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New Entrance to Shoshone Skate Park
The Shoshone Skate Park has a new entrance thanks to Saddle Up Lincoln County and the Idaho Community Foundation. The skate park, which is located on the east side of Shoshone on the north side of Highway 26, has been in need of repair for a long time, and still needs more work. As a community organization, Saddle Up Lincoln County proposed a new entryway for the skate park and the city approved. Saddle Up then applied for and received a grant from the Southwestern Region Greatest Need Fund in
the Idaho Community Foundation to start the project. Many organizations pitched in to help with many in-kind hours of volunteer labor. Now, there is a beautiful metal structure covered with PVC lattice to provide a little shade and a place to sit with builtin benches for those who visit the skate park. The Chairman of Saddle Up, Vern Johnson, said this project would have been impossible without the help of partner organizations and individuals: City of Shoshone, City of Shoshone crew, Big Wood Canal Co. & American
School Christmas Programs
Falls Res. Dis. #2, Shoshone School Ag Department, Pacific Steel & Recycling, G & H Ace Hardware, Leland Towne, Payson Reese, Jon Pugh, Aric Johnson and Darrell Johnson. In the future, continued community support will be vital to the skate park restoration. In closing, Mr. Johnson said this echoes what was spoken decades ago, “Ask not what your community can do for you, but what you can do for your community.”
Saturday, December 14th Gooding Holiday Kickoff From 1 to 4 p.m. come to Downtown Gooding for a chili-potato fest, face painting, wagon rides,
and Santa Claus
–––––––– Richfield: Dec. 16th, 7:00 p.m. Shoshone: Dec. 17th, 7:00 p.m. Bliss: Dec. 17th or 18th, 7:00 p.m. (TBA) Wendell: Dec. 18th, 7:00 p.m. Gooding Elementary: Dec. 17th, 7:00 p.m. Lincoln County Community Center/Fairgrounds Dietrich: Dec. 18th, 7:00 p.m. Friday 2 to 6 p.m. & Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hagerman: Dec. 18th, 7:00 p.m.
December 13th & 14th Gateway Community Market Food, Holiday Items and More
December 11 Volume 37 ~ Number 50 News from the Heart of Idaho Camas • Lincoln • Gooding
CourierNews.webs.com
3 Millon Jobs Waiting for You The unemployment rate for November (as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics) fell to 7.0% as the result of 200,000 new jobs. While generally seen as a positive move in the economy, there are problems with that number. First, the new jobs are easily accounted for by seasonal hires for the Christmas season which will disappear in January. Also, the new job numbers are only an estimate based on what employers say they might do. Over the past 4 or 5 years, there has been a constant pattern of reporting positive job numbers followed by an adjusted report a few weeks later showing numbers that are less positive. Secondly, the actual number of people working or looking for a job, is more than 250 thousand people less than what it was just two months ago. So in truth, the real unemployment numbers are relatively static, that includes the participation rate (the percentage of people working or looking for work) which is at 63% - the lowest level in thirty years. Most of us have heard all of this before, in one form or another, but what you may not have heard is that there are over 3 million jobs in the U.S. waiting to be filled. continued on page 7.....