NEWS
BoCo Road and Bridge shares failed Dufort culvert update Replacement culvert set to arrive this month; crews working to repair road ‘ASAP’
By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff Bonner County Road and Bridge Director Jason Topp provided an update on the failed Dufort Road culvert at the board of county commissioners’ June 13 business meeting, notifying the board and public that crews were moving forward with plans for a new culvert to be installed at the site where a portion of the roadway collapsed earlier this month. The county reported the culvert, located at the 5700 block of Dufort Road near Lakeshore Drive, was “failing” on June 4, and that the road had completely fallen in on June 6, causing a flood risk that necessitated excavation. Topp said the culvert was inspected within the past three years
and was determined to be in “fair” condition. “For it to catastrophically fail caught us all off guard,” he said. Topp said the culvert failed “at the worst time I can think of,” seeing as a dam will be required to dewater the construction area before putting in the new culvert, which is anticipated to arrive in two 50-foot pieces from Topeka, Kans., on or before Friday, June 23. Topp said his department explored the option of a bridge to repair the failed section of Dufort, but current high demand for bridges due to the state-run Leading Idaho Local Bridge program made that alternative unfeasible. “I’m not going to wait six or seven months for a bridge to get here,” Topp said. “We’re going to try to get this thing done as soon
as possible.” The culvert replacement project is expected to cost around $800,000 — half of that accounting for the sheet piles required to properly dam and dewater the area. While commissioners unanimously approved a grant application June 13 asking the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council for $100,000 in emergency funding through the agency’s Local Highway Improvement Program, Topp said that the bulk of the project’s cost will come out of other parts of the Road and Bridge budget, affecting the department’s ability to complete other projects planned for this fiscal year. “It’s a hard project, and it’s right in the middle of our construction season, which we already have contractual obligations with,” he said,
urging the public to be “patient.” “Everybody is shifting gears and doing what needs to be done to get this project taken care of,” he added. Occasional project updates are
The culvert failure on Dufort Road, pictured here prior to the June 6 excavation of the road. Photo courtesy Bonner County Road and Bridge. posted to the “Bonner County Road & Bridge” Facebook page.
Census shows Idaho is still growing, but Boise’s population shrank Sandpoint ranks eighth in the state for numerical increase between 2021-’22
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Idaho remains a fast-growing state, but the rate of population increase is actually declining for at least one Gem State community. In a surprise finding in the U.S. Census Bureau figures released June 13 by the Idaho Department of Labor, the capital city of Boise — Idaho’s largest urban center with more than 236,000 residents — actually lost 1,387 residents from its population during 20212022, amounting to a .6% decline. According to the Department of Labor, “Analysts suspect high housing costs contribute to the loss in Boise population, forcing households with children to seek more affordable housing in nearby communities.” That’s in contrast to the numerous studies and rankings that for years have put Boise among the hottest relocation destinations for work, education, lifestyle, raising a family and retiring, alike. It is unsurprising that of the top20 largest communities in Idaho,
most are in the southern part of the state, though five are located in North Idaho. Based purely on the number of residents, Coeur d’Alene ranks seventh in the state for size, with 56,733 residents — an increase of 588, or 1%, from 2021-’22 — Post Falls is ninth, with 44,194, growing by 803 residents, or 3.6% year-over-year; Lewiston is 11th, with 34,856 residents, growing by 394, or 1.1%; Moscow is 14th, with 26,249, adding 308 new residents, or 1.2% growth; and Hayden is 16th, with 16,531, adding 294 residents, or 1.8%. The fastest-growing city based purely on percentage increase was the small town of Paul, in southeastern Idaho, which grew 19.8% from 2021-’22, adding 285
residents for a total of 1,728. Closer to home, Dover and Ponderay both made the top 10 — the former growing 9.2%, with 84 new residents contributing to a total of 1,000, and the latter increasing by 9.1%, with a population increase of 133 for a total of 1,601 residents. Dover ranked sixth among fastest-growing communities, while Ponderay came in seventh. Finally, when it came to greatest numerical growth, Post Falls came in fifth, Sandpoint ranked eighth — with 9,777 residents, an increase of 617, or 6.7% — and Coeur d’Alene ranked tenth. The rapid rate of growth in North Idaho, and Sandpoint in particular, comes as no surprise to longtime residents of the area, particularly after a widely reported study commissioned by the city of Sandpoint in 2022 from Portland, Ore.-based Leland Consulting showed that to accommodate the anticipated population increase over the next decade, Sandpoint would need to add between 1,500 and 1,900 housing units.
The Leland report also reinforced the popular perception that the growth in new residents had sent real estate prices spiraling ever-upward, rising to a median of $670,000 in Sandpoint and $700,000 in the county in 2022. That’s compared to a range of $300,000-$400,000 from 2018-’20, and a national median home price of just over $400,000 in 2022. While the Department of Labor noted that high real estate prices had likely resulted in the net population decline experienced by Boise from 2021-’22, the Idaho Statesman reported in March 2023 that a study by the National Association of Realtors showed median prices for existing homes in the city actually declined .2% from February 2022 to $363,000 — far lower than the eye-watering prices in places like Sandpoint. The Leland report pointed to a likely reason for why Sandpoint has experienced both a population boom and skyrocketing home prices, finding that newcomers brought with them an average income in the $91,000 per year range, amounting to a cumulative $300 million in new wealth coming into the county since 2019 alone. Leland consultants went on
to suggest that because those numbers came from 2020, the wealth gap between in-migrants’ incomes and the prevailing income in the county — which is about $51,000 — is “even worse than that.” Meanwhile, the report made it clear that growth in Bonner County is not occurring by natural increase. There were 3,769 births in the county between 2010 and 2019, but 3,902 deaths — meaning all the growth during that time period can be attributed to in-migration. The last time Bonner County experienced a population decline was 2012, when it went from 40,782 to 40,347 residents. Since then, the county has grown to a population of 51,414 in 2022. Boise’s housing affordability issues may have contributed to its net population loss, but based on the new Census figures and data from the Leland report, Sandpoint and Bonner County as a whole seem to be bucking the capital city’s trend, able to support both a population increase and continued sky-high housing prices. Find all statewide population estimates and other demographic data at lmi.idaho.gov/census. June 15, 2023 / R / 5