In brief: Avista to extend natural gas line

Some of Spirit Lake’s 750 residents and businesses will soon be able to tap into natural gas lines, Avista Corp. said Wednesday.

By the end of the month, construction will start on a six-mile natural gas line extension along state Highway 54.

Work should be completed by mid-October, according to the statement.

After that, distribution lines within the city will be installed, with plans to have them in place by the end of the year.

Avista anticipates some customers could begin receiving natural gas this fall.

Service to outlying areas might no be available until 2010.

A town hall meeting to discuss the project will begin at 6:30 p.m. July 30 in the cafeteria of Timberlake High School in Spirit Lake.

– Paula Davenport

Kidd Island Bay

Chandelier falls, injures woman, child

A chandelier fell 36 feet at actor Dennis Franz’s private estate on Lake Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday, injuring a 70-year-old woman and a toddler the woman was holding.

Both suffered lacerations, according to emergency dispatchers. The woman and the 2-year-old girl were conscious when emergency crews arrived.

Known for his role as Andy Sipowicz on the TV drama “NYPD Blue,” Franz owns 82 acres of waterfront property near Kidd Island Bay.

The property was formerly Campfire’s Camp NeeWahLu.

Additional details on the accident were not available.

– Taryn Brodwater

Ketchum, Idaho

Owner rejects hunting sheep-killing wolves

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has agreed to a central Idaho sheep owner’s request not to kill wolves that killed seven of his sheep.

“The livestock producer wanted to work with us to explore all options to keep his stock and the wolves alive,” Steve Nadeau, large carnivore manager with Fish and Game, told the Idaho Mountain Express.

Officials said the seven sheep were killed on July 10 and July 12 on a grazing allotment in the Sawtooth National Forest by the recently formed Phantom Hill wolf pack.

Fish and Game in June discovered the pack had made a den in the upper Wood River Valley north of Ketchum.

The department said the pack’s alpha female earlier this spring gave birth to three wolf pups.

Fish and Game put a collar on one wolf in the pack before the sheep killing took place.

A sheepherder and a volunteer with Fish and Game have been given radio transceivers to be alerted if the wolves come close to the sheep.

Fish and Game also gave rubber bullets to the unnamed sheep owner to scare the wolves away.

“It’s never an easy thing to keep wolves and sheep alive once they have found each other,” Nadeau said.

“But we will do everything we can to keep the conflict minimized.”

– Associated Press