City pays $60,000 for warehouse
A warehouse adjacent to Memorial Field parking lot has become public property.
The Lake City Development Corp. purchased the white building from Kerr Oil Co. last month for $60,000. The price included the cost of removing old petroleum storage tanks from the site and remediation work, said Tony Berns, executive director of Coeur d’Alene’s urban renewal agency.
Berns said the warehouse site is important to the city’s vision for the Four Corners area. The intersection at Four Corners is the main entrance to North Idaho College. It’s also adjacent to a city park, the Museum of North Idaho, the Human Rights Center and public parking.
The warehouse is on land leased from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. When the DeArmond sawmill closes in early 2008, BNSF will give up its railroad right-of-way and the land underneath the warehouse will revert to the city.
– Becky Kramer
Boise
Rep. Clark resting after ‘mini-stroke’
Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, suffered a “mini-stroke” over the weekend and was resting at home Monday.
Clark, 62, who has a history of health problems including a 2000 heart attack, is undergoing medical tests, Rep. Mike Moyle, R-Star, told House members. Legislators gasped at the announcement.
“He’s doing a little better, and he’s home now,” Moyle said.
Sue Frieders, assistant to House Speaker Lawerence Denney, said Clark experienced a “transient ischemic attack” – a “warning stroke” that occurs when the brain does not receive sufficient blood. Symptoms can include numbness, confusion, trouble talking and a loss of balance, and typically disappear within an hour, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Clark was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1996. He may not return to the Statehouse until next week, said Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol.
– Parker Howell
Boise
Bill extends time for valuation appeal
Landowners would have double the time to appeal new property valuations under a bill unanimously passed Monday by the House Revenue and Taxation Committee.
Taxpayers now must appeal valuations to a county board of equalization within five days of receiving notice by mail. That would be extended to 10 working days.
The current requirement has hindered some taxpayers who received notices on a Thursday, said Sen. Lee Heinrich, R-Cascade, who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries.
– Parker Howell
Legislators urge more energy conservation
Lawmakers criticize the state’s reliance on fossil fuels and call for laws to promote conservation and in-state sources of renewable energy in the first draft of an energy plan released Monday.
The 93-page document says Idaho’s use of coal and hydroelectric power “may become a source of risk,” stressing conservation as a way to lower energy costs and renewable resources as a way to preserve the environment, create jobs and increase tax revenue.
The plan does not rule out controversial options such as coal or nuclear power. It does not include an energy subsidy for low-income Idahoans, which had been suggested earlier.
Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, co-chairman of the 14-legislator committee that wrote the report, said he anticipates that energy-related legislation will use the plan as a guide. Bills this year will provide an incentive for ethanol-distribution facilities, create an ethanol-investment tax credit and end contracts that prohibit fuel retailers from selling ethanol, he said.
– Parker Howell