Huckleberries: Rumor not quite a ringer

Yeah, there’s something to that rumor that Bill Radobenko of ACI Construction handed Kootenai County Commish Gus Johnson something from the back of his red Hummer after the Black Rock North hearing last week. But it’s not what you think. Radobenko wasn’t buying Johnson off after he testified in favor of the Black Rock expansion. He was simply giving him a cardboard box full of (drum roll, puh-leez) – horseshoes. Seems Gus had told Radobenko once that his father welded horseshoes into sunflower lawn ornaments that he sometimes sells. Radobenko is an avid horseman who does construction work for Black Rock developer Marshall Chesrown. Johnson plans to bring the box of horseshoes to a meeting today during which commissioners will announce their decisions on the ritzy Black Rock North and Chateau de Loire proposals. He’s angry that Black Rock North opponents would believe that he could be bought off by horseshoes. In a telephone call to S-R buddy Erica Curless, he questioned if people think he’s “dumb enough to take a bribe in a parking lot.” Obviously, Johnson didn’t consider the perception of wrongdoing after the contentious meeting attracted 200. “Maybe I’m as naïve as people say I am,” he groused. Mebbe, he said, he should have told Radobenko to “meet me up behind Shopko in a dark alley.” Or, after nearly two terms as a commissioner and others as a Post Falls mayor and council member, he should have realized the correct response to Radobenko was: Thanks, but no thanks.