CdA race features youth vs. experience

Coeur d’Alene City Council candidate Steven Foxx thinks his youth is a bonus in his bid against Councilman Woody McEvers.

The 28-year-old Lake City High School graduate, who returned to town 18 months ago after getting a degree in social work and traveling South America doing human rights work, thinks youth is exactly what is missing on the council. As he sees it, the council is comprised of either retired or near-retirement-aged business people. And thinks it needs a young intellectual for balance.

“I bring a different style and diversity of opinion,” Foxx said. “I’m younger. I’m a social worker.”

His top issues are improving the city’s recycling program and making sure Coeur d’Alene is managing growth to promote neighborhoods and quality of life. He also wants to increase local government access and credibility.

The election is Nov. 8.

McEvers, 57, who has been on the council since 2001, said experience and passion for studying the issues are what make him stand out. As co-owner of the Rustler’s Roost restaurant, McEvers said he is in constant contact with locals and gets first-hand accounts of their concerns and struggles as he pours coffee each morning. “I bring people together,” McEvers said. “I’m trying to get opposing views to find common ground. To try to keep things in balance.”

He said the hardest part of the job is explaining to voters how decisions are made and that often state laws dictate what a city can do. He said it’s frustrating that the council doesn’t have more time to talk about philosophy and suggests adding an information section to each council meeting, which would give council members a few minutes to talk about their visions for the city. “We need to get people to understand how it works,” McEvers said.

McEvers said he wants to enhance the city’s television station, cable Channel 19, so it can offer more programming than just a bulletin board of meeting notices.

Other priorities are making sure the city’s infrastructure, such as streets and storm water systems, keep up with growth and working on the city’s relationship with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. McEvers represents the city on the Coeur d’Alene Basin Commission that oversees the cleanup of mining waste in the Coeur d’Alene River basin.

McEvers said one of his greatest accomplishments in the last four years was working with the committee to establish the city’s storm water utility, which started in October 2004. The $4 monthly fee gives the city a budget to repair and expand the existing water collection system, pick up leaves, sweep streets and educate residents about how storm water affects Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River.

He said he also is proud of recent changes to Coeur d’Alene child care laws that require all workers to get an annual city license and facility owners to disclose if any immediate family member is a registered sex offender.

Although McEvers doesn’t personally care for high-rise buildings, he said they are needed to encourage people to live downtown. Yet he doesn’t want to forget other parts of the city, such as the northern edge.

Both McEvers and Foxx agree the city shouldn’t close Sherman Avenue for any reason, and if local businessman Duane Hagadone resurrects his plan for a memorial garden it should go to a vote of the people.

Foxx supports the idea of a garden because it would bring tourists and business. And he favors any way to increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic in the city.

He also wants to ensure that the city’s skyrocketing growth pays for itself so he supports impact fees on new developments and scrutinizing proposals so they protect the very thing that brings people to town: natural beauty and quality of life.

“We need to be creating the kind of communities and neighborhoods we want to have,” Foxx said, “instead of letting rapid growth happen.”