Plans for governor’s mansion wane

BOISE – With private fundraising months and millions behind schedule, the future remains uncertain for the vacant governor’s mansion atop a grassy mound in north Boise.

Fundraisers are trying to collect more than $3 million to restore the mansion donated in 2004 by agribusiness giant J.R. Simplot. The project would include expanding the $2.1 million, 7,400-square-foot hilltop haven to 12,000 square feet. Since October, the effort has been stuck at about $1.5 million – $1.1 million in pledges, with just $452,000 banked.

Meanwhile, maintenance costs are running $70,000 to $80,000 annually, Idaho lawmakers say – not including a $4,500 monthly stipend Gov. Butch Otter gets to live in his 70-acre ranch west of Boise.

Legislators say they may soon consider scaling back the redecorating project. Otter has declined to live in the home – Simplot is his former father-in-law – so officials may opt to use what’s been raised so far to renovate space for public events. “One of the options we talked about is fixing the public part of it,” said Sen. Brad Little, R-Emmett and chairman of the Governor’s Housing Committee. “There’s probably enough money to do that now.”

The committee will schedule another meeting soon, Little said.

When the house was donated by Simplot nearly three years ago, then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said he wouldn’t use taxpayer money to spruce the place up.

A spokesman for Bill Glynn, president of Intermountain Gas Co. and organizer of the drive, said fundraising totals differ little from the $1.5 million collected in October.

“If we don’t have enough money, the plans would obviously have to be scaled down, which is fine,” said Rep. Anne Pasley-Stuart, D-Boise, who’s also another Housing Committee member.

With no completion date nor tenant in sight, the state’s acceptance three years ago of the gift raises the issue of how difficult managing even well-intentioned donations can be on government or other institutions.

Officials may decide not to decline wealthy benefactors – Kempthorne and Simplot were close. But government also may not be in a position to put the charitable gifts to their best use.

Boise State University found itself in a similar situation in 2005.

A family years earlier had donated a home in the historic Warm Springs neighborhood to be used for the school’s president. But it was occupied only briefly, and current President Bob Kustra decided to live elsewhere.

That left BSU with an aging, vacant mansion with a $400,000 renovation bill. BSU opted to put the house on the market in October 2005 for $2.2 million and use proceeds for scholarships – a plan the family approved.

“There are a lot of considerations to take under advisement – the neighborhood, the historic district and the family, in this case,” said BSU spokesman Frank Zang. “All those were factors that went into a good solution.”

Idaho lawmakers say they’re far from considering selling Simplot’s old house.

“We still have the problem we’ve always had, which is that we have no place for the governor when he has to host a visiting (dignitary), whether it’s somebody domestically, or somebody from abroad,” Little said. “It’s still the intent of the Housing Committee to have some venue to do that.”

Fred Zerza, a J.R. Simplot Co. spokesman, said its founder made the gift with no strings attached and that the company isn’t involved in matters of the house.

“We consider it final,” Zerza said.