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PEOPLE compiled by

Zach Hagaone

watching

“Quotes about Ireland, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.” “When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.”

Edna O’Brien, DBE Greatest living Irish writer

“Ireland, sir, for good or evil, is like no other place under heaven, and no man can touch its sod or breathe its air without becoming better or worse.”

George Bernard Shaw Nobel Prize-winning Irish playwright (1856-1950)

“I feel more and more the time wasted that is not spent in Ireland.”

Lady Gregory Irish dramatist, folklorist and theater manager (1852-1932)

“It’s not that the Irish are cynical. It’s simply that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.”

Brendan Behan Irish poet (1923-1964)

“I’m Irish! … When I feel well I feel better than anyone, when I am in pain I yell at the top of my lungs, and when I am dead I shall be deader than anybody.”

Morgan Llywelyn American-Irish writer and historian

DEAR READERS,

I didn’t see the recent “White Lives Matter” gathering in downtown Sandpoint, but I heard about it. Because I didn’t see it, I can’t say much about it, other than to underscore that it’s a plain indication of the poison that’s again rising in our community. A few months ago I found a piece of “White Lives Matter” doggerel in a Ziploc baggie — weighed down with a little rock, just like the Aryan Nations used to do — sitting on the walkway up to my house. So the fact that these trash-peddlers feel empowered enough to litter downtown with their physical presence isn’t surprising, though still sickening. I sincerely hope that this community still has at least a shred of the integrity it had back when it rejected white supremacists in the ’90s, but I’m not so sure. Here’s hoping we can muster enough courage to (again) reject these ideas, because make no mistake: They are here, and they are more widespread and influential than they used to be.

– Zach Hagadone, editor

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

www.sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Jodi Berge Jodi@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: Michael Williams (cover), Ben Olson, Zach Hagadone, Julie Argyle, Meeka Bond, Marlene Rorke, Joseph Leonti Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Lorraine H. Marie, Brenden Bobby, Emily Erickson, Jane Fritz Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com Printed weekly at: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID Subscription Price: $155 per year Web Content: Keokee The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.

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

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

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

Requirements: –No more than 300 words –Letters may not contain excessive profanity or libelous material. Please elevate the discussion.

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

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

About the Cover

This week’s cover was drawn by local artist and great guy Michael Williams. Love your colorful drawings, Michael!

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NEWS

Sandpoint council approves Sand Creek code amendment Councilors say rule change offers more protection from ‘overdevelopment,’ not less

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Sandpoint city councilors unanimously approved a code amendment March 16, replacing existing construction setbacks along Sand Creek with a new section that prohibits building within 25 feet of the high water mark, requires a vegetative buffer or engineered stormwater treatment system as necessary, permits before any dirt can be turned along the creek, and greater coordination with state and federal agencies regarding impacts to the watercourse.

The code amendment has spurred months of public feedback since it first came before the Planning and Zoning Commission in September, with many residents concerned that it would open the way for “overdevelopment” on the creekside. It has since been tabled, recommended for denial by P&Z, and subjected to workshops and stakeholder meetings.

City staff explained that the amendment had become necessary during preliminary implementation of the phase of the Farmin’s Landing project, as described in the “downtown waterfront” component of the 2020 Parks and Recreation Master Plan. That portion of the plan calls for stormwater treatment along the creek but also an array of public amenities, including a plaza and other public gathering places.

Those elements of the master plan wouldn’t be possible under current code, which sparked a months-long process of revising the code amendment to allow “structures” such as patios to be constructed within the setback, but subject “buildings” to permitting or a conditional use permit at least, and prohibition at most.

“At no point was this code change about allowing private development to build into the creek,” Infrastructure and Development Director Amanda Wilson said in February. “That was in no way, shape or form how this started.”

The code change would apply to public and private property in the Commercial A and B zones along 4 /

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Sand Creek as far north as Highway 200 and the Popsicle Bridge.

Councilor Jason Welker, who served as chair of the P&Z Commission when the code amendment first surfaced in September, emphasized that its earlier incarnation would have allowed building right up to the high water mark, while the version before the council March 16 was actually a stronger protection against overdevelopment than current code.

Addressing citizens opposed to the code amendment, he said, “I believe your concerns about the overdevelopment of our downtown waterfront are warranted. It is highly likely that nearly the entire commercial waterfront between Bridge Street and Cedar Street will be sold, demolished and rebuilt in the next 10 years. The same could happen south of Bridge Street.”

However, he added, rejecting the code change would “do nothing to halt the development of downtown Sandpoint — it will only allow that development to take place with less citizen oversight, less protection for water quality and less guarantee that public access to Sand Creek will be maintained, much less improved.”

Testimony ran either against approval of the amendment or centered on pleas that the council take more time to incorporate provisions incentivizing public access amid future development.

Chase Youngdahl, of Sandpoint, said that because the city’s Comprehensive Plan hasn’t been fully updated since 2009, establishing new code requirements on Sand Creek was “putting the horse before the cart.”

What’s more, he questioned whether the emphasis on public gathering spaces on the waterfront really upheld the spirit of the community’s stated desire to support downtown and preserve its small-town feel.

“It seems like it’s almost trying to capture the big city vibe of Venice, Italy, or the San Antonio River Walk,” he said. “It works counter to the small-town feel.”

Sandpoint resident Pam Duquette said she was concerned about allowing any structures within the 25-foot setback, whether through a conditional use permit or not.

“I think that it will start a precedent for other encroaching developments along Sand Creek,” she said.

Patty Shook, of Sandpoint, worried that she would no longer be able to access the Sand Creek bike path through the current Gunning’s Alley parking area, but more so expressed her concern that Sand Creek would become even more inviting to motorized boat traffic with increased moorage — adding to water pollution and erosion — and that that the future of the waterfront will include luxury high-rise condos along the creek

and downtown core.

“We want to keep Sandpoint sweet,” she said.

Steve Holt, of the Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper, said he appreciated the work put into the amendment by staff over the past several months and that his organization supported it. However, he said it needs a few additional changes — particularly in the area of incentivizing public access as development inevitably occurs along the creekside.

Molly McCahon of the Lakes Commission came out directly against the amendment, saying, “It is currently lacking clarity, purpose and teeth.”

Echoing Youngdahl’s comments, she said the code change “put the cart before the horse,” and that the city’s stormwater ordinance should first be rewritten and strengthened. She also questioned the conditional use permit process as a safeguard against overdevelopment, noting that often the standards for approval are “very subjective.”

“This is the opportunity to look at Sand Creek realistically and plan for the future,” McCahon said.

After the close of the public hearing, Councilor Joel Aispuro asked, “What’s the rush? Is there something I’m missing here? Is there an immediate need to push this or consider the concerns expressed here?”

An artist’s rendering of Sand Creek with 25-foot setbacks and stormwater treatment features. Courtesy City of Sandpoint.

City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton said that there is some urgency in that the budget for design of Farmin’s Landing, as well as related stormwater management, has already been approved by the council and the limbo in which the code amendment has lay for the past several months is delaying the project — “including a bank stabilization project that’s depending on that.”

Wilson added that focusing on the stormwater ordinance first would add months, maybe years, to the process of revising the Sand Creek code change. In the meantime, the existing code leaves the waterfront open to even more intrusive development.

“Our hope is that this ordinance buys us some time,” she said. “I think it’s a short-term improvement. … This isn’t going to be the ‘forever code.’”

Welker doubled down on his point that putting the amendment in place now actually ensures more protection for the creek, considering that current rules don’t require a vegetative buffer, nor any kind of stormwater mitigation.

“Current code doesn’t do anything,” he said, adding later, “This is a temporary stop-gap to make sure the development that does happen goes through a more rigorous public process.”

NEWS

School district interviews superintendent candidates, will announce finalists March 18

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Lake Pend Oreille School District trustees are narrowing in on a replacement for outgoing Superintendent Tom Albertson, who is retiring in July.

Watched by district staff and community members on the Superintendent Search Interview Observer Panel, trustees performed the first round of preliminary interviews with candidates for the position March 16, which included David Dude, Dennis Wilson and Casey McLaughlin.

The second round of preliminary interviews will take place Thursday, March 17 at 4:15 p.m. in the library at Sandpoint High School (410 S. Division St.). The meeting is open to the public but will not feature a question-and-answer session between the audience and candidates.

Dude currently serves as CEO and founder of Cary, Ill.based consulting firm Compass Tree LLC, though previously helmed a district of 6,000 students as superintendent, worked as chief operations officer for a district of 13,000 students and as chief technology officer in a district of 17,000 students. Dude holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and two Master of Arts degrees in Education Measurement and Education Administration from the University of Iowa.

Wilson hails from Mountain Home, Idaho, where he serves as the current superintendent and principal of Richard McKenna Charter School, with a population of 1,060 students.

Wilson has 18 years of prior experience as a school superintendent, as well as experience as a principal and teacher. He holds an Education Leadership for

Superintendent credential from Central Michigan University and a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from Central Michigan University.

McLaughlin, of Sandpoint, currently serves LPOSD as director of Federal Programs and assistant director of Teaching and Learning. He has experience as a middle school and elementary school principal, most recently at Sandpoint Middle School. McLaughlin received an Education Specialist degree for Superintendent from the University of Idaho and a Master of Education in Education Leadership from the University of Idaho.

Candidates to be interviewed March 17 include Kelly Kronbauer, Becky Meyer and Teresa Rensch.

Kronbauer is currently director of Student Services and Operations in the Ellensburg School District in Ellensburg, Wash. He also has experience as a director of state and federal programs, K-12 building principal experience and teaching experience. Kronbauer completed the superintendent certification program through

Washington State University and holds a Master of Arts degree in Education Leadership and Administration.

Meyer, of Rathdrum, is the current superintendent for the Lakeland School District, with a population of 4,200 students.

She also has experience as an assistant superintendent for LPOSD, an elementary school principal, as well as a principal and assistant principal at Sandpoint and Lake Pend Oreille high schools, respectively.

Meyer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Idaho and a Master of Education degree from City University.

Rensch is currently the director of Curriculum and Instruction for Konocti Unified School District in Lower Lake, Calif. Rensch also has experience as a high school and middle school principal and teaching experience. She holds a Doctor of Education in Management and Leadership from Capella University and a Master of Arts in Education Administration from Chicago State University.

District officials said the top three finalists will be

announced on Friday, March 18, following confirmation.

The final interviews will take place with one candidate each day Tuesday, March 22-Thursday, March 24, as well as facilitated community forums each day from 5-6 p.m. at the Ponderay Events Center (401 Bonner Mall Way), where members of the public can meet and greet each of the top

The LPOSD building in Ponderay.

Photo by Ben Olson. three candidates.

Trustees will meet again on Friday, March 25 for an executive session to select their finalist from the top three.

For more information, including the agenda for the finalist interviews, visit lposd. org/board-of-trustees.

Assessor’s office: Time to file for exemptions, property tax relief

By Reader Staff The deadline for personal property declarations ended on March 15 but, according to the Bonner County Assessor’s Office, declarations will continue to be accepted.

The exemption this year increased to $250,000, but to receive that exemption property owners must return the declaration. For those needing an extension to file, call the assessor’s office at 208-2651440.

Meanwhile, the deadline for the agriculture exemption and

the Property Tax Reduction Program is Friday, April 15.

According to the assessor, the Idaho Legislature changed the property value that qualifies for the Property Tax Reduction Program, but that amount has yet to be determined.

“If you qualified last year, you should still apply for this year,” the assessor’s office stated.

For more information, including forms and frequently asked questions, visit bonnercountyid.gov/departments/ Assessor.

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NEWS

City accepts $7.5M gift for James E. Russell Sports Facility

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff The city of Sandpoint received an unprecedented gift March 16: $7.5 million from the family of James “Jim” Russell to design and construct a new multi-use, year-round enclosed court sports facility at Travers Park to be dubbed the James E. Russell Sports Facility.

Presenting the cash donation for approval to the City Council, Sandpoint City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton said the size of the gift — which is larger than any that city staff had been able to find in Idaho — “can’t be underestimated whatsoever.”

“This would be such a large donation and such a wonderful gift to this community,” she said.

Still in its conceptual phase, the facility includes a multi-purpose court with striping to accommodate four new tennis courts, 16 pickleball courts and basketball, though the ultimate quantity of courts and exact configuration will be determined during design.

The building interior would feature heating and cooling for year-round use, restrooms, additional multi-use community space, storage and potentially lockers, an entry welcome desk and seating adequate for tournaments.

Stapleton said the idea for the James E. Russell Sports Facility began in July 2019, when the Russell family came to City Hall interested in making a legacy donation.

“At the time that we had that meeting I had no idea if we were talking about a bench … or what the size of the donation was or the interest or who the donation was for,” Stapleton said.

Russell was born in Sandpoint in 1933. One of six children, he was deeply involved with local sports, including at Sandpoint High School, from which he graduated in 1951 before moving on to the University of Idaho, where he is now recognized as a member of the university’s Alumni Hall of Fame for his engineering career. He passed away in 2019, at the age of 86.

Russell’s lifelong love for sports and exercise — and tennis in particular — drove the decision by his family to pursue a donation that would establish a permanent, enclosed facility for court sports at 6 /

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one of his favorite parks in Sandpoint.

“Mom and I cannot think of a better use for this money than to give it to the city,” said Russell’s son, Jim, who stood alongside his mother, Ginny Russell, at the March 16 meeting for the City Council.

He noted that his father had been contemplating such a gift for between 15 and 20 years, and that the facility should not be a memorial or monument — rather, a place “where life lessons can be learned and lifelong friendships can be forged for generations.”

Mayor Shelby Rognstad called it an “unbelievably generous gift that will continue to give back to the community for decades to come.”

City Council President Kate McAlister added, “It’s just overwhelming.”

“We will take care of it and use it wisely and kids are going to have a great time all year long,” she said.

Included in the $7.5 million donation would be funding for a new gateway to the facility, which will be further embellished by a separate donation of two bronze statues from Ann Hargis and Denny Liggitt, who have owned a home in Sandpoint for 40 years.

Both retired veterinarians, Hargis and Liggitt had been interested in donating an animal statue to the city but, upon learning of the Russell family’s planned gift at Travers Park — and finding out that Russell’s best friend growing up was late-local author Patrick McManus — opted to contribute to the project with two pieces by celebrated Seattle artist Georgia Gerber, whose work is well known at both the San Diego Zoo and the famous bronze pig at the Pike Place Market in Seattle.

The sculptures will represent a bear and mountain lioness with cub, paying homage to both the Russell family’s gift and McManus, the latter who featured the animals in his many stories.

Council members unanimously approved both donations, clearing the way for a request for proposal to be issued in the coming week, with construction on the facility and gateway set to be complete in October 2023.

“This is an absolute breath of fresh air,” said Councilor Andy Groat. “It’s so nice to have some great news. Love you guys.”

“The children are so lucky to have members like you as part of our community,” added Councilor Deb Ruehle.

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: The Senate passed the Postal Service Reform Act in a 79-19 vote. The Act will save the USPS an estimated $50 billions during the next decade, guarantee the delivery of mail six days a week and reform rules that have stood in the way of service since the postmaster general appointed by the Trump administration took deliberate measures to slow mail delivery. According to CNN, the Act allows modernization and drops the previous mandate forcing the USPS to fund employees’ health care decades in advance. Employees will instead be enrolled in Medicare. That is expected to save $50 billion over the next decade.

The U.S. has banned U.S. imports of Russian oil, Mother Jones reported.

A comment that the rise in prices would partner with a clean conscience triggered talk about carpooling, reducing use of climate-polluting vehicles and more plans for better public transportation — as well as complaints about higher pump prices. In 2021 the U.S. imported 3% of oil from Russia and even less in 2022.

A Reuters poll shows 63% approve of no more oil from Russia. Meanwhile, various media outlets have underscored that the price of gas is not controlled by the U.S. president; rather, oil companies are privately owned and determine prices. When demand is low, as it was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, oil prices go down. Prices rise when demand increases.

Still, according to The Guardian, oil companies raked in $174 billion in profits in 2021.

Historian and columnist Heather Cox Richardson explained further that the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline project — due to threats to water quality — would not have impacted today’s prices. Even if it had not been canceled, it still would not have been completed at this time. What’s more, the pipeline was designed for export purposes, as the U.S. exports half of its oil.

One factor behind the call for more drilling on public lands is the fact that those states get a kickback that, in the case of Wyoming, can amount to a $1 billion dollars a year in royalties and tax funds for the state. Noticeably, the very day Russia invaded Ukraine, the fossil fuel industry called for more drilling, pipelines and fracking in the U.S. Senators who have rallied for fossil

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

fuel companies’ expansion of projects have, according to Open Secrets, received $4.27 million from those industries’ political action committees in the past five years, and another $6 million from industry executives and other employees.

The U.S. Senate in a late-night vote approved a $1.5 trillion spending package that’s good through the end of September. Politico reported that it includes $14 billion to help Ukraine, a 7% increase for non-defense agencies and a 6% hike for national defense.

The simple way to think about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to political columnist Robert Reich: It’s a 300-pound bully with a gun beating up a much smaller kid. It becomes suicide to intervene and moral suicide not to. What to do?

Sending aid is great, but to help Russians who seek the truth, following Russia’s shutdown of independent media, Mother Jones suggested subscribing to Meduza, a still-functioning Russian independent news organization. Meduza staffers had to flee but are still operating from elsewhere.

Russians can access it but are now unable to engage in the crowd-funding required to keep Meduza afloat. Meduza has an online portal for becoming a member.

According to the editor-in-chief of Meduza, based on the information they are receiving from state-run television, many Russians know nothing about the bombing of Ukrainian cities and refugees, and are led to believe only Ukrainian infrastructure is being bombed.

Russia-Ukraine headlines: “Even Russian State TV Is Pleading With Putin to Stop the War”; “Leaked Kremlin Memo Told Russian Media to Feature Lots of Tucker Carlson”; “Ukraine’s Refugees of Color Facing Racism, Violence;” “Ukraine says Russia has Kidnapped Yet Another Mayor”; Russia Facing ‘Outright Defeat’ and Sudden Collapse, political scientist says”; “U.S. Journalist Brent Renaud Killed by Russian Forces”; “Ukraine Conflict is a Bonanza for Oil and Gas Companies”; “Putin Says Russia to Use Middle East Volunteer Fighters.” Finally, The Daily Beast reported that activists are attempting to shelter refugees in Russian-owned mansions.

Blast from the past: “The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them.” — Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek (1921-1991)

NEWS

Citing filing error, secretary of state leaves Rognstad off May primary ballot

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad made a lot of headlines in November when he announced his candidacy for Idaho governor.

Running as a Democrat in Republican-dominated Idaho, he faced an uphill battle from the outset. Now it looks like that battle may be over before it could even begin, after the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office declined to put Rognstad on the May 17 primary ballot because of a candidacy filing error.

While he officially declared his intention to run as a Democrat on the March 11 filing deadline, Rognstad’s party affiliation turned out to be Republican, which ran afoul of state election rules that officials say require that a candidate’s declared party match their party affiliation.

Rognstad did change his affiliation to “Democrat” on March 11, but only after he learned of the discrepancy later in the evening — and, by that time, the candidate declaration window had closed at 5 p.m., meaning his reaffiliation affected his

status as a voter, not a that if Rognstad candidate. had declared Rognstad’s earlier during the campaign was quick candidacy filing to push back against period — which the secretary of state’s began Feb. 28 decision, issuing a — the inconsisstatement on March tency would have 14: been caught and “Today a Repubcorrected in time to lican Secretary of make the March 11 State worked with a deadline. As it was, Shelby Rognstad.

Republican Attorney there was simply general to illegally prevent a Demono time to do so. crat candidate from running for Gov“Afterwards is too late, that’s the ernor, based on a technicality that problem,” Rosedale said. “It’s crystal has no basis in Idaho law. When I clear: You have to be affiliated with filed my candidacy on Friday [March the party you’re running for. There’s 11], I declared as a Democrat on the no gray area there.” filing form, which is exactly what the That’s despite an argument made state law requires. Unfortunately, it’s

by Rognstad’s campaign manager, not enough for Idaho Republicans Ethan Schaffer, who in a letter March to win almost every election, now 13 to the secretary of state wrote that they’re wanting to prevent elections Idaho Code stipulates a candidate from happening in the first place. must be affiliated with “a political I’m reviewing my options on how to party,” not necessarily the same politfight this gross injustice that deprives ical party for which they’ve declared Idaho voters of a choice on the prithey will run, and not necessarily “at mary ballot.” the exact moment the candidate’s Bonner County Clerk Michael declaration of candidacy is filed.”

Rosedale, who serves as elections Schaffer added: “And even if chief for the county, told the Reader there was some legal support for that

requirement, it would elevate form over substance (to put it mildly) to exclude Mayor Rognstad.”

“That’s a semantics argument,” Idaho Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck told the Idaho Capital Sun. Also in the letter, Rognstad’s campaign insisted that he had changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat at the beginning of October, but “the registration records were not updated to reflect that change.”

According to Houk, quoted by the Idaho Capital Sun, Rognstad “could not give us a consistent answer on how that change was made. … There was no record of it.”

Asked how someone’s change of party affiliation might not be recorded, Rosedale told the Reader that, “I don’t think it’s possible. It’s a regular business process — we do every one. … Something like that would not be missed.”

Rosedale said the only affiliation on file with the clerk’s office indicates Rognstad has been a Republican since 2020.

“There’s just nothing we can do about that,” he said. “He was gearing

up for this and it was just a little paperwork thing he didn’t do. I feel bad for him.”

Rognstad has raised more than $113,000 for his campaign so far, including from some of the state’s most prominent Democrats. A call to the Idaho Democratic Party on March 15 went unanswered.

To remain in the race, Rognstad’s only options are to take the issue to court or file his intention to run as a write-in candidate, the deadline for which is 5 p.m. on Friday, March 25.

Reached for comment by the Reader, Schaffer said the campaign had “not yet” determined how it would proceed.

According to Rosedale, the snafu underscores the importance of handling election-related paperwork as early as possible — whether for candidates or voters.

“Don’t wait until the last minute on anything — and that includes requesting your absentee ballot or returning your absentee ballot,” he said. “Give yourself enough time for a mistake to happen and you can recover.”

the only Republican in the race, and will face Democrat Kaylee Peterson of Eagle and Liberatarian Joe Evans of Meridian in the November general election.

As for the District 2 U.S. Representative position, Republican incumbent Mike Simpson is up against four other GOP candidates in May: Bryan Smith, Chris Porter, Daniel Algiers Lucas Levy and Flint Christensen.

Also vying for the seat is Democrat Wendy Norman of Rigby.

Idaho’s governor race has seen no shortage of media coverage, due mostly to the pitting of incumbent Republican Gov. Brad Little against current Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who has regularly criticized and, at times, undermined Little during her time in office. Other Republicans in the race include current Bonner County Commissioner and Cocolalla Cowboy Church pastor Steve Bradshaw, as well as Cody Usabel, Lisa Marie, Ashley Jackson, Edward R. Humphreys and Ben Cannady.

Woodward and Herndon are the only candidates filed to run in that race.

Redistricting left the 1A state representative seat vacant, with current Rep. Heather Scott’s residence located within District 2. Republicans vying for that position include Spencer Hutchings, Adam Rorick, Mark Sauter, Travis Thompson and Cynthia P. Weiss. Steve R. Johnson is declared as a Democrat in that race.

Two Republicans are the sole candidates in the 1B representative race: incumbent Sage G. Dixon and Todd Engel of Priest River.

To view the complete list of state-level candidates, visit sos.idaho. gov/elections-division.

At the Bonner County level, current County Clerk Michael Rosedale will run again for his position unopposed. Incumbent Coroner Robert Beers will also run unopposed for reelection.

Incumbent Bonner County Assessor Donna Gow will seek reelection

against Sandpoint resident Grant Dorman and current County Commissioners Office Manager/Deputy Clerk Jessi Webster.

In the race for District 2 commissioner seat, incumbent Jeff Connolly will face Randi Flaherty and Asia Williams. For the District 3 seat, current Commissioner Dan McDonald will not run again, so the race is seeing five new Republican faces: David Bowman, Richard Harter, Ron Korn, Luke Omodt and Brian Riley.

Finally, two Republicans are vying for the Bonner County treasurer position: current Bonner County Chief Deputy Clerk Clorrisa Koster and Dennis Colton Boyles.

For the full list of county-level candidates, visit bonnercountyid. gov, select “Departments” and then “Elections.”

The deadline for voter registration is Wednesday, April 22: 5 p.m. for paper registration, and by midnight for online registration. Register to vote at voteidaho.gov.

Official May primary candidates list released

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

With Idaho’s primary elections exactly two months away, the official list of candidates vying for political seats from Congress to county commissions is now available following the March 11 filing deadline.

According to the official list of all candidate declarations on the Idaho secretary of state’s website, the race for U.S. senator will see incumbent Republican Mike Crapo facing four challengers in the primary, including Ramont Turnbull, Natalie M. Fleming and Brenda Bourn, all of the Treasure Valley area, and Scott Turner of Lewiston. Also declared for that U.S. Senate seat are Democrats Ben Pursley and David Roth, Constitutional candidate Ray J. Writz, Independent Scott “Oh” Cleveland and Liberatarian Idaho Sierra Law (also known as Carta Reale Sierra).

For U.S. Representative in District 1, incumbent Russ Fulcher is

Liberaterian candidates for governor include Paul Sand and John Dionne Jr. Chantyrose Davison is running as a Constitutional candidate, Stephen Heidt as a Democrat and anti-government activist Ammon Bundy, who formerly said he’d run as a Republican, is filed as an Independent.

Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad, who declared his candidacy for governor as a Democrat in recent months, apparently failed to change his affiliation from Republican prior to the filing deadline and therefore is not listed on the SOS candidate list.

The Republican primary race for lieutenant governor will see three names: Daniel J. Gasiorowski of Placerville; Scott Bedke, current Speaker of the Idaho House; and Rep. Priscilla Giddings of White Bird.

In Legislative District 1, incumbent Jim Woodward will face Scott Herndon in the Republican primary for the lone state Senate seat.

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No stopping growth and greed…

The longer I live with myself, the more secure I become in the pieces of my personality that I probably won’t ever be able to change. I am an intense and passionate person; I work and live at a fast pace; I take action, I react quickly and I prepare for the best and worst outcomes in everything I do.

The people who know me best would no doubt agree with each of these assertions. One way they’re definitely not going to describe me?

Good in a crisis.

I have a profound sense of admiration for and jealousy of people who can respond calmly to emergency situations. I am not one of those people.

This became clear yet again over the weekend while playing in a volleyball tournament. One of my little sisters dislocated her knee during competition. She hit the ground screaming in agony, I started yelling “no, no, no!” and I don’t remember much after that other than trying to breathe, trying not to puke and plenty more yelling. In short: I had a very loud and very public panic attack.

Everyone reacts differently in crisis situations, and I made a good example of what one side of that spectrum might look like.

Thankfully, my husband is supremely good in a crisis and quickly stepped in — along with several friends and community members — to remove me from the court and coach me out of my panic.

My sister will recover in time and life will go on — it already has. But damn, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t scary.

I share this experience to remind anyone else out there who is unequivocally and shamefully bad in a crisis that it takes all kinds. I may not be level-headed when push comes to shove, but the local EMTs were when they arrived to help my sister. A big thanks to them, and to everyone who showed us both compassion in that moment.

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Dear Editor, More kudos from another fed up local for Reader Publisher Ben Olson’s commentary about the current selling out of Sandpoint [Perspectives, “Short-term gains for long-term losses,” Feb. 24, 2022]. Hate to be a naysayer, but all the lamentations and sorrowful head shaking will not stop this cancer from spreading. You could devote the entire paper to writing endless editorials condemning the negative consequences of growth and greed, and it still wouldn’t change a damn thing. There is seemingly no end to the unchecked population growth, development and degrading quality of life, as deceased comedian Bill Hicks reflected on decades ago by stating “humanity is just a virus with shoes.”

The minority driven solely by money, power, and social rank can and always will ruin it for the rest of us, and they do not care about your future or that of your children, or the environment we live in. Shortterm gains for few, long-term losses for all.

The three-story monstrosity on Pine Street stuffed between century-old bungalows will continue to be built, along with the million-dollar condos and crackerbox tract housing filling up the beautiful landscape south of the Long Bridge with price tags of $800,000 per.

Evan Brown Sandpoint

‘Wheatfield under Thunderclouds’…

Dear editor, In the last weeks of his life, Vincent van Gogh completed a number of impressive paintings of the wheatfields around Auvers, France. This outspread field under a dark sky [“Wheatfield under Thunderclouds”] is one of them.

In these landscapes he tried to express “sadness, extreme loneliness.” But the overwhelming emotions that van Gogh experienced in nature were also positive. He wrote to his brother, Theo, “I’d almost believe that these canvases will tell you what I can’t say in words, what I consider healthy and fortifying about the countryside.”

The elongated format of “Wheatfield under Thunderclouds” is unusual. It emphasizes the grandeur of the landscape, as does the simple composition: two horizontal planes.

An oil reproduction of this painting is now on loan to a local coffee shop for patrons to enjoy.

They may appreciate it more knowing that the colors of the Ukraine flag represent the blue skies above wheatfields. Van Gogh’s 1890 painting captures Russian aggression (thunderclouds) sent by a man who hopefully will meet his end shortly via the same means he has silenced others.

Victor Kollock Sandpoint

PERSPECTIVES

Emily Articulated

A column by and about Millennials

Collateral damage

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist

The Idaho House of Representatives recently voted to approve legislation that would classify providing gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth within the state a felony, punishable by up to life in prison. This same criminalization would apply to transporting a child across state lines to receive the care that they, their family and their doctors may consider medically necessary.

This bill, HB ​​ 675, is a proposed addendum to Idaho’s ban on genital mutilation, claiming any medical intervention that results in the “impairment of reproductive organs and parts of a child is never necessary to the health of the child.”

It seeks to equate hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and gender-affirming treatments in minors to castration and female circumcision.

House Bill 675 has not been heard by the Senate State Affairs Committee and, according to a statement released March 15 by Idaho Senate Republicans, it won’t be. Despite the Senate Majority Caucus “strongly opposing any and all gender reassignment and surgical manipulation of the natural sex of minors” — procedures not actually being performed by physicians in Idaho — members stated that HB 675 “undermines parental rights and allows the government to

Emily Erickson.

interfere in parents’ medical decision-making authority for their children.”

Even though the bill almost certainly won’t be heard by the Senate, or passed into Idaho law, the consequences of such legislation remain very real for the children and families they seek to affect.

The push toward medical criminalization tracks alongside similar anti-abortion legislation recently approved by the Idaho House, allowing family members of “a preborn child” to sue the abortion provider for a reward of at least $20,000, plus legal fees. This anti-trans and anti-abortion overlap in legislation isn’t unique to Idaho–with similar bills moving through states like Texas and Missouri — each having roots in politicized ideology and being championed by powerful organizations and lobbyists alike.

These topics in tandem are gaining such political traction as they are clear winners for appealing to constituents with strong ideological, conserva-

tive beliefs. Dave Carney, a senior adviser on the reelection campaign for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, told Washington Post reporters he considers “the politics of the transgender youth issue a 75, 80 percent winner for Abbott.”

But as some politicians nationwide and in Idaho continue to weaponize ideological beliefs for re-election brownie points — simultaneously claiming to “protect current and future generations” — real children and families end up in the crosshairs, facing serious mental, emotional, and social repercussions. They become political collateral damage.

According to a poll by The Trevor Project, an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth, 85% of transgender or gender non-binary youth say their mental health has been negatively affected by legislative attacks on transgender rights.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign reported, “2021 and 2020 as the deadliest and second deadliest years on record for trans and gender non-conforming people respectively.”

Using legislation to target an already marginalized community, and seeking to criminalize their options for care, only isolates children and families, exacerbating the stigma that can be attached to gender nonconformity. It aims to remove or reduce resources and options for children and families navigating a situation that requires support, education, nuance, and sometimes,

medical intervention — intervention proven to lower the odds of moderate to severe depression and suicidality in trans and non-binary youth.

Idaho House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, described the wider impacts of such legislation, stating that HB 675 has done “substantial damage … just by virtue of it having been brought this far.” She contin-

ued, “I’m hearing from a lot of families with transgender kids who are traumatized by this … I think even when they don’t become law, these bills do deep, deep damage.”

For resources, information, and tools to support transgender and non-binary youth and their families, and avenues for getting involved, visit The Trevor Project, at thetrevorproject.org.

Retroactive

By BO

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Mad about Science:

Brought to you by:

paper

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist This is an article about the very thing you’re holding in your hands right now (unless you’re reading this online). Regardless, how meta is that?

We often take for granted the novelty of paper as an invention.

It is designed to store a coded copy of the thoughts of a human mind for thousands of years while remaining lightweight and portable, yet something as trivial as a pinch of your fingers could easily destroy it.

The earliest known form of paper is papyrus, which was used in Egypt as early as the 4th century BCE. Papyrus paper was made from tissue of the papyrus plant’s stem called the pith. Early paper wasn’t layered in sheets like modern books, but instead rolled up into scrolls. This is actually the origin of the term “scrolling through your phone.”

It’s worth noting that just because the earliest example of paper dates from this era does not mean that paper didn’t exist before then. Due to the fragility of the material — and the suboptimal conditions in which it was likely kept during these periods of history — paper from before this time probably didn’t survive.

This makes pinpointing an exact date for the invention difficult (if not impossible), much like other developments from antiquity like pottery and the wheel.

Papyrus was the nearest approximation to modern paper the western world would see for centuries. China developed a form of papermaking more closely related to contemporary paper, in which a number of fibrous plants were soaked and beaten into a pulp before being pressed together into a sheet. The process of creating 10 /

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paper was a closely guarded secret for centuries, until sometime during the 500s, when Buddhist monks in Japan replicated the process. Not long after, this form of papermaking began appearing throughout the Middle East and India as well.

It wasn’t until the 1600s that much of Europe began favoring paper made from plant fibers.

Virtually all surviving medieval manuscripts from Europe were written on parchment, which is actually very thin animal hide treated with chemicals to hold ink.

The Declaration of Independence and the U.S Constitution are both written on parchment, likely from a calf or goat.

The methods of paper creation haven’t changed that much in nearly two millennia, though the process has scaled up. Most of the process is now automated and designed to produce huge rolls of paper that are then cut into individual sheets. While the amount of paper that a manufacturer may have produced 1,400 years ago was likely a page or a large scroll, modern machines are designed to churn out giant rolls weighing 30,000 pounds or more.

How many materials would be required to make a single roll of paper that large? You’d have to ask someone who works for a paper mill, because I couldn’t find that math anywhere.

The current process starts with the felling of a tree. Most modern paper is made from fibrous conifers like pines, firs and larches. The logs are thrown into a drum-like machine that tears the bark from the wood, then sends the bark away to be used somewhere else for things like bags of mulch or compost.

The logs are then fed through a chipper that dumps literal tons of chips into massive piles that are then put into a vat to be chem-

ically treated and turned into pulp.

Pulp is like proto-paper. This is a mass of lignin, the organic polymer that gives trees their woody texture. Lignin is a core part of what makes paper hold its form, as the chemical bath during pulping removes organic impurities and water from the lignin.

After the chemical bath, the pulp is squirted into the first section of the papermaking machine — a mechanical beast that can be as long as nearly 400 feet in some factories. The pulp is squeezed between sets of huge stone rollers that spread and flatten the fibers into sheets. This is usually done several times before the paper sheet is put through a series of drying processes.

The drying process varies from mill to mill, though some employ a form of suction that pulls the water from the paper while others use a heated air treatment. In most cases, up to 90% of the water used and expended by the papermaking process is re-used in earlier stages.

Paper is bleached to get crisp, white paper that sharply contrasts black ink. This generally isn’t performed on newsprint, which is why you’ll notice some discoloration in newspapers. Office paper and paper destined for books is bleached with oxygen and hydrogen peroxide solutions to selectively whiten pigments without compromising the structural integrity of the paper.

After the bleaching process, the paper is ready to be cut into uniform sheets. Common practice at mills is to divide one large roll into multiple sizes depending on the customer’s demand, while wasting virtually zero of the paper in the process.

Based on their customer’s needs, staff at the mill will run some calculations through a simple algorithm to divide the sheet

up almost perfectly. A standard 8.5-inch-by-11-inch sheet of paper is often cut from the same roll as an 11-inch-by-17-inch sheet.

Sheets are divided and bundled together to be shipped to their customers. Most paper is eventually recycled, and ends up coming back to the mill to undergo the cycle all over again, mixed with other used paper to reconstitute its integrity.

Specialty papers like photo

paper are coated in chemicals to help them better retain colors with less ink bleed and also provide a glossy surface, but otherwise the process is virtually identical.

This is true of paper destined to become cardboard, wax paper and tissue paper as well.

Curious about how the words get into the paper from there? I guess you’ll just have to recycle this issue and grab another one next week.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner tra?

Don’t know much about cleopa ​​• The name “Cleopatra” (meaning “glory of the father”) was a popular name for female royalty during the period of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. There were seven Cleopatras but the last among them, Cleopatra VII, remains the most famous thanks to her romantic relationships with Roman Emperor Julius Caesar and his lieutenant Mark Antony.

• Sibling marriages were common among royal families in the Ptolemaic Kingdom at the time of Cleopatra VII’s life. As such, she married her brother Ptolemy XIII when he was 12 years old and she was 18. Due to this prevalent inbreeding, Cleopatra only had two pairs of great-grandparents. One of those pairs was the son and daughter of the other. Gross.

• The Great Pyramids of Giza were already about 2,500 years old when Cleopatra ruled Egypt. That means we are currently living closer to Cleopatra’s time than she was to the era when the pyramids were built. The pyramids were already a big tourist attraction during her reign, as were the Valley of the Kings and the Talking Colossi

We can help!

of Memnon. The tourist industry in Egypt back then was thriving enough to support tour guides and package tours up the Nile River.

• Cleopatra is often depicted with bangs in modern movies, but this is Hollywood fabrication.

Her most iconic hairstyle from an archeological and historical perspective is known as the “melon coiffure,” which derives its name from its appearance, as braids or rows of hair that are pulled back from the forehead into a bun that resembles the ridges on a melon’s rind. In statuary and coin portraits of the queen, she also has corkscrew curls behind or in front of the ears.

• Historian Dr. Bettany Hughes dispels the myth that Cleopatra was a beautiful woman: “Cleopatra was a poet and a philosopher. She was incredibly good at math and she wasn’t that much of a looker. But when we think of her, we only think of a big-breasted seductress bathing in milk.” She was also a skilled politician and diplomat, fluent in multiple languages and the first Ptolemaic ruler who could speak Egyptian.

PERSPECTIVES

Wolves in trouble

By Jane Fritz Reader Contributor

A friend and I hiked up along Johnson Creek in Clark Fork last month, popular for winter recreation, only to find ourselves on the heels of a young family from Washington whose large dog stepped into a wolf trap set too close to the trail, according to the first Idaho Fish and Game officer we met. Or it could have been a legally placed leg-hold trap to catch a bobcat that wounded a deer, as reported by the other officer. At least it was good to know that the bloody tracks in the snow were from leaping prey, the natural order of things, and not from the family’s dog. The somewhat traumatized mom was grateful, as well, that her two little kids were safe.

Chip Corsi, IDFG regional director in Coeur d’Alene, says lawful trapping doesn’t present a threat to public safety. Even so, the trapper was asked to remove the trap because of the disturbance. Traps are legal when set only 10 feet from the edge of any trail or unpaved road.

The reality is that dogs are increasingly being caught in traps set for large carnivores, primarily wolves, in North Idaho (see Jen Quintano’s, “LumberJill” column in the March 10 Reader).

The Idaho Legislature’s “no holds barred” hunting and trapping directives in 2021 and a year round wolf season is to blame. Corsi admitted that trappers “are getting sideways with recreationists” because it’s a far more effective way to kill wolves than hunting. But family pets are not the only collateral damage — an imperiled lynx or wolverine could be caught.

Corsi couldn’t tell me how many wolf hunters are out there in this July 1, 2021-June 30, ’22 “season,” because wolf permits were automatically issued to any big, or small, game hunter who purchased what’s known as a Sportsman Pack for deer, elk, turkey and so on. Still, wolves are not an easy animal to kill.

They can hear up to 10 miles away. But it’s important to know that IDFG has been directed to eliminate 1,350 of the estimated 1,500 wolves in the state, just 150 wolves shy of what would put them back on the federal Endangered Species List.

This isn’t conservation, it’s going backwards in both science and sanity.

Wolves were eliminated in Idaho 100 years ago like everywhere else in the West. But, like in Yellowstone National Park, they were reintroduced to our state in 1995 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after several years of planning and contentious debate.

Beginning in 1990, I followed the Nez Perce Tribe’s interest in reintroduction for cultural and ecological reasons. Tribal leaders were hopeful for the return of the wolf, considered to be a close relative and important

to them spiritually. Despite providing core habitat, Idaho wanted nothing to do with wolf management, so the Nez Perce Tribe stepped up to help restore this essential predator to Idaho’s wild lands. Respect for coexistence with wolves led to impressive population growth.

But in 2008, IDFG took over management, and it did not bode well for wolves. Their numbers declined. Then in 2011, a rider in an omnibus budget bill removed them from Endangered Species protection in Idaho, as well as in Montana and Wyoming. Since then thousands of Idaho’s wolves have been killed by trappers, hunters and state-hired USDA Wildlife Services sharpshooters from aircraft.

Professional hunters have killed entire packs in Wilderness areas to boost elk populations.

Since 2017, an average of 472 wolves have been killed yearly — more than a third of the yearly population — and 170 in the panhandle.

But Corsi says that despite drastic changes, there’s been no appreciable increase in wolf harvest compared to prior years — 250 wolves statewide and 50 in our region since July. But the mandate stands: to kill up to 90%.

Sadly this hatred of an entire species is also part of Montana’s modus operandi, and it’s decimating Yellowstone’s protected population of gray wolves. A handful of Idaho and Montana hunters have killed 20% of Yellowstone’s wolves this winter, due to a lack of cooperation with park managers and removal of safe zones whenever the animals step outside park boundaries only 3% of the time. A wolf, acclimated

Yellowstone #1234M, killed the end of January 2022 by a Montana hunter as it walked out of the park to breed with a female, also killed by a Montana hunter.

Photo by Julie Argyle, Wild Love Images. to millions of visitors with cameras or spotting scopes, can’t discern a human with a rifle aimed to kill.

The Phantom Lake Pack is gone. The Bechler Pack on the Idaho side is extremely vulnerable. Rogue states and selfish hunters are taking wolves back to the era of eradication, undoing 25 remarkable years of creating an intact ecosystem and the best wolf science in the world.

It’s now up to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and new USFW Director Martha Williams to put wolves in the Northern Rockies back on the Endangered Species List. But it will take every nature-loving voice to make it happen.

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COMMUNITY

Litehouse YMCA to host town hall in April

By Reader Staff The Litehouse YMCA will host a community presentation open to all community members, Monday, April 11, at Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran church, 1900 Pine St., from 5:30-7:15 p.m. YMCA CEO Alan Lesher and Vice President of Operations Christine Brischle will offer presentations on the mission and vision of the YMCA as well as share the long-term goals for the Litehouse Y. The Litehouse YMCA at 1905 Pine St. will be open and the public is invited to visit after the meeting.

The event will include opening remarks, an overview video presentation of the YMCA of the Inland Northwest, a summary of community conversations to-date, a presentation on how the Y came to Sandpoint and the years of preparation by the community it took to make The Litehouse Y a reality.

Attendees at the town hall will also be asked to join in supporting the organization’s charitable mission to create local programs and services, and invited to participate in a question-and answer session.

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“What programs are offered and how the YMCA fits into each community depends on community conversations, such as the town hall and other meetings, to learn about needs and desired programs,” stated Litehouse YMCA Branch Executive Heidi Bohall.

“Each community is unique and I look forward to expanding programs at the Litehouse YMCA to enrich lives — from little ones to seniors and everyone in between.”

The YMCA of the Inland Northwest is a nonprofit “committed to strengthening the Sandpoint community by connecting all people to their potential, purpose and each other,” the organization stated. “The goal of the Litehouse Y is to be more than just a place to work out. We want to provide opportunities to connect with new people, develop new skills and explore new interests, so everyone can grow in spirit, mind and body.”

The nonprofit operates the Litehouse YMCA in Sandpoint as well as four branches in the Spokane area.

For more information on Litehouse YMCA or YMCA programs visit ymcainw. org.

Applications available for CAL scholarships

By Reader Staff The Community Assistance League is now accepting applications for scholarships to Bonner County graduating high school seniors, including home school, private and public school students.

CAL also offers scholarships to those who received support from the organization in 2021, as well as students who have delayed their education a year or more.

Applications are available to be downloaded from the Sandpoint High School website under the Counseling Center’s page. Click “Senior Scholarships,” “Local Scholarships,” then “Community Assistance

League.”

The deadline for submitting applications is 9 a.m., Monday, April 11. Students should drop off finished applications at their high school’s counseling center, or mail applications to CAL Scholarships, P.O. Box 1361, Sandpoint, or drop them off at CAL’s Bizarre Bazaar store (502 Church St.) by 3 p.m. on Friday, April 8. Applicants should be certain that their forms are complete, including the correct CAL cover form for their category.

For more information, contact Heather Hellier at 208-255-7094 or email heather@ barherbome.com.

PERSPECTIVES

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

Right: A photo of Lake Pend Oreille on a sunny winter day, looking east toward the Cabinet Mountains. Photo by Meeka Bond.

Top left: “A wild and wet week,” wrote Marlene Rorke, who submitted this photo.

Bottom left: A view while crossing over the railroad tracks at Syringa Heights Road just east of Dover. Photo by Joseph Leonti.

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COMMUNITY

Heart Ball raises $200K+ for BGH trauma radiology

By Reader Staff The annual Heart Ball fundraiser for the Bonner General Health Foundation broke another record, pulling in $235,000 to support trauma radiology.

Foundation member and Heart Ball Chair Georgia Simmons applauded “our incredible supporters” for digging deep for the virtual fundraiser, which took place Feb. 12, and despite uncertain economic times.

Proceeds will fund a state-of-the-art X-ray machine designed specifically for trauma patients, while a separate grant will be used to construct the additional radiology room that will house the new piece of equipment.

The volume of CT scans at Bonner General Health has increased by 73% during the past seven years, even as X-ray volume has increased by 50%, sometimes resulting in delays during trauma situations. Imaging for time-sen-

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sitive emergencies, which include stroke, heart attack, and trauma, has grown by 30% since 2018, according to the hospital.

“Expediting a diagnosis is essential in determining where to send patients within the windows where lifesaving intervention can produce positive outcomes,” stated Erin Binnall, director of marketing and community development for both Bonner General Health and Bonner General Health Foundation.

According to BGH Diagnostic Imaging Director Daniel Holland, the trauma radiology room will be operational later this year, with planning, engineering and permitting estimated to take between 90 and 120 days.

“The earliest would be September and probably more realistically either October or November for completion, given the inevitability of delays along the way,” Holland said.

The Bonner General Health Foundation has played an integral part in

allowing Sandpoint’s nonprofit hospital to expand its services. Since the Foundation was revived in 2007, it has raised more than $1 million — the majority in the past few years.

For more information visit bonnergeneral.org/foundation or contact Erin Binnall or Molly Behrens at 208-265-1005.

The BGH Foundation Board presents a check to the BGH Radiology Department for $235,000 to purchase an X-ray machine specific to trauma patients.

Courtesy photo.

FOOD

Comparing apples to apples

Which fruit will rule them all?

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

every other damn apple on this list. Life’s too short to waste on such pageantry.

Funny things happen to a person when they turn 40. They start amassing crock pot recipes and have flannel shirts older (and sometimes more cherished) than most of their friends. Instead of talking about punk bands or radical politics at the bar, they discuss true crime documentaries and where to invest their Roth IRAs. That is if you can even get them to a bar, because life at home seems more enticing as you look back at your 30s in the rearview.

Having suffered from Peter Pan syndrome for most of my adult life, the thought of getting old has always scared the crap out of me. I don’t want to be stuck in a body that gives up on me.

In that spirit, I’ve attempted to reduce a few things from my diet: chips, fries, pasta, baked goods and that dreaded serpent god sugar, which has such a stranglehold on many of us. The only sugar I’m allowing myself for the time being comes from fruit alone — mostly apples.

Like a junkie in search of a fix, I have jumped head first into a completely unscientific study of apples. I must eat two a day to curb the insatiable call of the sugar gods, often trying different varieties to spice things up a bit. I never realized there were so many different varieties — more than 2,500 in the U.S. alone, and closer to 75,000 worldwide.

Never before have I held such an intimate and meaningful relationship with this most humble of fruits. In that spirit, I offer this list of what I consider the best varieties of apples, and some real stinkers. May it serve you well in your own quest for the golden fruit.

Braeburn Like Hobbits, and many of the apples in this exhaustively accurate list, Braeburns hail from New Zealand. They are distant cousins of one of the oldest varieties — Lady Hamilton — and one of the sourest — Granny Smith. Born with a chip on their shoulder, the rough-and-ready Braeburns struck out to forge their own way in life without such fanciful lineage weighing them down. Like a jockey falling flat on his face right at the starting gate, they failed. These thin-skinned buggers are quoted to boast “textbook apple flavor” by one reviewer. That same reviewer also noted that the tap water he was drinking was “wet” and “liquidy.” There are supposedly faint notes of nutmeg and cinnamon in Braeburns, but all I detect is bland apple, second cousin to crab apple. When I bite into a Braeburn, it’s like hitting a tennis ball against a wall. It’s fun, sure, but do you even want to play tennis? It’s like 40 degrees out there right now.

The Good

Cosmic Crisp Hands down my favorite apple of 2022.

Cosmic Crisps are big and round, with a mottled red skin like Honeycrisp. They have a firm flesh that is as crisp as you can get in an apple, but not as sweet as the Honeycrisps, more flavorful than a Fuji. Instead, there’s a sour note that makes me think a little Granny Smith might have leaked into the gene pool. Excellent raw with a schmear of peanut butter.

Fuji The workhorse of the red apple line.

Firm and sweet, with white flesh and a crisp bite, Fujis also hold up well when shoved into a hiking pack and trekked seven miles into the mountains (nothing, and I mean nothing tastes as good as a cold Fuji apple

The Ugly

beside an alpine lake after a long hike).

Like Tom Waits in the 1980s, Fuji apples are huge in Japan. They were introduced to the U.S. just 40 years ago, but now there are more produced here than in Japan. They also have a long shelf life, staying dense and fresh for extended periods of time.

Some whisper legends that Fujis are the sweetest of all apple varieties.

Granny Smith I prefer red wine to white wine, and red apples to green ones, but there will always be a special place in my heart for Granny Smith.

The real Granny Smith was named Maria Ann Smith, who discovered these neon green and tart-as-can-be apples growing on her property in Australia in 1868 in a place where she often tossed French crab apples. They have a firm, juicy texture with a lemony tang that could induce drooling from your sour face. Excellent for baking, they also pack a great crunch when dehydrated. The skin is kind of waxy sometimes, but who’s perfect?

Opal The new kid in the apple market, Opals have quickly risen to fame in the produce aisle. They take after a Golden Delicious, which is one of its parents, the other being Topaz. Sweet and sharp, Opals are floral, with a hard flesh like tight-grained wood. Their pale skin has freckles like someone who forgot to apply the SPF-55. They are cultivated only in Washington, where one grower controls the entire U.S. market (capitalism!). Opals are best eaten raw or, if you’re a psychopath, while you’re standing in the shower.

Jazz Another youthful upstart like the Opal taking on the apple variety hegemony is Jazz. This tough little hepcat was first cultivated in New Zealand, but now considers itself a world traveler. Extra crisp, with notes

The Cosmic Crisp apple wins this round. Courtesy photo. of exotic pear, they have a buttery yellow flesh that makes you feel like you’re eating one of the characters from the Simpson’s.

Probably Ned Flanders. If you can eat a Jazz apple while playing jazz trumpet at the same time, you win-diddly-in.

The Bad

Gala I wouldn’t say Gala apples are bad. Eating dung is bad. Gala apples are better than eating dung. Hailing from New Zealand, Galas are a cross between a Kidd’s Orange Red and a Golden Delicious for those of you up on your apple husbandry. They are pleasant to look at, with pink-orange stripes over a gold base, but as my granddaddy used to say, “You don’t et an apple with your eyeballs.” OK, neither one of my grandfathers ever said that, but they could have. Biting through a Gala’s thin skin, the flesh leaves you with a dull, uninspired feeling, like many other things in life. However, like many other things in life, Gala’s are improved with peanut butter.

Pink Lady This dowdy little tart seems to have more invested in its fancy name than in its flavor. Pink Lady is the brand name for the Cripps Pink variety of apples grown under a specific license, dictating a rigid sugar-to-acid ratio. Those that don’t qualify are sold as Cripps rather than Pink Lady apples. (Side note: Why didn’t they name Pink Lady apples Bloods? Then you would have gang warfare between the Cripps and Bloods apples, battling for who has the best sugar-to-acid ratio. Someone missed a golden opportunity. A Golden Delicious opportunity). Besides its dandy name, Pink Lady apples are firm and crunchy, but so are

Red Delicious Once known as the Hawkeye, the Red Delicious is a fallen heir to a once powerful apple throne. Like English royalty and the entire population of the Deep South, the Red Delicious has suffered from generations of inbreeding. The goal was to achieve longer shelf life and greater cosmetic appeal (translation: sexy apples that could stay hard longer). The result is that most of the flavor has been cultivated out of this once noble fruit, leaving behind a cliché of an apple trying to live up to its pretentious name. It now has a skin thick as a toad’s arse and an unsatisfying crumbly texture when bitten into.

“They must be good for baking, though, right?” Think again, partner. Put a little heat on this malaka and it’ll mush up like baby food faster than you can say Johnny Appleseed. Worst apple ever.

(Fun fact: Johnny Appleseed was most likely based on a real person named John Chapman, a strange old man who gathered leftover seeds from the German cider mills south of his cabin on Grant’s Hill in Pittsburgh and sold or bartered them for cash, but sometimes only got a few dirty shirts or a hat in exchange. As a result, Chapman wore eccentric attire consisting of a tin can hat, coffee sack cloak and tramped about barefoot to sell his apple seeds to pioneers trying to settle the American West. He died of pneumonia. Go figure.)

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FEATURE

RetroAspenization Reader defined Art by Zach Hagadone.

By Zach Hagadone Reporting by Ben Olson Reader Staff “I’m talking about Aspen, where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano.”

— Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber SANDPOINT, Idaho, 866 miles from Aspen — When Sandpoint’s first village trustees petitioned to form a city in 1906 their community’s current standing as a nationally-ranked vacation paradise would’ve been a pipe dream. At that time the town’s reputation couldn’t have been further from inviting.

“In this wretched hole, one of the ‘tough’ towns in the tough territory of Idaho, where shooting scrapes and ‘hanging bees’ were common events ... It was that the monthly [railroad] paycar had passed through Sandpoint ... and hence all the male population in the place ... were ‘filling up’ as fast as the six whiskey dens in the place could bring about that happy end,” wrote W.A. Baillie-Grohman, a frequent visitor in the late-1800s.

Sandpoint’s nooses were as busy as its saloons.

“I knew Sandpoint — known also as Hangtown — could hold its own for depravity,” he continued.

As many as six men were hanged at one time, early resident Maj. Fred. B. Reed told one of the town’s newspapers in 1964.

Brothels, opium dens, muddy streets and rickety wooden sidewalks were home to trappers, loggers, Chinese rail workers and the last vestiges of the area’s Native American population.

Early accounts relate the classic image of an old west lumber town filled with all manner of dangerous and hard-working characters — people desperate, brave or stupid enough to scratch out an existence in 16 /

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Editor’s note This story was written under extreme duress and published in the March 3, 2005 edition of the Sandpoint Reader and is being republished with minimal editing 17 years later to illustrate how much — and in some ways how little — has changed in Sandpoint.

Certain passages read as if they were written this week, others feel like desperate warnings that went unheeded, while still others come off as dark prophecies that, unfortunately, have come true.

The story behind this story is also worth retelling, as it has become somewhat legendary around the Reader office.

Soon after Vol. 1 No. 1 hit the streets, Ben hit the road for three weeks on an unrelated job traveling through Colorado. During his travels, he scribbled notes, interviewed locals, and filled cocktail napkins and notebook

pages with outlines and draft paragraphs for what would become this piece.

He was supposed to write the article and email it to me no later than Feb. 28, providing enough time for editing and layout in the March 3 paper. Despite phone calls and emails full of assurances, the draft didn’t show up on Feb. 28. Nor did it materialize on March 1.

We’d cleared almost three pages in the then-16-page paper to make way for the piece and didn’t have anything to take its place. I had faith, though.

Finally, sometime in the early evening on Wednesday, March 2 — with the paper due to the press in about 12 hours — Ben burst through the door at our old office and dumped a manila folder on my desk stuffed two inches deep with everything he’d compiled over the course of his time on the

road. It looked like the diary of Dostoevsky’s Underground Man — everything, including the margins of travel brochures, covered in his chicken scratch and organized in no order whatsoever.

“I can’t do it, man, I’m too close to it,” he said, throwing up his hands. “I’m going to the bar.”

I worked with his mountain of crazed notes until about 4 a.m., whipping it into something that resembled a structure, then wrote it in a blind panic right up to our 7 a.m. presstime.

That’s how this ended up being a piece written by Zach Hagadone with reporting by Ben Olson, both aged 24 at the time. I guess you could say we make a pretty good team.

one of the most remote and violent frontier towns in America.

As the town’s rough and rowdy exterior vanished, so too did the wild characters and seemingly limitless freedom — to be young in Sandpoint in those days was to live in an old west fantasy.

It’s only been a little over 100 years since those lawless “Hangtown” days, but things couldn’t be more different.

Where area kids once flooded the streets to form ice skating rinks, tickets are issued for parking further than 18 inches from the curb. Where drunken lumberjacks once fought over Sandpoint’s ample population of “Fallen Doves,” tourists now leisurely stroll with shopping bags and cameras.

For many, it’s the lingering death of “Old Sandpoint” and the birth of a new, supercharged community — flush with money and eager for growth.

This “New Sandpoint” has been typified in national articles as the “best small town in the West,” one of the nation’s top 20 “dream towns” and top 10 “great adventure towns.” It’s been described as “a Norman

Rockwell-meets-Ansel-Adams classic ... [with] outdoor restaurant decks filled with tourists schmoozing over huckleberry daiquiris and appetizers of ancho chili and espresso-encrusted tuna.”

This transition has been difficult for some of the area’s longtime residents. They remember the low cost of living, the untarnished natural beauty, the raw freedom.

Sandpoint’s glowing accolades have meant big money for realtors and developers, but they’ve also meant big property tax increases and skyrocketing prices.

Development and Progress have been hot on everyone’s lips for over a decade now, and in the past year words like “Discovery” and “Aspenization” have gained currency. No one doubts Sandpoint’s future as a superpower resort town; the controversy is how and even if we should manage it.

First, though, we need to figure out what “Aspenization” even means.

terminal illness.

At its base, it’s the process by which a small town possessed of natural beauty is discovered and transformed into a mega-rich resort community. Often the locals suffer from high prices that force them from their homes.

These communities are supported not by long-term local investment, but by a constant stream of seasonal and short-term cash. Their workforces commute from other towns and only the extremely wealthy can afford to inhabit their neighborhoods.

It calls to mind places like Lake Tahoe in California, Park City and Moab in Utah, and Durango in Colorado.

Aspen, of course, is the granddaddy of them all — with world-class skiing, worldclass arts and entertainment and a worldclass reputation to justify its world-class prices, Aspen’s not only a city but a symbol of the ideal vacation wonderland.

Looking straight at Aspen, however, wouldn’t tell us much. That’s why Sandpoint Reader contributor Ben Olson took a three-week trek over 5,000 miles and

Stairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell?

Depending on who’s providing the definition, Aspenization is either a boon or a

— Zach Hagadone

< see ASPEN, Page 17 >

< ASPEN, Con’t from Page 16 > through some of the most “Aspenized” towns in the West.

In Durango, he found a community at once embracing growth, and fighting toothand-nail against it.

The ‘Aspenized’ DURANGO, Colo., 141 miles from Aspen — Located at the convergence of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, Durango is nestled in the Animas River Valley where the Rocky Mountains dip toward the deserts of the southwest.

Surrounded by 2 million acres of the San Juan National Forest, Durango’s setting is replete with towering mountains lush with pine and aspen. Lakes and streams accent the area’s famous vistas — taken in by thousands each year atop nearby Durango Mountain ski resort.

It is a nationally-recognized vacation destination for skiers, hikers, bikers, boaters and mountain climbers.

Like Sandpoint, Durango is a relatively small city. The 2000 U.S. Census report puts its population somewhere around 14,000 residents. Also like Sandpoint, it is a county seat — providing the political, commercial and cultural hub for La Plata County.

Unlike Sandpoint, Durango’s main economic player is still one of the extractive industries.

Various energy firms have been drilling for natural gas in the area for decades.

Currently the two biggest drivers in La Plata County’s economy are construction/ tourism and energy. According to Durango City Council President Bobby Leib, nearly 45% of the county’s tax income comes from natural gas drilling — a resource that is expected to dry up within 30 years.

As the community braces for an eventual downturn, it’s increasingly sought tourism as an offset.

The town has met with phenomenal success.

Durango’s chamber of commerce is quick to point out the community’s commitment to preserving historic districts and playing host to a wide variety of art galleries and specialty boutiques.

According to city leaders, Durango’s success has been due to its laid-back style. “[We] offer so many amenities while maintaining our Western hospitality, which encourages a casual atmosphere — even in the finest establishments,” said Leib.

In many ways, Durango serves as a possible vision of Sandpoint’s future — an older cousin possessed of the same strengths and subject to the same pitfalls.

A constant cause of controversy in both Sandpoint and Durango has been the impact of second-home buyers.

Leib said making room for newcomers while ensuring long term security for locals cuts to the core of Aspenization.

“Aspenization is probably the biggest

fear factor ... people are more afraid of that word than anything else in this town. Durango is not a resort town, it’s always prided itself in being a mountain town,” he said.

A major wake-up came with a study of the five counties in Colorado’s southwestern Region Nine performed in the past decade.

Its results showed a shocking 33% of La Plata County’s homeowners were out-ofcounty residents — of that, one-quarter were from out-of-state.

Ed Moreland, an official with the Region Nine Economic Development District, and other area planners said that situation drove home prices through the roof (median price: $319,000) — forcing locals out of town and creating a commuter workforce.

“They [Region Nine officials] believed that 33% of their residents are not full-time residents, and how it is really affecting housing prices, and how the economy is based on building these mansions, is this sustainable? The workers come in and can’t afford to live there,” said Laura Lewis, a coordinator with Operation Healthy Communities — a nonprofit group started in 1992.

“In the last five years, the housing prices have risen so much that it’s wiping out the ‘affordable home.’ They’re building these homes which raises the sale prices on everyone else. It’s great for the seller and bad for the buyer,” she continued. “We’re also seeing when those homes go on the market and the second home owner sells it, they’re out of the price range of someone local, so they’re basically just selling to non-locals who can afford them.”

The study also found that “locals” — the workers and middle-class residents usually shopped outside their county.

“They go to the Walmarts and big box stores, and the people that are part-timers actually support the economy more by shopping locally,” Lewis said.

That paradox hasn’t been lost on Leib.

“Walmart showed interest in Pagosa Springs [about 46 miles to the east]; the community responded with a moratorium on box stores,” he said.

Durango city leaders took a page from Pagosa Springs and introduced a proposed moratorium on planned unit developments.

“It was defeated,” Leib said. “But the interesting part is, the people who supported the initiative were the retirees, the amenity migrants who are building million-dollar homes.

“They [second-home buyers] don’t rely on a source of income that’s local to them.

They’ve either built their nest egg or they have investments outside of the community.

They don’t rely on the local economy. They’re here to play, they left L.A. or Dallas or wherever to get rid of the urban environment so they have an innate fear that Durango will develop into another L.A.,” he continued.

Despite newcomers’ efforts to limit strip-mall style commercial development, Leib and others worry that stresses on the housing market might create larger, more

long-term problems. town and also pressures to move towards a “They are disgruntled by the way Duran- complete Aspenization. ... There’s a strong go is changing. ... There’s a rate of change, desire to stay a ‘real town.’” usually more than 3%, that becomes too “It is happening,” Lewis agreed. “What much for some people,” he said. “But you we’re seeing is that people can’t afford to have investors and speculators hedging on live in Durango anymore — they’re moving that growth. Then the fear becomes ‘are we to Bayfield [12 miles west of Durango. being overbuilt by these speculators?’

Median home price: $170,000].

“Who are they building these homes for?

“That’s really growing into the commuThe builders know that the strong market is nity that Durango used to be. Nobody seems in these second homes, they know the deto know how to deal with it,” she said. mand is for them,” he continued. “Because of the strength of the real estate market, In the Belly of the Beast land goes up with it. Each year, the low-end ASPEN, Colo. - Appellations like “one price range just keeps going up.” of the finest winter destinations in the Moreland world” and “where had a more luxury is defined” are stark view. almost worn thread“That’s the funny irony — the people “That’s the in Aspen, the that are coming here, the second-home bare funny irony seat of Pitkin County.

— the people Like Sandpoint, owners, amenity migrants, are attractthat are comhowever, it began ed to the ‘real town’ environment, but its life as a rowdy ing here, the second-home resource-driven boom they are actually the ones depleting owners, amentown — and roughly the social fabric of the town.” ity migrants, at the same time. are attracted to The first perma— Ed Moreland the ‘real town’ nent white settlers to Region Nine Economic Development the community on the environment, but they are banks of the RoarDistrict, Durango, Colo. actually the ing Fork River were ones depleting prospectors from the social fabric of the town,” he said.

Leadville, Colo., in 1879.

In response to these concerns, planners Silver was discovered there and by 1892 and city leaders embarked on a pair of inno- more than 12,000 people flourished off the vative solutions. $9 million in silver bullion pulled from its Operation Healthy Communities, which surrounding slopes.

One year later, silver prices plummeted aims at finding a way to sustain growth and the mines closed — throwing thousands while providing necessary services for out of work. A brief attempt was made by long-term residents, and an “inclusionary the Populist Party — spearheaded by Aspen housing” initiative that establishes a minimum amount of affordable housing for each newspaperman and Colorado Gov. Davis new high-end development. These measures H. White — to enforce silver as the state’s official currency. The movement failed and were meant to provide a framework to residents began fleeing. develop a vision for the community.

By 1930 only 705 residents remained “Usually when you think of a commuin the Red Fork Valley between Red nity, their economy is No. 1. What we’re Mountain, Smuggler Mountain and Aspen trying to do is change that mind frame — the most important thing is the environment Mountain.

It wasn’t until the 1950s that the area’s and the economy should be a small piece of fine snow and spectacular surroundings each community,” Lewis said. “Restructurwere discovered, and it took nearly 20 years ing of the environment is coming first with for Aspen to gain its reputation as a flagship the economy as a small part of that. So, whenever we were thinking about economic resort town.

Enter: Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke — issues — jobs, housing, etc. — we automattwo urban refugees who saw in Aspen the ically thought of how it would affect the opportunity to mold a city based on physical environment first.

“When money comes into the community, activity, art, music and the humanities.

The pair settled in the valley in the how many times does it cycle in town before 1950s where Elizabeth formed the “Aspen it leaves? So our sustainable resources keep Institute” — an organization dedicated to money in town. Money from real estate and guiding the psychological and environmenconstruction is not, because they come here, tal development of Aspen. build a house, then leave,” she continued.

This holistic philosophy has come to be Despite these efforts, however, Lewis, known as the “Aspen Idea,” nothing short Leib and Moreland all agreed Aspenization of a utopian vision of “the complete person is still happening in Durango. living in a community that nourished the “The community has battled with it for mind, body and spirit of its citizens,” as the a long time,” Moreland said. “There are pressures to remain a complete blue-collar < see ASPEN, Page 19 > March 17, 2022 /

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events March 17-24, 2021

THURSDAY, march 17

Live Music w/ Maya Goldblum and Alex Cope 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Bluegrass, folk and Celtic-inspired music Live Music w/ Brendan Kelty & Friends 6:30pm @ Mickduff’s Beer Hall

FriDAY, march 18

Live Music w/ Two Rivers Jazz 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Contemporary and well-known jazz standards

St. Paddy’s Slam cornhole 12pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Spring Sandbagger Open Day 1 Live Music w/ Brian Jacobs 7-9pm @ the Back Door

Live Music w/ Miah Kohal Band 6:30pm @ Mickduff’s Beer Hall

SATURDAY, march 19

Live Music w/ Turn Spit Dogs 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Live Music w/ Maya & Joe 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Live Music w/ CobraJet 8pm @ Sandpoint Eagles Night of hard rock featuring Rapid Lightning and Torn Open

Fly Fishing Fim Tour 7pm @ Panida Theater Doors open at 5:30pm. Fundraiser for Panhandle Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Tickets at North 40 and panida.org.

Live Music w/ The Other White Meat 6:30pm @ Mickduff’s Beer Hall St. Paddy’s Slam cornhole 12pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Spring Sandbagger Open Day 2

Live Music w/ Kenny James Miller Band 9pm @ 219 Lounge Rhythm, rock n’ blues, no cover

Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin 24 Hours for Hank fundraiser 7-9pm @ the Back Door 4-7pm @ 219 Lounge Live music with Steven Wayne 5-7. Vintage town cruiser reffle with 100% of select draft beer sales going to 24 Hours for Hank. 219 will match up to $1,000 in donations

SunDAY, march 20

Sandpoint Chess Club 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee Meets every Sunday at 9am Live Music w/ Vetiver 7:30pm @ The Longshot

Spring Equinox kirtan gathering 5pm @ Gardenia Center Welcome Earth’s renewal with song. Donations accepted for children suffereing from hunger and war. Presented by Sandpoint community yoga.

208-627-7620

monDAY, march 21 Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s Restaurant “Trusting God”

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

tuesDAY, march 22

Bonner Partners in Care Free Clinic 5:30pm @ BPICC (2101 Pine St.) Clinic for the uninsured

wednesDAY, march 23 Live Music w/ John Firshi 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Live Piano Music 3-5pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

ThursDAY, march 24 Wild Trivia 6:30pm @ Matchwood Brewing Do you geek out about local wildflowers mushrooms, and other natural wonders? This is your time to shine! Presented by FSPW. 18 /

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COMMUNITY Sandpoint Writers on the Lake hosts contest

By Reader Staff

Area authors have a shot at a $100 first prize and — most important — an opportunity to share their work with the Sandpoint Writers on the Lake writing contest, scheduled for Saturday, April 9 at the East Bonner County Library (1407 Cedar St.).

Contestants will have up to five minutes to read their work aloud, after which the audience will vote to decide the winners.

The contest is free to enter and open to all genres of writing, including non-fiction and poetry.

Writers of all ages are invited to participate, with first-time scribes and younger contestants especially welcome.

Registration begins at 9 a.m. and readings start at 9:30 p.m. Contact Jim Payne at 208-263-3564 for more information.

< ASPEN, Con’t from Page 17 >

Aspen Chamber of Commerce puts it.

It is the only city in America with an “Idea,” and it’s that idea that seems to be the main psychological export of “Aspenization.”

Aspen Mayor Helen Klanderud is no stranger to gushing accolades or copycats — increasingly, though, city planners have been finding themselves acting as “growth counselors” to the Aspenized.

“A lot of [developers] come to us ... our community hall gets calls all the time. Sun Valley was here two years ago to ask advice on their growth,” Klanderud told the Reader.

As might be expected, she has an interesting response to a term like “Aspenization.”

“We have not grown ... other communities have that surround us, which is a part of the equation,” she said. “I don’t think it [Aspenization] has to do with growth, per se, but more than this community is not like it was in the ’70s.”

With around 350,000 visitors each year and real estate revenues in the billions, Aspen has faced and is currently facing many of the problems places like Durango and — to a lesser extent — Sandpoint are only now grappling with.

The difference is — Aspen has taken radical steps to prevent its own “Aspenization.”

“When you put on growth control and limit development, you drive real estate prices up,” Klanderud said. “Because of the escalating real estate prices, yes, it has become

less affordable for some people to continue living here.”

It’s the same story as in Durango, and echoes budding concerns in Sandpoint — once money starts coming in, prices start going up; eventually the work force leaves and local business becomes dependent on short bursts of cash.

Aspen city planners, however, instituted an inclusionary housing initiative of their own — long before Durango’s version — and Klanderud said the measure has born fruit.

“We have mitigations that developments have to provide so much affordable housing; we have a real estate transfer tax which goes into a fund so we can have another measure of control. ...

There is a current local goal in the community to house 60% of our employees,” she said.

By helping keep locals in place, the community is better balanced to receive newcomers as a blessing, rather than a curse.

“When you attract people they will bring a series of impacts,” Klanderud continued. “You have to plan for additional growth, even if that means making a change in the character of your commercial profile.

“This change isn’t a ‘death’,” she added. “It’s the opposite. It invites a new level of vigor into the community. Communities are like organisms, they need to adapt to changes in their environments or they will die.”

Klanderud’s sentiments echoed those expressed by people like

Leib in Durango.

“You can’t stop growth completely, or you’ll die. But you can regulate it to allow the kind of development that you want,” she said.

Aspen’s inclusionary housing measures go one step further though.

“Unless they’re [newcomers] at an economic level where they can afford it, they’re not going to be able to buy into this market — they don’t qualify for purchasing of affordable housing because they have to have been here for four years,” she said.

That aspect of the program rewards long-term residents and protects the pool of housing created by real estate transfer taxes from being immediately sucked up by speculators.

Aspen also enforces a strict limit on commercial square footage and building heights, along with a ban on downtown street-level real estate offices.

These steps, Klanderud pointed out, have not been to stop growth, but to direct it toward a balance.

“I think it’s important that we have a diverse community here ... not just the extremely wealthy, but all through the economic spectrum,” she said.

When asked why a term

like “Aspenization” should be a source of fear among small towns, Klanderud echoed a sentiment old as time, “Know thyself.”

“It’s like human development, the better you know yourself, the better you get along in life. It’s when you try to be something you’re not that you get in trouble,” she said.

Civic Psychology 101 Though Klanderud was quick to point out that Aspen is still grappling with growth issues, she consistently underscored the importance of developing a civic vision and sticking to it — even if it means changing your outlook.

On a trip through Aspen and its surrounding areas, Reader contributor Ben Olson remarked: “The aspect that baffled me most was the fact that Aspen, supposedly the originator of this ‘virus,’ was nothing like the towns trying to imitate it. There were no Walmarts, no mammoth condo complexes reaching high into the sky, no strip malls and ugly tract housing developments. It actually looked unique.

“And that, I think, is the handle: ‘Aspenization’ is a false term — a misnomer. The ‘virus’ doesn’t come from Aspen, but

rather from greedy developers and speculators who seek to duplicate Aspen’s unique design for mass production.

“Lake Tahoe isn’t Aspen.

Park City isn’t Aspen. Moab and Durango aren’t Aspen. Sandpoint isn’t Aspen. It’s like using Miami as a guide to design a new city in Nevada. Each spot is unique and has ages of character that define which direction the town will go.

Why must the direction always be the same?”

In Durango and Aspen, planners have been faced with crucial and highly complex growth issues — issues that Sandpoint is only now beginning to deal with. As talk of “Aspenization” continues to buzz in coffee shops, restaurants, real estate offices and newsrooms, it may be necessary to modify the term’s connotation.

Perhaps Aspenization has less to do with Aspen, and more to do with wrong-headed planning — planning that refuses to take into consideration a place’s specific history and character; planning that doesn’t draw on its natural strengths and features; planning that’s more concerned with being The Next Big Thing and less concerned with just being a Good Thing.

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STAGE & SCREEN

Reels on reels

Fly Fishing Film Tour to play Panida March 19, benefiting Panhandle Chapter of Trout Unlimited

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

Anyone who has dabbled in fly fishing knows that the craft is about far more than catching fish — otherwise it would be called “catching,” rather than “fishing.”

Dad jokes aside, the thrill of the chase and the art of the cast are what make fly fishing a beloved pastime around the world, and especially amid the plentiful streams and rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Local fly fishing enthusiasts will have the chance to take part in the second-best activity to actually casting a line — that is, watching someone else do it — when the Fly Fishing Film Tour returns to the Panida Theater on Saturday, March 19 at 7 p.m.

The 16th annual F3T, presented by Costa, YETI and Simms, will feature nine films from creators across the globe, exploring the stories of anglers from Louisiana to Australia to Columbia. Organizers promise that this year’s guided fly fishing trip with Linehan Outfitting Company. film selection will “feed your fishing Theater capacity for this show is addiction,” and just in time for the limited to 450 guests, with advance shift of seasons. tickets recommended, though not reWhile the films start at 7 p.m., quired. The Panida strongguests are invited to enFly Fishing Film Tour (NR) ly encourages all guests to ter the theater as early wear a mask, regardless as 5:30 p.m. to learn Saturday, March 19, 7 p.m.; doors open at 5:30 p.m.; $15 of vaccine status, while more about the night’s in advance, $18 day of show. attending the show. beneficiary: the PanTo learn more about handle Chapter of Trout Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave., 208-263-9191. Get tickets at Unlimited, a group that North 40 Outfitters in Ponderay, the Fly Fishing Film Tour aims to conserve and flyfilmtour.com/buy-tickets, panida. — and access trailers for org or at the door. this year’s films — visprotect North Idaho’s it flyfilmtour.com. For fisheries. TU will be more information on the raising funds with a Panhandle Chapter of Trout Unlimitnumber of raffle prizes available the ed, visit panhandletu.org or find the night of the film tour, including a pair group on Facebook at facebook.com/ of Costa Del Mar sunglasses, Simms PanhandleTU. gear and even the chance to win a

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A still from Three Sheets, one the films showing at the 2022 Fly Fishing Film Tour.

Courtesy photo.

MUSIC

CobraJet celebrates 10 years of bringing the ruckus The Sandpoint hard rock band will play at the Eagles March 19

By Ben Olson Reader Staff Bands are eerily similar to relationships. They require a lot of effort, patience and attention.

Egos need to remain in check for the partnership to work. The highs are some of the best and the lows are some of the worst. Just like a relationship, when a band reaches the magical 10-year milestone, it’s a notable occasion.

CobraJet, featuring Terry Owens on drums and vocals, Brandon Andersen on guitar and Reese Warren on bass, will celebrate their 10th anniversary bringing the ruckus with a free show Saturday, March 19 at the Eagles Club, 1511 John Hudon Lane. There is no admission fee, but only those 21 years of age or older will be allowed inside. Supporting CobraJet will be two sister projects, including Spokane-based death metal band Torn Open and Rapid Lightning, featuring rock music from Sandpoint.

When pressed into a hard corner, CobraJet would classify their music as “rock with an edge.”

“We just call it super hard rock,” Andersen told the Reader. “Terry has that big fat drum sound like Deep Purple that really works. We’re big Judas Priest and Iron Maiden fans.”

The trio began as CobraJet a decade ago after Owens provided Andersen and one of his other bands a place to practice.

“Terry always supported us,” he said. “I played in a band with his son when we were younger and he always supported us with a place to practice. Then one day I said I wanted to start a band with

Terry. His talents were wasting While the group collaborates away! We had a vision for some with songwriting, Andersen said rock and roll and it ended up being Owens lets loose the most when some super hard rock.” crafting new music.

Warren knew Andersen because “Terry likes to write Sandthey both worked at Eichardt’s. point-style songs,” Andersen said.

“He was always an inspiration “A lot of them are about local stuff. of mine,” Andersen said. “I used We do collaborate, but when Terry to go watch Reese whenever he does write a song, he comes at you played with Not Quite Punk, then with the whole-assed song.” one day he said, ‘You guys need Andersen said CobraJet cura bass player,’ and he jumped on rently has three originals for which board. It’s been great ever since.”

Owens wrote every part: chords, CobraJet has been off to the drums, lyrics, bass lines and all. races ever since, honing their “They’re good songs,” Andersound and writing new musen said. “There’s one called ‘7B sic. Unlike many other bands Itch,’ he wrote because he had in Sandpoint, this lady driving CobraJet has like a maniac in CobraJet abandoned covers front of him and altogether to only With Torn Open and Rapid her license plate Lighting; Saturday, March 19; play their own said ‘7B Itch’ on FREE; 21+. Eagles Club, 1511 original music. it. He’ll talk about John Hudon Lane. Listen at “We’ve gotten Schweitzer and the reverbnation.com/cobrajet. away from covlights on the Powers,” Andersen erhouse building said. “I don’t think we play a and stuff. He seems to come up single cover right now, actually.” with quite a bit of local stuff.”

CobraJet doing what CobraJet does.

Courtesy photo.

The band was also named by Owens.

“It’s actually the name of a Mustang,” Andersen said. “I don’t know if Terry knew that when he named the band, but it’s a fast car. It’s jet powered. We lie and call ourselves the best band in the world, so what are we going to name the best band in the world? It’s CobraJet.” For the 10th anniversary show, CobraJet plans to unveil several new songs, as well as some new gear.

“Both of our sister projects are playing, too,” Andersen said. “I’ll also be playing with Torn Open and Rapid Lightning.”

Andersen said CobraJet always performs shows for free admission because, “when you’re playing at a bar, it has free entry anyway. It’s Sandpoint, you know? We’re going to bring our explosive performance. All the ladies get in free.

All the men do, too, but the ladies definitely get in free.”

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint Maya & Alex, Pend d’Oreille Winery, March 17 Who needs green beer?

Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day Pend d’Oreille Winery style by relaxing with a glass of hometown white or red and listening to the sweet sounds of one of Sandpoint’s most dynamic vocal duos: Maya Goldblum and Alex Cope.

Goldblum is best known for her musical work as Queen Bonobo, creating original, layered compositions celebrating her Irish ancestry and unique personal

style. Combined with Cope’s powerhouse pipes and onstage charisma, these two artists only make one another stronger.

Their St. Paddy’s winery performance will feature bluegrass, folk and Celtic inspired music.

— Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey 5-8 p.m., FREE. Pend d’Oreille Winery, 301 Cedar St., powine.com.

Vetiver, The Longshot, March 20

It’s a spring Sunday in Sandpoint, and life is feeling just a little bit lighter after months of gray.

Why not take that daily soundtrack of birdsong to the next level by checking out an intimate musical performance at The Longshot by Vetiver — a nationally renowned indie outfit known for feel-good folk-rock tunes.

Vetiver has served for two decades as the stage name of San Francisco artist Andy Cabic, who is known for his experimental sound and ever-evolving songwriting

capabilities. The chance to hear him make magic in this small setting isn’t something to be missed.

For more information, contact the Festival at Sandpoint by emailing info@festivalatsandpoint.com or by calling 208-265-4554. All guests must show proof of vaccination or negative 72-hour PCR test required at the door.

— Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey

7:30 p.m., doors open one hour before; $15 in advance, $20 at the door. The Longshot, 102 S. Boyer Ave., vetiverse.com.

This week’s RLW by Zach Hagadone

READ

Winners of the 2022 National Magazine Awards will be announced in April, honoring the best longform periodical writing in the country, and the folks at Long Reads have taken the liberty of compiling links to nearly every one of the finalists. Check out some of the best writing on everything from public interest to essays and criticism to profiles, features and indepth reporting at longreads. com.

LISTEN

Bios of Texas-based Charley Crockett invariably make allusions to his strong connection with the country greats of yesteryear, as well as his bluesy inflections and sonorous vocals, but they don’t really do him justice. He has to be heard to be believed. Among so many pretenders, he’s not only the real deal, he actually contributes to the genre. Listen at charleycrockett.com/listen and mark your calendar for his April 20 appearance at the Knitting Factory in Spokane.

WATCH

About midway through its 10-episode first season run, Our Flag Means Death has planted its flag among the best “historical humor” series around (because that’s apparently a genre now).

And how could it not be? Some of the best comedic minds working today are either its main stars or side characters: Rhys Darby, Taika Waititi, Leslie Jones, Fred Armisen, Nick Kroll and Kristen Schaal among them. Stream the silly, strangely affecting pirate satire on HBO Max.

March 17, 2022 /

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BACK OF THE BOOK

Two years of COVID

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

From Northern Idaho News, March 24, 1908

HOPE WAS VISITED BY PETTY THIEVES Saturday morning a robbery was discovered in Hope of some of the business houses. Gordon’s drug store was entered from the back door and a number of pipes which were in the show case were taken. The culprits also took the slot machine with them. One of the windows in the front end of the store was broken but no motive for such action is known.

The Wanamaker meat market was also entered and things knocked around generally, but nothing of any value was taken. The boat house of Chas. Gamby was also visited and several tools stolen.

Early in the evening five suspicious looking men were seen by Jos. Jeannot and Capt. W.H. Pollard, but as Judge Dooley was out of town nothing was done. The authorities are doing what they can to locate the thugs, but as yet have found no trace of them.

22 /

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/ March 17, 2021

Two years ago on this day I was out of a job — and, for the first time in my job-hopping life, it was involuntary. I remember it well, and will to the end of my days: Publisher Ben Olson, News Editor Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey and I put out the paper of March 12, 2020, with only a handful of mentions of COVID-19.

By Monday, March 16, every event in town had been canceled, almost all of our ads had been pulled and Ben delivered the grim news that Lyndsie and I would be furloughed until further notice.

It really was that fast: One week the world was “normal,” the next it had blown up. One week we were writing about the first stages of the Memorial Field project, a bid award for a boat ramp in Hope and a utilities hearing; the next week, the city and county had both declared emergencies and we were advising people how to entertain themselves while locked down in their homes.

By Thursday, March 19, Ben was the only person on the editorial staff, churning out upwards of a dozen pieces of content all by himself. The cover he selected for that edition simply said: “We Will Get Through This, Sandpoint.”

We did. Lyndsie and I were unemployed for almost exactly one month.

That’s less than nothing compared to the millions who have lost so much more — permanently, in cases of lives, health, jobs and homes — so I have no reason to complain and I’m not. Thanks to the mettle in Ben’s marrow, the support of the community and federal financial aid, we were back to full editorial strength in time to produce the April 16, 2020 paper.

STR8TS Solution

Two years later, on Friday, April 15, 2022, Idaho Gov. Brad Little will officially end the COVID-19 state of emergency — something select lawmakers, including our not-soon-enough-former District 1A Rep. Heather Scott, have been trying to do on their own since he declared it.

That first “COVID era” edition of the Reader carried a statement from Little: “History will remember our reaction to coronavirus. Let’s make sure future generations use it as a model for calm and compassion in a time of uncertainty.”

I think a lot of people lived up to that: people who social distanced and practiced conscientious hygiene as best they could; who wore masks when advisable; who didn’t hoard toilet paper, bottled water, bread, bullets and gas; who got vaccinated, then vaccinated again, then boosted; who didn’t froth at the mouth and wave their arms crying “tyranny” in the streets, in front of government bodies, at libraries and in churches; who didn’t fall for and disseminate every single stupid piece of misinformation and conspiracy garbage that floated their way; people who didn’t whip their inconvenience into a deadly brew of poisonous grievance politics that has brought the country closer to civil war than at any time since the 1860s.

Those people will be remembered for their reason and restraint, their patience and caution, their empathy and spirit of community care. I’m talking about the people — particularly in the health care field — who risked everything every day, and continue to do so, to get life back to “normal” and in countless cases save it.

For the rest, history will remember them, too: as ranters and ravers, grifters and fraudsters, opportunists, egoists and gullible fools, sneering bullies and, ulti-

History will remember some better than others

mately, cowards.

We are not “finished” with the pandemic just because the state of emergency will end on April 15, but the fact that it is ending on that date and that we can see a world in which the coronavirus isn’t a dominant facet of life has nothing whatsoever to do with the latter type of people. On the contrary, all those people have done during the past 24 months is make everything worse at every possible opportunity and in every possible way.

They did this even as a million of their fellow citizens have died during that time — even as about 6 million have died worldwide.

The United States is not one-sixth of the world population. That disproportionate death toll has everything to do with the fact that ranting, raving, grifting, fraud, opportunism, egoism, foolishness, bullying and cowardice are terminal co-morbidities.

History will remember them, all right, but they won’t like what it has to say.

Crossword Solution

Sudoku Solution

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I don’t pretend to even know what the questions are. Hey, where am I?

Solution on page 22

Solution on page 22

quoth

Woorf tdhe Week

By Bill Borders

/kwohth/ [verb] 1. said (used with nouns, and with firstand third-person pronouns, and always placed before the subject).

“‘... Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!’

Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’”

Corrections: None that we are aware of. Thanks for reading! —LKC

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

Laughing Matter

CROSSWORD ACROSS 1. Long-tailed parrot 6. A type of coffee 11. Hemp 12. Scholarly 15. Jubilant 16. An eating disorder 17. Woman 18. Journal keeper 20. Explosive 21. Violent disturbance 23. To endure (archaic) 24. Clothing 25. Feudal worker 26. Teller of untruths 27. Not there 28. Adolescent 29. Hankering 30. Silly mistake 31. Fights 34. Steeple 36. Before, poetically 37. Skin irritation 41. Paris airport 42. Exclude 43. “Iliad” city 44. Run away 45. Engendered 46. Harvard rival 47. Record (abbrev.)

48. A window above a door 51. Religious sister 52. Emigree 54. Unhealthy vapors

Solution on page 22 56. Resulting 57. Shoemaker’s awl 58. Overact 59. Homes for birds

DOWN 1. Listlessness 2. Type of shellfish 3. Feline 4. Breezed through 5. Dry riverbed 6. One who denies 7. Jagged 8. Brusque 9. Citrus drink

10. Something firmly attached 13. Kindling 14. Dines 15. Everglades bird 16. An orderly grouping 19. French farewell 22. Ductile 24. Compactness 26. Stringed instrument 27. Furrow maker 30. Decay from overripening 32. Attempt 33. Gratings

34. Earnest 35. Exact 38. A surveying instrument 39. Pillars 40. Doglike nocturnal mammal 42. A citrus fruit 44. No charge 45. Small goose 48. Threesome 49. Portent 50. 5280 feet 53. Some people chew this 55. Donkey March 17, 2021 /

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