Reader_Jan5_2023

The week in random review

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

the vip items in our lives

In this material world, it’s necessary to avoid feeling dependent on the things we purchase. After all, our lives are often made better by experiences, people and interactions, not the items you once bought that now take up space in the corner of your closet. However, there are some exceptions. Every once in a while, you’ll obtain an item that just makes life better. That’s how I feel about the $2 pair of Wellington boots I picked up some years ago at a thrift store. In case you don’t know, Wellingtons are a slip-on waterproof boot that reach almost to the knee. They are sometimes referred to as “duck boots” here in North Idaho. No laces, buckles or nonsense — just a waterproof boot you can slip on and off quickly. During the pathetic rainy days after our prolific snow storms, it became downright unbearable walking around town. Puddles formed that would have drowned even the most hearty Sorel boots when stepping into them. Thanks to my Wellingtons and an extra pair of socks to stay warm, my walks to work have been dry and delightful. It’s true that the best things in life are often free, but sometimes $2 can buy you so much satisfaction.

Scientists have found that being paid a compliment actually lights up the same parts of your brain that are activated when you are paid a monetary award. The same scientists also suggest that compliments and praise might help us learn new motor skills and behaviors quicker. Perhaps a goal for 2023 will be to compliment those you love more and criticize them less.

*If anyone’s having trouble placing the quote in the headline, it’s Vince Vaughn’s character from the film Swingers.

identify me by my dents

While dining with some friends a few weeks ago, I mentioned to one of them that I always recognized their car (a common make and model) by their bumper sticker of a morel mushroom. Then, another friend said they identified my truck by the big ugly tow strap holding the hatch shut (it was damaged in an accident and I’ve struggled trying to fix it). That brought back memories of high school, when everyone seemed to drive a Subaru station wagon. When determining if I knew the person driving by, I would always look for identifying characteristics on their Subies: a dent in the driver’s side door, a sticker on the back windshield, an emblem on the front grill that was falling off. Do others do this, too?

You OK?

“I’m not OK, you’re not OK, and that’s OK.”

— William Sloane Coffin, clergyman and pacifist

READER DEAR READERS,

It’s been a whirlwind the past couple of weeks. Aside from the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we had a huge snowfall, followed by buckets of rain, more snow, freezing rain, ice everywhere, wind and everything between. Let’s just say the first Monday morning back in the office was difficult.

Here’s hoping the year ahead brings more joy than sorrow for all of you. We will always have highs and lows in life. We will suffer adversity and be blessed with good fortune. Our lives are surrounded by good and bad, feast and famine, love and hate — but it’s up to each of us individually to wake up every morning and choose to make the world a better place than it was yesterday.

Let’s rise to the challenge in 2023. Let’s not lose sight of the decency that’s alive inside all of us. Sometimes it just needs to be gently coaxed out into the light.

–Ben Olson, publisher

111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 (208) 946-4368

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About the Cover

This week’s cover photo was taken looking east on Dec. 29 by Mark Schafhausen from his 1948 Cessna 195. Blacktail Mountain is in the foreground.

‘you’re so money and you don’t even know it’

McDonald and Connolly see final county business meeting

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

The Bonner County commissioners’ Jan. 3 meeting marked the last weekly business meeting appearances by District 2 Commissioner Jeff Connolly and District 3 Commissioner Dan McDonald, as next Tuesday’s quorum will feature commissioners-elect Asia Williams and Luke Omodt.

Williams and Omodt, along with other county officials elected in November, will be sworn in on Monday, Jan. 9 at 9 a.m. in the Bonner County Administration Building first-floor conference room.

McDonald and Connolly’s last business meeting lasted all of 15 minutes, but covered a wide range of county departments and issues. Most notably, the board voted unanimously to delete a portion of policy related to county employees’ ability to run for office against their superiors.

McDonald said the board opted to strike the policy — known as Bonner County Personnel Policy 440 — because “we believe it is the constitutional right of our employees to run for political office of any kind.”

“Basically, the way the policy reads, if you work under an elected official, you would have to quit your job in order to run for that seat, which, to me, seems like it builds in a lot of obsolescence,” he added. “Someone who has been working under an elected official will have a lot of knowledge.”

McDonald cited Bonner County Treasurer Clorissa Koster as an example of that intracounty experience preparing a person for an elected position. Koster was a longtime employee of the county before being appointed as treasurer in May 2022 after Cheryl Piehl’s resignation, and again securing the position during the November election.

“To me, it looked like an infringement on individual rights,” McDonald said of the policy.

Commissioners Connolly and Steve Bradshaw agreed, with Connolly saying it “just reeks of a ‘you stay out of it, I’ll take care of it’ type of thing.” Bradshaw called it “un-American.”

The board voted unanimously to have Bonner County Personnel Policy 440 struck from the personnel handbook.

Also during the Jan. 3 business meeting, commissioners approved a request from the clerk’s office to submit

a Public Defense Commission Annual Report; accepted a bid award for the Sandpoint Airport to obtain snow removal equipment through the use of state grant funds; and adopted an ordinance attached to a zone change that the board had already approved Dec. 21.Planning Assistant Director Travis Haller said that the ordinance was meant to be approved that same date, but was missed. The Jan. 3 action was “just cleaning up what was missed in the staff report,” he said.

Human Resources Director Cindy Binkerd brought forward two items at the Jan. 3 business meeting, including an update to the county’s furlough policy — originally adopted in 2020 — expanding its possible use beyond coronavirus-related staffing or financial issues. Commissioners approved the update with a unanimous vote.

Also at the recommendation of HR, the board approved the creation of a Tuition Reimbursement Program, which would allow for county employees to see tuition reimbursements of up to $5,250 for job skills training obtained during their employment. Binkerd said that the funding for the program was secured during the 2023 budget hearings.

Outgoing commissioners Jeff Connolly, far left, and Dan McDonald, second from left, will be replaced Jan. 9 by incoming commissioners Luke Omodt, second from right, and Asia Williams, far right. Courtesy photos.

“There’s a process that the individual needs to go through that needs to be signed off by their department head or their elected official, then it is reviewed by Human Resources, and then comes to the board of commissioners,” she added. McDonald said the intent of the program is “to help enhance the services to the county” by investing in employees’ educations and certifications.

Agendas for upcoming Bonner County commissioner meetings are published online at bonnercountyid.gov/ commissioners under the “2023 Meeting Agendas & Meeting Minutes” tab on the left side of the home page. Weekly business meetings are held Tuesdays at 9 a.m. in the Bonner County Administration Building third-floor conference room, located at 1500 Highway 2 in Sandpoint.

Links to attend the meetings via Zoom video conferencing can be found on each agenda. The meetings are also live-streamed on the Bonner County YouTube page.

New commissioners to be sworn in Jan. 9

Idaho was second-fastest growing state in the U.S. in 2022

The Gem State is closing in on a population of 2 million people

By Clark Corbin Idaho Capital Sun

Fueled still by an influx of people moving from other states, Idaho was the second-fastest growing state in the country in 2022, with a population that nearly reached 2 million people for the first time in July, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Compared to the previous estimate in July 2021, Idaho grew by 1.8% to an estimated population of 1,939,033 people in July 2022, census officials said.

As Idaho edged toward the 2 million population mark for the first time, only Florida grew at a faster rate nationally in terms of percentage growth. In 2022, Florida grew by an estimated 1.9% according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Although the latest population figures were released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the numbers are estimates and are different from the results of the official census. The official census takes place every 10 years, with the most recent census taking place in 2020. To obtain the latest population estimates, U.S. Census Bureau officials used data on births, deaths and migration to calculate population changes since the most recent 2020 census.

Results of the official census conducted every 10 years are important for a number of reasons. They determine the allocation of states’ seats in the United States House of Representatives, play a role in calculating the amount of federal funding sent to a state and shape how state legislative and congres-

sional boundaries are drawn and divided during state redistricting procedures.

The annual population estimates, such as the new 2022 figure, give insight into how populations change and shift during the 10 years between the official census.

What caused Idaho’s population to increase?

According to news releases issued by the U.S. Census Bureau and Idaho Department of Labor on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23, Idaho’s net in-migration accounted for the vast majority of Idaho’s growth. A positive net in-migration means that more people moved into the state than moved out over the time period.

In-migration accounted for 88% of Idaho’s growth, while natural changes from births outnumbering deaths accounted for about 11% of Idaho’s growth, census officials said.

Growth isn’t new for the Gem State. In fact, growth appears to be slowing. Census officials said Idaho’s growth between July 2021 and July 2022 dipped below the five-year-average of 2.3% and slowed to 2016 levels. For the first time in five years, Idaho was not the top spot for new residents, census officials said.

Nationally, the United States population grew by .4%, up to 333.2 million people. Regionally, the South and the West were the only two regions of the country to experience growth in 2022, census officials said. The Northeast and Midwest posted population declines from 2021 to 2022, with more people moving out than moving in.

“There was a sizeable uptick in population growth last year compared to the prior year’s historically low increase,” Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau, said in a written statement. “A rebound in net international migration, coupled with the largest year-over-year increase in total births since 2007, is behind this increase.”

Nationally, the top five states in terms of percentage growth were:

•Florida, 1.9%

•Idaho, 1.8%

•South Carolina, 1.7%

•Texas, 1.6%

•South Dakota, 1.5%

The five states with the highest percent-

ages of population decline were:

•New York, -0.9%

•Illinois, -0.8%

•Louisiana, -0.8%

•West Virginia, -0.6%

•Hawaii, -0.5%

In the spring, the U.S. Census Bureau plans to release new population estimates for metro areas, counties and cities.

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.

End-of-year giving provides big boost to Panida

By Reader Staff

Donors provided a generous helping of support to the Panida Century Fund as 2022 departed, providing $6,838 in individual donations during the past week ... which, when matched by Ting Internet means the fund grew by $13,676 in the last week of the year.

That brings the total raised since the fund drive kicked off in October to $249,809.77 – a number that does not yet include a $15,000 grant that the Idaho Heritage Fund has approved but not yet disbursed.

“If we count that, the Century Fund total now has reached $264,809.77 toward our first-year goal for $273,100,” said Panida board member and fundraising chair Foster Cline.

“And that means that with just a little more than $4,000 in donations from individuals, and thanks to the Ting match, we will hit our first-year goal in little more than three months since we launched the campaign,” he added. “It’s just a tremendous amount of support from our community for which we can only say, again, thank you so much.”

This first-year fundraising goal is dedi-

cated to the replacement of the Panida roof, which is leaking.

But the Century Fund has a much larger, five-year goal to raise a total $1.9 million to fund long-deferred maintenance and restoration before the Panida’s 100th anniversary in November 2027. The campaign has gotten a huge boost from Ting Internet, which has pledged to match individual donations of $5,000 and under, for a total of $200,000 over the five-year campaign.

To donate, or see detailed plans for the campaign itemizing expenses, click to panida.org.

Courtesy photo.

Festival at Sandpoint welcomes two new staff members

By Reader Staff

The Festival at Sandpoint is excited to welcome Veronica Knowlton and Tess Howell to the full-time staff in 2023.

“We are thrilled to welcome both Veronica and Tess to the Festival team,” said Executive Director Ali Baranski. “After such a successful 2022 season, we are excited to be in a financial position to have a full workforce again after years.”

Knowlton will be joining the team as the Festival at Sandpoint’s operations manager. Knowlton has a varied background in large event management experience, having held previous roles as operations supervisor at Alameda County Fair; special programs and marketing manager at the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo and Kootenai County Fairgrounds; and managing director at the Panida Theater.

Knowlton offers years of experience in strategic operations and policy development, event promotion and ticketing, fundraising initiatives, marketing and public relations campaign creation, volunteer and employee management and more.

This past summer, she volunteered as a hospitality co-chair and is also an expert in the Festival’s ticketing platform, ETix. With her new position at the Festival, Knowlton is passionate about improving the concertgoer experience, creating policies and processes, event risk assessment, capital projects, community engagement and mentoring.

The Festival at Sandpoint is also thrilled to welcome Tess Howell as full-time finance manager. Howell has previously held accounting roles with experience in

bookkeeping, payroll processing, audit support and tax preparation. She volunteered in the office bookkeeping for the Festival at Sandpoint in the Fall of 2019 and also worked on the production crew for the 2008 concert series.

Howell has prior experience with nonprofits, having served as treasurer for the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force since August 2020. Aside from her accounting knowledge, Howell is excited to offer her skills in human resources, employee management, problem-solving, business administration and more to the Festival at Sandpoint team.

“Veronica and Tess both respectively bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to our organization that will only better the Festival at fulfilling our mission and serving our community,” Baranski said. “We cannot wait to see the improvements, innovation and thoughtfulness that they will add to the organization.”

City to host Travers Park open house

By Reader Staff

The City of Sandpoint will host an open house meeting on Thursday, Jan. 5 from 5-7 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers (1123 Lake Street) to discuss improvements to the sports fields at Travers Park, as well as renovation and expansion of the existing parking lot.

Come meet with the design team and Parks Planning & Development Manager Maeve Nevins-Lavtar. For more information about this project and to take our online survey, visit cleargov.com/idaho/ bonner/city/sandpoint/projects/8245/ travers-park-sports-facilities-improvements-project.

VA rep to visit Clark Fork

By Reader Staff

Bonner County Veterans Service Officer Bryan Hult will be at the Clark Fork Public Library on Tuesday, Jan. 10 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. to answer questions about current veterans benefits, assist with ongoing claims and initiate new claims for benefits for eligible veterans and their dependents.

The Clark Fork Public Library is located at 601 Main St. in Clark Fork. Veterans will be seen by appointment only to ensure you are given quality time. Call 208-255-5291 no later than Friday, Jan. 6 to schedule an appointment. If there are no appointments scheduled for this outreach, or if conditions prohibit travel, the outreach will be canceled.

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:

A financial first for a human: the Bloomberg Billionaire Index says Twitter and Tesla owner Elon Musk has lost $200 billion in net worth.

Congress released a six-year span of Donald Trump’s tax returns late last week, numerous media reported. Since the Watergate era, presidential candidates have voluntarily offered their tax returns, but Trump had repeatedly dodged that, saying they were under audit. Some findings: federal tax payments were all over the map, like $641,931 in 2015, and zero in 2020. So far, examination shows Trump paid more in foreign taxes as compared to net U.S. federal taxes; those countries included the United Arab Emirates, China and Azerbaijan.

ExxonMobil is suing the European Union in an attempt to stop the EU’s new windfall tax on oil firms, BBC News reported. In October ExxonMobil saw quarterly profits of nearly $20 billion; the windfall tax is estimated to cost ExxonMobil “over $2 billion.” Profits were 20%+ higher than the average of the three previous years. The European Commission says they’re “fully compliant with EU law.”

Nearing the second anniversary of the attempted overthrow of the government, documents released from the Jan. 6 Committee claim Trump watched the drama unfold on TV, praised the fighting abilities of those involved, but lamented the people’s “trashy look.” As well, possibly concerned about a “lock-her-up scenario,” Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the Jan. 6 Committee she regrets texts to the White House that appeared to encourage the insurrection.

Due to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, as of Jan. 1, for those on Medicare, the cost of insulin is now capped at $35 a month. But 21 million diabetics are under Medicare age and will not benefit. While Democrats tried to apply the price cap to all users, only seven Republicans voted for that. Due to filibuster rules, even though the vote was 57 to 43 in favor of a price cap for all, it was short of the 60 votes needed to provide affordable insulin for all, according to various media.

Recently over 91% of canceled flights in the U.S. were from Southwest Airlines, AP reported. Southwest is under investigation. Two Senate Democrats say

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

Southwest should provide “significant” compensation to travelers, especially since Southwest plans to pay $428 million in dividends.

The Supreme Court Historical Society has become a social avenue for donors mixing with the Court’s Justices. The New York Times says while the society aims to record history and share the Court’s relevance, in recent decades the Society has morphed into a way for bigger donors to attend the Society’s black tie dinners and mix with justices. The nonprofit doesn’t have to state who donors are. The Times did get a sketch of those donating since 2003: 60% came from corporations, special interest groups or attorneys and firms that have had cases before the court. Of that $6.4 million, $4.7 million came from those who had a “pending interest” in a federal case on appeal or at the high court. That included oil giant Chevron, Tyson Foods and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.

Blast from the past: Louis M. Siedman, Professor of Law at Georgetown University and a former Supreme Court Clerk, evaluated the Supreme Court in his book From Parchment to Dust: The Case for Constitutional Skepticism. He points out that assuming justices are apolitical, brilliant, neutral and “monastic” is “arrant nonsense.” Examples of past broken Courts include a 19th century justice who had “incurable lunacy” but remained seated for years. Another had a disabling stroke but voted anyway, typically appearing confused. Past decisions indicating justices bowed to moneyed interests included upholding slavery and crippling union efforts. Some were racists and misogynists: Justice Hugo Black belonged to the KKK, and Chief Justice Warren Burger said women were “too emotional” and should not serve as judges in rape trials. In 1927 the Court approved forced sterilization. Siedman’s ideas on how to tighten the Court and move away from justices defending class privilege, racial hierarchy and misogyny: expansion to 15 members; 18-year term limits; require a seven-justice majority to invalidate a statute; demand media coverage for transparency; seat 10 justices, with five from each of the two major parties, and let those justices select five more, for a total of 15; release draft opinions for public comment before a decision is finalized; and,allow lawyers on each side to question the justices about their opinions.

The Festival at Sandpoint announced the hiring of Tess Howell, left, and Veronica Knowlton, right. Courtesy photo.

Emily Articulated

A column by and about Millennials

New Year’s intentions

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist

There are times when it is appropriate for a person to be resolved, to be “firmly determined to do something.” A resolution is a venture into the future knowing a change must occur in the most absolute of ways. But that kind of determination also comes with high stakes; all or nothing odds that leave little room for incremental improvement or trends in the “right” direction.

Because of the stakes of a resolution, I most often don’t make them, especially at the New Year. Instead, I create intentions that I hope will steer my actions closer to the outcomes I seek; the sum total of the times in which I’m in alignment with them hopefully greater than the times in which I fall short. Intentions help me inch closer to the kind of person I want to be, to trend in the direction of improvement, without a steep cliff of failure to tip over when I can’t or don’t meet my own expectations.

But despite their lack of rigidity, I don’t take setting these intentions lightly. I make them after reflecting on the year gone by, on what I learned and what I’ll bring with me, and on what I want to create for myself in the year to come. It’s a recalibration of my metaphorical compass and a “calling in” of certain aspects of the kind of life I want to lead.

In reflection, 2022 was a year of momentousness for me — a year of a month-long European adventure, of getting engaged, of career growth and of accomplishing big physical feats. But it was also a year of loss, of (ungracefully at times) bearing the weight of my responsibilities and of regularly being on the precipice of overwhelm and stress. From all the ambivalence of the past year, I’m entering 2023 having learned how well supported and cared for I am by the people in my life. I’m bringing with me confidence in friends and family who celebrate my successes and who also offer to share the load of my burdens when they get too heavy to manage alone.

And as I embark on the journey that will be 2023, I’m setting several intentions for how I want to navigate it.

My first intention for this new new year is to cultivate connection. I want to better understand the people with whom I’m already close, and also with those whom I’d like

to be closer. I aim to prioritize meaningful conversation and genuine curiosity over anxious small talk and social apathy. And I also want to extend this seeking of connection to myself, creating space to examine all that I think I know about who I am and what I care about, and how I move through the world.

The next intention I’m setting for 2023 is embracing being a beginner. I want to seek opportunities to learn new things and to experience novitiate with excitement and humility. My boundaries of comfort and familiarity have value, but so too do the times in which I get to expand upon existing skills, discover new passions, and learn my limitations through first-time experiences and uncharted ventures. I want to be challenged and to intentionally push myself into places of discomfort, just to know I can come out the other side unscathed, if not improved.

My third intention for 2023 is welcoming silence. In a world where input and stimulation is accessible at all times, in which constant distraction and escape comes in the form of podcasts, audiobooks, tv streaming and social platforms, I want to practice being comfortable in quiet. I aim to set aside more time to get lost in my own thoughts and to access the calm of a brain at rest.

Finally, my fourth intention for 2023 is awareness. I want to pay closer attention to how I spend my time, to what brings me joy, and to things that make

me feel bad — both in the moment and over time. I strive to witness the things going well for me while they’re happening, and also the multitude of large and small wonders accessible to me every day. I want to look into more fires and up at more clouds; onto loved ones’ faces, and into myself with nothing between me and the minutes, days, months and years comprising my life.

So, with the very best of intentions, I wish you a happy new year. May 2023 treat us well.

Emily Erickson is a writer and business owner with an affinity for black coffee and playing in the mountains. Connect with her online at www. bigbluehat.studio.

Emily Erickson.

Retroactive By BO

Bouquets:

GUEST SUBMISSION:

•“Last week our RAV4 splash guard got dislodged due to the snow. We stopped at D&Z Auto hoping to get a quick fix. His schedule was full but he said to try Elite Tire and Suspension. We arrived at Elite and explained the situation. After a short wait our splash guard was reattached. Another thank you for the quick service at Elite Tire and Suspension.”

— By Carl Thomas Zmuda

GUEST SUBMISSION:

•“I’d like to give a Bouquet and a thank you to Hickey Farms. They are offering cross country skiing on their property. The narrow trails have been groomed with a drag and classic track set. The expansive trails go across fields and into a beautiful forest. There is a donation box in the parking area. It is so nice to have another option for skiing. Get it while the snow lasts at this low elevation.”

— By Cynthia Mason

•As we launch forward into another year, I’m reminded of how full my last year was thanks to some vital organizations and clubs which make it their mission to help build and maintain hiking and biking trails for the public. I’m giving the first Bouquets of the new year to Kaniksu Land Trust, Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness, Friends of the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail, Collaborative Trails and the Pend Oreille Pedalers (I hope I’m not leaving anyone out). These organizations have improved the lives of North Idahoans, period. Recreating outdoors is a vital part of why we live in this region. To have access to so many wonderful trails across our county is a blessing that I’m very grateful for. Keep up the good work!

Barbs:

• It’s 2023. Can we all collectively figure out how to use your and you’re correctly? Thank you.

Another ocean to cross…

Dear editor, Will try to make this my last communication exchanging views with James Johnson. I appreciate his words about remaining civil on these pages. I usually try to do that at first. It is only after I am attacked or talked down to that I respond in kind.

I’m glad Mr. Johnson recognizes the valuable contribution that the space program has contributed to our modern lives and his point that a lot more in the way of medical care and homelessness needs to be done. I believe we have the means now, to do that, but many of our elected and other officials do not. I won’t go further, spoiling the atmosphere here. What I will say, the defense budget as I said last time for 2023 is well over $800 billion. The annual NASA budget, (not sure of the exact figures), is on the order of $30 billion, or around 3.5% of the military’s. I think we’ve had a great return on this investment.

Also, NASA is really not looking to build “living space” on the moon other than provide habitation for scientists and engineers and others who will not only mine the moon any more than we built living space for the research stations in Antarctica. It will be used as a way point for Mars where a permanent colony hopefully will one day in the next couple of decades be built.

Bottom line: humans have always explored, to see what is beyond the next mountain or sea. Space is just another one of these oceans to cross. This is not an endeavor with a short term goal in mind, but the beginning of a long-term expansion of the human race. Hopefully we won’t destroy ourselves, but evolve one

day beyond our petty differences which the space program has the potential of being a catalyst.

Lawrence Fury Sandpoint

A resounding thank you…

Dear editor,

I want to thank the businesses, gallery owners and POAC for providing space, time and energy displaying the work of local artists. Because of your commitment to our artists, they are more motivated, more vibrant, confident and productive. Your patrons are a fortunate audience witnessing the finest professional art of our region. Kudos to you, proprietors, patrons and with appreciation for all who may contribute for our new year.

Thank you.

Barry Burgess Artist, Writer Sandpoint

Public’s best interest…?

Dear editor,

For their grand finale in 2022, Bonner County commissioners gave away our beautiful public access point at Camp Bay to an Arizona developer. Even under a court order to make their decision in “the best interest of the public,” they decided a half-mile dirt path down a hill would serve the needs of our elderly and disabled. And, if able to negotiate the hike, they wouldn’t mind looking into a marina, instead of the sweet view centered in the bay which they’ve enjoyed for as long as they can remember.

When residents explained that kayakers and anglers would have to take several half-mile laps to portage their boats and gear into

this less desirable drainage area, they still made the trade. The limited number of public locations to launch a small boat was noted, but McDonald claimed there were “plenty of places.” He counted 40. Truth is, there’s only 15 available to the public according to Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game.

Bradshaw delivered a single-minded sermon on “private property is more important that public access,” while missing the fact the public is not asking to cross onto private land. The public simply want their established access on their publicly funded rightaway, as it’s been since 1908.

Particularly unsettling, Dec. 14 letter from IDFG was ignored by the commissioners. It stated, “IDFG is interested in partnering with Bonner County to provide a better access site in Camp Bay.” Obviously not what the wealthy developer wants, but it’d clearly be in the public’s best interest.

For McDonald and Connolly’s last month serving in office, many are concerned about their expressed need to make this decision, even while passing on the developer’s offer to add more to his path proposal. What forces were afoot that forced the commissioners’ decision now?

Holland Sandpoint

Senior Center needs your help…

Dear editor,

As the New Year is upon us, I would like to express our thanks to the many donors who responded to our holiday letter asking for donations for the Sandpoint Area Senior Center.

We received many donations as donors stepped up once again to help us. As we all know, food costs have increased substantially as have the needs of the seniors in Bonner County. Our services are more in need than ever.

It’s not too late to support the seniors. Not only are we looking for additional funding, we are also in need of volunteers — particularly drivers for our home-delivered meal program. If you can assist us in any way (either financially or with volunteering) you may contact us at 208-263-6860 or by mail at 820 Main St., Sandpoint, ID 83864. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit so your donations are tax-deductible.

Once again, thanks to this generous community for all your help. We would encourage all to visit the Senior Center and see what we can offer you! This is a two-way street. Let us serve you! Our best wishes for the new year.

Loris Michael Sandpoint

Rebecca

Mayor’s Roundtable:

By Mayor Shelby Rognstad Reader Contributor

This is the fourth article in the series detailing recommendations that came out of the city of Sandpoint’s Housing and Economic Study developed by Leland Consulting. In this issue, I will discuss Leland’s suggestion to update land use policies across the city to support housing affordability and economic development.

The first recommendation from Leland regarding land use is to update the city’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The Comprehensive Plan, or Comp Plan, sets policy at the highest level. It is a visionary document that sets community goals and objectives, identifies special areas and establishes context areas that are the precursor to zoning maps. The Comp Plan lays the foundation for zoning regulations and guides more detailed plans and policies for housing, specific areas, utilities and capital planning.

The city began revising the Comp Plan in 2019 before the pandemic hit. The process was halted due to the impact of COVID and has been picked back up over the last year. There have been numerous public workshops over that time inviting the public to consider which elements of the existing plan to carry forward and identify opportunities for improvements to the plan.

The existing Comp Plan, approved in 2009, also called for land use policies that support housing affordability and economic vitality. So, what we are hearing from Leland is nothing new, but the housing situation certainly has become more dire in recent years.

Leland called for a review of land use codes (Zoning and Subdivision) to determine what changes are needed to achieve community goals. This review should reassess allowed uses in commercial and industrial districts to ensure that the city is relegating its limited land resources carefully and not over-dedicating its land for single family housing (which is inefficient, expensive to serve and increasingly unaffordable) or storage units, which don’t create jobs.

Efficient and thoughtful land use is critical to ensure Sandpoint is able to house its workforce and provide for job creation and retention. This review is currently underway and will continue beyond adoption of the new Comp Plan.

Leland called for refining zoning districts to accommodate a range of residential development types such as townhouses, cottage clusters and multifamily housing at a range of densities (“missing middle” hous-

Land use: Affordability and economic vitality

ing). Such variety and flexibility are critical to providing new housing at a range of price points to meet the needs of Sandpoint’s residents. Providing for increased density across zoning districts is one of the most powerful tools the city has to lower the cost of housing because land is one of the most costly elements of a development. More housing units within a given area lower the per-unit cost for each house.

Sandpoint’s minimum lot size is 5,000 square feet. Many cities have nice neighborhoods with lots sizes of 3,500 square feet or smaller. Particularly with well thought out building and design regulations, smaller lot sizes can increase the number of housing units across the city without sacrificing quality or community character.

Leland called for codes that encourage mixed-use and small-scale infill to support more efficient commercial development throughout the city. This includes more den-

sity and residential units above and behind commercial units. This has the added benefit of promoting economic vitality when there are more residents or customers in the vicinity of local businesses. It also promotes public safety when there are more “eyes on the street” at all hours.

Lastly, Leland called for a review of density and height regulations. Because Sandpoint’s high water table makes it impractical to build underground parking, above-ground garages will be required to accommodate parking in denser, central locations. Aboveground parking is expensive, however, and will consume the developable capacity of a site reducing the space available for housing units. In appropriate locations, building heights that allow for four or five stories of housing above a one or two-story garage will allow the costs of the concrete structure to be spread across more housing units. The result is more affordable units in desirable locations (where there are existing services) with the added benefit of keeping utility service costs low for ratepayers.

Again, with thoughtful zoning and design regulations, density and therefore affordability can be accomplished without sacrificing community character and appeal.

Science: Mad about

dental cavities and how we fill them

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist

Today’s subject is courtesy of Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey. Thanks, Lyndsie!

At some point in life, just about every one of us has suffered from a cavity in our teeth. Some are so small we’re totally unaware there’s an issue until we visit the dentist. Other times, there’s not enough lidocaine in the world to ease the throbbing pain and ceaseless suffering radiating from your mouth.

Ever wonder how they get there, and how dentists fix them?

It all begins with the bacteria in your mouth. Bacteria are a necessary part of the digestive tract from the beginning to the end, as they help us break down food for our bodies to use as fuel. The bacteria in our mouths love starches and sugars and they begin to form a sticky film over our teeth after we eat things that contain a lot of sugar or starch. This film is called plaque, and it’s effectively a protective barrier for the bacteria. As the bacteria consume trace amounts of food and convert it into energy, they release acid, which begins to erode the enamel of your teeth. So long as you’re regularly brushing and flossing, you can keep the level of bacteria in check and dramatically slow this process down. Hard-to-reach places like under your gums, between your teeth or concave portions of your molars make for great hiding places for bacteria, and this is likely where cavities begin to form.

The acid erodes the enamel first, then begins eroding the second layer of your teeth, called dentin. At this point, you may

begin to feel some discomfort as tiny tubes in your dentin communicate with the nerves in your teeth. Once the bacteria has eroded through your dentin and begun to attack the pulp, where your nerves reside, you’re in for a world of hurt. The severe pain caused by a deep cavity or abscess is caused by the pulp swelling and squeezing the nerve.

A cavity that doesn’t require extraction is a fairly straightforward process for your dentist to fix. Getting a dental filling may feel like an eternity while you’re sitting in the chair, but it’s a relatively expedient process. First, your dentist will apply anesthetic, which blocks the receptors of your nerves around the injection site. This will make your mouth feel numb as it temporarily deadens your nerves.

Next comes the part that everyone hates: the drill. Drills aren’t the only tools dentists use, but they are helpful for removing dead and dying parts of the tooth and providing healthy tissue for the filling to bind to. Your dentist will flush the area with water while doing this, washing out debris and bacteria in the process. So long as you’re properly numbed, you won’t feel anything but pressure during this part, so there’s no reason to fear the drill.

Just think about Welsh corgi puppies galloping through a field of flowers.

Depending on a number of factors, the type of filling that goes into the filling at this point may vary. Amalgam fillings are made from an amalgamation of metals such as copper, tin and mercury. These last for a really long time, but they usually only go into teeth you can’t see like molars.

Composite fillings are a mixture of glass and photopolymer resin. If you’ve followed Mad About Science for a while or are an avid 3D printing hobbyist, you know exactly how this stuff works. This resin will be deposited into the cavity, and your dentist will push it around to force out any air gaps, while also smoothing the surface to discourage new pockets for bacteria to grow. If your dentist puts on those cool orange sunglasses from your favorite crime procedural and shines a blue light in your mouth, this is when the magic happens. Ultraviolet light photons impact resin molecules and cause a rapid chemical reaction. This causes the resin to harden and cure, which will ensure it stays strong enough for you to chew with.

The final step is your dentist polishing the resin and the surrounding edges of the former cavity. This keeps bacteria from exploiting potential gaps and causing the cavity to form all over again. This is usually done with a tool that sounds like a drill, but looks like a tiny floor buffer like a custodian or a zamboni driver might use.

An alloy of copper and gold can also be used as a filling, and these last for up to 20 years.

Sometimes, the pulp of your tooth becomes severely infected while the surrounding tooth is relatively fine. When this happens, a dentist may recommend a dreaded root canal. This process is functionally similar to the one we described for filling cavities, but your dentist will actually remove the damaged pulp entirely and inject a rubbery material called gutta-percha, then they will seal the tooth and place a filling in it or a crown on it and

it will be as good as new. A fully formed tooth can survive without the pulp, but not if bacteria are eating it from the inside out.

After all of this, you might be left wondering why we have bacteria in our mouths at all if they can wreak so much havoc. Unfortunately, they’re a necessary part of our survival and it

will continue to be that way until we find some sort of scientific method to undo a billion years of evolution. Until then, it’s probably just easier to brush our teeth and pass on the sugary sodas. Water makes you feel better anyway.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner

Don’t know much about snow?

•Snow is actually not white, but translucent. It’s the light reflecting off of it that makes it appear white, with the many sides of the snowflake scattering light in many directions and diffusing the entire color spectrum. Snow can also appear in other hues. Dust, pollution or cold-loving fresh-water algae can color it black, orange or pink. Aristotle even mentioned pink snow, likely caused by algae containing astaxanthin, a chemical similar to the one found in carrots.

•It’s often stated that the Innuit have more than 50 words for snow, which has been confirmed as mostly accurate. But that pales in comparison to the Scots. The Scottish language has 421 terms related to the white stuff, including “skelf” (a large snowflake), “spitters” (small drops of driving snow) and “unbrak” (the beginning of a thaw).

•Technically, to be called a blizzard, the storm must last for at least three hours, have winds measuring over 35 miles per hour and decreasing visibility to less than a quarter-mile.

We can help!

•Chionophobia is a fear of snow. The phenomenon could develop due to a childhood trauma involving a snowy accident, but there are more irrational variations in which people develop an acute fear of being trapped or buried in snow if there isn’t a flake in sight.

•The renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton carried some interesting remedies during his Nimrod Expedition to Antarctica. Colic was treated with cannabis, diarrhea sufferers would take opium and those stricken with snow blindness would have cocaine dropped directly into their eyes. Talk about Fear and Loathing in Antarctica.

•Snow actually warms you up. Because snow consists of about 90% trapped air, it makes it a great insulator. Many animals burrow deep into the snow during winter to hibernate. It’s also the reason why igloos, containing only body heat, can be up to 100 degrees warmer inside than outside.

‘My taxes have gone through the roof!’

Bonner County Clerk unpacks how assessment values can translate to property tax increases

By Michael Rosedale Reader Contributor

Editor’s note: The Reader has been hearing from property owners across Bonner County that they saw exorbitant increases to their property taxes during the last billing cycle. Bonner County Clerk Michael Rosedale submitted this article unsolicited in hopes of explaining why, in some cases, those tax bills saw large hikes.

“My taxes have gone through the roof!” This is what I’m hearing from my friends and family — and from my wife and my mortgage company. My own property taxes increased by 27%. My taxable property value increased by nearly 90%.

Many of you have seen even greater increases. I’ve had a lot of people say, “What the heck is going on?” and “I thought taxes could only increase 3%.”

As a good friend of mine who lives in the Sunnyside area said: “Government is totally corrupt. County taxes are out of control!”

The truth is, total Bonner County tax dollars did increase by “only” 3% over last year in total, along with the new properties that hit the tax rolls (called “new construction” to be precise). It is the redistribution of them that creates the extreme swings that causes heartburn (understandably).

So why did my taxes skyrocket? My property appraisal went up by way more than 3%. It went up about 90%! How can what I say be true? Hopefully this will explain what “is,” for better or for worse. (And no, I don’t like it either.)

This is such an important topic. I want to make sure we’re using the same word definitions:

• Assessment: The value assigned to my property by the Assessor (different that taxes)

• Taxes: The taxes billed against my real property (different than assessment)

• Budget: The total amount of Bonner County’s published annual budget, including all the departments (this is not the same

as taxes)

This is one of the most complicated processes to understand for most folks regarding county and state codes, even for those in elected offices. So please hang in here and read this through. Maybe twice.

Assessment

The entire process of taxation on our properties begins with the county assessor. The assessor’s job, per Idaho Code, is to calculate and convey the market value of your property within the window of 90% to 110% of actual, as of Jan. 1 of that year. The assessor gathers all the market comparables and other data from the prior year in order to derive these values. Taken into account are market comps, replacement costs and rental/income value. Every year the Assessor recalculates every property, based on changes to the above. In addition, the assessor makes a visit to all properties in Bonner County once every 5 years to further appraise and validate assumptions about each property.

These preliminary values are then sent out in assessment notices that can, if so desired, be appealed before the Bonner County Board of Commissioners. This should only be done after first contacting the assessor and explaining your reasons that a property is (in your opinion) over-assessed. Many times the assessor gains new information from such conversations and is able to adjust the assessment to a more “market proper” rate. If not, you can then file an appeal with the commissioners by the fourth Monday in June.

Once these have been resolved, either with the assessor, the commissioners or State Tax Appeal, then the totals are locked and the total value of the entirety of Bonner County is determined.

County budget

The next step is the budget process. Idaho Code limits the amount of tax increase to 3% over the prior year’s tax dollars received (forgone is a separate issue but there is basically zero in Bonner County

and it wasn’t used). The county clerk is in charge of assembling the budgets submitted from the various departments and elected officials and working with the county commissioners to arrive at a budget for the following year.

The clerk takes into account cash on hand, expected revenues from all sources yet to be received, budgets remaining to be spent in the current year and next budget year; along with future conditions that change for cash revenues and costs. The budget gets revenues from grants, fees, PILT (payment in lieu of taxes for the federal government’s use of our land), drivers’ licenses, permits, etc. The budget also is funded in part by taxes.

It is the taxes portion of the budget that can only increase by 3% over the prior year’s tax dollar receipts (adding to this new construction which is tax on new properties paid by new property owners). The net effect for taxes is that the new taxed amount to taxpayers, on the average, will be 3% more than the prior year. On the average. Obviously on an individualized basis the differences can be massive (as personally experienced with my own property).

Here is a summary of last year’s Bonner County budget, and this new fiscal year’s budget. You’ll see that the taxes on existing properties only increased 3%:

The 2021-2022 budget property tax revenues: $30,463,408

The 2022-2023 budget (that you are currently being taxed for) is: 2022 budgeted taxes: $30,463,408

3%: $913,902

New Construction (born by new taxpayers): $803,126 (Other replacement per statute): 12,642

Total 2022-2023 taxes: $32,193,078

Again, this is Bonner County’s levied taxes.

As you can see, the taxes for existing homeowners increased by only that 3%. The new construction amount was added to the

total but then paid for by a larger number of properties. Thus, if your taxes went up by more than 3%, someone else’s had to come down to make up for that.

Bonner County makes up only roughly 30% to 50% of your tax bill. By statute we act as the central collection agent for all taxing districts, then we distribute those funds to those districts when we receive them: schools, sewer, water, hospital, library, fire, recreation, soil, ambulance, road and bridge, highways, city, cemetery, translator, etc. Your tax bill reflects only those that apply to your property. I point this out so that you realize most likely more than half of your taxes are for taxing districts other than the county. This doesn’t make it any better, but it is good to understand this.

Tax collecting

The next step is to determine what percentage of this new taxed amount is to be paid by each tax parcel (property). The county treasurer’s job, per Idaho Code, is to take the individual total property value, subtract out the exemptions and arrive at a taxable value. This is then divided by the total county taxable value. This results in your share of the total Bonner County taxable value “mill rate”; a term most of you are familiar with but not used officially anymore. Your “mill rate” is then multiplied by the total taxes amount budgeted. The treasurer has no discretion in this — it is ordered and controlled by statute.

Many of us (like myself) experienced much more than a

3% increase in taxes (mine was 27%). On the average this means that for every property tax payer like me, there were other property tax payers that had a reduction in taxes. Those folks are quite happy, and I would be too if I were one of them!

I know my property was properly assessed per market value, but like most of us, I don’t like the resulting tax increase. All the same, it was a fair assessment, which is why I didn’t appeal it. I know I probably could have sold my property for that assessed amount.

Some folks didn’t experience such a high property appreciation, and as such it was proper their taxes didn’t go up, but rather decreased.

The problem

It is not the increase in tax revenues the county (or any other taxing district) does that is the cause of the massive heartburn per se, as all taxing districts have that 3% handcuff (except for school districts or special voted-on bonds/ levy overrides). Rather, it is the large swings of relative “piece of that tax pie” that gets our angst up. Understandably.

I can’t speak for the assessor as to their job, but as for my individual property, I know that as of this past Jan 1, it was properly assessed. That means I must have been under assessed prior to that if my relative piece of the pie got larger than more than 3% this year, which it did. I also know the incoming assessor, Grant Dorman, will try to assess it fairly this year as well and into the future.

Hopefully you understand this process a little bit better now. I’m always happy to meet with anyone regarding my part of this equation and try to answer any questions you may have. Although it is a painful topic, I enjoy meeting with people to explain county processes that are not intuitively clear.

Michael Rosedale is the Bonner County Clerk.

Banned Books in Review: ExtremelyLoud&IncrediblyClose

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

More than 1,600 books across 32 states were banned during the 2021-2022 school year. In Idaho, 26 titles were banned across three school districts, underscoring a trend spearheaded largely by right-wing religious groups pushing for censorship of books that feature LGBTQ+ characters, as well as sexual and racial situations they deem inappropriate for children.

In an attempt to shed light on this development, I have pledged to read all 26 books banned last year in Idaho and share with our readers what they are all about, why they were likely banned and what we are missing by promoting censorship of the written word.

The author American novelist Jonathan Safran Foer is perhaps best known for his debut novel Everything is Illuminated, released in 2002, but is slowly gaining more recognition for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close after it has been recognized as one of the most banned books in America during the last decade.

Safran Foer was born into a Jewish family in Washington, D.C. and was a self-described “flamboyant” and “sensitive” child who said he suffered, “something like a nervous breakdown” after a chemical accident in his classroom at the age of 8.

As a result, Safran Foer always felt like he wanted to be “outside his own skin.”

Safran Foer took an introductory writing course with Joyce Carol Oates, who took an interest in his writing.

“My life really changed after that,” he said later.

After graduating from Princeton in 1999, Safran Foer briefly attended medical school

before dropping out to pursue his writing career full time. To date, he has published four novels and three works of nonfiction.

The

book

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is Safran Foer’s second novel, using the events of the 9/11 terrorist attack as the backdrop for the story. The protagonist is 8-year-old Oskar Schell, who learns how to deal with the death of his father in the attack on the World Trade Center.

The novel follows multiple interconnected storylines, and is filled with odd additions that give it a surreal format both lauded and panned by critics.

Oskar’s dad owned a jewelry store and had a meeting at the World Trade Center the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. He subsequently died in the attacks, though his body was never recovered, and the book centers around Oskar’s peculiar way of

dealing with his sudden grief.

While Oskar is extremely intelligent, he’s also clearly on the autistic spectrum and doesn’t process things like everyone else. His dad left a series of messages on the answering machine prior to the towers falling, adding guilt to Oskar’s grief because he didn’t pick up the final call right before the towers came down.

While rummaging through his dad’s things, Oskar comes across an envelope in his dad’s closet with a key inside of it. In an effort to feel close to his father again, Oskar embarks on a journey with the key, attempting to find the lock it fits.

Alongside Oskar’s story is a dual narrative about his grandparents, who tell their own tale through a series of letters sprinkled throughout the novel.

The dual storylines are at times brilliant, but can also be confusing and, dare I say, pretentious. What’s most powerful about

this novel is the ability for Oskar to say and do whatever is on his mind without a filter, culminating in sections that are heartbreaking, hilarious, insightful and downright gut-wrenching at times.

Why it was banned Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close has been banned in multiple school districts across America for most of its time in print. Reasons vary, but the consensus largely centers around several passages in the book that were “extremely vulgar detailing sexual acts.” Other reasons found online at several banned book sites are for the inclusion of “profanity, sex and descriptions of violence.”

To be honest, it was very difficult finding specific passages in the book which supported claims of “extremely vulgar” language and “sexual acts.” There is a scene where Oskar’s grandfather spoke about his experience

with a prostitute. In another scene, Oskar referred to seeing a picture of “an African-American woman’s VJ,” meaning her genitalia. In another section, he refers to looking at Playboy magazines with his friends.

Oskar uses colorful language at times, but it seems to fall well short of “vulgar,” unless being read by someone who hasn’t interacted with another human being before.

One element that I picked up on, though, was Oskar referring to himself as an atheist, which might have offended the religious guardians of free thought that seem to dictate what’s appropriate for children to read in schools nowadays.

I was left scratching my head after reading this novel, unsure of why it has such a notorious reputation as a repeatedly banned book.

Final thoughts

There are books I’ve read which I would acknowledge aren’t suitable for children. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close isn’t one of them. It’s a smart, quirky novel with a few risque sections and a spirited vocabulary from the 8-year-old protagonist, but other than that, there is no reason this book should be banned from schools.

The National Coalition Against Censorship might have put it best when responding to those who believed Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close should be banned: “Removing a book with recognized literary and pedagogical merit simply because a few parents disapprove of it not only disserves the educational interests of students but also raises serious constitutional concerns.”

Stay tuned for future editions of the Reader where I review books banned in Idaho recently.

Left: Author Jonathan Safran Foer. Right: Safran Foer’s second novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which has been on a top 100 banned books list throughout the last decade. Courtesy photos.

COMMUNITY

Chamber of Commerce welcomes AGE Heating and Cooling

By Reader Staff

The Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce has welcomed AGE Heating and Cooling to the Chamber with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Owned by third-generation HVAC Journeyman Andy Bruse and his wife Christina, AGE is a locally-owned HVAC company providing both residential and commercial installations and services.

When asked what makes them unique, Christina Bruse said, “We are premier dealers, so we have to adhere to a high standard of service and training for our journeymen in order to maintain our premier status. We believe in providing high-quality customer service and doing the right thing for our customers.”

AGE also offers installation of traditional and ductless systems as well as water heaters and gas piping. They are Lennox Premier dealers but can service all makes

and models of equipment.

When asked why they chose Sandpoint as their home, Christina said, “Andy was born and raised in North Idaho. He grew up skiing at the mountain and later worked there as a mountain host. Sandpoint is his hometown. We love the community and owning our own business in Sandpoint has always been a dream of ours. This allows us to be bigger parts of the community we love

and to help people at the same time.”

AGE’s goal for the future is to grow their business in the Sandpoint area and purchase a permanent location for the company. AGE strives to be people’s first choice when choosing an HVAC contractor.

For more information, visit ageheatingandcooling.com or call 208-603-2210.

Native Plant Society announces grant opportunity

By Reader Staff

The Kinnikinnick Native Plant Society is now accepting applications for the Lois Wythe Grant for the 2023 year.

KNPS awards up to $500 annually to an individual, school class or group proposing a project in Bonner County designed to promote awareness and appreciation of our native plants.

The 2022 grant went to Patty Ericsson,

Mary Toland and Hannah Combs for the creation of a story, activity, coloring book featuring Hannah’s original art. Busy, Buzzy Bombus Bee: Can You Color What I See? is 16 pages of whimsical narrative and illustrations following Bombus Bee on a serendipitous visit to the KNPS Native Plant Arboretum. Coloring books are currently available for purchase at the Historic Museum, The Museum Guild store, Vanderford’s, All Seasons Garden and Floral and other downtown locations. Previous grants have been awarded to

projects by school children, the Sandpoint Library and graduate students, among others.

The grant is named for Lois Wythe, an Idaho native who moved, with husband Joe, to Sandpoint in 1977. Her love of the northwest, its natural ecology and its people, influenced her involvement in many local organizations. She was there at the beginning of the Panhandle Environmental League and the Sandpoint Farmers’ Market. Her influence led to the addition of organic gardening to the Master Gardeners program.

Lois formed the group that became KNPS and was the driving energy behind the creation of the North Idaho Native Plant Arboretum in Lakeview Park.

Application forms for this year’s grant can be found on nativeplantsociety.org or by emailing grant@nativeplantsociety.org. Completed forms can be mailed to KNPS

Grant Committee, P.O. Box 1092, Sandpoint, ID 83864 and must be received by Feb. 28, 2023. A follow-up report outlining project results is due to KNPS by the end of 2023. The recipient is invited to make a presentation at a KNPS public monthly meeting.

Courtesy photo.

Task Force to host weekly book discussion

By Reader Staff

Bonner County Human Rights Task force and East Bonner County Library District is again offering a weekly book discussion about community and connections. Dates for this event are Thursdays, Jan. 5 through Feb. 9 at 5:30 p.m.

Participants will be able to join in person at the library or via Zoom. For registration and more information, please log on to ebonnerli-

brary.org/community-read.

This year the group is reading two books that focus on communication, curiosity, stories and listening: I Never Thought of it That Way by Monica Guzman and Between the Listening and the Telling by Mark Yaconelli.

A limited supply of free books are available. You can request a free copy in person at the Sandpoint Library. The library also has physical and digital copies available for checkout.

Join a winter ecology day outdoor ed. program

By Reader Staff

Come share a winter day studying the interactions of area wildlife with their environment in the beautiful outdoors of northwestern Montana. A group led by wildlife expert Brian Baxter will meet on Sat., Jan. 14, at 9 a.m. (MST) in the Viking Room of the Venture Inn, 1015 US Highway 2, Libby, Mont.

Over coffee, Baxter will go over a brief set of handouts describing specialized predator/ prey relationships, and other species with interesting winter relationships in the wild. The group will also focus on some botanical terminology that will help them spot and identify the more predominant characteristics of coniferous trees, evergreen shrubs and forbs.

At about 9:30 a.m., the group will head to the field, where they’ll visit two to four

different types of areas and hunt as a wildlife research team to find tracks, sign and scat of area wildlife and look for birds. They will also identify both evergreen and deciduous vegetation, analyze habitats and connect animal behavior with the local environs.

Come prepared for the day with full gas tanks, proper layers, lunch, water, good boots, snowshoes if you have them, hats and gloves, cameras, binoculars and ski poles (which can be helpful walking in deep snow). This adult class will take road tours, do a couple of short hikes on private lands, and wrap up will be around 2:30 p.m. (MST).

All participants must register to attend. Senior citizens are welcome. The outing will not be super strenuous, and slots are limited to small groups. For more info, email b_baxter53@ yahoo.com or call 406-291-2154.

Below left: It was a great turnout to the annual Polar Bear Plunge at Sanpdoint City Beach on Jan. 1. The event is sponsored by Sandpoint Boy Scouts Troop #111. Photo by Joelle Hofer.

Right: “Donkey kisses 5 cents. All proceeds go to a State of Bliss!” Photograph by Jeanelle Shields.

Far right: A great blue heron walking gingerly across the ice. “Herons are my absolute favorite birds,” said photographer Cynthia Mason.

Bottom left: Scott McLongstreet contemplates Lake Pend Oreille on a New Year’s Day hike on the Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail. Photo by Barbara McLongstreet.

Bottom right: A Washington license plate seen parked at Schweitzer that made me chuckle. At least they’re honest about it! Photo by Ben Olson.

To submit a photo for a future edition, please send to ben@sandpointreader.com.

A year of plates

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

A year can be defined by the places you traveled, the music you listened to, the people you met, the investments you made or the habits you picked up or broke.

The older I get, the more my year is defined by the food I ate.

It is tempting to call eating a “simple” pleasure that people rarely take enough time to fully appreciate, but the reality is that food and how we enjoy it isn’t a simple relationship at all. Whole phases of my life are marked by problematic eating habits. Frozen dinners, cereal, popcorn, Taco Bell and the occasional apple made up the bulk of my diet in college, from about 2014 to 2017. Food took the backseat while working myself to a pulp became priority No. 1. I didn’t have time or space to cook, and I didn’t see the point. I was still (barely) standing, wasn’t I?

I don’t know when the shift occurred, but in recent years, eating has almost become a hobby, which sounds silly when talking about an activity that’s necessary to live. But, while I used to approach food as entirely utilitarian, it has become almost a creative outlet. When cooking, it’s a chance to take on an artist’s role. When going out, it’s a chance to be adventurous and push personal boundaries.

As a result, my 2022 saw some pretty wonderful dining experiences.

My furthest travel destination over the past year was Bozeman, Mont., the easternmost stop on my husband and I’s honeymoon road trip. Despite plenty of pre-planning, our chosen breakfast spot proved too packed on the morning we tried to get a table, so with the help of my phone’s map, we walked half a block further and down a long hallway to a true hole-in-the-wall joint with lime green walls and a bar with a clear view of the buzzing kitchen. Seated there, we watched five cooks churn out plates like a well-oiled culinary machine, and got a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes work that has convinced me, during

my own time in restaurants, that food service isn’t for the faint of heart.

I ordered a basic breakfast (eggs, ham, hash browns and toast) while Alex chose bison biscuits and gravy. The food came fast, our coffee mugs remained full and the portions were generous for the price. We left full and happy, knowing we found a treasure and prepared for the journey toward home.

On that journey, we also discovered Butte Brewing & Pizza Company. Crisp, cold pints and incredible crust made that stop my favorite on the Montana itinerary.

Also among the eating-out highlights of my 2022 is the dreamworthy, drool-inducing chili pork dinner entree at Pearl’s on the Lake at Beyond Hope Resort. It is here I should say I worked there this past summer as a server, but my professional obligation to hype the

Eating my way through 2022

food at Pearl’s does not play into my love for the chili pork: Slow-cooked pork shoulder in a chili sauce piled on house-made creamed corn and topped with fresh cilantro crema and an entire half of a mashed avocado. The sweet harmony of those flavors nearly made the memories of a grueling dinner shift fade away.

Some of my favorite meals also had more to do with the setting than the plate’s contents. In August, Alex, my sisters and I stayed at Lunch Peak Lookout. We had a dinner of hot dogs, crackers, strawberries and cherry tomatoes, and a breakfast of bacon, eggs, avocado, toast and the rest of the strawberries. So far from the comfort of home and caught in a pretty gnarly lightning storm, they felt like feasts more than camp food.

The past year also saw plenty of

memorable meals at home, including our first creations prepared under an awning Alex built to protect our prized new barbeque grill. Smoked meat and grilled garden veggies were staples of 2022, all prepared while listening to music and playing in the yard with the dog. I’m not sure how it gets better than that.

I’m thankful that my relationship with food has grown to encompass elements like leisure, experience and adventure, rather than the eat-to-live code to which I used to adhere.

Here’s to many more plates in 2023, along with the memories.

The author’s husband and younger sisters enjoy a perfectly simple mountaintop meal at Lunch Peak Lookout in August 2022. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey.

events

January 5-12, 2023

THURSDAY, January 5

Sip and Shop for Scotchman Peaks 4-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to this nonprofit organization

30 days for $30 dance and yoga classes Throughout January @ Embody Center Come check out our dance and yoga classes. Learn more at embodysandpoint.love

COMMUNITY

The Follies holding auditions for 2023 show

By Reader Staff

FriDAY, January 6

Live Music w/ Devon Wade 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Sandpoint’s independent country artist

Live Music w/ Dario Re Trio 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub See Bandwagon on Page 21

Live Music w/ One Street Over 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Rock, electronic, romantic and pop

Live Music w/ Ian Newbill

6-8:30pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co. Country and classic rock

Live Music w/ Aaron Golay and the Original Sin 8-11pm @ 219 Lounge 21+, No Cover

A cozy musical evening with Alexa Wildish and Maya Goldblum

7pm @ Evans Brothers Coffee Share stories and songs for a cozy and magical evening of original music from two talented performers. $10/$20 entry, doors open at 6 p.m.

18th annual Backcountry Film Festival 7pm @ Panida Theater

Join SOLE for this annual fundraiser showing winter sports films. Funds support SnowSchool, which aims to get local children on the mountain. Tickets available at panida.org

Live Music w/ Steven Wayne 7-9pm @ The Back Door

SATURDAY, January 7

Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz 7-9pm @ The Back Door

Friends of the Library monthly Book Sale

10am-2pm @ Sandpoint Library

We’ll have loads of media for sale, including books on tape, CDs and movies. Funds support a healthy East Bonner Co. Library

Live Music w/ Jason Evans 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Vocalist and pianist with an original style

Live Music w/ John Daffron 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Bluegrass, country and rock

SunDAY, January 8

Sandpoint Chess Club • 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Meets every Sunday at 9am

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s “Living the Questions 2.0”

monDAY, January 9 tuesDAY, January 10

Group Run @ Outdoor Experience

6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome, beer after

After two long years, The Follies is back. For those who don’t know what The Follies is, it’s an adult variety show where locals put together their “talent” for a good cause. This is one of the biggest fundraisers for the Angels Over Sandpoint, a local all-volunteer nonprofit group helping to fill community needs.

The Follies packs the house for two nights every March, but it’s the people who get on stage that make it happen.

If you can sing, dance, write poetry, play an instrument, perform comedic skits — whatever you have — we want to take a look at it. The only way we are able to put on a great show and raise lots of money to support our neighbors

and community is by having you, and you, and you, and you come out and audition. Follies is rated-R for Racy, Risqué and Ridiculous, so get your talent on and contact us.

Please call 208-290-7685 if interested. Leave a message (be sure to include your phone number) and we will get back to you. We will also be having an open call for folks who want to be in an act, but don’t have one. We will plug you into an act where your talents can shine.

Come join the Follies Family. Remember, we need to see all members of your act at the audition, so schedule early to be assured you get the slot that works for you

Auditions will be offered between 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on Jan. 14-15. We are looking forward to seeing you!

Paint and Sip with Lori Salisbury • 5:30-7:30pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery $45 includes supplies to paint a winter wonderland scene, instructions and a glass of wine

wednesDAY, January 11

Live Piano w/ Dwayne Parsons

5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Vintage Second Wednesday Film: Some Like It Hot (1959) • 7pm @ Panida Theater

After witnessing a Mafia murder, slick sax player Joe and is buddy Jerry improvise a plan to escape from Chicago, disguising themselves as women and joining an all-female jazz band

ThursDAY, January 12

Art Reception for SHS artists • 5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Stop in and meet our January artists of the month, SHS advanced art students

Insanity Fab Winter Challenge @ 3096 Highland Flats Rd. (Naples) North Idaho Mud and Crawl invites you to join the best off-road race in the PNW. 4x4 and SxS welcome. This is the first round of the 2023 Northwest Unlimited series and will be held at 3096 Highland Flats Rd. Check their Facebook for more information

Seeking the snow less traveled

Backcountry Film Festival showcases outdoor films for a good cause

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

We tend to enjoy the outdoors here in North Idaho, and why shouldn’t we? Surrounded by mountains, pristine wilderness, as well as rivers and lakes showing colors we might otherwise only see in a dream, North Idaho is indeed an outdoor paradise.

Show your appreciation for the outdoors by attending the 18th annual Backcountry Film Festival, hosted by nonprofit Selkirk Outdoor Leadership and Education. This annual event takes place Friday, Jan. 6 at 6 p.m. at the historic Panida Theater. Advance tickets are available for sale at panida. org for $7/youth or $12/adult, or at the box office the day of the show for $10/youth and $15/adult. A special $30 donation ticket is also available, which includes admission to the festival and three raffle tickets.

Backcountry Film Festival

Friday, Jan. 6; 6-9 p.m., $7-$10/ youth (advanced/day of show), $12-$15/adult (advanced/day of show), $30 donation ticket; Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave., 208-263-9191. Purchase tickets at panida.org and learn more about the Winter Wildlands Alliance at winterwildlands.org.

As it approaches the two-decade mark, the Backcountry Film Festival continues

to be not just a fun way to celebrate the outdoors, but a fundraiser as part of SOLE’s annual Reach & Teach Kids Fundraising Campaign. This program helps raise awareness and essential funds so under-served local schools can experience SOLE’s award-winning and nationally recognized SnowSchool Experience program at their Mountain Field Campus at Schweitzer. This year will be of special importance as SOLE celebrates its 10th anniversary. Since its inception in 2012, SOLE’s place-based experiential education program has put well over 3,000 local youth on the snow each winter to explore and learn in (and about) their winter wildlands from the mountains to the lakes. This represents over 24,000 hours of hands-on, on-the-snow outdoor education for the youth in our region who might not otherwise be given the chance for such activities.

Educators and their students have been afforded the opportunity to engage in fun and intentional

outdoor education lessons on outdoor living travel skills, snow science, winter ecology, avalanche awareness and conservation literacy.

Over the past decade, every fifth-grade student in the Lake Pend Oreille School District has been given access to this educational opportunity each year through funds raised during the Backcountry Film Festival and other partnership opportunities from organizations like the Panhandle Alliance for Education.

By supporting this event, you’ll allow SOLE to reach and teach over 600 under-represented rural youths this winter, as 50% of SnowSchool participants are currently living in poverty and 70% will experience snowshoeing in our local winter wildlands for the very first time.

Along with entertaining outdoor films, the Backcountry Film Festival will also feature a raffle and silent auction, so bring your four leaf clovers as well as your checkbooks — hopefully you’ll win some fun prizes, but you’ll end up supporting a good cause either way.

Produced in part by Boise-based nonprofit Winter

Wildlands Alliance, the Backcountry Film Festival began with a single showing in Boise in 2004 and has grown to its current status as an international film festival. After making its annual premier in Boise, the festival embarks on a tour with more than 100 stops around the world, including Sandpoint.

The award-winning and juried films all celebrate the human-powered experience. With a mix of professional and grassroots films, there’s sure to be something to appeal to everyone.

This is a family-friendly event and all are welcome. There will be limited capacity due to the Panida’s COVID-19 policy, but vaccination status and proof of negative tests are not required.

Above: Still frames from the many awesome winter sport films to be screened on Friday, Jan. 6 at the 18th annual Backcountry Film Festival at the Panida Theater. Courtesy photos.

A marsh made for the screen

The film adaptation of Where the Crawdads Sing is a visual triumph that leaves something to be desired

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

but that deeply undersells Owens’ gifts in the realm of naturalist writing.

Delia Owens’ wildly successful 2018 novel Where the Crawdads Sing came to me in a time when I didn’t know how badly I needed it: the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

For nearly six weeks following the pandemic’s mid-March onset, I stayed home, save a couple of trips to town to have pre-ordered groceries deposited in the back of my car. I felt thankful to have a job I could do from home, and for the house, pets and garden that kept me company. Still, as many people can relate, the feeling of isolation was something I’d never experienced.

It turned out to be the ideal time to read and empathize with the story of Kya, an orphaned girl navigating life and love in the marshlands of coastal North Carolina in the 1950s.

Of course, while a pandemic caused my isolation, family trauma caused Kya’s. First her mother, then her siblings, leave her to live with an abusive father for some time before he, too, disappears from their modest shack, accessible only by boat in the depths of the marsh. She manages to feed herself by selling mussels to kindly business owners in nearby Barkley Cove, and as she ages, she strikes up romances with a couple of local men. When one of them is found dead in the marsh, the outcast Kya is the chief suspect.

Where the Crawdads Sing is billed as a murder-mystery, coming-of-age novel,

The marsh is a character all its own in Crawdads, and as Kya finds her place in a cruel world, she makes sense of her human interactions through the lens of nature. This is what makes the ending believable, and the story so memorable.

So when it was announced the Where the Crawdads Sing would be made into a movie in the summer of 2022, I could hardly wait to see it. When it dropped on Netflix this fall, I settled into the couch on a lazy Sunday and prepared to relive the story that served as such a comfort and welcome distraction during the spring of 2020. Ultimately, for reasons hard to pinpoint but fairly inevitable, Crawdads the film fell a little flat.

The movie boasts a wild dichotomy of criticism on film review site Rotten Tomatoes, where it has an audience score of 96% and a Tomatometer rating of 35%. The narrative on the latter, which comes

from certified media critics, calls the Crawdads film adaptation out for leaning too heavily on courtroom drama; not going deeply enough into the darker parts of Kya’s story; casting the wrong actors; and several called it “soggy” — a pun I don’t entirely disagree with.

Still, I’d argue it is worth the watch. The marshland scenes are breathtaking and the narrative does a compelling job of jumping back and forth in time. The sweet moments are touching, and the dark moments are gut-wrenching. I don’t know who I would have cast in her place, but Daisy Edgar-Jones does her best to portray a character (Kya) that many of us — myself included — first encountered in the ethereal form of the written word and can’t quite fathom having a concrete face and voice.

I can understand the mixed reviews. As someone who knew the twist ending, watching it be revealed on screen was deeply moving. My husband, seated beside me and with no prior knowledge of the plot, was underwhelmed. Such is the risk when trying to translate a life-changing, full-course meal into something bitesized for the masses.

Crawdads the novel tackles poverty, privilege, sexuality, violence and the great, unfathomable rhythms of the natural world. Even the film’s two-hour run time barely scratches the surface of what Owens’ prose is able to convey, and this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Like so many projects before it, the book is just better than the movie.

Watch Where the Crawdads Sing on Netflix, or purchase it on other platforms.

Top: A still frame from Where the Crawdads Sing. Inset: Author Delia Owens. Courtesy photos.

MUSIC

A familiar face enters new territory

An interview with local musician Ian Newbill

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

To fully retell the storied musical career of Ian Newbill would require more space than this newspaper can offer in its 24 pages.

The broad strokes begin after Newbill’s graduation from Noxon High School (50 minutes from Sandpoint by way of Montana) when he moved to Bozeman to attend Montana State University. It was there that he decided music would be the passion to which he would dedicate his life. In 1987, he and a friend drove a barely-running van to Los Angeles and “did the typical rock ‘n’ roll thing,” he said, “living in a studio apartment with cockroaches and selling everything we had to survive.” It was the age of hair metal, and Newbill found himself playing the Sunset Strip.

Style and bands changed over the years, and in the ‘90s, “Nirvana happened,” launching rock into new territory. Newbill evolved accordingly, and despite always being a guitar player and songwriter, found his voice and fronted his first projects. That eventually led him to modern country music, which mirrored his rock roots, and ultimately a small deal to make an album. In 2009 Newbill recorded LA Rodeo, and in 2012, he recorded Twenty Year Town on his own.

As for further record deals, “nothing ever really stuck.” Newbill went a different route, playing in cover bands and with a young, upand-coming country artist opening for bands like Big & Rich, Lee Brice and Eli Young Band. Then, COVID happened, and Newbill

found himself back home with the opportunity to take all he’d learned and apply it to an entirely new adventure: solo acoustic sets.

The Reader caught up with Newbill ahead of his Friday, Jan. 6 gig at Matchwood Brewing to talk about embarking on the first solo project of his career and what it means to play for the folks back home after decades of “chasing the carrot.”

Sandpoint Reader: Now, you’re here and you get to play music for [people back home]. What has that been like?

Ian Newbill: It’s been very cool — the fact that this year has been the first year that I’ve done a solo gig. During COVID, the only positive thing during that time when things were shut down was it gave me time to hone my craft as a solo acoustic guy. I’ve always played in bands. Most people would think that it would be a pretty easy transition; you just grab an acoustic guitar and play. But, in a band situation, you have the comfort and the support [of bandmates], and it’s loud. Doing a solo thing, there’s nothing to hide so you’ve got to be on your game, especially vocally. You have to be right on. You can’t hide behind a drummer and a loud band behind you. It’s been a really cool contrast.

It’s really nice to see people genuinely interested and attentive when you’re playing. I notice that now. I’m doing songs in a style that seems to be hitting people — a diverse style of music. Not just country, but ‘70s pop rock — anything from Luke Combs to Cat Stevens and everything in between. …

Generally, it seems to be working

with what the crowds want to hear, too. I could play 20 original songs, and people might go, ‘Oh, that’s OK,’ but at the end of the night if you’ve had a few beers and you hear some guy pull off “Purple Rain” or something like that, that’s something that everyone can relate to.

SPR: I think there’s a balance to be struck, especially when you’re a solo musician and you haven’t always been, and you did spend a lot of time playing in those cover bands, so you know that takes a different kind of skill. Even scarier than not being able to hide behind a band is not being able to hide behind “Purple Rain.”

IN: Exactly. … I have a looping [device], so I can play multiple things at the same time, like a bass part on my guitar, or thump out a drum beat, and loop it, and then I have a harmonizer, too. I call myself between a single and a band. I’m in that gray zone where it’s a lot of sound for one person. … It’s a lot of extra work, but it pays off in the sound.

SPR: Something that strikes me, because you do have such a long career in music and in so many different genres, here you are — you recorded that first album when you were 40. People are so quick to think that being a musician is a young man’s game, but you’re proving that you’re able to reinvent yourself and learn and enjoy the learning.

sion, technology changes. What you learned 30 years ago is not always going to hold up 30 years later. You start a video store and then videos are gone. … Up here, now that I’m getting into the scene again, I do miss the energy of playing with a band — people dancing, or at a festival — that’s the one part that I miss the most, I guess. … There is something to be said for a big crowd that’s rowdy and wants to have a good time, so … I might throw a little project together.

SPR: One of my questions was going to be — because you are so keen and willing to evolve with the times — what’s next?

It’s easy to recommend poet laureates because the distinction often comes with a level of popularity not shared with most poets. Still, while reading Billy Collins’ Sailing Alone Around the Room — again — I am reminded of what makes Collins so special. His writing is so down-to-earth, never condescending or academic. He could be your neighbor, Fred. But he has a keen eye that sees beyond the limitations of passing glances; a childlike imagination; and an intriguing sense of humor that seems to permeate all his works.

LISTEN

Ian Newbill live at Matchwood Brewing

Friday, Jan. 6, 6-8:30 p.m. FREE.

Matchwood Brewing, 513 Oak St., 208-718-2739, matchwoodbrewing.com. Listen on Soundcloud or Spotify.

IN: Yeah, I think it would be cool to have a southern rock, country band with a little attitude. …I’m continuing to write, too, and adding new originals to my set. I’m just trying to get inspired again, and I have some songs with some publishers in LA. I continue to go down there to record some songs, and to just keep plugging. … I’ve been chasing the carrot for so long. I think I’ve enjoyed playing music this year more than I have in the past, too, just because you don’t have to worry about a manager or someone who wants you to change your style. As long as people will listen here, you can do what you want. I can play an original song that got turned down by a producer and no one cares. I can figure out what’s a good song now.

If there’s such a thing as a “folk diva,” it would have to be Rhiannon Giddens. This would seem like an oxymoron, except that she is now singing opera. If you follow her career obsessively (guilty), it appears you are seeing several hundred years’ worth of experience, history and influence in a single Renaissance woman. There’s the Carolina Chocolate Drops. There’s her solo works and songwriting. There are collaborations with others as part of Our Native Daughters and with her husband, multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi. She plays fiddle and is one heck of a picker; she won the coveted Steve Martin Banjo Award in 2016 (to accompany her Grammy and MacArthur awards). And I haven’t even mentioned jazz singing…

WATCH

IN: It’s just like in any profes-

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint

Dario Ré Trio, Eichardt’s Pub, Jan. 6

There are some voices which speak to the beauty of where we are as well as who we are. Alexa Wildish and Maya Goldblum both possess the vocal ability to transport their listeners to a new plain where songs are poems.

Based in Colorado, Wildish won the 2019 Rocky Mountain Folks Festival songwriting competition thanks to her pristine voice and songs so personal they almost feel like you’re intruding on a journal entry. Sandpoint’s own Goldblum

6

— often playing under the moniker Queen Bonobo — spins tales with her unique voice that leave you wanting more. Having both artists in one show should be reason enough to emerge into the night.

— Ben Olson

Friday, Jan. 6, doors @ 6, show @ 7 p.m., sliding scale $10-$20, Evan’s Brothers Coffee, 524 Church St., 208-265-5553. Listen at alexawildish.com and queenbonobo. bandcamp.com

One of the hardest questions for artists like Dario Ré is probably, “What genre of music do you play?”

The Spokane-based musician, artist and teacher is part of a few projects, including Heat Speak, a band with elements of indie folk, chamber pop and world fusion.

Dario Ré’s music is delightful to listen to, because it’s simple, yet complicated. His songs are multifaceted, with lyrics that encourage a better world. They live under the

folk umbrella, but let’s just say if it was raining hard, he would still get wet, because the other elements of his songwriting are unique, dynamic and downright fun. Playing as part of the Dario Ré Trio at Eichardt’s Pub, the show is destined to be entertaining.

— Ben Olson

Friday, Jan. 6, 7 p.m., FREE, Eichardt’s Pub, 212 Cedar St., 208-263-4005. Listen at dariore. com.

I don’t get TV. Not that I don’t understand it, just that I don’t invite it inside to stay. So when work has me staying in hotels, I go for Channel 375, Link TV (formerly Worldlink). Secretly nestled in the crappy section, it is a refreshing blend of original series, documentaries, art and international news. Where other channels have commercials, spare air is filled with short cinema or world music videos. Highlights of my last stay: the series The Island Diaries; The Music of Strangers, a fascinating glimpse into the people and stories behind Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble; and This is Not a Movie, a look at the career of perhaps the most celebrated Middle East journalist, Robert Fisk, who quit The Times in 1989 after Rupert Murdoch started “altering” his reporting.

This week’s RLW by Ed Ohlweiler

Alexa Wildish and Maya Goldblum, Evans Brothers Coffee, Jan.

From Northern Idaho News, Jan. 6, 1914

WEDDING ENDS CASE OF FRED REIKEN

Fred Reiken of Colburn, the young man who was recently brought here from Copeland charged with a serious offense, was married last Wednesday morning to the girl who was the complaining witness against him.

Reiken was locked up recently after he had been living with Orabelle Bailey of Copeland. The girl’s mother was dead and her father found difficulty in handling her so when the charges were preferred against Reiken the girl was also brought to the jail here on a charge of incorrigibility preferred by her father.

When Reiken was taken before Judge Wood in probate court last Wednesday morning the girl’s father and Reiken’s parents talked the matter over with the result that the young people were married and the charges withdrawn. All parties concerned were of the opinion that the settlement of the matter in that way would be the best and therefore the young people instead of being branded for life, are happy together.

BACK OF THE BOOK

New year, same marathon

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

In my house, 2023 arrived without incident.

My husband Alex and I spent the day with friends enjoying our respective winter sports (I snowshoed with good company and many dogs while he snowmobiled to his heart’s content) and, after our evening plans to go out fell through, we made various finger foods and rented the stop-motion animated movie Chicken Run — a childhood favorite featuring the voice-acting skills of Mel Gibson and many adorable claymation hens.

We nearly fell asleep in the living room before turning in at 8 p.m. I woke at 1 a.m. to use the bathroom, and realized with a passing glance at my phone’s home screen that we were living in a new year.

The family-and-friend New Year’s Eve sledding parties of my youth turned to wild nights and rancid hangovers in my late-teens and early-20s. My last few NYE have been spent at home, either alone if Alex opts to attend a neighbor’s party or with him beside me in his recliner, neither of us harboring illusions that we should (or even could) stay awake until midnight.

Just as my expectations for New Year’s Eve have evolved, so have my feelings toward New Year’s resolutions.

I’ve been transparent in past Reader articles about my love for resolutions, and even published a few to inspire some newsprint accountability. In 2021, I resolved to “make dinner more often” — or, more accurately, to stop putting

off meal planning until 5 p.m. I stuck to that goal for a few months before life kicked in. Luckily, it was around that time that Alex discovered a love for cooking, so with both of our brain power, we’ve managed to stay well fed for the past two years.

In 2022, my resolutions were twofold. First, I opted to participate in Dry January, which was a success in more ways than one. Secondly, I resolved to read 10 pages of a for-fun book every day. This goal was measurable and attainable, I told myself, and that lasted for about three weeks. Since then, my 2022 reading habits were sporadic at best. I’d binge-read, then set my book down for days at a time. At present, there are upwards of a dozen half-read novels on my nightstand.

Try as I might, I didn’t not become a “better reader” in 2022 — whatever that means.

But if the goal of each year is to become better at something, I can say — to varying degrees — I did accomplish that. I became a better gardener, bill payer, water drinker and email replier. I became a more informed voter, a better dish soaker and a more consistent visitor to the gas station (you’re welcome, fuel pump). I did not resolve to do any of these things starting on Jan. 1, 2022, and yet, they happened.

Call it wisdom or common sense, but this year taught me that improving yourself is a marathon, not a sprint — and the starting line is wherever you want it to be.

This is all to say that the start of a new year is, though temptingly “fresh” in nature, completely arbitrary. But on

Sudoku Solution STR8TS Solution

the flipside of that coin is the opportunity to see each and every day as extraordinary. However, the realist in me knows that treating each day as extraordinary would be exhausting, so a balance is necessary.

At the crossroads of arbitrary and extraordinary is the chance to see any day you want as the “fresh start” we try to afford ourselves with the start of a new year. Better yet, let go of the idea that a single day can mark a massive, overall life change, and instead, use that day to make a small shift.

I am among the masses that feel romanticism surrounding Jan. 1, but I no longer fall victim to the associated expectations and guilt. As I look back on the past 365 days, I can see that I lived my life in the constant pursuit of feeling some sense of satisfaction as I closed my eyes for the night — usually around 8 p.m.

All in all, that’s all I could really ask for.

If a kid ever asks you how Santa Claus can live forever, I think a good answer is that he drinks blood.

Solution on page 22 Solution on page 22

CROSSWORD

Laughing Matter

By Bill Borders

ACROSS

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