member Steve Klatt.