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PEOPLE compiled by

Susan Drinkard

watching

“Do you have a soul? Where is it?”

“I feel my soul in my heart, like when I am so happy I am jumping for joy.”

Adie Ducey Age 7.5 Sandpoint

“Yes. My heart.”

Forest Brender Age 4 Sandpoint

DEAR READERS,

Election Day is Tuesday, May 18 with various races covered on this ballot, including the Pend Oreille Hospital Board, the East Bonner County Library Board of Trustees and the West Bonner County School District levy. In this week’s edition you’ll find a Q&A section with candidates for the library board of trustees, as well as information about the school levy. If you missed the May 6 edition, check it out online at sandpointreader.com, where you’ll find a Q&A with the Pend Oreille Hospital Board candidates, as well as information about the Bonner Couny Solid Waste revenue bond.

It’s important to note to our readers that all of these races have been traditionally non-partisan in the past, but like everything else lately they have been politicized. My advice to you is to vote for the candidate who is best suited to do the work. Let us continue to build, not deconstruct.

Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, May 18.

– Ben Olson, publisher

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

www.sandpointreader.com Publisher: Ben Olson ben@sandpointreader.com Editorial: Zach Hagadone (Editor) zach@sandpointreader.com Lyndsie Kiebert (News Editor) lyndsie@sandpointreader.com Cameron Rasmusson (emeritus) John Reuter (emeritus) Advertising: Jodi Berge Jodi@sandpointreader.com Contributing Artists: Ben Olson (cover), Otto Kitsinger, Susan Drinkard, Steve Smith, Karen Hempstead, Lisa Cirac, Arleen and Guy Lothian, Beth Pederson, Bill Borders.

Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert, Lorraine H. Marie, Clark Corbin, Brenden Bobby, Dan McDonald, Emily Erickson, Cameron Rasmusson, Diana Dawson Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com

“Yes. In my head.”

Saylor Ducey Age 6 Sandpoint

“I don’t know. In your heart?”

Mila Hixson Age 7 North of Sandpoint

I think so. I think it is in my back.”

Daphne Grace Age 7 Sandpoint

Printed weekly at: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID Subscription Price: $135 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 photo was taken by Ben Olson after the Cape Horn fire of 2015 near Bayview.

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NEWS

Two Fourths equal a whole lot of trouble

As the city lays the debate to rest, how exactly did the 2021 Fourth of July parade become a hearsay showdown?

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Perhaps it’s fitting that a holiday commemorating the commencement of a world-historical conflict should generate controversy. So it has been with Sandpoint’s traditional Fourth of July celebration — canceled by its longtime sponsors, the Lions Club, in 2020 in an abundance of caution over COVID-19 exposure and picked up by an independent group, Sandpoint Independence Day. The nonprofit SID organization, helmed by local conservative activists Steve Wasylko and Ron Korn, purported to “save” Independence Day in 2020, making claims that the Lions Club — which had put on the parade and fireworks show for nearly 70 years — had “pass[ed] the baton.”

In that spirit, SID again applied for a permit to put on the parade in 2021, which the city denied.

SID organizers then appealed the denial, arguing their case before City Council at its May 5 regular meeting.

“They [the Lions] wanted to give this up,” Wasylko told the council, with Korn adding: “We were told by Janice [Rader, current vice president] that the Lions Club was no longer interested in hosting the event.”

Wasylko played an edited selection of recorded phone calls with Rader from 2020, in which Rader said, “I’m trying to lead them away from it [sponsorship of the Fourth of July celebration] — just say, ‘Let them [SID] run with it and see how it goes.’ But apparently there are other political forces at work in town. I’m hoping that the rest of the Lions Club members just say, ‘OK, you guys have this under control and let’s walk away.’ And I would be so pleased if they did.”

Wasylko said: “The vice president was telling us this,” referring to Rader, who in 2020 was the Lions Club’s events coordinator.

That didn’t sit well with current Lions Club President Rhonda Whittaker, who testified at the meeting: “It’s a little frustrating to hear what I heard today,” 4 /

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referring to the claims of Korn and Wasylko. “I was put in this position because of the miscommunication and everything that went on.”

As the Reader reported in June 2020, the Lions Club had every intention of returning to its role as hosts of the Fourth of July festivities in 2021.

“We look forward to celebrating the Fourth of July with our community next year,” the service organization stated in a news release last year.

Then-club President Howard Shay added: “As for the future, [Korn] made overtures about next year and ‘passing the baton’ or something, but he’s not contacted me or our board or written me any emails. I’ve told most of our Lions and I’ve emailed them and nobody’s saying that they ever told him that, so I don’t know where he’s getting it. We never said we weren’t going to pick it back up.”

In a personal statement emailed to City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton on May 10 and shared by Rader with the Reader, the latter expressed her “shock and hurt by the invasion of my privacy upon hearing my voice from a private conversation being played at a public meeting.

“While these recordings are legal in the state of Idaho, I strongly believe they are unethical.

“Steve Wayslko knew fully well that I was speaking from my personal opinion and was [in] no way representing the Sandpoint Lions Club at the time of our conversations. If he had played the entire conversations, the city council would have heard me stating that I was not representing the Lions Club, the conversations were my personal opinions and that I fully support the Lions Club.

“The Sandpoint Lions Club has always had the Sandpoint Community’s best interest at heart and has proven this throughout the years,” she added. “We are thankful to have the opportunity to put on a fabulous 4th of July celebration this year and look forward to this event for another 68 years!”

Stapleton, in an email to the Reader on May 11, wrote:

“I would just reiterate that it was unfortunate that the city was put in the position of having to choose between two applicants so committed to putting on a Fourth of July community celebration.

This has never happened before.

It was sincerely our hope that the two organizations would be able to figure out a mutual path forward.”

Stapleton added that the city granted the Lions Club the permit to host the parade based on its Special Events Policy, which she said, “gives preference to traditional events and their organizers.”

SID organizers pushed back against that interpretation of City Code at the May 5 meeting, pointing out that the events policy gives no stated preference for “traditional” or “historic” event hosts. Indeed, Chapter 6 of City Code, which covers special events, does not include any such specific verbiage.

Council President Shannon Sherman, who in a 4-2 vote (with Council members Joel Aispuro and John Darling dissenting) upheld the city’s denial of SID’s application, recognized there is a lack of clarity in the policy.

“I think there needs to be a hard look [at those policies]. It’s really unfortunate that we’re put in this position,” she said at the May 5 meeting, adding that it would be “very disheartening that this

decision … would remove either of the parties from this year’s celebration.”

That’s what has happened, according to a May 11 post to the Sandpoint Independence Day Facebook group, which has about 1,800 members.

On the page, Korn wrote, “We have agreed to terminate our permit applications for this year’s Independence Day Fireworks and festival at the park. We cannot work with such a hostile city government. They have made it very clear that they will not follow their own city policy when it comes to our organization. … We are looking into doing other patriotic events in the future, but won’t be asking permission. … Remember, government doesn’t own anything.

It’s public property.”

Attached to the post, Korn included a copy of a letter addressed to Stapleton, stating in part: “We find it unethical and immoral to do business with a corrupt government entity whose elected officials and employees refuse to abide by the policies as written while using the same policies to defer, obfuscate and delay certain volunteer groups who do not align with the administration’s personal politics.”

In the letter, SID applauded Aispuro and Darling “for standing up and doing the right thing.”

“Independence Day should never have been made a political

Children marching in the Sandpoint Lion’s Club Fourth of July parade in 2018. Photo by Ben Olson. issue, but the city found a way to make that happen. We feel our personal politics were a factor in the city’s decision and that is unacceptable for what is supposed to be a non-partisan government entity. The events we provided last year were entirely non-political and had we been issued the permit this year, as we should have been, the city would again have been provided with an incredible, non-political celebration of our nation’s independence.”

Despite SID’s claims, the 2020 Fourth of July parade was indeed tinged with partisan politics — specifically conservative politics.

The lead parade entry was a 1950s-era military truck bearing both a Gadsden and “Blue Lives Matter” flag — both well-known conservative activist symbols.

The majority of the rest of the parade consisted of classic cars, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Bonner County Republican Central Committee (bearing Trump-Pence campaign material), several area churches, a handful of pest control companies, Shingle Mill Blueberry Farm and the Dixie Dandies band.

SID assured in 2020 that, in Wasylko’s words, “There’s no po-

< see FOURTH, page 5 >

NEWS

Idaho re-enters Stage 4 of pandemic response

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff

After nearly three months stuck in Stage 3 of its novel coronavirus pandemic response plan, also known as Idaho Rebounds, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced May 11 that the state would move up the Stage 4, lifting limits on gatherings but otherwise keeping social distancing and masking guidelines in place.

“Our overall numbers are very encouraging, and we are confident about our decision to move the state to Stage 4,” DHW Director Dave Jeppesen said in a media release. “We’re currently seeing some of the best numbers we have seen since last summer. We think the COVID-19 vaccine is one of the main reasons for that, and we want to encourage people who haven’t yet gotten the vaccine to consider choosing to get the vaccine to allow things to continue to improve.”

According to the Idaho Capital Sun, which compiled data from several surveys and interviews, “Idahoans mainly fall into three groups, when it comes to being vaccinated: ‘Yes, definitely,’ ‘Not a chance,’ and ‘Unsure.

Maybe worried about safety, maybe questioning efficacy, maybe waiting to see what happens as others go first.’”

According to a survey conducted by Boise-based G Squared LLC, only 18% of respondents landed in the “never” camp, while 28% said they were unsure. Idaho has set a goal to have 80% of its population inoculated by fall. As of May 12, DHW reports that 44.7% of Idahoans have received at least one dose, while 38.3% are fully vaccinated. Nationally,

those numbers are 57.4% and 43.6%, respectively.

Vaccines against COVID-19 are now widely available at local care provider offices and pharmacies. Find a comprehensive list of locations near you at vaccines.gov.

Along with the Stage 4 announcement, Gov. Brad Little lauded Idahoans who have already secured a vaccine against the virus.

“Thanks to the actions of Idahoans in protecting their neighbors and getting the COVID-19 vaccine, Idaho’s schools and businesses have stayed open longer than almost every other state and we have prevented a crisis in our health care system,” he said. “The move to Stage 4 signals to Idahoans that we have been open, and we will stay open, and we must keep up the good work.”

“Work” being the keyword, as Little also announced May 11 that Idaho would cease participation in three federal pandemic unemployment compensation programs in response to a high volume of vacant jobs across the state.

“It’s time to get back to work,” Little shared in a media release. “My decision is based on a fundamental conservative principle — we do not want people on unemployment. We want people working. A strong economy cannot exist without workers returning to a job.”

Access Idaho COVID-19 data at coronavirus.idaho.gov. To learn more about where to get a vaccine and sign up for a provider to contact you with an open appointment, visit covidvaccine. idaho.gov.

Lawsuit threatened over Trestle Creek marina project

Organizations allege violations of the Endangered Species Act, threats to bull trout

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff In a 60-day notice of intent released May 5, the Center for Biological Diversity, Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper and Idaho Conservation League notified parties responsible for pursuing and permitting the proposed Idaho Club North Lake project that the conservation groups plan to sue based on alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Trestle Creek Investments, LLC, are listed as the possible defendants, should the groups opposed to the marina and housing development project move forward with the lawsuit.

According to the NOI, the Fish and Wildlife Service and Corps violated a section of the ESA “by failing to consider and apply best available science to ensure that approval of the Idaho Club Project will not jeopardize the continued existence of or destroy or adversely modify critical habitat for bull trout … a species threatened with extinction.”

“The Idaho Club Project will have clear and lasting impacts on bull trout and bull trout critical

habitat,” the notice continued. “The Corps’ ‘not likely to adversely affect’ determination and FWS’s concurrence is therefore arbitrary and capricious.”

Bonner County commissioners unanimously approved the planning and zoning application for the project back in January; and, in conjunction with permits from federal agencies, opened the door for more than 100 boat slips, boat storage, a pavilion and several single-family homes near the mouth of Trestle Creek, located about 13 miles east of Sandpoint on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille.

Opponents of the project have expressed concerns about access and public safety at the development, as well as worries over damage to critical bull trout habitat. The latter is the crux of the May 5 NOI, which alleges that agencies “failed to ensure that their actions do not jeopardize bull trout and do not destroy or adversely modify bull trout critical habitat, failed to ensure that their actions promote conservation and recovery of bull trout, and ... failed to prevent the

An aerial photo of the projected development area near Trestle Creek. Courtesy photo. unlawful take of bull trout.”

“If the agencies do not take action to cure the violations of the ESA described above within 60 days, the Center intends to file suit for declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as attorney and expert witness fees and costs,” the notice concluded.

William Haberman, a managing member of Valiant Idaho, LLC — which owns The Idaho Club — declined to comment on the notice. Joseph Saxon, a spokesperson from the Corps, replied to a request for comment, stating that, “[t]he Corps is reviewing the NOI, however, as a matter of policy we don’t comment on pending or active litigation.”

Planner Marty Taylor, a representative of the Idaho Club project with James A. Sewell & Associates, was out of office at the time of request.

< FOURTH, con’t from page 4 > litical undertones to this whatsoever. Whoever wants to be in the parade can be in the parade — the commie-socialists of Sandpoint are certainly welcome to have a float in our parade. … I’ll even take a turn and all the liberals in town can try and dunk me [in the dunk tank the group has rented for Travers Parks].”

Asked for comment on the May 5 decision to uphold the denial of SID’s parade permit, Wasylko responded via text: “I can’t believe you have the nerve to contact me after what happened last summer. Why answer questions when you’ll spin it how you like. I thought I was pretty clear in my last email. Maybe you need to read it again. Lose my number.”

The “last email” to which Wasylko referred came to the

Reader in June 2020 after a lengthy back-and-forth exchange in which the former alleged the paper had misquoted and mischaracterized his and SID’s statements, including the publication of offthe-record comments.

When pressed to provide specific examples, Wasylko was unable to do so. When provided with a full recording of conversations regarding the events — including timestamped portions pertaining to specific quotations — Wasylko again refused to identify any errors or omissions of fact, writing in a June 10, 2020 email: “You know what you did. Your article was a shitty, divisive hit piece. The community knows it, I know it and you know it. I’ve heard from countless people, including Lions board members,

who expressed their disgust at you politicizing a community event.

“Both of you assholes [Reader Publisher Ben Olson and Editor-in-Chief Zach Hagadone] with zero ethics can go fuck yourselves,” he added. “Ben can stuff his blue shorts and boat shoes and you [Hagadone] can stuff your tweed ‘journalist’ jacket up your asses as far [as] you can reach.

“You can quote me on that if you’d like.”

Stapleton wrote that the city appreciated “the well organized and successful event put on by Sandpoint Independence Day last year when the Lions Club chose to cancel the event for the first time in 69 years due to the COVID pandemic and out of concern for the health and safety of the community.”

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NEWS BoCo to expand Gold Hill Trail parking

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff Bonner County commissioners unanimously approved a final agreement May 11 with the U.S. Forest Service, accepting a $31,752 grant to expand the parking area at the Gold Hill trailhead.

Pete Hughes, the interim recreation director for Bonner County, presented the final agreement at the board’s regular Tuesday business meeting, reiterating the importance of the project for public safety. Commissioner Steve Bradshaw concurred.

“In the summertime, people park along the road and it blocks traffic and creates a hazard,” Bradshaw said.

The grant comes from the Idaho Panhandle Resource Advisory Committee, which works with the USFS to recommend projects in Bonner, Boundary, Kootenai, Shoshone, Benewah and Latah counties that will improve the natural and infrastructural features of North Idaho.

Gold Hill is a notoriously popular 5.6-

The parking lot at the Gold Hill trailhead in winter.

Photo by Ben Olson. mile trail affording hikers with views of Lake Pend Oreille and the Long Bridge, looking toward Sandpoint. The trailhead, which currently accommodates about eight vehicles, is located on Bottle Bay Road.

The expanded parking, accomplished through the use of the RAC grant and a $4,000 match of in-kind county labor, will utilize Bonner County right-of-way to provide space for eight additional cars.

According to grant application documents, the work will take about a week to complete during fall 2021.

Weight limits lifted across county

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff The Bonner County Road and Bridge Department announced May 11 that weight limits had been lifted from county roads in all three districts.

Weight limits are put in place during spring breakup to prevent county roads from being damaged by heavy trucks while the roadbed is thawing and softening. In Bonner County, limits are 250 pounds per inch, or 98 pounds per centimeter of tire

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width, and a speed of 30 miles per hour for trucks with a 16,000-pound gross vehicle weight rating.

It is the responsibility of haulers to know when limits are in place. Signs are typically posted with flagging to indicate that the restrictions are active.

Weight limits went on in January 2021 — earlier than normal, due to irregularly warm weather.

Those with questions can contact the Bonner County Road and Bridge Department at 208-255-5681 ext. 1.

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 U.S. economy is close to recovering from pandemic losses, with a growth of 1.6% during the first three months of the year. That growth is linked to vaccinations and federal stimulus spending,” The Washington Post stated. Unemployment has fallen, but 8.4 million jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic have not returned.

One issue is the supply chain, but that’s expected to improve.

With 9.7 million American seeking work, and businesses claiming a labor shortage, what gives? Slate pointed out that lack of child care and hybrid school schedules due to COVID-19 are major issues.

Deaths from COVID-19 may be approaching 1 million in the U.S., according to a new study from the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The worldwide COVID-19 deaths may be more like 7 million, compared to the reported number of 3.24 million. Researchers have discovered “dramatic” undercounts. In calculating excess mortalities, they took into account an increase in opioid deaths, health care that had been deferred due to the virus and a number of other factors.

Oklahoma will receive a $2.6 million refund for hydroxychloroquine pills the state bought for treating COVID-19 cases, according to Axios. The drug, determined to be risky, had been promoted by former-President Donald Trump.

Close to half of COVID-19 patients found to have “altered mental status” have been younger than age 60, according to The Lancet Psychiatry. It remains unknown if that “sets the stage for serious long-term cognitive decline and dementia later on,” according to Sanjay Gupta, M.D., writing in AARP magazine.

After Facebook’s oversight board recently agreed Trump should be kept off Facebook — at least for now. The board recommended Facebook revisit its Trump ban in six months.

President Joe Biden’s administration has joined the U.S. with more than 100 countries to support a waiver of intellectual property rights for the COVID-19 vaccine, expected to end a significant COVID-19 vaccine shortage. The organization, Public Citizen, commented that greater vaccine access worldwide will create greater ability to dodge vaccine-resistant variants, while also making everyone safer — not just in the U.S.

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

Despite a 93% record of voting with Trump, Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney has drawn party ire for stating he lost the election and for opposing the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6. Because a number of corporations have declined to support Trump-backing lawmakers with donations, they are worried about fundraising for retaining office. As well, lacking Trump’s access to Facebook for fundraising, candidates are further in limbo for campaign resources.

They believe that without Trump voters, the party cannot win (as president, Trump never broke 50% approval in polls). Many Republicans want to replace Cheney, but one Republican likens that to the band still playing as the Titanic sunk, USA Today reported.

Asked for his thoughts on Cheney, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, “100% of my focus is on stopping this new administration.” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded, “I guess the contrast for people to consider is 100% of our focus is on delivering relief to the people and getting the pandemic under control.”

The U.S. Justice Department has raised concerns about the election recount in Maricopa County, Ariz. The count was already certified, but state Republicans asked for yet another recount by a private contractor, Cyber Ninjas.

Concerns raised, according to The Seattle Times: audit observers being forced to sign non-disclosure agreements; procedures state election officials say are haphazard and contrary to regular ballot counting procedures; ballots and laptops being left unattended; untrained workers using varying rules for counting; lack of appropriate building security; severe restrictions on media access; forensic analysis done out of public view; lack of bi-partisan volunteers; and lack of transparency.

As of late April the U.S. experienced 139 mass shootings, according to Axios.

Blast from the past: In 1981 Ronald Reagan declared that “government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem.” What’s often excluded was the preface: “In this present crisis.” Since then there’s been a focus on tax cuts and deregulation to create “trickle-down economics.”

Critics called it “get trickled-on economics,” since wealth primarily moved upward resulting in big gaps between the wealthy and the rest. President Joe Biden recently told Congress that trickle-down “has never worked, and it’s time to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.”

NEWS

Legislative expenses approach $450,000 since first recess ended April 6

By Clark Corbin Idaho Capital Sun

The ongoing 2021 legislative session has cost the state of Idaho nearly $450,000 since legislators returned from their first recess April 6.

From April 6 through May 2, the session costs Idaho taxpayers $443,183.14, according to records the Idaho Capital Sun obtained via a public records request.

That total includes per diem and travel expenses for members of the Idaho House of Representatives and the Idaho Senate, as well Senate attaches’ expenses and payroll for session staffers assisting the House.

Here’s the breakdown (keep in mind there are 35 Idaho senators and 70 members of the Idaho House): • $213,139 per diem for House members.

• $14,776 travel for House members.

• $55,333 payroll for House session staff.

• $80,759 for senators who live more than 50 miles from the Capitol during that time.

• $26,838 for senators who live less than 50 miles from the Capitol during that time.

• $45,153.30 expenses for Senate attaches.

• $7,184.84 for travel expenses for those senators who turned in travel expenses for that time period, to date.

Legislators earn an annual salary, which is not affected by the length of the session.

Only one of the 105 legislators returned per diem expenses during the period from April 6 to May 2. Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, returned $1,065,

Rotunda at the Idaho State Capitol building on March 23, 2021. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun) state records show.

“When we were at recess, I wasn’t going to be using that money and that would have been a windfall for me personally, so I thought I should write a check and I did my own math,” Skaug said in a telephone interview Monday.

Skaug returned the money on his own without being asked. He lives in Nampa and said he didn’t need to drive to the Capitol during the recess.

Skaug said his situation is different from legislators who live farther from the Capitol and had apartment or housing expenses that still added up for them, which he understands.

There is significant public interest in the costs and unprecedented length of the session.

The entire Legislature abruptly took a 17-day recess March 19 amid a COVID-19 outbreak in the House. The Senate took two other shorter recesses while it waited for the House to advance budget bills. Then the full Legislature took another recess May 5, which runs

through Wednesday.

Several people who follow Idaho politics have taken to social media to complain about the costs of the session as it drags on.

How much do Idaho legislators get paid?

The Citizens’ Committee on Legislative Compensation set salaries, per diem and expense rates before the session began.

Each legislator receives a base salary of $18,691 this year, with members of legislative leadership receiving an additional salary. House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, and Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Winder, R-Boise, each receive an extra $5,000 per year, while Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, and House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, each receive an extra $2,000.

Legislators whose primary residence is more than 50 miles from the Capitol receive $139 for each day of the session, while legislators living less

than 50 miles receive the federal per diem rate in effect for Boise of $71.

Additionally, legislators who live more than 50 miles away are entitled to reimbursement of travel expenses for one weekly round trip between their home and Boise.

Legislators who live closer than 50 miles receive mileage reimbursement for one daily roundtrip from the member’s home during the session.

The 2021 session is the longest in state history, even though legislators are at recess again until Wednesday. Monday was the 120th day of the session, even though legislators did not meet. All of the days at recess count toward the total, since the session has not adjourned for the year.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 111, which authorizes the recess that runs through Wednesday, terminated automatic per diem payments to legislators during the recess.

But Rep. Megan Blanksma, R-Hammett, said on the House

floor last week that legislators who keep receipts could still submit them to Bedke for reimbursement.

The previous longest session in state history ran for 118 days in 2002.

The 2021 session started Jan. 11. Before the session began, legislative leaders had set a nonbinding target date to adjourn for the year on March 26.

Most legislative sessions run 75 to 85 days and adjourn for the year in late March or early April.

“I will be advocating for the next session to be the shortest in Idaho history,” Skaug said.

This story was produced by the Idaho Capital Sun, an independent, nonprofit online news organization delivering in-depth coverage from veteran Idaho reporters on state government and policy. The Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit funded by tax-free donations in 22 states.

Learn more at idahocapitalsun. com and statesnewsroom.com.

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Retain Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint on library board…

Bouquets: • I’d like to share my admiration and appreciation for the Sandpoint Lions Club, when there are apparently a few people in this community who don’t know what they do — and have done since 1953 — for this community. This is what small towns are all about. People giving to their community without asking anything in return. They are selfless and add so much to this community, whether it’s the Fourth of July festivities, the annual Toys for Tots drive, the hearing and vision screening they sponsor for local schoolchildren or their diabetes prevention efforts, this local club is the definition of a philanthropic organization that has made Sandpoint a better place.

Next time you’re considering donating to a worthy local group, do what I just did and write them a check for their civic spirit. They are the glue that holds communities together, quietly doing the work. I appreciate you, Lions.

• Do you enjoy live music at the Sandpoint Farmers’ Market?

I do, too. That’s why the Reader committed to donating $500 to the market to help cover the costs of live music. They are still short another $500 to cover all the costs. I’m reaching out to any of our readers out there who might be able to chip in a little bit to make sure live music is paid for all season long. If you are interested, please consider sending a check directly to the Sandpoint Farmers’ Market; PO Box 1234; Sandpoint, ID 83864. Every little bit helps to keep our local institution running strong and pumping out the good tunes.

• I’m super excited about the Festival at Sandpoint’s lineup so far — especially Shakey Graves.

Keep the good times rolling!

Barbs • None this week. Even my cold, mean heart has to take a week off every once in awhile.

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Dear editor, An important election is coming on May 18. The East Bonner County Library Board will have the opportunity to retain two excellent candidates: Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint. Both have excellent qualifications. Jeanine has a library science degree, 40 years of library experience, has experience with grant writing, program development, budget and personnel management. She also has the experience as a current trustee with EBCL. Amy is a retired English professor at NIC, has served on the board as president and member of Angels Over Sandpoint.

She also spent time serving as the acquisition’s assistant at Western Illinois University at the Malpass Library. She, too, is a current trustee with EBCL. Could we find two more qualified candidates to serve on this board of our treasured, well used library?

Vote Asche and Flint on May 18 for our library.

With gratitude, Ann Giantvalley Sandpoint

Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint are dedicated, conscientious library trustees…

Dear editor, I’ve been a supporter of the East Bonner County Library for almost three decades. I was appointed to the board of trustees in the mid-’90s and served in that position during the planning and construction of the new building on Division and Cedar. I also was appointed to fill a vacancy as we entered the planning phase for the addition to that building in the mid-2010s. My ties to the library are many and deep.

The library has faced some bumps along the road but, with the trustees and the directors working closely together, we have managed to provide this community with outstanding service to the entire community.

Throughout the years it is the conscientious dedication by the individual trustees — an unpaid position — that has met those needs and demands.

I’ve had the privilege of serving with Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint and both have proven to be dedicated and conscientious in the performance of their duties. Their expertise, accumulated knowledge and wisdom are a significant part

of what makes this library work. To lose either of these people would be to the detriment of the entire community. I’m voting to retain Jeanine and Amy on the board of trustees this May 18 and you should too.

Gil Beyer Sandpoint

A conspiracy of one...

Dear editor, Have you heard that high-pitched buzzing sound lately? Those are microdrones that have been released by foreign agents from exoplanet-Z, found in the constellation Hernia.

These microdrones seed clouds with nanobots which come down when it rains to enter sewer systems.

Since each nanobot is propelled by a flagellum, they waggle and squirm into our home plumbing.

If we touch our faucets or toilets, they tunnel through our skins and whip their way up the bloodstream toward our brains.

Once there, they easily sneak through the blood-brain barrier and concentrate inside the hypothalamus. These 500G nanobots have been coated with a special film that neither reflects nor absorbs radiation, thereby making them transparent, and hence undetectable.

Now the Z-agents can electronically manipulate our thoughts.

They can make us believe anything, like the pandemic is not real and vaccines will give you a high.

Or, they convince you that World War II never happened; it was really a plot by the movie industry to sell more movie tickets. Also, Adolf Hitler was a flower-child of the ’60s who traveled back in time to set up the Third Reich. Then, through the “butterfly effect,” he created the initial conditions that would lead to the appearance of peaceniks in the ’60s.

Finally, you’d believe that the GPS system had been deliberately manipulated to make it appear that the Earth is round, instead of it actually being flat. Then we’d have to pay more for international travel.

Oh, I almost forgot. Ronald Reagan was, in fact, a secret KGB agent.

The preceding was brought to you by: “Conspiracy Theories Are Us, LLC” — Science Fiction Division.

Philip A. Deutchman Sandpoint

Actions were taken for your protection...

Dear editor, Anyone with a compromised respiratory system should applaud and

vote to re-elect Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint to the library board. The board and library staff acted swiftly to protect you and all of us from COVID-19, a deadly respiratory virus.

Masks are required and curbside delivery of sanitized library materials are available for all. These actions were taken and informed by the consensus of worldwide medical scientists knowing the virus is spread by the breath of those infected.

The opposing candidates only rely on their belief systems, wanting you to conform to their biased sense of morality and righteousness without the benefit of today’s extensive modern-day knowledge. If elected they may choose to remove books and materials from the library to prevent your freedom to think and decide for yourself. Do not allow this to happen.

Vote on May 18. Elect Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint, both experienced and highly educated librarians with your well-being in mind.

Sandra Deutchman Sandpoint

Vote for experience, not ‘deconstructionists’...

Dear editor, Twenty eight years ago I chose to move my family to Sandpoint vs. Montana mostly because of the quality services available, namely our community hospital. We need your vote for Dr. Lawrence and Helen Parsons to ensure quality health care in Bonner County, which includes expanding its services.

Pend Oreille Hospital District Board of Trustees is responsible for Bonner General Health’s three outpatient clinics: behavioral health; ear, nose and throat; Sandpoint Women’s Health.

By consistently voting against these essential services and funding of these clinics, Dan Rose, current trustee, continues to undermine the strengths of our community services and Bonner General Health. Now his wife, Kathy Rose, intends to undermine our library district armed only with her opinion about masks and no other relevant experience.

Let’s not let Dan’s fellow deconstructionists get elected at the price of quality health care, access to literacy resources, and our collective safety and well-being.

Dr. Tom Lawrence and Helen Parsons provide a wealth of knowledge, experience and true wisdom to their POHD positions. They value quality patient care over politics, demonstrating this through their

years of dedication to our community in the medical field.

A vote for Dr. Lawrence and Helen Parsons is good for our community and your health. A vote for Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint protects the library’s viability for those who gather and are lifelong learners.

Angela Cochran Sandpoint

Rose and Peters are ‘malcontents,’ not qualified leaders…

Dear editor, I am writing in support of re-electing incumbents Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint as Sandpoint library trustees. They are the only truly qualified candidates; Jeanine has 40 years of library experience, including a Master of Library Science degree.

Amy is a longtime Idaho resident and retired English professor. The other candidates are running because they are opposed to masks.

The trustees listened to comments on both sides and a clear majority of library patrons supported the mask requirement. With vaccinations now available to everyone and positive cases leveling off, they have voted to remove the requirement, effective June 1. Due to the priority they placed on safety for staff and patrons, our library remained open and serving the public when many libraries across the state and country were closed. Accommodations were available to patrons not wishing to wear a mask and there are multiple ways to enjoy the wide array of services the library offers, including curbside delivery, the digital library and private tutoring rooms.

The other two candidates are not only unqualified, their stated views are clearly in opposition to normal library practices and will not support growth and balance for the library.

Jalon Peters operates an unlicensed construction company. He admits to not personally using the library services and refers to “renting” material from the library. He also talks about making his religious views and own sense of morality a priority in deciding library policy, which should scare any freedom-loving citizen.

Kathy Rose has expressed similar viewpoints.

A library doesn’t need religion or politics to guide it; it needs educated people who have been a part of the library as long-term supporters, not malcontents upset about a policy already being phased out. It needs people like Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint.

Sincerely, Jessica Tingley Sandpoint

Rose and Peters have no experience with or dedication to the library or its community…

Dear editor, As a kid growing up in Sandpoint, I recall spending hours in the children’s section of the former library building. In middle and high school, when the library moved to its current location, I’d hang out with friends and partake in the after-school programs (and snacks) that the library offered until I’d have to head home for supper.

These programs supporting the youth have continued under the current library board members Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint during their service over the last six years. They have served the library and Bonner County as a whole, providing access to literature, computers and community space for gatherings. They foster diverse thinking through the media they provide.

Both members have a background in English and literature, with Jeanine serving as a librarian in some capacity for 40 years and Amy working as an English professor.

These two have the proven experience and dedication to Bonner County, unlike Jalon Peters and Kathy Rose, who have not demonstrated any relevant experience or dedication to Bonner County citizens.

Amy and Jeanine are continuing to dedicate their lives to creating a space for people of all walks of life to gather, learn and engage.

We know they are advocates of free thought, free speech and free literature.

Do the research and vote on May 18.

Reid Weber Sandpoint

A library does not exist to serve a political agenda...

Dear editor, We’ve overheard too many admissions; political extremists are moving to Sandpoint fantasizing escape from our nation’s diversity, trying to divide us, liberals and conservatives, who have co-existed in peace for years. They want to impose their ideological agenda on our local institutions that have served us well and faithfully for decades.

This strategy of attacking local institutions (libraries, schools, public health agencies) and then taking them over is happening throughout Idaho and the Northwest. Libraries are temples of democracy. Destroy-

ing people’s faith in institutions of democracy is a tactic of authoritarian regimes used everywhere throughout history to seize power.

Remember when the library was on Second Avenue, where the new Mick Duff’s restaurant is? A small space with a handful of computers, packed and steamy with body heat on winter days. But with sustained community love, support and the stewardship of the trustees and staff, it has grown into the beautiful space it occupies now. Respectful employee service continues to be as impressive and up-to-date as the architecture. Protestors who refuse to wear a mask show a cold refusal to protect the health and lives of these dedicated employees who continue to serve us through a pandemic because a library is essential to the life of a community.

Compared to many cities, the vast range and wealth of knowledge and intellectual pleasure stored in our library makes it one of the best.

Putting political extremists in charge of it is like letting the fox guard the hen house. Please protect our library, vote to keep Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint on the library board.

Judy York, Carrie Clayton, Krista Eberle, Rebecca Holland, Cynthia Dalsing Sandpoint

Heed the warnings about North Idaho’s dangerous right-wing...

Dear editor, Wow! What a courageous and necessary article on “White flight from hard truth,” by Zach Hagadone, in the May 6 Reader. He gets it right on, providing the history of racism here in our community and the pushback against it. This is a warning and a rallying cry for us all to continue the tradition of protecting freedom of speech and social diversity here at home in North Idaho.

John Anderson and Jill Trick Sandpoint

West Bonner schools should live within their means, not ask for levy money...

Dear editor, Remember those glossy postcards from WBCSD? They spent over $43,000 to learn how to sell themselves. Why not hold regular town halls for the public? Monthly open houses for the community?

How transparent is it when they start off with a general fund short-

fall of $2.5 million with no explanation for it. They need to learn to live within a budget like the rest of us. Trustees and administrators claim that the money for the “Covid pandemic” is not a substitute for levy dollars. Why not? Maybe WBCB should offer to repay the taxpayers for the cost of running multiple levies once they receive these federal dollars. That would be a bold step in the right direction to build strong community cohesiveness instead of colorful postcards.

With the lowest ISAT scores in the area, why not teach real math, real science, real reading and real-life skills? WBCSB has local control but fails to exercise it.

Why not stop bowing to the Idaho School Board Association and start running schools like a military-prep academy. They might get better results and certainly would get students to attend who wanted to learn, not loaf. So, not only would the test scores improve but so would the moral and behavior.

Schools are for learning, not for secret clubs and babysitting. And having their little minions steal “No Levy” signs in both Priest River and along Highway 41 makes their “strong community” slogan out to be the sham that it is.

It’s time to replace any WBSB member who supports running these repetitive levies. They have overstayed their welcome and usefulness.

Let’s replace them with community minded individuals who understand that operating public schools and respecting the taxpayers who funded them are of equal value and of equal importance in public education. Vote against the levy May 18.

Mike Stout Priest River

Peters brings experience, fresh voice to hospital board...

Dear editor, Did you know that five of the current hospital district board trustees also sit on the hospital’s 10-person board of directors? And did you know that 100% of your tax dollars go to Bonner County General’s clinics only? In layman’s terms this is called a “conflict of interest,” and lacks both transparency in budgeting and a clear spending plan that’s accountable to taxpayers.

And this lack of transparency and budget-consciousness is why we need fresh voices on our hospital district board.

Jessie Peters brings that fresh voice.

Jessie is a nurse practitioner, has served on health boards, led health care nonprofits and serves rural communities that are the most in need of quality health care.

Jessie will bring an eye for fiscal responsibility with our tax dollars, and will advocate for a well-defined plan that spends those dollars in the most effective, efficient and innovative ways possible.

It’s time to shake up the status quo and place public servants on our hospital district board that will be voices for the taxpayers and residents to whom they serve, and not rubber-stamping gatekeepers for the establishment.

Please vote Jessie Peters for hospital district board on May 18.

Anna Largen Cocolalla

Vote for experience, local values in hospital, library board races…

Dear editor, As Bonner County experiences a wild influx of new people moving here, I’m voting for the two hospital board candidates who will uphold Sandpoint’s values. Both Dr. Thomas Lawrence and Helen Parsons have lived in the Sandpoint area for numerous decades and have firsthand experience with our community’s health care needs. They are dedicated to providing quality care to all Bonner County residents and have years of experience serving on the hospital board.

Our hospital cannot afford to have single-issue board members deciding the fate of our precious health care resources. We need experienced, well-rounded board members who value Bonner County’s best interests. I invite you to join me in voting May 18 for incumbents Dr. Lawrence and Helen Parsons. Their experience with Bonner County’s health care needs cannot be beat.

Also, as a born-and-raised Idahoan I have been a patron of several libraries in Idaho since I was very young. Now, as a mother of a toddler, my daughter and I go to the library at least once a week.

I find the kids’ play room (“Karen’s Room”) and the children’s early learning materials invaluable — not only for my daughter’s sake but my own (and if you have ever taken a toddler to a library by yourself while sleep deprived, you know exactly what I’m talking about).

We are incredibly lucky to have such enviable kids’ resources in our library.

Both incumbents, Amy Flint

and Jeaine Asche, have overseen improvements to children’s early learning resources at the library in a fiscally responsible manner. These improvements are part of the reason my daughter wakes up in the morning and says, “Go to libary, Mommy?! Libary?!” I thank incumbents Amy Flint and Jeanine Asche for their amazing accomplishments and hope you join me in voting for them on May 18.

Emma Stanford Cabinet Mountain foothills, Sandpoint

Lawrence and Parsons have the experience and knowledge on hospital board …

Dear editor, I read with interest the Pend Oreille Hospital Board candidate positions in the May 6 Reader issue. What struck me about the three challengers’ positions was the common thread of concerns about how tax dollars are being spent by the board and that patients know best about their health care and just need to be informed and educated.

As a naturopathic physician soon to be licensed as a primary health care provider in Idaho, I particularly take objection to Julie Berreth’s position of it being the board’s responsibility to incorporate “traditional, alternative and complementary health care” into their agenda. As I understand the board’s role, the focus is to distribute tax dollars to run the three local outpatient clinics, which are essential to providing quality conventional health care to our community, particularly with regards to behavioral health.

While I 100% agree with Ms. Berreth’s assertion of the “undeniable demand for a more integrative approach to health care that combines conventional, alternative and complementary medicine,” I don’t see that as the role of the board, but rather as the responsibility of us as individual citizens in that we have a choice with regards to which practitioner to see.

Making sure that local health care facilities are run effectively cannot be reduced to examining how tax dollars are flowing and educating citizens on how to take care of themselves. Dr. Thomas Lawrence and Helen Parsons have the experience and knowledge it takes to ensure that our local conventional health care needs are being met effectively.

Gabrielle Duebendorfer, ND Sandpoint May 13, 2021 /

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Mad about Science:

Brought to you by:

weird fashion

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist Fashion is inherently a weird human construct. What you are wearing right now may be the hot new item, but I guarantee you will look back at photos of yourself in 20 years and laugh.

Fashion speaks volumes about our culture and our obsession with establishing ourselves within predefined classes and tribes — all while ironically pushing individualism by conforming to the norms of the group.

Some fashion choices throughout history were especially cringe-worthy, and I’m not talking about the leg warmers of the 1980s or Lady Gaga’s meat dress.

Throughout history, the political and financial elite have always looked for elaborate and extravagant ways to set themselves apart from their perceived lessers. The popularity of the clothing and accessories the upper class adorned themselves with would grow as the middle class attempted to emulate their looks in an attempt to better their own social station, which would trigger the upper class to outdo their own absurdity and create even more wild and outlandish outfits. This was especially true near the onset of the Industrial Revolution, when it became easier than ever for the middle and lower classes to procure mass-produced goods.

For example, consider the crinolines of the Victorian era, which took place in the mid-1800s in England and her colonies. Crinolines were the support structures that held up the giant and extravagant hoop skirts of the time, and were made from wooden frames supported 10 /

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by steel or whale bones. When paired with tight-fitting corsets, crinolines were designed to make fashionable women look thin, but with large and luxurious bell-shaped skirts that concealed their legs from view.

These structures were extremely dangerous, as it essentially trapped the wearer inside of a mobile cage draped in extremely flammable cloth. Fashionable women burning to death from skirt fires in Victorian England was such a common occurrence that public safety officials at the time recommended keeping fire retardant blankets nearby at all times — because that was apparently more sensible than taking off the six-foot-wide undercarriage in the name of fashion.

Curiously, crinolines did have some positive effects associated with them, though whether or not that outweighs the immense danger of burning to death or getting caught and dragged into exposed machinery on factory floors is up to debate.

For instance, crinolines offered women more personal space, especially from men that one would consider ungentlemanly.

They were quite durable, and made it difficult for unsavory men to physically accost the women — especially when the women traveled in groups together.

Also, in case you are wondering, yes, crinolines made it very difficult for women of the era to get through doorways, and yes, it was very much a Winnie the Pooh situation, as steel frames have never been constructed with flexibility in mind.

Another form of outlandishly weird fashion brings some illumination to the famously confusing line from “Yankee Doodle.” You know the one I’m

An example of a macaroni wig. Courtesy photo.

talking about: “stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.”

Many of us growing up thought this was a nonsensical allusion to the pasta of the same name, but it was actually commentary on the ludicrous “macaroni fashion” of the 1700s European aristocracy. Powdered wigs were commonplace throughout much of the world at the time, as they allowed easier control of lice and other parasites, but the macaroni wigs were wildly over-the-top.

Macaroni wigs were huge — easily adding twice the surface area to the head of anyone who wore on — and its absurdity was matched by the garish and brightly colored clothing of the people wearing the wigs. The fabric and dye used to create these garments was extremely rare and expensive at the time, and only the ultra-wealthy were capable of affording it — a fact they loved to lord over those in the social classes beneath them.

This proved to be a fatal error in judgment on the aristocracy’s part, particularly in France. Akin to billionaires posting Instagram stories of themselves on superyachts in the middle of a global pandemic, the aristocracy in the 1700s was completely tone-deaf to the laments of the classes they sought so passionately to spite.

In the case of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, they discovered firsthand that the fashionable flaunting of their wealth was no way to get a-head in life.

Another curious fashion practice of bygone eras was bombasting, in which people would stuff their sleeves to create a large, puffy effect. Men would frequently do this with the bellies of their doublets as well, to create

the appearance of a legendary dadbod. At the time, excess weight was viewed as a sign of prosperity — anyone who could afford enough food to be fat was a person of great wealth, as most people couldn’t afford enough food or free time to put on the pounds.

It is curious to see how the opposite is true now, and speaks volumes about how we’ve changed as a society — not just in fashion, but in the availability of high-calorie food for

the lower and middle classes.

It’s actually more expensive to lose weight and remain healthy than it is to plow through some high-calorie junk food, and now that is reflected in our standards of fashion and beauty.

What rare items will be in fashion in 10 years? I couldn’t tell you, but once you see models hitting the catwalk wearing dresses filled with water, you know we’re in serious trouble.

Stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner ys?

Don’t know much about monke • Capuchin male monkeys urinate on themselves to attract a mate. (Some humans do that too, but it doesn’t work out so great.)

• Capuchin monkeys also show biases against humans who deny help to others.

• Scientists have discovered that monkeys are susceptible to optical illusions, just like humans.

• Monkeys are trained and employed as harvesters of large coconut plantations in Malaysia and Thailand.

• The bonobo monkey, the closest relative to humans, is naturally bisexual.

• In 2011, a monkey was arrested in Pakistan for crossing the border with India.

• There’s a restaurant in Japan using monkeys as waiters.

• Yoda, from Star Wars, was almost played by a monkey.

• A Colombian woman was raised by monkeys after being kid-

We can help!

naped and abandoned in the jungle as a child.

• The loudest howler monkeys have the tiniest testicles, a study found. (What in the world were they studying?) Humans can hear a howler monkey from three miles away. The deep sound is the result of a physical adaptation of the species: an enlarged hyoid bone in their throats.

• The annual Monkey Buffet Festival in Thailand provides food and drink to the local monkey population — numbering more than 2,000 — thanking them for drawing tourists to the town.

• In 2005, a psychologist and an economist taught a group of monkeys the concept of money.

Soon after, the monkeys engaged in prostitution.

• In 2010, a group of 15 monkeys escaped a research institute in Japan by using trees to catapult themselves over a 17-foot-high electric fence.

OPINION

Setting the record straight on Solid Waste Bond

By Dan McDonald Reader Contributor I’m baffled.

I recently noted the Bonner County Republican Central Committee is coming out against the Solid Waste Bond on the May 18 ballot. I thought Republicans stood for lower fees and taxes, yet they are opposing a bond measure that allows the county to take out a low interest loan, at 1.75%, that will assure rates stay flat. Failure of the bond to pass could very well result in a dramatic increase in the solid waste yearly user fee. By opposing the bond, the BCRCC is supporting dramatically higher fees.

The other talking point is the county hasn’t given everyone enough time to understand

Commissioner Dan McDonald. File photo.

the issue, yet when we raised the solid waste fee in 2019, we spoke specifically to getting the rate to a point where we could qualify for the low interest loan so we could get the much-needed work complete and avoid the addition years of inflationary increases we would see if we just waited and save the money.

Taking a loan and doing the work now, when it will be the lowest costs we will see, saves the taxpayers from paying the extra costs due to inflation.

So not only is the interest rate low, and not only does the loan allow us to avoid dramatically increasing solid waste fees, but the taxpayers also realize the savings from not being strapped with inflationary costs in the future.

Here are the facts: we have been talking about going after the loan since 2019, and we have had three public workshops with poor attendance and virtually no attendance from BCRCC members. BCRCC members have not reached out to any of the commissioners or our Solid Waste director, save one person, with questions or seeking information.

The bond simply allows

the county, under the law, to apply for the USDA low interest loan; there is, again, no increase associated with this bond measure. We need to spend some money improving the waste transfer infrastructure, as the county has failed to gradually improve this infrastructure since 1996.

From 1996, the amount of trash we handled had more than doubled by 2018, even though our population didn’t remotely get close to doubling and we are at a critical juncture. In many cases we are having to handle trash two and three times, our household hazardous waste facility was shut down by Idaho DEQ and we’ve been forced to use a more expensive outside contractor and inconvenience the public.

Part of the plan is for a new household hazardous waste

building that our county employees can operate at a much lower cost, saving taxpayers even more.

In the end, again, the Solid Waste Bond on the May 18 ballot does not increase the yearly user fee, actually builds in efficiency and savings for taxpayers, and helps us tackle a growing issue with our waste transfer capacity — something that can no longer be ignored.

Choosing to oppose this will only result in increased costs and fees that will hurt all Bonner County residents. Reject the uninformed BCRCC and vote to save taxpayer money, vote in favor of the Solid Waste Bond.

Dan McDonald is chairman of the Bonner County Board of Commissioners.

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ELECTION

May 18 election guide To help share candidates’ positions on the issues, the Reader offers an election guide for the upcoming May 18 election.

What follows are brief biographical entries on each candidate and some questions to help define their positions. The topics covered this week are the East Bonner Library District Board race and the West Bonner County School District levy.

Q&A with East Bonner Library District Board candidates

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff The East Bonner County Library District Board of Trustees election features four candidates — two incumbents and two challengers — vying for two open six-year term seats on the five-person governing body, which operates as a county taxing district and is responsible for setting library policy; setting and overseeing the library budget; hiring, supervising, evaluating and working alongside the library director; and ensuring that the community is well represented and informed about the district’s operations.

The Reader reached out to each candidate with a selection of identical questions to help inform voters ahead of the election, slated for Tuesday, May 18. Candidates were given up to 200 words for their responses.

Visit bonnercountyid.gov/ departments/Elections for more information.

Questions, with answers numbered accordingly:

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and why you have chosen to run for a trustee seat on the East Bonner County Library Board?

2. How would you describe the library’s role in the community?

In what ways is it succeeding in that purpose, and in what ways does it need to improve?

3. There has been much politicization of the library board in the past year — particularly stemming from the COVID-19 protocols, including masking. Do you see this as a political position?

Why/why not?

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Jeanine Asche

(Incumbent)

Age: 66 years young How many years lived in Bonner County: I am an Idaho native and I have lived in Bonner County for nine years.

Relevant qualifications: Incumbent library trustee since 2013, past chairperson and volunteer (current); 40 years of library experience (page, clerk, children’s librarian, reference librarian, branch manager, youth library services manager, library outreach and literacy services manager for a 13-branch library system); fiscally conservative; library expansion fundraising chair ($302,000 raised collaboratively); Children’s and Young Adult Services Association past president; extensive grant writing, program development, budget and personnel management experience; community nonprofit board president, treasurer, secretary experience; avid supporter of the First Amendment and the right to information; and awards including Reading Association’s Service Award, Outstanding Public Service Award, Outstanding Librarian in Support of Literacy, Women in County Government’s Woman of the Year and Women’s Hall of Fame.

How your constituents can contact you: jeanine@ebonnerlibrary.org, home: 208-597-7856, cell 650224-3096 1. I am an Idaho native and a Sandpoint resident of nine years.

I am a retired librarian and my husband of 41 years is a retired fire chief. We have two grown children, one, a local grocery store employee and the other, a commander in the U.S. Navy. I have an amazing

Jeanine Asche. granddaughter and two rambunctious dogs. In my spare time, I’m an amateur painter, beginning gardener, book lover and hiker.

Because I believe community service is something everyone should do, I started volunteering at the library shortly after moving here. I began by leading story times and then as a “Tech Tutor.” I was appointed to the board of trustees in 2013 and then was later elected.

Having worked in many libraries, I know we have an amazing library system for our community’s size. In order to ensure our library continues to be run efficiently and effectively, library trustees must have the right skills and qualifications. My contributions as a library trustee since 2013, my 40 years of library experience and my extensive nonprofit background are what is needed again.

2. The vision statement of our library is, “to engage community, excite curiosity and enhance personal growth.” Having worked in multiple libraries, I know our library is meeting this and it is extremely well run. Our director was named Library Director of the Year in Idaho and the staff are dedicated to library service.

COVID-19 has put an incredible amount of stress on all of them and they all rolled with the punches as best they could.

The board of trustees are all very qualified and we all get along very well because of our common goals. We are all committed to the First Amendment and freedom of information and maintaining excellent library services.

The library is very sound financially. When I was chairperson of the board, I oversaw the community fundraising efforts for the recent expansion project.

Donations amounted to $302,000.

Also, while I was chairperson, the library paid off its construction bond — early. This year I, and the other capable trustees, made responsible policy decisions that reduced our annual budget.

Though no institution is perfect, the East Bonner County Library is succeeding in every way.

3. The mask policy was instituted at a time when COVID-19 was spreading widely and infection rates were soaring. Trustees have a responsibility to keep our staff and public safe, and we were following guidelines from the CDC and the state and local guidelines. Our policy was not based on anything political; it was simply what we considered responsible.

As a retired librarian, providing equal library access is a core value of mine that is non-political.

I urged our board and staff to ensure equal services for everyone — masked or not. Staff did an excellent job of developing procedures to do this through curbside services and offering eBooks, audio books and online resources.

Patrons could request any material and it would be delivered to their car. No one was denied service.

Our board is now considering

ways to revise the current mask policy while maintaining a safe environment for everyone.

As a trustee, in addition to ensuring our library is safe, my purpose is to support the library’s mission, ensure excellent library services and be a good steward of the community’s hard-earned tax contributions. This, too, is not political. It is just sound management.

Amy Flint

(Incumbent)

Amy Flint.

Age: 64 How many years lived in Bonner County: 30 Relevant qualifications: I have served on the East Bonner County Board of Trustees for six years and as board chair for almost two. I have a clear understanding of how the library functions, the laws governing it, and the trustees’ role.

I worked in the library at my university, and I have been a patron of the East Bonner County library for 30 years — ever since I moved to Bonner County. I taught English at NIC at Sandpoint for 18 years before retiring and took my English 102 students to the library each semester for a presentation on how to access and critically evaluate scholarly information from databases and library holdings.

I have served on the Habitat for

< see ELECTION, page 13 >

< ELECTION, con’t from page 12 > Humanity and Bonner County Food Bank boards as well as being a board member and president of the Angels Over Sandpoint. Community service is an important element of my life and, now that I’m retired, I have ample time to devote to community support.

I am open-minded, reasonable, diligent, and collaborative. These qualities are critical for a library trustee.

How your constituents can contact you: amyflint@ebonnerlibrary.org 1. Libraries offer a critical community resource and connection point, especially in smaller rural areas. I raised four daughters, and we utilized the library regularly; since I initially lived in Hope, the library quickly became a weekly stop — for both books and movies.

I moved to Sandpoint in 1998 and continued my weekly visits to the library. My love for (and appreciation of) libraries inspired me to do whatever I could to support our local library, so running for a trustee position was a natural fit.

We currently have a very highly functioning board; I have demonstrated my skills over the past six years as a trustee and would like to continue the positive momentum already in place.

2. Today, libraries serve countless roles — while physical books, periodicals, movies and music continue to be well-utilized by patrons, our extensive digital collection provides additional resources that support patrons and Bonner County residents. Our adult tutoring services, along with youth programming and support, are invaluable. Meeting rooms provide community groups with a free option, and we now have excellent technology available for meetings.

Our bookmobile service allows us to extend options to rural residents unable to visit our larger facility, and the addition of a garden offers further opportunities for education, events and exploration.

It’s challenging for libraries to serve so many needs in the community, but we are succeeding admirably. COVID-19 has prevented us from continuously serving in all capacities, but we now have our meeting rooms available again and will begin opening up many of the services that were limited or discontinued during the height of the pandemic.

Two identified areas of improvement are purchasing a new bookmobile and finishing the garden. Both are in process and should be completed this year.

We have also identified a need to expand our after-school options for students and will be considering creative solutions to address that critical need.

love the library (as I have taken my boys there countless times before the unconstitutional mandates), and feel as though libraries are/or can be very influential to our community. I feel as though the sitting board does not represent the vast majority of our community and they aren’t making decisions outside of their agendas.

3. The library trustee position is absolutely not political; board members do not identify their political affiliation, nor does that have any bearing on our process or decisions. We decided to implement a mask requirement based solely on the best possible scientific information available; our primary concern was keeping both patrons and staff as safe as possible. We were appalled when our mask requirement became a political issue.

However, we continued to follow recommendations from trustworthy science-based sources despite the controversy, protests and verbal abuse of staff. The majority of our patrons thanked us for continuing the policy.

Fortunately, reduced and stable virus cases in Bonner County along with access to immunization will allow us to discontinue our mask policy effective June 1.

2. I feel the library’s role is to be a resource for all people in the community, no matter who they are.

That may be through technology, or books, or magazines, or internet or meeting rooms. The library has done a decent job of this with how they have stayed on track with tech. They also have good meeting rooms, but they are limiting it at the moment due to the unconstitutional mask mandates. The library also seems to not have staff that is ready and willing to help, but rather they seem to want to find ways to not have to help you. At least that has been my experience. I also feel like we can make the meeting rooms much more available to the public, especially to homeschoolers during the day. Also, the financials are not accessible online, they are in a binder in the basement. But you are required to wear a mask to enter the building. And I would like to know if that basement is handicapped accessible?

Jalon Peters

Age: 39 How many years lived in Bonner County: 4 Relevant qualifications: Highly administrative and fiscally responsible.

How your constituents can contact you: jalonapeters@yahoo.com 1. I have been married for almost 20 years, I have three sons. I am a business owner and conservative. I have chosen to run because I

3. It shouldn’t be, but the “line” has seemed to be drawn at the party line. It shouldn’t be a political issue, it is a personal liberty issue.

And that is for both Democrats and Republicans. People should have the right to choose what is best for themselves and their family without some bureaucrat or board member mandating something that is outside the supreme law of the Constitution.

Without personal liberties we have no corporate liberties.

ELECTION INFORMATION • Absentee ballot applications must be received by the county clerk by 5 p.m. on Friday, May 7.

• Absentee ballots must be received (not just postmarked) by May 18 at 8 p.m.

• Election day is Tues., May 18 • Check Sandpoint Online’s Election Central for a list of polling place addresses

Kathy Rose

Age: No response How many years lived in Bonner County: 7 Relevant experience: Bachelor’s degree, American International College; diverse experience: small business entrepreneur, 22 years; document control specialist, 2 years; manufacturing environment, 16 years; elected as School Board Trustee; serving as secretary of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee since 2016; served 2 years as vice president, Bonner County Republican Women, Inc.; treasurer for a U.S. congressional candidate.

How your constituents can contact you: liberty4idaho@yahoo.com.

1. My husband and I moved here to retire and have a simpler life. We soon realized that North Idaho was going down the same path as the socialist states and decided to become active in the community. There are many small boards in the county to serve on.

I love my library. I thought about running two years ago but someone else stepped up.

You’ll agree, there have been a lot of changes over the past year. The current library board has demonstrated that it does not represent many of the taxpayers who fund the library. That needs to change. People are standing up to tyranny and locally we have the greatest ability to make changes.

The choice is clear in this election, choose liberty or we permit tyranny.

2. The library of every community is essential to community strength. It should bring the community together, not divide it. It should be a welcoming focal point to share education, knowledge and freely exchange ideas. I agree with their own Code of Conduct policy:

“barrier-free environment that promotes its educational role and permits the peaceful, undisturbed use of library collections and services by patrons. The right of all patrons to peaceably access library facilities, collections and services shall not be abridged.”

I believe the library can improve its marketing. Patrons need to know about the broad array of services available such as the seed library and hotspot lending. I also think there is room for improvement in transparency. I submitted a public records request for a financial form and was told they would need to request it from the county offices. Why don’t they keep copies of their own financial documents?

3. Like many people, I used to visit the library on a frequent basis, when there was free access.

Since the closure and mask mandate, I have only visited once.

People feel unwelcome and don’t want to be trespassed. I feel this policy is discriminatory, exclusionary and beyond their authority.

In an obvious political move, the library district held a “special meeting” on April 30 to discuss their mask policy, which they have shrugged their shoulders at for the past year. The decision for a mask requirement was rooted in enforcing CDC guidelines.

They now believe it is OK to lift the requirement next month even though the CDC requirements have not changed. Why the change of heart?

This election goes beyond a mask mandate, which is a symptom of the underlying problem.

The current board represents the minority of the community and has shown they will bend to them.

The library will face future pressures to surrender to cancel culture. It will be subtle at first, but we cannot allow this to creep in and take hold in Bonner County.

My experience is diverse. I believe any board functions better with members who represent the diversity of the community. I offer my representation to be your voice.

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ELECTION West Bonner School District again seeking $6.8 million supplemental levy

By Reader Staff

The West Bonner County School District is asking voters on the Tuesday, May 18 ballot to approve a two-year, $6,865,158 supplemental levy, intended to pay for “maintaining and operating the schools of the district for the fiscal years beginning July 1, 2021 and ending June 30, 2023.”

According to the ballot language, the levy would amount to $3,432,579 each year, costing taxpayers $146.95 per $100,000 of taxable assessed value.

An identical levy from WBCSD — which includes Priest River schools — went down to defeat in the March 9 election. Voters rejected the measure with 943, or 53.46%, votes against to 821, or 46.54%, votes in favor.

The district relies on levy funds for about 25% of its budget. Failure to replace the levy means the district will not be able to count on $3.4 million in funding each year for two years.

District officials stated that the oper-

ations and maintenance levy had helped pay for teaching materials and supplies, curriculum and staff development, special education and advanced placement programs, technology and library updates, and continuing and enhancing extracurricular activities such as music, performing arts and athletics. Levy dollars also went to help provide all-day Kindergarten.

The maintenance portion of the levy would have been earmarked for facility heating system updates, roof repairs, crosswalk lighting and gym siding repairs at Priest River Elementary.

As well as that, administrators plan to dedicate a portion of the levy funding to maintaining safe transportation and continuing to support the district’s school resource officer.

WBCSD currently operates with the aid of a $6 million replacement levy, approved by 52% of voters in 2019.

That levy will expire at the end of the 2020-’21 school year.

District administrators have stressed

that the cost of the supplemental levy on the May 18 ballot represents no change from the 2019-2021 levy, stating, “This is not a new tax. This levy is a renewal of a tax currently being paid to fund instructional and support programs for West Bonner County School District.”

West Bonner County relies heavily on levy dollars, accounting for 25% of its revenue. The state provides 69%, while other sources account for 4% and local sources provide 2% of funding.

For more information, visit sd83.org/ levy_facts.

Early voting at the Elections Office (1500 Hwy 2 Ste 124 in Sandpoint) is set to end Friday, May 14, with hours Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Polls on May 18 will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., though with some changes of location. According to Bonner County Elections: • The Beach Precinct will now be co-located with Washington at the First Lutheran Church at 526 Olive Ave. in

Sandpoint; • East Priest River and West Priest River will now be co-located at the Priest River Event Center at 5399 US Highway 2 in Priest River; • Clark Fork and Lakeview will now be voting at the Clark Fork-Hope Area Senior Center at 1001 Cedar St. in Clark Fork.

The Beach Precinct polling place change is expected to last at least through the end of the year, as renovations at Sandpoint City Hall have required the City Council to host its meetings at the Sandpoint Community Hall, which has served as the traditional polling place for residents in the precinct.

For more information on polling places and times, to see sample ballots or for any other questions about the May 18 election, contact the Bonner County Elections Office at 208-2553631 or email elections@bonnercountyid.gov.

OPINION May 18 election is a ‘crossroad’ moment, vote accordingly

By Diana Dawson Reader Contributor

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Bonner County is at a crossroad.

Every citizen who cares about our community and our quality of life should plan to vote Tuesday, May 18 in our local non-partisan elections. The outcome will determine board positions for the hospital district, the library, and Northern Lights. In addition your vote will determine funding for West Bonner County Schools.

Idaho was built on rugged individualism and independent thinking. We came here to be free, to love the land and the water, to hunt, to fish and to enjoy the great outdoors — and to be ourselves. As we grew, we became good neighbors regardless of political or religious leanings. With civility, compromise and good old-fashioned communication — talking to each other — we built schools, a hospital, a wonderful library, businesses and utilities. We built a community that works.

In the recent decade, however, the

dark forces of anger, extremism and anti-community sentiments have infiltrated our public square. Subtle at first, it has been growing. With the pandemic it blossomed into full force. The mantra of the extreme fringe is always, “my” freedom has been violated and “I” am losing my constitutional rights. Now the new grievance is the mask mandate.

Whether “to-mask-or-not-to-mask” is a ridiculous campaign issue. For sure, there are many opinions about masks deserving of a forum. But it is not a valid reason to qualify a candidate for public service.

In the election before us we have dramatic choices. Some candidates are qualified, experienced and focused on policies that support the organization they seek to serve; policies that offer solutions; and policies that demonstrate a commitment to our community.

Other candidates know little about the role they are seeking and campaign on single issues — masks or so-called constitutional rights. They diminish and denigrate public servants who have

helped build our community and our organizations.

This attitude is harmful. Freedom and our constitutional rights belong to all of us. However, a little inconvenience doesn’t mean we have lost our freedom or constitutional rights.

If you want to sustain the strength of our community, please cast your vote for: Jeanine Asche and Amy Flint, library board; Dr. Tom Lawrence and Helen Parsons, Pend Oreille Hospital District; and Dave Pemberton for Northern Lights. If you are in the West Bonner School District, please support much-needed school funding.

We are coming through a difficult time. We need leaders who will continue to act on behalf of all of us. Tough times require tough decisions. Qualified leaders will make the “right” decisions as well as protect our freedom and constitutional rights. The future of our community is at stake. Please vote May 18.

Info at: bonnercountyid.gov/elections.

PERSPECTIVES

Emily Articulated

A column by and about Millennials

Public libraries

By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist My childhood library was a squat brick building with two sentry-like willow trees and a view of the sediment-stained Tomorrow River — a sleepy stream that winds its way through my 1,000-person hometown. Inside were rows of long shelves, all lined with colorful bindings, and handwritten labels.

This little library was a neat plot point on my walking route to and from school, making a visit to the children and fantasy sections a near-daily occurrence for my siblings and me. I’d run my fingers over paperback book covers, plucking a new Magic Treehouse book for myself, and the latest Goosebumps edition for my brother.

Years later, I’d shuffle through card catalogs, pull large volumes off the shelves, and use community computers to type up research papers or print off my latest homework assignments in the bank of copy and print machines at my disposal.

The library was a cornerstone of my upbringing and my community; a hub of entertainment, of usefulness, of gathering and learning — which is exactly what it was designed to be.

Public lending libraries in the United States began as centralized spaces from which books could be borrowed and returned, like Benjamin Franklin’s donated collection to the community of Franklin, Mass.,

Emily Erickson. in 1790.

These spaces blossomed in cities and towns all over the country after the Civil War and shifted largely to tax-funded public commodities that prioritized bringing educational opportunity to the masses in the late 1800s.

Today, the American Library Association estimates 116,000 libraries of all kinds are active in the U.S., offering expanded free services like wifi, movie rentals, continuing education programs, children’s activities, social services and more.

Lately, the controversy surrounding the East Bonner County Library District’s policy of requiring face coverings — per CDC-recommendation — and the upcoming Tuesday, May 18 election for the board of trustees has prompted me to think more about libraries and their role in a community.

Public libraries are neutral spaces in which everyone who follows simple rules has the freedom to pursue knowledge, research their ideas, satiate their curiosity and gather resources — no matter who they are,

what they believe or how they contribute to their community.

They are houses of history, entertainment and budding innovation, and serve as pieces of social infrastructure — sturdy public commodities — that are outside the whirling whims of private interests and politics.

A library is a place for the inception of perspectives, where viewpoints can be researched, and where arguments can be honed and strengthened, no matter if a person is advocating for the Second Amendment, homeopathic remedies, off-grid living or civil rights.

But it is also a place that must be impervious to, or neutral in, the agendas of the wide array of people entitled to use it.

This neutrality ensures that the library remains a space in which the opportunity to learn and explore is accessible to everyone within a community — and should be protected by the people whose job it is to maintain the best interests of both the library and the public.

We need spaces free from, or outside of, political influence, especially when considering an institution designed to facilitate learning. We need leaders of these spaces to hold their jobs, and the critical role of their institution within a community, to the highest regard, reserving their personal agendas for the arenas in which they’re appropriate.

At a time where we are served news and information based on the political party we subscribe to — and in which it’s becoming increasingly

difficult to decipher whether our ideas are our own or clever marketing from other people’s campaigns — we need to protect the unbiased places where we can go to learn about the world around us.

Everyone, regardless of who they are or what they believe, deserves the opportunity to learn from the biography of a

scientist, to be inspired by the recipes of a travel writer, to be challenged by the musings of a contemporary philosopher, to be roused by the exposes of an activist or even to escape into a world of adventure through a magic treehouse.

Retroactive

By BO

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COMMUNITY

7B Baggers cornhole club donates $1,000 to Food Bank

Hope community center to host Touch-a-Truck event

Organization hopes to bring awareness to local preschool program

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff

The 7B Baggers Cornhole club presented a $1,000 check to the Bonner Community Food Bank on May 11 as part of the club’s goal to give back to the community. 7B Baggers is dedicated to not only creating opportuntites for corn-holers of all skill levels to play the beloved backyard game, but to also being an organization that does some good in North Idaho. Find the club on Facebook at facebook.com/7BBaggersCornhole.

Pictured from left to right: Justin Doty, Ryan Huffey, Food Bank Executive Director Debbie Love, Amelia Boyd, Owen Rust and Frankie Good. Courtesy photo.

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For kids and kids-at-heart, it’s hard to beat the cool factor of large, loud vehicles. Luckily, the Memorial Community Center in Hope knows this well, and wants to bring every kind of kid the chance to experience these big rigs up close and personal at its Touch-a-Truck event on Saturday, May 22 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Among the big rigs at the event will be a Sam Owen Fire Department fire truck, an ambulance, an excavator and a dump truck. Kids and parents alike will have a chance to explore the vehicles and interact with the first responders and operators who drive them.

The Touch-a-Truck event will also feature games, rock painting, free hot dogs, popcorn, lemonade and other snacks.

A photographer will be on hand to take family photos.

MCC Board Chair Dawn Brinker said

the nonprofit hopes to use the event to promote its preschool program, which serves the youth of Hope, Clark Fork and the surrounding area.

“We want to bring our preschool to the attention of families with young children since we believe so deeply in the value of a preschool education for our children,” Brinker said. “Our [local] Kindergarten teachers have told us how much better prepared our preschoolers are than those children without the advantage of this experience.”

She said that families who attend the Touch-a-Truck event will have the chance to meet the center’s preschool teacher and sign up for the 2021-’22 school year.

Tuition assistance is available.

“Nothing is more at the heart of our Memorial Community Center than our preschool,” Brinker said.

The Memorial Community Center is located at 415 Wellington Place in Hope.

Those with questions can call 208-2645481.

Our readers have been very busy snapping photos of springtime activities. We always appreciate seeing your photo submissions.

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

Top left: Spring runoff at Kilroy Bay. Photo taken by Karen Hempstead and Steve Smith.

Top right: A May Day celebration at the Sandpoint Waldorf School. Photo by Lisa Cirac.

Bottom left: “As my guitar gently weeps...” A cool painting of a guitar on a rock in the middle of the Moyie River spotted by Arleen and Guy Lothian.

Bottom right: Enjoying the Reader on a fine spring evening by the Fire. Photo by Beth Pederson.

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FEATURE

The Falcon lands in North Idaho An unlikely story of espionage and betrayal

By Cameron Rasmusson Reader Contributor

In the early 1980s, North Idaho was the scene of international intrigue, which unfolded amid the mountains and forests outside Bonners Ferry. It’s a story that brought together unlikely characters, including a convicted Soviet spy and two local ne’er-do-well brothers now notorious for the slaying of a U.S. Forest Service agent.

Those brothers, James Kevin Pratt and Joseph Earl Pratt, are back in the news after the Idaho Commission of Parole and Pardons granted their release last month. The Pratt brothers were expected to serve life sentences for the 1989 killing of U.S. Forest Service officer Brent Jacobson. By that time, they’d built up a substantial criminal history, including a spree of bank robberies that landed their associate, escaped Soviet spy Christopher Boyce, back behind bars.

The Falcon and the Snowman By the time Boyce arrived in North Idaho in 1980, he was already a legendary character.

His exploits as a defense industry employee-turned-Soviet spy were the talk of the nation following the 1979 publication of the bestselling book, The Falcon and the Snowman, by journalist Robert Lindsey. Later adapted into a hit 1985 movie starring Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn, the book recounts the extraordinary events that led to Boyce’s first stint in prison.

A brilliant 21-year-old with a love for falconry, Boyce worked in aerospace firm TRW’s highly secure “black vault” in 1974.

The position exposed him to top-secret documents and sensitive U.S. military secrets, including its spy satellite systems.

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Mugshots from Christopher Boyce’s arrest in the late 1970s. Courtesy images.

U.S. government after seeing misrouted cables detailing the CIA’s plots against Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

Believing that sharing the information with the press wouldn’t change anything, he instead decided to share U.S. secrets with the Soviet Union. Boyce recruited his high-school friend Andrew Daulton Lee, known as the Snowman for his history of cocaine and heroin dealing, to deliver sensitive documents to the Soviet embassy in Mexico City in exchange for money.

“I decided that my enemy and the enemy of everybody was the American intelligence community,” Boyce told Sandpoint Magazine in 2014. “I was just full of myself and I thought that I ought to do the worst possible thing to the intelligence community that I could.”

The secret-sharing enterprise quickly unraveled after Lee’s 1977 arrest by Mexican police.

Both Lee and Boyce were convicted of espionage and sent to federal prison.

According to Boyce, prison life was a rough, dangerous existence; so, in January 1980, he escaped. Boyce outmaneuvered pursuing officers all the way to North Idaho, where he found shelter in a cabin outside Bonners Ferry.

“People were being murdered all around me … so I

escaped to save my life,” he told CNN in 2013.

Partnership and betrayal According to press reports recounting their history, James and Joseph Pratt were no strangers to rough living. Lee Turner, who occasionally employed Joe Pratt as a bouncer at the Cowgirl Corral in Sandpoint, recalled that he’d been mixed up with drugs in the past and was trying to go straight. But there were other opinions, too.

“To me, those kids were arrogant little jerks,” Marvin Lutes, chief deputy U.S. marshal for Eastern Washington assigned to the Boyce investigation, told the Spokesman-Review.

In the mid-’80s, the Pratt brothers had a rare opportunity for a second chance after dodging lengthy prison sentences. And it was all because of Christopher Boyce.

The Pratts and Boyce had a shared associate in Gloria White, a local character in her own right. Described in press accounts as a “shotgun-toting widow” with a gold tooth, she was suspected of operating a safe house for Pacific Northwest bank robbers. Her isolated cabin outside Bonners Ferry is where Boyce took shelter after a month of evading recapture in California.

Boyce had already begun

his bank-robbing career by the time the Pratts, along with their brother, Brett, joined as accomplices. The group hit banks throughout Montana, Idaho and Washington, garnering hundreds or thousands of dollars in quick in-and-out holdups.

“That part of my life, doing that, is what I am most ashamed of, of all the crimes I committed,” Boyce told Sandpoint Magazine. “[Robbery is] scary for people, and the fact that I did that is what I regret most about my life.”

Meanwhile, Boyce began taking pilot lessons. In his sequel book, The Flight of the Falcon, journalist Robert Lindsey reported that Boyce planned to fly to Russia for asylum.

Boyce refutes that claim, telling Sandpoint Magazine his goal was to break his friend, Andrew Daulton Lee, out of prison using a helicopter.

Regardless, it all came to a stop when the authorities swooped in on Boyce at a Port Angeles, Wash., fast-food joint.

The Pratts had turned informant in exchange for immunity from prosecution. According to the Bonner County Daily Bee, during his 1989 trial, James Pratt “told the court he turned in Boyce out of love for his country and his family — and because Boyce owed him $100.”

“It was for the money, I

guess,” Pratt told the court of his bank robbery involvement, according to the Daily Bee. “I did it for the money.”

It wasn’t long before James and Joseph Pratt were back in trouble. In 1989, they invaded the home of Sagle resident Pete DeTorres in an armed robbery.

The subsequent manhunt ended in a shootout that claimed the life of U.S. Forest Service Officer Brent Jacobson.

“If the charges are true, it is quite unfortunate the immunity given the Pratt brothers in exchange for exaggerated and unreliable testimony against me now appears to have facilitated the unnecessary death of a law-enforcement officer,” Boyce told the Spokesman-Review from Oak Park Penitentiary.

The Long Road to Freedom There’s a strange parallel in the lives of Boyce and the Pratt brothers.

With convictions for a prison escape and bank robberies added atop the espionage conviction, one might think Boyce was bound for a life behind bars. But thanks to the work of paralegal Cait Mills, Lee secured parole in 1998, with Boyce following in 2002. Boyce and Mills married after his release.

Now, following a commission decision just under a month ago, the Pratt brothers join Boyce as unlikely parolees.

What the Pratts do with their freedom remains to be seen.

But for Boyce, at least based on his few media interviews following his release, he’s found some measure of peace after a turbulent life.

“I never thought, when I was in those solitary confinement cells, that I would ever get my life back,” he told Sandpoint Magazine. “To me, freedom is getting my life back.”

FEATURE

More than rain

It’s been a dry North Idaho spring so far, but several factors determine the trajectory of wildfire season

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff North Idahoans have long lived with the understanding that spring showers are a necessary fact of a four-season life. Rain means happy gardens, greener fields and, most notably in recent years, better defense against wildfire.

Locals may have noticed that strong spring showers have evaded the Panhandle this spring, and they aren’t wrong: According to their National Weather Service in Spokane, Bonner County saw 25-50% of its normal precipitation between March and April.

When considering all of the other factors used to quantify dryness — soil moisture, drought index, snow-water equivalent in the snowpack — the experts are coming to the same conclusion as residents watching the weather forecast, searching for rain.

According to Predictive Services and the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center, who team up to release a monthly fire outlook report throughout the summer, the Northern Rockies region — which encompasses the Idaho Panhandle — is “abnormally dry.” However, the spring snowpack is 85%-100% of average, and runoff is resulting in “near-normal streamflow.”

Yet, “[b]y all of these metrics, it has been a dry year so far in the Idaho Panhandle,” said Kary Maddox, Idaho Panhandle National Forests fire public affairs official. “When it comes to applying this kind of data to wildfire season, the next month and a half will be far more telling for the trajec-

The Idaho Panhandle is seeing “normal” fire potential for the month of May. Map courtesy of Predictive Services and the National Interagency Fire Center, which release new maps monthly as more fire potential data becomes available.

tory for the season, but precipitation is only one of many interacting factors.”

Maddox added that North Idaho has seen years of “very low precipitation” without seeing a corresponding jump in acres burned. The moral of the story? The current lack of rainfall won’t make or break the chances of local wildfires.

“Temperature, wind, terrain and fuels, combined with location, timing of starts and human factors all contribute to the pace of a fire season,” she said, noting that prescribed fire is one of the “best proactive measures for lessening the impacts of wildfire.”

IPNF has performed about

3,000 acres of prescribed burning so far in spring of 2021.

Another factor on the experts’ radar is Energy Release Component, a metric used to track moisture in both live and dead forest fuels such as timber, brush and grass. Because ERC is tracked May 10-Oct. 20, Maddox said there is no conclusive data yet for the current year. However, further into the summer, fire managers will use the ERC as a “decision tool,” she said, for better understanding the season’s trajectory, managing daily staffing and providing situational awareness for wildland firefighters.

Situational awareness is also something that can start at home

with every single North Idaho resident. Maddox said it is important to have an evacuation plan for your family, and to sign up for emergency alerts from local authorities. In Bonner County, you can visit bonnerso. org, scroll to the bottom of the home page and find the link to Nixle, the alert system used by the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office. Once signed up, you receive text messages with local safety alerts regarding fires, traffic accidents and more.

Maddox also recommended that residents implement Idaho Firewise principles in their yards: minimizing fuels, incorporating hardscaping, storing recreational equipment

and firewood away from the house, and more. Learn more at idahofirewise.org.

On trips away from home, particularly into the woods, fire safety is paramount as Idaho prepares to enter what’s shaping up to be a dry summer.

“Human-caused wildfires are responsible for the vast majority of fires that threaten homes and infrastructure,” Maddox said. “Always carry a bucket, shovel and fire extinguisher; check for dragging chains; do not park in dry grass; and never leave a campfire unattended.”

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events May 13-20, 2021

THURSDAY, May 13

Live Music w/ Brian Jacobs 6-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

Longshot Trivia 7-10pm @ The Longshot Prizes to the winners!

FriDAY, May 14

Live Music w/ Red Blend 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Live Music w/ Dario Re Duet 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz 6-8pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co.

Live Music w/ Weibe Jammin & Ken Mundel 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Special guest Ken Mundel sitting in on the Sax Cornhole w/ 7B Baggers 6pm @ The Longshot Friday Night Flight all night, also

SATURDAY, May 15

Live Music w/ Jason Perry Band 8pm @ 219 Lounge Funk and soul meets rock ‘n’ roll Live Music w/ Lucas Brown & full band 8-10pm @ The Longshot Sandpoint Farmers’ Market 9am-1pm @ Farmin Park

Live Music w/ Joe & Maya 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

Live Music w/ Echo Elysium 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery A nuanced and dynamic electric and acoustic guitarist playing in PNW for 10 years

SunDAY, May 16

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

Piano Sunday w/ 3-5pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

Interactive Bingo 6-7:30pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery

monDAY, May 17

Monday Night Blues Jam w/ Truck Mills 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

Outdoor Experience Monday Night Group Run – All levels welcome 6pm @ Outdoor Experience Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s Restaurant “Reboot Your Life: The Art of Turning Your Life Around.”

tuesDAY, May 18 wednesDAY, May 19

Sandpoint Farmers’ Market 3-5:30pm @ Farmin Park

Live Music w/ Hardwood Heart 7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub

ThursDAY, May 20 Live Music w/ Kerry Leigh 6-8pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

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COMMUNITY

Ken’s Friends project to benefit LillyBrooke Family Justice Center Fundraiser happening at both local Mountain West Bank locations May 14-21

By Reader Staff The Inland Northwest Chapter of Canine Companions for Independence and Mountain West Bank are teaming up for a special project benefiting the kids of Sandpoint’s LillyBrooke Family Justice Center, raising funds at both the Sandpoint and Ponderay bank locations starting Friday, May 14 through Friday, May 21.

The project, titled Ken’s Friends, is named for Ken — the beloved black Labrador retriever who “has been comforting children and vulnerable adults as they work their way through the justice system for several years now,” according to local CCI Community Outreach Coordinator Lilly Mitsui.

Ken does much of his work at LillyBrooke, where victims of abuse can go for free, confidential services and support.

He is also a graduate of CCI, which is a

national nonprofit known for providing free service dogs to people in need.

“Kids, in particular, are often put in compromising positions being asked to share very difficult details about what they’ve been through and/or what they’ve seen or know about,” Mitsui said, adding later: “Ken creates a special bond with each child he encounters and they truly fall in love with him.”

CCI offers mini plush puppy toys designed to look like their service dogs.

Mitsui said the Inland Northwest Chapter is hoping to provide 120 of those toys — in the black Lab version, to represent Ken — to LillyBrooke Director Peggy Frye so that “she can present [one] to each child that is comforted by Ken to take home with them,” Mitsui said. The 120-plush-puppy goal would provide Frye with enough toys for about a year.

Visitors to local Mountain West Bank branches during the fundraiser will have

the chance to purchase a $10 toy for LillyBrooke, and each one will have Ken’s name embroidered on its service vest. Additionally, Ken will be visiting both bank locations on the fundraiser’s first day.

Those with questions about the Ken’s

Ken, the beloved black Labrador retriever trained to comfort children and adults in the justice system. Courtesy photo.

Friends project can contact Judy Baird at the Ponderay Mountain West Bank at 208-265-2232.

Litehouse presents check to YMCA Basketball School of Sandpoint to help fund youth programs announces July camps Partnership will bring Safe Sitter and Junior Lifeguard programs to Sandpoint Community

By Reader Staff Litehouse, Inc. on May 7 presented a check to the local YMCA, which bears the company’s name, to help fund two programs focused on training and empowering local youth in valuable life skills.

The partnership with the Litehouse YMCA to launch the Safe Sitter and Junior Lifeguard programs for the Sandpoint community help bring important training and education to children and adolescents.

The Safe Sitter program is designed to teach adolescents important babysitting skills. Not only does this program help keep our children safe, it also provides valuable skills to local youth to be able to earn money by offering babysitting services.

In addition, the Junior Lifeguard program will also help children in the community by providing important lifeguarding skills and training around water safety. The program is designed for youth ages 12-15 that are strong swimmers and have an interest in helping others or pursuing a career in lifeguarding.

Courtesy photo.

Litehouse YMCA Branch Executive Tammy Campbell stated, “It is important that we continue to teach our young people that water safety in our area needs to remain a top priority for everyone.”

“Litehouse is committed to having a positive impact on the communities where our employees live and work,” said Litehouse President and CEO Kelly Prior.

“We value the importance of education and youth skills development to inspire and nurture the potential of our communities’ children, and are extremely excited to partner with the YMCA to bring these initiatives to life.”

By Reader Staff The Basketball School of Sandpoint will offer two co-ed basketball camps this summer: one for kids ages 7-10 and another for 11-15 year olds.

Both camps are scheduled to run July 19-23 at Kootenai Elementary School, with the younger camp playing 9 a.m.-noon each day. The older group will take the court 1-4 p.m According to organizers, campers will be grouped based on ability and taught fundamentals, including ball handling, passing, shooting, rebounding and defense daily. They will also participate in creative games, competitions, races and tournaments — all while developing skills.

All campers will receive a T-shirt and everyone will have the chance to compete for camp championship trophies.

Camp costs $105 for one player, $200 for a set of two siblings or $295 for a set of three siblings.

Register at basketballschoolofsandpoint.com. It is suggested to complete registration before July 5 to ensure your

Two young participants in the Basketball School of Sandpoint summer camps. Courtesy photo. player will receive a BSS T-shirt on the first day of camp.

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FOOD

As fresh as it gets

Shrimp farm AquaPrawnics, in Noxon, brings the future of seafood to the small-town West

By Lyndsie Kiebert Reader Staff When Cory Diamond approaches Sandpoint restaurant owners about purchasing fresh, saltwater shrimp from his operation in Noxon, Mont., he said it takes a moment for the offer to sink in.

“It’s just kind of odd,” he said. “It takes people a second to realize what’s going on.”

This oddity is AquaPrawnics, an indoor shrimp farm located on Highway 200 just across the Idaho border — about 50 miles southeast of Sandpoint along the Clark Fork River. The nearest naturally-occuring saltwater shrimp can be found no nearer than about 440 miles to the west, in the Puget Sound of Washington, explaining the confusion.

Diamond — who serves as an aquatechnician for the company — said that the start-up’s Noxon location has less to do with its natural surroundings than the affordability and proximity to hydropower; as it turns out, operating climate-controlled, warm saltwater tanks to farm shrimp is a pretty energy-intensive process.

However, according to Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, indoor shrimp farms with recirculating aquaculture systems are the “Green Best

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Choice” for sourcing shrimp — the largest seafood market in the United States, a country which imports 90% of its shrimp.

While these farm operations are not necessarily new, they require more intricate infrastructure than outdoor pond farms and wild-caught shrimp operations around the world.

“The technology is not super new, it’s just that it’s pretty difficult to get the science correct,” Diamond said, noting that the process entails constant monitoring of water chemistry. “We’re mimicking the outdoor environment inside our tanks … You can think of our tanks as a little incubator.”

The sustainability of the operation paired with future plans to create fertilizer with the facility’s waste means that AquaPrawnics is on the forefront of the most ethical and forward-thinking seafood movement in the world.

Because AquaPrawnics does not feed its shrimp hormones, antibiotics or any other additives, Diamond said he’s found the company’s product to be cleaner than the competitors.

When he makes a harvest for a local order, the shrimp are plucked from the tanks and immediately taken to their destination. That kind of freshness can’t even be found in oceanside cities like Santa Barbara, Calif., where shrimp might sit on boats

for days before reaching onshore markets, he said.

“I’m taking some to the Wayside [Bar and Grill in Trout Creek] later this afternoon,” Diamond said. “I’m going to pull the shrimp out of the water, and within a half hour I’ll be driving to deliver them to the Wayside.

We are giving you the freshest seafood you can possibly get.”

AquaPrawnics completed its first shrimp harvest in December, and has been slowly ramping up production in the months since.

Diamond said that the company hosted a soft opening earlier this spring, selling shrimp by the pound to locals. They sold out, and now have plans for a grand opening the weekend of June 25.

The Noxon storefront will be open for sales, and there will be a demonstration tank set up in Thompson Falls during the annual county-wide yard sale event.

AquaPrawnics shrimp can also be found in restaurants around

Top: A bag of AquaPrawnics shrimp fresh from their tank, headed to Wayside Bar and Grill in Trout Creek.

Right: The farmed shrimp in their final, delicious form.

Courtesy photos.

the area, including in Sandpoint.

AquaPrawnics is only in the beginning stages of its broader goal to be a zero-waste facility providing a quality product that’s in high demand across the country. It’s a big dream finding its footing in a discreet facility just off the highway in rural Montana, where — despite initial disbelief from many of the people Diamond talks to — there really is fresh shrimp for the taking.

“Almost every single type of shrimp you’re going to get has been previously frozen,”

Diamond said, adding later: “It is really, really difficult — I can’t emphasize it enough, how difficult it is to find fresh, clean shrimp.”

AquaPrawnics is located at 1212 US-200 in Noxon, Mont.

To keep up-to-date on developments at AquaPrawnics, find the company on Facebook at facebook.com/AquaPrawnics.

Those interested in sourcing AquaPrawnics shrimp for their local restaurant can call 406847-8755.

STAGE & SCREEN

Hurts so good

HBO series Mare of Easttown is a gorgeous crime show with real human emotion at its core

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff As the old adage goes, “hurt people hurt people.” That is to say, those who have been hurt in turn hurt others, perpetuating harm that damages — and frequently destroys — families, communities, even whole countries.

What everyone from faith leaders to counselors and social scientists call “a vicious cycle” is the dark engine at work within the seven-episode HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown, which stars Kate Winslet in the title role of a detective trying to solve a series of murders and disappearances while navigating the battlefield of her personal life.

Mare Sheehan has clearly been hurt — she’s divorced, her son committed suicide and she’s locked in a struggle with her junkie daughter-in-law over custody of her grandson. Meanwhile, she lives with her snarky, elderly mom; her relationship is strained with her daughter, a good kid coming of age in the shadow of Mare’s many psychic injuries; and she has all the troubles besetting her hometown to deal with, too.

That said, the “town” in Mare of Easttown is what really makes the show stand out. There are many, many shows that follow the same basic formula: a conflicted cop with a tragic backstory has to confront a host of personal and social demons in a complex case that frequently involves violence done to young women. It’s part of an overarching genre that The New York Times calls “Middle American miserabilism.”

However, few such shows rise to the fine-grained, empathetic and genuine feel for the places in which this miserabilism plays out. In Mare of Easttown, that place is a rundown suburb of Philadelphia — a place that looks like it had a fairly prosperous past, but which has since decayed from poverty, addiction and just plain weariness.

Mare herself is an avatar for Easttown, where 25 years ago she became a local hero with a near-miraculous winning shot in a high-school championship basketball game.

The townsfolk still remember her past glory, but it makes their disappointment in her — and her disappointment in herself — for failing to crack the case(s) before her all the more bitter.

There is the sense, as Mare struggles with increasing desperation to hold onto the threads of the investigation and her life, that much of her intensity, even rage, flows from a super-charged sense of imposter syndrome.

She needs so much for something — anything — to work out that she more often than

not blurs the line between right and wrong, police procedure and extralegal judgment.

Again, this “bad-good cop” trope is nothing new, but in Mare’s literal and figurative case it’s more compelling as it stems from her relationship with the community at large. She knows everything about everyone, and with that familiarity comes a tired kind of affectionate contempt that makes it easier for Mare to mete out rough justice when she feels it’s called for — whether she herself is right or wrong.

Winslet excels in every facet of her portrayal of Mare. From her unhappily sucking on a vape pen to her tired sips from a bottle of Rolling Rock to her thousand-yard stare to swings between pensive silence and explosive emotion, Winslet insinuates layer after layer of conflict and personality onto the character of Mare — even nailing the idiosyncratic west-Philadelphia accent and dialect.

The upshot of her performance is that Mare never feels inauthentic in her pain.

Too often, the damage wrought to other archetypal “complicated cops” is drawn in over-dramatic tones, drowning out their

Kate Winslet stars in the HBO Max series Mare of Easttown. Courtesy photo. essential humanity.

The audience believes that Mare’s hurts cause her to hurt others and others’ hurts cause them to hurt her. As she proceeds through life and work, Mare bears the unspoken weight that she is enmeshed in these various pains, which mount into that “Middle American miserabilism” half-derided by The Times’ review of the show. In respectful disagreement, there is nothing to even half deride about the sense of grim bewilderment that many Americans across the country feel as they do their damndest with lives snared in vicious cycles, whether they be psychological, economic, familial or otherwise.

More so than the cases ostensibly at the center of Mare of Easttown is its characters’ navigation through these cycles — either perpetuating them, trying to live with them or desperate to break them.

New episodes air every Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO Max.

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MUSIC

MCS Summer Academy 2021 will feature guest conductor Jan Pellant

By Reader Staff

The Music Conservatory of Sandpoint has announced plans for its Orchestra Camp Summer Academy 2021, featuring Jan Pellant as incoming guest conductor.

Orchestra camp is a twoweek camp with sessions in July and August for beginner and advanced groups. Pellant is coming to Sandpoint to lead MCS students through the second week.

Pellant has served for almost three years as artistic director and conductor of the Coeur d’Alene Symphony.

Prior to his current role, Pellant was music director of the Lexington Chamber Orchestra and conducted more than 30 leading orchestras across the world, including the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Or-

chestra and the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition, Pellant led performances with the Pilsen Opera, Ghana National and the University of Kentucky Opera Theater, and led the Prague Karlin Theater on an 11-city tour of Romania in 2007. He studied at the Prague Academy of the Performing Arts and holds degrees from the Prague Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Kentucky. Pellant has served as professor of conducting and orchestra studies on the faculty of the New York Conservatory and the International Conservatory in Prague.

In addition to Orchestra camp, MCS Summer Academy 2021 offers majors in piano, choir, theater, musical theater, percussion and chimes. Students can broaden their musical learning with

electives, choosing from ukulele, instrument art, games for the whole performer, recorder and more.

Two sessions of camp are offered to accommodate for social distancing: Session 1 is Monday, July 19-Friday, July 30 and Session 2 is Aug. 2-13.

Students have the option to

study one or two majors for each session of camp. Summer Academy has morning, afternoon and full-day options, depending on which major is chosen.

For more information visit sandpointconservatory.org. To register, call 208-265-4444.

Left: Guest conductor Jan Pellant of the Coeur d’Alene Symphony. Right: MCS instructors lead students in musical exercises. Photos courtesy MCS.

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint Open Mic Night, May 20, The Longshot Are you a musician looking for a stage to try some new tunes? Full of jokes? A poet with a passion for spoken word? Maybe harboring a set of pipes worthy of a Whitney Houston song?

Share those talents with a supportive audience every other Thursday at The Longshot, where the focus on Open Mic Night will be on the varied and brave set of performers. The house sound system will be ready for any and all musicians, poets, comedians and more. Sign-ups can be taken the night of the event, or ahead of time by emailing Longshot Event Director Rylie Beck at longshotsandpoint@gmail.com.

— Lyndsie Kiebert 7-10 p.m., FREE. The Longshot, 102 S. Boyer Ave., longshotsandpoint.com.

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Festival announces REO Speedwagon to play The Festival at Sandpoint announced the classic American rock band REO Speedwagon will take the main stage on Saturday, Aug. 7. Tickets went on sale May 12 and are available for purchase at festivalatsandpoint.com.

Formed in 1967, signed in 1971, and fronted by iconic vocalist Kevin Cronin since 1972, REO Speedwagon’s unrelenting drive — as well as non-stop touring and recording — jump-started the burgeoning Rock movement in the Midwest. Platinum albums and radio staples soon followed, setting the stage for the release of the band’s explosive Hi Infidelity in 1980, which contained the massive hit singles “Keep On Loving You” and “Take It On the Run.” That landmark album spent 15 weeks in the No. 1 slot and has since earned the RIAA’s coveted 10X Diamond Award for surpassing sales of 10 million units in the United States.

Today, REO Speedwagon has sold more than 40 million albums around the globe, and Cronin and bandmates Bruce Hall (bass), Neal Doughty (keyboards), Dave Amato (guitar) and Bryan Hitt (drums)

Courtesy photo. are still electrifying audiences worldwide in concert with hits and fan-favorites such as “In Your Letter,” “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” “Time For Me To Fly,” “Roll With The Changes,” “Keep On Loving You” and “Take It On the Run,” and many, many more Tickets are $69.95 for general admission. Gates open at 6 p.m. and the fun starts at 7:30 p.m.

MUSIC

‘Talent lurks in every corner’ MCS students complete adjudication

By Reader Staff The Oxford Dictionary describes adjudication as “a formal judgment on a disputed matter.” In the context of music adjudication, formal judgment is the high note while disputes fall flat. Recently, 39 students at the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint went through just that rigorous process of accessing their skills in a variety of artistic areas.

These dedicated students — playing instruments including piano, woodwinds and strings, along with those studying voice and drama — were exposed to a testing procedure that provides feedback to their performances. They were judged on their choice of music or speech, how their interpretation corresponded with what the composer intended and how well they executed the piece. The process builds sequentially over the years and is tailored to ability levels and performance goals.

“Adjudication measures progress,” MCS Executive Director Karin Wedemeyer said. “It establishes standards of excellence in music performance and is often a gateway to possible scholarships for the students’ music education, which may result in a career.”

The Festival at Sandpoint announced another performer for its upcoming concert series, and it’s an exciting one.

Shakey Graves will play the iconic summer concert series on Saturday, July 31.

The Festival at Sandpoint will be the first stop for Graves’ Was Here Tour, as well as the critically-acclaimed musician’s first performance since the release of his Roll the Bones X album.

Hailing from Austin, Texas, singer, songwriter and accomplished guitarist Alejandro Rose-Garcia, who plays under the stage name Shakey Graves, started

READ

If you crossed Moby-Dick with Huck Finn and placed them

in the middle of a Don Quixotic landscape of the American West, you would have Thomas Berger’s masterpiece Little Big Man. The movie starring Dustin Hoffman was excellent, but Berger’s novel about Jack Crabb, a 111-year-old man who roamed the desert with characters like Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok, is even better.

It’s one I try to read once every couple years to dip back into the magical world Berger created.

Board President Kathi Samuels said that students often participate in other testing opportunities, such as Musicfest Northwest, but having the adjudication at the school is beneficial.

“MCS decided to bring testing to Sandpoint in 2016. This is our fifth year offering free in-house testing to all students,” she said.

“Removing the barrier of cost and a lengthy drive has allowed our students to grow up with the adjudication experience. It is simply part of their study at MCS.” According to Samuels, this year’s adjudication panel included incoming MCS Music Director Matt Goodrich, who holds a DMA from the University of Washington

and is an active piano performer throughout the Northwest. In a typical year, without COVID-19, guest instructors from around the region have also been hosted.

After hours of listening and feedback, Goodrich shared accolades on the high quality of playing by so many students.

Students participating this year included those from the MCS Honors Program. On piano, honors’ students Alyssa Howarth, Cody Moore and Lark Waldrup played rehearsed pieces as well as fulfilling sight reading requirements.

Voice students who performed included Alanna Dixon, Jubalent Duvall, Brittany Hagen (with a theater emphasis) and Lucinda Meshberg.

Left: MCS vocal student Ben Murray at the piano. Right: MCS vocal student Cody Moore receives instruction from MCS Musical Director Matt Goodrich. Courtesy photos.

Raegan Samuels participated in woodwinds on the flute.

At the end of the three-day program, “Talent lurks in every corner,” Wedemeyer said. “If we do not keep participation in the arts accessible, we may miss addressing those who have outrageous talent.”

MCS plans adjudication annually and invites non-MCS students to participate when possible. For more information, or to learn more about the classes offered at the conservatory, call the 208-265-4444.

Shakey Graves to play Festival

By Reader Staff

This week’s RLW by Ben Olson

out as a one-man-band complete with foot pedals keeping the beat on tambourine and homemade kick drum. Combining blues, folk, country and rock ’n’ roll, Graves has developed an underground following for his unique sound that began bleeding into the mainstream music scene only a few years back.

Graves reissued his hit debut album Roll the Bones to celebrate its 10th anniversary in April, featuring never-before-heard original songs, demos and deep cuts. Since its release, the album has reached the U.S. Billboard 200, with other albums ranking in the top five on the Billboard Charts.

Joining Graves as a special

guest will be Tré Burt, a singer-songwriter based in Sacramento, Calif. Burt’s album Caught it From the Rye showcases his literary songwriting and lo-fi, rootsy aesthetic, which he honed while busking on the streets of San Francisco and traveling the world in search of inspiration. Like his label mate on Oh Boy Records and writing hero John Prine, Burt has a poet’s eye for detail, a surgeon’s sense of narrative precision and a folk singer’s natural knack for timeless melody.

Tickets for Shakey Graves and special guest Tré burt are on sale now for $44.95 general admission at festivalatsandpoint.com.

LISTEN

There was an era of sad ’90s music that I grew up listening to in my bedroom and later my car as I drove with a new license for the first time. The Red House Painters will always remind me of those free spring days when I’d cut out of school and drive up into the mountains, enjoying this new adult freedom. Their acoustic guitars and buttery-silk vocals in songs like “Have you Forgotten” are like a warm breeze on a cold day.

WATCH

HBO Max is streaming The Matrix trilogy now, which is a great time to watch the films again back-to-back-to-back. The first will always reign supreme, but the entire story was brilliantly done. I remember coming out of the theater my senior year in high school ducking imaginary bullets in slow-motion and waging mock kung-fu battles with my friends in the hallway.

Keanu Reeves is one of those actors who I really grew into. At first he was just a knucklehead, but gradually became a badass — a master of the physical craft it takes to produce an action movie like The Matrix.

Shakey Graves will play the Festival at Sandpoint on Saturday, July 31.

Courtesy photo.

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BACK OF THE BOOK

No crap From Sandpoint News-Bulletin, July 8, 1954

SATURDAY PARADE STARTED OFF BIG 3-DAY CELEBRATION Throngs of people crowded downtown streets Saturday morning to view one of the best parades to be staged in this city in recent years. As the opener of a three-day celebration for the Fourth of July, the mile-long parade demonstrated the results of community cooperation in the whole-hearted support given the Lions Club, sponsors of the event. Practically every club organization, fraternal order in teh county and several church groups participated in some manner.

A number of business concerns also made entries.

Adding color and music to the fete, the Kimberly, B.C. bagpipers swung through the streets to the swiel of their pipes, their kilts and brushes swinging in ryhthm of their music.

As the marchers swung onto First avenue a flight of four jet planes from Fairchild air force base, Spokane, flew in close formation over the business district. The planes made several passes over the city in admirable precision.

The Sandpoint high school marching band was another colorful unit in the parade.

The twirling teams, from advanced down to beginners, added sparkle.

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By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff

Undressing slogans and logos

For a solid six years in the 1990s, my claim to fame was wearing the same thing every day. By that I don’t mean the exact same clothing, just clothing that looked exactly the same. Specifically, from seventh grade to my senior year in high school, each morning I put on a fresh pair of khaki slacks, a black turtleneck and black sweatshirt.

I started out wearing brown penny loafers, but after my classmates took to throwing pennies at the back of my head in middle school math class, I converted to allblack shoes. Sometimes those shoes were sneakers, other times they were wingtips — point was, they didn’t have any “crap” on them, as I’d tell the shoe salespersons at J.C. Penney, by way of communicating that I wasn’t interested in swooshes or stripes or pumps or whatever.

“No crap,” was my mantra for all my clothing — and I have always rejected logos or slogans in general. When I began my experiment in radical, self-expressive sameness I reasoned that I wasn’t getting paid to be a walking billboard, so why should I be expected to advertise some brand, team, show, opinion, whathaveyou?

Hence, the most crapless stuff I could find were the plain khaki trousers, the turtleneck and sweater (though the latter did bear a small “USA” logo, which I figured I could live with as it was also black and thus blended in with the sweater at large).

The effect this had on my fellow students was widespread and sticks to me even today — long since I’ve branched out to different colors of slacks, shirts and sportcoats (the latter sometimes tweed, sometimes corduroy, sometimes linen, depending on the weather). At my 20-year Sandpoint High School reunion in 2019, there were

still former-classmates who remarked that I wasn’t wearing my “uniform.”

Yet, I retain the memory of my blackand-khaki years with a mingled sense of pride and embarrassment. As it became initially clear in the hallways of Sandpoint Middle School that I wasn’t going to alter my sartorial style amid the sea of Stussy and Mossimo, the enormously flared JNCO jeans and later puffy vests and boardshorts, the Adidas and Converse, I attained a kind of strange status, neither good nor bad.

People didn’t know quite what to do with me. I guess I was like a hitherto unseen species of animal; my plumage never changed, which ended up achieving an inverse kind of individuality. I conformed only to myself — at least in terms of my clothes, which when you’re 13 or 14, are much more important than they are at 39 or 40. (Though based on the willingness of so many so-called adults to wear their political affiliations literally on their sleeves and hats, I guess maybe that’s not so true.)

All that said, I’m not going to lie: Much of the impetus for my decision to adopt a yearslong commitment to a specific wardrobe flowed in part from a sense of inferiority — even fear — at not being considered cool.

Coming from Sagle Elementary to Sandpoint Middle School was scary, with all those “town kids” who went to bigger schools and already knew each other; I just knew I’d be immediately marked out as lame. Therefore, I reasoned I might as well lean into it.

Somewhat to my surprise, the members of the class of 1999 pretty quickly accepted my particular brand of eccentricity — I know that many others weren’t so lucky.

Regardless, they not only took it in stride, but actively recognized it as “me.”

Barring that, at least they weren’t overly mean-spirited about it (other than the penny-throwing incidents in Mr. Scherb’s

STR8TS Solution

Sudoku Solution

class… not that I hold a grudge…

OK, I kind of do).

I think about this now in the context of our current era of intense tribalism, when we could do a lot more to shed our conformist logos and slogans — on our clothes and elsewhere.

The author perfecting his sneer at Sandpoint Middle School, 1994-95. Courtesy photo.

Crossword Solution

Instead of mousetraps, what about baby traps?

Not to harm the babies, but just to hold them down until they can be removed.

By Bill Borders

CROSSWORD

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

Laughing Matter

Solution on page 22

Solution on page 22

ACROSS

machinate

Woorf tdhe Week

/MAK-uh-neyt/

[verb - used with or without object] 1. to contrive or plot, especially artfully or with evil purpose.

“The sly old man machinated a wild scheme upon the young man.”

Corrections: We had a glitch in the final layout sent to the printer that unfortunately cut of Sandpoint City Council Shannon Sherman’s quote at the conclusion of the article “Lions will host the Fourth of July,” in the May 6 edition of the Reader.

The last paragraph should have read: She added that while it’s “exciting that so many people are excited about the holiday,” it would be “very disheartening that this decision … would remove either of the parties from this year’s celebration.”

1. Bouquet 6. Blacken 10. Huh? 14. Discussion group 15. “Where the heart is” 16. German for “Mister” 17. Colonic 18. Sea eagle 19. Hodgepodge 20. Disarrayed 22. Enumerate 23. Anagram of “Smite” 24. Genders 25. Spread 29. They love to inflict pain 31. Open a gate 33. Living in water 37. Slogan 38. Untie 39. Conspicuous 41. Supplied a banquet 42. Genuine 44. Thorny flower 45. Inn 48. Forbidden 50. Astringent 51. Scientific workplace 56. Scrabble piece 57. Pearly-shelled mussel 58. Bog hemp 59. Not odd 60. Regrets 61. Genus of heath

Solution on page 22 62. A musical pause 10. Middleman 63. Anagram of “Sees” 11. Spiral 64. Discourage 12. Come up 13. Moves briskly 21. A decorative musical DOWN accompaniment 24.

An attention1. Acted like getting feat 2. Hindu princess 25.

Lacking 3. 1 1 1 1 intellectual acuity 4. Quick note 26. Rectal 5. Warning signal 27. Forearm bone 6. Long-legged 28. Fortress rampart spotted cat 30. Dirtiness 7. Terrible 32. Path 8. Memory loss 34. Tropical tuber 9. Marsh plant

35. Frosts 36. Formally surrender 40. Lockjaw 41. A car on a freight train 43. Hydrophobia 45. Despiser 46. Drink garnish 47. Large bulrushes 49. Rowed 51. Attraction 52. Container weight 53. Exclude 54. Type of cereal grass 55. 365 days

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