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LEGISLATIVE RECAP., A SETBACK FOR ROCK CREEK MINE, DOWNTOWN FIRE UPDATE, EICHARDT'S TURNS 25 AND MUCH MORE

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(wo)MAN compiled by

Susan Drinkard

on the street

There are many activities scheduled for Earth Day this year in our community. How have you changed your lifestyle to be a better steward of the Earth?

“I’m trying to recycle more, and I am trying to be more conscious and intentional about my consumption.”

Lana Fish Zumba instructor Sandpoint

“I think I’m much more aware nowadays than I used to be in terms of climate change and so forth.”

Erik Daarstad Cinematographer Sandpoint

“We plant a tree every year for Earth Day, and this year we are planting a garden.

We are off the grid and try to have a low carbon footprint.”

Claire Cools Stay-at-home mom Westmond “I’m trying to shop locally, because we are trying to support the local farmers and artists. Everything I bought for Christmas gifts I bought from local artists. I don’t like to support mass marketing and mass production of goods because of the packaging waste involved.”

Olivia Hatcher Group Fitness instructor and nutritionist Sagle “Whenever I’m out fishing, I always pick up people’s litter. I have a buddy who is always picking up cans when he’s out, too.”

Lance Bauer Construction Coordinator Bismark, ND

DEAR READERS, Happy Easter Sunday and Happy Earth Day Monday!

Wow, this has been a busy week for us here at Reader HQ. This issue is packed full to the seams with content. We have three news pages, an in-depth interview with Rep. Sage Dixon about his sponsorship of the “voter initiative” bills, editorials about Easter from two representatives of area churches, Earth Day happenings around town and all the usual randomness that you come to expect in these pages.

It’s always a lot of hard work bringing the issue together for you all, week after week. We appreciate all the feedback you give – both positive and constructively critical. After all, this is your newspaper, folks.

Finally, I want to say congratulations to Jeff Nizzoli and his crew at Eichardt’s Pub. Next week they celebrate 25 years here in Sandpoint. It was a blast talking with everyone and hearing their stories for the article on pages 18-19.

-Ben Olson, Publisher

READER 111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 (208)265-9724

www.sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editorial: Cameron Rasmusson cameron@sandpointreader.com Lyndsie Kiebert lyndsie@sandpointreader.com Zach Hagadone (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Jodi Berge Jodi@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: Ben Olson, Susan Drinkard, Lyndsie Kiebert, Racheal Baker, Bill Borders, Megan Reid.

Contributing Writers: Cameron Rasmusson, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert, Emily Erickson, Brenden Bobby, Bob Evans, Eric Rust, Phil Hough, Katie Bradish, Mayor Shelby Rognstad.

Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com Printed weekly at: Griffin Publishing Spokane, Wash.

Subscription Price: $115 per year Web Content: Keokee The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.

We hope to provide a quality alternative by offering honest, in-depth reporting that reflects the intelligence and interests of our diverse and growing community.

The Reader is printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink. Leftover copies are collected and recycled weekly, or burned in massive bonfires to appease the gods of journalism. Free to all, limit two copies per person.

Sandpoint Reader letter policy: The Sandpoint Reader welcomes letters to the editor on all topics.

Requirements: –No more than 400 words –Letters may not contain excessive profanity or libelous material. Please elevate the discussion.

Letters will be edited to comply with the above requirements. Opinions expressed in these pages are those of the writers, not necessarily the publishers.

Email letters to: letters@sandpointreader.com Check us out on the web at: www.sandpointreader.com Like us on Facebook.

About the Cover

This week’s cover is all about Earth Day. We thought, if there’s ever a place to take a selfie, it should be in space looking back at Mother Earth. Done.

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NEWS

Legislators discuss session at Republican Women meeting

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff North Idaho legislators weren’t home for long before answering questions about the recent session at a Bonner County Republican Women, Inc. meeting Tuesday morning.

U.S. Congressman Russ Fulcher also attended the meeting, providing opening remarks about his experience in Washington, D.C. Then each state legislator shared their highlights of the 65th Idaho Legislative Session.

Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, said he learned a lot during his first session, and had the chance to work on an education funding bill that was ultimately passed in place of a completely new funding formula that’s been in the works for several years, but was ultimately determined not ready to be implemented.

Woodward said his first session led him to conclude that Idaho is in a good place, but that population growth will continue to be the state’s greatest challenge.

Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, noted that the legislature did not sign the annual

“going home” bill for the first time ever. The bill, meant to enforce administrative rules from July to next July, must be signed before legislators go home from the session. The House wanted an amendment that would make it so both bodies would have to approve the rules before they’re considered law. Currently, only one body has to give the OK and the rules are deemed effective.

“What we did was on that going home bill, we added an amendment that basically said both chambers have to approve this executive branch rule before it has the full force of law,” Scott said. “(The Senate) sent back a clean bill ... and we basically adjourned without passing the going home bill, which is huge.

It’s unprecedented.”

For the question and answer portion of the meeting, attendees wrote questions on notecards which were then collected and read to the legislators.

When asked about the grocery tax, Woodward said they chose to hold off on considering grocery tax reform because income tax revenue was uncertain this year with all the recent

withholding changes.

“But the stage is set for that discussion next year in the budget,” Woodward said.

One question brought up the child marriage bill killed in the House that would have raised the minimum age to get married in Idaho to 16 years old and required parental consent for those 16 and 17 to be wed. Both Dixon and Scott voted against the bill. Dixon told the Reader in March that while he agreed with the premise of the bill, he had “reservations about some of the language” and pointed out that Idaho “already (has) in statute the requirement for those 16 and under to gain both parental, and judicial, approval before a marriage license would be issued.”

“Who is the government to tell you when you can and cannot get married?” Scott said Tuesday.

“That’s not a decision I think government should be making.”

One question addressed the possible “easing of marijuana laws” in Idaho. Dixon said if marijuana is legalized, it will likely be through the ballot initiative process. There is currently a petition for a ballot initiative

to legalize medical marijuana submitted to the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office for review.

As for the Legislature, Scott said any kind of weed legalization is unlikely.

“We’re not even going to legalize industrial hemp, so I think we’re a ways off,” she said in reference to a hemp bill stalled during the session. “We can worry all day long, but I don’t see that happening in this state.”

When asked what motivated him to bring back, in four parts,

the vetoed bill that would have made it harder to quality a state ballot initiative, Dixon said it was because Gov. Brad Little had an issue with the original bill “taken as a whole.” Dixon wanted the chance for the House, Senate and governor to choose what parts of the proposed law they wanted enforced. Though one of those four bills made it out of the House, the Senate didn’t hear it before the end of the session, meaning the ballot initiative issue is dead until next year.

Rock Creek Mine,” said Earthjustice attorney Katherine O’Brien in a statement. “The ruling also affirms that the state’s job is to protect Montana’s waters for the benefit of all Montanans — not to give those waters away to corporate interests without taking a hard look at the impacts.”

In the ruling, Judge Kathy Seeley determined that Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation did not adequately consider potential damage the mine would deal to local waters.

Proposed by Hecla Mining Company for development near Noxon, Mont., the mine would drain water from wilderness streams in the effort to extract 10,000 tons per day from an underground ore deposit. With

the court reversing the decision to permit that water usage, it’s back in the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s hands to conduct a new evaluation.

“When Congress designated the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, it did so to protect the abundance of unspoiled streams and lakes that make this temperate rainforest so unique,” said Mary Costello, executive director of the Rock Creek Alliance. “The state court’s decision affirms the need to protect wilderness waters from an industrial use that would permanently diminish and degrade them.”

The department, meanwhile, intends to appeal the court decision. And Hecla officials will move forward with an exploratory project at the mine site,

believing the revoked permit won’t impact operations.

The setback for the mine comes on the heels of a separate legal challenge from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. The lawsuit alleges that Hecla CEO Phillips Baker Jr. should be barred from conducting any mining projects due to his previous role as vice president and CFO of Pegasus Gold Corporation. The company left the state holding the bill for a

Rock Creek, Montana.

Photo courtesy YouTube.

Rep. Sage Dixon speaks to the crowd at Tuesday’s meeting while Sen. Jim Woodward and Rep. Heather Scott look on. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert.

Court overturns Rock Creek Mine water permit

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff

A Montana District Court judge revoked a state water use permit for the proposed Rock Creek Mine this week in a decision conservationists are hailing as a victory.

The latest development in a decades-long battle over the proposed mine, the decision puts yet another roadblock in front of the project. While mine supporters argue it will bring good jobs to rural western Montana, opponents say the operation will deal lasting damage to Montana and Idaho waterways.

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massive environmental clean-up after going bankrupt and leaving several cyanide-infested mines in its wake. State officials argue that under Montana bad actor laws, which bar individuals who renege on their clean-up responsibilities from business in Montana, Hecla must either compensate the state for $35 million in environmental costs or proceed in its mining plans with Baker’s involvement.

NEWS

Downtown fire ruled accidental

LPOSD to search for superintendant after Woodward takes new position

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff

Investigators look on while contractors begin demolition of the historic building on First Ave. and Bridge St. in Sandpoint. Photo by Racheal Baker Photography.

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff Idaho state fire marshals ruled out arson last week in its investigation of the First Avenue fire that gutted historic downtown buildings in February, but the exact cause remains undetermined.

With the fire determined to be accidental, investigators believe that it first ignited in the basement between the lower level ceiling and first level floor of 202 First Ave. at the wall between the Chocolate Bear and the former Ol’ Red’s Pub. The fire than spread to engulf both 202 and 204 First Ave., destroying both buildings. A third building sustained heavy damage from fire and smoke.

The fire dealt an estimated $4 million in damage to downtown buildings and infrastructure.

“As we cleared the debris in the basement of 202, the point of origin became clear when we found the glass door to Ol’

Red’s intact. That became a real game changer,” said Deputy Fire Marshal Jason Blubaum in a press release.

“I would like to again reiterate that the fire department did an excellent job and deserves recognition for their efforts,” he added.

First Avenue was closed between Pine and Church for several days last week while investigators conducted their work. An excavator demolished building walls to the sidewalk level in the process, and investigators wore Hazmat suits to avoid potential asbestos exposure, since testing for the substance couldn’t be completed due to structure instability. As work proceeded into this week, heavy equipment gradually cleared away building remains.

According to City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton, the city is doing its best to mitigate impacts, both from the investigation and from the

unsightly building wreckage, to downtown businesses. With the traffic impacts from the investigation no longer a factor and fencing pushed back to widen driving lanes, city officials are turning their focus to beautifying the area.

Collaborating with the Bonner County History Museum, the city is using a $7,500 grant from BNSF Railway to erect non-transparent vinyl panels imprinted with historic images of downtown Sandpoint.

The panels are meant to keep bystanders out of the potentially dangerous wreckage area while providing pedestrians with more pleasing visuals that honor downtown Sandpoint’s historic legacy.

Businesses devastated by the fire have since begun to pick up the pieces. Sandpoint Chocolate Bear, for instance, announced on Facebook it was ordering new equipment and moving to a Spokane Valley location.

The hunt for a new Lake Pend Oreille School District Superintendent begins with the announcement that Shawn Woodward is moving to Mead School District in Washington State.

Mead School District announced the move on their website last week, confirming that the LPOSD superintendent will be taking his next career step across state lines. Woodward replaces retiring school district superintendent Tom Rockefeller and will start the new job July 1.

“In verbally accepting the position Mr. Woodward expressed his sincere thanks for the opportunity and excitement to serve as Mead’s next superintendent,” the Mead School District posted on its website.

Shawn Woodward Woodward replaced previous LPOSD superintendent Dick Cvitanich in 2012. The implementation of a homeschool academy, the addition of options for experiential learning and generally high student achievement marks are highlights of his time with the district.

Man indicted in Wohali shooting

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff A suspect in the death of Robert Cameron Hegseth Wohali faces charges of second-degree murder.

Michael Ryan McDermott, 47, was indicted this week for alleged involvement in the shooting after being identified by police as a suspect shortly after Wohali, 26, disappeared in March. By the time law enforcement found Wohali’s body, McDermott was already in jail for unrelated offenses.

Police identified him as a possible suspect through interviews in their investigation.

Wohali was found dead of a gunshot wound to the chest at a rural location south of Sandpoint. Authorities

Michael McDermott

recovered a gun from the scene they linked to the crime, which they believe occurred at 2208 Great Northern Rd. in the early morning of Friday, March 15.

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NEWS

2019 legislative session recap

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff One of the longest legislative sessions in Idaho history came to a close last Thursday with a bang of the gavel

by Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin.

Clocking in at 95 legislative days, the protracted session produced both controversy and legislative legwork on issues from education to health care to the ballot initiative procedure. While some Republican lawmakers expressed sanctification with the work accomplished, the Democratic minority was frustrated by what it saw as an inefficient session that failed to meet most of its goals. Likewise, many academic and journalistic observers of the legislature described the session in less-than-flattering terms, with the Post Register editorial board calling it “the most dismal in memory.”

“It seemed like the wheels fell off and were just rolling down the Statehouse halls all session,” Boise State University political scientist emeritus Gary Moncrief told the Idaho Press.

The Legislature made progress on education this year, rolling out changes to teacher pay scales and career advancement. But it failed to modernization to the state’s outdated school funding formula, an effort that underwent protracted workshopping from 6 /

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lawmakers and stakeholders this year.

In implementing Medicaid expansion, the Legislature funded the measure but added a host of “sideboards” mandating that beneficiaries be employed or enrolled in educational or training programs, among other requirements.

Gov. Brad Little signed the funding bill, sideboards and all, into law, despite expressing concerns about legal challenges to the additional requirements.

Less successful was an effort to restrict Idaho voters’ ability to enact ballot initiatives. If passed into law, the bills would have increased the percentage of signatures in the number districts required to land an initiative proposal on the ballot while reducing the collection time. A trailer bill later made those restrictions less draconian, but Little nevertheless vetoed both versions.

Other issues raised during the session failed to gain traction. For instance, lawmakers failed to take action in addressing Idaho’s overpopulated prisons. Idaho’s hemp laws are still in conflict with those of neighboring states, meaning truck drivers hauling industrial hemp can be arrested for marijuana trafficking.

And laws permitting child marriage and faith healing, alleged to provide legal cover for child abuse, remain on the books.

The Idaho State Capitol building in Boise.

Courtesy photo.

POLITICS

A conversation with Rep. Sage Dixon About his support of the “voter initiative” bills

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

liked or didn’t like. If they liked them all, the governor would have the ability to determine which ones he thought were appropriate or weren’t appropriate going forward.

The 65th Legislative Session concluded in Boise BO: Isn’t this an attempt to last week. One procircumvent the veto override posal that caused process? It’s the same bill, you’ve a stir during this just compartmentalized it. session was a seSD: Well, it’s different bills, ries of bills aimed Ben, because if we just went at toughening up with, say, the 10% one, you requirements for still would have the 18 districts getting an initiative and the 18 months, and the on the state ballot. same thing on down the line. …

Gov. Brad Little Rep. Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay. They’re different. The things that issued vetoes for the are changing are the same as those that were bills after receiving more than 6,000 phone in SB1159, but it’s not the exact same bill, if calls, 99% of which were opposed. that makes sense to you. We weren’t changAfter the vetoes — the only two ising everything at the same time, we were sued of this session — Rep. Sage Dixon, changing single parts of the existing law.

R-Ponderay, quadrupled down and issued four new bills, splitting the voter initiative BO: I get that, but one of the things issue into separate parts to ease the passage. you talked about was that you were Dixon was the only lawmaker from North promoting these bills to make sure rural Idaho to support the original bills. voters have an adequate say. It seems to The clock ran out on Dixon’s bills after me that statement is a little disingenuous the legislative session adjourned April 11, because rural voters have just as much leaving the issue dead for the time being. exposure to the state ballot as urban Based on all the feedback I’ve received on voters. You, more than I, know the process this issue, I thought it would be informative a bill takes to become a law. It seems like to have a conversation with Rep. Dixon you are trying to block people from seeing to see what’s behind his unflagging effort things on the ballot. Am I wrong here? to toughen up signature requirements for SD: Yes, I’m not trying to block things Idaho ballot initiatives. at all, Ben. I truly am trying to expand the Ben Olson: The original bill was process so more people have a say in the law vetoed by Gov. Little. He received over that’s being made. Our current process is 6,000 phone calls, emails and letters, with through elected representation, where we’re over 99% of people opposed to it. Why elected by a majority of our district, so when try this all over again? we come down here, we’re giving a voice to our district. In that process, then, everybody Rep. Sage Dixon: The message we got has a voice in what’s brought before them from him was that he wasn’t opposed to as a law. Currently, you go to Ada County, what we were trying to do, and what we Canyon County and a little bit of Twin and heard from the lawyers also about him not say Bannock, and you’ve got all the signawanting to go forward was because the first tures you need there, and you also have the part wasn’t so controversial. That was the majority of the voting population there, so fiscal note and the single-subject rule — they don’t have to pay any attention to, say, those first four items being changed, trying to make it a little more transparent and con- District 27 or District 20 or even District 7 sistent with the Legislature. But in changing itself ... and in asking for more to be done to place something on the ballot, I believe the percentage of signatures needed and changing the number of districts needed and because we’re going around that legislative process that more people in the state need to changing the time, those three together are be involved in saying that this is appropriate what presented the problem, not individu— (that they) want to be governed under that ally. My thought was, since it passed both — rather than just specific areas of people. (the House and Senate), if we passed those as individual bills, the body would have the BO: When it comes to the overwhelmopportunity to determine which ones they ing opposition to this bill, isn’t that

people weighing in their opinion? Do you really think this has widespread support in Idaho?

SD: There was a poll the Farm Bureau did that showed a lot of support, and all the questions were put out to those people there as well, and most people were in favor of changing the current process. They saw value in making it more expansive, so they could have a say. I would say, I didn’t specify the rural parts, Ben. That was kind of what came out as other people were speaking to this, because while I don’t think it’s very possible, but conceivably rural areas could all get together and outvote folks that were in an urban area if they were able to get together enough in doing that. But I believe it’s important, again, that if we’re making law, that it’s more reflective on what everybody in the state wants, not just specific areas. So there were maps that we handed out. They showed the areas where the signatures were gathered — not where they attempted to go but where they hit that mark and that were targeted for both Prop. 1 and 2. And they are kind of carbon copies of each other. It was odd to see the areas that were left out and where they didn’t go to get signatures from. … I know it came up a little bit in the debate that the Reclaim Idaho people did make efforts in certain counties, but weren’t able to get those numbers there.

With the metrics they have now, you can target people to where you’re going to be able to get your votes, because they agree with your political persuasion — you know, the way that all the data was collected. So it was kind of exposed in these maps. I may not be explaining it correctly, but it seems to be evident.

BO: When asked who helped him draft the original legislation of SB1159, Sen. Scott Grow told reporters that it was “confidential information.” I’ll ask the same question to you, Sage: Who helped you draft your bills? What support did you get?

SD: It was other representatives and senators. We went over different issues, what we wanted this to look like … My first statement to this effort was I was shooting for 35 of 35 (districts) to be consistent with what my argument is, which is every district in the state would be able to be represented in that desire to get something on the ballot. …

We would run ideas by the attorney general’s office. We modified things down to what we had at that point and tried to modify it even more after getting a lot of feedback and the difficulty that a lot of the Senate had, and that’s why we ran that trailer bill to amend the original bill. But there was no collusion with any kind of — the pay day loan thing, I know where that came from, but that was

Laughing Matter

< see DIXON, page 9 >

By Bill Borders

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COMMUNITY

Let’s Give Sage His Pink Slip...

Noxious weed treatment begins on Idaho forests

By Reader Staff

Bouquets: GUEST SUBMISSION: • I would like to submit a “Bouquet” to Mark and Susie Kubiak for purchasing and installing trash cans and “doggie poop” bags at the Pine Street trailhead of the Gretta’s Segway trail (part of the Syringa Heights/Sherwood Forest trail system). Dog poop does not melt away when the snow does, so it is the responsibility of dog owners to pick up their dog’s poop year-round! This trail system was built entirely by volunteer/members of the Pend Oreille Pedelars on private property, and the trash cans and poop bags are a great way to remind dog owners to pick up after their four-legged friends!

-By Steve Sanchez Barbs • One of the reasons I generally stay off Facebook except for communicating via our Reader Facebook page is the incredible amount of dreck that exists there. This week, the world watched in horror while the Notre Dame Cathedral burned in Paris. I don’t think a person alive who saw those pictures felt anything but awful, but before the fire was even contained, Facebook and Twitter were awash with anti-Islamic conspiracy theories claiming that the fire was arson.

I noticed it from a prominent Republican in Bonner County, too, whose post was filled with ugly anti-Islamic comments. I will refrain from naming them since they took the post down after I explained to them it was inappropriate, but we have to be better than this, people.

What is the deal with people immediately spreading conspiracies when there isn’t evidence to back up anything at this point? This isn’t your political narrative, it’s a historic monument that has stood for over 850 years and is a symbol of light in Paris and the world. My advice? Don’t jump to conclusions before you know the facts, because all it does is sow more hatred and division. My heart goes out to the people of Paris and the rest of the world. Let’s hope we can band together and rebuild this famous cathedral soon.

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The Idaho Panhandle National Forests will be treating noxious weeds on National Forest System lands as part of an integrated pest management program that includes mechanical treatment, seeding of competitive native grasses, biological controls, and chemical treatment. Treatments will occur from May through October 2019 on roads, trails, trailheads and administrative sites located through-

out each ranger district.

The Forest Service partners with Tribes, Counties, and the State of Idaho through the Good Neighbor Authority and Weed Cooperative Management Areas to prioritize, inventory, and treat weed-infested areas. The most common targeted weeds include: houndstongue, spotted knapweed, meadow hawkweed, orange hawkweed, St. Johnswort, Canada thistle, bull thistle, rush skeletonweed, dalmatian toadflax, yellow

toadflax, leafy spurge, blueweed (vipers’ bugloss), common bugloss, Scotch broom, multiflora rose, Japanese knotweed, tansy ragwort, poison hemlock, and common tansy.

All areas considered for treatments are listed on the Idaho Panhandle National Forests website as authorized by each district’s Noxious Weeds Environmental Impact Statement or Environmental Assessment.

Litehouse announces new promotions

By Reader Staff

Litehouse, Inc. announced promotions to their executive team this week.

Matt Burrows has been promoted to vice president of finance and Derek Matt Burrows.

Derek Christensen.

Christensen has open positions. Having been with been promoted to vice president Litehouse for nearly a decade of IT. Burrows and Christensen, each, Matt and Derek’s expertise two of the company’s more than and guidance has played a crucial 1,100 employee-owners, will also join the Litehouse executive team, role in our company’s growth and development to-date, and we are where their business acumen and respective expertise in finance and delighted to welcome them to the Litehouse executive team.”

IT will play a critical role in deBurrows joined Litehouse in veloping the company’s strategic 2010 as an accounting manager, plan for the future. and during the past nine years, “As the industry and our also held the roles of controller company continue to evolve, we and director of corporate finance remain committed to investing and accounting. In his new role as in talent and resources that will support future growth,” said Kelly vice president of finance, BurPrior, president of Litehouse. “Be- rows will represent the compaing an employee-owned company, ny’s financial department at an executive level, and oversee the we always look to promote from long-term strategy for the compawithin when we have qualified ny’s financial planning. Burrows employees that can step into the

has a double major in finance and accounting, and prior to joining Litehouse, held roles at Key Tronic and BDO Seidman.

Since joining Litehouse in 2010, Christensen has served as the senior director of IT and has held roles as the applications manager, as well as director and managerial IT positions. As Litehouse continues to invest in technology updates and innovations, Christensen’s new role as vice president of IT further reinforces the company’s commitment to staying at the forefront of industry developments. Christensen currently serves on the board for the Inland Northwest Technology Professionals Association, and prior to joining Litehouse, held roles at Evolution Fresh and Disneyland Park.

Litehouse is 100-percent employee-owned and is rated the #1 refrigerated salad dressing brand in the combined U.S. and Canada.

Dear Editor, Sage Dixon and the Freedom Caucus want to make ballot initiatives impossible. They were stopped by the governor this time, but they are laying the groundwork to take away our rights.

They have started a smear campaign of hatred against Reclaim Idaho, claiming Reclaim is a front for California liberals. The root of this blatant lie comes from Brent Regan, the chairman of the Kootenai County Republicans.

His “proof” is that Rebecca Schroder, a resident of CDA, while she was volunteering for Reclaim, spoke to a California union about our grassroots effort to expand Medicaid. Gasp. And that union has ties to The Fairness Project, double gasp! Who has received money in the past from George Soros! OMG! But in reality The Fairness Project didn’t give a dime to Reclaim Idaho.

The leader of Reclaim, Luke Mayville is a North Idaho native, and of the 54,000 signatures gathered all but 2,192 of them were collected by unpaid Idaho volunteers. Thousands of Idahoans braved the cold and the bullying to provide health care to 72,000 of their neighbors.

The Freedom Caucus frequently uses this M.O. If they can’t argue on substance, they lie about the issue. If that doesn’t work they attack and smear the people who support it. All the Freedom Caucus cares about is their power, not our lives.

It is time for Idahoans to stand for the truth. God put lying in his top-10 list of evil. Let us give Sage Dixon his pink slip.

Mary Haley Sandpoint

Reelect Dr. Burgstahler to Hospital Board...

Dear Editor, We have a chance to re-elect an outstanding doctor and administrator – Dr. Scott Burgstahler – to the Pend Oreille Hospital District Board in a non-partisan election on May 21 (the seat is an unpaid position that helps direct a portion of your property tax to help meet medical needs in our community).

Serving on the board since 2012, Dr. Burgstahler has worked in private practice at Bonner General Health, and currently serves as medical director and in-house physician at Life Care Center in Sandpoint (he was named company-wide “physician of the year” for Life Care Centers of America in 2016).

Scott and his wife Alison, a physical therapist, have lived in Sandpoint since 1991. They have two children who are both in the medical profession.

One of Dr. Burgstahler’s goals is to support Bonner General Health through supporting free-standing clinics such as the Psychiatric Clinic, the Women’s Health Clinic and helping start up the new Ears, Nose and Throat Clinic.

He wants to see our medical community stay vibrant and independent, yet maintaining good relationships with surrounding hospitals and medical systems.

To maintain our excellent medical reputation, vote for Dr. Scott Burgstahler to the open seat on the Pend Oreille Hospital District board of Trustees on Tuesday, May 21 (voters cast their ballots at their usual precinct voting location).

Pat Ramsey Sandpoint

< DIXON, cont from page 7 >

not ever, there was nobody I ever dealt with like that. … This isn’t an effort by any lobbyist group as it has been presented, and even. Rep. Scott made some allusions to that, that somehow lobbyists were pushing this through. It’s all corrupt, and it’s just patently false.

BO: One thing I have to bring up is, looking at North Idaho candidates’ campaign contributions from 2018, if you look at Rep. Scott she had 80 donations from private individuals, Mike Boeck had 26, Stephen Howlett had 47, Scott Herndon had 57, Jim Woodward had 34. … You had five donations from private individuals in 2018, two of which were from Texas. The rest were from a lot of PACs and corporations. I’m curious how you think that you’re speaking for the rural voter when it’s obvious who has your ear when it comes to finances.

SD: I don’t ask for money, Ben, that’s why. I think it’s hard for people to give money in our district, and the people who do, do it when they’re ready to. So that’s also why PACs give us money and lobbyists give us money. When you’re elected, that happens. I’m not beholden to them, and they know that. It comes as just a matter of being here, and they do it to try and get your ear. But I don’t bend that way because they contribute to my campaign, and they’re welcome to not to. I know that looks odd — I’m aware of that. But I’m not getting donations from individuals, not because they necessarily don’t want to, but because I don’t solicit them. I don’t market myself and try and say things just to appease people and get money from them. So that’s maybe a shortcoming. Maybe I need to do that more if people are concerned that I don’t have the support of my district, but I believe I do. While I’m getting a whole lot of negative feedback now, and I think there’s some people on the other side of the aisle, even in our district, that trusted me and now they don’t necessarily have that trust. But I’m happy to talk to them and explain myself as I am with you about my impetus here that has not changed. I just think this is a better way to do that initiative process, with upholding of the way our government is structured rather than a strict democratic process, where it’s strictly a majority that wins in a sense. So if we’re going to do the legal established law, more people should be involved in the state.

BO: It seems to me, Sage, that your backing of these bills shows sort of an inherent distrust of Idaho voters. Is that accurate at all? You’re essentially implying that people don’t know enough when they read the ballot what they’re voting for.

SD: I do not doubt the voting public’s ability to make a decision on an issue, but it is undeniable that the interests of larger population areas will outweigh the interests of lower population areas. … I just want to

be sure that if something is on the ballot that they wanted it there. Because if you have the majority of the population that are able to get it on the ballot, then the same majority population will be able to vote it into effect. And I am fine with that initiative process, Ben. I will keep saying the same thing: More people need to be involved, because it’s easy to ignore certain parts of the state. And it might not be something they are in favor of, and yes, through the voting process, you don’t aways have as much information, but they can still be overruled by a majority in larger population areas. So that’s a good question, and I can see how it would look like that.

Fair enough. But no, I trust the voters, and that’s how we live and die in politics as far as being an elected representative.

BO: I see these bills as a solution to a problem that I’m not seeing in Idaho. I’m not seeing a preponderance of initiatives on our ballots. I’m not seeing a bunch of initiatives being voted into law. What’s the problem that is drawing this action together?

SD: I would just repeat the same thing: It’s not necessarily a reaction to a problem that’s been experienced now, but . . . if we’re going to use that system it should be more reflective of the state as a whole. I try and keep things consistent with the original intent, and I don’t think our current process is. It’s morphed a couple of times through different lawsuits and different reasons, but that was my impetus in doing this.

BO: Did Proposition 2’s Medicaid expansion have anything to do with either Sen. Grow’s bill or your own bills that were introduced?

SD: No, I don’t think that was part of it, not that I recall. Part of the conversation I’m sure we looked at that, and it did have some part as far as looking at what we were trying to make the changes in, because I believe testimony on Prop. 2 was that they got the signatures in four and a half months. Prop. 1 they got it in two and a half months, so that was kind of proving our point of shrinking the number of days allowed to gather signatures. So there was some bouncing off of that, and also thinking about what would be the things that passed, under the parameters we were proposing.

BO: Going back to your campaign finances, Sage, I see a lot of donations from health care organizations, insurance companies, PACs that support private health care. I see a lot of money coming your way from the people that would benefit if Medicaid expansion never happened.

SD: Well, I don’t know about that.

BO: I can send you the report I’m referring to. It shows that...

SD: I don’t doubt that, I just don’t know if they’re going to benefit or not from Medicaid expansion passing. It’s already passed, so that’s kind of a moot point. A lot of those

donations will depend on what committees you’re on, so because I’m on the business committee, and that was even before I was chair. We deal with insurance, so that’s unfortunately, or fortunately, we need money to run campaigns, and that’s where we are.

They keep in touch with people that way.

That’s what they think they need to do, and we need the money to run campaigns. So those things kind of tie together, but again it doesn’t mean I’m doing something a lobbyist wants, or a corporation wants, because it shows up on my campaign finance report. I know that’s a hard thing to take my word on, but hopefully I can exemplify that somehow, because I certainly don’t deal with the insurance agencies. Plenty of the legislation — maybe not plenty but some that they were opposed to — I allowed to be heard and through the committee.

BO: I guess the reason I’m asking is that it just seems that there is a lot, lot, lot more support for killing these bills off and for keeping the voter initiative system either as it is, or slightly modified with the single-issue and financial disclosure items. I’m just curious why you seem to be ignoring the overwhelming opposition to this issue.

Statewide. Both parties.

SD: I think most of it’s coming from one area, Ben. I don’t think it’s both parties. There’s a couple of people in our party, there are a lot of people nervous about the noise being made, but I don’t think it’s an overwhelming number of the state. It might be a very vocal portion of the state, and the people that helped mainly get Prop. 2 through, who I’ve seen be opposed to it...

B- Like Heather Scott? Like Carl Crabtree? Like Jim Woodward? Like Priscilla Giddings? All of them Republicans...

SD: I can’t speak to that, Ben. I don’t know what their motivations are. I have ideas, but it wouldn’t be gracious of me to say in doing that. I have heard support and had support from other people for these.

It just isn’t put in the media. The polls the Farm Bureau did shows overwhelming support to change our current process.

BO: Sage, I appreciate you talking with me, I’m sorry for the tough questions, but this is something that has come up a bunch to me, so...

SD: That’s fine. I don’t mind your questions at all. That’s my job, and I need to answer them.

Special thanks to Rep. Dixon for taking the time to speak with me and answering all of my questions. It shows character for a lawmaker to make himself available to the media and their constituents.

What other N. Idaho lawmakers are saying Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard “I personally opposed the bill because I believe it has the real potential to stymie the voice of the citizens and make it nearly impossible to put something on the ballot for a vote by the people. It is a bedrock principle of mine that I will always stand on the side of the people while upholding the Constitution.”

“I had many emails and phone calls from citizens who were concerned that the ballot initiative bill (SB 1159) would make it harder to make their voices heard.”

“While I do not mind the idea being looked at in separate parts, I did not like the idea of splitting the bill into four separate bills after the veto by the governor, so late in the session.

It appeared to be a desperate attempt to push the idea.”

Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle “The feedback I’ve gotten from everyone has been in opposition to the proposed ballot initiative changes. We, as citizens of Idaho, want to retain our ability to propose legislation directly.”

“I opposed Senate Bill 1159 because I think the proposed changes made the hurdle too high, and they don’t address what is potentially a real problem. Current law allows pay-per-signature in Idaho. Pay-per-signature truly affects the ‘citizen initiative.’ When money from outside the state is paying for petition signatures to change Idaho law, it is not the citizens of Idaho speaking. I do agree that a ballot initiative should have a fiscal statement which addresses the estimated cost of a proposed law and potential funding sources. When I’ve spoken with folks here at home, I hear agreement on pay-per-signature and the fiscal statement.”

Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird “... this bill does not protect rural voters. It does quite the opposite. By creating the most restrictive initiative process in the country, Senate Bill 1159 chips away at the principles of our Constitutional Republic, it degrades Idaho’s system of checks and balances, and almost entirely shifts the balance of power toward government and away from Idaho grassroots efforts.”

“I have received mixed feedback on this issue. Republicans are split on the issue and all Democrats are against it. The week after the bill was introduced, I asked for feedback in my newsletter from my constituency. Initially I did not receive much feedback, and several people remarked that it was too complicated for them to understand the ramifications. I also reached out to the central committees in my district and was surprised to find out that most of them were against it. Most of my constituents were pleased after the Senate amended it the first time.”

Sen. Carl Crabtree, R-Grangeville “I will tell you almost all responses from constituents have been positive, relative to my voting no on this bill. I know there were those not enthused, but it is rare to receive as much positive feedback on a vote as this decision received. And, the responses were from folks I know.”

“I believe the people should have a way to get around the Legislature. That right is provided to us in the Constitution.

The Legislature can still override the initiative, and has. So there are checks and balances to any thought of mob rule. I don’t believe we have a problem with our initiative process in Idaho. In the last two elections, we have had two initiatives; one passed, one failed. That does not create a need for legislation. This was a fear of what could happen, based on other states, but states with different laws governing initiatives.”

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ENVIRONMENT

Sand Creek and Beach Clean-Up Day: A great time to dust off the town

By Reader Staff Please join Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper and the City of Sandpoint on Saturday, April 20, starting at 10 a.m. for the annual Sand Creek and Beach Clean-Up Day. This family-friendly event is a great way to celebrate our Earth by cleaning up the watershed and shorelines in Sandpoint.

Earth Day is a national day to focus on the environment. Starting in 1970, Earth Day represents the birth of the modern environmental movement. Celebrated by almost a billion people worldwide, Earth Day is a day of action that sets to change human behavior and provoke policy changes. What better way to celebrate this day then to get outside and pick up trash that would end up in your lake and its ecosystem.

The event begins at the Sandpoint City Beach Pavilian starting at 10 a.m. Once checked in, Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeepers will provide participants with trash and recycling bags as well as gloves. Evans Brothers Coffee will be providing hot coffee to help fuel trash collection. There will also be doughnuts on hand in case the coffee just is not enough. After participants are fully fueled, they will be sent on their way to clean shorelines. New this year, they plan to collect recycling! Participants will be provided with a separate garbage bag for the recyclables found.

“Shoreline cleanups help maintain a sense of ownership and responsibility over our community’s most prized natural resources,” said Chantilly Higbee, the Lake

The Simon family volunteers to collect litter, debris and micro-trash from City Beach as part of LPOW’s annual Sand Creek Cleanup. Courtesy photo.

Pend Oreille Waterkeeper. “Just as you tend to your family and closest friends, when you tend to your favorite water body you feel more connected to it. It makes you feel good!”

Join the effort rain or shine. Together we can make a difference!

If you would like more information email sharon@lpow.org

MAC AND THE BOYS IN MEXICO

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Mac and the boys, Patrick, Kurt, Steve and Fabian displaying the Reader between cold beers in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

PERSPECTIVES

Emily Articulated

A column by and about Millennials

To college or not to college

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist I stomped with clamped fists up the steps to my college’s main hall, rain pattering my head to match my mood. My stomach flipped as I attempted to steady my breathing, blasting through the door before I could stop myself. I was going to drop out of college that day.

Shaking the rain from my hair, I scanned the room. Where does one go to drop out of college? I had visited the financial aid office, the scheduling department and had visited most of the offices in the building in my three tenure, but I’d never needed to “end” my education before.

And it’s not like there were signs reading, “So you think you don’t need this blasted degree, do you?

This way, then.”

Figuring I’d start with the Registrar’s office, I stalked up to the desk and blurted, “I’m looking to drop out of college today.

Is this where I go?” as if willing the woman opposite me to try to convince me otherwise (ha!).

She looked at me with curiosity, and said, “You’re in the right place, what’s your name and student ID?” After taking my information, she scanned my records, my perfect GPA and junior-year status reflecting in her glasses.

“So, you’re not dropping out for academic reasons, have you thought this through?”

I had thought it through ... well, sort of.

I had determined after my third summer of small-town Alaska living that there were so

Emily Erickson. many opportunities that existed beyond the jobs for which a college degree was necessary, and that those degree-required jobs would be the death of me, anyhow. A cubicle corner for barely-above minimum wage, with aspirations at a window?

And $40,000 of debt to get there? No thank you.

Instead of spending another year of my life working toward something I’d never use and acquiring more debt along the way, I wanted to end it; to rip it off like the band aid that was the conventional path I’d been fooled to follow.

After three mandatory counseling sessions and a slew of signed papers, I was free of my education. I bought plane tickets to the Yukon, to Ireland, and to Bangkok, and felt as if my life was finally beginning.

This decision to forgo higher education is becoming more and more prevalent for young people today. According to the New York Times article, “College May Not be Worth it Anymore,” the average amount of student loan debt for a college student is $38,000, despite the fact that “since 2000, the growth in the

wage gap between high school and college graduates has slowed to a halt; 25 percent of college graduates now earn no more than does the average high school graduate.”

In many cases, pursuing higher education just sets people up to be years behind, and paying on debilitating monthly loans that hinder them from participating in those “normal” life events, like purchasing a home, getting married and having kids.

But, despite the scene painted, this is not a column arguing against higher education. I’ve had time to reflect on the point of college, and the idea that there is so much more going on in higher education beyond setting oneself up for a future career. Returning years later to finish my degree, I now agree with Forbes contributor Derek Newton; “Foremost, earnings are a terrible way to measure the value of going to college. Doing so commercializes and minimizes everything about it.”

In college, you learn that the world is bigger than the community you grew up in, that critical thinking and being informed (understanding the difference between a good source and a bad source) is far more important than the piece of paper you’re awarded upon finishing.

And mostly, you learn the value of studying things that change how you see the world: art, history, music and culture.

No, this is not a column bashing higher education. This is a column loving college, and arguing that it needs to be more accessible. And that $40,000 is an absurd price to pay for something we should be encouraging

people to pursue.

Instead, I’m arguing for reform; reforming the idea that you should attend college the year after you graduate high school without having lived on your own or knowing what you like to do; reforming pushing traditional education on each type of learner; reforming the institutions so they don’t set people up to fail from debilitating debt after graduation; and reforming the understanding that the value of learning can be monetized.

Because the current system isn’t working. And education is important for so many reasons beyond a career. Like the 21-yearold Emily vehemently understood (although incompletely), something has to change.

Emily Erickson is a freelance writer and bartender originally from Wisconsin, with a degree in sociology and an affinity for playing in the mountains.

Retroactive

By BO

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Mad about Science:

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist The dodo was a bird closely related to pigeons and doves, though you wouldn’t think it if you ever saw one. They were about three feet tall, fat and flightless. An evolutionary history on islands with no predators probably helped establish its … aherm, portly appearance.

Flight is an important ability for birds. It makes them travel faster, escape predators and intercept prey more readily, but who needs to burn all of their energy on flying when most of your food falls on the ground?

If I were stranded on an island where tacos fell out of the trees, I’d probably look ready to engage in a sumo throwdown, too.

While you might expect an extinction shaming and a climate lecture, climate change as we know it had very little to do with the dodo extinction. It was a rare bird by nature, living on a relatively isolated island in the tropics with few natural predators. As humans moved in around the 1600s, bringing pigs and other large mammals, the dodo had a hard time competing with more efficient animals.

Unfortunately, its extinction was an inevitability even if it had survived into our conservationist 21st century. Now I’m not saying light a tire on fire and throw a garbage bag full of six-pack rings in the ocean, but evolution has proven that some species will thrive and others will die.

It’s just like that song in “The Lion King”, if it were rated R and Mufasa decided to feast on Rafiki’s bones for holding his cub over a freaking cliff.

Brenden Bobby: professional childhood ruiner.

As science wasn’t exactly in its peak in the 1600s, not much remains of the dodo. Preserva12 /

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the dodo tion wasn’t as careful then as it is now, and scientists at the time didn’t have things like climate controlled clean rooms. The few fossils that remain are primitively preserved heads and feet, a couple of leg bones and plaster skeletons that are recreations of recreations. Interestingly enough, drawings are the best-preserved remnants of the dodo. You know, stuff scribbled on frail parchment that survived for 400 years.

I guess when it comes to preservation, we’re better at saving the things we make than the things we destroy. Oh, humans!

In recent years, scientists have used a wide range of scanning techniques like MRIs (magnetic resonance imagery) and CT scans (computed tomography) to scan the inside of the few dodo skulls still floating around.

From there, they cross-reference the interior of the skull with the interior of skulls from other birds to deduce what parts of the brain dodos used the most.

They found their brains were most similar to pigeons, with a developed olfactory bulb. That means they had a great sense of smell, which likely meant a great deal of their diet were fragrant things like fruits. Being a bird, it likely ate whatever it could fit into its beak, including rocks: Most birds do this using an organ called a gizzard.

If you raise and butcher chickens, you can find the gizzard just behind the liver. If that makes you squeamish, you can find them wrapped up in plastic at the grocery store. If that makes you squeamish, just remember: flowers are the severed genitals of plants.

We also know a bit about the dodo’s reproductive abilities.

Typical of an extinct animal, it wasn’t particularly effective when comparing it to something

like a mouse that can foster several babies per litter up to 10 times per year. The dodo laid a single egg and raised a single offspring, presumably to adulthood. Whether or not it had any more after that one is totally unknown, but that means it took two dodos to make one dodo, which could effectively halve the population every time the parents died. That likely wasn’t the case, but… We can’t really know for sure. Most birds will lay several eggs to mitigate high mortality rates. The dodo was probably just unfortunate enough to be stuck between: “I’m a small bird with hyperactive oviducts” and “I’m a big bird that needs to eat a lot to make new birds.”

Despite the species’ fragility, we do know that it was particularly hardy when being transported, as for some time the dodo was transported by humans from its habitat to exhibits around the world. Equipped with a beak that could easily crack hard nuts and shear through the soft skin of fruits, dodos were fed all sorts of things on sea voyages during their transports. Whether or not these transports stressed the dodos too much to breed, or humans just didn’t allow them to breed,we may never know. A lot about the dodo is a big question mark.

The dodo is, if nothing else, a rallying cry for animals facing extinction today. The fact that we know so little about something that died out so recently is pretty depressing, and if it’s in our power to stop another animal from facing the dodo’s fate because of something humans are doing, we should do whatever we can to preserve and foster it, and if it’s too late, we should at least learn everything we can about it to prevent that from happening to its closest relatives.

If you want a fun lens for extinction, (Never thought I’d say that) I would suggest checking out some of Ralph Steadman’s books, including “Nextinction”, or “Extinct Boids” that showcases the mysterious dodo with quirky art and facts. You don’t

even need to buy them, just check the library’s online catalog and click “Place Hold”.

Just remember: The dodo didn’t read. The dodo is also extinct.

See you next week!

Random Corner nders? help!

Don’t know much about left ha

We can

•10% of the world’s population is left-handed.

• Famous left-handed people include Napoleon, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Einstein, Newton, Bill Gates, Oprah, Obama and Jimi Hendrix.

• 40% of schizophrenics are left-handed, despite being only 10% of the world’s population.

• Every Aug. 13 is celebrated “Left-Handers Day” since 1996.

• Right-handed people tend to chew food on the right side while left-handed tend to chew on the left side.

• More than 2,500 left-handed people are killed every year by using equipment meant for right-handed people.

• Left-handed soldiers prepare and throw grenades upside down because of how the safety pin is placed.

• Inherited genes account for just 25% of the chance of being left-handed, a study found.

• Left-handed people process things faster than righties while playing computer games or sports.

• Kangaroos are almost always left-handed.

• A study found that right-handed individuals have better oral hygiene and the lower incidence of caries because of their better manual dexterity and brush efficiency.

RELIGION

What is the most important word for Easter? Love

By Eric Rust Reader Contributor

By Bob Evans Reader Contributor It seems the more I digest the mysteries surrounding the declaration of eternal life made by the disciples of the one called, Christ, the more at a loss for words I become. It is not good for a preacher to run out of words, but the most important word for Easter that comes to the surface from my inmost self is “love.” As gravity is the glue that holds the universe together, love is the force that gives life to, and drives the creative impulse that brings us into existence. Easter reveals to us divine ecstatic love, and that God is the eternal verb continually making things new.

Easter’s loving message is also the answer, for many, to humanity’s question of whether or not there is any meaning to life and what its source of power is. The Catch 22 in these statements is that they are only true for “believers.” “Believers in what?” some might ask. First, it is simply to believe that there is an answer to our question concerning life and our place in it.

Jesus is at the center of Christian believers’ search for meaning, so we look at his actions and words left to us by his disciples that, in many ways, only seem to complicate our search. Many take the words of our scripture as literal history, while others see them as poetry, metaphor, and using the symbols of prophetic language and archetypical images to quicken our hearts to an awareness of our communion with beingness and eternal life.

Easter is the final conflict between selfishness and selflessness, between what we ought to do and what we really do, between who we think we are and who we are in the eye of the creative mystery we call God. The cross symbolizes that point where finite time intersects with the eternal in which, in the words of an Emmylou Harris song, “There is no time, but there is day and night.” Of course, this is where what Christians call the “Judgment” takes place; this is the place we let go of selfishness.

Those of us who are disciples of Christ have taken up our cross and determined to follow Jesus in letting go of the false self.

This has to do with riding ourselves of our sacred biases which are those judgmental

Easter 2019: The difference Resurrection makes

prejudices that allow us to look at others as less worthy, while claiming them as God given. It is these prejudices that keep us from becoming aware of our purpose and meaning as children of the Eternal. These must be, in the words of our myth, “crucified on the cross.” But that is only part of the disciple’s journey to the cross and resurrection with Jesus; we must replace these biases with compassion, mercy and divine love for all creation.

Easter is the celebration of this awareness of one’s true self as an eternal part of God’s image which can only be comprehended by the believer who has learned to let go of his or her sacred biases while becoming a vessel of God’s love. Jesus entire life is depicted as dedicated to doing God’s will and revealing God’s gift of divine communion empowered by “Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling.”

Jesus path to the cross is written to instill in us a heart big enough to love others enough to die for them as he did.

This journey teaches us to see creation more clearly through the eye of God, which is to make God’s name known and is synonymous with the symbol, “Resurrected with Christ.”

Bob Evans is a husband and father of six grown children. He have studied Eastern Philosophy at the University of Saskatchewan and hold an MDiv from Bangor Theological Seminary. He is an ordained minister at the Emerge ‘N See United Church of Christ in Sandpoint.

Five-year-old Timmy was excited about this year’s Easter program. His line was the most important — the words of the angel seated outside the empty tomb who said, “He is not here, he is risen.”

Unfortunately, when his moment came, he could not remember his line. His preschool leader walked over and quietly whispered to him. Timmy’s eyes got big and he confidently grabbed the microphone, shouting, “He’s not here; He’s in prison!”

So close Timmy… so close.

There is nothing more fantastic than the claim that Jesus rose from the dead.

We call this claim the resurrection, and its veracity has dramatic implications for you and for me.

The Bible records an insightful encounter between Jesus and some of his closest followers on the evening of his resurrection. John, one of Jesus’ closest followers records the event for us in his biography (The Gospel of John).

Shortly after sunset, we find 10 of Jesus’ closest followers hiding inside a house. John tells us that the room they were sitting in is rife with fear. The door is locked, the window shades drawn and the lanterns turned low. Their leader, Jesus, has just been arrested and killed, and they know that in all likelihood they are next.

So they do the only thing that makes sense in the moment. They hide.

Then in an instant, everything changes. The author, John, was there when this happened, and he makes a point to tell us the door was locked. “Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! ’Peace be with you,’ he said.” (John 20:19) Imagine: Without a knock, without a key, the resurrected Jesus is suddenly standing among them.

Jesus was not limited by a locked door.

This means that in your life, Jesus can go where no one else can go.

He can go where no counselor can go.

He can go where no doctor can go. He can go where no lover can go. There is no depth, no hidden recess within you that Jesus cannot reach.

Jesus steps through the door — he steps into their circle — he puts himself right in the middle of their fear, and he speaks into existence the very thing they desperately needed — peace! “Peace be with you.”

I find that peace is one of our greatest needs and fear one of our greatest battles.

Fear of my future.

Fear I won’t perform well enough on the field/test/job/etc.

Fear my children will lose their way.

Fear the money will run out.

Fear I’m going to die.

Fear I’m insignificant.

I had a bout with fear just last week.

For three days I obsessed, catastrophized, and worried over something that (at the time) felt like a big deal. And then I stumbled on these four simple words from Jesus—“Peace be with you.”

Jesus says by word and action, “I come to you when you are experiencing fear and chaos. I don’t wait for you to get your act together. My peace is most needed in the midst of chaos.”

So this Easter, resurrection announces that Jesus is not held prisoner by death.

Sorry Timmy, but Jesus has risen! And Jesus desires to meet you where you need it most.

Eric and Nicole Rust serve as the lead pastors of Cedar Hills Church in Sandpoint. They’d love to invite you to one this weekend’s Easter gatherings — Saturday, April 20, at 6 p.m., or Sunday, April 21, at 8 a.m., 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. For more information, check out www.cedarhillschurch.com.

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Neighborhood Storytelling Girls Pint O 6-7pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co. 5-7pm @ Ida The second storytelling event. Listen April is Ida to your friends and neighbors share so Vicki wi stories they’ve been working on at talking abou Matchwood’s Storyteller’s Workshop Dollar Bee Open Mic Night 9pm @ A&P’s Bar and Grill 8pm @ Eic Live Music w/ Ron Kieper Jazz Trio Live Music w/ Aaron Golay Band Kung Fu 5-7pm @ Idaho Pour Authority 9pm-12am @ 219 Lounge 8pm @ Th Jazz and beer: a timeless combination Soulful rock n’ roll with pop influence E Live Music w/ Red Blend Live Music w/ BOCA (Ben & Cadie) E 6-9pm @ Kootenai River Inn & Casino 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall G Come up to Bonners Ferry for great tunes Join Brian, Chris and Meg! E Live Music w/ Bridges Home Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz H 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery 6-9pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co. Live Music w/ Bob Missed the Bus 6-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall John Hastings and Sandy Compton.

SummerFest Reveal Party 8pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Find out this year’s lineup at Summer Fest! Live music by BareGrass. Yeehaw.

Live Music w/ Trego 9pm-12am @ 219 Lounge Energetic 6-piece from Spokane

Live Music w/ Right Front Burner 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Funk, disco, rock and grooviness FBC and Live Music w/ Grant Farm 7-10pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Grab your bike and listen to great tunes

Fire-Light Nights w/ community singing 6-8pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co. Gather around the firepit with Kristine Rae for some community singing! All welcome Live Music w/ Truck Mills & Carl Rey 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Live Music w/ Red Blend 8-10pm @ The Back Door Bar Dubtonic Kru in concert 8pm @ The Hive

Sandpoint Chess Club Gardenia Easter Sunday Service • 10am @ Gardenia 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Featuring guest speaker Christine Schader “Maintaining Live Music w/ Ken Mayginnes music by Chloe Issa and Nina Ford, both classically tra 4-6:30pm @ Matchwood Brewing Monday Night Blues Jam w/ Truck Mills 7:30pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Third Annual Jenga Challenge 5pm @ Matchwood Brewing

Lifetree Cafe 2pm @ Jalepeño’s Mexican Restaurant An hour of conversation and stories. This week’s topic: “Who Was Jesus, Really?”

Night-Out Karaoke Triva Night 9pm @ 219 Lounge 7pm @ MickDuff’s Join DJ Pat for a night of singing, Show off that big brain of yours or just come to drink and listen Djembe class 5:45-7:30pm @ Music Conservatory of Sandpoint Join Ali Maverick Thomas for this djembe class Wind Down Wednesday 5-8pm @ 219 Lounge With live music by blues man Truck Mills and guest musician Bruce Bishop

Coffee for a Cause All day @ Evans Brothers Coffee 15% of cafe sales will be donated to the Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper this day

Magic Wednesday 6-8pm @ Jalapeño’s Enjoy close-up magic shows by Star Alexander right at your table

Dollar Beers!

Brews For Benefit and Yappy Hour Neighborh 8pm @ Eichardt’s Pub 6-8pm @ Laughing Dog Brewery A monthly Story Pour-y Hour: Emotions Featuring live music w/ Kerry Leigh DiscoverFa 4-5pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co. Thursday Night Solo Series w/ K Listen to our resident storyteller help understand CDA’s Kyle Swaffard will be in th emotions through stories. PJs and pillows encouraged

ful

April 18 - 25, 2019

A weekly entertainment guide to keep you on your toes. To list your event free, please send an email to calendar@sandpointreader.com.

Reader recommended

rls Pint Out pm @ Idaho Pour Authority ril is Idaho Beer Month, Vicki will be tasting and king about beer from Idaho.

Live Music w/ Jeremy James Meyer and Joshua James Jackson 8-11pm @ 219 Lounge Folk singers from Oregon and California

ollar Beers! pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

‘Annie’ the musical 7pm @ SHS Auditorium Local production of the classic play with all your favorite songs Why Journalism Matters presentation • 6pm @ Sandpoint Library An evening of informed discussion with the nationally-syndicated radio host of “Alternative Radio”: David Barsamian. Free to the public.

Kung Fu Vinyl in concert 8pm @ The Hive

DJ Skwish Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin ‘Chasing Coral’ film 8-10pm @ The Back Door Bar 7pm @ Panida Little Theater 9pm @ A&P’s

Earth Day Clean-Up • 10am @ Sandpoint City Beach Sasquatch Cornhole Classic Everyone is welcome to join this family-friendly event. 2pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Garbage bags, gloves, and snacks provided The first annual, supporting Youth Travel Easter Egg Hunt • 10am @ Lakeview Park Baseball. Youth and adult divisions. RegisHosted by the Sandpoint Lions Club. For ages 1 to 12 ter your team at (208) 209-6700

Tour de Sandpoint Brewery Tour by Bike International Fly Fishing Festival 1-6pm @ Greasy Fingers Bikes n’ Repair 7pm @ The Pearl Theater (Bonners Ferry) Meet at Greasy Fingers and ride to the var- Great films, door prizes, awesome raffle ne Rae ious breweries for rehydration. Conclud- items and more! $12/advance, $15/door come Sandpoint Street Scramble #5 Rey ing at Utara Brewing. (208) 255-4496 10am @ Litehouse YMCA Meet the Farmers The Scramble combines exercise, map 11am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Roasters Meet Menendez family from El Salvador who reading skills and a chance to explore has provided coffee beans to Evans Bros. for Sandpoint and maybe even learn a few 8 years. Plus a talk about coffee and culture new things about your town. $8/map Missoula Children’s Theater: ‘Blackbeard’ • 1 & 3pm @ Panida Theater What starts as a lazy day at the beach quickly turns into mystery and advenGardenia Center ture when the search for Blackbird’s treasure begins! More than 60 local stuaintaining a Miracle” and dents perform in an original musical adaptation of “Blackbeard the Pirate.” sically trained musicians WildCore Movement Turns 4 DJ Skwish 9-10:15am @ Embody, 823 Main St. 9pm @ A&P’s Bar All donations go to Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper. staurant www.WildCoreMovement.com ries. This Live Music w/ BOCA (Ben & Cadie) Really?”

5-7pm @ Idaho Pour Authority

nging

April 27 Greasy Fingers Birthday celebration @ Greasy Fingers shop April 27 nesday Ris e Together Live Music w/ John Firshi Trivia Takeover Live and lapeño’s 7-10pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Kootenai School Sip & Shop up magic Fundraising Great tunes from this Sand4-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Concert @ ar AlexanPanida point guitar player Proceeds from 4-8pm will beneour table Theater fit school. Triva 6-8pm eighborhood Nights: Adoptive Families • 6-8pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co. May 4 monthly event, with this month’s theme partnering with North Idaho CASA and 3/4-Minus CykeliscoverFamily.net to discuss adoptive families. Sign up via Facebook tur bike ride @ Sandpoint eries w/ Kyle Swaffard • 6-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Business After Hours 5:30-7pm @ 219 Lounge Sponsored by the Chamber - enjoy networking with business colleague, drink specials, appetizers and live music

VolunteerMatch Live!

3-5pm @ Utara Brewing Co. Everyone is welcome to come and check out the volunteer opportunities by Sandpoint Community Resource Center

ill be in the house, with food by Sandpoint Curry

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EARTH DAY

Why Wilderness?

By Phil Hough Reader Contributor Americans came together 49 years ago to celebrate the first Earth Day. We committed to making our planet a more liveable place. We’ve cleaned up our water. We’ve reduced air pollution. We can drink and breathe easier now.

We have built trails and saved wild rivers and wild places for ourselves, our kids and our grandkids. We have more room to roam free. The public has deserts, mountains, valleys, streams, rivers, forests and meadows where we can all go to find our own wild place.

People’s passions are usually rooted to the land and water where they live. We think and act locally to make our corner of the earth a better place to be. But the Earth Day vision, as the name suggests, is global.

A passion to save wild places is in the hearts of many people. This drive has some common traits. But, the answer to the question “why wilderness” is also a very personal one.

I hike and paddle into wild places today so I can feel like I did when I was 10 years

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old and my dad took me down the Allagash river in northern Maine.

There was so much new to me in those wild woods and waters; mystery, fun, excitement. I grew up more in those 10 days than I had in my first 10 years.

For many people, saving wild country is about leaving places for their kids and grandkids to explore and grow up wild in. As Rebecca Sanchez puts it: “I appreciate how the mountains bring my kids to life.

Here they are free to roam, explore nature, and help one another reach new heights.”

But wilderness is not only for our kids and future; it’s for all of us, now. We need to be able to find quiet places in our own wild backyards. We need places open for hiking, horseback riding, berry picking, fishing and hunting. We need places beyond the sounds and distractions motors bring. We need places to hear elk bugle, deer snort and mountain goats tap their hooves on loose rocks. We need to hear the owl ask, “Who, who?”

Henry David Thoreau hiked all over

New England because “being in the mountains is the closest thing we have experienced to Heaven on Earth.”

With Earth Day in our sights, many people will take action because they care about the wild flowers and native forests. Or they want to save wild places because bears, moose, wolverines and other critters need their own wild place too. Whether it’s our kids or mountain goat kids; we all need wild places where we can thrive.

Immanuel and Jaslynne Sanchez are all smiles on a beautiful day at the top of 6167-foot Star Peak in the proposed Scotchman Peaks Wilderness. Photo by Rebecca Sanchez Ask yourself: What’s in your heart?

Where’s your wild place? And, what will you do to save it?

For many, the answers bring us together to save the wild Scotchmans. If you come up with that answer too, then become a Friend. You’ll join others that find their wild place in the Scotchman Peaks too.

HEALTH & FITNESS

Sandpoint woman wins bodybuilding competition

By Katie Bradish Reader Contributor James LaBarbera, Sandpoint native and owner of Future Physique Pilates, won first place in the fitness routine category at the National Physique Committee’s Empire Classic bodybuilding competition in Spokane on Saturday, April 13.

LaBarbera answered some questions about her training process and shared a few post-show thoughts.

What is the NPC fitness routine?

The fitness section is a two minute routine sequenced to music that is designed to show strength, cardio stamina and flexibility. The required moves are a straddle hold, high kick, push up and split. Everything else is up to the competitor.

For my routine, I included a one-arm pushup, side aerial, handstand pirouette, elbow planche and a really well-executed straddle hold sequenced to a Led Zeppelin and Pretty Lights mash-up. I wasn’t planning on doing the aerial, but decided to put it in a couple minutes before the show.

Stuck the aerial in both performances.

Have you ever done a show like this before?

I seem to do one about once a decade.

This one is to celebrate my 50th birthday.

• Alaska 1993 - Placed 2nd in body building • Empire Classic - 1999 2nd in fitness routine • Empire Classic - 2008 2nd in fitness routine • Empire Classic - 2019 1st in fitness routine What draws you to fitness routine over the other portions of the NPC competition?

The physicality and the athleticism of the fitness routine. Don’t get me wrong, the women in the bikini categories are in fantastic shape – they work hard to look the way they do. But I wanted to be judged on my ability rather than my look.

So, I chose to train for the routine over the bathing suit portion. I’m not about the whole beauty pageant business. I’m like “Can I still climb that route? Can I still bike up that mountain? Can I still ride that line?

Can I still stick that aerial?” And it turns out, the answer is yes! I still move like a gymnast.

This competition takes a considerable amount of training. What did that training look like?

Life is chaotic. You only have control of

yourself. And training is a way to harness your focus and energy. Having that goal and firm deadline to aim for helped keep me on track.

The first step was to build overall muscle pretty much everywhere. Then, I moved to targeting specific muscle groups. Each day, I would focus on a body part — legs, back, chest, arms, shoulders and abs. Then sprinkle in some full body days — TRX suspension training, Pilates on Reformer or Plyometric exercises on the floor. I don’t have barbells or weighted cable machines in my studio, so I adapted the workout with free weights, bands and Pilates machines.

I was eating clean for three months prior to the comp, but at the end, I did a 10-day carb cycling cut that was pretty intensive. Right now, I’m tip toeing back towards a more sustainable diet and trying not to over do it.

What went well during your training this time around?

I was way more structured with my nutrition than I ever have been. The weight lifting went smoothly. I was consistent and stuck to the plan.

What happened during training that was out of your control?

My elbow was geekin’ out and prevented me from lifting very heavy, but I found work arounds for that.

A positive thing that wasn’t really in my control was how excited my clients and friends were for me. I had training buddies

leading up to the event and a bunch of my friends came down to Spokane to watch the show and take me out for Mexican food afterwards.

Your first place win qualifies you to move on the National Physique Committee’s National Championships. Are you going?

I don’t know when or where the championships even are. I just haven’t given it any thought. I might be open to it — we’ll see. I’m taking this week off and celebrating. Feel free to buy mug #89 at Eichardt’s a meal, if you would like to help me celebrate.

About James LaBarbera: With a background in Pilates, dance and gymnastics, James is serious about posture and body mechanics.

When she is not training clients, rippin’ Schweitzer, riding mountain bikes, paddling rivers or dressing up rad, James can be found hanging with her family at the Eichardt’s C-Bar.

James LaBarbera shows off that rockin’ bod at the Empire Classic last week. Photo courtesy of Ribic Productions.

New art classes offered at Creations for Sandpoint

By Reader Staff

Creations for Sandpoint is offering new art classes called “Story Telling Through Art” for kids ages 8-13.

Each week, instructor Megan Stafford will share a short inspirational story about teen experience and look at art created by teens. Then the class will launch into visual creations drawing from personal experiences using wood, wire, cloth, tools and everyday objects to tell their stories.

The classes will be “Found Art” on April 19, “Shadow Boxes” on April 26 and “3D Collage” on May 3. Class times are 3:305:15 p.m. on all dates and will take place at Creations on the Cedar St. Bridge, 334 N. First Ave. in Sandpoint.

Creations is able to keep art class prices low at $5, but also offers scholarships to students unable to pay. Scholarships are offered thanks to private donations and generous grant funding from the Bonner County

Fund for Arts Enhancement and Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation.

If you would like to donate to the art

student scholarship, please contact Kate Mansur (208) 304-9110 or email creationsforsandpoint@gmail.com April 18, 2019 /

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Eichardt’s Pub celebrates a quarter century of good times... and beer

By Ben Olson Reader Staff There’s just something about Eichardt’s. Whether you’re a fan of the food, the cozy atmosphere or the social discourse over pints and plates that occurs every day, it’s just one of those places that helps make Sandpoint what it is. I honestly can’t imagine this town without it.

“It’s ‘Cheers,’” sums up longtime regular and holder of mug #1 Kirk Miller. “It’s home to me.”

On April 29, Eichardt’s will celebrate 25 years of good times in Sandpoint. Owner Jeff Nizzoli said they will host Neighbor John Kelly on April 27 to celebrate the milestone.

“Neighbor is coming up from Arizona to play,” Nizzoli said.

“Also, on Monday the 29th, Truck Mills will do his regular Monday Night Blues Jam and get some of the older musicians to come out that have played here for years.”

In order to celebrate the present, it’s often necessary to delve into the past, so let’s take a look at how Eichardt’s Pub and Coffee House came to be.

The Original Eichardt’s In the early 1990s, Jeff Nizzoli was traveling around the world.

While in New Zealand, he crossed paths with fellow traveler David Marx.

“David and I were traveling opposite ways around the world,” Nizzoli said. “The original Eichardt’s was actually this pub in Queenstown, New Zealand, where we met drinking beer.”

“We were both there for the ski season,” said Marx. “We became friends and started hanging out.”

The original Eichardt was a Prussian who immigrated to New Zealand during the gold rush of the 1800s. He opened a pub on the shores of lake Wakatipu in 1866.

“He went there to get rich in gold and decided a pub would be better,” Nizzoli said. “It was still a pub when we were there in 1990.

Unfortunately, now it’s a boutique hotel.”

Marx said the impetus for Eichardt’s Pub in Sandpoint were the conversations that he and Jeff shared while drinking beer.

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Jeff Nizzoli, third from left, and his merry band seen here readying themselves for the daily battle. From left to right: Reese Warren, Hallie Reikowsky, Jeff Nizzoli, Doug Clark, Melody Fairbrother, Seth Warner. Photo by Racheal Baker.

“We would sit around and talk about, ‘If I owned a bar, this is what I would do,’” Marx said.

Nizzoli said he was drawn to the idea of creating a pub because it was an epicenter of social discourse.

“I traveled a lot to commonwealth countries with pubs,” Nizzoli said. “In smaller towns, pubs were the centerpoint. It wasn’t just the beer. It was the camaraderie. Multiple generations of families would hang out in the pub and check in with one another. But the beer helps too.”

Marx and Nizzoli eventually went their separate ways to continue their own travels. It wasn’t until a couple years later in the winter of 1992-93, when Marx was living in Durango, Colo., that Nizzoli came out to ski and hit him with a crazy idea.

“He said to me, ‘Hey, have you ever thought any more of those conversations of opening a bar?’”

Marx said. “That’s when the idea was planted.”

Nizzoli and Marx later embarked on a ski trip of the west, searching for a town that had the perfect combination of lake and ski hill.

“We looked at a lot of other towns,” Nizzoli said. “McCall, Whitefish, Jackson. We settled on Sandpoint because it was mainly just a good feel.”

Marx agreed: “Once we got to Sandpoint, our minds were pretty much made up.”

Marx said he and Nizzoli were crammed in their ‘86 Toyota 4Runner which they had been sleeping in for days, when they first caught sight of Lake Pend Oreille.

“It was about 6 a.m. and we were coming across the Clark Fork Delta on Highway 2,” Marx said.

“All of a sudden the alpine glow was coming across. It was just stunning. We rolled into town, parked

right in front of where Di Luna’s is now and walked around town checking out real estate. When we came back to the truck and looked across the street we saw a building and said, ‘Hey, that building would be perfect for what we want to do.’”

That building was 212 Cedar St., which was then a bar called the Donkey Jaw. Marx and Nizzoli had an idea to create an establishment that was a hybrid pub and coffee house. Nizzoli would spearhead the pub, and Marx would handle the late night coffee shop.

“We walked in on a Monday night, and Truck Mills was playing here at the Donkey Jaw,” Nizzoli said. “The first thing we did after buying it and opening it up was ask Truck to play a Monday Night Blues Jam.” “Later that same day, we walked into a real estate office,” Marx said.

“We looked and smelled like we’d been drinking and skiing for days.

The agent, Ken Earle, we walked into his office and said, ‘We want to buy a bar,’ and he just looked at us and shook his head. The very first listing he showed us was the old Donkey Jaw building. It was serendipity, meant to be.”

Nizzoli and Marx made an offer on the building and bought it, opening for the first time on April 29, 1994. Sandpoint would never be the same again.

The Early Days The original configuration of Eichardt’s was a bit different than today. The coffee shop was originally located upstairs, complete with espresso machine, bakery rack and sandwiches.

“David was the coffee guy,” Nizzoli said. “He had a vision for a bohemian coffee house. It was way

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ahead of its time.”

Nizzoli said the coffee shop only lasted about six months before they realized it wasn’t going to be a big money maker. In the fall of 1994 they closed the pub to remodel the downstairs.

“That remodel created where the C-Bar is now,” Nizzoli said. “We brought the espresso machine down there, converted upstairs into a game room and it’s been a pub ever since.”

“What is now the C-Bar used to be a bar in the middle of the room,” Marx explained. “It ran parallel to the bar and turned to the brick wall.

That back corner of the bar actually used to be an office before we tore that room out and made the C-Bar.” The espresso machine lasted about five years at the C-Bar before it was removed and replaced by pint-guzzling regulars.

What Marx and Nizzoli both didn’t realize at the time was that it would eventually be the restaurant that became the driving force behind Eichardt’s.

“We were admittedly behind when it came to getting the kitchen ready for opening,” Marx said. “Our first chef was Jeff’s soon-to-be first wife’s sister Tracy. She volunteered because she was between jobs, so she opened up our kitchen for us. She put out a standard that just floored not only us, but everyone in town. Our original vision was the typical pub burger and basket of fries.”

Tracy Thurlow helped establish many of the menu items that are still available today, including the famous garlic fries.

“I used to say the garlic fries paid our electric bill each month,” Marx said. “I’ve never been a big french fry fan, so the idea of garlic fries wasn’t exciting, but even I became addicted to them. I remember people going completely bonkers for them. They’d come in and have garlic fries for dinner. Just a basket of garlic fries and beer.”

Thurlow was also integral for creating other popular menu items still available today, including the blackened salmon and chicken, the cajun burgers, the chicken marsala, ahi and the zucchini wrap.

Because they were ski bums in their late ‘20s, Nizzoli and Marx utilized what they could from the old Donkey Jaw, including furniture.

“We didn’t have any money to buy anything new, and we did the remodeling all by ourselves. Actually, when we first opened, we had no barstools on purpose,” Nizzoli said. “Pubs I’d gone to didn’t have barstools. You just stood at the bar.

That didn’t go over very well, so Misty Mountain made us 10 stools

really fast because everyone just made fun of me with no barstools.”

The burly wooden chairs at the tables were originally made by Chris Hecht in the 1970s.

“The direction he was given in the 1970s was ‘Make furniture that is hard to throw,’” Nizzoli said.

Also part of the Eichardt’s mystique is the plethora of curios pasted on every inch of the walls. There’s a little bit of everything, including a couple hundred Pez dispensers.

“That Pez collection started with one Pez dispenser I found in the bar and put it up on the back bar,” Nizzoli said. “One became two, then someone brought us a third one. I’ve never purchased a Pez in my life.

Now look at it.”

Nizzoli said most of the items on the walls were added haphazardly through the years, usually after an event or party.

Looking up, it’s hard to miss the hundreds of vintage beer cans or tap handles hanging from the ceiling.

“We’ve used every single one of those tap handles,” Nizzoli said.

“It’s more function than fashion.

We used to put them in milk crates and had a hell of a time finding them when we needed them, so we decided to put them on the ceiling.

Now there are 700-800 up there, but we can still find them quickly.”

Along with beer and food, the third leg of the Eichardt’s tricycle is live music.

“Live music was part of our original plan,” said Marx. “Truck Mills was there from day one. Our very first performer was Monty Thompson, Mike Thompson’s brother. Monty knew musicians in town, so for the first year he booked music for us so we knew who to book and who to avoid.”

Marx said they never charged a cover in those days, but began offering Sunday shows for traveling bands that often had trouble booking Sunday shows and needed a “gas stop” for the next route.

“We’d get these amazing bands rolling through and wouldn’t have to pay them a lot because it was on a Sunday, so we’d do these shows for a $5 cover,” Marx said.

Wild Halloween parties are also a tradition that started in the beginning.

“A lot of the decorations in the pub come from those parties, usually when people leave stuff behind,” Nizzoli said. “There have been a lot of crazy nights around here.”

A Family of Sorts In 1998, Marx and Nizzoli came to an agreement that Nizzoli was the guy to take the pub forward.

“Jeff offered to buy me out, and

it seemed the best thing for both of us,” Marx said. “It was completely amicable, and we are still friends to this day. The reality is, Jeff is the one who wanted a bar, and I was the one who wanted a coffee house. I realized I was done scrubbing toilets at 2 a.m.

To this day, I think it couldn’t be a better place. Now I get to hang out in a bar that is my dream creation.”

In 25 years of operation, one thing that has remained the same about Eichardt’s is that their employees are treated like family. Several employees have worked there more than 20 years, and many regulars have drank their daily pints there since day one.

“This is a great place to make a living wage,” said longtime employee Natalie Miller. “I consider Eichardt’s my family. It’s a dysfunctional family, but we’re a family.”

Natalie said one of her favorite parts of working at the pub is watching customers come and go over the years.

“I love watching how people have grown and changed over time,” she said.

Natalie’s husband, Kirk, said he first met his wife-to-be at the pub.

“We met the morning of Eichardt’s first anniversary, actually,” Kirk said.

“We met again that night and talked all night, then we talked in the car for three hours. And we’ve pretty much been together every since.”

A pint at Eichardt’s has been part of his daily routine for years, Kirk explained.

“I’ve got a million stories, I’m in there every day,” he said. “I go take a picture every morning, then go to Eichardt’s in the afternoon. That’s my life. I’m retired.”

Kirk is the holder of mug #1 – a fact that he’s proud of, even if he had to wait several years to obtain it.

“The first year the mugs came out, Natalie was working there,” Kirk said. “David said the mugs wouldn’t go on sale until 9 a.m. so I stood at the front door at 9 a.m. but Shawn Taylor came up at five ‘til and slipped in the side door and bought mug #1.

It took me five years to get that mug back when Shawn showed up late to mug sales day.”

Kirk said he also held a “drinking title” after a challenge came his way.

“Dave challenged me that I couldn’t outdrink everyone,” Kirk said. “This was back before a bar owner got thrown in jail for over-serving. I must’ve drank 20 pints. But I won. That’s my claim to fame. My wife took me home and put me in the bathtub. I should’ve been dead.”

Other familiar faces have been ingrained in Eichardt’s for so long,

it seems the pub wouldn’t be the same without them, including Doug Clark, chef Reese Warren and Sarah McTavish, among others.

“Honestly, I can’t imagine my life without (Eichardt’s),” said McTavish. “I moved to Sandpoint in ‘95 and have been at the pub since ‘97, so more or less, I have grown up there. It is my family, my living room, my place to help people enjoy themselves.”

McTavish said she has been especially touched by the way Nizzoli has always treated his employees with respect like they were his own family.

“Jeff has always supported us,” she said. “We, in turn, support him and the pub. It has carved a deep place as part of Sandpoint’s community. It is such an honor to serve first-timers at the pub when people are constantly amazed by this little quirky brick hole in the wall. …

It’s never hard to go to work there.

I love my pub. I work hard for my pub. Call me a lifer.”

Darla Wilhelmsen also said the Eichardt’s crew is more family than anything else: “All who work there are family to me. I love them and want to thank them for loving me back.”

Customer Eric Salonti said, “Eichardt’s is important to me because it symbolizes human interaction in a computer/digital advanced society.”

Pub frequenter Jesse Jennings said it is the “true definition of a public house. Hearts broken and repaired, fortunes lost and found, love made and beer.”

When Mel Davis first visited on a college break from Moscow she instantly fell in love with the pub.

“I had come up during my final year of college from Moscow,” she said. “I said (to my friends) that if I ever moved to Sandpoint I wanted to work here. I just fell in love with it.”

When she moved here shortly after, Davis walked in and asked if they were hiring.

“I filled out an application on a legal pad and they hired me on the spot,” she said. “It’s family. Jeff and Dave at the time, they would do anything for you.”

Davis said when her husband went through chemotherapy last year, she went to renew her mug and was told, “Nope, we got it.”

“They paid for my dinner and my mug,” she said. “Those are the things Jeff does for you. He’s always giving back to the community.”

Whether it’s the K-9 Keg Pull or feeding the Sandpoint High School Lacrosse team free of charge, or spearheading the many fundraisers and outreaches for members of the

community who need help, Nizzoli has proven himself a pillar of the community, time and time again. Like a true community leader, he usually operates behind the scenes and rarely stands to receive his recognition.

When a half-dozen businesses were lost to a fire downtown this winter, Nizzoli quickly established a GoFundMe page to raise money for those affected by the fire. To date, the page has raised about $4,300 of its $10,000 goal.

While some business owners would view other establishments in town as competition, Nizzoli considers them friends.

“You’d rather see the people across the street survive and thrive,” he said. “After the fires on First, it just shows that everyone cares about everyone as a whole. This is still a small town and most of us don’t think of each other as competitors.”

Nizzoli (who has four kids: Nick, Julian, Lucia and Mirabella), and his wife, Sandi Nicholson, still enjoy the aspect of small town life in many humorous ways.

“I have two kids in high school and two boys grown and moved on.

The joke is, careful what you do in Sandpoint because I’ll know about it before you do,” Nizzoli said. “I’ll say, ‘Why were you going 40 mph down Division?’ and they’ll say, ‘How do you know about that, that was like five minutes ago?’ When your dad runs a pub you find out fast.”

Marx said Eichardt’s is one of the main reasons he feels the tightknit community vibe in Sandpoint.

“I’m not a real outgoing individual,” he said. “I have a hard time making close friends. When I lived in Durango, I had a couple of decent friends and had a coffee house in town, but I never felt like I had a connection to the community. Thanks to Eichardt’s, I became intertwined into so many aspects of our community — the arts, business, music — that would’ve never happened without the pub.

“I couldn’t be more proud that Jeff has taken it to the places where he’s taken it,” Marx continued. “I couldn’t be more happy with the people he’s surrounded himself with to continue this legacy. You walk in here, you’re treated like family, whether you’re a newcomer or have lived here all your life. It’s a special place full of special people. Thanks to Jeff to have not forgotten what we started from our original vision.”

Here’s to 25 more years.

To celebrate 25 years, Eichardt’s will have Neighbor John Kelly playing on Saturday, April 27, and a special Monday Night Blues Jam with Truck Mills on Monday, April 29.

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ENVIRONMENT

Earth Day? It’s all about Earth Week

By Reader Staff Earth Week events will take place at the Sandpoint Library and other locations around the Sandpoint area during the week of April 15-22. Organized by 350Sandpoint.org and The East Bonner County Library District, Earth Week is a week-long celebration of the international Earth Day theme “Save Our Species.”

“This year, in our little corner of Earth, it is about our children. They will inherit what we have left them. What we leave them will be a gift, or it will be a problem.

With this year’s Earth Week, we hope to leave them with the gift of play and laughter and learning how to care for the Earth, their home. We hope to teach our older people how to make a difference through learning how to lead by example and teach our children to be good stewards and to leave the Earth a better place than how they

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found it,” said Mike BauBau er, the library’s lifelong learning coordinator.

Viewings of two short “Chasfilms, “Chas ing Coral” and “Fire: Climate Change” will be held at 3-5 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Friday, April 19, and Saturday, April 20, from 2 -4 p.m. The films will be added to the regular VR Room collection thereafter.

On Thursday, April 18, at 6 p.m.

Alternative Radio host and co-author of “Global Discontents: Conversation on the Rising Threats to Democracy” (with Noam Chomsky) will speak on the theme “Why Journalism Matters” in the Community Rooms at The Library.

The Little Panida Theater will host a free screening of Chasing Coral at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 19, with a discussion to follow. A team of divers, photographers, and scientists set out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why coral reefs around the world are vanishing and to reveal the underwater mystery to the world. This program will raise funds to send Sandpoint High School students to the Dominican Republic for a service learning experience on reef and mangrove restoration. There will be a raffle and silent auction.

On Saturday, April 20, from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. The Library will host a variety of children’s activities including a special StoryWalk where families can enjoy a children’s book with pages posted along a self-guided trail.

At 10 a.m., The Library hosts a free screening of “Saving Snow,” a film about how winters are warming and affecting snowpack and how ski towns and the snow sports industry are adjusting to those changes. The film will be followed by an expert panel discussion. Panel members include Tom Chasse of CEO Schweitzer Mountain Resort, Kevin Davis of USFS Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center and Danny Tappa, a Natural Resources Conservation Service hydrologist. Chris Bessler, owner of Keokee Media and Publishing, will moderate.

The week’s events culminate in a special Earth Day Festival at Farmin Park from 1-4 p.m. at Farmin Park. Washington School sixth graders will deliver a special presentation on their successful plastic recycling program.

There will be exhibitors, games, green food vendors, prizes and family-friendly activities.

Music and dance performances include Doug

Bond and Beth Pederson, Gaia’s Daughters Belly Dance, Allegro Jazz and Ballet, Beth Weber, Bella Note’, Music Conservatory of Sandpoint children’s percussion, children’s musician Sam Cornett and Monarch Butterflies Dance.

Monday, April 22, is the official Earth Day observed annually. Teens will meet at The Library at 3 p.m. for a clean-up project and social media challenge, #TrashTagChallenge.

The Dover and Ponderay StoryWalks will feature special Earth Week titles; “Wake Up!” by Helen Frost at Dover City Park and “On Meadowview Street” by Henry Cole at McNearny Park. Bonner County StoryWalks are a partnership of Kaniksu Land Trust, the library, city of Dover, and city of Ponderay. Learn more about StoryWalk at Facebook.com/BonnerStoryWalks.

Nancy Gerth, 350Sandpoint.org volunteer and co-organizer of Earth Week encourages us to “Take a break to consider how lucky we are to live on Mother Earth and how we can be better children.”

Earth Week is sponsored by Bonner County Human Rights Task Force, Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper, Mandala Pizza, Panhandle Alliance for Education, and The Festival at Sandpoint. Contact Mike Bauer (208) 265-2665 or mike@ebonnerlibrary. org for more information.

GREEN spotlight

Steve and Julie Meyer, founders of the Pend d’Oreille Winery in Sandpoint, pioneered a refillable wine growler program in 2008. The Meyers were the first to offer an organized refillable wine bottle program, mirrored after the old-world European tradition. The program was also designed with the intention of limiting the amount of glass discarded as waste.

The refill program continues to expand each year. The Winery is currently refilling an estimated 350 1.5L bottles in the tasting room each month. This equates to nearly 700 pounds of glass not discarded as waste.

The Winery produces the equivalent of 1,500 cases (3,300 gallons) of Bistro Rouge refill wine each year. The blend changes every 6-8 weeks to offer customers variety and anticipation of each refill release.

The Winery also has established refill satellite stations at Winter Ridge Natural Foods, Old Ice House Pizza in Hope and Pilgrim’s Market in Coeur d’Alene. Also, customers receive their tenth refill free.

They will be offering a 10% discount on every Bistro Rouge refill on Earth Day (Monday, April 20). Way to go, Pend d’Oreille Winery!

STAGE & SCREEN

Rise Together:

Sadie Sicilia to play concert benefiting Next Level

Sadie Sicilia will play the Next Level event “Rise Together” April 27 at 7 p.m. Courtesy photo.

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Staff Plenty of locals need no extra reason to see Sadie Sicilia in concert.

The local singer and songwriter has a strong local following thanks to her powerful vocals and engaging performances. When she performs 7 p.m.

Saturday, April 27, at the Panida Theater, however, she’s not just spreading a love of music — she’s also helping local kids learn about teamwork and diligence through student athletics.

The concert, which will also feature opening performances from student bands, will benefit Next Level Academy, a new student athletics organization starting this fall with a third- and fourth-grade flag-football program and a fifth- and sixth-grade tackle program.

Co-founded by local parents Matt Thompson and Fred Blumenberg, Next Level Academy is all about instilling positive values in local kids.

“Youth sports is a great way to start building character, and we believe that the concepts of championship mindset, championship play and championship mentorship we will give these kids are translatable to the classroom, at home and within the community,” said Thompson.

While Next Level Academy is partnered with the YMCA for some of the logistics, it’s a Sandpoint program run

by locals, for locals. It features brandnew equipment with five-star safety ratings and a team of organizers with years of experience in coaching student athletes. “(Blumenberg and I) coached together this past fall, and after having conversations with many of the other parents involved, we knew that if we combined his knowledge of marketing and social media with my nearly 20 years of experience in youth sports in Sandpoint as a coach, official and board member, that we could create something that both players and families could be proud to be a part of,” Thompson said.

Registration is open now at www. nextlevelacademy.us with no payment due until August. Better yet, registered athletes can reduce or even eliminate their payment by selling raffle tickets for the classic care raffle during Lost in the ‘50s weekend. Half of each ticket sold goes toward lowering the registration fee.

Turning out for the concert is another great way to support Next Level Academy. Tickets are $20 for adults or $12 for 17 and under. They are available at www.panida.org, Eve’s Leaves, or through social media by messaging @nextlevelrise on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. You can also leave a voice mail at 208 304-4333.

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COMMUNITY

WEIRD NEWS

The adoption connection

Matchwood Brewing kicks off Neighborhood Nights with presentations on adoption and adoptive families

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff When it comes to causes worth rallying around, there’s no doubt finding homes for all of North Idaho’s children is somewhere near the top of the list.

The first ever Neighborhood Nights event at Matchwood Brewing, slated for April 25, tackles topics like adoption, fostering and more, all in an effort to connect community members who want to help local children in need of a family.

Troy Olson, creator of DiscoverFamily.net and adoptive father of four, said he worked closely with Matchwood to get the adoption event on their calendar. DiscoverFamily.net is a genealogy service through which Olson helps adoptees and others search for their biological family members.

Olson said the night’s presentations will be useful for connecting adoptive families to one another to share experiences, and will also educate people who are “adoption curious” — interested in adoption, but not sure exactly what the process might look like.

“My wife and I have adopted four kiddos through foster to adopt and have found that the best resource for us is connections with others going through the same adventures (and) challenges,” he said.

The night will also provide information on Court Appointed Special Advocates or fostering, which are options for those “who want to know how they can help at-risk children without jumping completely into adoption,” Olson said.

“There is a very significant need for foster parents and CASA volunteers in our area, so inviting these organizations seemed like a great fit,” he said.

Check out Neighborhood Nights Thursday, April 25, at Matchwood starting at 6 p.m. Jeannine Hunter will kick off the evening with a presentation about addressing trauma in children, then CASA representatives will talk about their organization at 6:45 p.m. Olson will present on “The Search for Biological Parents” at 7:10 p.m., and the evening will conclude with a Q&A networking session at 7:30 p.m.

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people are free to come and go as they please, and children are welcome.

Though the event is free, you can guarantee a seat at each presentation by registering online. Find the Eventbrite link on the event’s Facebook page: “Neighborhood Nights: Adoptive Families” hosted by Matchwood, North Idaho CASA and DiscoverFamily.net.

Matchwood Community Coordinator Sami Ryan said Neighborhood Nights will be a monthly occurrence at the brewery, and their purpose is “to bring together

Event organizer Troy Olson and his family of foster to adopt kiddos. Photo by Megan Reid. neighbors and community members connected through different experiences.”

The next event — topic TBA — will be 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 29.

Stay tuned for more Neighborhood Nights information by following Matchwood Brewing on Facebook.

Anyone with an idea for future Neighborhood Nights topics should email Ryan at sami@matchwoodbrewing.com

Yappy Hour returns for eighth season

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

Sandpoint is a dog town. That I can say without a shred of doubt. While we treat our four-legged pals like gold here in the panhandle, the Panhandle Animal Shelter always needs help with their mission to find homes for unwanted pets.

For the eighth year, Yappy Hour kicks off next week. For those of you who haven’t attended, Yappy Hour is a monthly social event for dog-owners to gather and sip a few beverages while their pooches cavort with others.

This year’s kickoff will be Thursday, April 25, from 4-7 p.m. at Laughing Dog Brewery in Ponderay. This year, Laughing Dog will be holding Yappy Hour in conjunction with the April Brews for Benefit featuring live music

by Kerry Leigh. Proceeds will benefit

Staff writer Lyndsie Kiebert’s dog Mac. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert. the Panhandle Animal Shelter.

The full 2019 Yappy Hour schedule: May 30: Evans Brother Coffee June 27: Greasy Fingers Bikes July 25: Trinity at City Beach August 29: MickDuff’s Beer Hall September 26: Eichardt’s Pub.

For more information, visit www. pasidaho.org.

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

MAN SUES PARENTS FOR DESTROYING HUGE STASH OF PORN A 40-year-old Michigan man is suing his parents after they destroyed his massive collection of pornography, which he claims was worth over $29,000.

The man’s parents admit dumping a dozen boxes of films and magazines with titles such as “Frisky Business” and “Big Bad Grannys.”

The man moved into his parents’ house in 2016 after a divorce, but when moving out 10 months later, he discovered his collection of porn was missing.

In emailed exchanges, the man’s father wrote, “Believe it or not, one reason for why I destroyed your porn was for your own mental and emotional health,” and, “I would have done the same if I had found a kilo of crack cocaine.”

The son is seeking triple the financial damages, or $87,000, after local law enforcement declined to press charges.

His parents wrote, “We counter twelve moving boxes full of pornography plus two boxes of sex toys as you call them. We began that day the process of destroying them and it took quite a while to do so.”

CHAOS AT WALMART It was a wild night in a Wisconsin Walmart last week. Law enforcement said that officers responded to a call that a woman with a dog shoplifted items from the store.

When confronting the woman, officers said she performed “karate moves” in the parking lot while her dog absconded with a box of Jiffy Cornbread Muffin Mix. When arrested, the woman attempted to kick out a window in the squad car.

The woman’s son was also with her — customers reported that he had removed all his clothing and was exposing himself to customers.

When approached by officers, the man refused to stop and attempted to run over the officer with his scooter. He was later arrested.

The police said, “The dog was not charged - we issued him a warning for theft.”

MUSIC

This week’s RLW by Ben Olson

Never too young too rock

READ

Northern Stars Rising champions Stone Cloud 4 bring a youthful touch to a classic rock sound

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff Upon first glance, it’s your average North Idaho shop. Enter the door, walk the smooth concrete surface toward the back and get a closer look.

Several doors stand upright to create a backdrop. Christmas lights add some color. A large Buddha head and several mounted deer adorn the walls.

A leather loveseat and cheetah-print pillow signal that this is the place to sit down and watch, so I do, as four teenage boys file in and out of the shop, unloading their instruments and amps from the Subarus in the driveway.

This beloved “jam space” — as guitarist Jake Smith calls it — is at the top of a bumpy dirt road about a dozen miles into the Selle Valley.

It’s nestled in the back of the shop beside drummer Riley Christman’s house. The leather loveseat is admittedly comfortable, as is resident cat Phanny, curled up beside me. The band settles in, sitting in a half circle with the jam space laid out behind them.

Few places could be a better fit for this raucous rock band — tucked into the woods, just a quick drive from their respective schools in Sandpoint. A white board mounted nearby wears the names of Stone Cloud 4’s impressive handful of original songs.

When asked what the creative process looks like when those songs come to life, Smith said with a laugh, “You’re pretty much looking at it.”

“We sit in a circle and say, ‘Hey, does this sound cool?’” he said.

The crowd at the Northern Stars Rising music competition in March confirmed with their

You may have already seen some of Elmore Leonard’s work and not known it. While a lot of his crime novels end up on the silver screen — “Get Shorty,” “Jackie Brown,” and others — one of my favorites of his collection is “Maximum Bob,” which is all about a federal judge who sets heavy sentences and the felons aiming to get back at him.

It has all of Leonard’s classic trappings: crime, intrigue, humor, seediness and terse writing.

LISTEN

cheers and headbanging that yes — Stone Cloud 4 sounded cool. The judges concurred, as the group — which just officially formed in September — won Performers of the Year, entailing a cash prize, photoshoot and the chance to play the Pend Oreille Arts Council’s annual Art Party.

Though each band member came into their love of music on their own, it’s clear the music of generations past plays a large part in their sound.

Bassist Sean Causey said he is influenced by the Beatles, but also loves funk. Lead singer Liam McCoy, known as the band’s “jack of all trades,” said his dad had a Beatles poster hanging inside the entrance to his home growing up. Christman admits he learned to drum to jazz music, but got into rock once Smith recruited him for SC4. Smith recalls a time in the bathtub at six years old when “Sweet Child O’ Mine” played loudly all through the house.

The guitar solo on that track triggered a vision in him that he carries to this day.

“It was the very first time I

realized I wanted to be a rock and roll star,” he said.

Even with all that passion, SC4 is facing a major hurdle when it comes to the Sandpoint music scene. The Forrest Bird Charter and Sandpoint High students are all 18 and under, making it difficult to play their music around town, where most venues require patrons and performers be 21 and up.

Still, the band said their growing fan base has been helping them find more places to play.

While sometimes people don’t know what to expect when a bunch of teenagers say they play their own version of classic rock, the guys agreed they’ve come a long way just in their first few official months as Stone Cloud 4.

“I think we’re pretty unique,” McCoy said. “We’re not following a lot of the new trends. We’re taking a step back. We can get our clothes at Goodwill. We can go, ‘Oh, that shirt looks cool. It looks like something my dad would wear in the ‘80s. I’ll take it.’”

As for the future, there’s a SC4 demo in the works, and

Sean Causey, Liam McCoy, Riley Christman and Jake Smith sit in their jam space. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert. a dream that goes far beyond the Christmas lights, taxidermy and leather loveseat of the jam space.

“We definitely want to be a household name,” Smith said.

“I figure we’ve got the potential.”

Catch Stone Cloud 4 in action May 3 at the Bonner County Fairgrounds 7-10 p.m. as they headline a benefit concert for the Bonner General Community Hospice’s Kids Grief Camp. The night will feature silent auction items, food from Sandpoint Curry, drinks from Eichardt’s and opening tunes from Montana punk band High Trees n’ Ammunition.

Tickets are $10 and available at Eichardt’s, Evans Brothers Coffee, Sandpoint Super Drug and at the door. Kids 15 and under get in free.

Find Stone Cloud 4 on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

... to local music. Have you ever stopped and appreciated just how many local musicians are active in Sandpoint right now? It’s a veritable explosion of talent, and everyone seems to bring something different to the table.

Kudos to the many establishments that promote local music here in Sandpoint.

So, next time you’re searching for something to do, order some whiskey and listen to our local musicians. And don’t forget to tip them!

WATCH

I love when Netflix runs older sci-fi movies.

Case in point: “The Fifth Element” starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovavich.

The first time I watched his late ‘90s film I was skeptical.

Now, I can’t get enough of it. It has all the goods: Willis’ bedraggled humor while everyone tries to kill him, sexy costume design for Jovavich (who, funny story, once rode in my car during a film shoot in L.A.) and a wild premise that just somehow works.

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OUTDOORS

The 3/4-Minus Cykeltur:

A wild ride through Idaho’s back roads

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

the Popsicle Bridge, through the CycloCross course and back to Oak Street. The total length of the “two-humper” will be If you’re a bike enthusiast, there is 65 miles with two climbs. The “sinno shortage of rides and races available gle-humper” is a route with slightly less in the west. Whether it’s road races like distance at 48 miles and only one incline. the CHAFE 150 Gran Fondo or closed“We are still a rural society here ... course hybrid events like cyclo-cross, there are a lot of these underutilized there have never been as many opporgravel roads,” said Jason Meshberg, tunities for North Idaho bicyclists to who assisted Mortensen in planning for gather in the name of two wheels. the event. “It’s become quite popular Now there’s one more option to over the last few years to take on the choose from. This one takes participants identity of the region you’re in and run off the beaten path to some of the great- riders over these old farm and agriculest back roads of Bonner County. tural roads.”

In its inaugural year, the 3/4-Minus Meshberg said another draw for Cykeltur (which is Danish for “bike these rides are the ever-changing terrain ride”) hopes to satisfy a niche someof these little-traveled back roads. where between road races and dirt “Some are well-kept, some are circuit rides. under-kept,” Meshberg said. “It re“It’s like a cross country cousin of minds me of, just this last weekend, the a road ride,” said Charles Mortensen, Paris-Roubex (bike race) was running whose shop Syringa Cyclery is an event and they ride over all these old Roman organizer. “It’s actually one of the most roads and cobblestones, some that have popular cycling events going on right been bombed out over wartimes, and now. It’s like cyclo-cross, but if you let it becomes the personality of the ride. the riders loose on the populace instead It requires a bit more of a special setup of a closed course.” to get over those roads. It requires you Mortensen said riders usually ride to pilot your machine, to get it across hybrid bikes similar to ones used in whatever road we’re putting you on.” cyclo-cross events.

There will be commercial chip “A lot of people will use gravel timing and awards for men’s and bikes, which are like a road bike with women’s divisions for each leg, but knobby tires,” he said. “It’s a happy Mortensen said that it wasn’t a race, medium between a cyclo-cross and a but a ride. There will be a more casual road bike – but people can do it on any atmosphere with rest stops at Western bike they want. A Pleasure Guest lot of people just Ranch, Pack ride their mounRiver Store and tain bikes for this another at a prievent.” vate residence The ride starts on Grouse (and finishes) Creek Rd. on Oak Street The best between Syrinpart? All ga Cyclery and proceeds after -Charles Mortensen event costs will Matchwood Brewing. From benefit the Pend there, riders will wind out of town via Oreille Pedalers, a trail-building volunBoyer Avenue to Selle Road where they teer group in Bonner County. will jump the highway and head toward “It takes a lot of work and monSelle Valley, hitting “every gravel road ey to build trails, especially in alpine we can,” Mortensen said. regions like the Watershed Crest Trail,” From there, it will meander throughMortensen said. out Selle Valley toward Rapid Lightning “At the heart of it, we’re just trying Road, back through Ponderay and across to find a good excuse to raise a few dol-

“It’s like cyclo-cross, but if you let the riders loose on the populace instead of a closed course.”

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David Barth and Jason Meshberg stop to learn about bears on the “two-humper” route of the 3/4-Minus Cykeltur. Photo courtesy Syringa Cyclery. lars for the Pedalers,” Meshberg said.

“I’m hoping that some of these locals will get put on roads they’ve never ridden before.”

Mortensen said events like these aren’t just a good time, they are a boost to a town’s economy.

“We already have 75 people signed up, and we more than a 100 by ride day,” he said. “We have people already registered from Canada, Montana, Washington and Idaho. These people will spend the weekend here, visit shops and restaurants, stay in hotels and campgrounds. It really shines a light on the town for people that haven’t been here before.”

While this is the inaugural event, Mortensen said he plans to make this ride an annual thing.

“It’s a good time of year for this,” he said. “The city brought up that they really liked we were doing it in the shoulder season when not a lot is going on. And as far as the cycling community goes, this is a great training ride for upcoming races, like CHAFE and the STOKR ride in Libby the weekend after ours.”

The event is being organized by Syringa Cyclery and will benefit the Pend

Oreille Pedalers. It was also sponsored

by Percival Press, Matchwood Brewing Co., All City Cycles, Hammer Nutrition, Evans Brothers Coffee, Foster’s Crossing, Pack River Store, Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, Woods Meat Processing, Out There Outdoors and Ace Septic Services.

“We’ve also gotten great support from the city of Sandpoint, who will provide a police escort for the start all the way to the fairgrounds, and the county for helping with the encroachment permit,” Mortensen said.

Packet pick-ups and registration will take place at Matchwood Brewing Co. on Friday, May 3, from 4-6 p.m. and again Saturday, May 4, from 8:309:30 a.m. The race will start at 10 a.m. on May 4 and will finish with a party and awards ceremony at Matchwood Brewing Co. with live music, food and drink, as well as a raffle for an All-City Cosmic Stallion, an all road/gravel bike worth over $2,000. Tickets are only $5 each or five for $20.

For more information, visit www.

SyringaCyclery.com.

PERSPECTIVES

Mayor’s Roundtable: Fire, art, golf and thanks

By Mayor Shelby Rognstad Reader Contributor There is a lot to discuss this week at the Roundtable. I will touch on some highlights here and I welcome readers to come join me to dive deeper into any of these topics this Friday, 8 a.m. at Cedar St. Bistro.

I’m sure no one missed the news of the completion of the state fire marshal’s investigation into the cause of the Bridge St. fire. As was reported in the Bee last Saturday, the location of the fire’s genesis was identified. While the majority of the corner building was removed, private investigators are still examining the remaining structure to the north, where China Kitchen was located. The remaining demolition will occur as soon as all investigations are complete.

Safety measures will then be taken to ensure that Bridge Street is safe for traffic and a decorative wall depicting Sandpoint’s history will hide the demolition through the summer, thanks to a generous grant of $7500 from BNSF Railways.

The fire has had a huge impact on those whose businesses were destroyed and their employees. It has also impacted downtown business as a whole. The amount of support from the community for those affected has been incredible.

The city will do everything that it can to clean up downtown as quickly as possible and ensure that it is functional, accessible and inviting for residents and visitors. We will also continue to do everything that we can to ensure that impacts from street and sidewalk construction this year are minimized to the greatest extent possible. Myself and city staff will continue to reach out to the downtown business community throughout the year to invite your suggestions as to how we can improve the downtown experience for residents, employees and tourists.

The city is kicking off its first ever Arts and Culture Master Plan. As stated in the city’s Comprehensive Plan, Sandpoint “places a high value on attracting, encouraging and developing

arts and culture. It aspires to be one of the best small arts towns by encouraging local artists, preserving cultural heritage, nurturing creativity, inspiring original expression, and cultivating art appreciation.”

By creating a strategic vision for public art and cultural programming, we enhance our community’s sense of identity, celebrate our heritage, energize public spaces and stimulate commerce and investment by attracting visitors and job creators to the area.

This plan will feed into our Parks and Recreation Master Plan which is now underway. The city has selected Greenplay, LLC, as the consultant to lead us

through the planning process. The first stakeholder meeting is May 1. If you or someone you know would like to serve on the stakeholder committee, please contact my executive assistant, Carolbelle (208-265-1481) for more details.

There will be many opportunities for the general public to participate in the near future including an online survey and public forums that will be scheduled in the coming months.

I have spoken to many of you regarding the future of the Baldfoot Disc Golf Course. I’m pleased to report the city has extended the Eureka Institute license through April 20 of 2020. The Disc Golf Association is paying the interest on the loan for the property. This is fair to utility rate payers, who purchased the property and will not have to pick up the tab. This is a win for golfers who can continue playing on this beautiful course and to rate payers who are concerned about the cost of utility bills.

Lastly, I want to thank Maree Peck, Scot Campbell and Darlene Edwards (our retired clerk, city attorney and public works administrator, respectively) for their years of service to the City. I welcome our new team members: Carolbelle Branch, the executive assistant; Linda Hiess, our new grants administrator and Bela Kovacs, our procurement and contracts officer. These talented people will be excellent additions to our team. Organizational restructuring has allowed us to fill the vacancies created by retirements and create two new positions with less impact on the budget.

Please join me at the Mayor’s Roundtable this Friday, April 19, from 8-9 a.m. at the Cedar Street Bistro in the Cedar Street Bridge. Mayor’s Roundtable has changed times to the third Friday of the month to give more citizens the opportunity to participate. I hope to see you there.

Just a short drive across the Long Bridge...

41 Lakeshore Drive (across the Long Bridge)

208.265.2001 ShogaSushi.com

Open for dinner Wednesday – Sunday 4:30-9pm Wed, Thu, Sun | 4:30-10pm Fri,Sat April 18, 2019 /

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From Northern Idaho News, April 18, 1939

CRAZED EX-CONVICT SHOOTS F. LINDT Funeral services for Frank Lindt, early day resident of this city, who was killed Monday night in the Dan Sellinas shooting at Dishman, were held yesterday afternoon from the chapel of the Moon mortuary. The Eagles lodge had charge.

Authorities who investigated the shooting said that Sellinas, sought on a federal liquor charge and for parole violation from McNeil island penitentiary, had kept a vow to “get even.”

In doing so he killed Nora McElroy, his one-time friend and Frank Lindt of Sandpoint. He wounded Phil Lohrey, Lindt’s brother-in-law, and Mrs. Marte Skretteberg, 60, Pierce, Idaho.

The Spokane county coroner said he believed Lindt, Lohrey and Mrs. Skretteberg had no connection with the trouble between Sellinas and Nora McElroy which precipitated the shootings.

Spokane deputy sheriffs are trying definitely to fix a motive for a double murder and suicide Monday night at Dishman tourist camp.

The dead are Nora McElroy, 35, of Spokane and Frank Lindt, Sandpoint plumber, killed by Dan Sellinas, 45, ex-convict, who shot himself in the temple after gaining revenge for what he believed was a “double cross.”

Mrs. Marie Skretteberg, 60, mother of Miss McElroy and Paul Lohrey, Sandpoint fireman, are recovering satisfactorily in their rooms in the St. Clair hotel, Spokane from bullet wounds. Mr. Lohrey told the reporters he was dazed by a bullet that “creased” his skull and that Mrs. Skretteberg received a flesh wound in her right thigh.

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Crossword Solution

Broken promises don’t upset me. I just think, why did they believe me?

OPEN 11:30 am

GAME ROOM UPSTAIRS

The Psounbality with Per FRESH FOOD LIVE MUSIC THE BEST NW BREWS

ACROSS

212 Cedar Street Downtown Sandpoint

208.263.4005 A SandPint Tradition Since 1994

Woorf tdhe Week

multiverse

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

CROSSWORD

/MUHL-ti-vurs /

[noun] 1. a hypothetical collection of identical or diverse universes, including our own.

“He believes in the multiverse theory of infinite universes.”

Corrections: No mistakes, flubs, typos or dunderheaded accidents to report this week. Stay tuned. -BO

1. Electrical power units 6. Border 10. Fired a weapon 14. Hearing-related 15. Lunch or dinner 16. An indefinite period 17. Rock 18. Musical group 19. Related 20. Miscellany 22. Permits 23. Large brown seaweed 24. Scant 26. Change direction 30. American Dental Association 31. Children’s game 32. Pearly-shelled mussel 33. 1/100th of a dollar 35. Dirty fogs 39. Pitch or tar 41. Ash 43. Cubic meter 44. Skidded 46. Lacquered metalware 47. Anger 49. French for “Summer” 50. Historical periods 51. Directed 54. Precious stones 56. Chief 57. Emissions 63. 53 in Roman numerals 64. Small amount

Solution on page 26 65. Blacksmith’s block 66. Black, in poetry 67. Frosts 68. Condition 69. Jewelry 70. To tax or access 71. Hollowed out

DOWN 1. Clean 2. Car 3. Stepped 4. A tart spicy quality 5. Streamlined 6. Heartens

7. Vague 8. Mob 9. Not the youngest 10. A cylinder in a cave 11. A foot traveller 12. Leaves out 13. Anxious 21. Tranquility 25. Overtake 26. Vats 27. Module 28. Liturgy 29. Nutritious 34. Unoriginality 36. Smell 37. Goddess of healing 38. Views

40. No more than 42. Swelling under the skin 45. Emissaries 48. Bloated 51. A machine for baling hay 52. Small African antelope 53. Descendant 55. Hiding place 58. Rodents 59. Moving within 60. Egg-shaped 61. Anagram of “Tine” 62. Sleigh

April 18, 2019 /

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April 16-22 CLIMAT£-TH£M£D VIRTUAL R£ALITY £'i'.P£Rl£f\JC£S T!:!:f\J eUILDlf\JGt PRDJ!:C TS £'i'.P£RT PAf\J£L DISCUSSIOf\JS BARTH TALILS Af\JD PR£S£f\JTATIOf\JS STDRYTIM£S & STDRYWALILS™ fR££ flLM SCR££f'Jlf\JG,S

&e:vC11i- 1:J7 fd1w""t SATURDAY, APRIL zo r� AT FARMlf\J PARK. • 1-Y'PM

Games, prizes, activities, green food vendors, music and a special presentation by Washington School 6th graders.

Facebook.com/ sandpointannualearthday

Bring used magic markers for recycle by the -----Washington 1st graders!

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Library

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