Committee puts off mulling day-care bill
Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, offered extensive amendments to his day-care licensing bill Thursday to get a House committee to pass the bill, but panel members said the amendments confused them.
The House Health and Welfare Committee decided to put off consideration of the bill and the amendments until next week because of the confusion.
Sayler’s bill, HB 163, sought to impose at least minimal health and safety regulations and criminal background checks on all Idaho day-care providers who care for at least two unrelated kids for pay.
Sayler, after meeting repeatedly with committee members who opposed the bill on philosophical grounds, offered to exempt from regulation anyone who cares for five or fewer unrelated children.
“They say politics is the art of the possible,” he said.
Cathy Kowalski, a Coeur d’Alene early childhood education consultant who had traveled from Coeur d’Alene to testify in favor of the bill, told the panel she’d come back because it’s that important.
“I hope that the committee will … vote for what’s in the best interest of the children of Idaho and work as quickly as possible to get this through this session,” Kowalski said.
– Betsy Z. Russell
Hayden
Cruelty charge filed in dog’s killing
A Hayden man was charged with animal cruelty and disturbing the peace Thursday for allegedly killing his neighbor’s dog.
Leonard G. Hammrich, 67, is charged with shooting Turbo, a mixed-breed golden retriever, on Feb. 5.
The criminal complaint against Hammrich accuses him of shooting the dog and causing the animal “to bleed, suffer, and stagger down a public roadway.”
The dog’s owner, Viveca Duff, told a Kootenai County sheriff’s deputy that Hammrich told her the dog “was just walking across my pasture, so I shot it.”
In an interview with deputies, Hammrich said he had problems with dogs chasing his livestock and “he was not going to let it happen again,” according to the sheriff’s report.
Hammrich told the deputies he had shot other dogs that had gone onto his property in the past.
He told deputies that in one instance he shot and buried a dog that was reportedly swimming in a pond on his property.
Hammrich said the Sheriff’s Department made him dig up the dog so the carcass could be returned to the dog’s owner, according to the report.
Both charges filed against Hammrich on Thursday are misdemeanors.
– Taryn Brodwater
Post Falls
Headhunter hired in city job search
The city of Post Falls has hired a headhunting firm to find a new community development director.
The position has been vacant since December, when the City Council agreed to fire Gary Young, who had worked for the city for more than 15 years.
City officials plan to interview finalists for the position in April and may have someone on board by May, City Administrator Eric Keck said.
Seattle-based Prothman Co. is heading up the nationwide search.
The city and Young have declined to say why he left. Young was an at-will employee, which means the council didn’t need to cite a reason for firing him.
– Hope Brumbach