Pedestrian tunnel gets $40,000 boost
Bonners Ferry The city of Bonners Ferry will receive a $40,000 Idaho Gem Grant to help build a pedestrian tunnel under U.S. Highway 95.
The tunnel will connect the Kootenai River Inn & Casino, Bonner Ferry’s largest tourist attraction, with the downtown area. The Gem Grant will help finalize funding for the project. More than $671,500 has already been committed by the city and the Idaho Transportation Department.
“Tourism remains a driving force for the economies of many of Idaho’s rural communities,” said Roger Madsen, Idaho Commerce & Labor director.
“This project will make it easier for visitors to experience the hospitality of merchants in downtown Bonners Ferry.”
Idaho Gem Grants are part of Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s Rural Idaho Initiative. Grants of up to $50,000 are available for rural economic development projects.
Hayden Lake couple wins house in NIC drawing
A Hayden Lake couple won the grand prize Wednesday in North Idaho College’s Really BIG Raffle drawing.
Gerald and Sharlene Wiedenhoff won a $200,000 home in the Post Falls Montrose subdivision, built by students in NIC’s carpentry program.
Diana and James Raess of Coeur d’Alene won a $20,000 car or boat; C.B. Marcinkowski of Post Falls won a $3,500 travel package; and Nancy Noordam of Post Falls won a $2,000 shopping spree.
About 2,500 people gathered at NIC’s Fort Sherman Park for the raffle drawing, which raised $180,000 for the NIC Foundation. The Foundation provides funding for student scholarships and construction projects and also supports the college in other ways.
In the 12 years the raffle has been held, more than $1.6 million has been raised for the foundation.
Ferry terminal crash traced to missing pin
Victoria, B.C. A missing cotter pin worth pennies is being blamed for last week’s ferry accident at busy Horseshoe Bay terminal.
Twenty-two boats at a nearby marina were crushed when the 460-foot ferry Queen of Oak Bay lost power on its approach and the captain steered the vessel away from the terminal.
The missing cotter pin allowed a nut to come off a device linking the engine controls on the bridge to one of the vessel’s two engines, said Mark Collins, vice president of engineering for B.C. Ferries. That allowed both engines to increase speed, eventually tripping control mechanisms that released the ship’s clutches, disengaging the engines from the propellers at the bow and stern.
“No engines. Propulsion is lost. No thrust,” Collins explained.
The cotter pin retainer had put in 20 years of service without a problem, he said. “I think we’re looking at an anomaly here, we’re not looking at a failure of basic design.”
The pin was part of a device that was removed from the vessel during a recent $35 million refit and then reinstalled. The ferry had been back in service for less than two weeks when the accident occurred during a scheduled run to Nanaimo.
“It was not a B.C. Ferries employee or subsidiary that worked on that item,” said B.C Ferries president David Hahn. He refused to identify the private contractor.
Engineers say it’s not likely a similar incident would occur, but that all ships in the B.C. Ferries fleet were checked as a precaution.
After sea trials Wednesday, Transport Canada cleared the Queen of Oak Bay to return to service Friday.
Jimi Lott, honored photographer, dies
James G. “Jimi” Lott, a former Spokesman-Review, Spokane Chronicle and Seattle Times photographer, was found dead Tuesday evening in a Wenatchee motel room. He was 52.
Chelan County Coroner Dr. Gina Fino ruled the death a suicide.
Lott was chief photographer at The Spokane Chronicle from 1982 to 1984. He worked briefly at The Spokesman-Review after it was merged with the Chronicle.
Lott moved to the Times in 1984. He left that newspaper last year to pursue work in photo illustration.
Lott’s honors won the 1989 Cowles Cup, named for William Hutchison Cowles, late publisher of The Spokesman-Review. He was part of a Times investigative team whose coverage of safety problems with the rudders on Boeing 737s won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997.
Lott was born in Pontiac, Mich., and raised in San Diego.
Lott’s survivors include his son, Joshua Lott, and ex-wife, Kathleen Lott, both of Shoreline, Wash., and stepfather, Walter Hoskinson, of Wenatchee. No public memorial is planned.
Four men lifted off Mount Rainier after fall
Ashford, Wash. A four-person climbing party slipped down an icy Mount Rainier slope on Thursday, sending two men sailing across a crevasse and dropping two others inside it. Helicopters rescued the injured men.
A Pennsylvania man was the most seriously injured in the fall, which happened at about 7:20 a.m., Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman Lee Taylor said.
Rescuers reported that one man slipped, dragging two other climbers and a mountain guide about 40 yards to a 20-foot-deep crevasse, Taylor said.
“The first two members of the team cleared the crevasse – in other words, they catapulted right over it,” Taylor said. “But the final two members of the party fell into the crevasse and these were the two who were most severely injured.”
Patrick Clemens of Bethlehem, Pa., suffered serious head trauma, along with a broken leg and possibly broken ribs, Taylor said.
Vietnam Memorial replica visiting Airway Heights
When Steve Doty travels the country, two words he hears often are “thank you.”
Doty, a Vietnam vet, is president of the American Veterans Traveling Tribute, a nonprofit organization that relies on sponsorships. The traveling tribute’s main exhibit is a wall that’s 8 feet high, 378 feet long and replicates the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. It will be displayed July 28-31 at the Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights.
Doty, who served in Vietnam from 1967-70 with the Air Force, bought the wall two years ago from a man in Florida. It is one of three replicas, all run by different people. Doty’s replica is the largest at 80 percent the size of the permanent black granite wall, which was completed in November 1982.
A locator tent – where people can find veterans through names, home towns or military unit numbers will be set up. Visitors can make rubbings of etched names for keepsakes. An exhibit called Vietnam Remembered Art Collection also will be on display.
The Wall is sponsored by KHQ-TV and Harley-Davidson. Admission is free.