Hagadone considers Post Falls for garden

Post Falls

Since businessman Duane Hagadone withdrew his offer to build world-class gardens in Coeur d’Alene last month, Post Falls officials and landowners are hoping to lure the proposed $21 million garden to their city.

Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin and Hagadone are discussing building the garden on the 58-acre, city-owned Black Bay Park, with more than 2,000 feet of shoreline on the Spokane River.

“If this project could come together in Post Falls, what a signature and legacy that would leave in this community,” Larkin said. “It would become a world-class destination, and the fact that Mr. Hagadone would be doing it guarantees that it would be a world-class production.”

Larkin and Hagadone both said they have not discussed financial details or fine points of any agreement.

However, both understand Hagadone would use his own money to build and maintain the gardens that would be open at no cost to the public – the offer he gave the Coeur d’Alene City Council in November. Hagadone would pay all costs involved in the project, ensuring no taxpayer dollars would be needed.

Repeat offender wanted on possession charge

Secret Witness is offering a cash reward for information that leads to the arrest of Eddie Ray Hall.

Hall has more than 80 arrests on his record, and several years ago it was estimated taxpayers had spend more than one million dollars for Hall’s various encounters with law enforcement, including expensive medical bills.

Now, he is wanted on a charge of possession of a controlled substance. And this time the charge carries a no-bond warrant.

Hall is 40 years old, 6-foot-2, 170 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Anyone who has information on Hall’s whereabouts is asked to call Secret Witness at 327-5111. Callers are asked to use a code name or number and do not have to give their own name to be eligible for the cash reward.

Dairy, cattle industries trump potatoes in Idaho

Moscow, Idaho

University of Idaho economists say cattle and dairies have trumped potatoes in their importance to the state’s agricultural economy.

The agriculture sector appears to have posted 12.5 percent higher cash receipts in 2004 than a year earlier, according to the Idaho Agricultural Statistics Service.

The rise was driven by a 33 percent jump in receipts in the dairy industry, which probably topped out at $1.34 billion.

Beef and cattle added another $1.16 billion, up 9 percent.

Meanwhile, potatoes, which once graced most of the state’s license plates as Idaho’s premier crop, have steadily lost ground. Cash receipts dropped 10 percent to $505 million last year. Since 1995, potatoes have dropped to 11 percent of Idaho’s agricultural sales from 21 percent.

Agriculture cash receipts were probably $4.5 billion last year, compared with the $4 billion in 2003.

Garth Taylor, a UI agricultural economist, said the numbers serve to counter the notion that agriculture is stagnant in the state.

“Four years into the 21st century, Idaho agriculture has become a growth industry in Idaho’s economy,” he said. “In large part that growth can be attributed to a shift in Idaho agriculture from crops to livestock milk and cattle.”

Taylor said agriculture accounts for about 10 percent of the gross state product.

Rocky Mountain goats may be returned to river gorge

The Dalles, Ore. Rocky Mountain goats may return to the Columbia River Gorge under a plan that’s being considered by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

If successful, it would be the first time in nearly 200 years that population would be sustained in the region, ever since Lewis and Clark reported seeing mountain goats in their journals on their return trip up the gorge in 1806.

The goats were gone by the time settlers arrived in the area in the 1840s, according to a release from the U.S. Forest Service.

Now, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife proposes to trap 15 to 20 goats from a healthy population in the Elkhorn Mountains near Baker City and release them near Cascade Locks.

The state wildlife agency will hold two public meetings this month to discuss the reintroduction proposal, in The Dalles and in Sandy.

The agency has tried before to re-establish mountain goats in the gorge. But efforts failed, due to low survival rates among male goats, too few animals being released and the use of multiple release sites.