Snow load capacity lowered for roofs
The Kootenai County Commission voted Thursday to reduce the requirement for how much snow the roof of a mobile or manufactured home can hold to comply with federal rules.
Currently the county requires roofs to handle up to 40 pounds of snow. Yet federal laws dictate that states can only require roofs to handle up to 30 pounds of snow.
The commission said it would reduce the snow load but will still recommend to each person requesting a setting permit to place a mobile or manufactured home that a more stringent snow load capacity is advised in this area that often gets heavy snows.
“I have heartburn with the federal statute that dictates some unsafe situations,” Commission Chairman Rick Currie said.
For more information, call the commissioner’s office at (208) 446-1600.
Post Falls
Agency OKs money for business park
Over roughly the next five years, the Stateline Business Park, LLC, development will be reimbursed more than $760,000 in infrastructure improvements from the Post Falls Urban Renewal Agency.
The agency on Thursday approved the reimbursement, to be paid by tax-increment financing. The developer eventually will get $762,250, partially covering costs spent on public improvements to the site, including sewer and water lines, roadways, sidewalks and landscaping.
The urban renewal agency uses a portion of a property’s total tax bill – based on improvements to the property’s value – to finance specific projects.
The Stateline Business Park, off the Pleasant View exit on Interstate 90, features 84 Lumber, which has a retail center, truss plant and several warehouses and lumber sheds.
Moscow, Idaho
UI may stop paying for commuter bus
University of Idaho officials want to stop paying $100,000 a year for a commuter bus because studies show few UI students are riding it.
The Wheatland Express bus carries riders between Moscow and the Washington State University campus in Pullman.
Each university contributes about $100,000 a year to the Moscow Valley Transit system to keep the bus running.
In the fall of 2005, UI officials announced they wanted to stop paying for the bus by this August.
Lloyd Mues, UI vice president for finance and administration, said the school couldn’t justify the expense when so few students use the bus.
Mues said at a Tuesday meeting with students, faculty and staff that the Associated Students of the University of Idaho, the school’s student government, this week proposed increasing student fees to raise about $50,000 to help keep the bus running.
Coeur d’Alene
KMC foundation raised $400,000
The Kootenai Medical Center Foundation raised $400,000 in its 2006 “Festival of Trees: A Northwest Christmas” event. That’s a record and is more than $43,000 above 2005’s total.
The money will benefit outpatient cancer services for the region and help build a satellite cancer facility at the hospital’s Post Falls Health Park. The Post Falls center will help lighten the demand at the North Idaho Cancer Center in Coeur d’Alene, which has grown at about 20 percent annually.
The Post Falls site will be KMC’s second satellite facility. The hospital will open its newly expanded North Idaho Cancer Center Sandpoint clinic, located within Bonner General Hospital, later this spring.
The theme for the 2007 Festival of Trees is “A Christmas to Remember.” It will be Nov. 23-26 at the Coeur d’Alene Resort.
For more information, contact Diane Murray at (208) 666-TREE or visit www.thefestivaloftrees.com.
From staff and wire reports