Forum will address middle school zones

The Coeur d’Alene School District will hold a public forum Monday to outline plans to balance enrollment at its three middle schools by redrawing attendance zone boundaries.

Enrollment at Lakes Middle School has decreased to about 583 students, the school district said in a press release, while Woodland Middle School has about 860 students and Canfield Middle School has 783 students.

The district’s Attendance Zone Committee has developed a proposal which would move 280 middle school students in an effort to balance the number of students at each school. If the revised boundaries are approved, it would change where Atlas, Borah and Hayden Meadows elementary schools send their sixth-grade students for middle school.

The committee will present its plan at 7 p.m. Monday in the Lake City High auditorium and then accept public comment. Parents who can’t attend the meeting can send comments to the District Office at 311 N. 10th St. in Coeur d’Alene or fax them to (208) 664-1746.

Information on the proposal is also online at www.cdaschools.org.

– Taryn Brodwater

Driver’s license office to be closed Tuesday

The driver’s license office on Government Way in Coeur d’Alene will be closed Tuesday while employees attend a training session.

The office at 451 Government Way will reopen 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Staff will attend training with the Idaho Department of Transportation, according to a press release from the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department. The training will focus on issues related to driver’s licenses and issuing of the licenses.

“Being able to train everyone the same way at the same time will make service more uniform and consistent in the future,” the press release said.

– Taryn Brodwater

North Idaho

Volunteers, center named Health Heroes

Panhandle Health District has named two residents and a community health center as recipients of its 2005 Health Heroes awards.

Kay Kindig, of Kootenai County, and Elaine Atkins, of Boundary County, received individual awards given to people who protect, promote and enhance the health of North Idaho citizens. The Dirne Community Health Center was honored in the business/organization category.

Kindig and Atkins are longtime volunteers and advocates for several projects in Kootenai and Boundary counties. The Dirne center was recognized as a federally qualified health center last year and has recently expanded medical, dental and senior services.

This is the second year the health district has presented the Health Hero awards. There were no nominees in the youth category this year.

– JoNel Aleccia

HAYDEN LAKE

Father wants drowning investigated by state

A mourning father wants the Idaho attorney general to investigate the death of two women who drowned in a car accident on Hayden Lake because he believes county officials committed errors in investigating the April 1 tragedy.

Bill Greely, a retired Montana law enforcement officer, believes the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department and the county coroner’s office failed to find out what really happened in the early morning hours when his 22-year-old daughter, Alice Rebecca Greely, and Charlie Rae Buckingham, also 22, drowned after the sport utility vehicle they were driving in plunged off a boat dock and sank.

Greely believes a toxicology report that determined his daughter’s blood-alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit was botched because it has an incorrect date.

Law enforcement officials say while the date may be incorrect, the report isn’t.

The attorney general’s office hasn’t said if it will take up the case.

– Associated Press