Culvert work to close Lancaster
Lakes Highway District is closing Lancaster Road near Rimrock Road for three weeks to replace a culvert.
The closure begins Monday and will last until Oct. 20. Drivers are asked to use Rimrock Road, Dodd Road and Hayden Lake Road for detours.
The project begins at Rimrock Road and continues east for about one-third of a mile. For more information, call Lakes Highway District at 772-7527.
Coeur d’Alene
Alley to close for sewer work
Coeur d’Alene is replacing a deteriorating sewer pipe in the alley north of Lakeside Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh streets.
Work begins Monday and will continue through Oct. 7. The city is closing the alley and no parking is allowed.
For more information, call Jim Dunn, the Wastewater Utility project manager, at 769-2278.
Idaho Falls
Schools urge more higher ed funding
University presidents and local business leaders say the state needs to spend more money on higher education.
University of Idaho President Tim White, Eastern Idaho Technical College President Bill Robertson, former State Board of Education member Keith Hinckley and Miles Willard Co. managing partner Randy Kern were among those to attend the forum on higher education Wednesday at University Place in Idaho Falls.
The state is abysmal when it comes to providing need- and merit-based scholarships for its students, White said. Potential students may be choosing to go out-of-state because they’ll face lower student loans, Kern said.
Helena
Fire season big, but not the worst
This year’s fire season is one of the biggest in recent state history, a state official told the Governor’s Drought Advisory Committee on Thursday.
About 934,000 acres have burned in the state so far, said Ray Nelson with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. But more than 2.2 million acres burned in the Northern Rockies area in 1988.
The 1910 wildfire season still sets the benchmark. It is believed that more than 3 million acres burned in the Northern Rockies region that summer, according to a history Nelson handed out at the meeting.
Compiled from staff
and wire reports