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PEOPLE compiled by

Susan Drinkard

watching

“Do you believe astrology has any validity or credence?”

“No, I don’t. I used to read my horoscope when I was younger until I realized whatever it said could apply to anyone with any sign.”

Bryton Coker Server/Farmhouse Kitchen Sandpoint

“I don’t believe in popular astrology, but that we are influenced by the cycles of the sun and moon is undeniable.”

Jason Grace School administrator Sandpoint Waldorf School Sandpoint

“I believe there is some validity to it because my personality fits with the astrological sign of my birthday, but I don’t necessarily believe in the daily horoscopes.”

Lisa Sutton Marketing consultant Sandpoint “Anyone who has dug deep enough into astrology to directly observe the phenomenon unfold knows its validity. Which I would argue is the only modern validation. It is the ‘why’ that is the deeper question that will haunt the minds of any intellectual Western practitioner.

Because there is no way to measure the mechanism behind the phenomenon, there simply is not a satisfactory modern answer. Yet it’s directly observable to anyone who earnestly pursues to understand this ancient language.”

Dan DeLaVergne Astrologer Sagle

“I do believe it has validity.

The full moon has impact on our daily behaviors, actions, and how we perceive things— especially in the retail environment.”

Vanessa Grocery buyer Sandpoint

DEAR READERS,

Sept. 22 officially marked the first day of fall. I’m glad to see it, actually. It’s always a little bittersweet to watch the warm days of summer fade away, but this year I was pretty much over summer by July. Now I’m looking forward to quiet, brisk walks in the woods, surprise sunny days on the lake, raking big piles of leaves for the neighbor kids to play with and busting out the flannel shirts from the closet again (if you live in North Idaho and have less than five flannel shirts, you’re doing it wrong).

This is also a great time of year to get in a few rounds of golf, start harvesting and cleaning up the garden, canning, reading or connecting with old friends who have kept their distance from downtown during summer. We appreciate the tourist dollars that come in every year, but I think I can speak for most of you when I say we also appreciate the quiet when they’re gone.

This is our time again. Our town. Here’s hoping you find some joy out there in the autumnal glory of late September in North Idaho.

– 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: Woods Wheatcroft (cover) Ben Olson, Susan Drinkard, Bill Borders, Clark Corbin Contributing Writers: Zach Hagadone, Ben Olson, Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey, Lorraine H. Marie, Audrey Dutton, Rep. Ilana Rubel, Rep. Lauren Necochea, Rep. Sally Toone, Brenden Bobby, K.L. Huntley, Marcia Pilgeram Submit stories to: stories@sandpointreader.com Printed weekly at: Tribune Publishing Co. Lewiston, ID Subscription Price: $155 per year Web Content: Keokee The Sandpoint Reader is a weekly publication owned and operated by Ben Olson and Keokee. It is devoted to the arts, entertainment, politics and lifestyle in and around Sandpoint, Idaho.

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

The Reader is printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink.

Leftover copies are collected and recycled weekly, or burned in massive bonfires to appease the gods of journalism. Free to all, limit two copies per person.

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

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

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

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

About the Cover

This week’s cover photograph was taken at the Sand Creek Regatta on Sept. 18 by Woods Wheatcroft.

The boat pictured is the Reader raft, which ultimately won the race.

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NEWS

P&Z denies Sand Creek development ordinance rewrite Commissioners request council convene a public workshop

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff Sandpoint Planning and Zoning Commission members voted Sept. 21 to recommend denial of Title IX zoning changes governing construction within the 25-foot setback on Sand Creek, amending the measure to set up a public workshop to gather more feedback.

“This is substantial, this is a huge change,” said P&Z Commission Chairman Jason Welker.

“This is such a major change that I do wish the public had been more involved by workshops.”

Commissioners have looked at the proposed zoning code change already, beginning in July, when city staff brought the proposal before the body as a necessary means to realizing the concepts envisioned in the Parks and Rec. Master Plan, which includes public gathering spaces as well as stormwater management infrastructure.

After the July meeting, commissioners cited community response to the code change when they delayed an Aug. 17 hearing to Sept. 7. It was then when a majority of commissioners agreed that the code amendment needed to include a conditional use permit requirement for anything built within 25 feet of the high water mark.

City staff returned Sept. 21 with a further revised code amendment, which interim Planning Director Daren Fluke said both addressed commissioners’ concerns that any development near the water’s edge be subject to a conditional use permit process and “is considerably more restrictive than what is in the current code.”

“Buildings are required to be set back 25 feet, full stop,” Fluke said, however, the definition of a structure — whether it be a “functionally dependent water use” or not, proved to be a sticking point with some commissioners.

The proposed ordinance allows “structures and functionally dependent water uses including but not limited to: bridges, boardwalks, stormwater 4 /

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systems, plazas, walkways, access stairways and features, moorage facilities, stream stabilization and art features … above or below the applicable high-water mark,” so long as they secure a conditional use permit.

Other buildings would be set back 25 feet from the artificial high water mark (which is determined by the functioning of the dams that raise and lower Lake Pend Oreille on a seasonal basis), but also allow buildings 25 feet from the ordinary water mark — that is, the natural water’s edge, which in winter can be substantially lower than full summer pool — if no artificial high water mark can be determined.

Finally, the other major change in the amended ordinance is the elimination of the previous requirement that structures other than the “functionally dependent water uses” otherwise outlined be set back from the water by a 25-foot “vegetative buffer,” which has existed in code primarily as a method of stormwater management.

Though waterfront development has been on the city’s agenda for years — the Farmin’s Landing is a central part of the Parks and Rec. Master Plan, which leverages stormwater management into economic development via the reorientation of the downtown core to face Sand Creek — both city officials and residents have recently balked at the implications of building along the waterway.

Resident Pam Duquette, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years and recently retired from a career in teaching, shared her concern with the “detrimental effect of over-development” that she worried would result from the proposed code amendment.

“We start with development and it ends up being over-developed,” she said at the Sept. 21 meeting.

Resident George Rickert put a finer point on it: “How does this ordinance make Sandpoint a better place to live? Not for developers, not for bankers, but Sandpoint residents?”

Patty Shook, another longtime

Sandpointian, said she “hate[s] what’s happening here” and feared that the code amendment would open up creekside development all the way to the Popsicle Bridge.

“It just makes me sick,” she testified to the P&Z commissioners. “I just beg of you not to ruin our beautiful creek just to line — further line — developers’ pockets.”

Local environmental and conservation activist Helen Yost, who leads the group Wild Idaho Rising Tide, testified that, “We really believe that these changes in city ordinance are going to open up Sand Creek to over-development into the water and there won’t be enough regulation … much less monitoring of these situations when Sand Creek gets polluted by construction or destruction.”

Yost, however, commended commissioners for asking tough questions of city staff about the intent of the ordinance change — an important balancing act of public goods such as economic development, recreation and private property rights with federal and state regulations, public access and (as had originally been the impetus for the downtown waterfront project) protection of water quality.

Resident Rebecca Holland, who cited 46 years in Bonner County, called foul on the scope of the ordinance, claiming it “points to over-development disguised as recreation,” delivering more bodies to “sitting on a deck, spending

money to enrich developers and looking at the water” than could be accessing the creekside as bicyclists or pedestrians.

Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper Executive Director Steve Holt similarly worried that the city’s reworking of zoning code went too far beyond the mission of treating downtown stormwater.

“This is not enhancing water quality,” he said.

Fluke, the interim planner, reminded commissioners that the plans have been on the books for a long time to increase public access to Sand Creek, and that the waterway should be considered the “front yard” of Sandpoint.

“We’re on record as a city wanting those kinds of amenities,” he said.

Commission Chairman Welker took a moment to puzzle and opine: “I kind of wonder how we ended up here.”

He said he was “wooed by the vision for Farmin’s Landing” as presented in the Parks and Rec. Master Plan, but has since become concerned that the proposed code amendment that would enable much of it will embrace too much Sand Creek waterfront — potentially opening it to development that would ultimately be detrimental to both water quality and affordability.

“It frustrates me that we’re being asked to adopt an ordinance that transforms 1,000 yards of waterfront,” Welker said, when the

Looking south down Sand Creek at high water. Photo by Ben Olson. original plan was to focus on the “50 yards of waterfront” identified as Farmin’s Landing, or the area from Bridge Street north to the Panida Theater.

Welker said that in his conversations with downtown business owners, he found that many recognized “the future is not for them if the kind of development this could attract comes to Sandpoint.”

In recognition of community opposition and the potential longterm impact of the decision, the commission voted to hold off on a decision, though Commissioner Mo Dunkel was the sole dissenting vote, stating that while the amended ordinance wasn’t perfect (at one point asking, “What are we really getting at? What are we really OK with?”), “I would pass this as-is, with my input being there’s more to add. … This is a working document.”

Dunkel said, “I believe it is a step in the right direction,” but suggested that “developers are getting a bad name.”

The Planning and Zoning Commission’s recommendation of denial, yet request for a public workshop, will now go to the City Council, which may vote to approve the amended ordinance or take P&Z’s lead and open the issue for more community participation — date(s) to be determined.

NEWS

Medics shift focus to keeping patients at home BoCo EMS to use Rescue Plan dollars to cover costs, manage flood of COVID calls

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff Bonner County Emergency Medical Services Chief Jeff Lindsey obtained approval from county commissioners Sept. 21 to transfer funds from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act trust account for both the current and upcoming fiscal years.

Citing increased call volumes — due mostly to coronavirus cases — heightened costs of medical supplies and a loss of revenue from current operations, as EMS attempts to keep patients at home rather than transporting them to Bonner General Hospital, it’s a dire situation.

“A lot of our revenue is based on transporting people,” Lindsey told commissioners.

“With the hospitals being full, and crisis standards of care being enacted throughout the state, we are now trying to work on keeping people in their homes rather than transporting them to the hospital.”

Commissioners unanimously approved Lindsey’s request to transfer $269,000 to help EMS maintain operations under the current budget, as well as $531,300 to “mitigate COVID-related calls and increased costs of their supplies” in the 2022 fiscal year. While Bonner County is slated to receive $8.8 million from the federal stimulus package, Clerk Mike Rosedale told the Reader during the budgeting process that those funds were designated for use on water and sewer projects, broadband expansion and other infrastructure not under Bonner County control. However, ARPA funds can also be used, under federal guidelines, to support EMS services during the pandemic.

Now that hospitals statewide have activated crisis standards operations, meaning that resources are prioritized for

the most severe cases in overwhelmed health care facilities, local EMS is feeling the pressure to “stem the tide” of patients going to the hospital, according to Lindsey.

Bonner County EMS is currently experiencing twice its average call volume for this time of year, with 80-90% of those calls being COVID complications. To keep up with demand, Lindsey has an additional ambulance staffed at all times — a massive cost he plans to cover with the help of ARPA funds. The funds will also cover the inflated cost of medical supplies (a box of gloves increased from $2 to $8 during the pandemic), as well as UVC lights for a couple of new ambulances — a technology that uses special lights to disinfect the unit after transporting a patient — and automated CPR machines that prevent medics from having to be face-to face with highly contagious COVID-cardiac arrest patients.

The ARPA funds will also fill the financial gap as EMS loses revenue in favor of keeping patients at home, rather than transporting them to BGH. Lindsey said a recent call to treat a severely dehydrated COVID patient in Sagle is a perfect example of current EMS practices.

The medic administered fluids and an anti-nausea medication, then stayed with the patient until they felt better, also encouraging them to follow up with their primary physician.

“Normally we would take that patient to the hospital, no questions asked,” Lindsey said.

“But, under crisis standards of care, my medics are going to be treating you at home if possible … We’re going to make you comfortable. We are going to do basically what the hospital is going to do without taking you to the hospital and then having you discharged home.”

Lindsey said that in his 27

years as an EMS professional, he’s never felt so close to a “collapse” in the health care system.

While he sees the broader issue as “politically motivated by both right and left sides,” Lindsey sees himself as “the guy in the center” as he and his crews “try to drown out all that white noise in the background.”

“I’ve got patients who need help, and we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to help these people, and I don’t care if

they’ve had the vaccine or not had the vaccine, whatever,” he said. “Our job as emergency medical service providers is to get these people help, and if we can’t take them to the hospital then we have to figure out how we’re going to help them where they’re at.”

Lindsey said it is “frustrating” to hear community members calling the virus a “conspiracy” or spreading rumors that the “hospitals aren’t full.”

Bonner County EMS is experiencing twice its average call volume for this time of year. Courtesy photo.

“Feel free — not literally — but feel free to come walk in our shoes and see what we see on a daily basis,” he said. “Same with the hospitals. Go walk in a nurse’s shoes. Go walk in a physician’s shoes. Do what they do, and stop making unsubstantiated statements like that, which isn’t helping anything.”

BoCo anti-mandate resolution workshop postponed

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff The Board of Bonner County Commissioners announced on the office’s Facebook page Sept.

20 that a workshop regarding an anti-mandate resolution has been postponed.

Originally slated for Sept. 24, the workshop will now be held Friday, Oct. 22 at 9 a.m. in the first floor meeting room of the Bonner County Administration Building, located at 1500 Highway 2 in Sandpoint.

According to the office, the postponement is due to “sched-

uling issues.”

“It is incredibly important that all three commissioners be present, in person,” county personnel wrote. “Thank you and sorry for the delay.”

The resolution, originally presented by Commissioner Steve Bradshaw on Aug. 31, is meant to secure the county’s stance against “unconstitutional mandates” largely related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The board discussed the resolution at its next two business meetings, with Commissioners Dan McDonald and Jeff Connolly sharing concerns about the resolution’s

legality.

Citizens in support of Bradshaw’s resolution requested a chance to workshop it with the commissioners.

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NEWS

Trestle Creek Complex nearly contained, forest closures lifted

As the West bids farewell to the worst of fire season, Biden pays a visit

President Joe Biden lands in Boise and disembarks from Air Force One. Photo by Clark Corbin, Idaho Capital Sun.

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff Wetting rains and cooling temperatures are helping bring this year’s fire season to a close — a milestone highlighted by the near-complete containment of the 6,600-acre Trestle Creek Complex fire, located about four miles north of Hope in northeast Bonner County.

The blaze, sparked by lightning on July 7, was originally six separate fires that merged together. Over the past two months, evacuation orders have come and gone; and, now at 97% contained, fire managers have rescinded all area closures related to the fire. The Trestle Creek Complex is currently seeing only minimal fire activity with some interior smoldering, according to Idaho Panhandle National Forest officials.

“While the wildfire is no longer in danger of expanding, the Forest Service still urges visitors to use caution when entering the area,” IPNF stated Sept.

17. “Wildfires can weaken trees, loosen rocks and other debris that can roll into roadways or permit flash floods, and heat pockets can remain in the ground for months. Campfire restrictions have also been removed, but fuels remain very dry in places and visitors are urged to practice fire safety, ensuring all fires are DEAD OUT before leaving their campsite.”

On Sept. 13, U.S. President Joe Biden became the first chief executive officeholder to visit Boise’s National Interagency Fire Center, according to NPR. The outlet reported that the fire center has been operating at its highest level 6 /

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of deployment throughout much of the summer due to the West’s unprecedented fire season.

“The reality is we have a global warming problem, a serious global warming problem, and it’s consequential, and what’s going to happen is things are not going to go back,” Biden said during his visit to Idaho’s capital city.

NPR reports that the 2021 fire season had seen more than 43,000 starts and burned 5.4 million acres at the time of Biden’s tour through the western states — slightly more than last year’s harrowing season.

“Two-thirds of Idaho is public land managed by the federal government, and it is imperative we keep lines of communication open with our federal partners — right up to the president — on ways to build a more fire resilient range and forest ecosystem,” Idaho Gov. Brad Little stated in a media release following Biden’s visit.

The governor said he spent his “limited time with the president” sharing Idaho’s “incredible progress” in implementing collaborative programs like the Good Neighbor Authority and Shared Stewardship meant to help parties at every level of government and private industry work together to responsibly manage forest land.

“There is plenty I disagree with the president on right now,” Little continued, referring to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other national issues on which the GOP governor and Democratic POTUS are at odds, “but today we came together to listen to one another and discuss solutions on wildfire.”

View updates on active wildfires at inciweb.nwcg.gov.

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: Last Friday, 318 days after the election in 2020, former President Donald Trump via a letter asked the Georgia secretary of state to decertify that state’s election results “or whatever the correct legal remedy is” so he could reclaim the presidency. Trump did not claim fraud, according to The Washington Post, but did claim a violation of chain of custody rules, which he said would make 43,000 ballots invalid.

It took 19 months for the nation to reach one in 500 people having died from COVID-19, The Washington Post reported. The death toll exceeded 663,000 last week. The figure in low-vaccinated Mississippi was one in 320 dying from COVID-19, according to Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Worldwide, Reuters says 58% of the population has yet to receive even one vaccination dose, creating a vibrant playground for COVID-19 and its variants.

Worker shortage: In the early-20th century the average age in the U.S. was 23; now it’s 38, according to Ben Waddell, associate professor of sociology and a contributor to Writers On the Range.

That has narrowed the pool of potential employees. But Waddell says there are other deterrents: unaffordable rent due to the hot real estate market, and fewer immigrant workers. The latter reflects a 44% drop in temporary and permanent worker visas, and the fact that more Mexicans are going home rather than coming to the U.S. One problem faced by immigrant workers is wage theft, according to Pacific Media Workers. Some communities have ordinances against wage theft.

The National Association of Home Builders said in 2020 that close to one in four construction workers was foreign born.

After Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene likened opt-out door-to-door vaccinations programs to Hitler’s Third Reich, the Auschwitz Memorial Museum in Poland tweeted that comparing public health measures to Nazi tactics “is a sad reflection of moral and intellectual decline.”

The left-right political divide was further demonstrated when, at a Republican political gathering in Dallas, the audience applauded when a speaker said President Joe Biden would not be meeting his 70% vaccination goal.

By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist

The plan for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices via the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act (BBB Act) hit a snag: all Republicans and two Democrats are resisting, as is the pharmaceutical industry. The New York Times said high drug prices are a top voter concern. According to a Congressional Budget office analysis, prices for some drugs would fall by more than half, and the federal government would save over $450 million over 10 years if the BBB Act language is passed into law.

Compromises taken in order to pass a $3.5 trillion BBB Act (that aims to invest in child care, education, paid family leave, health care and care of the climate) are compromises for the wrong reason, Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of labor, has written in The Guardian. While it’s normal for Republicans to make decisions based on campaign donations, he says the practice is holding sway over some Democrats, such that initial plans to tax the wealthy (660 billionaire’s fortunes increased by $1.8 trillion since the pandemic began) has instead morphed into a 3% surtax on incomes over $5 million.

Reich pointed out: most wealthy people don’t live off of an income.

Blast from the past: 159 years ago this month soldiers from the North and South fought at Antietam Creek in Maryland. The South hoped to pull Maryland into the rebellion, to weaken Lincoln’s war policies for the 1862 election. And the North hoped for a decisive victory against the South. At the end of the fight the U.S. had lost 25% of their fighting forces, and the South had lost 31%. The conflict also marked the first time photographs were taken in the war field. When shared with the public in a New York City photography studio, the bodies of dead soldiers brought the war to life in a new way. Both sides had initially thought the war would be over after a few battles.

The North’s narrow victory in Maryland prompted President Abraham Lincoln to declare that as of Jan. 1, 1863, all people held in slavery would be forever free, and the U.S. government would “maintain the freedom of such persons.” By the end of 1863 Lincoln redefined the war as that of protecting the nation “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” The Confederates were defeated in 1865.

NEWS

Idaho health care to get another $10 million in state aid for COVID-19 surge

By Audrey Dutton Idaho Capital Sun Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced Sept. 21 that health care providers will receive another $10 million in relief dollars to help them respond to the recent surge in COVID-19 patients.

“We have taken many steps to preserve access to health care during the pandemic, and this latest round of support will help ease the burden on our hospitals and health care heroes right now,” Little said in a news release.

The funds come in addition to previous efforts to blunt the surge, and to counteract the loss of nurses and other health care staff to burnout, retirements and higher paying travel jobs elsewhere.

Here’s how the funds will be used, according to a proposal provided to the Idaho Capital Sun by the governor’s office: • Hospitals: $3 million. Since the state announced $4 million in funds to help hire and retain staff, 29 hospitals received $1,000 per licensed bed. Idaho has more than 50 inpatient hospitals, most of which are actively seeing COVID-19 patients. The state had issued about $2.4 million in payments from that pool as of Sept. 14. The newly allocated $3 million will bring the total funding to $7 million, allowing more Idaho hospitals to apply for help.

• Free-standing primary care and urgent care clinics: $3.5 million. These outpatient clinics can relieve stress on emergency rooms by providing COVID-19 tests and seeing patients with urgent, but not emergent, health conditions. The state previously announced grants in various amounts, based on the size of the clinic. Six clinics have been awarded a total of nearly $1 million. However, the state has another 13 clinics that applied and were approved to receive grants. It also expects to receive more applications.

• Nursing homes and rehab facilities: $3.5 million. Long-term care facilities are understaffed and have been unable

to take patients as quickly as hospitals need to discharge them. Those patients are remaining in the hospital because they cannot be discharged to their homes. The funding will go to longterm care facilities that accept these patients.

In addition, the state previously announced: • $4 million for hospitals, $1 million for standalone clinics and $5 million for long-term care facilities.

• Funding to establish three new monoclonal antibody treatment facilities across Idaho, where certain highrisk COVID-19 patients could receive early treatment that could keep them out of the hospital. The North Idaho center opened recently, according to KTVB, but the Treasure Valley center has been delayed. There are 32 Idaho hospitals offering monoclonal antibody treatments in Idaho, Little’s news release said.

• Idaho National Guard deployment and federal contracts sending up to 370 additional personnel to assist hospitals.

• Waived licensing fees for retired or inactive nurses.

• $30 million for COVID-19 testing

in Idaho K-12 schools.

“Since the COVID-19 vaccine was made widely available to everyone in May, nearly all new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated,” the news release said.

This story was produced by the Idaho Capital Sun, a Boise-based

Courtesy photo. independent, nonprofit online news organization delivering in-depth coverage from veteran Idaho reporters on state government and policy. The Idaho Capitol Sun is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit funded by tax-free donations in 22 states. Learn more and follow daily updates at idahocapitalsun. com and statesnewsroom.com.

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Arrest, jail and throw away the key...

Bouquets: GUEST SUBMISSION: • “When I first met Tim Henney and his delightful wife Jacquelyne, sharing his favorite glass of Bistro Rouge at the Winery where I was working and talking of our love for the Cal (Golden) Bears of Berkeley where they met and where our son attended, I was immediately impressed with his diverse understanding of our behaviours. He’s brilliant and honest and thoughtful.

He brings out the best in us. In our wonderful small town he observes the bigger and smaller things that are longing for happiness. Honest, loving, caring citizens who spur us on with proper values in life.

Tim loves Sandpoint. This is the thank you for finding us in this place. He observes first and reacts and writes next. Daily encounters are his fuel and he points out the best in us which supports his charm.

‘This is the place to be,’ he says.

I haven’t seen Tim in a while, but I hope to again soon.”

— By Don Kaiser Barbs: • I was disappointed in Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, when I read about his questions to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken after the troubled withdrawal from Afghanistan two weeks ago. Instead of asking real questions that can get to the bottom of our botched exit (and yes, for those of you who whine that I don’t criticize our current president as much as our former one, of course President Biden could have done a better job with this withdrawal), Risch instead posed ridiculous questions hinting at some kind of nefarious conspiracy theory, repeatedly asking Blinken who “presses the button” to mute the president when he goes off topic.

When Blinken answered, he told Risch there was no merit to this claim, but Risch persisted. To be clear, this claim that Biden somehow has a person who mutes him during press conferences emerged from the fever swamp of the farright fringe media. To have our sitting U.S. Senator focus on these false claims is just foolish.

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Dear editor, According to current Associated Press reports, almost 600 people have been arrested to date for attacking the U.S. Capitol last Jan. 6.

At least five are from Idaho. I’ll call them “The Five Failures,” and this is addressed to them: Because you and your cerebrally challenged, mug-ugly anti-America co-conspirators are so infatuated with the most foul political human since Adolf Hitler that you’d murder fellow citizens for him, here’s a suggestion. Your social failure conspirators (Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Ku Klux Klan, QAnon, Boogaloo, Three Percenters and associated fellow saboteurs) are just homegrown versions of the Taliban, ISIS and every other whacko Middle Eastern sect.

So how about fighting them instead of us? Strap on your scary camo, goggles and spooky big black guns and go get ’em. (But when they shoot back, don’t run and hide. Unlike unarmed American citizens, your usual prey, these guys, with billions of dollars of U.S. tanks, ammo and artillery, will kick your swaggering, uneducated, pseudo warrior butts!).

I expect this written advice will go unheeded because Idaho’s Five Failures and their 600 arrested, hate-filled fellow anti-Americans are, from all evidence, illiterate.

Certainly not readers of history. Or of history’s most vile predators — the most potentially dangerous of them all being their own deranged, democracy-loathing patriarch.

Tim H. Henney Sandpoint

Vivid information…

Dear editor, I have been watching the news coverage of 9/11 with the horrific pictures of the towers coming down and people jumping to their deaths to escape the flames. Next on the news was a COVID update and I realized that the country is at a point where every two to three days another 3,000 people have died from COVID. This is just a statistic because there are no shocking images.

I truly do not understand how so many people can allow completely uninformed people to decide for them what they should do in such dire circumstances. I realize this letter is a complete waste of time, but I feel slightly better. Thanks.

Jon Nylund Sandpoint

Freedom and (anti-) mask mandates…

Dear editor, Freedom is not absolute. You cannot yell “fire” in a crowded theater. You cannot drive drunk, or drive through Sandpoint at 100 miles per hour. Most responsible adults accept that. Your freedom has limits, beginning where it infringes on the life, liberty or safety of another. In an anarchy, people act without restraint, heedless of the effect of their actions on others.

I do not want to live in an anarchy.

We have always accepted limits on our freedom, and accepted that some actions we might not choose are necessary sacrifices that we make for the common good, recognizing that we share responsibility for the welfare of those around us. We have accepted that we should be our brother’s keeper. Mandatory vaccination for measles, polio and other deadly diseases has resulted in the near-eradication of those diseases.

Until recently most Americans were willing to accept these measures as necessary to serve the common good. But now, doing the right thing has become less important than proving our loyalty to a political tribe.

Simple things like mask wearing and vaccination have emerged as very effective ways to fight the coronavirus and save lives, but unfortunately they have become a political statement.

Mask wearing is not about fear for myself. I am vaccinated and healthy, and if I do get infected with COVID I will probably not get very sick. I might, however, spread the disease to you, your children and your grandmother. That is why I am willing to wear a mask.

Refusing to wear a mask amounts to reckless disregard for other human lives. An anti-mask mandate is a formal declaration that we citizens of Bonner County do not care about other people’s lives and that our personal liberty is more precious than our neighbor’s right to life.

Rupert Laumann Sandpoint

Just a hoax?…

Dear editor, My Lakeland school teacher daughter was exposed to Delta by an unmasked parent. She has a 10-year-old unvaccinated child and an immunocompromised husband.

My daughter-in-law, a nurse practitioner, was exposed to Delta at work. She has asthma and a severely compromised immune system,

which could cause a fast-life-threatening crisis. Will there be oxygen and a respirator available for her if she needs it?

My 72-year friend has Parkinson’s disease. She and her husband both have breakthrough Delta after being exposed by people who were not vaccinated and not wearing masks. Very ill after two weeks, her doctor is too busy to see her in person.

Melinda Rossman recently wrote an anti-vaccination, anti-mask letter to the Daily Bee accusing us who are anti-nonsense as “living in fear.” She claims “tens of thousands” have been maimed and killed by the vaccine and “changed humanity forever.”

Melinda, cite one credible peer-reviewed study that proves this. Yes, we fear that our loved ones will become ill with this terrible disease, possibly needing a hospital bed and oxygen but someone else, maybe you, will be in the bed using the resources, staff, oxygen and funding, to help you survive.

A 91-year-old vaccinated friend might be turned away because they are less likely to survive while you, who may be younger, will get the help she needs pushing her to the “go home and die line,” because of her age.

I watched an ICU nurse on the local news say that he actually was putting a person in a body-bag while the family was saying, “but this is just a hoax.” Melinda prays to God to help us. Perhaps He/She/ It has sent the vaccine to help us.

I learned when I was 5 that God created everything (including vaccines), or was that just a hoax?

Sincerely, Betty Gardner Priest River

What is an initiative petition?...

Dear editor, An initiative petition simply means you would like to have the issue or question it addresses placed on the ballot. In this way, all registered voters will be given the opportunity and the right to voice their opinion on the issue. By signing an initiative petition you are not saying you are for or against the question to be asked on the ballot — you are only insisting that your voice be heard.

By signing an initiative petition you are ensuring it will be heard.

When enough signatures are gathered to place the issue on the ballot, you will then have the opportunity to vote “yes” or “no” along with every other Idaho voter.

There is no reason for not signing an initiative petition. By bringing an issue to the ballot box, it strengthens your right for your

voice to be heard. When asked to sign an initiative petition, sign it.

Sandra Deutchman Sandpoint

Support Suppiger for LPOSD trustee…

Dear editor, ​​Gary Suppiger is running for re-election for the Lake Pend Oreille School District Zone 2 board trustee position. I support Gary because of his passion for education.

Gary was my neighbor while I was raising my children in Cocolalla.

After a 30-year friendship, I can tell you that Gary is kind beyond measure and cares about student success. He is a loyal and devoted husband, best dad ever and a fierce advocate for public education. In addition, Gary supports learning options such as the two new homeschool programs at SHS. You can also count on Gary to advocate for improved quality while at the same time expecting accountability.

What impresses me about Gary is that he runs the math club at Sagle Elementary School, volunteers two mornings every week and takes the group to statewide competitions each year. He has done this for the past 16 years. I’m sure his tutoring played a part in helping six of his students go on to become valedictorians at SHS. Gary is so humble I didn’t even know about this until recently. You can find out more about Gary Suppiger at suppigerforschools.com.

Everyone who lives south of the Long Bridge, except those who vote at the Garfield Sewer District or at the Sagle Senior Center, are eligible to vote in the LPOSD Zone 2 election. Please join all of the pro-education voters in Zone 2 and vote for Gary Suppiger on Nov. 2.

Linda Larson Sandpoint

Arc of the universe…

Dear editor, “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.” — Theodore Parker 1810-’60.

Every now and then I need to be reminded that justice, truth and love prevail. We need to be engaged, determined and have faith that our efforts are for the common good and that we can have a significant impact on the bending of that arc.

Steve Johnson Sagle

OPINION Our property tax crisis requires solutions, not scapegoats By: Reps. Ilana Rubel, Lauren Necochea and Sally Toone Reader Contributors

We could not believe our eyes when we read a recent op-ed from Idaho House GOP leadership scapegoating local governments for the property tax crisis created by GOP legislators themselves. We must set the record straight. While it may be county officials mailing you the bill, don’t blame the messengers. The jaw-dropping number on that bill is not due to excessive spending by local governments — it’s due to disastrous policy enacted by GOP legislators.

First, GOP legislators ended the annual adjustment to the homeowner’s exemption that used to keep pace with housing prices, causing a dramatic shift of the property tax load away from commercial property and onto homeowners. So, even if county budgets didn’t increase by a penny, the Legislature caused property tax on your home to increase every year.

Meanwhile, many corporations have watched their property tax bill decrease while yours goes up.

GOP legislators slightly increased the exemption this year, but not nearly enough to remedy the harm they inflicted on homeowners by ending the indexed exemption.

Second, they severely underfunded schools, with the lowest per-student education investment in the nation.

This forced voters who want adequate schools to pass bonds and levies, further spiking property taxes. Want to fix the school roof before it collapses?

Better pass a bond — the Legislature won’t help. Want full-day Kindergarten? Or enough operating funds to stay open five days a week? Better pass a levy — the Legislature won’t help.

Third, for 14 years GOP legislators stopped every effort to increase property tax assistance for low-income seniors and veterans. This year they allowed a miniscule increase in the aid amount for some, but financed it by kicking 4,000 people out of the program.

Fourth, they denied local governments their share of internet sales tax. You buy a shirt at Target, 11% of the sales tax collected funds the local government. But if you buy that same

shirt on Amazon, GOP legislators have blocked local governments from receiving any of the tax collected. As sales have shifted online, this has hit local governments’ revenue stream and forced them to rely more on property taxes.

Finally, the GOP bill shamefully touted as “property tax relief” limits taxes that can be collected based on new development, blocking growth from paying for growth. Thus, existing homeowners must either pay more in property taxes to make up for the deficiency (as happened in Meridian, which was forced to raise property taxes by this legislation), or suffer cuts to vital local government services like police, fire and paramedics. Cities like Caldwell and Ketchum, already operating on tight budgets, were forced to halt new construction, exacerbating the state’s housing crisis.

For years, GOP legislators have blocked every bill providing meaningful relief, like capping assessment increases, restoring the indexed exemption, treating internet sales tax the same as regular sales tax, and increasing property tax assistance for low-income seniors and veterans. The result has been rising property taxes driving people from their homes.

A recent study from the Idaho Office of Performance Evaluations showed it isn’t “spendthrift counties” causing the problem. County populations went up 39% over the past 20 years, but their budgets only increased 27%. Counties are running extremely lean budgets that underspend compared to population growth.

Rather than admit to having caused the problem or try to fix it, GOP legislators are pointing fingers at innocent local government officials. You deserve the truth, and we hope you will respond by electing legislators who will work to reduce your property taxes while preserving vital local services. Idahoans need leaders that deliver real solutions, not scapegoats.

Rep. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, is the minority leader in the Idaho House of Representatives; Rep. Lauren Necochea, D-Boise, is the assistant minority leader; and Sally Toone, D-Gooding, is the minority caucus chair.

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Mad about Science:

Brought to you by:

Colonizing mars, part 2

By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist It’s all led up to this. One small print for a man, one giant block of text for Bonner County!

In last week’s Mad About Science article, we discussed some of the challenges associated with traveling to Mars. Now, we will explore ways in which we could colonize the red planet.

As you already know, Mars has a very thin atmosphere, which leads to a problem with retaining heat and deflecting radiation. This would prove problematic for our first Martian settlers, as it would mean they would need to be very careful when dealing with oxygen and carbon dioxide. Humans breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide as waste. The carbon dioxide waste is then utilized by plants on Earth and converted back into oxygen via photosynthesis, thus using the carbon as building blocks to help grow more of the plant.

Mars doesn’t have any plants, and its fluctuating temperature and lack of circulating oxygen makes it impossible for plants to grow there without shelter.

Humans would need to build habitat structures, likely out of polymers and other plastics.

These habitats would accomplish two primary goals: to trap heat and to trap gas.

Here on Earth, we already have structures for growing plants in otherwise inhospitable conditions. A greenhouse is a very basic form of structure that would be used to great effect on the Martian surface, but as greenhouse owners know, heating a structure in sub-zero temperatures becomes difficult.

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That difficulty is compounded when the nearest cord of wood for your stove is more than 200 million miles away.

Martian heating would be a challenge, but not impossible. Colonists would be able to utilize three primary methods for heating: electrical, body heat and compost. Due to a lack of resources, solar and mechanical energy production are the most viable to use. Colonists would be able to use a mix of solar panels and manual turbines to generate electricity — imagine an exercise bike or the crank of an old-school ox-driven mill. Manual conversion would require increased calorie intake from the colonists, which would make them burn through food more quickly, but it would also generate body heat while keeping the colonists in good health.

Of course, this becomes a moot point if we were to discover hydrocarbons, similar to propane or other natural gasses, on Mars.

A practice we employ on Earth is to fill multiple black plastic barrels with water and stack them inside of a greenhouse. The solar energy from the sun is absorbed by the dark paint, which heats the water acting as a thermal battery.

This could also be employed on Mars, provided the water wasn’t allowed an avenue to escape and evaporate to be lost forever. Additionally, that water would have to have been carted from Earth or harvested from the Martian poles as ice.

Compost heat would fulfill two major roles: heating the ambient area while also recycling nutrients to feed to the plants that act as both a carbon filter and a source of sustenance.

Sorry, folks, but if you have to

be within 50 feet of a flush toilet while camping, you won’t want to sign up for a trip to Mars. The first few colonies will likely be heated and sustained largely by humanure.

Once we’ve developed some dome cities on the planet’s surface, what comes next? Would we be able to terraform the planet and alter the climate like we’re doing on Earth?

NASA surveyed Mars and did some big calculations to figure out whether or not we could pump enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to create an artificial planet-wide greenhouse effect like we’re doing on Earth.

Warming Mars would be beneficial for us, unlike on Earth.

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough resources on the planet to terraform it in a way that could benefit humans, at least not with our current technology.

This would require an immense amount of supplies to be transported from Earth or another planet — preferably Venus, which has a thick atmosphere.

This in turn would expend even more resources to transport.

An alternative to space trucking resources from Earth would be to set up a mobile manufacturing center that roams through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. In theory, this roaming factory would be able to harvest some asteroids for materials to create things like rockets that would push larger asteroids out of the belt, and into a collision-course with Mars. If enough of them were to impact the planet’s surface, we could theoretically re-populate the atmosphere with carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and other gasses.

This is well beyond our level of technology at this point, but it

seems more viable than hauling gas from Venus or Earth.

However, if we’ve mastered absolute recycling, there wouldn’t be a need to terraform the planet. In fact, it would make more sense to just build greenhouses in space that orbit the sun. Imagine your own self-contained 40 acres, where your nearest neighbor is 100,000 miles away. This was explored in the theoretical O’Neill cylinder from 1976. Essentially, it’s a minia-

ture Earth in a tube that spins to simulate the effects of gravity with centrifugal force.

Mars and O’Neill cylinders would certainly solve the housing crisis; though with an estimated cost ranging from $800 billion to $10 trillion per cylinder, something tells me City Council wouldn’t approve a vote on that any time soon.

Prove me wrong, and stay curious, 7B.

Random Corner ber?

Don’t know much about septem • September’s name is really quite inaccurate these days. It was originally the seventh month of the ancient Roman calendar, and as such it was named Septem, which translates into “the seventh month.”

It wasn’t until 451 BCE that the months of January and February were added to the calendar, making September the ninth month.

• September also used to only have 29 days. Thanks to Julius Caesar’s reform of the Roman calendar in 46 BCE the month now has an additional day.

• The Romans would quite often associate different months with different gods. The month of September is associated with Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, quite possibly because it was a fiery hot month back when it was the seventh month of the year.

• Back in the days of the Anglo-Saxons, September used to be called Gerst Monath, which translates into “barley month.” It was given this name because it was the time of year that the barley crop was harvested, and it was a special time as they

We can help!

brewed a popular drink out of it.

• The Anglo-Saxons had another name for September, too, which was Haefest Monath. This is a particularly interesting one as this translates into “harvest month,” and our modern usage of the word “harvest” originates from this name.

• September’s birthstone is a sapphire. With its deep blue tones, this precious stone is said to represent the wisdom of the gods, purity and trust. Sapphires were once worn to protect the wearer from both poisoning and other evils.

• The first newspaper to ever be put into print in North America was published on Sept. 25, 1690. The paper was called Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick and was published in Boston. The newspaper was to be rather short-lived, as the colonial authorities were displeased with its contents and put a stop to it straight away. Its publisher, Benjamin Harris, returned to England, where he published the London Post from 1699-1706.

PERSPECTIVES

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth

By K. L. Huntley Reader Contributor

It is amazing to think that the oath to tell the truth dates back as far as Roman times, which means dishonesty was prevalent even then, requiring the oath in the first place.

I remember sitting in a jury box when the defendant was sworn in front of us, swearing she would tell the truth, so help her God. It was minutes before I fully recognized her. Her hair was styled and she appeared as if she just walked out of church in her pink, long-sleeved dress applying for a job as Alice in Wonderland. The transformation was remarkable because normally she slithered in the shady parts of town and looked, for the most part, like a horse who had been ridden hard and rolled up wet. Her attorney created the illusion of innocence, custom-made for her court appearance.

It was several days and multiple testimonies including hard evidence before the web of lies unraveled. Alice wasn’t who she appeared to be. She really did commit the crime of which she was accused.

A friend recently said that truth is relative. Is it really? Does it fall into the realm of “alternative facts”? Fewer than 40 years after the first camera was invented photographs were manipulated.

The first documented and manipulated known photo was of our hero, President Abraham Lincoln.

His face was superimposed on John Calhoun’s body in 1860. A famous photo of General Grant

was actually three composites and he wasn’t even perched on his own horse. We’ve been entertained and deceived by photos, film and information ever since.

Images have been changed, seemingly forever, to persuade and sway viewers one way or another.

They evoke emotions. Before the digital age my brother-in-law was a news editor and one time made the comment that we would be shocked to know what ended up on the newsroom floor. He could make a small crowd look large and a large one look small. Is that ethical? Is that honest? In short, great control is maintained over the populace with just enough information to make them feel informed, like Alice dressed as a sweet lamb. Unless you research your sources, check and double check your sources these days you may not be as well informed as you think you are.

No doubt the masses have been lied to. Sometimes for their safety, sometimes for political or religious support and sometimes, to be honest, unintentionally. Sometimes, people have been lied to for control and that is scary. This leaves one confused and wondering who to believe.

Is the information on the virus true? I completely understand the reluctance to vaccinate for COVID-19. Or do I? You see it is harvest season here and the fruit flies on my pears are multiplying rapidly.

How do I stop them? One way is to can those pears first thing in the morning and take the rest to the compost or the dump. At least they won’t be in the house. That is

a fact not an opinion. That is the truth, and it isn’t relative — it is buzzing about the pears spread out on the dryer. I could spray them with a pesticide but then would I be ingesting that?

Viruses also replicate rapidly and frequently morph into more lethal strains. That is another fact, that is the truth and that is what has happened with the novel coronavirus doubling like my fruit flies, which are multiplying as I write.

Unlike many untruths released daily in a variety of media there are multiple truths. Vaccines have

practically eliminated global scourges such as polio, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, rabies, yellow fever and hepatitis.

We’ve all had these vaccines (or should have had them) long ago.

No one gets smallpox anymore.

People vaccinate their pups from distemper and parvo and also their kittens. It is a global practice begun by the Chinese in the 1500s.

And that is the truth. That is a fact.

So what is the problem?

Simple ethics tell us “it isn’t nice” to manipulate film. We are disgusted when we are led astray

over weapons of mass destruction and other half truths told on our news. Dishonesty and alternative political facts are tearing this country apart. But the virus is real. It isn’t political and it sees no boundaries. COVID-19 and its Delta variant can’t distinguish nationalities and no longer seeks the elderly. It has jumped continents and oceans.

Clearly anyone unvaccinated is fair game. They should get their affairs in order. And that’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

101 Women’s fall grant cycle now open

By Reader Staff The nonprofit group 101 Women has opened its fall grant cycle until Tuesday, Oct. 5 and its members are hoping to get the word out to all eligible Bonner County nonprofits. The $10,000 grant is open to any nonprofit serving Bonner County in the areas of education, arts, recreation

and the environment.

“We have specifically created this opportunity to focus on those efforts in our community that often cannot compete with more essential services, especially during these extraordinary times,” the group stated in a media release.

To apply, visit 101womensandpoint.com/grant-application.

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NEWS FEATURE

Where are all the workers?

Part II Lack of affordable housing fuels local worker shortage

By Zach Hagadone and Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff

This article is the second piece in an ongoing series during which the Reader will examine various aspects of the labor shortage affecting area employers.

If area workers — especially in the service industries — seem a little anxious, stressed out or otherwise stretched thin, it’s because they are.

After more than 18 months of COVID-19 pandemic life, the American workplace has undergone profound changes, with an emphasis for some on remote work and others thrown into the jaws of the virus with essential in-person positions in the realms of health care, education, and delivering food to both diners’ tables and shoppers’ grocery carts.

From across the economy employers cry out that they can’t find workers. The reasons for the labor shortage are many — from an aging workforce prompted to retire early by COVID to the virus itself, disrupting career paths, altering plans and, simply, killing people.

In Sandpoint and Bonner County at large, the worker shortage is rooted in the basic fact that there simply aren’t as many workers here as there used to be — the community’s labor pool shrank from 2020 to 2021 even as the population grew. That’s because a lot of the newcomers aren’t here to work but retire, in many cases, or work remotely for out-of-area companies.

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are typical of Bonner County, which they used to purchase property and extremely inflated prices. There is no mathematical way that a local worker, earning the area median income of about $60,000, which is a generous estimate, can compete in a hyper-inflated housing market where list prices frequently spin off into the $600,000 range and rentals run into the region of $2,000 per month and more — the kinds of prices Sandpointinans used to to scoff at when transplants reported them in places like Portland, Seattle and San Francisco.

Workers and their employers (that is, workers and employers who are actually based in Bonner County) are stuck in a crunch: there aren’t as many available laborers because they can’t afford to live here, and they can’t afford to live here because they make too little money to compete with the influx of big city cash flowing into the community from Zoomers, retirees and all the others who have decided for various reasons that Bonner County is the last best place.

Sensing the short-term emergency, employers themselves have stepped in to make sure their workers at least have shelter. Whether that’s a reasonable long-term solution remains to be seen.

Business owners as landlords Justin Dick has taken matters into his own hands.

The owner of Trinity at City Beach has invested both his time and money into efforts to keep roofs over his employees’ heads — and not just in recent months.

“The restaurant industry, historically, since I’ve been

up here, has done things for housing for our employees,” he said, noting that he and his wife relocated to Sandpoint from Denver in 2006.

“I’ve put people up in campers, loaned them money to buy fifth wheels,” he said, also noting a condo on Olive Street he rented to employees for about a decade. Recently, a Trinity regular offered to hold onto a soon-to-expire lease at Condo Del Sol, which the restaurateur now sublets to his workers. Each agreement varies, but the housing is often tied to the renting employee’s compensation.

Like Dick, results from a July 2021 Sandpoint Workforce Housing survey show that many business owners are having to get creative to keep workers around. When asked in the survey to “provide details about steps you have taken to address workforce housing needs,” respondents shared varying methods — and varying degrees of success — in

securing employee housing.

One business owner said they have helped with down payments to buy and deposits to rent. Another said they use their own personal and professional networks — rather than real estate agencies or other services — when trying to find workforce housing, hoping to find available housing through private sources. In some instances, community members come forward with rental opportunities not listed on the market. Some are attempting to raise wages, but in many cases, that method isn’t sustainable.

One employer wrote: “Paid for temporary stays in hotels while waiting for their housing to come open. I’ve paid employee deposits. I’ve paid employee rent when they aren’t able to afford it. I’ve paid electric bills, etc. I pay it out of my pocket personally — I don’t ever expect compensation from the employee.”

A common theme throughout the survey is a growing

Trinity owner Justin Dick is one local employer who has been providing housing for his employees. Photo by Ben Olson.

effort among business owners to be the name on the deed; however, even those signing the checks are not always able to front today’s prices. One employer tried to buy a house for rental but “the prices were outrageously high and I couldn’t make it work.”

Some shared that they have been able to secure homes and apartments for employees and, thanks to the current climate, it appears Sandpoint’s bossmeets-landlord is here to stay.

Dick is frank about the challenges that come with that balance, admitting that the process is “going to be a lot of trial by fire.” The trust required in a boss-employee relationship is doubled as the landlord-tenant relationship becomes a growing necessity.

“We’ve been hiring anybody who can fog up a mirror and has a pulse at this point in time,” Dick said. “That’s worked out about half the time,

< see WORKERS, Page 13 >

< WORKERS, con’t from Page 12 > the other half of the time it bites you when you need them and they don’t show up.”

Another survey respondent, a landscaping service, shared that they’ve found some affordable rentals, “but that puts our employees living in Noxon, Mont., Clark Fork and south of Cocolalla.”

Dick is of the opinion that “industry heads” — those attempting to keep workers on their payrolls — are the ones who will produce the “true, novel innovations” to solve the housing issue in Sandpoint.

“One thing that is gravely apparent is we need to stop looking toward our government to fix things,” Dick said.

The task [force] at hand One thing most stakeholders seem to agree on is that it’s going to take collaboration between government and the “industry heads” to which Dick referred to create structural change in the local housing market.

Ryan Robinson, who serves as the interim executive director of the Bonner County Economic Development Corporation, told the Reader that a symposium on workforce housing had been scheduled for October but has been pushed to March 2022. Meanwhile, he pointed to Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad’s workforce housing task force, which in August met for the first time.

Speaking of housing affordability, Robinson said, “We’ve kind of danced around it,” but, “We’re finally to the point where we’re getting all the players in the room.”

That means bankers, those who work in finance, county and city officials, leaders in the construction industry and others, collaborating “to break down some of these barriers” to affordability, Robinson said.

“It’s going to be a long marathon,” Rognstad told the Reader in August, referring to the advisory task force. “It’s

an active group, it’s an engaged group. These are doers.

There’s a lot of interest around this right now and I think that already we’re seeing some action.”

But that action has been a long time coming. As both Rognstad and Robinson said, the gap between prevailing local wages and the cost of housing isn’t new.

“We’ve been talking about housing for a long time. When we were writing the Comprehensive Plan in 2009 we were talking about this. Certainly we were talking about this five years ago when housing was 282% cheaper than it is now.

Who would have thought in 2016 that it would be almost three times the cost five years later?” Rognstad said.

“We’ve been seeing this coming and the difference is now that it does feel like a crisis and I think you have people really motivated to do something about it,” he added.

“When you get major employers in the community who see this as a life or death situation for the future of their organization, it starts getting people engaged in the issue and starts getting resources brought to the table. … [And] I think it’s going to happen faster than what you see from typical government work. We can start to see results in one to three years.”

A consistent theme among developers and local government officials alike has been that lack of housing inventory is the real culprit behind the staggering increase in both sale and rental prices.

A number of subdivisions, both big and small, have been working through the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council, while City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton told the Reader in a recent interview that there are somewhere around 900 developments of various sizes in the planning pipeline.

“Moving some of these developments along will help increase that supply,” Staple-

ton said, though added that side of the area. the rental market is of more “We’ve made several offers, immediate importance to work- and once they realize what ers, rather than single-family the cost of living is, they can’t homes — however, that’s what accept,” he said. developers want to build most According to Idaho Departbecause ment of Lathey’re bor statistics, “We’ve been hiring far and “public adaway anybody who can fog up a ministration” more luemploys 917 mirror and has a pulse at crative, individuals in especialBonner Counthis point in time.” ly at the ty, paying an current average wage -Justin Dick sky-high $49,934 Owner, Trinity at City Beach of market and ranked prices. the sixth-largSandpoint Planning and est employment sector after Zoning Commission Chairman construction.

Jason Welker, who is running Connolly said that in collabfor City Council in the Tuesorative meetings with all of the day, Nov. 2 election, has drawn local municipalities, finding a a critical bead on so-called way to fix the housing issue has “workforce housing” that is become “one of the foremost priced out of reach of the very conversations.” workers developers claim to be Indeed, the affordability serving. crisis is a county-wide issue — “Let’s be clear, home not just because of overall marprices are not determined by ket prices, but because a large the cost of construction of the portion of the workforce often home; they are determined by referred to as “Sandpoint’s market demand and supply,” workers” doesn’t even live in Welker told the Reader in an the city. Based on 2018 numemail. “Case in point, recent bers, the Labor Department single-family home subdivireported that 2,707 individuals sions in Sandpoint, in which who work in Bonner County live in Sandpoint, yet 5,192 newly built homes were listed people live somewhere else for $300,000 two years ago, in the county but commute to are now selling newly finished homes for over $500,000. This Sandpoint for work. There are even more workers who live in reflects not the higher material the county but work elsewhere, cost, but the higher demand. numbering 6,485.

Nearly all of that additional Connolly noted the ev$200,000 goes to the developer-more-popular concept of er’s bottom line, e.g. profit.” employee housing opportunities being “in the hands of the The county conundrum employers.”

Bonner County Commis“But boy, that’s not a great sioner Jeff Connolly said model at all,” he added. discussions about the lack of Commissioner Dan McDonworkforce-friendly housing ald told the Reader that he is have been happening at the on Rognstad’s task force. county level “for the last cou“Other than that, the counple years,” but that he’s unty can do little other than to aware of any “specific plans.” pave the way for the private “We want to lend a hand, sector to create more housing and however that looks, we’re inventory,” McDonald wrote not sure,” Connolly told the in an email. “We have made Reader. the permitting process simple, Housing prices have also easy and affordable but we directly affected the county’s have limitations in the county ability to hire talent from out-

that you don’t have within the cities, mainly, sewer and water.

That will always be the limiting factor in more rural areas of the county.”

‘Look in the mirror’ According to Rob Hart, director of the Bonner Community Housing Agency, attempts by the city and county to solve the affordability crisis are completely separate from what he and his agency are working to implement, which is focused on the question: “What can ordinary people do to help solve this problem?”

Hart’s step-by-step plan for getting North Idaho roofs over the heads of “local employees, seniors and the disabled” focuses on the roles of those with control over homes and tracts of land — sellers, developers and builders — and their individual responsibility to choose what the future of the community will look like.

“We all need to look in the mirror, here,” Hart said. “We’re causing the problem. Everybody who is selling homes is part of the problem, and if just occasionally they could sell them to a local employee, or senior or [the] disabled, then that’s going to go a long way to solving the problem.”

But where is the money in making those choices?

Bonner Community Housing Agency is working with interested landowners and developers to prove that “it is possible to make money” building homes for the local workforce, Hart said, and for everyone else being priced out of the panhandle.

Pick up the Sept. 30 edition of the Reader for the third part in this series, which will examine some of the solutions to the housing crisis coming from both state and local entities.

If you have a story of how the worker shortage and/or housing affordability has affected you or your business, share it with us at stories@sandpointreader.com.

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OUTDOORS

Skatepark expansion in the works King of the Kongcrete skate competition will be a fundraiser as well as an opportunity to share ideas for expansion

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

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For the past 15 years, the King of the Kongcrete skateboarding competition has brought together skaters of Bonner County to share their love of the sport. This year, it will also be a chance for the community to share ideas for the future expansion of the Concrete Lake Skatepark at Travers Park.

King of the Kongcrete will take place Saturday, Sept. 25, with registration from 9-9:45 a.m. and the competition starting at 10 a.m. Competitions include best runs, best tricks and bowl troll. A $25 entry fee will go directly to fund the expansion effort.

The event has been presented as a cooperation between the city of Sandpoint and 7B Boardshop, excluding last year’s event, which was canceled due to COVID-19. This year, 7B Boardshop is taking the reins from the city, but the two entities will continue to cooperate on an expansion of the skatepark slated for 2022.

“This year, we’ve created the Bonner County Skatepark Association, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization with all proceeds from the event going back into the association to raise money for the expansion of a new skatepark at Travers Field,” 7B Boardshop owner Rory Whitney told the Reader.

Whitney said the plan right now is to expand the existing footprint at Travers Park, but the long-term goal is to reachout to the city of Ponderay to get more skateparks in the area.

The expansion of the park is included in the city of Sandpoint’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan, which has allocated $95,000 toward the expansion in the budget.

“We’re going to expand the square footage, add more street-style plaza terrain and smaller transitional features,” Whitney said. “Our goal over the next few weeks is to have a meeting and call every kid who wants to be involved to see what features they want at the park.”

Whitney said his organization has been working closely with Maeve Nevins-Lauter, the newly hired city of Sandpoint parks planning and development manager.

“The very first step in implementing the renovation is to talk with the community,” Nevins-Lauter told the Reader. “I met Rory and his board and we had an initial conversation at the skateshop and learned about the existing history of the facility. The number one takeaway was they really feel / September 23, 2021

they should have some good feedback from the community. They’d like to see the park being not just for skaters but all wheeled users and to be as inclusive with as many of the community members as possible.”

Nevins-Lauter, who was hired from Anchorage, Alaska, where she spent nine years as a senior park planner, has an extensive background with park development and design.

“I helped build the first concrete skateboard park bowl up there, actually,” she said.

Nevins-Lauter said the process will start with a public outreach process to collect feedback on design ideas and features.

“The preferred concept identified moving toward the north [toward the existing tennis courts] where there is an existing parking lot and a grassy median strip,” she said, adding, “The next step is to hear from kids and people who will be at the skateboard event Saturday.

“Then I want to talk to neighbors in the area; because, while it’s intended for skateboarding, there are other users and visitors, such as the senior assisted living home and school across the street. … I’m driven by inclusivity, so it’s great to have all generations participate.”

The plan is to expand the existing footprint of the skatepark to around 18,000 square feet, which could include features incorporated into the skatepark like skateable retaining walls and sculptures that pay homage to the area’s history.

After community feedback is gathered

Trinity owner Justin Dick, right, presents a donation check of $1,000 to the Bonner County Skatepark Association Sept. 21. Courtesy photo. this fall and winter, Nevins-Lauter said the goal is to obtain bids from skatepark design companies, with the goal to break ground on the expansion by Memorial Day 2022.

“I’ll be at the park all day Saturday and will have drawing tools for anybody to tell me what they’d want to see in the skatepark,” she said.

Whitney said the Bonner County Skatepark Association is actively raising funds to help cover the costs of this renovation.

“Justin Dick from Trinity just donated $1,000 to this effort,” Whitney said. “We’re hoping to challenge other businesses in town to match or beat that donation.”

Those interested in donating can visit bcskatepark.com.

“The skatepark right now is the most used city parks facility in Sandpoint,” Whitney said. “We’ve quickly outgrown it in the last 16 years we’ve had it. It’s very important for youth to have a place to express themselves. A lot of kids can’t afford to go out on the boat and wakeboard or can’t afford a season pass [to Schweitzer].”

Whitney plans to hold a raffle at the King of the Kongcrete event Sept. 25 and encourages anyone interested in watching local skaters compete or speak with Nevins-Lauter to head down to Travers Park to learn more — and share ideas — about the project.

It was another glorious rainy day at the Sand Creek Regatta on Sept. 18.

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

Top left: The Reader raft pulls ahead of the competition.

Top right: Amanda and Jon Knepper give out awards after the race.

Middle left: The Knepper family raft made up in style where it lacked in speed.

Right: Sunshine Goldmine’s raft won the race last year, but they came in second this year despite Herculean efforts by the crew.

Bottom left: The Reader raft crew celebrates their winning run in style. Floats donated by Heitman Docks Marina.

Bottom middle: The Beet and Basil raft earned Epic Fail again this year as their raft spilled before the race started.

All photos taken by Woods Wheatcroft.

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COMMUNITY

Fens, feathers and forests

A fall day of birding and wetland ecology in NW Mont.

By Reader Staff Join Brian Baxter, an expert in forestry and wildlife, on Sat., Sept. 18 for a fun day away from the heat and smoke of this past summer as he explores the wetlands of Pleasant Valley and Chain of Lakes in beautiful northwest Montana. The group will meet at 9 a.m., Mountain Standard Time, at the sponsor owned Lodge at McGregor Lake, for coffee and brief introductions.

“We will have a short discussion on birdlife of the area, and cover a few behaviors related to resident, irruptive, and migrating birds of prey, waterfowl, woodpeckers, shorebirds, and songbirds,” Baxter said. “During the day, we’ll also discuss selected mammal behavior as all wildlife prepares for winter.”

The Lodge at McGregor Lake is located at 12250 Hwy. 2 West, near Marion, Mont. Visit their website at thelodgeatmcgegorlake.com and their facebook page.

For info on accommodations and meals

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you can also call 406-858-2253. There will also be a few handouts for participants covering bird and mammal behavior as we enter the colorful autumn season.

After introductions, the group will head to the field, maintaining social distance, as they take a road tour, and a few short hikes of 1/4 mile to 1 mile round trip to observe birds, wildlife and adjoining forests. For short range viewing, they will utilize binoculars, and for longer range views spotting scopes will be set up.

Come prepared for the day with full gas tanks, water, lunch, snacks, appropriate layers and footwear, bird field guide books, binoculars, cameras and a good sense of humor.

The guide for the day has education in both forestry and wildlife,

as well as more than 43 years in the field.

All participants must register for this class and intend on attending, as class will proceed rain or shine. For more info and to register please email b_baxter53@yahoo. com or call 406-291-2154. All levels of birders and outdoor enthusiasts are welcome. Wrap up at approx. 3 p.m. MST.

LITERATURE

‘A work of love’

By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff For Sandpoint author Sharon Kreider, storytelling is not just an endeavor of joy, it’s a calling.

“It just wouldn’t leave me alone,” she said. “These stories that I want to tell won’t rest until I put them out there.”

The first of those stories is Sylvie, Kreider’s debut novel, slated for release Friday, Oct. 1. Sylvie follows the story of a seemingly perfect family in the Colorado mountains. Despite appearances, a tragedy forces the characters to face painful truths and, ultimately, find forgiveness.

“Sylvie was a work of love,” Kreider said. “I worked really hard at telling Sylvie’s story as a way to really connect with the world.”

Kreider draws from her background as a mental health therapist and suicide prevention trainer to tell stories about “the human condition,” putting words feelings, such as, “loss, joy, hope, despair, desires, dreams, grief, disappointment, pride, gladness and sadness.”

“When I had the opportunity to retire, then storytelling just became so important,” said Kreider, who retired in 2019. “I thought it was such a powerful way to connect with others.”

While Kreider does not aim to approach her fiction storytelling as a mental health professional or expert, she said she uses her background to “weave the psychological and emotional qualities” of the human condition into narrative. She said she hopes to use her stories to convey that “we humans are all in this together.”

“I really enjoy tackling real life issues — sometimes very difficult issues,” she said, “but

at the same time, I really like to offer possibility and promise.”

The power Kreider found in storytelling after her retirement has been palpable throughout her writing process.

“When I write, I am incredibly invested in the story,” she said. “My heart beats fast, there’s tears in my eyes … I learn a lot about the characters as I write. It’s kind of like they won’t leave me alone until I tell their story.”

Kreider said she often writes for days at a time, bringing the characters to life at their own beckoning. When she first heard the Maya Angelou quote, “There is no greater agony than bearing the untold story inside of you,” Kreider said she finally felt understood.

“When I first heard that quote, it brought tears to my eyes,” she said. “I thought, ‘Yes. Somebody gets me.’

Sometimes I can’t rest until the words are all out.”

Born and raised in northern Canada, Kreider called Sandpoint home for about a decade in the 1980s and ’90s before moving to Colorado.

She returned to the Idaho panhandle in 2019 following her retirement, and is excited to celebrate Sylvie’s release at one of her favorite local establishments: the Pend d’Oreille Winery. Attend the official book

Sharon Kreider releases debut novel Sylvie, book launch at PO Winery Sept. 29

launch on Wednesday, Sept. 29 from 4-6 p.m. at the winery, where Kreider will be signing the first copies of Sylvie.

“I’m just really happy to do this back in Sandpoint,” she said. “I have some very old friends still here, and I hope to meet some new ones.”

Find Sylvie for pre-order on Amazon and locally at Vanderford’s Books after Oct. 1. Learn more about Sharon Kreider and check out the author’s blog at sharonkreider.com.

Top left: The cover of Kreider’s book Sylvie.

Top right: Author Sharon Kreider. Courtesy photos.

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events

September 23-30, 2021

THURSDAY, september 23

Oktoberfest at IPA (until Sept. 24) All day @ Idaho Pour Authority Sample Oktoberfest beers on tap, pretzels!

COMMUNITY

Chances to learn outdoors all year for Clark Fork students

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

FriDAY, september 24 Live Music w/ Nick Weibe 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Arrive early for a glass of wine and a meal NAMI Family and Friends Seminar 12-1:30pm @ Sandpoint Library

Live Music w/ Kevin Dorin 7-9pm @ The Back Door Live Music w/ BTP 6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall

SATURDAY, september 25

Queen Bonobo concert 7-9pm @ Eichardt’s Pub Maya Goldblum’s former bassist Jack Kelly is in town from Ireland and they are reuniting for a special concert upstairs at the Pub. The show will be an intimate listening experience. $10 cover Sandpoint Farmers’ Market 9am-1pm @ Farmin Park Live music w/ Larry Mooney Kaniksu Folk School Harvest Picnic 12-4pm @ Pine Street Woods Join KLT in the woods for the Kaniksu Folk School’s free seasonal gathering.

Live music, cattail weaving class, oldstyle wood cutting tools demo, games, pie contest and more! Free for all to attend Live Music w/ Brad Keeler 5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Playing familiar favorites from the past 100 years integrated with originals Live Music w/ Wiebe Jammin’ 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority Live Music w/ Chris Lynch 7-9pm @ The Back Door

Dance and Fox Trot lesson 7-10pm @ Ponderay Event Center Fox Trot lesson from 7-8pm taught by pro instructors from Spokane, followed by general dancing from 8-10pm Intro to Integrative Alexander Technique 9:30-10:30pm @ Embody Studio A free introduction, held at 823 Main St. embodysandpoint.love to learn more King of the Kongcrete skate comp 10am-5pm @ Skatepark at Travers Park The annual skateboard competition to crown the King of the Kongcrete, hosted by 7B Boardshop. Come watch the fun!

Suzuki String Academy Recital 1pm @ Panida Theater Featuring Suzuki String Academy students USA Dance 7-10pm @ Ponderay Events Center Fox Trot lesson from 7-8pm, followed by general dancing. $9/adult, $5/teen

Hoptoberfest at MickDuff’s Beer Hall All day! @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall Live music w/ Kevin Dorin 1:30-4:30pm

SunDAY, september 26

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

monDAY, september 27

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

Outdoor Experience Monday Night Group Run – All levels welcome 6pm @ Outdoor Experience

Lifetree Cafe • 2pm @ Jalapeño’s Restaurant “I Lived in a Dumpster: How a Homeless Teen Rose to the Top of Her Class.”

wednesDAY, september 29

Drink Beer for Panhandle Community Radio (One Day Only!)

All day @ Idaho Pour Authority A fundraiser for KRFY 88.5FM. A portion of the proceeds from the Grand Teton Brewing tap sales at IPA will go toward KRFY, including growler fills. Also, a winter adventure basket will be raffled off to benefit KRFY.

‘Sylvie’ book release 4-6pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery Local author Sharon Kreider will sign her first novel Sylvie (read Page 17 for more) Sandpoint Farmers’ Market 3-5:30pm @ Farmin Park

Live Music w/ Alex and Steven 6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority

ThursDAY, september 30

Yappy Hour with Better Together Animal Alliance 4-7pm @ Ponderay PetSafe Dog Park (870 Kootenai Cutoff Rd.) Celebrate with your canine companion with local beer, live music, sunshine and community! Benefits the Better Together Animal Alliance 18 /

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By Reader Staff

Clark Fork students learn the essentials of compass navigation at an FSPW educational event. Courtesy photo.

It’s easy for locals to forget the wonders close to home. Fortunately, local teachers are committed to getting teens outside — that’s why they team up with Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness to hit the trails, learning about compass navigation, wildlife identification and more.

Clark Fork High School teacher Rebecca Haag knows all about it. Every Friday, she coordinates experiential learning tracks, days where students can get out of the classroom and learn hands-on. Earlier this summer, she worked with FSPW volunteers to plan three Fridays full of learning in the wild.

“We plan our experiential learning tracks based on student interest, and each semester that student interest lends itself toward pursuing a natural resource theme,” Haag said. “The Clark Fork students and I had a great time with FSPW on each of our days with them.”

FSPW’s outdoor programs are exciting for students and equip them with the skills they need to safely recreate in wild places.

On Day 1, they learned how to navigate with a map and compass. On Day 2, they traveled to Scotchman Peak and learned how to build trails. On Day 3, they went

birding with local expert Rich Del Carlo.

“I was impressed with the high-quality volunteers willing to donate their time and share their expertise to enrich my students’ understanding of the natural world around them,” Haag continued.

As summer winds down, FSPW and teachers are already making plans for outdoor learning this winter. Similar to the spring education programs, FSPW’s Winter Tracks program introduces students to the winter ecology of their wild backyard.

Among other things, students learn to track animals in the snow by identifying scat and tracks. It’s an exciting, hands-on way to learn why wilderness matters, and local teachers and students can’t get enough.

“We have participated in the Winter Tracks program for a few years, and the day flows beautifully with a variety of stations each being taught by knowledgeable volunteers,” Haag said. “I have enjoyed the program so much that, when I retire, I hope to be able to participate in the program as a volunteer. I have also brought students up Scotchman’s Peak each year for trail maintenance and as Goat Ambassadors, and it has become a cherished tradition for our school.”

Maya Goldblum to play listening show at Eichardt’s

By Reader Staff Maya Goldblum (a.k.a. Queen Bonobo) will play a special listening show upstairs at Eichardt’s Pub Saturday, Sept. 25 from 7-9 p.m. Goldblum will play an all-original gig with her former bassist Jack Kelly, who is in town from Ireland to reunite musically with Goldblum. Kelly and Goldblum had originally planned to tour this month, but it

was canceled.

Also joining Goldblum is Joe Doucette on box drum and foot percussion and Alex Cope adding backing harmonies.

This will be an intimate listening experience, so come upstairs to listen, chill downstairs to chat. A cover charge of $10 will be assessed at the door. Listen to more of Goldblum’s music by looking up Queen Bonobo on streaming services.

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FOOD

The Sandpoint Eater A farewell to farms

By Marcia Pilgeram Reader Columnist

For the first time in 15 years, my youngest daughter, Casey, and her family showed up this past weekend for no particular reason. There are no weeks of planning for upcoming holidays and special events and plane tickets to Chicago are no longer required to get a grandbabe fix. I still pinch myself — she’s not much more than an hour away in Spokane.

Anticipating her arrival and especially her love for homemade soup, I headed to town and took my usual, circuitous route through our Saturday Farmers Market.

It was my last market fix of the year, as I’ll be away from home for the next couple of weeks. I made a point of dawdling at familiar stalls, then weighed myself down with a plethora of produce. The damp air was a call to action, reminding me to stock up on an abundance of vegetables. Then, I’d scoot right home to put some heat on the stove and stir up a couple of pots of savory soup.

As soon as I spotted my friend Jim, the Corn Man, I knew corn chowder and grilled cheese sandwiches were in our immediate future and would hit our sweet spots for lunch.

So, armed with fresh corn and a plan, I headed to Red Wheelbarrow for shallots, potatoes, and perfectly round onions.

Next came procurement for dinner provisions. Mountain Cloud Farms grows delightfully tiny vegetables. I chose bright little pattypan squash, 20 /

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sweet and colorful young carrots, tender baby bok choy, and an array of small new potatoes — it was a perfect combination for the batch of spicy green curry that I whipped up for our supper.

Walking past Good Food Farm, I spied the most picture-perfect, red, ripe tomatoes. Even though there was a basket teeming with tomatoes from generous friends in my kitchen, I couldn’t pass those beauties up and brought home four of them.

No stop at the market is complete without visiting friend Robyn’s stall, Flowers From the Heart. But, of course, we rarely talk about flowers; instead, I loiter next

to her beautiful bouquets while we exchange travel plans, catch up on local chit chat, and hear about her busy summer, filled with tales of Pinterest-inspired brides.

I skipped the Pack River Farm’s microgreens because the previous evening, I’d joined foodie-friends for quite a dining experience — the tasting menu dinner at the Pack River Store, where blends of microgreens, fresh from their farm, topped a few of the delicious courses.

Chef Alex Jacobson has taken gas station food to a whole new level and prepared a six-course feast of gastronomies that were not only pleasing to the palate but provided

a visual feast as well. I can attest that no one left disappointed (or hungry).

The meal was a sublime experience and the service was perfect, too. We all had a favorite course, and mine was the third, with an offering of silky chicken liver pâté, which was exceptional! Dessert was fabulous too, and we lingered over wine and a wine poached pear with zabaione.

If you haven’t experienced one of these tasting menus (or their prime rib dinner, served the last Friday of each month), do me a favor and get yourself a reservation. The team of Alex and his wife Brittany have become a well-oiled machine and, as far as I’m concerned,

they serve up some of the most solid food that 7B has to offer.

Speaking of picture-perfect tomatoes, I’m off to Spain, with culinary visions of ripe tomatoes, sliced thick and served on crusty bread, topped with anchovies and drizzled with olive oil. Of course, we have the Spanish to thank for introducing the tomato to Europe, in the 16th century, following their sacking of the Aztec empire.

Whether you grow your own or head down and support our Farmers Market on Saturday, now’s the time to gather a few tomatoes for this week’s recipe. Then, remember to save one to slice up and slather with your favorite toppings. ¡Buen provecho!

Orzo stuffed tomatoes Perfect side for a Sunday dinner of roasted chicken.

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

• 4 large tomatoes, rinsed and dried • 2 tbs butter • 2 tbs olive oil • 1/2 cup diced onion • 2 cloves garlic minced • 1/2 cup finely diced green or red pepper • 1/4 cup white wine • 1 cup chicken (or veggie) stock • 1/2 tsp salt •1/8 tsp black pepper •1 cup dried orzo

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Carefully cut a thin slice off the top of each tomato and reserve. Use a spoon to scoop out all the pulp (save for another cooking use). The tomatoes should have about a 1/2-inch shell after pulp has been scooped out, lightly salt the inside, then place tomatoes, open side down, on paper towels to drain off excess liquid.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter, add olive oil and swirl pan to mix. Add onions, pepper and garlic and sauté approximately 5 minutes, until soft and fragrant.

Pour in the wine, chicken stock, salt, and pepper. Stir together and bring to a soft boil. Add the orzo, stirring into the liquids. Bring back to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium low and let the orzo simmer for approximately 9 to 10 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed and the orzo noodles have softened, stirring the mixture every couple of minutes while simmering (scrape up from the

• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves finely chopped •1 cup grated fresh mozzarella cheese 1 cup crumbled feta

bottom of the pan to prevent sticking).

Remove pan from heat and stir in the fresh chopped basil leaves. Add 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup feta; stir together until combined. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to stuff the tomatoes.

Place the prepared tomato shells in an ungreased baking dish (open side up).

Fill each tomato shell with approximately 1/2 cup of the orzo pasta mixture. Sprinkle

the tops of each stuffed tomato with the remaining feta and top with remaining mozzarella. Loosely replace tomato top.

Place in oven and bake, uncovered, for approximately 15 minutes until cheese is melted and tomato is heated through.

Remove from oven, remove from baking dish with spatula/server. Garnish with fresh oregano or basil.

STAGE & SCREEN

Some pig

By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff It’s hard to overstate how important Nicolas Cage is to the cultural fabric of 21st-century America. He of the crazy eye, the absurd emotional outburst, simultaneously under- and over-stated, he’s like an alien — we never know when or whether to take him seriously, so when he puts on John Travolta’s face, morphs into a motorcycle-riding demon with a skull of flame or chainsaws his way to vengeance against psychotic cultists, we default to an anxious form of amusement. I swear he starred in National Treasure just so we have to say he’s a national treasure. If Nic Cage did not exist, we would have to create him.

Cage pulls so much weight in the filmmaking world that when he’s in a movie we tend to shorthand describe the project as a “Nicolas Cage movie,” regardless of whether he actually had a hand in the writing, directing or producing of it. In the case of the 2021 surprise masterpiece Pig, he co-produced with writer-director Michael Sarnoski, meaning his bizarre fingerprints are all over it — and it shows.

Critics have frequently likened Pig to the Keanu Reeves-fueled

John Wick series, but with — as the title suggests — a pig. On the surface this is apt.

In Pig, Cage plays Rob, a former rockstar chef in Portland, Ore.’s foodie scene who has retreated to the drippy forests of the Pacific Northwest with only his prized truffle-hunting pig for company. Rob and his pig spend long, contemplative days hunting up mushrooms and cooking haute cuisine in a rustic log cabin. They see no other humans, except for a restaurant buyer bro who rolls up in his bright yellow sports car to buy truffles that he then sells to hotshot eateries in the city.

This is a peaceful, fulfilling existence until a couple of tweakers barge in, beat Rob silly and steal the pig, ostensibly so someone else can take advantage of her mushroom sniffer. As with John Wick (in which our hero unloads unholy vengeance on a bunch of dog-nappers), Rob must leave his self-imposed hermitage to save his pig — in the process, journeying into the dark underbelly of Portland’s highend kitchens.

There the John Wick similarities end. Whereas Reeves kicks ass, Cage gets his ass kicked more often than not. There’s a weariness to his quest; he spends the whole movie in a bloodied

This week’s RLW by Zach Hagadone

Nic Cage and Alex Wolff are stellar in moody action-drama Pig

pair of long johns, his stringy hair, unkempt beard and battered face worn like badges of authenticity amid the affectations of all those city-dwelling gastronomes.

But he doesn’t beat on them with his fists, rather, it’s his barbed tongue and knowing gaze that pack the punch.

Pig is not an action movie in the typical sense. Cage, true to form, subverts expectations by playing Rob with sad-eyed wisdom. He’s like a fallen king, still possessed of the qualities that made him great, but mouldering in noble decline — his talents and soul reserved only for himself.

That said, co-star Alex Wolff deserves at least half the credit for Pig’s charm. Wolff plays the truffle buyer Amir. Superficially,

Nicolas Cage with the film’s namesake.

Courtesy photo.

Amir is a caricature of Gen-Z’s neurotic drive for wealth and self-actualization. However, Wolff embodies Amir’s thwarted striving with such wounded sincerity and self-consciousness (even as it’s insufferable), that it’s all a sensitive viewer can do to keep from wanting to give him a hug. Paired with Cage’s crusty Rob, Wolff’s Amir is the character who provides real definition to both roles. More than that, Amir is the keystone to unraveling not only the mystery of who took the pig and why, but opening the whole world into which she disappeared.

Rent it on Amazon.

A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint Nick Wiebe, Pend d’Oreille Winery, Sept. 24 North Idaho’s own Nick Wiebe, also known under his musician’s moniker Wiebe Jammin, is able to infuse his vivacious performer’s spirit into his cover songs, making the renditions memorable in their own ways.

Songs from various genres and several decades sound refreshed and revived as Wiebe uses only his voice, a guitar and loop pedal to create the full sound of a band.

His winery setlist promises

to showcase “music from every corner of the universe,” so there is sure to be something for everyone.

Check out nickwiebe.com or find the artist on Facebook under “Wiebe Jammin” to sample tunes and learn about more upcoming live performances.

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

Larry Mooney, Sandpoint Farmers’ Market, Sept. 25 Sandpoint musician Larry Mooney is a man of many talents, having been performing since a young age and spending his life mastering trumpet, jazz trombone and guitar.

The breadth of that instrumental talent has led to a repertoire ranging from jazz classics to pop tunes to Latin numbers. The summation of these styles makes a Mooney performance one that’s easy-going but polished, topped

off with the artist’s smooth and confident vocals.

Listen to Mooney’s musical offerings while shopping fresh local produce and artisan goods at the Sandpoint Farmers’ Market, open 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

— Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey 10 a.m.-1 p.m., FREE. Farmin Park, between Oak and Main Streets. sandpointfarmersmarket. com.

READ

We have a lot of bloodletting to consider over the past 20 years. Maybe we’ll think about why, where and how it happened — most likely we won’t.

History, however, offers a time period through which we might view the shabby state of contemporary American life to explain its intrinsic lameness. Kristin L. Hoganson’s Fighting for American Manhood is a gender-centered account of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars, both imperial disasters we tend to forget about but speak more to our current mentality than we’d like to admit.

LISTEN

About 10 years ago I gave my younger brother the password to my Pandora account and he added a number of stations to my collection that I’m still discovering. Among them is named after Raheem DeVaughan, which I recommend for its easy-going, reggae-infused R&B sound. DeVaughan himself ranks with the smoothest, most lyrical and skilled artists who both pay homage to the likes of Luther Vandross and Marvin Gaye while pushing the genre forward.

WATCH

Among the only positive social adaptations to come out of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has to be the efforts taken by some local governments — including ours — to make their proceedings more accessible via Zoom or other remote viewing platforms. Sandpoint City Hall, in particular, deserves applause for its live streaming of every meeting and hearing. Access agendas and participate via Zoom at sandpointidaho.gov. Click “Meetings” on the homepage to log in.

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BACK OF THE BOOK

Build a raft, not an ark

By Ben Olson Reader Staff

From Northern Idaho News, Sept. 22, 1925

KNOCKED OFF BRIDGE BY CAR Thomas McHugh, his son, Frank, two daughters and Miss Alva Johnson, riding in a Ford driven by Frank, returning from Algoma, came upon the long wagon bridge about 7:15 Thursday evening and seeing a car approaching at a high rate of speed with exceptionally bright lights, drew up to the railing on the side of the bridge to let the other car pass. Their car was at a complete standstill when the approaching car hit them and knocked them through the railing into the water below.

The Ford turned over once and a half and landed on its side, the front of the car striking the water first and badly damaging the wheels, axle and transmission.

Thomas McHugh, although he struck his head, was the first out of the car and helped the others out, the water at this place being only about three feet deep.

The driver of the car that struck the McHugh Ford stopped his car some 50 or 60 feet further down the bridge and came to the railing and looked over at the children struggling in the water and then went back to his car and speeded away to the south.

Just after passing the south end of the bridge he met John Cranston coming into Sandpoint. Cranston noticed his bright lights and that there was a smell as of burning rubber but the car was going so fast he was unable to see what kind of car it was. Proceeding on the bridge, Cranston came to the scene of the accident and realized he had passed the author of the accident.

He attempted to rescue the people in the water with a small rope but seeing it was not long enough, he came on into Sandpoint, notified the sheriff and went to the city jail for a rope.

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/ September 23, 2021

Last weekend was the Sand Creek Regatta, a ragtag locals’ event in which people build a raft out of raw materials and race down Sand Creek for bragging rights. Just like last year’s event, the 2021 Regatta was greeted with heavy rain and cold weather, but that did not deter the four rafts and around 50 spectators who showed up to watch the action.

Spearheaded by Jon and Amanda Knepper, the regatta is a breath of fresh air for locals who feel like their community is slipping away from them. Anyone who showed up to watch the fun (and carnage) of the event walked away with smiles and a newfound love for the weird and wonderful parts of living in Sandpoint. Sometimes all it takes is to make a fool of yourself in front of your community to bring smiles instead of frowns to our neighbors’ faces.

After the event, as we gathered at the 219 Lounge for after-race cocktails and camaraderie, I spent some time thinking about our priorities as human beings.

There are so many of us who walk around every day waiting for a calamity to happen. We wince at every altercation, wondering if it will be the impetus for another outrage or flashpoint of division in this polarized country. We build arks of isolation, stocking our cupboards with nonperishable food, hoarding guns and ammunition to prepare for the bad we all think is going to happen someday. But what if instead of building arks to prepare for the worst, we focus our energy building rafts to be ready for the fun?

The world is, indeed, a scary place.

STR8TS Solution

It always has been to a greater or lesser extent, and depending who and where you are. We never locked our house when I was a kid. I didn’t even lock my car until it was broken into some years ago and someone stole my computer along with every photo and piece of writing I created for a six-year period of my life. Evil things do happen, and it’s never a bad thing to be prepared for them, but to focus your entire life on expecting the worst is no way to live. You still need to embrace the present, the good, the fun while you’re alive and kicking. Otherwise, what the hell are we doing here?

Instead of walling yourself off in expectation of defeat and calamity, build a raft and see where it takes you. Volunteer for a nonprofit organization and give back to the community. You’ll meet some new people and help out some truly worthy causes. Mentor a young person who shows interest in a topic you know well.

You never know how talented someone is until you give them a chance to prove themselves.

Take a risk. Audition for a play, learn how to play an instrument, join Outdoor Experience’s Monday night running group. Set a goal and don’t stop until you accomplish it. If you’re uncomfortable in social situations, try to meet a new person and learn about their life. If you’re uneasy being alone, spend a whole day with nothing but your own thoughts and get to know yourself better. Join silly competitions like the Sand Creek Regatta.

I guarantee you won’t leave with a scowl, even if your raft flips and sends all your paddling companions into the creek.

Life is a messy, beautiful, complicated and elegant thing. Don’t complicate it by dedicating your time to the end. Spend

some time on the present, the moments we are all living now, and worry about the doom and despair another day, because I guarantee the paddlers racing for glory down Sand Creek in the pouring rain on Sept. 18 weren’t concerned with the end of the world or some future collapse of civilization or their upcoming car payments or who won the election or how they were going to find a place to rent if they were kicked out because their landlord is selling the house. Everyone had a common goal: paddle like your lives depended on it! In those fleeting moments on Sand Creek, it did. All of our lives were dedicated to one simple purpose: staying afloat and crossing the finish line. Who cares who won the event or whose raft flipped or who got soaked to the bone? We were all very much in the present, right where we ought to be.

Crossword Solution

Sudoku Solution Probably the saddest thing you’ll ever see is a mosquito sucking on a mummy. Forget it, little friend.

Solution on page 22

Solution on page 22

Copyright www.mirroreyes.com

Laughing Matter

CROSSWORD

By Bill Borders

ACROSS

iridescent

Woorf tdhe Week

/ir-i-DES-uhnt/

[adjective] 1. displaying a play of lustrous colors like those of the rainbow.

“His iridescent jacket was the talk of the dinner party.”

Corrections: There was an incorrect price listed for real estate on an ad last week. The correct ad is listed in this week’s Reader. Apologies for the mistake. —BO

1. Allow 6. Peculiar 11. Eagle’s nest 12. Offense 15. Enlarge 16. Toiling 17. Half of a pair 18. Invigorate 20. Japanese apricot 21. Russian emperor 23. Anagram of “Rave” 24. Wreaths 25. Alleviate 26. One who colors cloth 27. Male offspring 28. Not the original color 29. Snake-like fish 30. Lampblacks 31. Fatigue 34. Evidence 36. Furrow maker 37. Historical periods 41. Diving bird 42. Eve’s opposite 43. Balcony section 44. Placed 45. Romances 46. Basic unit of money in China 47. Ensign (abbrev.)

48. Sentence 51. It is (poetic)

Solution on page 22 52. Interconnected systems 54. A type of tincture 56. Spire 57. Metal money 58. Slender 59. A common green newt

DOWN 1. Dispute 2. Set free 3. Genus of macaws 4. Anagram of “Tine” 5. Adolescent 6. Warble

7. Deep brown 8. Black, in poetry 9. Mistake 10. Clothing 13. Metamorphic rock 14. Auspices 15. Showered with love 16. Personal financial means 19. Stratum 22. Sequoia 24. Broadly speaking 26. Unhearing 27. Mayday 30. Observed 32. Many millennia

33. Like the Vikings 34. World 35. Carouse 38. Workaday 39. Opposed 40. Feel 42. Long-tailed primate 44. Focusing glass 45. Planet 48. Make do 49. Rodents 50. Backwards “Boon” 53. Tiny 55. Anagram of “Bid”

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