I’ve gotten into the habit of using the “Junk Drawer” as a space to lament the ever-shifting quality of my dreams, which are seemingly directed by either Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Barbie) or Anthony C. Ferrante (Sharknado 1-6). Recently, the two genres teamed up for a dream experience akin to a “Barbenheimer” fanfiction with a surprisingly impactful ending.
It all began with me sitting in a house made of crayons, hiding from a homicidal toddler. Through a series of flashbacks I learned that the boy — who was breaking through my colorful wax door at the time — enjoyed line dancing, riding his bike and biting the limbs off his neighbors with Tyrannosaurus rex-type teeth. Wherever he went, his parents could be seen in the distance, standing like the couple in Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” while blaring showtunes from a record player.
In an attempt to escape the dino-child, I began climbing a makeshift ladder of baked goods suspended from the ceiling with fishing line. This seemed like a good idea when I was only a few feet off the ground hugging a loaf of banana bread, but my fear of heights kicked in a few hundred feet up, and I found myself dangling from a cherry pie over a bottomless precipice. Just when I was sure I’d fall to my death — my carrion consumed by a feral preschooler — a massive turtle offered me a ride on its back. It carried me through verdant meadows and across an ocean to a jungle paradise centered on a mangrove tree, which held up the world like Yggdrasil. There, people from all time periods sat and sang together in the dappled sunlight, completely at ease. I awoke with an overwhelming sense of peace that followed me throughout the day, completely overriding the pastry-filled terror from before.
I’m no expert on interpreting dreams, but I’ll give it a shot. Our country has been terrorized by a maniacal, diaper-clad figure for the past eight years and escape seems nigh impossible. Yet, though we find ourselves in a nonsensical situation clinging to a metaphorical crumbling pie, there is still hope for a peaceful ending. It will take time and perseverance, but our turtle will come.
what is fantasy but a well-written dream
“Yes, [Tolkien] said, fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape? The moneylenders, the knownothings, the authoritarians have us all in prison; if we value the freedom of the mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, building on a passage from J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay ‘On Fairy-Stories.’
DEAR READERS,
After successfully raising enough funds to purchase archival boxes in which to store every edition of the Reader from 2004 to the present, I’ve been slowly going through and pulling old copies from our “morgue” at the Bonner County History Museum. I’m also reminded just how much work it takes to put this newspaper together, each and every week.
I keep one copy of each edition behind my desk for quick reference. I remember when I first started this gig as publisher back in January 2015, I put the first edition on the hardwood floor and thought, “Someday this is going to be a stack two or three feet high.” Today, some 500 deadlines later, the stack reaches my knees.
Sure, sometimes I lament the fact that I chose a career in a struggling industry that will forever keep me living hand to mouth, but I really don’t have any regrets. Maybe, years from now when the stack is higher than my waist, I’ll consider this a job well done and walk away. Until then, we’ll just keep on keeping on the only way we know how.
– Ben Olson, publisher
READER
111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 208-946-4368
Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (emeritus) Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus)
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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
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About the Cover
This week’s cover photo taken by Rich Milliron on a calm day at the Sandpoint Marina.
BOCC Chair Omodt tenders resignation
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
BoCo Republican Central Committee poised to nominate Ron Korn as temporary replacement
District 3 Bonner County Commissioner Luke Omodt submitted his letter of resignation to the county clerk on Aug. 20 — effective Saturday, Sept. 7 — putting an early end to his term, which would have otherwise lasted until January.
Idaho Code 59-906A stipulates that when a county commissioner vacates their seat, their party’s central committee has 15 days from the effective date of the resignation to submit a list of three potential replacements to the governor, who in turn has 15 days to appoint one of the nominees to the position.
The BCRCC voted to nominate Grouse Creek Committeeman Ron Korn, Oden Precinct Committeeman Tom Cleveland and Hope Precinct Committeewoman Kim Peckham. Former-Commissioner Cary Kelly was also considered for the role.
Korn, who won the Republican nomination for Omodt’s current seat in the May primary election, is the preferred nominee by the Bonner County Republican Central Committee to fill the position in the interim.
The four candidates were nominated by precinct committeemen and then whittled down to three using rankedchoice voting, placing Korn at the top of the list. Members of the audience and some committeemen laughed at the irony of the BCRCC using ranked-choice voting, considering its consistent and vigorous opposition to Proposition 1 — a citizens initiative that would convert Idaho elections to a ranked-choice model.
Republican Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador is currently fighting the initiative in Ada County court in an attempt to bar it from appearing on the November ballot, and the local Republican Party has made repeated arguments that
Prop. 1 would harm Idaho’s election integrity, eliminate party primaries and put an undue financial burden on state taxpayers.
Prior to the announcement of Omodt’s resignation, the BCRCC handed out signs protesting Prop. 1 and discussed strategies and resources to combat the initiative. Later, Washington Precinct Committeeman Tom Bokowy brought forward
a resolution condemning Labrador’s “obviously doomed” lawsuit against Prop. 1, which received vigorous debate before failing in a 28-2 vote.
With the three nominations for Omodt’s seat chosen, the BCRCC has only to wait until his effective date of resignation.
“The resignation states it is effective Sept. 7, which implies [Omodt’s] last day is Sept. 6, so I believe the Republican Central Committee can submit their nominees to the governor on the seventh,” Bonner County Clerk Mike Rosedale told the Reader in an Aug. 21 email. Rumors of Omodt’s impending resignation have been circulating since early this month, but were confirmed at the Aug. 20 meeting of the BCRCC. Though the committee will have to wait to submit its candidates to Idaho Gov.
Brad Little, by announcing his resignation the day of the meeting, Omodt gave the BCRCC the opportunity to choose their three nominees immediately.
“It just so happens that the timing’s really good since we already have a Republican nominee from the May primary,” outgoing Sagle Republican Sen. Scott Herndon, who also serves as chair of the BCRCC, told the Reader in an Aug. 5 interview regarding the rumors of Omodt’s resignation.
“We’re more prepared than we would be otherwise, because otherwise we’d have to cast nets — see who we can find that would be good for the position and find three nominees, but I think we’re better off at this point in time in the election cycle,” he said.
“Both [Cleveland and
Peckham] prefer that the governor appoints Ron Korn, who was the committee’s endorsed candidate in the primary election, the winner, and not the Republican nominee on the general election ballot... I anticipate the governor will select our Republican primary winner,” wrote Herndon in an Aug. 21 email to the Reader Aside from Korn being listed as the incumbent on the ballot — should Little accept his nomination — his selection to fill Omodt’s seat will have no effect on the upcoming November election, Herndon told the Reader on Aug. 5. Omodt was not prepared to provide additional comment at this time and Korn did not respond.
Additional reporting by Zach Hagadone.
Court determines arson suspect’s competency is ‘significantly impaired’
to Health and Welfare for treatment, further evaluation
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Arson suspect Jennifer S. Meyer was in Bonner County court again Aug. 21, appearing with Public Defender Catherine Enright to hear how a recent competency evaluation would affect the progress of the case.
Senior Judge Debra Heise presided over the hearing, which lasted about six minutes.
“The statute is pretty clear what should happen,” she said, adding that the evaluation showed Meyer’s ability to understand the proceedings or take part in her own defense is “significantly impaired.”
Meyer is being held on a $1 million bond at the Bonner County Jail, accused of first-degree arson in the July 4 fire that destroyed the Army Surplus 1 store on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Oak Street.
If convicted, she could face
up to 25 years in jail, fines of up to $100,000 or both.
Based on the findings of the competency evaluation, Meyer will be transferred to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare for 90 days. Depending on periodic progress reports during that time, she could be held for a further 180 days.
How the case proceeds will be determined by the outcome of the period of commitment with Health and Welfare.
“She will likely be taken to a state facility where they will administer treatment and therapy to assist in stabilizing her and determining if she can be restored to competency,”
Bonner County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Katie Sherritt told the Reader in an email.
“She is not deemed dangerously mentally ill — which would have meant she would go through a different process for restoration.”
Idaho Code 18-210 stipulates that, “No person who as a result of mental disease or defect lacks capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his own defense shall be tried, convicted, sentenced or punished for the commission of an offense so long as such incapacity endures.”
“She does lack capacity,” Heise said, in part.
According to I.C. 18-212, if a defendant is found to be “dangerously mentally ill,” they are instead committed to the Department of Correction for up to 90 days.
uals as those who are found by a court “to be in such mental condition that they are in need of supervision, evaluation, treatment and care; to present a substantial risk of physical harm to other persons as manifested by evidence of homicidal or other violent behavior or evidence that others are placed in reasonable fear of violent behavior and serious physical harm to them; and to be dangerous to such a degree that a maximum security treatment setting is required.”
Meyer entered the courtroom on Aug. 21 cuffed and in jail garb, proceeding to the defense table with her head bowed.
In her first hearing before Magistrate Judge Luke Hagelberg on July 17, Meyer refused to appear on the video feed from the jail. After being brought to the courtroom,
< see MEYER, Page 5 >
Jennifer S. Meyer, suspected of July 4 Army Surplus fire, to be transferred
Jennifer S. Meyer’s booking photo from BCSO.
Luke Omodt. File photo.
Sandpoint City Council approves $50.5M budget for FY2025
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Sandpoint City Council members voted unanimously Aug. 21 to approve the fiscal year 2025 budget, approving the maximum appropriation of $50,499,054 — a reduction of $2,475,215 from the FY24 budget, which amounts to an overall 4.67% less in spending.
City Hall anticipates levying $5,131,368 in property taxes in FY25, representing $336,649 more than FY24.
Preliminary new construction is valued at $58,810,689, with 90% of that value available for levy purposes, resulting in projected property tax revenues of $138,017. City Treasurer and Finance Director Sarah Lynds said in July that those figures represent “about double what we’ve seen in past years.”
The council also approved levying $51,794 of the total $399,493 available foregone property tax from prior years for the purchase of public safety vehicles, though the exact amount may change after the 2024 net taxable value is released.
City employees would receive a 2% pay increase to keep pace with regional agency benchmarks and account for increased health insurance
Meyer became uncommunicative — placing her head on the defense table and remaining silent and motionless as Hagelberg proceeded with reading the charges, maximum penalties and setting the bond.
She remained upright in her seat throughout the Aug. 21 hearing.
The fire that Meyer is suspected of setting started around 10 p.m. on July 4 — just as the annual Independence Day fireworks display was concluding at City Beach.
According to the affidavit in support of issuing a search warrant, which the Reader obtained in a public records request, surveillance footage
costs that may go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Some personnel savings in the budget stemmed from the elimination of 16 firefighter positions following the decoupling of Sandpoint with the joint powers agreement earlier this year, as well as removing the position of city administrator, asset manager, a number of administrative assistant positions and others. Meanwhile, a wastewater treatment employee and a manager for the James E. Russell Sports Center would be added — the latter position for which the city is currently interviewing candidates.
There was minimal discussion or participation in the Aug. 21 public hearing and decision, considering the city has undertaken a number of workshops and presentations on the budget.
“It’s not just put together on a whim,” Lynds said, referring to the six-month process of crafting the budget.
However, Council President Deb Ruehle raised concerns that timber management in the Little Sand Creek Watershed could end up benefiting recreational uses to the detriment of the ecological integrity of the site, asking, “Is there a plan to rest our watershed in the forestry management plan?”
taken from security cameras in the vicinity of Army Surplus showed the fireworks display still proceeding at 10:08 p.m. — the same time an individual could be seen walking down the alley toward the south wall of the building. At 10:10 p.m., “a glow appears at the location where the individual is observed approaching the wall,” the affidavit stated. “The individual is then observed stepping back from the glow as it grows larger. The individual then walks east down the alley to the west side of Fifth Ave. before turning south.”
As the blaze grew, large groups of people were making their way through the area following the fireworks display, making for a scene containing
Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm said that his approach would be toward “multi-use management of this watershed.” If two competing forestry projects were to present themselves in the watershed, Grimm said he would “favor and propose and promote” uses that meet both the goals of the watershed management plan and provide opportunities for public use.
Though the overall budget represents a decrease from the previous year, the FY25 appropriation includes a number of large-scale capital improvement projects related to infrastructure, amounting to $23,261,500.
Among those projects are the design and upgrade/replacement of the wastewater treatment plant, a short-term rehabilitation of the Bridge Street bridge; and Phase 3 of the downtown revitalization project focused on rebuilding First Avenue from Bridge to Lake streets, as well as improvements to Superior Street.
Council members voted unanimously Aug. 21 to approve the design for the Bridge Street bridge project and authorized city staff to finalize construction documents in order to advertise it for bids.
According to the agenda
hundreds of onlookers.
Meanwhile, about $500,000 of merchandise went up in flames — including an unknown but large amount of ammunition, which exploded intermittently inside the building as firefighters doused the structure with water. Additionally, the fire destroyed a large amount of personal property belonging to owner Cornel Rasor and his family, which was stored in the building.
Sandpoint police combed through hours of surveillance footage from the area around Army Surplus and throughout downtown. They ultimately identified Meyer in a number of locations — and apparently wearing different clothing at different times — both before
report, the 55-year-old bridge — which connects downtown Sandpoint with City Beach and the lake water treatment plant — was determined to be “functionally obsolete” in the 2021 Multimodal Transportation Master Plan and should be replaced.
Doing so would cost an estimated $6 million and would likely take years to fund. In the meantime, in 2023, the city contracted with engineering firm Keller Associates to study and recommend rehabilitation work over the next 10 years.
Rather than replacement, the rehab projects will include applying a “protective coating” to forestall deterioration of the pile piers and cross bracing.
According to the FY25 budget, $720,000 is allocated toward the project. According to the feasibility study from Keller Associates, the overall rehab project — which includes everything from removal and replacement of the concrete deck to slope stabilization and anti-graffiti coating — is estimated to cost just more than $2 million in 2025 dollars.
Those other projects will be taken up in phases, while City Hall anticipates the awarded contract will be ready for council approval in October.
and during the start of the fire.
Police arrested Meyer on July 16 following an interview in which she “was caught lying about her statements regarding her routes and clothing attire during the time in question,” the affidavit stated.
“As we informed her of the route she walked, she would not speak and when asked questions, her only response was that she could not answer that and never denied starting the fire at the Army Surplus,” according to the affidavit.
“When Meyer stated she was done talking, she was told she was being placed under arrest for arson and transported to the Bonner County Jail.”
The subsequent search of Meyer’s residence — which
Sandpoint Construction Manager Holly Ellis emphasized the importance of rehabilitation on the bridge, noting that the potential of restricted load limits on the span could affect development on the east side of Sand Creek — both related to the lake water treatment plant and the hotel development planned on the current Best Western Edgewater site.
“Keeping this bridge in good condition is pretty high on our priorities,” she said, later adding, “It would be imperative that we don’t have weight restrictions on the bridge.”
Other projects in the FY25 budget include realigning Ontario Street at Highway 2 to improve intersections; sidewalk and bike path projects along Fourth Avenue south of Superior to Pacific Street; reconstruction of Cedar Street from Division to Lincoln Avenue; improvements to the Great Northern corridor; and a range of street projects.
The budget includes more than $8.9 million in street and sidewalk spending, representing an 87% increase.
View the online budget book, which includes narratives of FY25 projects, maintenance and operations at bit. ly/467YXVg.
was not far from Army Surplus — turned up a bag located near the door containing about $1,000, a 9 millimeter handgun and ammunition, $1,200 in silver, vehicle titles, passport, birth certificate and college transcript, among other personal documents.
Based on those items, the court determined there were “great concerns with regard to flight,” resulting in the $1 million bond.
Both Enright and Bonner County Prosecuting Attorney Louis Marshall, who represented the state, agreed Aug. 21 not to set the case for another hearing until further treatment and evaluation of Meyer’s competency is completed.
< MEYER, con’t from Page 4 >
City Beach Lady Liberty statue going in for repairs
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Few other Sandpoint landmarks are more photographed than the replica of Lady Liberty at the end of the City Beach pier — however, those snapshots will have to wait while the statue is undergoing repairs.
In an Aug. 19 post on Facebook, the city of Sandpoint stated that Lady Liberty had “sustained damage” and would require two to four weeks of work before reinstallation.
The source of the damage: summertime recreation.
“Kids like to climb up on it and jump off and that creates a lot of torque,” Sandpoint Community Planning and Development Director Jason Welker told the Reader.
That torque resulted in the failure of a weld that held one of the brackets
in place, which in turn dislodged Lady Liberty from her base.
“The whole statue was wobbling from side to side,” Welker said.
After hearing of Lady Liberty’s precarious position, Sandpoint police cordoned off the area and Sandpoint Parks Department staff came to the beach to remove the statue and bring it in for repairs.
Welker said that the city works with a few different local welders, and will bring in an aluminum welding specialist to replace the bracket — work that he estimated would cost about $100.
“It’s not a hard job at all,” he said.
The same can’t be said for fishing Lady Liberty out of the lake.
“In the 23 years that it’s been there it’s been ripped out [of its base] and pulled out from the lakebed twice,” Welker said. “We’re trying to prevent having to do that again.”
Army Corps gives update on Albeni Falls Dam gates
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held several public meetings in May to inform stakeholders and members of the public about the defective spillway gate at Albeni Falls Dam, which delayed Lake Pend Oreille reaching summer lake level. Since then, the Corps has worked to address the issue, announcing Aug. 21 that there were solutions in the offing.
“We’re developing an interim solution to return gate No. 3 — which was discovered to have steel defects in April 2024 — to limited use,” USACE Public Affairs Specialist Nicole Celestine told the Reader in an email. “Our engineers are continuing with their required analysis of using fiber-reinforced polymer on that gate.”
Often used for advanced engineering projects on everything from bridges to aircrafts, fiber-reinforced polymers are derived by combining an epoxy, vinylester or polyester thermosetting plastic with carbon or glass fibers, in order to make the polymer strong and stiff.
Bits ’n’ Pieces
From east, west and beyond
East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:
Soon after the rollout of Elon Musk’s A.I.-generated chatbot Grok, it portrayed politicians in entirely false but realistic scenarios, such as committing murder or using drugs, CNN reported. Some companies are calling for images originating from Grok to be labeled or identified as fake. Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, has a policy against use of out-of-context content that could confuse, deceive or lead to harm, but there are questions if the policy is being enforced. Musk himself has posted false images with inadequate indicators of accuracy.
Meanwhile, social media has significantly fueled anti-immigration riots in the UK, with Musk adding inflammatory comments, CNN reported. Rioters have damaged buildings, set fires and assaulted officers. The melee began with false information on social media. UK police are investigating both onand offline. In an open letter to Musk, the European Union commissioner warned that member nations will be “extremely vigilant” about protecting citizens from “serious harm.” Musk’s response was unfit for print.
“For the long-term, we’ve received approval and funding to proceed with designing new gate(s),” Celestine wrote. “The Project Development Team is moving forward with preparing plans and specifications for the gate replacement.”
According to Celestine, the team is working on a new gate design and the Corps is “pursuing the required appropriated funding and Bonneville Power Administration funding approvals to advertise and award a new gate fabrication contract.”
Solicitation of the new gate fabrication contract will occur after the new gate design is complete.
Because securing a new gate design and awarding a contract is an extensive process, Celestine said to expect the first gate to be on-site in three to five years.
“We remain committed to keeping the lines of communication with residents of the community open,” Celestine wrote, noting that the Corps would host another public meeting before the 2025 spring runoff period, when they’ll share progress updates on gate design as well as give an outlook on the spring runoff period with “modified operations.”
Columnist Robert Reich advises withholding advertising on X, but added that Musk is now suing those who do so for violating antitrust laws. Reich said the Federal Trade Commission can demand lies be removed from the platform that threaten lives and democracy. If Musk does not comply, Reich suggested suing him under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Another step could be termination of U.S. contracts with Musk. When the government considers contracts with private entities, it takes into account reliability, and Reich said Musk’s “mercurial, impulsive temperament makes doing business with him “unreliable.”
Former-U.S. Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and faces up to eight years for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, USA Today wrote. Meanwhile, the BBC reported that former-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has been found guilty on seven counts of 2020 election interference.
Early this week, House Republicans released their report accusing President Joe Biden of corruption. They claim he allowed his family to profit while he was vice president. However, numerous media reported that the probe cited no proof and Republicans have admitted
By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist
there’s no direct evidence to support the claims.
Ukraine has been attempting to “defang” Russian aggression since Aug. 6, taking out bridges in Russia’s Kursk region. Other planned targets include Russian air bases and railroads, Al Jazeera reported. Recently, Russia launched 40 missiles at villages and cities in Ukraine, along with 750 aerial bombs and 200 attack drones.
The Democratic National Convention began Aug. 19. According to various media, early highlights included outlining four years of Democrats’ White House accomplishments — with a focus on ordinary Americans and protecting democracy. They contrasted their views with those of former-president and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, referring to the Republican-inspired Project 2025 as “Jim Crow 2.0”; reminding Americans how Trump downplayed the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to unnecessary deaths; and listening to individuals recount the impact of life-threatening abortion bans.
Biden spoke after a lengthy standing ovation that caused him to tear up. He said he loved the job but stepped aside because, “I love my country more.”
The Department of Labor report for July showed year-over-year inflation hit its lowest level in three years: prices rose 0.2% from June to July. A year ago the figure was 3.2%. Two years ago, inflation peaked at 9.1% — the highest level in four decades, CBC reported.
Current vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has provided some details about her economic plan, The Guardian wrote. Those plans include a federal ban on price gouging that targets groceries and consumer goods with prices “well above” pre-pandemic levels, plans to cut costs of rental housing and home ownership, more funds for affordable housing and building climate-resilient communities. Harris plans to maintain Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on those making $400,000 or less. In a recent campaign speech, Trump said he’s “not sure” that the economy is the election’s most important issue.
The Biden administration has announced $100 million in grants for new housing.
Blast from the past: This month marks the 104th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women in the U.S. the right to vote.
The empty pedestal at City Beach where the Statue of Liberty was recently removed.
Photo by Ben Olson.
Funding and approval comes after defective gate delayed lake reaching summer pool
Serviceability of sunken sheriff’s vessel remains undetermined
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
A patrol rescue boat belonging to the Bonner County Sheriff Marine Division is out of commission following a July incident of “rough seas,” during which the vessel sank while docked at Garfield Bay. As of Aug. 21, the vessel was still being vetted to determine whether it should be repaired or replaced.
According to Deputy Sheriff Craig Ross’ incident report, obtained by the Reader through a public records request, a citizen reported the vessel Marine 2 taking on water the morning of July 25. By the time responding officers arrived with a trailer and dewatering pump, the starboard side of the boat
was already submerged.
“We arrived on scene and determined we didn’t have the proper equipment to refloat it. There were no signs of hazmat in the water... We later secured some absorbent boom from local fire houses and placed [it] around the vessel to ensure no fuel and/ or oil could escape the area,” wrote Ross in the report.
Naples-based C. E. Kramer Crane & Contracting arrived the following day, retrieving and drying the boat over a period of about six hours for $2,725.50.
The county purchased the 21-foot Almar Patrol Rescue Boat from the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Department in 1994 for $28,000, which included the trailer, radar unit,
light bar and P.A. system.
Investigators found no visible damage that would have caused the incident, and Marine Deputy John Leyendecker surveyed the available security footage and found no evidence of anyone tampering with the vessel, according to his report.
“With the assistance from Sam Lundram, owner of Lake City Marine [Services], it was determined the likely cause of the flooding was due to Marine 2 pitch pulling in rough seas, causing water to jettison up through the installed self-bailing scupper holes,” Ross wrote in his report.
That created “a downflooding situation into the main deck storage compartment. Once enough water came in, the scupper holes dropped
below the waterline and increased the rate of flooding,” he added.
Sheriff Daryl Wheeler indicated in an Aug. 21 email to the Reader that cost estimates for repairing or replacing Marine 2 will likely be available
in the next “few days.”
“We are still waiting for additional assessments on the damage caused during that incident,” he said.
Chronic wasting disease diagnosed in Boundary County deer
By Reader Staff
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission recently announced the first known case of chronic wasting disease in North Idaho after a whitetailed deer tested positive in Hunting Unit 1 outside of Bonners Ferry. IDFG requests hunters and other members of the public aid in their efforts to understand and control the spread of the disease.
“While we are disappointed by the detection of CWD in
North Idaho, the department is well prepared to respond to the situation thanks to having a comprehensive Chronic Wasting Disease Strategy, a history of sampling for CWD in deer throughout the area and experience dealing with affected populations in other parts of the state,” stated Panhandle Regional Supervisor Carson Watkins in a news release.
CWD is a fatal, contagious neurological disease found in 35 U.S. states that affects deer, elk and moose. The disease,
caused by misfolded proteins known as prions, affects the brain and can cause excess salivation, drooping of the head or ears, tremors, emaciation and abnormal behavior such as the loss of coordination and lack of fear of people.
There is no cure for CWD. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are no reported cases of humans infected with CWD; however, it recommends against eating meat from a sick animal, as the prion disease cannot be
cooked out.
“This represents a major conservation challenge, and I want you all to know that we are in this together,” stated Watkins.
“The goal of our CWD strategy is to detect and minimize the spread of the disease so that we can maintain healthy, big game herds well into the future, and this cannot work without the help of hunters and the public at large,” he added.
IDFG will conduct a surveil-
lance hunt in Unit 1 to assess the scope of the disease, and asks that all hunters in the panhandle have their elk, deer and moose tested — either by submitting a lymph node sample or the entire head of the animal to any regional IDFG office. For information on how to collect samples, or see upcoming Community Chats on the topic, visit idfg.idaho.gov/cwd. Report sick animals to the Panhandle Region office at 208-769-1414.
Idahoans should inspect moss aquarium balls for possible zebra mussels
By Kyle Pfannenstiel Idaho Capital Sun
The Idaho State Department of Agriculture says aquarium owners should inspect Marimo moss aquarium balls after fast-spreading zebra mussels were found in neighboring Washington state.
Zebra mussels — like quagga mussels — are an invasive species that can clog water pipes and harm native fish populations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Zebra mussels were detect-
ed in Washington on Aug. 5 on Marimo moss balls shipped to a wholesale aquarium company in Renton, Wash.
Officials say Idaho has minimal Marimo moss balls, but they call the risk concerning.
Idaho State Department of Agriculture officials have inspected local pet and aquarium stores, and they will keep working to collect and dispose of affected products, according to an Aug. 12 news release.
All aquarium owners should “carefully examine their own
material for invasive species,” and follow official guidance on how to safely dispose of contaminated material, the Idaho agriculture department says. Owners should not dump aquarium water or throw away moss balls into drains or natural bodies of water, Idaho officials say.
Zebra mussels were last found in moss balls in Idaho in 2021, after initial detection in Seattle that grew to 41 states and nine Canadian provinces, the release stated.
After chemically killing
quagga mussels in the Snake River last fall, Idaho officials haven’t spotted viable quagga mussels this spring. But they say they still need to sample amid peak reproduction season, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.
This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com.
Need more info or help on zebra mussels?
Visit invasivespecies. idaho.gov/moss.
Contact the Idaho State Department of Agriculture’s Invasive Species Program at 877-336-8676 or info@isda.idaho.gov.
Bonner County Sheriff’s vessel Marine 2 after taking on water the morning of July 25. Photo courtesy of Facebook.
Bouquets:
• For many, the works of William Shakespeare are an acquired taste. For others, no canon of work has contributed more to our shared human experience than that of Shakespeare. After watching Montana Shakespeare in the Park’s performance of Hamlet on Aug. 16, I’m definitely with the latter group. This troupe of actors has brought the Bard’s works to rural communities across the West for 52 years, and they never cease to amaze me. To watch such a performance sitting outside under the swaying trees in Lakeview Park — for free — is about as good as it gets. Special thanks to Dan Meulenberg for serving as local host; local sponsors Family Health Center, Dr. Jim and Geraldine Lewis, Dr. Dan and Lori Meulenberg, Pend Oreille Arts Council and Eichardt’s Pub; and, of course, the cast and crew of Hamlet. Bravo!
Barbs:
• Electric bikes are going to experience a reckoning at some point in the not-so-distant future. I don’t personally have anything against them, but I see the writing on the wall and let’s just say there are some four-letter words in there. E-bikes don’t really belong within American infrastructure. At times, e-bike riders think they are a pedestrian, at others a bike and still others they behave like they are a vehicle. While most urban bicyclists travel between eight and 12 miles per hour, e-bikes easily reach speeds of 20+ mph — some even as high as 28 mph — which can create two different traffic flows within the same lane. That is, if the e-biker is actually using the street, which many do not. The other day I saw what was essentially an electric dirt bike speeding down a busy sidewalk, weaving around pedestrians and baby strollers. It was a small wonder they didn’t hit anyone. Until we figure out where e-bikes fit into existing infrastructure, it’s probably best to ride them with more care.
‘Look no further than Karen Matthee’ for House 1A…
Dear editor, I wonder how many of us feel truly heard by our locally elected officials? Karen Matthee, candidate for Idaho Legislature, has made it her mission to hear us. All of us. For months, she’s been doorknocking with fervor and attending countless events to meet voters. Every time I see her, I ask, “How’s the campaign going?” Each time, she replies with something like, “I just love talking with people and listening to their concerns. I love hearing what voters have to say.”
What if all our elected officials felt that way?
I could write to you, dear editor, about Karen’s many qualifications for office: her upstanding moral character, her impressive work experience, inspiring local volunteer endeavors and her ongoing efforts to bring our doctors back. And it would all be true. But, simply, I think many of us just want elected officials that love to listen — no matter our political views. We need look no further than Karen Matthee. I invite my fellow North Idahoans to join me in voting for Karen for Idaho Legislature, Seat 1A, in pursuit of our voices being heard in Boise. Thank you.
Emma Stanford Bonner County
‘Thinking
out loud’...
Dear editor, Regarding the 1% local option sales tax [News, Aug. 15, 2024], it seems:
1. Shouldn’t the heavy users of the streets pay for the repairs? Gas tax?
2. Bad streets are good in a way — drivers have to slow down.
3. Bad streets encourage biking, walking and riding the free Spot Bus.
Just thinking out loud here, sort of like Jack Handey.
Bill Stuble Dover
public schools to be properly funded, to have safe infrastructure and retain qualified teachers. She supports a permanent fund for public schools. A fund created by reviewing and revising our outdated sales tax exemptions, some of which have not been updated since the 1960s.
Karen is also a passionate supporter of our libraries. She rejects H.B. 710, which places an unnecessary financial burden on our libraries, restricts access to library books and materials, and has caused some Idaho libraries to prohibit minors. She organized a well-attended protest of H.B. 710 at our Sandpoint library.
Karen listens. Karen spends several hours a week going door to door to listen to the voters. She does so to find out the wants and needs of the citizens of District 1.
I will vote for Karen Matthee this Nov. 5, 2024. I hope you join me.
Sheila McNulty Sandpoint
‘Thumbs down’ on county weed spraying…
Dear editor,
A big thumbs down to the head of the Noxious Weed Department in Bonner County [Chase Youngdahl].
Two years in a row, he sent out untrained persons to kill noxious weeds. What was mostly sprayed were maple trees and other native trees, the native shrub ocean spray and grass alongside the road. Last year, this person sprayed and killed my birch tree, and this year he sprayed and killed my 30-foot-tall aspen tree, which I also planted eight years ago. I had bought both of these trees.
He did manage to kill the plantain, which was three-to-five feet tall, but last year and this year he completely missed the tansy.
I called up Mr. Youngdahl about this after last year’s disaster, but he appeared to care not a bit. It’s time to replace this person and get someone who knows how to do this job.
Susan Bistline Sagle
Mathee listens to voters… ‘Karen Matthee, the voice of reason’...
Dear Editor, I support Karen Matthee for Idaho state representative, Seat A, District 1. She is passionate about the children of Idaho, and Karen listens to the voters.
Karen knows the children are our future. She wants to ensure their education by supporting public schools and libraries. Karen wants
funding public schools, lowering property taxes and keeping our doctors here in Idaho. And some of those solutions come from Republican lawmakers, as well as Democrats.
A former journalist, she has done her homework. As a legislator, she will consider bills from all sides, carefully weighing their long-range impacts along with input from a broad spectrum of District 1 constituents — before she casts a vote.
On Nov. 5, I’m voting for responsible and responsive leadership in the Idaho House of Representatives. I’m voting for Karen Matthee for House Seat 1A.
Galen Hill Sandpoint
Trump’s insults are ‘unpatriotic and dangerous’…
Dear editor,
I wish I could say the things Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania this past Saturday was “the last straw.” (The straw that broke the camel’s back.) But, alas, I fear not.
“People say be nice. Have you heard her laugh?” the former president said about Kamala Harris. “That is the laugh of a crazy person. That is the laugh of a lunatic.”
Trump added that his advisers have urged him to limit the insults: “’Please sir, don’t call her a lunatic,’ But that’s what she is.”
If this is truly what Trump thinks, he should keep it to himself. My father served as a captain in WWII and I was an E-5 photographer in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. We both believed in respecting those in uniform as well as any elected official serving our nation in Congress, regardless of our opinions of them as a person. Democracy means respecting those elected.
If something were to happen to President Joe Biden before his term ends and Harris were to become president, I would not like nations around the world to think a former president of this nation thought our sitting president was “a lunatic.”
It is unpatriotic and dangerous for Trump to insult the office of an honestly elected official in the top echelon of the office holding guardians of this country including senators and representatives.
I find it almost unbelievable that Trump would say the Medal of Freedom is better than the Medal of Honor because “those guys just got shot and had bullet holes or were dead.” The same man who didn’t respect John McCain because he got captured (and spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison) but happened to be a Republican senator who didn’t buy Trump’s act.
James Richard Johnson Clark Fork
Dear editor, Karen Matthee is the voice of reason. She speaks out for those of us in the middle who reject extremism from both parties.
Her website and platform are proof of this. She offers viable, long-term solutions to issues such as
East Bonner Library trustees approve boundary line adjustment with West Bonner
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
The West Bonner County Library District got its wish for a boundary expansion, following the vote at an Aug. 20 joint meeting of its board and trustees from the East Bonner County Library District.
Members of the EBCL Board voted unanimously to approve the request for redrawing the district boundaries, which addresses a long-simmering conversation about where the tax burden should fall between the two library systems.
“I’m asking you to give me the people of Priest River that I serve everyday,” WBCL Director Meagan Mize said at the Aug. 20 meeting, which took place at the Priest River Library.
EBCL Board Chair Amy Flint agreed with the request, calling it “an idea whose time has come.”
And it has been coming for a long time. The issue stems from how the boundaries were initially set about 50 years ago and the changes that have occurred since on both sides of the county.
Back then, West Bonner didn’t have its own library or school district, so library taxes were levied on the same area as the Pend Oreille Hospital District — which covers about two thirds of the county from just outside Priest River city limits to the Montana border.
In the intervening years, West Bonner established its own library district bounded by the hospital district to the east and Washington border to the west. Then, in 19992000, the Bonner County School District split, creating the West Bonner County and Lake Pend Oreille school districts.
That created an overlap, where residents in the West Bonner County School
EBCL Board chair: ‘An idea whose time has come’
District were paying taxes to support the East Bonner County Library District, but most often using the Priest River Library.
The vote on Aug. 20 affirmed the request from West Bonner that the boundary between the two library districts be redrawn to align with the school district, therefore eliminating the overlap.
“I think it’s just organically time,” Mize said, referring to the steady increase in population in the county coupled with internal migration as residents priced out of Sandpoint have moved west to Priest River and the Blanchard area.
With the realignment, 3,166 parcels would shift their library tax dollars from East to West Bonner, and would result in an estimated $224,000 in revenue for the latter district.
“I need the money to staff this library,” Mize said. “I can’t provide any more hours to the community, I can’t provide any more staff because I don’t have the funds to do it.”
Though she ultimately voted in favor, EBCL Trustee Jeanine Asche expressed the greatest reservations about redrawing the district lines. While she understood West Bonner’s need for more funding, Asche said, “My allegiance lies to the people in my district.”
“I need to make sure that this is not going to negatively impact the people that voted me in,” she added.
The current levy rates for East and West Bonner are similar, at .000239892% and .000234518%, respectively.
EBCL Director Vanessa Velez told the Reader in an email in June that the state allows the district to levy at the same amount regardless of the boundary lines, but because the tax would fall on fewer property owners, it would
increase their overall payment — though “very slightly.”
Based on 2023 figures, the Idaho State Tax Commission estimated that levying the same amount on the reduced EBCL area would amount to an additional $2.28 per $100,000 in taxable value.
Alternatively, East Bonner could reduce its levy rate in order to maintain the current tax burden on property owners. However, that would mean less overall revenue for the district.
Regardless, taxpayers won’t see any change on their bills related to the boundary realignment until the next fiscal year.
WBCL Board Chair Cindy Endahl suggested that East Bonner might not have to worry too much about declining revenue in any case, citing an increase of $333 million in new construction on the east side of the county, compared to $35 million on the west side.
“I’m thinking that’s going to have a pretty big impact on increasing your tax base,” she said. “[W]e’re going to have a little bump and I think you folks are going to have a really big bump.”
According to a presentation before the EBCL Board in June, Mize said West Bonner’s total 2023-’24 tax income was $451,266. In comparison, the FY’24 budget for East Bonner contains just more than $3 million in levy income for a total budget of $3.9 million — and its foregone tax revenue last year came to about $12,500 less than West Bonner’s total annual budget.
“I don’t think that $200,000 is going to impact you much, as the richest library in the state,” Mize said on Aug. 20, later adding, “I didn’t want to come to you guys with a heavy hand ... I just wanted to have a mutual
agreement because I think it’s a reasonable request.”
A number of West Bonner County residents attended the meeting, and all who spoke testified on the importance of the library to their community and what the additional tax revenue could mean.
“I pay a lot of property taxes and library taxes, and I’m wondering why my tax dollars are not coming to Priest River, where I live eight minutes away [from the library] and I do not want to drive 45 minutes away to go to the library,” said one resident.
Katie Crill, who served 24 years as director of the Priest River Library, said the library had been “operating on a shoestring” since its founding. Meanwhile, “We’re suffering a big problem: It’s called ‘build it, they will come.’ We built it, they came and now we need to keep up.”
Elizabeth Glazier, who ran for a trustee seat in the most recent West Bonner School District election, spoke with emotion about the importance of having an adequately funded library in a part of the county that lacks many of the opportunities and amenities of the more populous and wealthy east side.
“Our children deserve to be treated the same as the kids in Sandpoint,” she said.
EBCL trustees had considered holding a referendum on the boundary line readjustment, but decided otherwise to avoid politicizing what they ultimately agreed was a decision that should have been made years ago.
“It seems to be pretty much a non-issue for East Bonner County people who are not really going to be impacted by the change,” said Flint.
With the unanimous vote of approval from the EBCL Board, meeting attendees burst into applause, with some crying and hugging in celebration.
“We are so grateful to you,” Endahl said.
In an email to the Reader on Aug. 20, Mize wrote, “I’m very happy about the outcome of today’s meeting. I’m still overwhelmed and it hasn’t quite sunk in yet. This is HUGE for our community and I cannot express my gratitude enough to the Board of East Bonner making the decision to correct the boundary lines.
“I look forward to further collaboration and cooperation with East Bonner Library,” she added. “We both work so hard to provide the best for the patrons of Bonner County as a whole.”
The boundary lines between West Bonner Library District (brown) and East Bonner Library District (blue). Courtesy image.
Science: Mad about
formation of the alps
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist
The European Alps are among the world’s most recognizable mountain ranges. This range stretches across eight countries and possesses evidence of at least 8,000 years of human habitation. Certainly, such a magnificent collection of mountains must be incredibly ancient, right?
These mountains are actually relatively young, geologically speaking. The bulk of their formation occurred about 40 million years ago — more than 20 million years after most dinosaurs had gone extinct. This seems like an incalculable amount of time, and to a short-lived human it is. In the scope of geological time, however, these mountains are bratty tweens compared to their peers.
The Black Hills in South Dakota and Wyoming are the United States’ oldest mountains, believed to be an estimated 1.8 billion years old. These mountains were jutting from the Earth during the Precambrian era, in a time when terrestrial life of any kind did not yet exist. Proto-plants and soft-bodied creatures called the shallow Precambrian seas home. Even the first trilobites wouldn’t scurry about the ocean floor for another 1.3 billion years after the formation of the Black HIlls.
The earliest moment of the Alps’ history began 300 million years ago with the supercontinent of Pangaea. Pangaea was beginning to break apart into Gondwana and Laurasia. Over the next 260 million years or so, the continents drifted into the locations we recognize today due to a
number of factors, primarily tectonic shifts.
If you were to carve a cross section from the Earth, you’d see a number of layers. Imagine cutting into an avocado. The inner core is a solid mass of iron and nickel — imagine the avocado’s pit. It’s surrounded by a liquid outer core of molten metal and rock. You won’t find this in an avocado, so the best you can do is imagine emulsified red-hot guac swirling around the pit. The mantle surrounds the outer core, which is a mix of molten liquid and solid rock, metal and other elements. This is essentially the flesh of our avocado. Finally, Earth’s crust is a wrap of cooled rock with a variable thickness of three to 43 miles thick. You guessed it: The crust is the avocado’s rind. It’s hard to imagine lots of rock moving and shifting around. Rock is heavy, and most of our interactions with large rocks involve watching them roll down hills, not rising up or shifting around on their own. Huge layers of rock actually do shift around beneath our feet, they’re just so massive that we can’t really see them. The movement of these plates occurs due to a chain of events that begin in the inner core of Earth.
Elements within the core emit heat when they radioactively decay. This happens everywhere, but because of the amount of pressure involved from a planet’s worth of matter pressing down on the core, there is a vast quantity of atoms decaying over time. This incredible heat can’t dissipate like it does on Earth’s surface or in space; instead it transfers to nearby structures — in this case, the outer core and the mantle.
The farther from the core
you get, the cooler it becomes.
Most matter behaves similarly when subjected to heat and pressure, even though the tolerances may vary from structure to structure. If you cram a whole bunch of iron into an enclosed space and heat it up, it will act similarly to air under similar conditions. In this way, you can imagine Earth’s mantle acting like a convection oven.
A convection oven works by moving air around the interior of the oven to more evenly cook your food. It disallows hot spots to settle in the air by moving the air around the oven. Convection is a term that describes the process of hot air rising and cool air falling in a cyclical pattern. Rock in the Earth’s mantle does this same thing as heat from the core rises and makes rock in the mantle move around. This moving rock is what causes the tectonic plates to shift.
In the case of the Alps, the African plate was pushed by 10s of millions of years of this convection. It collided with the European plate and slipped over the top of it. This collision didn’t cause the plates to stop moving, but instead it kept pushing the mountain range higher.
The limestone that makes up most of the mountain range was sediment at the bottom of the Tethys Sea separating Gondwana and Laurasia. This sediment was debris from a vast number of things, ranging from plant life to skeletal remains and sand eroded from larger stones and deposited at the bottom of the ocean. It was compacted by the pressure of the ocean over time, forming into solid stone rather than loose sediment.
Fossilized remains of aquatic creatures from the Triassic Period can still be found in the Alps to this day.
In more recent times, the Alps proved to be a refuge for plants and animals — including humans — during the most recent ice age. There are species of plants endemic only to the Alps, having rooted there during the glaciation period between 7,000 and 12,000 years ago.
As global temperatures rise, the glaciers of the Alps have
begun receding. This has a cascading effect on the ecosystem of the entire range. As less water is retained, the volume of waterways changes, erosion occurs and there is less ice reflecting sunlight and heat. This likely isn’t the first such occurrence in the short life of the mountain range, but it probably hasn’t happened at the breakneck speed at which we’re watching it unfold now. Stay curious, 7B.
Random Corner
• The largest coral reef system in the world — also the largest living structure on Earth — is located offshore from Australia. The Great Barrier Reef stretches 1,430 miles along the coast of Queensland and is home to more than 2,500 individual reefs, 1,500 species of fish, 400 species of hard coral and countless other critters.
• About 81% of Australia is covered by rangelands, referred to as “the outback,” and known for their harsh and unforgiving landscapes, scorching temperatures and low population density.
• There are multiple pink lakes in Australia — such as Lake Hillier or the aptly named Pink Lake — each with their own unique shade of the color. Pink lakes get their hue from the presence of Dunaliella salina, a type of algae that produces carotenoids, which are tetraterpene pigments that can exhibit colors like yellow, orange, red and purple.
• About nine in 10 Australians live within 30 miles of the coast.
• The world’s longest golf
course is located in Australia. The Nullarbor Links is a one-of-a-kind course that stretches for 1,365 kilometers (about 848 miles) along the Eyre Highway on the southern coast of Australia. It often takes golfers between three and five days to finish all 18 holes.
• The island of Tasmania, located off the southwestern coast of Australia, has been recognized as having the cleanest air in the world.
• Australia was the first self-governing country to allow women both the right to vote and to run for office in federal elections in 1902. (However, this did not include indigenous people in some states.)
• The Australian Alps receive more snow than the Swiss Alps.
• Australia has some interesting animals, with 80% of the fauna being unique to the continent. This includes marsupials like kangaroos, koalas and platypuses, and the terrifying Australian southern cassowary, which looks like a pissed off dinosaur-bird hybrid and weighs more than 130 pounds.
The Swiss Alps in the Grindelwald Valle. Courtesy photo.
Voters want solutions, not public insults from leaders
By Rep. Lauren Necochea, D-Boise Reader Contributor
The safety of your family is perhaps the most local and personal issue. I’ll never forget my first town hall as a state representative. In a neighborhood outside city limits, constituents expressed concern about the lack of adequate fire response for their families. Their fire district wasn’t properly staffed. The district’s hands were tied by state law, which capped its budget using a complex formula. The cap had nothing to do with the level of service needed to keep people and property safe, the service residents desired or what locally elected fire district commissioners deemed appropriate.
The lack of local control put Idahoans at risk. Sadly, since that day, the Republican supermajority has only made problems worse. House Bill 389 has eroded local control as a distraction from the true property tax solutions Idaho homeowners need. On the way, GOP politicians have lobbed personal attacks at city and county leaders —
repeated last month — that are unbecoming and unproductive.
The need for property tax reform has multiple causes. First, in 2016, Republican legislators (catering to lobbyists) capped the homeowner’s exemption. Before, the exemption automatically went up with home prices. Every Democratic legislator opposed
this, foreseeing the unfair shift of the tax load onto homeowners. Second, the Republican leaders’ chronic underfunding of our schools has made districts reliant on levies funded by property taxes.
By 2022, homeowners saw big jumps in their property taxes, while commercial real estate enjoyed annual decreases. Because this was working exactly as intended, the Republican supermajority did nothing to correct it. Instead, they passed H.B. 389, with a litany of budget
restrictions to force local governments to slash public safety services, among other negative impacts. Emergency responders warned about the harms of the legislation, but they went unheeded.
One harmful provision in H.B. 389 reduced the property taxes that could be collected from new growth. This costs the city of Meridian, for example, $1.4 million annually in lost revenue. Giveaways like this mean cost-shifting to existing taxpayers or cuts to services like law enforcement.
When Meridian Mayor Robert Si-
mison reported the impact of the legislation, the House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, publicly insulted him instead of coming to the table to find solutions.
No one can explain who wins from H.B. 389 and why Republicans refuse to repeal it. Developers themselves want a repeal because it makes it impossible for many smaller towns to approve new building projects. The law prevents these communities from increasing services with population growth, so their current residents would be forced into diminished public safety.
The true property tax solutions are not complicated. What’s complicated is the runaround the GOP supermajority has given cities, counties and the people of Idaho. Idahoans deserve better.
Rep. Lauren Necochea is the House assistant Democratic leader, representing District 19 in Boise on the Environment, Energy and Technology; Resources and Conservation; Revenue and Taxation; and Ways and Means committees.
Rep. Lauren Necochea. File photo.
Once again, Trestle Creek needs your help
By Jennifer Ekstrom Reader Contributor
After three failed attempts to develop a marina and luxury houses at Trestle Creek on Lake Pend Oreille over the past 17 years, The Idaho Club has again applied for permits to develop this special place. This time, the proposal is to build a commercial marina for 88 boats, plus a breakwater, pedestrian bridge, parking lot and seven houses with private docks.
The Idaho Club’s new proposal would require removing the main shoreline, a part of the existing island and parts of the interior of the peninsula for a total excavation of 12,500 cubic yards across 3.2 acres. They would remove natural vegetation and harden 3,830 feet of shoreline.
The completed development would welcome hordes of new boat traffic, bringing noise, garbage, and the potential for oil and gas leaks. An obvious piece missing from the plan is a restroom facility for the public to use. Similarly, there is no plan for a sewage pump-out station that would service the boats.
The calm, cool water and wild landscape of this unique ecosystem are currently teeming with life. Fish and wildlife are abundant, including eagles, beaver and threatened bull trout. This type of intricate shoreline and quiet refuge is uncommon on Lake Pend Oreille, as the shoreline is typically steep and deep without a lot of variation that offers critical safety zones for critters and fish.
In some years, Trestle Creek accounts for more than half of the bull trout spawning in the entire Pend Oreille Basin, making it our region’s most important bull trout spawning area. Trestle Creek is also one of the few places where families can easily observe spawning bull trout and kokanee salmon.
Watching these bright red fish build their nests (called “redds”) to lay their eggs before they die is to witness the cycle of life unfolding before our eyes. Teachers have been bringing fifth-grade students to view the phenomenon on Trestle Creek every fall for years.
Our public agencies are obligated to protect public trust values, such as water quality, fish and wildlife habitat, aquatic life and aesthetic beauty. This special place would best serve public trust values if left intact and undisturbed.
Proposing a commercial marina rather than a community dock means The Idaho Club must offer at least 50%
of the boat slips for rent or lease to the general public. According to Idaho’s Lakes Protection Act, moorage for use by the general public may not require membership in a club or organization.
It is unclear why The Idaho Club would want to develop a marina that does not give preference to their owners and members. Although the developer claims that “boat slips and waterfront lots on Lake Pend Oreille are in high demand, with a deficit of availability to current demand,” they offer no evidence to support this claim.
What evidence does show, however, is what Trestle Creek means to North Idahoans.
In a remarkable show of unity and determination last year, our community rallied against a similar proposal. More than 1,300 comments from the public flooded in, and hundreds showed up at a public hearing, reflecting our community’s deep-seated disapproval of the previous proposal for a community dock and five houses. The developer still has many hurdles before they can proceed, including these required approvals:
• Idaho Department of Lands permit for construction of a commercial
marina over the lakebed, which is held in trust for the people of Idaho;
• Army Corps of Engineers permit for dredging and filling wetlands and waterways;
• U.S. Coast Guard approval for the bridge;
• Idaho Department of Environmental Quality certification that the project is compliant with the Clean Water Act;
• Panhandle Health District approval for sewage disposal plans;
• Bonner County approval of the building locations and shoreline setbacks.
Now more than ever, we must voice our concerns and demand accountability from decision makers. It’s our shared responsibility to take care of the special places that make North Idaho a great place to live — places
like Trestle Creek.
You can voice your concerns now to the Idaho Department of Lands by sending a message to navigablewaterways@idl.idaho.gov. Please note application No. L-96-S-2798A in your comments. The department plans to hold a hearing at a date that has not yet been announced. Comments will be accepted until the hearing is complete.
Together, we can ensure that Trestle Creek remains a symbol of our community’s commitment to environmental stewardship and responsible development, and that future generations can experience the magic of Trestle Creek.
Jennifer Ekstrom is North Idaho director for the Idaho Conservation League.
KLT working to address housing shortage through housing trust
By Reader Staff
As a realtor in Bonner County, Jessica Turco is well aware of the local housing shortages and escalating property values. North Idaho, like many areas in the Mountain West, is grappling with a housing crisis exacerbated by a population surge of over 50% since 2000. This has made her job increasingly challenging as home inventory dwindles and prices soar.
“Being raised in Priest River, it’s tough to see friends and family — many of whom are my clients — unable to afford homes here despite decent earnings,” Turco said.
Like Turco, Kaniksu Land Trust recognizes the impact of the housing crisis on land protection. As rural lands are sold off for development, the area’s rural character and open spaces are under threat.
KLT Executive Director Katie Cox was tasked by the board to explore potential roles in addressing the housing shortage. This led to the exploration of a community land trust (CLT) model, which separates land ownership from home ownership to keep homes afford-
able. This model has been implemented in more than 400 U.S. communities to combat real estate inflation while enabling equity growth for homeowners.
However, regional capacity for such a project was limited. After a positive community response in a forum, KLT decided to integrate a CLT within its operations.
“Ideally, KLT won’t always manage the housing trust. We aim to set up another entity or find a partner to eventually take over,” Cox said.
The initiative aligns with KLT’s broader mission to address community challenges intensified by the population boom, which threatens large rural tracts and local resources when people can’t live where they work.
In 2022, KLT began serious groundwork by forming a housing advisory committee, drafting operational and legal frameworks, and conducting property searches. By July 2024, KLT had acquired a six-parcel plot within Priest River city limits, equipped with infrastructure for building modest homes suited to local income levels.
“This project targets local residents
who are priced out of the market, focusing on those who contribute significantly to the local economy,” Cox said, emphasizing the exclusion of telecommuters to ensure local workforce benefits.
The partnership with LEAP Housing is set to expand this initiative, aiming to make homeownership accessible to more Idahoans.
“Homeownership should be achievable for those committed to building a life here,” LEAP CEO Bart Cochran said.
The project promotes homeownership but is also geared toward enhancing community integrity, allowing families to engage more fully in local life without long commutes.
“This initiative represents just one of many strategies to tackle the housing affordability crisis, leveraging local connections and resources for broader impact,” KLT stated.
For more information, visit kaniksu.org/housing or contact KLT directly at info@kaniksu.org, (208)263-9471, or 1215 Michigan Street, Suite A in Sandpoint.
Paddlers enjoy a quiet moment near Trestle Creek on Lake Pend Oreille. Courtesy photo.
PERSPECTIVES
In 2012, neo-Nazi Shaun Winkler bought property an hour north of the old Aryan Nations compound with hopes of building a new homeland for his white supremacist compatriots. He was a lingering remnant of a bygone age, one ushered out by area human rights groups’ dogged efforts. Amid his renewed monthly cross burnings, he launched a campaign to run for Bonner County sheriff.
Cue the media frenzy. North Idaho was again — or still — a haven for bigots.
However, after receiving just several dozen votes, Winkler disappeared without much fanfare. Photos from his time here show a man living below the poverty line, raw sewage and the elements proving to be more formidable opponents to his existence than the Great Replacement. He and his extended family were living under tarps. A few stragglers would show up for his cross burnings, but beer and camaraderie may have been a bigger draw than the flames of hate. His was a tenuous existence at best.
Winkler was a bigot and deserved our condemnation, but he was not a threat. He soon foreclosed, and we’ve heard nothing of a neo-Nazi compound since. But while our eyes were on a solitary man cosplaying in a white hood in the deep woods — the media flocking like moths to a flame — the Idaho Republican Party was recasting itself as a truly threatening entity. Yet, without the iconography of hate — swastikas, burning crosses, the Wolfsangel emblem — we didn’t
recognize the danger.
In 2011, Idaho Republicans sued to close their primary in order to elevate the voices of party loyalists, those who also tend to be the most extreme in their views. This, in addition to the concurrent rise of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, was a defining moment in Idaho politics and culture, leading us down a path that has legitimized many of the views we worked so vehemently to oust in the 1990s. But these events came with little fanfare or protest. In the absence of a costumed villain, it seemed there was nothing to condemn.
Due to our fraught history with bigotry here, North Idaho’s reputation precedes it. A woman I met who is visiting Sandpoint this week told me that she was afraid to tell her Black friends that she was vacationing in North Idaho, lest they connect her with racism. Meanwhile, when reporters come to talk to me about my activism, their first question is
always along the lines of: “Do you feel safe here?”; “How many times have you been threatened?”; “Might you flee to protect your daughter?”; “How bad is it, really?”
One reporter, upon hearing my response that I feel safe, that it’s not that bad here, responded, “No. But it is. It is that bad.” She said this from thousands of miles away. Another reporter, shocked by my equanimity, commented, “Well, perhaps that’s the real story!”
Will our image forever be marred by the ghosts of our past? That was certainly the case in 2012, when Winkler hit the national headlines for his sinister yet baseless plans for a white-power homeland. Today, however, the rightward lurch of the Idaho Legislature is reanimating those ghosts, bringing new life to old perceptions.
Today, rhetoric that was once at the margins of acceptability is now the law of the land. Last legislative session alone, Idaho passed bills curtailing children’s access to library materials containing LGBTQ+ content, prohibiting the use of preferred pronouns, banning DEI positions or training in state government, and attacking the transgender community, while considering bills to further rescind any vestiges of emergency abortion access, hobble the citizen initiative process, embolden far-right groups by abandoning the label “domestic terrorist,” funnel school funding toward religious institutions, allow concealed firearms on school property, and change all mentions in Idaho Code of “fetus” and “embryo” to “preborn
child,” thus paving the way for abortion to be considered homicide rather than health care.
Today, the real threat isn’t the purveyor of hate-filled flyers or the racist fringe group. It’s the people making our laws. Which is less splashy than cross burnings but more damaging.
* * *
During a haircut recently, I asked my Sandpoint-born hairdresser what it was like living up the road from the Aryan Nations as a kid. She got agitated.
“Everyone assumed that we were all racist by association. But that’s not true. We were not racist. And they were not a part of our community.”
Many North Idahoans felt this way.
In the ’90s, flinching at the ugly depictions of our town in national media outlets, residents and businesses took up a campaign to promote Sandpoint as a big-hearted and beautiful place. It was a campaign of existential proportions, just as much as the campaign against hate had been. It turns out, the fight against perceived extremism is just as important as eradicating its actual manifestations.
Even as we continue to uproot the perceptions of our racism, an insidious new breed of closed-mindedness is grafting onto that scaffolding. Our current reputation as a MAGA haven has drawn in a new population of people who value firearms and “freedom” above all else — even though many existing residents wouldn’t rank permissive gun laws and a tepid COVID response as defining attributes of
our community. But when our reputation precedes us, our reputation comes to define us.
Surveys repeatedly show that Idaho is still a live-andlet-live state that broadly supports LGBTQ and women’s rights. To paraphrase my hairdresser, we are not assholes. But our past, paired with a minority-view-ruled present, makes us appear that way, thus manifesting a darker future. Which means we need to double down on battling perceptions of our assholery, both to the world at large and within our own hearts.
More than being not that bad, Sandpoint is rather remarkable. In touring the state this past year, I’ve come to realize how fortunate I am to call this place home.
To answer the reporters who keep coming here looking for stories of intimidation, violence and fear: No, the boogeyman is not waiting armed on my doorstep; instead, he’s busy drafting the laws of our land. Which is far more terrifying.
Unfortunately, this boogeyman isn’t one we can oust through bankruptcy, but we can through bravery. We can rise to the occasion armed with our voices and our votes. We can redefine the narrative of extremism. Let’s prove to the world — and, most importantly, ourselves — that we are not the enemy and that our past is not our future.
Jen Jackson Quintano is a writer and runs The Pro-Voice Project, a reproductive rights organization, in Sandpoint. Sadly, neither requires much in the way of chainsaw use.
Jen Jackson Quintano. Courtesy photo.
Top left: Aurora Borealis, or northern lights, seen over Baldy Mountain on Aug. 12. Photo by John Keegan.
Top right: A flower crab spider seen hanging onto a bergamont blossom. Photographed by Jen Heller.
Bottom left: Steve and Gwen Archer brought the Reader with them while staying at the fire lookout tower located atop Lunch Peak on a smoky weekend in August.
Bottom right: Christa Vindum and her horse DJ check out the Festival schedule in the Reader. Photograph by Lynn Courville.
Send photos to: ben@sandpointreader.com
To submit a photo for a future edition, please send to ben@sandpointreader.com.
The Voice contestant from Sandpoint returns for a live show
Alexa Wildish will play with Lennon VanderDoes at KRFY’s Little Live Radio Hour
By Reader Staff
When Alexa Wildish finished her celebrated run as a contestant on NBC’s The Voice in 2023, it marked a high note in the singer’s career. Now, the performer who once lived in Sandpoint, is returning to the panhandle for a couple of live shows.
Wildish will perform with fellow contestant Lennon VanderDoes at KRFY 88.5 FM’s Little Live Radio Hour at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27 at the Panida Little Theater (300 N. First Ave.).
It’s not Wildish’s first foray playing in Sandpoint, but it is the first one since she made a national splash on The Voice.
Wildish will perform to help build hype for her forthcoming EP After Love, set for release on Sept. 27. The album of beloved covers will follow Wildish’s self-titled EP of original
music released in 2020.
Now living in Colorado, Wildish began studying classical voice when she was 7 years old, attending the Orange County School of the Arts and Elon University, where she immersed herself in musical theater. It was after seeing The Wailin’ Jennys open for Nickel Creek at the 2015 Festival at Sandpoint that Wildish began exploring the many back roads of Americana. Now, Wildish’s unique voice has greatly expanded the folk and Americana genre.
Wildish will be joined by VanderDoes. Hailing from Wilmington, Del., VanderDoes’ unique vocal tone impressed judges on the show and earned him national acclaim.
Attend the show in person or listen live on 88.5 FM. Also, check krfy.org to listen online.
Still going strong after 67 years together
By Tim Henney Reader Contributor
Jackie and Tim Henney met in college in Berkeley, Calif., in 1956 and wed on Block Island, R.I. in 1957. Jackie claims to have earned an A not in physics or philosophy in college, but in archery; yet the university didn’t offer archery in its curriculum. Tim has been known to boast of winning the Heisman Trophy as an outstanding college football player in America; yet, records show, he was not sufficiently athletic to make his fraternity’s flag football team.
Today, as the photograph unfortunately shows, Jackie and Tim are old. Bordering on prehistoric. So old their three kids — 66, 64 and 58 — are senior citizens.
Jackie and Tim celebrated 67 years of wedded bliss on Aug. 10. Wedded bliss? Yes, because from Day 1, Tim called the shots. What he told Jackie to do, she did. When he told her to toss another log on the fire and fetch his slippers, she did. Need a scotch with a splash of soda? Yes sir, right away! No backtalk, opinions or compromise. Like Teddy Roosevelt, Tim spoke softly but carried a big stick. Authoritarianism, not equality. Besides, everyone knows a woman’s place is in the home, vacuuming. Barefoot, pregnant, keeping things tidy.
Asked to comment, Jackie said, “Yeah, when pigs fly” — and flipped Tim off.
and Tim Henney with Sandpoint granddaughters Adeline, left, and Violet
a DiLuna’s Café brunch. Photo by Amy Borup.
Sharing Schweitzer with less fortunate children
By Reader Staff
People come from all over to enjoy North Idaho’s outdoor activities. However, a large percentage of the children growing up with Schweitzer in their backyard never experience the recreational opportunities the slopes provide.
Skiing and snowboarding are simply too expensive for many North Idaho families to afford, which is why North Idaho Mountain Sports Education Fund, Inc. was founded to give local kids access to the mountain.
Schweitzer has partnered with the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to enroll scholarship students in an eight-week, all-day lessons program at greatly reduced tuition. All children aged 7-17 who qualify based on economic need and live in Bonner or Boundary counties can receive a season pass, a bus pass and equipment rental via Schweitzer and NIMSEF.
Viggo Mortensen hosts Panida showing of The Dead Don’t Hurt
Proceeds benefit 88.5 KRFY and the Panida Theater
“NIMSEF believes participating in winter snow sports help give children a sense of belonging, accomplishment and pride,” the organization stated.
The program teaches skiing and snowboarding skills, but also allows students to work for a portion of their tuition and participate in fundraising, “which will help the children value their gift, build their work ethic and learn to give back to others,” NIMSEF added.
Governed by a volunteer board of directors, NIMSEF’s expenses are minimal, allowing the majority of donations to directly benefit students.
Donations are being accepted by NIMSEF at P.O. Box 170, Ponderay, ID 83852 and will help North Idaho kids “realize the dream of being a part of something special,” the organization stated.
For more information, visit nimsef.com.
By Reader Staff
Viggo Mortensen, three-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actor, will return to the Panida Theater (300 N. First Ave.) on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 7:30 p.m. to showcase his recent film The Dead Don’t Hurt. The event will be a joint fundraiser to support the independent, community-owned radio station 88.5 KRFY as well as the historic Panida Theater.
The Dead Don’t Hurt, released in North America on May 31, is the story of two lovers, war and revenge on the frontier in the early 1860s.
The updated western offers a unique female perspective by following the life of Vivienne Le Cloudy (Vicky Krieps) when the man she loves (Viggo Mortensen) leaves to fight in the American Civil War. After a five-year absence, the lovers try to pick up the threads of their old life and grapple with the change and strife they’ve faced since last they saw each other.
The film is Mortensen’s personal and most involved project — he not only stars alongside Luxembour-
gish-German actor Krieps, but also wrote, directed, co-produced and composed the score for the project.
Mortensen’s upcoming appearance marks his third time on the Panida stage for a screening and question-and-answer session, following A Dangerous Method in 2012 and Captain Fantastic in 2017. The event was listed as “sold out” at press time.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show begins at 7:30 p.m. For more information visit panida.org and krfy.org.
Jackie
at
Mortensen speaks to audience members at a screening of his film Captain Fantastic at the Panida in 2017. Courtesy photo
Send event listings to calendar@sandpointreader.com
Live Music w/ John Daffron
6-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Free Food Distribution
11am-1pm @ Christ Our Redeemer Church Drive-up event for free food. Enter from Lincoln Ave.
Bingo Night 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ Queen Bonobo
8-10pm @ Baxter’s Back Door
THURSDAY, August 22
Paint and Sip w/ Nicole Black
5:30-8:30pm @ Barrel 33
Unleash your inner artist. $45 includes instruction, supplies and first drink
Live Music w/ Alma Russ 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Game Night 6:30pm @ Tervan
Idaho native Maya Goldblum, playing jazz/folk. Accompanied by Charles Bommarito and Arthur Goldblum
Live Music w/ BTP
6-8pm @ Smokesmith BBQ
Live Music w/ Endless Switchbacks
5pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Live Music w/ Hannah Meehan
6-9pm @ Barrel 33
Live Music w/ Monarch Mountain Band
6-8pm @ Smokesmith BBQ
Live Music w/ Cast & Crew
6-9pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Live Music w/ Picked up Pieces
7-9pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ Marcus Stevens
6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Sandpoint Chess Club 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee
Magic with Star Alexander
5-8pm @ Jalepeño’s
Trivia Night 7pm @ Connie’s Lounge
August 22-29, 2024
Summer Music Series: Spunj 6pm @ Farmin Park (FREE show) High energy, multi-genre fusion band from Eugene, Ore. A free outdoor concert at Farmin Park with drink vendors and the coolest vibe in town
West Coast swing dance lessons 4:15-5:30pm @ The Yellow Room - 102 Euclid Ave.
FriDAY, August 23
Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz
6-8:30pm @ Arlo’s Ristorante
Live Music w/ Mobius Riff
6-9pm @ Barrel 33
Live Music w/ John Firshi Blues 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Live Music w/ Hannah Meehan
7-9pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ Ken Mayginnes
6-9pm @ 1908 Saloon
SATURDAY, August 24
Wine tasting fundraiser
3pm @ Sandpoint Senior Center $60/advance, $75 at the door. Refreshments provided, luxury gift baskets for raffle. Support SASi!
Live Music w/ Sadie Sicilia 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz
6-8:30pm @ Arlo’s Ristorante
Live Music w/ Matt Lome
8-10pm @ Baxter’s Back Door
SunDAY, August 25
Live Music w/ Irish Folk Jam 3-6pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Cottage Market 10am-4pm @ Farmin Park
Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi
7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub
Trivia Night
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Piano w/ Sean Bostrom
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Benny on the Deck concert series
5-7pm @ Connie’s Lounge Featuring guest Ben Olson
Live Music w/ Sheldon Packwood
6-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Bingo Night 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
BoCo Museum historic walking tours
2:30pm @ 212 First Ave.
Cost is $15, $12 for locals, $5 kids
$5 movie: Twister
7pm @ Panida Theater
Karaoke (Fri, Sat, Sun nights)
8pm @ Tervan Tavern
Live Music w/ Weibe Jammin’
5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Heat Wave dance
7pm @ Sandpoint Community Hall
Swing line dance lesson at 7pm, general dancing from 8-10pm. All levels of dancers are welcome
Sandpoint Farmers’ Market 9am-1pm @ Farmin Park
Live Music w/ Working Spliffs 9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge Reggae, R&B, psych rock and jazz
Summit Nature Hike
1:30-2:30pm @ Schweitzer Free hosted tour of the Summit View Loop Trail
monDAY, August 26
Outdoor Experience Group Run
6pm @ Outdoor Experience
3-5 miles, all levels welcome
tuesDAY, August 27
Ballroom dance lessons
5:15-6:15pm @ Sandpoint Senior Center
wednesDAY, August 28
Sandpoint Farmers’ Market 3-5:30pm @ Farmin Park
Live Piano w/ Annie Welle
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
ThursDAY, August 29
Trivia Night 7pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Game Night 6:30pm @ Tervan
Pool Tournament 6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Pinochle Wednesday 9:30am @ Sandpoint Senior Center
Open Mic Night
6:30pm @ Tervan Tavern
West Coast swing dance lessons
4:15-5:30pm @ The Yellow Room - 102 Euclid Ave. All levels of dancers welcome aged 8+. $5-$10 donation suggested
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
A handful of critics seem a little bemused by the popularity of Babylon Berlin.
The New York Times referred to a “a small core of aficionados” and a “cult” who track “the right subreddit” and spend their time “commiserating with a Facebook friend group of the requisite sophistication,” who “would argue [it’s] the world’s best television show.”
Meanwhile, vulture.com calls Babylon Berlin “the best show you’re not watching” — that is, unless you’re “already obsessed.”
Count me among the “small core of aficionados” and one of the “already obsessed.” I’ve been avidly consuming this show since its first season way back in 2018, when the German-language neo-noir series set in the Weimar Republic came to Netflix. I hardcore binged the first three seasons, as the latter two streamed in 2019 and 2020, respectively, but had to agonize for four years before the fourth season finally appeared in full — which it did at the end of July.
I was so much into Babylon Berlin that I started buying the thrillers on which the series was based — the socalled “Gereon Rath mysteries,” by German journalist-turned-author Volker Kutscher. Sadly, I must report that the books are not nearly as addictive as the show, which made my four-year wait all the more difficult to endure.
Twister blows into Panida for $5 film screening Babylon Berlin reemerges with a triumphal fourth season
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Disaster movies have been with us almost since the beginning of film — with the 1933 earthquake-and-tsunami “adventure in speculation” Deluge generally regarded as the first. Since then, the “disaster movie” has become its own genre, and among the most iconic offerings of the type in the 1990s was Twister.
As the title suggests, it’s about a tornado — but not just any tornado, an “F5” mega storm that churns over a mile-wide swath of Oklahoma countryside, gobbling up everything in its wake.
There are flying tractors, flying bits of wood that act like bullets, flying
Weimar period German neo-noir is near-perfect TV
So imagine my frustration when I realized that Babylon Berlin had been removed from Netflix and the entire series — including the much-awaited fourth season — transferred to something called MHz Choice. Unfortunately, that’s the only platform on which U.S. viewers can access the show, but I bit the bullet and signed up for the free seven-day trial (subscriptions are $7.99 per month). I didn’t need all seven of those days, burning through 12 episodes — each about an hour long — over the course of two sittings in the past week. Then I promptly canceled MHz.
It should be obvious by now that I am 100% the target audience for this show.
For those unfamiliar with the history on which Babylon Berlin is based, the late 1920s and early ’30s in the German capital city were a crazed melange of sex, drugs, crime, jazz, art and general socio-political experimentation.
Broken by World War I and later the worldwide depression, Berlin lashed back with a supercharged culture of desperate decadence seldom seen before or since. Into this intoxicating mix, Babylon Berlin places traumatized war veteran and detective Gereon Rath, who navigates his own inner demons, the labyrinthine politics of his fellow officers and the sinister forces prowling the streets.
In short order, Rath falls in with prostitute Charlotte Ritter, whose intelligence and pluck eventually land
her a job at police headquarters as a kind of junior officer, and later full member of the homicide squad.
The first three seasons of the show ricocheted from grotty slums to palatial Prussian castles, interrogation rooms to nightclubs, oily canals to derelict warehouses, fashion boutiques to photography studios, and more coffee shops, beer halls and bars than you can count.
The cases taken up by Rath, Ritter and their colleagues run the gamut — gambling, blackmail, smuggling, spying, revenge — but shot through them all is the spectral looming of something bigger and more terrifying: the rise of the Nazis.
Seasons 1-3 deftly allow the Nazi threat to simmer, astutely sketching the various flavors of racism, antisem-
itism, nationalism and militarism that swirled through Berlin before Adolf Hitler’s party alloyed them into the ferocious instrument they became.
Season 4 brings the hellbroth to a boil, with swastika-sporting brownshirts running riot through the streets, busting up the storefronts of their enemies, scrapping with their SS rivals and certain high-level elements in the police and government looking the other way for their own political reasons.
Rath (played electric angst by Volker Bruch) and Ritter (a sublime Liv Lisa Fries) must face divided loyalties laden with often deadly secrets as they doggedly try to save their beloved Babylon from totalitarian ruin.
Yes, it is “the world’s best television show.” Find it on MHz Choice, via Amazon Prime.
cars and trucks, and — most famously — a flying cow.
Audiences were thrilled with Twister when it came to theaters in 1996, shelling out $495 million at the box office and making it the second-highest-grossing film worldwide that year. According to Forbes, that’s a cash haul equivalent to just more than $988 million in 2024 dollars (which would put it below only Inside Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine at the current box office).
What drew filmgoers to Twister in the ’90s wasn’t necessarily the pissed off air, it was performances by Helen Hunt as the university professor who treats big tornados like they’re Moby Dick and she’s Captain Ahab; Bill Paxton as her husband, a former storm chaser and current TV weatherman
who’s seeking a divorce; and Cary Elwes as the conniving ex-friend and colleague who tries to the steal the glory for a new technology to analyze, track and predict tornados.
Romantic drama and marital heartbreak mingle with childhood trauma, corporate espionage and high technology (plus the flying cow) to raise Twister above most disaster movie fare.
Of course, Hollywood being Hollywood, there’s a sequel called Twisters currently in theaters. However, the Panida Theater invites audiences to see the original on the big screen as part of its $5 film series.
The film starts at 7 p.m. with doors at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 23. Get tickets at panida.org or at the door (300 N. First Ave.).
Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt star in Twister, playing at the Panida at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 23. Courtesy photo.
Courtesy photo.
The salad days are over
The beloved culinary workhorse of yesteryear has slowly begun to disappear
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
I’m a bit embarrassed to admit how important a role salad bars have played in my life.
When I was young, our family used to eat out at a restaurant most Friday nights, usually at The View Café because it was close to our log home in Westmond. But, every so often, we would travel to Coeur d’Alene as a family and eat at Bonanza, a western-themed steakhouse and all-youcan-eat buffet with a salad bar that stretched clear across the dining room.
There, under the plastic sneeze guard and packed in urns cradled in ice, was everything one would need to create the ultimate salad. There were several kinds of lettuce, pickled beets, cucumbers, baby carrots, hard-boiled eggs, sweet pickles, sunflower seeds, bacon bits,
homemade croutons and a hundred other items that customers could pick and choose from at their leisure.
While it might seem like a giant spread of food that one can feast upon without limit would be an American invention, the salad bar’s origins actually come from the Swedish smörgåsbord — a celebratory meal at which guests help themselves to their choice of a range of hot and cold dishes, laid out for communal grazing. The smörgåsbord more resembles the potluck, but when it was introduced at the 1939 New York World’s Fair at the Swedish Pavilions’s Three Crowns Restaurant, it began the slow transformation into what we now know as the salad bar.
(Side note: There is some controversy over who actually invented the modern day salad bar. It would take up far too much space to explain it all, so I’ll let this work for now: .)
Growing up in Sandpoint, I can
remember some excellent choices for salad fixings. There was The Garden Restaurant, where I started my first job as a dishwasher and later busboy. The Garden overlooked Sand Creek, just south of where Spud’s is located.
(Another side note: Somewhere buried in the mud of Sand Creek lie about 100 translucent brown ashtrays, which my fellow busboys and I launched off the deck into the creek like Frisbees because we liked the way they sounded when they hit the water.)
The Garden was a popular spot to enjoy a swanky lunch and dinner, and the lounge had a beautiful grand piano and overstuffed leather chairs, giving it a 1970s lounge vibe that would absolutely kill in the present day.
It was The Garden’s salad bar that I remember most, though. It was ahead of its time, offering homemade dressings, real bacon bits, soups made from scratch, three flavors of freshbaked breads, and a mix of hot and cold items that I looked forward to for
my employee meal every shift.
Sadly, The Garden was razed many years ago and the property became a luxury condo building, because, well, that’s what we do here now.
The Hydra Steakhouse had a famous salad bar — and among the last ones standing, until its discontinuation in the not-too-distant past. One pro tip was to order a pasta entree, or something that would keep as leftovers, and make a trip to the salad bar while dining in. Then, take your entree home in a doggie bag and stretch one meal into two.
The only salad bar left in Sandpoint that I know of is at Winter Ridge Natural Foods, where you pay by the weight. It doesn’t offer a smörgåsbord of options like those of yesteryear, but, like fat-free dressing, it’s better than nothing.
The closest restaurant to Sandpoint that still features a salad bar is the Springs Restaurant inside the Kootenai River Inn and Casino located in Bonners Ferry. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, you pay only $7.99 for a cup of soup and one trip to the salad bar, down from the dinner price of $12 for a single trip or $15 for all you can eat.
Many say that the work-from-home trend quickened the salad bar’s demise. Others claim it was because of growing health concerns or rising food costs. All of that aside, salad bars have joined the growing list of the parts of American life that existed pre-COVID and are now quietly dying out.
Once, they were everywhere — and sure, you can still find them if you look hard enough — but it’s clear that the salad days are over.
Courtesy photo.
MUSIC
Spunj worthy
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
For Eugene, Ore. band Spunj, playing live is what it’s all about.
The quartet will perform at the free outdoor Sandpoint Summer Music Series at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 22 in Farmin Park, with gates opening at 5 p.m. The series, produced by Mattox Farm Productions, invites touring bands to play free outdoor music shows for the community to enjoy. Along with live music, the Summer Series will feature Mandala Pizza and Opa! Food Truck, with 7B Origin serving up non-alcoholic beverages and Eichardt’s Bar handling adult drinks.
Known for their high-energy, multi-genre sets, Spunj incorporates classic songwriting with improvisation seamlessly sprinkled throughout as they weave from genre to genre, always staying true to their mission to get people out of their seats dancing.
“Energy is everything to us when we perform,” said keyboardist Dan Underkofler. “We’re all big fans of improvisational music, whether it be the Grateful Dead, Phish or jazz music. We thrive on the unexpected.”
Underkofler joins Sage McCommas on drums, Josh
Harris on guitar and David Richards on bass and saxophone, with every member contributing vocals. Spunj’s sound is energetic and fun, with jam band elements infused with pop, jazz, indie rock and any other genre they feel like exploring. Think Sublime mixed with Umphrey’s McGee and a dash of Osees.
“Some artists on tour have an obligation to play certain material (i.e. radio hits) and often get tired of performing those songs over and over each night,” Underkofler told the Reader. “As a band that identifies within a genre that isn’t known for its airtime in the mainstream media, we have the liberty to play what we like, when we like.”
Spunj recently released an EP titled Snack Size, Vol. 3, featuring a collection of songs written by various members of the band.
“There’s always collaboration,” Underkofler said when asked to identify the primary songwriter in the group. “It’s very rare that one of us has a complete vision that remains unaltered after introducing their idea to the band. We do our best to create an open and democratic environment that encourages feedback and contribution when making new music.”
The four-piece plans to release Snack Size, Vol. 4 to
Oregon band to play free Sandpoint Summer Music series
coincide with their fall tour, which will add “five more songs to round out what we hope to be our very first vinyl release,” Underkofler said.
While they enjoy recording original music, Spunj is truly at home traveling the West Coast performing in front of others.
“In 2021 and 2022, Spunj brought a P.A. and a full light show to several places along the West Coast to perform renegade shows to thousands of passersby,” Underkofler said. “It’s these guerilla-style shows that created a huge word-of-mouth hype around the West Coast and ultimately allowed us to sell more tickets and move onto bigger venues and open for bigger bands.”
For those unable to catch Spunj at the Sandpoint Summer Music Series, they’ll return to Sandpoint for a gig
at the 219 Lounge on Sunday, Oct. 27.
The Sandpoint Summer Music Series is made possible by sponsors including the Pend Oreille Arts Council, Washington Trust Bank, KPND, Selle Design Group, the Heartwood Center, The Novas at Evergreen Realty, the Reader, Spruce Property Care, Ting, the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce, Connie’s Cafe, North Root Architecture, The Mycelium Collective and Misty Mountain Furniture.
Learn more about the Sandpoint Summer Music Series at mattoxfarm.com. Listen to Spunj at spunjmusic.com.
A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint
Alma Russ, Pend d’Oreille Winery, Aug. 22 Queen Bonobo, Baxter’s Back Door, Aug. 23
Singer, songwriter, fiddler, guitarist and banjo player
Alma Russ will visit Sandpoint on Thursday, Aug. 22 all the way from North Carolina. Her career has brought her to venues and street corners across America since her breakout appearance on ABC’s American Idol, where she impressed all three judges with her country, bluegrass, folk and Americana songs. Her style has all the me-
lodic twang of one of her influences, Dolly Parton, mixed with the old-fashioned trilling of artists like Hank Williams.
Listening to Russ over a glass of wine will make you nostalgic for the porch swing in Appalachia you’ve never actually had.
— Soncirey Mitchell
5-8 p.m., FREE. Pend d’Oreille Winery, 301 Cedar St., 208-2658545, powine.com. Listen at almarussofficial.com.
Maya Goldblum, a.k.a.
Queen Bonobo, has been a staple of the Sandpoint music scene for years — though dipped in and out for regional and even international forays, including three years in Ireland to study the ancestral roots of her music and release an EP.
No matter where she lands, Goldblum stays busy sharing her genre-bending tapestry of many-layered transformative jazz and folk.
Catch Queen Bonobo in
This week’s RLW by Ben Olson
READ
Many of you have probably read Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, but another one of his novels was actually way more popular during his lifetime: White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War published in 1850. More accessible than Moby Dick, White-Jacket is Melville’s semi-autobiographical account from living aboard a U.S. Navy frigate. It’s filled with hilarious and telling accounts, unforgettable characters and that Melville wit that holds up to this day.
LISTEN
the intimate space at Baxter’s Back Door on Friday, Aug. 23, where she’ll be accompanied by top-flight drummer Charles Bommarito and longtime local jazz master Arthur Goldblum, who also happens to be her dad.
— Zach Hagadone
8-10 p.m., FREE, 21+. Baxter’s Back Door, 109 Cedar St., 208-229-5211, baxtersoncedar. com. Listen at queenbonobo.bandcamp.com.
Fans of The Office (U.S. version) might be interested in listening to a podcast called Office Ladies hosted by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, who played Pam Beesley and Angela Martin on the show, respectively. Though they were antagonistic in the show, Fischer and Kinsey are best friends in real life, and their analysis of popular episodes and behind-the-scenes insights are worth a listen.
WATCH
Music documentaries can be difficult to enjoy unless you’re a diehard fan of the band’s music. When it comes to The Velvet Underground, directed by Todd Haynes, anyone interested in music, art and/ or the 1960s-’70s would enjoy it. Released in 2021, this film showcases rare archival footage of the band after they started working with Andy Warhol in 1968. It isn’t so much a “behind-the-music” film, but more of a glimpse at the avant-garde scene that made the band possible, and how they were destined to flame out.
Spunj, from left to right: Sage McCommas, David Richards, Josh Harris and Dan Underkofler. Courtesy photo.
From Pend Oreille Review, August 23, 1906
GRUESOME MISTAKE
Last Friday evening as Harry Baldwin and Charles Jenson were crossing the river near Baldwin’s ranch in a rowboat, Mr. Baldwin discovered a pile of clothing on the river bank.
The examination of the garments by the two men led to the discovery that the man who was drowned in the river recently and who was buried at Lakeview cemetery last week Tuesday as Frank Olson, alias “Red Ole,” or “Ole the Bum,” was in reality Sam Freeman, a well-known rancher who lived upon a homestead in the vicinity of the place where he was drowned. All doubt as to the drowning man’s identity as Sam Freeman was removed Monday morning when Charles Peterson, Freeman’s brother, accompanied Undertaker Brower to the cemetery where the remains were exhumed and fully identified by Peterson as those of his brother.
When Baldwin and Jenson examined the clothing they discovered on the river bank, they found receipts in the pockets brearing Freeman’s bame and $12.18 in money. Both identified the clothing as that of Freeman. Peterson, the brother, when he came to look at the remains when they were exhumed, established the identity positively by a scar on the left hand and by the forefinger of the same hand which was hurt by an accident while cutting wood some years ago. By the time the remains were viewed Monday they were badly decomposed, but the stiff forefinger and the high receding forehead were sufficient to make the identity sure. Freeman’s homestead was near the Corbin bridge, about a mile and a half from where the body was found. It is supposed he went in the river to take a bath that evening before starting for this point and that he drowned while in swimming.
22 / R / August 22, 2024
BACK OF THE BOOK
By Sandy Compton Reader Columnist
Digging in the dictionary recently led to monogenesis, a theory that all living things evolved from a single cell — some combination of proteins and acids and God-knows-what-else that somehow duplicated itself. Maybe this tiny accretion floated in primal seas for eons waiting for a magic ingredient; maybe it coalesced when a lightning bolt struck, but suddenly there were two of whatever it was. If this wasn’t miraculous enough, the duplicate duplicated and so began the miracle of us. And bears. And lobsters. Slime mold. Oaks. Dolphins. Tyrannosaurs. Centipedes. Knapweed. Dodos. Toucans. Black mambas. West slope cutthroat trout. All flora and fauna, great and small.
The only clue about how long ago that first cell divided is that it was likely in Precambrian time, which ended about 570 million years ago and represents 90% of geologic time — the period since Earth formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Somewhere in there, life came to be.
There’s a relatively new thought that life happened much sooner than previously thought. Maybe that cell divided within the first billion years after Earth fell in with the sun — long before anything grew shells hard enough to show up as fossils.
A stray thought dragged me into my imagination when I stumbled across the concept of monogenesis: What if God said “Oops!” when the first bit of life amalgamated in the muck of the post-big-bang universe.
“How did that happen?” God said. “I was just playing in the mud.”
“Oh, well, hell,” God might have thought. “At the rate this bloody thing is reproducing, who knows what will
STR8TS Solution
On monogenesis and
Albert Schweitzer
become of it. Where’s the species swatter?”
God couldn’t immediately find the species swatter, and spent much of Precambrian time rummaging for it. By the time it was found, there were already so many variations, it was impossible to decide which to swat first, and too many to swat, anyway.
“Holy cow,” God might have said, “I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.”
And a couple of billion years later, here we are.
Farfetched thoughts, for sure, but not much more far-fetched than any creation story.
If monogenesis is true — it will likely never be proved otherwise — it reinforces the notion that we’re all connected. Other creatures have “memory” of what certain stimuli mean — pain or pleasure — so either avoid or approach depending on that. Humans may be — may be — the only derivation of that single cell blessed and cursed with sequential memory and foresight. We can remember why we remember and so make plans, worry and obsess about what’s remembered.
That “intelligence” has caused us to mentally separate ourselves from other living things, but we are still part of them and they are part of us. Every time the species swatter falls, we lose part of ourselves.
The spectrum of species is never going to live in complete harmony. The gentle humanitarian Albert Schweitzer wrote, “In nature, one form of life must always prey on another. However, human consciousness holds an awareness of, and a sympathy for, the will of other beings to live. An ethical human strives to escape from this contradiction so far as possible.”
I’m never going to get up close and
Sudoku Solution
personal with a black mamba; but, it’s true that almost no living thing can survive without preying on something, sentient or not. Even ideals like vegetarianism and veganism are tied up in eating other species that have been alive. And there’s no way to really determine if a carrot or an apple still fit to eat is dead or alive. Or a tree on its way to the sawmill.
Don’t think about that too much.
Schweitzer was a “radical Christian.” He became a doctor because Jesus told us to heal the sick. Schweitzer questioned dogma and the views of the institutional church. He lived for 90 years, much of the last 60 in Africa working in the hospital and leprosarium he built with donations and money made playing music, among other things.
He was, above all, a creative thinker, and I wonder in what way would he consider monogenesis. He wouldn’t deny it out of hand, as some modern “radical Christians” might. He would at least ponder the idea, and probably find it fascinating. Me too.
Maybe our creation story really begins, “In the beginning, Something accidentally created a single living cell ...”
Crossword
I can see why it would be prohibited to throw most things off the top of the Empire State Building, but what’s wrong with little bits of cheese? They probably break down into their various gases before they even hit.
Solution on page 22
Laughing Matter
CROSSWORD
By Bill Borders
Week of the
/RIF-raf/ [noun] 1. a group of people regarded as disreputable or worthless
“Security was on high alert for any riffraff trying to disrupt the fair.”
Corrections: If you came looking for corrections, we have nothing to offer this week.
