I’ve been asked that question several times over the years — usually by folks who are new to town or have lived here for several years and haven’t broken through the local vs. tourist vs. frequent visitor vs. newcomer barrier. The simple answer is there is no simple answer.
I’ve known people who have lived here for more than a decade who I don’t consider a local. Conversely, I know some who are still unpacking their boxes who I’d definitely call a local.
To begin with, it doesn’t matter if you were born here. Those unicorns get a special “born ’n’ raised” prefix, which is the North Idaho equivalent of putting “Dr.” before your name. They don’t need to be referred to as a “local,” because if anyone tries to claim otherwise, about three dozen people will just laugh to themselves and help you find your way home, because you’re obviously drunk.
Locals can usually list a few businesses that occupied the space in a particular building in downtown Sandpoint before its current occupant.
Locals run into their former elementary school teachers in the grocery stores, and still call them “Mr.” or “Mrs.”
Locals remember seminal events in North Idaho history — such as the famed “winter of ’96-’97” — and talk about them endlessly at the bar.
Locals remember Sandpoint before the Byway, when logging trucks rumbled through the downtown streets spilling cow juices and emitting the odor of manure through the whole town.
Locals are passionate about one or two issues, be it goose poop, wake zones, sports complexes or overdevelopment, and write at least two letters to the editor of the local newspapers every year.
Locals constantly forget which way to drive downtown after the streets went from one-way to two-way, back to one-way and then back to two-way.
Locals remember when trains went through town and when there was an actual granary in the Granary Arts District.
Locals have had at least one bike stolen from them.
Locals know what a jojo tastes like and exactly how much it used to cost to get a Harold’s IGA sack lunch.
What makes a local is not how many years you’ve spent in a place, but how much you’ve put into those years and the connections you’ve made to others who live here. In a place like Sandpoint, which seems hellbent on eliminating all the traditions and jagged edges that make this place unique, our localism is sometimes all we have left. That’s why the term isn’t just handed out to anyone who wants it. You must earn it.
quotable
“My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.”
— Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the U.S.
READER DEAR READERS,
As usual, this week’s edition of the Sandpoint Reader is bursting with just about everything we could fit within our pages. It’s always a struggle to contain it all.
Special thanks to all of our readers who contribute photos and news tips — we always appreciate it, and it helps us all stay more informed.
We’re cleaning out a few items from our office this summer and I’d like to sell some stuff for which we no longer have a use. There are two 2012-era Apple iMacs that are available for purchase if you’re looking for a simple desktop computer, as well as the former Reader delivery bicycle, a Yuba cargo delivery bike that’s perfect for someone who regulary hauls kiddos or cargo around town.
Shoot me an email for more info: ben@sandpointreader.com. There are also some antique cameras and, if you twist my arm, I might even sell an antique typewriter or two.
Thanks for reading.
– Ben Olson, publisher
111 Cedar Street, Suite 9 Sandpoint, ID 83864 208-946-4368 sandpointreader.com
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About the Cover:
This week’s cover is a photo from the “No Kings” protest held in Sandpoint on June 14. Photo by Hal Gates.
Sandpoint ‘No Kings’ demonstration draws estimated 1,000 protesters
Despite big crowds, SPD and organizers earned praise for safe and peaceful event
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Sandpoint joined more than 2,100 communities that drew an estimated 5 million people to the streets nationwide to demonstrate against President Donald Trump’s administration on June 14 for “No Kings” protests.
According to organizers on nokings.org, the demonstrations were prompted because the Trump White House has “defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too. far. No thrones. No crowns. No kings.”
Organized by 50501 Sandpoint and Sandpoint Indivisible, in conjunction with the national “No Kings” group, as many as 1,000 people turned out on First Avenue for the protest, waving signs, chanting and singing from Superior Street north past Pine Street.
For comparison, statewide attendance at the day’s demonstrations was estimated at more than 23,000, with Boise drawing 13,000 attendees. Closer to home, Coeur d’Alene had 2,000 protesters, Moscow had 400 and Bonners Ferry had 60. Lewiston and Clarkston, Wash. had 700 demonstrators, and the Silver Valley had 65.
Those numbers come from organizers, and indicate that — per capita — Sandpoint had among the largest No Kings protests in the state, accounting for about 10% of the total city population.
Despite the large crowd size, and with the demonstration occurring at the same time as the Farmers’ Market, ArtWalk and CHAFE 150 bike race, there were no instances of violence and only a hand-
ful of illegal actions — all by counter-protesters, according to the most recent, verifiable reports. Meanwhile, the Bonner Community Food Bank collected donations on the lawn in front of the Bonner County courthouse.
Chants of “this is what democracy looks like” and “no KKK in the USA — no king — no ICE” came in waves, and a choir of local singers performed a selection of classic protest and union songs to the beat of a drum.
About 30 individuals turned out to oppose the demonstration, standing peacefully though openly carrying sidearms and with some sporting tactical garb. Two drivers of large trucks spewed exhaust on demonstrators, and one individual sped down First Avenue on a motorcycle, only to be swiftly pulled over by
Sandpoint police.
The Reader witnessed both coal-rolling incidents and the speeding motorcycle. Sandpoint Planning and Community Development Director Jason Welker also experienced one of the coal-rolls while speaking with the Reader, with the smoke also affecting counter-protesters.
In a followup email, Welker offered praise for the Sandpoint Police Department’s posture at the event.
“The protest seemed to be handled very well by law enforcement and everything remained civil and calm,” Welker wrote. “I was not surprised to get coal-rolled but was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly SPD responded to that disrespectful and illegal behavior.”
Asked if there were any disturbances on the street,
Rachel Castor told the Reader on behalf of organizers that, “We had nothing. Our peacekeepers stood just north of the ‘militia contingent’ and discouraged people there for the No Kings rally from engaging the MAGA protesters, but some people did. We had no incidents of any violence or even heated arguments.”
In addition, she wrote, “We want to give a huge shoutout to SPD and BCSO, though. They were fantastic.”
Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm told the Reader that he was “very pleased by the respectful and courteous attitude displayed during the event. It was a busy day in Sandpoint with hundreds of riders of the CHAFE 150 event and ArtWalk events.”
He also applauded local police for their approach to the protests, stating that he met
with Police Chief Corey Coon prior to the event and walked through a number of scenarios, including countermeasures, approaches and tactics “to minimize and react to any potential disturbance,” he wrote.
“A kudos to Bonner County residents is deserved as well,” Grimm added. “At the end of the day, our police can deploy and respond to situations, but it is the actions of individuals and organizations that set the tone during gatherings where opposing views may exist. We all have the freedom to choose our reactions and actions. Violence and intimidation are never acceptable and represent an inherent inability to communicate with dialogue.”
The June 14 No Kings protest drew more than 1,000 people in Sandpoint.
Photo by Hal Gates
BOCC asks Sandpoint, Dover, Kootenai, East Hope to redraw area of impact maps
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
The Bonner County board of commissioners held a special meeting June 16 to consider seven new area of impact map proposals for the cities of Sandpoint, Dover, Kootenai, Ponderay, Hope, East Hope and Clark Fork, and to resolve land disputes between neighboring entities.
Over the course of four hours, commissioners voted to approve the new AOIs for Ponderay, Hope and Clark Fork, and requested that the remaining cities alter their maps to better reflect anticipated growth.
The hearing stemmed from changes made to Idaho Code 67-6526, which the Legislature passed and Gov. Brad Little approved in 2024. The alterations limit cities’ influence over their surrounding areas by reducing AOI to within two miles of the city’s boundaries, requiring that cities prove all property within the area is “very likely to be annexed” within the next five years, in addition, requiring cities and counties to reevaluate the AOIs every five years.
Culvert
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Adding or removing property from AOIs does not constitute annexation and does not affect taxation, county zoning or residents’ addresses.
Though the city of Dover reduced its previous AOI by 3,800 acres — and Sandpoint proposed a reduction from 12.3 to 3.4 acres — the two cities could not agree on jurisdiction over a contested area near Ontario Street and Chuck Slough.
According to Bonner County Planning Director Jake Gabell and the county’s staff reports, Dover provided “current planning efforts and service capacity evaluations” for the disputed area and showed updates to its “wastewater collection and water service master plans,” as well as infrastructure upgrades in the area that would support annexation. Sandpoint likewise submitted evidence of nearby utilities that could extend into the contested property.
Representing Dover, Clare Marley, of Ruen-Yeager and Associates, as well as Sandpoint Planning and Community Development Director Jason Welker stated that neither city had plans to annex
Approves AOIs for Hope, Ponderay, Clark Fork
the area within the next five years. Moreover, according to Marley, the area’s homeowners indicated that they did not want to be included in either AOI. For those reasons, the commissioners voted to remove the disputed land from both areas of impact.
The commissioners further questioned whether Dover or Sandpoint would expand as much as they planned for in the AOIs and voted unanimously to remand the maps back to their respective cities to further reduce them.
The cities of Ponderay and Kootenai had a similar dispute over 18 properties north of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks along McGhee Road.
“Ponderay contends these properties are better connected to its infrastructure network, citing road maintenance, pedestrian improvements and planned transportation connections,” said Gabell.
As justification for the claim, Ponderay demonstrated planned road connections from McGhee to U.S. Highway 95 and plans for additional roads in a 200-acre development on the west side of McGhee.
Ponderay has annexed three
properties amounting to 95.76 acres in the past 10 years, according to Gabell. The city considered more annexations but found that city infrastructure did not justify incorporating the properties and thereby raising the owners’ taxes.
According to the staff report, Kootenai did not provide “infrastructure plans, growth projections or service expansion documentation that would demonstrate near-term annexation potential” to support their claim on the land. Kootenai polled the 18 property owners and received six responses, all indicating that they did not want to be part of either AOI; but, if they had to choose, they would prefer Kootenai.
BOCC Chair Asia Williams stated that because Ponderay had already considered other annexations and denied them, it proved that the infrastructure did not support annexation of the contested area, though she acknowledged the merits of Ponderay’s claim. Commissioners Ron Korn and Brian Domke moved forward with the motion, voting 2-1 to alter Ponderay’s AOI border to the east side of McGhee. The commissioners then
unanimously voted to approve Ponderay’s revised map but remanded Kootenai’s back to the city, requesting a reduction to comply with likely growth in the immediate future.
There was no contested property between Hope and East Hope, and so commissioners unanimously approved Hope’s AOI. However, because East Hope included land encompassing the city’s watershed — which it did not intend to annex — the BOCC again remanded the map to the city.
“I have questions on just saving land and extending — keeping a boundary — where you identify that you’re not actually growing into because we’re not here just to repeat the same map,” said Williams.
“I see the argument for why they want to pull that into their area of impact, but without a plan — and if you can state in this hearing that they have enough availability of water to address their current needs — that means that they’re not going to grow in that direction,” she later added.
Finally, the commissioners unanimously approved Clark Fork’s proposed AOI without issue.
failure closes N. Boyer at Sand Creek
Repair work expected to last weeks
work timeline.
The city of Sandpoint closed North Boyer Road at the Sand Creek crossing due to structural concerns over a large culvert beneath the roadway, according to a June 11 press release.
“The closure is effective immediately and necessary to ensure public safety,” City Hall stated.
Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm told the Reader in a phone interview June 17 that the city is not pursuing a disaster declaration, but funding the repair work through an emergency expenditure, which is intended to speed up the
Grimm said J-U-B Engineers is on the job, and gave kudos to Bonner County Road and Bridge for their work on the project. He estimated the work would take between six and seven weeks, and cost as much as $300,000, though those details are still being hammered out.
“[T]hat would be the very soonest that we could reopen North Boyer,” he said, noting that interagency jurisdiction is shared with the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
According to the city’s press statement, Bonner County alerted Sandpoint
officials on June 5 that the culvert may be failing. City crews then checked the culvert on June 6, and did not see any signs of imminent failure.
“However, when crews returned on Monday, June 9, they noted that the condition had deteriorated significantly,” City Hall stated. “At that point, the city planned to implement temporary weight restrictions and continue to monitor the site.”
After a follow-up inspection on June 11, crews found that the culvert’s condition had worsened. At that point, the city exercised “an abundance of caution for public safety,” by closing North Boyer at the Sand Creek crossing,
the city stated.
According to Grimm, the issue stemmed from water running under the floor of the culvert, undermining its support.
Meanwhile, traffic is being rerouted to U.S. Highway 95 via Bronx Road and Schweitzer Cutoff Road. Motorists seeking to access Schweitzer Mountain are being asked to use Bronx Road.
“We recognize this closure will be an inconvenience to many, but with the structure actively deteriorating, closing the road was the only responsible course of action to ensure the safety of the public,” city officials stated.
For more information, go to sandpointidaho.gov or contact the Sandpoint Public Works Department at 208263-3407.
Detour routes around the North Boyer Road closure. Courtesy image
State of Idaho approves $300K request to transport inmates to ICE detention centers
By Clark Corbin Idaho Capital Sun
A board chaired by Idaho Gov. Brad Little approved a $300,000 request on June 17 to pay for Idaho State Police to transport people who have been convicted of a crime and do not have legal authorization to be in the United States to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers for deportation.
The Idaho State Board of Examiners voted unanimously to approve the request without any discussion during a meeting June 17 at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise.
Funding not to exceed $300,000 will come from the Governor’s Emergency Fund, which will be used to reimburse Idaho State Police personnel for providing transportation to ICE detention centers.
The vote was significant because state officials said the first ICE transports could not begin until funding was approved. Now that funding has been approved, the transports to ICE detention facilities can begin.
Idaho to participate in 287(g) immigration program
Little announced the new partnership between Idaho State Police and ICE on June 5.
Idaho is participating in the jail enforcement model under the 287(g) program, which allows ICE to delegate specific immigration functions to state or local law enforcement agencies such as Idaho State Police, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.
Before Idaho State Police entered into a partnership with ICE, the Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office became the first agency in Idaho to partner with ICE, InvestigateWest reported.
When the Idaho State Police partnership was announced earlier this month, state officials said they would only target and transport people who have been convicted of a crime in Idaho and are finishing their sentence or incarceration period.
Instead of releasing those people back to the community when they complete their sentence, those individuals will be transported to an ICE detention center such as the Jefferson County Detention Center in Rigby, state officials said.
Little said Idaho would target
people convicted of violent crimes and felonies, as well as people who have been convicted of driving under the influence, which is a misdemeanor.
“Idaho is stepping up to help the Trump administration transport dangerous illegal alien criminals to ICE facilities instead of being released back into our communities,” Little said in a written statement June 5. “These are people who have committed crimes such as domestic violence, robbery, driving under the influence and other dangerous activities that threaten Idaho families. Idaho has taken many steps to increase our coordination with the Trump administration in the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws, and I want to further strengthen our state’s partnership with President Trump to help address the national emergency posed by years of reckless border policies under the Biden-Harris administration.”
It was not immediately clear which specific people will be targeted and transported for deportation or how many people in Idaho will be processed for deportation.
However, state officials said they will be able to transport “hundreds” of people under the ICE partnership.
ICE in Idaho faces some pushback
There was no discussion or public comment about the new Idaho State Police/ICE partnership during the June 17 Idaho State Board of Examiners meeting.
However, during the June 14 “No Kings Day” protest against Trump at the Idaho Capitol, several public speakers and protestors spoke out against ICE raids and carried signs in opposition to the agency.
ACLU of Idaho officials have also spoken out against the new partnership between Idaho State Police and ICE.
“ICE and local law enforcement partnerships deteriorate trust, harm families and can lead to constitutional violations,” ACLU of Idaho Executive Director Leo Morales said in a written statement June 5. “This new partnership will intimidate and cause real trauma to our immigrant community. Immigrants make our communities stronger, and they deserve to be treated with dignity. Nothing will ever change the fact that immigrants belong in Idaho.”
The new Idaho State Police/ICE partnership implements portions of House Bill 83, a Texas-syle immigra< see ICE, Page 7 >
Bits ’n’ Pieces
From east, west and beyond
A recent Trump executive order, reviewed by The Guardian, has new rules that allow Veterans Affairs doctors to refuse to treat Democrats as well as unmarried veterans.
According to various media, a second judge has blocked most of Trump’s election-related executive order The judge noted that only Congress has the power to adjust state election rules, and barred key provisions making it harder to vote, including requirements for proof of citizenship.
While some predicted Senate Republicans would smooth the rough edges from Trump’s budgetary “big, beautiful bill” that came out of the House, USA Today reported that the Senate is proposing even deeper cuts to Medicaid to support tax cuts for the wealthy. That appears at odds with public sentiment: Recent polling shows 83% favor Medicaid. The congressional goal is to complete work on the BBB Act by July 4.
Incidents of unlawful behavior at the “No Kings” protests on June 14 were regarded as “largely isolated,” given attendance by an estimated 5 million people, though they included one death in Utah and two vehicle ramming incidents elsewhere. The protests were the “largest single-day mobilization” since Trump re-took office, and were a rejection of “authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics and the militarization of our democracy,” event organizer Indivisible stated. Various media sources are also reporting that “No Kings” ranks among the largest — if not the largest — day of protest in U.S. history.
Numerous media: On the morning of Trump’s birthday and D.C. military parade June 14, Vance L. Boelter, 57, shot Minnesota Democratic Sen. John Hoffman and his wife (both are undergoing surgeries), then drove a fake police car to the home of former State House Speaker Melissa Hortman and shot and killed her and her husband.
Boelter’s roommates said he was a “strong” Trump supporter. Recovered from Boelter’s vehicle was a list of dozens of other possible targets, including Democratic Party leaders and abortion providers. Trump called the shootings “horrific.” Boelter was arrested and charged on June 15.
A federal judge ruled the Trump administration unlawfully federalized the National Guard in Los Angeles, though the administration has appealed. A stay has been granted while the Court of Appeals considers the case. According to The Guardian, National Guard troops and Marines
By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Contributor
deployed to L.A. by the Trump administration to address protests against ICE deportation actions are “deeply unhappy” about their assignment and being caught up in a political battle.
Headlines from around the country state that the Trump administration won’t release Mahmoud Khalil, despite a ruling that he be freed and Trump has ordered ICE to expand deportations in large Democrat-run cities
Meanwhile, other headlines state that Trump told ABC News he’s mulling an attack on Iran, and abruptly left the G7 summit. He also urged the 9.5 million residents of Tehran to evacuate “immediately.” Israel urged the U.S. to join the war, which is being justified as eliminating Iran’s nuclear program.
Wall Street has telegraphed to insurers that they should keep denying care, as UnitedHealth Group’s investors continue to profit from the company’s high denial rates. Trump said that FEMA will be wound down after hurricane season, which ends in November.
After trying to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question at a press conference, various media reported that California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla was removed from the room, manhandled to the floor and handcuffed. He said he was not arrested or detained. Video of the event disproved Noem’s claim that Padilla exhibited threatening behavior. He is the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Safety.
Historian Heather C. Richardson interpreted Noem’s statement about getting rid of California’s democratically-elected governor as the definition of a coup attempt.
On June 17, federal agents handcuffed and arrested New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the city’s top financial officer. Lander had been observing immigration hearings, and locked arms with an immigrant who agents wanted to detain. He refused to release his armlock and said “I will let go when you show me the judicial warrant.” Agents pushed Landers against a wall and handcuffed him. He’s being accused of assault. The New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the arrest “bullshit.”
Blast from the past: “The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.” — James Madison, fourth president of the U.S., from “Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787” (17511836)
Jennifer Meyer sentenced to 15 years for second-degree arson in 2024 Army Surplus fire
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff
Two months after Sandpoint resident Jennifer S. Meyer amended her plea to guilty of second degree arson in the July 4, 2024 fire that destroyed the Army Surplus store formerly on Fifth Avenue and Oak Street, Judge Susie Jensen handed down a sentence of 15 years in Idaho prison on June 16.
According to court documents, Meyer faces seven years of a determinate sentence and eight years of indeterminate time behind bars, with 336 days credited. Media reports indicate that while Meyer will not have to pay large fines, she will be required to provide restitution for the burning of the Army Surplus 1 store, though that amount has yet to be disclosed.
As the Reader reported in April, Meyer had been looking at fines of up to $75,000, on top of “enhanced penalties,” including restitution that Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall said at the time could rise to “hundreds
tion law against which the ACLU of Idaho filed a lawsuit.
Before announcing the new Idaho State Police/ICE partnership, Little issued an executive order calling for the state to continue collaborating with ICE and encouraging state agencies to assist with enforcing immigration laws.
Immigrants who do not have legal authorization to be in the U.S. are a key part of Idaho’s economy and agriculture industry, according to a 2024 report from the University of Idaho’s McClure Center for Public Policy Research.
The Idaho dairy industry, which reports nearly $11 billion in total sales, stated that 90% of dairy jobs are held by Spanish-speaking workers who were not born in the
of thousands of dollars.”
Meyer’s sentence of “determinate” time means she will have to serve those seven years, after which she may be paroled if eligible. If not, she will serve out the remaining eight years of “indeterminate” time.
The Army Surplus store, which has since reopened in Ponderay, is owned by Idaho Dist. 1B Rep. Cornel Rasor, R-Sagle, who delivered a statement to the court that was republished online by the self-described “conservative independent news source” Idaho Dispatch.
Rasor did not respond to a request for comment from the Reader by press time.
“Our business was our home away from home,” Rasor wrote. “We raised our children and taught them the retail business over the 43 years that we were open. Our grandchildren became our employees. Seeing our livelihood burned to the ground has had an emotional effect on us and our entire family.”
At the time of the fire, the Rasor family was building a
U.S., many of whom do not have legal authorization to be in the country.
The Idaho State Board of Examiners is made up of Idaho’s governor, attorney general and secretary of state, with the state controller serving as the secretary. The Idaho State Board of Examiners was created in the Idaho Constitution, and the board has the authority to “examine all claims against the state, except salaries or compensation of officers fixed by law.”
This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com.
new home and stored many of their personal possessions at the site of the business, which were lost in the blaze along with the structure. Estimates for the value of lost merchandise — including a large amount of ammunition, which detonated in prolonged bursts amid the flames — has been pegged at about $500,000.
“Besides the material goods, Jennifer’s crime has affected us in multiple ways,” Rasor wrote. “I have lost sleep worrying about how I would provide for my family and how we could make the business profitable again in a less desirable location than what we had.
“Now that we are left with the financial and work burden of rebuilding a new business, we would encourage the court that Jennifer’s sentencing and restitution would be strict enough that she could not do this again,” he added, concluding that he wished Meyer to “remain incarcerated, that she be able to have access to the Gospel of Jesus whether through jail ministries or by some other means.”
In her April court appearance, Meyer had refused to “swear to God” to tell the truth under oath, stating that, “I’m not religious — I can’t agree to that,” though she did affirm she would tell the truth when asked by the judge. Meyer’s demeanor in previous court appearances dating back to July 2024 — including an instance when she refused to respond to the judge — led to the court’s determination that her mental competency was “significantly impaired” and she was ordered to undergo a period of evaluation at Idaho State Hospital North. Found to be competent enough to assist in her own case, which was represented by public defense attorney
Catherine Enright, Meyer pleaded guilty to arson in the second degree on April 8, reducing her potential jail time and fines from a maximum of 25 years and up to $100,000 or both, as well as avoiding a jury trial that had been scheduled for May but was vacated. No motive has yet been disclosed for the fire, which surveillance footage showed Meyer lit on the back of the Army Surplus building just as the annual Fourth of July fireworks display was ending at City Beach. No injuries occurred and fire crews were able to contain the fire, with no damage to surrounding structures, while hundreds of holiday revelers looked on.
According to media reports, both Prosecutor Marshall and Judge Jensen stated June 16 that Meyer’s motive did not appear to be political — rather, according to Jensen, Meyer claimed in a statement that she felt the Army Surplus building was “an eyesore,” and she “cleaned up the neighborhood with diesel and a match.”
Dozens of community members — including officials with Lake Pend Oreille School District — gathered June 9 at Sandpoint High School to break ground on the Career Technical Education Center of North Idaho. The center is intended to serve students throughout the area with training
geared toward entering the workforce — a specific goal of Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield. With support from a $3.5 million Idaho Career Ready Students grant, the center is planned to include upward of 13 programs, ranging from
aerospace engineering and mechanics, to HVAC, electrical, plumbing, autobody and more. According to one district official, an official opening is anticipated in the fall of 2026. — Words by Reader Staff, photo courtesy Darren Svan, LPOSD
Meyer’s booking photo courtesy of BCSO
Officials celebrate groundbreaking of new Career Technical Ed Center
< ICE, con’t from Page 6 >
Bouquets:
GUEST SUBMISSION:
• “Let’s give a big lovely, Bouquet to the 42 volunteers who taught Art to more than 1,000 kids in grades three to six in seven LPOSD elementary schools and Idaho Hill in the WBCSD. These volunteers taught the Kaleidoscope Art lessons, supported by POAC October through May. Bringing high quality art experiences to all these kids is no small feat. We are so grateful to our volunteers for giving time, energy and passion to the kids of Hope, Northside, Kootenai, Farmin, Washington, Sagle, Southside and Idaho Hill. Thank you!”
— By Janelle Campasino
GUEST SUBMISSION:
• “Kudos to the Sandpoint police for their quietly reassuring presence throughout the ‘No Kings’ rally. They were quick to nab drivers who threatened us, whether by speeding or rolling coal, and we appreciated their actions. Thank you!”
— By Nancy Renk
Barbs:
• I used to feel sorry for those dorks who drive around in their big, dumb trucks coal-rolling black clouds of smoke at protestors. I used to feel pity for them, because their lives were apparently so small and meaningless that they had to fill themselves up by emitting noxious fumes into the air whenever something threatened to upset their delicate view of the world. Now, though? I don’t pity them at all. I just think they’re lost, forgotten people who are desperately clinging to something — anything — to make themselves feel big and powerful. They are dinosaurs who refuse to believe their world is ending and a new world of compassion is emerging from the fascist ashes of today. History will remember some people unkindly for their beliefs and actions. So be it.
‘What does freedom mean to you?’...
Dear editor, What does freedom mean to you? To love who you choose to love? To have the choice to decide whether to be a mom and dad or not? To be who you want to be? To peacefully speak your mind? To travel where you wish? To follow your chosen career path? To gather peacefully with others and express your opinion? To read whatever you want to read? To live without fear of unlawful persecution or unlawful deportation? To worship as you wish without fear? What does freedom mean to you? Something to think about...
Cynthia Mason Bellingham, Wash. (former Bonner County resident for decades)
Away with Walz…
Dear editor,
It’s an unwritten rule in politics that candidates don’t choose running mates who will outshine them. Thus, Obama chose Biden, Biden chose Harris, and Harris chose Walz. Notice a trend? It’s reverse Darwinism; and, if this downward spiral continues, Tim Walz will need to find a running mate he outshines. No small task. But it’s doubtful Walz will get the chance. Democrats will come to their senses and return him to well-deserved obscurity. As a former V.P. candidate he thinks he now has the gravitas to run for higher office, and is already flapping his gums at political events, but he’s mistaken. The only reason Kamala chose him as her running mate was to (here comes that hackneyed phrase) “balance the ticket.” She’s a (relatively) young, mixed-race, San Francisco liberal female, and she thought she needed an older, white, Midwestern, bird-hunting grandfather to get the guns-and-Bibles votes. (It would be an added bonus if he whittled.) But she underestimated the guns-and-Bibles voters, who can smell a phony a mile away. It didn’t help when Walz invited reporters to a pheasant hunt, then looked like Elmer Fudd when he couldn’t figure out how to load his shotgun. So long, Tim. Your 15 minutes are up.
Dave Mundell Sandpoint
Mayor Grimm needs to refocus his priorities…
Dear editor,
To Mayor Jeremy Grimm: As a 30-year Sandpoint resident, I’m alarmed by our town’s direction under your leadership. You were elected to fix roads, solve the sewer
crisis, secure grants and protect our serene charm. Yet, your focus has veered from these duties.
Voters didn’t choose you to turn Sandpoint into Jackson Hole or Ketchum. Your “affordable housing” push ignores updating city codes for responsible development. Worse, you and the council fail to enforce developer impact fees for water, sewage, roads, parking and waste systems. Out-of-town developers profit while our infrastructure suffers. We expected upgrades, not added strain.
The 100-unit “Farmin Flats” approval, with no parking, is a glaring misstep. Claiming the developer met outdated codes, leaving no recourse, angers residents. As a city planner, you could’ve revised the downtown parking exemption, meant for commercial spaces. Your expertise should prioritize residents, not developers.
You have a duty to all citizens, not just your growth vision. Sandpoint’s quaint character is at risk, as seen in Maplewood Village’s disruption. Refocus on your promises: fix infrastructure, secure funds, preserve our identity. If you can’t, please reconsider your role.
Thank you for hearing my concerns. I hope for a renewed commitment to our cherished Sandpoint.
Karen M. Hefley Sandpoint
‘Soncirey
Mitchell’s bitterness’...
Dear editor,
I thought Soncirey Mitchell’s bitter admonition toward those who “cast aspersions” against her generation was unhelpful and divisive, which happens when you paint with broad strokes. Specifics would have been more clarifying. Stealing childhoods? Forcing children to beg and fight for human rights? In Sandpoint?
Not all old people in Sandpoint are comfortably retired homeowners with cushy pensions. Many of us are working-class, living hand-to-mouth and able to live here because of the grace, compassion and support of friends who place mutual aid above high rent. Some of us have never stopped doing human rights work. I, too, am disgusted with the economic segregation of Sandpoint. But that’s a class issue. Something we’ve been conditioned not to talk about.
The system isn’t broken, it’s working as designed. Recognizing that is hard for people benefiting from it. The county has working-class young people who can’t afford to flee to big cities or get a college education.
Young activists like Greta Thunberg are moved by moral con-
science. What’s wrong with that? We need intergenerational coalitions of solidarity against political violence and work to ease the suffering of innocent victims, too many of them children. Expecting local children to live in some fantasy Mayberry ignorant of what’s going on in the world is unrealistic; that’s not to suggest they become “child soldiers.” I don’t know where Mitchell got that from.
We are all ancestors in the making. How do you want to be remembered? Future generations will ask what did you do during the time of political, economic, social and environmental crisis to help transform the world for the better?
How did you support, mentor and empower youth to deal with the world as it is and create spaces where their true, most authentic selves could be held in safety, freedom and belonging?
Adrian Murillo Sandpoint
Respect the Judicial Branch — even if you disagree with its rulings…
Dear editor,
When judges stopped President Obama from implementing his border/immigration policies were you frustrated or elated? How did you feel when judges/the courts put a halt to some of President Biden’s favorite programs? How did your grandparents react when President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to stack the Supreme Court after four years of its conservative rulings against him?
The framers of our Constitution built the tension between the Judicial and Executive branches into the fabric of our government. Judges today are no more “activist” than they were 100 years ago. They don’t initiate cases, they rule on the ones brought before them. That is their job.
When Obama and Biden were each president, “red states” fought them in district and appeals courts at every turn. Now, Trump is president, and “blue states” are filing the cases.
It is likely that you, like me, have been angry at some rulings, whether at the district level or the Supreme Court. When I feel that way, I grit my teeth and remind myself that this is one of the important ways our Constitution ensures that this country doesn’t veer too far left or right.
Twisting Voltaire’s words: I may disagree with the ruling of a judge, but I defend to the death her/his right to make that ruling and have it be our country’s law.
Molly O’Reilly Sandpoint
‘Good & Plenty’...
Dear editor,
I am a retired person who (occasionally) enjoys Necco wafers, especially the orange, licorice and chocolate flavor. They are nothing like SweeTARTS. I also like the white ones, but I don’t know what flavor they are.
I am lucky to have a house in Sandpoint but I am not rich. My monthly income is less than the current average rental. Some of us got lucky, before the extreme inflation that is hurting many of us. Every generation.
I did not break society. I never had that much power.
Z or X, Boomer or Millennial, labels only.
Let’s all wish for Good & Plenty for all.
Vicky Graeff Sandpoint
‘We’re better than this’…
Dear editor,
Trump said on Truth Social that he wants to carry out “remigration.” If you haven’t heard that term before, it’s not just immigration policy — it’s a white nationalist idea that means mass deportation of non-white people, even citizens, based purely on race or ancestry.
This isn’t about border security or law and order. It’s about pushing an extreme, dangerous vision where being American only counts if you’re white. America has never been all white and should never be.
We don’t have to all agree on our government right now to see how wrong this is. We can debate how to handle immigration without turning to ideas that come straight from the far-right fringe in Europe.
We’re better than this. America is better than this.
Kari Saccomanno Sandpoint
Dear editor,
I was amazed at the hypocrisy of BNSF regarding the dog park. I remember when they wanted the second rail bridge. They made a big show of giving the county some inadequate environmental cleanup equipment. Now they are “screw you Bonner County. If you want to use the little bit of land to let your dogs play, we want money.”
Surprised that Warren Buffett, a.k.a. Scrooge McDuck, primary owner of BNSF and the supposedly great philanthropist, is so cheap and two-faced.
Sue Koller Sandpoint
BNSF is hypocritical…
By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist
I’m at the precipice of a hard thing, in pursuit of a harder thing — both of which, in comparison to most other parts of life, are inconsequential things.
(Confused? Let me explain). This morning, I’m setting out on a five-day run around Mont Blanc — the 16,000-foot-high glaciated crown of the European Alps — on a legendary route called the Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB). The trail spans three countries, covers 106 miles of rugged terrain, and includes 34,000 feet of elevation gain (roughly the equivalent of climbing Scotchman Peak two to three times per day).
The TMB has been at the top of my bucket list ever since I discovered trail running. The 360-degree views are ruin-you-for-all-otherscenery kind of good. And the route itself is home to the world’s most iconic ultramarathon, where thousands of runners attempt to complete the entire circuit in a single, continuous effort.
I remember watching that race for the first time — glued to my screen as a stream of headlamp-clad athletes snaked up a dark mountain, looking like an ant trail reaching toward the softening sky. At the time, the idea of moving one’s body 100 miles without pause felt unfathomable. And yet, people did it. Not just elite athletes, but regular runners—finishing where they started, 36 to 48
Emily Articulated
Hard things
hours later. Coincidentally, in the very town where I’m now sitting to write this. Unlike the race (and in true bucket-list fashion), my friend and I are opting for the slow-go approach. We’ll take five full days — complete with espresso and croissant stops, panoramic trail lunches and time to properly soak in the Switzerland-Italy-France glory.
That pace also makes this the perfect training week as I prepare for my Very Hard Thing: An attempt to run 100 consecutive miles in roughly 24 hours this September.
Running 100 miles, while no longer unfathomable, still feels daunting — like something I can only get to by building toward it, slowly. Every day, I’m training not just my body, but the mindset and resilience required to make such an attempt.
Which brings me to the idea I’ve been ruminating on since setting this goal: While these are big, hard, and, yes — scary — things, they’re also chosen hard things. And that makes all the difference.
As someone who has
faced their share of unchosen, unavoidable hard things, there’s something deeply comforting about choosing my own hurdles — setting goals, preparing well and then giving myself a chance to clear them.
And the lessons I’ve learned through this kind of training go far beyond running. I’ve come to understand that what you put into things, you often get out — and that there are no shortcuts to building strength, endurance or confidence. I’ve learned that rest isn’t a luxury; it’s essential. Without recovery, progress stalls. I’ve come to rely on the people around me—trail buddies, training partners and cheerleaders from afar — because community is not just helpful, it’s vital. I’ve realized that another snack is almost always a good idea, both literally and metaphorically: We need fuel and we need joy, even (especially) in the tough moments. And yes, I’ve also learned the hard way that anti-chafe cream is nonnegotiable. Some lessons are universal; some are very, very specific.
Right now, my Hard Thing is covering 106 miles in five days, in preparation for 100 in one. But that will change, as I do. Someday, my Hard Thing might be raising a family, writing a book or finally learning to play the banjo with some semblance of a tune.
Whatever form it takes, I want to keep choosing Hard Things — not for the pain or struggle, but for the growth, the insight and the trust it
builds in myself.
And maybe this is your reminder: You can do hard things, too.
I have a long list of chosen challenges I hope to take on in this life. My hope is that each one makes me a little more prepared for the real hard things — the inevitable grief, loss, change and complexity of being a person.
Because, perhaps, with
enough practice, we can learn to meet even life’s hardest moments with strength, softness and a little bit of trail-tested trust in ourselves.
Emily Erickson is a writer and business owner with an affinity for black coffee and playing in the mountains. Connect with her online at www.bigbluehat.studio.
Retroactive By BO
Emily Erickson.
Science: Mad about
refrigeration
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist
Nothing says summer like a chilled slice of watermelon and a cold beverage on a balmy day at the beach. Have you ever thought about what it takes to cool down your food or the room in which you’re chilling? How does an enclosed space keep away the summer heat?
Cooling systems run on the principle of phase transitions. Refrigerant exists as a low-pressure gas within the guts of your refrigerator. So long as there isn’t a leak, the refrigerants — hydrofluorocarbons or synthetic gases — will never touch your food. The HFCs are pulled into a compressor, where they heat up and are then moved into a condenser on the outside of your fridge.
They cool down within the condenser, which transfers heat into the surrounding air. The refrigerant passes through an expansion valve that reduces its pressure, then enters an evaporator where it absorbs the heat from inside of your fridge. Then the cycle starts all over again.
This is how virtually all artificial cooling works for residential and commercial applications. Similar principles are applied to industrial cooling, but the methods vary based on the scale of the industrial project.
Essentially, all heating and cooling comes down to this: Push matter together to make it hot, pull matter apart to make it cool down.
The real tricky part to all of this is the power consumption involved in cooling. You can regulate the space inside
of your home, but that heat is still going somewhere. A refrigerator is spitting heat from the back, an HVAC system is spitting air outside and, somewhere along the line, a generator producing the energy to power your cooling is generating heat by generating energy. In most cases, this heat can and does dissipate into the atmosphere where the natural processes of the Earth will deal with it at scale. It becomes more complicated when you begin factoring in wasted HFCs that leak from faulty or discarded equipment that add to changing atmospheric conditions.
We’ve explored greenhouse gases in the past. The idea in its simplest form is that certain chemicals like carbon dioxide and methane are good at letting light through but not letting out heat. It’s the same principle as throwing a clear painter’s tarp over your garden bed over the winter: You’re allowing sunlight to pass through, strike the ground and generate heat which then becomes trapped beneath the tarp. Great for your plants, bad for your planet.
Refrigerants are a centuries’ old solution for the heat cycle, but their long-term environmental impacts are becoming difficult to ignore. There are billions of refrigerators and HVAC systems around the world — how many of them are leaking or set to be replaced within the next few months or years?
Alternative cooling solutions are being explored by scientists around the world using the same principles as traditional cooling but different materials and applications. Magnetocaloric cooling has been explored as an alternative
to refrigerant cooling since at least the 1970s. This is a cooling system using a rotational magnet chamber that excites cells of magnetically sensitive metals suspended within chambers. As the magnet passes over this metal dust it excites the metal and generates heat, which is transferred to the next cell as the magnet moves toward it. This allows the first cell to cool down as the energy and heat is pulled from it and transferred to the next chamber.
This can be applied to coolers and refrigerators as the heat is drawn from the interior and released into the ambient air without the need for synthetic gases. Magnetocaloric cooling is currently being explored in Germany for use in vending machines and other commercial applications. Until recently, this was a very expensive cooling method, and although extremely reliable, wasn’t financially sustainable for home use. Earlier iterations of magnetocaloric cooling utilized gadolinium as the magnetized particulate, but more recent innovations have shown a reduction in cost and increase in efficiency by using lithium iron selenium or LiFeSe. This compound is often used in rechargeable batteries as well.
On the residential front, another innovative technology could soon replace HFCs. Elastocaloric cooling is being explored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Ames Laboratory. This uses another phase transitioning material to absorb heat and release it as it changes form. Unlike the liquid to gas transition of HFCs, elastocaloric materials are more like wires that have elastic properties. They
are mechanically agitated and bent into shapes to generate and store heat, then spring back into a straightened shape to spontaneously release it. These are generally synthetic polymers that are less likely to be exposed to the atmosphere than HFCs, but they come with a major drawback.
Any object that is subjected to mechanical pressures and contortion will wear out over time. The lifespan of elasto-
caloric materials is a major concern; however, it is highly dependent on its role in the heat cycle, and how easy it could be to replace. If it’s as simple as replacing and recycling a cartridge in the back of your fridge, it could quickly become an exciting alternative to a cooling system that has been in use for over two centuries.
Stay curious, 7B.
Random Corner
As of 2024, the longest nonstop commercial flight is operated by Singapore Airlines, from Singapore to New York. The route covers a distance of about 9,500 miles and takes almost 19 hours.
• Commercial jets usually travel about 575 miles per hour, which is about 75% of the speed of sound. They also fly at altitudes between 30,000 and 40,000 feet, or about six to eight miles above the Earth’s surface.
• Most commercial airplanes are painted white because the color reflects sunlight, keeping the aircraft cooler and minimizing potential sun damage to the fuselage.
• Have you ever noticed that tiny hole in the bottom of airplane windows? It’s called a “breather hole” and it regulates air pressure between the inner and outer window panes.
• Opening an airplane door is impossible while the plane is above 10,000 feet, due to air pressure. However, it is possible for a passenger to open the door while the plane
is ascending or descending, which happened on a flight to South Korea in 2023. The man was arrested and faces 10 years in prison.
• In the early days of commercial air travel, the flying experience was harsh, cold and uncomfortable. The planes were not pressurized, so they flew at low altitudes and were subject to extreme bouts of turbulence.
• Planes are struck by lightning more frequently than you’d probably like to imagine. Since technological advances in aviation engineering in 1963, no plane has crashed because of lightning. Research shows that 80% of plane crashes occur within the first three minutes of takeoff and the last eight minutes before the plane lands.
• Popular Mechanics reviewed airplane crash data from 1971 to 2005 and found the safest place to sit on a commercial plane is in the back. Passengers in the back of the plane are 40% more likely to survive a crash than those in the front.
Voices in the Wilderness
How one journey into the backcountry can change a life
By Stone Koivu Reader Contributor
The crisp morning air was heavy with the pine aroma as I entered the backcountry, my boots sinking into the wet earth. The sun was just beginning to rise, golden stripes crossing the horizon, and there were only the distant hawk’s cries and the constant crunch of leaves beneath my feet as I traveled.
I always loved the idea of the wilderness — a pure world where nature reigned supreme, but I never quite realized its power until that weekend in the Cabinet Mountains.
It was a trip I’d been anticipating for months — the mountains, my dad and me. We had one goal in mind: hike deep into the woods, camp at an alpine secret lake and spend a few days fishing, walking and off the grid from society. As we pushed deeper into the wilderness, the world receded behind us, replaced by giant cedar trees and the quiet hum of the natural world.
The first day was one of wonder. At sunrise, a bull elk crossed our path, its breath foggy in the cold morning air. We also noticed bear tracks along a raging creek and watched a family of otters play on the beach.
The deeper we traveled, the more I felt like I was coming home — like I was entering a world that had been waiting for me my whole life.
We built a small fire that night and listened to the wind rustling through the trees. The sky above us stretched out endlessly, dotted with a million stars, their light unblemished by city lights. I slept in my sleeping bag,
gazing up at the universe, and felt something I had never experienced before: A deep sense of peace, as if I had become part of something much greater than myself.
The following day, we trekked to a ridge where the world lay before us. Down below, the valley spread far and wide, with rivers snaking like veins of silver through the trees. Standing at the edge, I felt a blast of wind, and suddenly I remembered the raw, untamed force of nature.
Then and there, I knew why the wilderness had to be preserved. It wasn’t a place — it was a feeling, a sense, a reminder of the way the world was before we shaped it to fit our needs.
On our final morning, we woke to the distant call of a loon out over the lake. The water was glassy, reflecting the massive peaks that rose above it; and, for a moment, everything was still.
As we packed up, I lingered for a moment, looking around one last time,
trying to take in every last detail — the pine smell, the chill in the air, the almost sacred quiet. It struck me: This journey had changed me. The wild had taught me patience, appreciation and the necessity of preserving these wideopen spaces for everyone to use for generations to come.
Stone Koivu is a recent graduate from Clark Fork Junior/Senior High. Their essay was selected as one of the annual scholarship winners hosted by the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness in high schools across Bonner County and Lincoln and Sanders counties in Montana.
Voices in the Wilderness is a storytelling project started by FSPW in 2013. Each story tells of the writer’s special relationship with wild places. Find more stories at scotchmanpeaks.org/category/voices-in-the-wilderness.
Stone Koivu. Courtesy photo
‘Party with Marty’ one final time
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
Those who knew Marty Stitsel knew of his ability to make friends with anyone. Marty was born in Moscow, Idaho and spent his formative years living and spending summers in Darrington, Wash., with his grandparents, uncle and brother. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1966 and served his country for four years, growing to love Germany where he was deployed. Marty later became a Bellevue firefighter for 28 years before retiring in 1998, focusing his passion toward the outdoors. He became one of the founders of the Pacific Northwest Police and Fire Olympics, was an avid skier, served as the family photographer and loved his family deeply.
Marigold Bistro, where he would brag about his exploits and complain about whatever he thought was wrong in the world.
Marty climbed Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak, Mt. Adams (skiing back down), Mt. Stuart, Mt. Olympus in Greece and the Matterhorn in Switzerland, among other
lesser-known peaks. He participated in numerous marathons, multi-sport relays, triathlons and track events. He was a national champion in the Masters Steeplechase and a member of the Team Laughing Dog Race Across America bicycling event.
Marty was a “maker” and a talker. He was not content unless he was outside working on his cars, or completing projects around the property with his bulldozer and tractors. If Marty entered a room in which he initially knew no one, he usually left with at least one new friend.
Marty is survived by his wife of 43 years, Krista Eberle; children Marc (Dung) Stitsel, Carrie (Rob) Smith, and Lydia (Brennen) Chasse; grandchildren Maxwell, Sydney and
Tucker Lee, Khanh, Linh and Luke Stitsel, and Cornelia Chasse; brother Bill (Sandra) Stitsel; his first wife and mother of his oldest two children, Rita Yates; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
Anyone who knew Marty is invited to join an informal celebration of his life, a.k.a. “Party with Marty” on Tuesday, July 1 from 2-5 p.m. at Idaho Pour Authority (203 Cedar St., in downtown Sandpoint).
In lieu of flowers, either plant a tree or do some good work that promotes a vibrant democracy that acts out the values of liberty and justice for all. When you’re done, please look where you imagine Marty to be and tell him what you have done.
‘Field to Fork Sandpoint’ trade fair showcases North Idaho food economy
By Reader Staff
He married the love of his life, Krista, in 1981 and the two spent 44 years together traveling Europe, hiking, mountain climbing, biking, skiing and camping together. Their move to Sandpoint in 2001 started the best chapter of their lives together.
Marty began spending time with his fellow malcontents at the infamous “round table” at Tango Cafe, now
FARE Idaho announced that it will bring its Field to Fork event to Sandpoint for the first time on Thursday, Aug. 7 at the University of Idaho’s Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center (10881 N. Boyer Ave.).
The one-day trade fair celebrates North Idaho’s independent food economy — “connecting farmers, ranchers, food producers, chefs, retailers, and community members through real-time relationships and regional sourcing,” according to organizers. Featuring trade booths from North
Idaho, the event runs from 10 a.m.5 p.m. and is free and open to the public, though with special access to buyers beginning at noon. Live tastings and roundtable discussions will fill the day, with a separate, ticketed “dinner in the orchard” from 5-9 p.m.
Tickets to the dinner cost $150 and must be purchased by Wednesday, June 25, as seating is limited.
The price of admission gets attendees access to a cocktail hour from 5-6 p.m., followed by an open-air meal featuring regional ingredients prepared by a local chef, with long tables set beneath the apple trees.
“This event is about more than just great food, it’s about connection, commerce and community,” stated FARE Idaho Executive Director Tammie Halcomb. “We’re honored to launch Field to Fork in Sandpoint and help spotlight the producers, chefs and buyers who are shaping the region’s food future.”
Vendor registration, dinner tickets and sponsorship opportunities are now open. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit fareidaho.org/ field-to-fork-sandpoint.
PonderPlay celebrates one year with a party
By Reader Staff
If there’s one thing to understand about living in North Idaho, it’s that you can’t let the weather deter your playtime.
Last summer, Cathryn and Caylor Bax opened PonderPlay, an indoor facility that offers year round, climate controlled play for children 12 and under at an affordable price. PonderPlay has become a hub for parents to provide their children with a place to play, no matter what time of year or how frightful the weather is outside.
PonderPlay will host a one-year anniversary party on Saturday, June 21 from noon-4 p.m. at 1314 Wright Way (near the intersection of Baldy Mountain Road and Division Street).
PonderPlay will announce and raffle off big, new product offerings, along with locally made products.
“We are commissioning a mural that the community will get to be a part of,” the owners said in an email. “There will also be lots of great free options for everyone.”
Free activities include access to a bounce house, face painting, games, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and the first 48 kids get a free mini cupcake courtesy of Five Lakes Farm Bakery.
Activities for purchase include a reduced price on tickets for the iconic PonderPlay structure, raffle tickets for big prizes, nonalcoholic drinks and mural pieces.
Food will be provided by Lil’ Taste of Heaven — the menu includes
chicken tenders, fries and ice cream.
“We could not have done it without this amazing community,” the Baxes wrote. “Thank you! Let’s celebrate together.”
GOP politicians are coming for our public lands and Idaho must fight back
By Lauren Necochea Reader Contributor
In Idaho, our family traditions start outside. We hunt, fish and explore the wilderness that makes this state home. More than a pastime, public lands power our economy. Outdoor recreation generates 78,000 jobs and $2.3 billion in annual wages for Idaho.
But our outdoor access is now under attack by Republican politicians catering to billionaires and special interests. Their desire? Buy up our public lands for cheap and keep the rest of us out. That threatens our ability to pass down the Idaho way of life and will hurt our economy in towns big and small.
Last month, House Republicans tried to sneak through the most significant public land sell-off in recent memory. They buried a proposal to sell hundreds of thousands of acres in Utah and Nevada deep in a last-minute budget deal with no transparency, debate or accountability. Idaho Republican Rep. Russ Fulcher backed that effort in committee. If there’s any doubt where Fulcher stands, just listen to him. When asked about a bipartisan bill to keep public lands public, Fulcher scoffed, calling it a way to “lock in the current system.”
[Editor’s note: For more on Fulcher’s stance on public lands, see “Congressman Russ Fulcher sits down for a Reader interview” at sandpointreader.com.]
That sell-off failed. But the threat just got bigger.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee is now pushing a plan to sell off up to 3 million acres of public land — including land in Idaho — through the Senate budget process. Instead of stopping it, Idaho Republican Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch paved the way by voting against a simple amendment to block Congress from using land sales to bankroll billionaire tax breaks earlier this year.
Meanwhile, damage is already being done. Across Idaho, U.S. Forest Service offices have been closed or gutted after the Trump regime’s illegal withholding of appropriated funds and mass firings. Offices in Stanley, Ketchum, McCall, New Meadows, Weiser and Garden Valley have been
shuttered or suffered service cuts. This means fewer staff to maintain trails, clean bathrooms, fight wildfires and safeguard public access — especially in rural communities.
But Idahoans are pushing back.
This spring, thousands rallied across the state to defend our public lands.
When Republican lawmakers introduced Senate Joint Memorial 104, demanding the transfer of the Camas National Wildlife Refuge to the state, Idaho Democrats stood firm in opposition. They knew what was at stake. Unlike the federal government, states aren’t required to keep lands public or preserve them for future generations. Once under state control, land is at risk of being sold off, developed or closed to the public entirely.
We need leaders who won’t auction off our land to the highest bidder. Leaders who will protect what’s ours, keep it public and put Idahoans first.
These lands belong to all of us. Let’s elect leaders who will fight like it.
Lauren Necochea is chair of the Idaho Democratic Party and a former District 19 legislator. Necochea spent a decade leading nonprofit programs dedicated to research and advocacy in tax policy, health care and children’s issues.
Lauren Necochea. File photo
Backpacking the Balkans, part I
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
There are times in life when the ruts grow too deep around us. Some might settle in and come to love the growing walls around them. When I reach this inflection point, I book a plane ticket to a place I’ve never been before, stow everything I need to live for a few weeks in a backpack and get lost in the world.
I didn’t know much about the Balkans before this trip, aside from the fact that it is a deep and complex region of the world with roots that go back to the cradle of civilization. The name “Balkan” itself traces back to Ottoman Turkish, meaning “chain of wooded mountains.” With my partner, Cadie, by my side for three weeks, we realized there could be no better name for this hilly, beautiful region of the world.
We flew into Skopje, North Macedonia — or Macedonia, as everyone except the Greeks call it. Using “North Macedonia” is akin to saying “northern Idaho” instead of “North Idaho,” in that both are the correct usage of the terms, but both instantly identify one as an interloper.
When flying into Skopje, our seat mate on the plane politely asked what the hell we were doing traveling to Macedonia: “Do you have family there, or... ?”
“No, flights were about $600 cheaper than flying into Albania, so we started here,” I said.
That was our first indication that Macedonian tourism isn’t that big of an industry. In reality, foreigners only started making forays into the country — which only officially changed its name to the Republic of North Macedonia in 2019, after a dispute with Greece — in the past couple of decades. It is decidedly “off the map” for the casual Lonely Planet backpacker.
We dumped our bags in our rental and hit the city at night to drink local beer and try the native food. After a devastating 1963 earthquake destroyed large portions of the city, a rebuilding campaign has seen the addition of neo-classical architecture that some might call gaudy. Big stone buildings surrounded by ionic columns sit comfortably alongside a river bisecting the city, the Kale Fortress looming overhead the narrow cobblestoned streets of “old town.”
There were remnants of the communist Kingdom of Yugoslavia that ruled the Balkans from the end of WWI to the early 1990s, just after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Influences from neighboring countries are evident everywhere in Skopje. There is a Turkish bazaar near the old town. The Macedonian language has Serbian and Greek influences; giant stone statues of Alexander the Great and his father, Philip II of Macedon, are everywhere, along with lesser statues of modern-day leaders.
The food we ate in Skopje was hearty and delightful. Everything we ate either had a hoof or a root in the ground not too long before it made it to our plate. The shopska salad (known as the national salad of Macedonia) was our favorite of all. It was simply large chunks of fresh cucumbers, deep red heirloom tomatoes and yellow onions, all topped with an almost criminal amount of soft feta-like cheese. Tavče gravče is a dish of beans in an earthen pot, sometimes with kebab meat or sausage on top. There are stuffed peppers, fresh bread, and always oil and vinegar on the table along with salt and pepper.
After only a day exploring Skopje, we hopped on a bus to head west into Albania — the reason for our trip in the first place. We saved quite a bit of money flying into Skopje over Tirana, Albania, but it was also an excellent excuse to see a country I’d only known from history books.
Up and over the mountains to the border, where we waited for an hour and a half while stern-faced Albanian border guards searched through our bags with cigarettes dangling from
their mouths. Everyone smokes in the Balkans — I suspect that includes even the stray dogs and cats.
Our five-hour bus ride ended up taking eight-and-a-half hours, so we arrived in Tirana with only a couple of hours of light left in the sky. There were no taxis at the bus station, and it was still another 15 kilometers or so to get to our hostel downtown, so it was too far to walk.
A woman who spoke English told us we should have a few beers and wait an hour or so, because all the taxi drivers were tied up due to a big political summit in town. It turned out the exact night we arrived in Tirana coincided with the European Political Community Summit, for which nearly
50 prime ministers and heads of state had gathered in Tirana. As a result, the downtown core was essentially shut down, leaving us few options to reach our hostel.
Finally, a Turkish cabbie who spoke no English picked us up and made it about five minutes toward downtown before a police barricade at a roundabout turned us away. We circled this and another roundabout for about 10 minutes before deciding that our best option was to get out and walk the remaining hour to our hostel.
The route showed a nice path through a park, so we headed that way with our packs aback, staring at this foreign city at golden hour with
< see BALKANS, Page 15 >
Top: Ben Olson hikes up and out of Valbonë in the Accursed Mountains. Photo by Cadie Archer.
Above: Wildflowers in front of the church of Theth.
Photo by Ben Olson. Right: A statue of Philip II of Macedonia in Skopje. Photo by Ben Olson.
dreams of cold beer in our future. But, after 30 minutes of walking to the park gates, a guard blocked the way. When we asked if we could pass through, he simply said, “No,” and we had to walk all the way around the park — adding another 40 minutes to the journey.
“How much longer now?” Cadie asked.
“Just 45 minutes,” I said.
“You said that a half hour ago!” “Right.”
Around the park and up the hill, we were passed constantly by speeding motorcades, probably carrying the U.K. prime minister or the president of Ireland. Wiping the sweat from my brow, I was again reminded why I loathe politicians.
When we finally reached the other side of the park, we realized why we couldn’t walk through it — the park was the location of the political summit. Finally, on the other side, we hailed a cab and watched the last 20 minutes of hoofing turn into five minutes of air conditioning. Before long, we were seated at a piazza drinking mugs of cold Albanian beer and tearing into kebabs and roasted peppers.
From Tirana, we headed to the ultimate destination of our trip: The northern mountains of Albania. We arrived in Shkodër, near the Montenegro and Kosovo border, and made plans for the long trek that would take us up and over the portion of the Albanian Alps known as the Accursed Mountains.
Leaving our heavy bags in Shkodër and setting out with our daypacks for the next week, we boarded a twohour bus ride that took us to a ferry, which then slowly wound deeper into a fjord that was surrounded by sharp, silver-hued mountains that terminated at the waters’ edge. After the ferry, we hopped on another bus and wound deeper into the mountains to the edge of Valbonë Valley National Park, one
of the most beautiful hidden corners of the world I’ve ever seen.
From our guest house in Valbonë, we were surrounded by 360 degrees of snow-covered karst mountains — a term describing the results of carbonate rocks like limestone and dolomite that have eroded, leaving behind dramatic fractured forms including drainages and caves.
The river rushed through the village with blue-green water due to the abundance of light silver rocks on its bed — the same ones used to make the traditional stone cottages that have dotted the surrounding pastures for generations.
We wandered through this quiet corner of the world for a few days, passing by ducks, chickens and cows that we likely met later on our dinner plates.
Waiting for a weather window — since it had been raining off and on — we struck out for the 10-mile trek up and over the Accursed Mountains to the town of Theth. This was the reason for our trip — the linchpin around which we’d planned the whole thing.
Early in the morning on our third day, we put on our small packs and set out for the mountains. The first couple of miles were along the river valley, in the shadows of the peaks looming high overhead. Somewhere, way up there, we’d climb to the top and cross over.
There were several moments in which I pinched myself and asked if I was really awake. No other hikers were around us. We had the entire valley to ourselves. It was like going to Yosemite and finding the park deserted.
The trail followed an old mule trail, so if we lost sight of the red-and-white painted rocks denoting the path, we could always just follow the poop piles to find our way.
The silver valley of rocks and hidden meadows gradually began to climb. Some wit had carved the words,
“Life starts here” into a rock just as the trail began to take an upward trajectory. Indeed.
The next couple of hours were a steady upward climb. We passed a small sheep farm with the shepherd out with his flock. Below, we looked down on the village of Valbonë, which looked miles away already.
The air was growing cooler, though the sun shone bright and steady — the one day of rain-break all week, and we got a winner.
There is a winter route and a summer route over the Accursed Mountains, mostly due to a section near the top where it becomes difficult to navigate the ice fields without crampons. We tried to ask which route was open before heading out, but nobody seemed that concerned, so we figured it was fine (even though a hiker died on this trail the year before).
The air grew thinner as we neared the peak. A small shack with a fresh, cold spring spigot offered a viewpoint of the way we’d come. We filled our water bottles and splashed our faces with the water, which was likely snow earlier that morning, and continued up the mountain.
After three hours, we heard our first fellow hikers — a couple that passed us on the trail as we were photographing the karsts overhead with fields of wildflowers in the foreground.
Hearing another set of voices in that reverent place was a bit shocking, like jumping in the lake a bit too early in the season. I silently cursed the group that came after them for their loud, boisterous banter, which echoed throughout the canyon walls, wondering why humans have to make so much noise when they walk in these sacred, lonesome places.
The trail crawled up even farther, traversing in the shadow of a set of sheer cliffs that would terrify if covered in ice. The way was clear, and
we spotted the red Albanian flag flying jauntily at the summit.
There we lunched on food our guest house packed for us: hard-boiled eggs, apples, bread, cheese and some kind of meat.
The other side of the mountain seemed more verdant. The light-colored karst mountains were still looming overhead from every angle, but they were more forest-covered than the Valbonë side.
Our hike finished once over the summit. Theth is a busier village, and most of the hikers go from there up to the summit and back down, not doing the trek all the way to Valbonë. Some even hired local guides to pack their bags on the backs of mules.
Halfway down the other side, we stopped at a strange cafe with a view of the mountains and a mountain cooler holding beers, sodas and water. The water came from the natural spring and was colder than if it had ice, so I grabbed a Peja beer and drank it happily as we looked down the mountain to our next destination: Theth.
All told, it took about eight hours to reach our guest house in Theth, perched on a hillside overlooking the mountains we’d just crossed. Twirling around in a circle on the lawn with the hosts’ children kicking soccer balls with us, we saw only blue sky, wildflowers, stone cottages and those everpresent mountains surrounding us, swaddling us in their cold embrace.
Next week: The beautiful shire of Theth, a fortress in Montenegro and traveling down the hilly spine of Albania to the Adriatic Sea.
Above left: Cadie Archer makes her way up the daunting pass leading through the Accursed Mountains in northern Albania. Above right: a local walks his mule down toward Theth from the highlands. Photos by Ben Olson
Teen Center and POP to host bike tune-up and ride
By Reader Staff
The Sandpoint Teen Center is teaming up with the Pend Oreille Pedalers to host a teen bike tune-up and bike ride for local teens on Wednesday, June 25 at the First Lutheran Church (526 S. Olive Ave., in Sandpoint).
The event kicks off with a pizza and a bike tune-up hour, when POP teen bike coaches and volunteers will help get attendees’ bikes in working order. They can help grease chains, fix flat tires and more.
Organizers recommend that if a participant’s bike requires some work to get it ridable, they should come closer to noon so the required work is
completed in time to arrive at 1 p.m. on the Dover Bike trail.
The bike ride will include ice cream in Dover before the trip back to Sandpoint. The ride will leave and return from the Sandpoint Teen Center, location at the First Lutheran Church. Riders are instructed to look for the entrance off Ontario Street with the Teen Center sign.
Those who are interested in volunteering to help tune up bikes are welcome to join.
For more information about teen mentorship opportunities and other programs at the Sandpoint Teen Center, contact sandpointteencenter@ yahoo.com.
For more information on POP, go to pendoreillepedalers.org.
Innovia Foundation awards grants to Bonner and Boundary county organizations
By Reader Staff
More than a dozen nonprofit and educational organizations in Bonner and Boundary counties were among the awardees of funds through the Innovia Foundations annual Community Grants Program.
Innovia awarded more than $1.2 million to 113 organizations in eastern Washington and North Idaho, including 17 in the local area. The grants support education and youth development, health and wellbeing, arts and culture, economic opportunity and improved quality of life.
Grants are made possible by donors who have established funds at Innovia
with input from local volunteer advisory committees. At the recommendation of those committees, the 2025 program focused on supporting the work of nonprofit organizations with a strong youth engagement component.
In Bonner County, Innovia granted $5,000 to 7B Swim Boosters for increasing engagement with local youth through swim team; $15,000 for Better Together Animal Alliance’s volunteer recruitment a retention; $15,000 to Bonner Homeless Transitions to enhance support services for homeless families; and $15,000 to the city of Priest River for its park playground improvement project.
Innovia also granted $10,000 for Community Cancer Services’ Har-
Dover City Beach to host annual World’s Largest Swimming
By Reader Staff
For the past 16 years, people around the globe have participated in the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson, bringing together all ages and skill levels to learn about water safety and drowning prevention, empowering individuals to “enjoy water activities with confidence and care,” according to organizers.
Hosted locally by the Long Bridge Swim and the city of Dover, participants will gather Thursday, June 26 from 10-11 a.m. at Dover City Beach (699 Lakeshore Ave.).
According to the World’s Larg-
Lesson
est Swimming Lesson organization, drowning is the leading cause of preventable death for children ages 1-4, and the second-leading cause for children 5-14. Worldwide, drowning is the third-leading cause of unintentional injury death.
However, while formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by up to 88% for children ages 1-4, more than 54% of kids in the U.S. between 4 and 17 years old can’t perform basic water safety skills.
To learn more about WLSL, go to wlsl.org. To register for the event in Dover, go to bit.ly/3HDNuVw.
mony in Health: Bridging Support and Counseling; $15,000 to the Ethan Murray Fund for expanding access to therapy for those facing financial hardship; $3,720 for the adaptive bike program at Farmin Stidwell Elementary School; $5,000 to the Idaho Trails Association’s volunteer trail stewardship program; and $12,000 to support the NAMI Far North Sand Creek Connections Clubhouse.
Finally, Panhandle Special Needs, Inc. received $14,500 for on-site employment support for youth and adults with disabilities; $14,500 went to the Priest Lake Food Bank for its building project; $3,500 for Selkirk Conservation Alliance, Inc. for youth education and connecting with environmental careers; and $12,000 for UCAN’s adaptive fitness, therapy and recreation programs.
In Boundary County, Innovia awarded $4,693 to Boundary County Victim Services for meeting needs in changing times; $10,000 for Community Coalition for Families’ emergency housing solutions; $2,100 for Gardeners for Regional Organic Wellbeing’s GROW!ing for Future Generations; and $10,000 to Trinity Lutheran Church of Bonners Ferry for its Weekend Supplemental Food Program.
“For 51 years, Innovia has been investing in the essential work of nonprofit organizations through its grantmaking programs,” stated Innovia CEO Shelly O’Quinn. “This year, we continue that legacy by funding impactful projects across our region,
including programs that engage youth in community activities, strengthen relationships and reduce isolation.”
For more info on the Innovia Foundation, visit innovia.org.
Participants at the 2022 Teen Center bike tune-up session at Bonner County Bicycles. Courtesy photo.
This page contains photos taken at the “No Kings” protest held on June 14 in downtown Sandpoint. Top two rows of photos taken by Zach Hagadone. Bottom row of photos by Hal Gates.
Send event listings to calendar@sandpointreader.com
THURSDAY, June 19
Live trivia ($5 entry)
7pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Live Music w/ Bright Moments Jazz
6pm @ Arlo’s Ristorante (on the patio)
Live Music w/ Bridges Home
5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
A night of ’70s and ’80s easy rock
Live Music w/ Thompson Trio
5pm @ Connie’s Lounge
DJ Sterling 9pm-midnight @ Roxy’s
Live Music w/ Ken Mayginnes
6-9pm @ 1908 Saloon
Live Music w/ Sam & Sheldon
6-9pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Live Music w/ Brian Jacobs
6-8pm @ Baxters on Cedar
Live Music w/ Jason Perry Duo
5:30-8:30pm @ Smokesmith BBQ
Live Music w/ Picked up Pieces
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ Nobody Famous
5-8pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Bluesy groovy duo
Live Music w/ the Working Spliffs
9pm-midnight @ 219 Lounge
Jazzy, psychedelic reggae
Live Music w/ Mobius Riff
5:30-8:30pm @ Barrel 33
Sandpoint Chess Club 9am @ Evans Brothers Coffee
Celtic folk jam
3-6pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Monday Night Blues Jam w/ John Firshi
7pm @ Eichardt’s Pub
tuesDAY, June 24
Live piano w/ Carson Rhodes
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Bubble Palooza
10-11:30am @ Lakeview Park
A free, fun-filled celebration for families with little ones. Enjoy bubbles, music, dancing, art activities, snacks, story time and free books. All are welcome
Free live comedy night w/ Grant Winkels
7pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Minneapolis-based stand-up comic will perform free at IPA! Opener Ben Olson on guitar and stories
Live Music w/ Frytz
8-11pm @ Roxy’s
Live Music w/ Mobius Riff
June 19 - 26, 2025
FriDAY, June 20
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
Live Music w/ The Hot Cheetos
6:30-9:30pm @ MickDuff’s Beer Hall
Live Music w/ Mason Van Stone
6-8pm @ Baxters on Cedar
Live Music w/ Kosta La Vista
5:30-8:30pm @ Smokesmith BBQ
RFB Soulstice Super Jam w/ special guests
8:30pm @ The Hive
Sandpoint’s ultimate dance and party band is back with special guests
SATURDAY, June 21
Sandpoint Arenacross (June 20-21) 7pm @ Bonner County Fairgrounds
Find Your Strength 5k & 1k 10am @ Sandpoint City Beach
Hosted by the BGH Foundation with an after-party with kids’ activities
Cottage Market 10am-4pm @ River of Life Church
PonderPlay One Year Anniversary 12-4pm @ PonderPlay, 1314 Wright Way See Page 12 for more info
Live Music w/ Nic Allen 6pm @ Connie’s Lounge
SunDAY, June 22
Magic with Star Alexander 5-8pm @ Jalapeño’s
monDAY, June 23
Outdoor Experience group run 6pm @ Outdoor Experience 3-5 miles, all levels welcome
Live Music w/ Sydney Dawn 5:30-8:30pm @ Barrel 33
Sandpoint Songfest (June 20-21)
7pm @ Little Carnegie Hall
This event brings together artists from the Inland NW performing original music (see Page 21) $25/$30
Sandpoint Arenacross (June 20-21) 7pm @ Bonner County Fairgrounds
Action packed racing with kiddos, amateurs and pros. $20/$15 cash only
Awakened Alignment: Part 2 10am-12pm @ Memorial Field
Part 2: Ayurvedic Yoga & Nature Therapy. $45 per class
Tai Chi at City Beach
9:30-10:30am @ Sandpoint City Beach
Sandpoint Farmers’ Market
9am-1pm @ Farmin Park
Fresh produce, artisan goods, music
Sandpoint Songfest (June 20-21) 7pm @ Little Carnegie Hall
Race the Wolf ultramarathon 7pm @ Schweitzer See racethewolf.com
Race the Wolf ultramarathon 7pm @ Schweitzer See racethewolf.com
Trivia w/ Ricci
6-8pm @ Idaho Pour Authority
wednesDAY, June 25
Steve Poltz in concert w/ Laurie Shook
7:30pm @ Panida Theater
A joyful night of folk songs and epic stories. See Page 20 for more info
Live piano w/ Malachi
5-7pm @ Pend d’Oreille Winery
Sandpoint Farmers’ Market
3-5:30pm @ Farmin Park
Fresh produce, artisan goods and more
ThursDAY, June 26
Live Music w/ Cam Morris
6-8:30pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co. Folk and Americana storytelling tunes
Live trivia ($5 entry)
7pm @ Connie’s Lounge
Body Wellness Machine sampler day
10am-5:15pm @ Aiyanna Wellness Day Spa
Free mini sessions on wellness machines
Family Happy Hour and live music
5-7pm @ Matchwood Brewing Co.
Live music w/ John Firshi
Summer Sampler
5-8pm @ Farmin Park
This event brings the finest Sandpoint restaurants and caterers to Farmin Park for a sample of their delicious food. Live music, drinks, giveaways and more. Support your local chefs!
Free laughs at IPA
Minneapolis-based stand-up comic Grant Winkels to perform free show
By Reader Staff
After years of gigging as a musician, Grant Winkels finally convinced himself that he was funny.
The Minneapolis-based stand-up comic will try to convince Sandpoint of the same at a free live comedy show at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 26 at Idaho Pour Authority (203 Cedar St., in downtown Sandpoint).
Winkels was selected as a “Comic to Watch” by Racket Magazine, and has performed at the New York City Comedy Festival, West End Comedy Fest and Fountain City Comedy Festival among others. He’s a producer for the acclaimed 10,000 Laughs Comedy Festival, a paid regular at Acme Comedy Comedy and hosts the popular Sisyphus Brewing Open Mic.
“I used to be in a rock ’n’ roll band for about six years or so,” Winkels told the Reader. “Performing on stage has always been there for me. At a certain point, I got the bug enough and want-
ed to try comedy, so I transitioned out of playing music and got more into comedy.”
Winkels acknowledged that starting out as a comic is just as brutal as everyone says it is.
“It took me a couple of years to figure it out, to get my feet under me, where I wasn’t fighting for my life every time I was on stage,” he said. “It’s kind of like golf — you suck for so long, but even when you suck, you’ll have that one shot, or that one set you do well enough even with one joke that lands, and that’s enough to keep me coming back.”
Winkels’ comedy is based on his observations and anecdotes from life, a never-ending well that keeps on giving. He tours the Midwest and the rest of the country, opening for comics such as Kelsey Cook, Geoffrey Asmus, Mike Recine and Mary Mack. His videos have accumulated millions of views on social media.
Warming up the crowd — or per-
MONARCH MARBLE & GRANITE
haps sending them running for the hills — will be Ben Olson, who also owns this newspaper and plays in a local band. Olson will play a handful of old songs he wrote when he was still amused by life instead of scared of it.
Grant Winkels. Courtesy photo
‘The greatest show of my life’
High energy folk artist Steve Poltz and Sandpoint’s own Laurie Shook to play the Panida
By Ben Olson Reader Staff
For Steve Poltz, every show seems to be the greatest show of his life. The Nova Scotia-born troubadour has quietly emerged as a live phenomenon on the North American festival circuit as a performer with amazing energy, hilarious songs and an infectious stage presence.
Poltz and his special guest — Sandpoint’s own Laurie Shook, of Shook Twins — will play a lively show Wednesday, June 25 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $22.
With a dozen albums to his credit and thousands of live shows leaving audiences’ cheeks hurting from their smiles and laughter, Poltz is one of those musicians that just gets it. He began his musical journey playing with a San Diego band called The Rugburns, but became known far and wide after co-writing two tracks from Jewel’s iconic debut album Pieces of You, including the hit song “You Were Meant For Me.”
Since then, Poltz has crafted his musical career with the intention of involving the audiences he plays in front of with his folly and fun. Every show is a rollicking good time, with songs that range from poignant to positively hilarious.
“He’s so entertaining,” Shook told the Reader regarding Poltz. “He’s a storyteller and he plays these real heartfelt, beautiful songs and weird funny ones, too. He gets a lot of audience interaction, loves to connect with people.”
Now based in Nashville, Poltz regularly collaborates with a variety of accomplished artists, including Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, or contributing tunes to Deer Tick’s catalog. That band’s frontman John J. McCauley said: “Steve Poltz may be the biggest, most direct inspiration for me on this record.”
As far as Poltz is concerned, all the world’s a stage and he’s just stoked to be playing on it.
somehow they decide to pay money to obtain some merch and witness the spectacle. Then I return a year later and fool them again. ... I’m just a weirdo, a freak, a bon vivant, a rounder, a rabble rouser, a workaholic, a people pleaser, an idiot and a grateful kid who ran away and joined the circus.’
Poltz’s opener Laurie Shook is well known to Sandpointians through her band, Shook Twins, which has gained a close following for jumpy, quirky folk music that can pin you to your seat one moment and propel you onto the dance floor the next.
Shook said she’s excited to play a rare solo show without her band on stage.
“I like playing with people a lot more, but it’s exhilarating when I play solo shows,” she said. “I have these handful of songs that are mine ... it’s fun to explore that and make them my own.”
Steve Poltz with Laurie Shook
Wednesday, June 25; 7:30 p.m.; $22-$32.75. Panida Theater, 300 N. First Ave., 208-263-9191, get tickets at panida.org. Listen to Steve Poltz at poltz.com. Listen to Shook Twins at shooktwins.com.
“I travel from town to town and fool people,” he said in an interview. “I sing them songs and tell them stories and
Shook said she’d play a few songs on her twin sister Katelyn’s hollow-body guitar, some on her banjo, others that utilize the looper and her signature beatboxing.
“Hopefully I’ll get to sit in with Poltz, too,” she said. “It’s so much fun playing with him. ... He has the energy of a 25-year-old. It’s amazing to see how much he loves doing what he’s doing.”
Laurie Shook, left, and Steve Poltz, right.
Photo by Kirk Stauffer
Festival at Sandpoint adds Community Night to lineup
July 30 show will celebrate local musicians and low-priced tickets
By Reader Staff
The Festival at Sandpoint announced a new show to its lineup that’s all about local music. Community Night features bands from around the region playing on the iconic Festival stage for a low ticket price.
Community Night will be Wednesday, July 30, with doors opening at 6 p.m. and the show starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 each and available at festivalatsandpoint.com.
The lineup includes Jojo Dodge, Brittany’s House, Harold’s IGA and The Real McCoys.
Dodge is a 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Coeur d’Alene, and emerging as one of the most captivating voices in the regional indie popfolk scene with a sound that blends raw emotion and vivid storytelling.
Dodge draws influences from Fleetwood Mac, Carly Simon and Brandi Carlile, resulting in a sound that is both timeless and uniquely her own.
In 2023, Dodge won North Idaho’s Got Talent and has collaborated with key players in the industry, which has given her a signature sound.
Listen at jojododgeofficial. com.
Brittany’s House plays a thoughtful mix of indie-rock
originals and classic rock and funk covers that always gets the crowd on its feet.
Featuring Jacob Maxwell on lead vocals, Drew Brereton on lead guitar, Tessa Brereton on bass and Cody Cummins on drums, this four-piece has been performing throughout the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area for more than three years.
Listen to their music on Spotify.
Indie rock trio Harold’s IGA hails from Sandpoint and has drawn influences from indie-folk, indie-rock, electronica and even some alt-country, grunge and shoegaze.
Ben Olson is the songwriter on the guitar, keyboard and vocals, with occasional forays on the bass and synthesizer.
Cadie Archer plays the uku-
Some of the area’s brightest talents will gather to perform their original music in two weekend shows at Sandpoint’s annual Songfest. Friday features performances by soulful rock singer and guitarist Justyn Priest; Woodie Guthrie-esque folk storyteller Desiree Aguirre; and, rounding off the evening, jazzfolk crooner Vance Bergeson. The next 7 p.m. show begins with up-and-coming singer-songwriter and MCS student Sam Puller, followed by sing-
June 20-21
er-songwriter and guitarist Johnny “Guitar” Daffron and then quirky folk-rocker Matt Lome. If you haven’t yet heard these talents at one of the many musical venues around Sandpoint, this is a chance to catch them all in one magical weekend.
— Soncirey Mitchell
7-10 p.m., $25 per night or $30 for both. Little Carnegie at the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint, 110 Main St., 208-265-4444, sandpointconservatory.org.
lele, banjo, keyboard, musical saw, accordion, melodica, glockenspiel and anything else she can get her hands on. Josh Vitalie holds it all down on the drums.
Joining Harold’s IGA on bass will be Justin Landis, one of Sandpoint’s most accomplished musical performers.
Harold’s IGA has released three studio albums, the most recent a five-song EP called Uncivil War. [Editor’s note: Olson is also the publisher of the Sandpoint Reader.]
Listen to their music on Spotify or bandcamp.com.
Finally, The Real McCoy is a high-energy three-piece rock band based in Spokane. The band is composed of drummer/backing vocalist Brian Drew, bass player Darrin Truitt and lead vocalist/guitar
player Brenden McCoy. Joining them at Community Night will be Sandpoint guitarist Liam McCoy.
The Real McCoy covers a variety of music, styles and artists from the 1960s to the 2000s, as well as performing originals including those featured on their debut EP, Life I Follow.
Listen at brendenmccoymusic.carrd.co.
Community Night is a seated show, with dance areas open on the left and right of the stage. The area in front of the stage is short chair and blanket seating only.
The Working Spliffs, 219 Lounge, June 21
Blending reggae, funk, ska, R&B, punk, psychedelic rock, jazz and a dash of Grateful Dead, the Spokane-based Working Spliffs are a verified Inland Northwest musical institution, with roots all the way back to 1999. That’s according to the 219 Lounge, which will host the group on Saturday, June 21. With that much water under the bridge, it’s no surprise that the Spliffs are a tight ensemble, formed
This week’s RLW by Ben Olson
READ
I’m culling my enormous book collection right now, which has prompted some difficult decisions about which ones to keep and which to sell at a yard sale. Along the way, I’m finding old books I forgot were on my shelf. One that always amuses me is Richard Brautigan’s omnibus, featuring his books A Confederate General From Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon and The Hawkline Monster. Brautigan’s wit and determination to write a wholly unique sentence has always made me smile.
LISTEN
out of the past members of the Dead Flowers, The Splifftones and Fear Politik. As the Niner stated: “It’s always a darn good time with the Spliffs, so come get lifted to some great music.” We call that truth in advertising.
— Zach Hagadone
9 p.m., FREE, 21+. 219 Lounge, 219 N. First Ave., 208263-5673, 219lounge.com. Listen at reverbnation.com/workingspliffs.
I’ve never been a huge techno fan, but I caught wind of this German band called Klangphonics last week and have been mesmerized by their vibe. There is a 31-minute video discoverable on YouTube by searching “Klangphonics black forest,” where you can get a sense of the magic they create — all in the Black Forest of southwest Germany. Put on your lederhosen and get ready to bob your head to the cool techno beats.
WATCH
I’ve been eager to cancel my Amazon Prime membership for months, after Jeff Bezos showed himself to be a Trump lackey. The only reason I kept it active is so I could watch the third season of Bosch: Legacy, a police procedural thriller series starring Titus Welliver as the titular character from Michael Connelly’s novels. There is a seething darkness to this series that most cop shows only hope to achieve. As soon as I finish the last episode, it’s goodbye and good riddance to Amazon Prime.
Sandpoint Songfest, Little Carnegie Theater,
A snapshot of notable live music coming up in Sandpoint
Clockwise from top left: Jojo Dodge, Harold’s IGA, The Real McCoy and Brittany’s House. Courtesy photos
From Pend Oreille Review, June 18, 1915
WILD
WEST
FOURTH
For an innovation in the way of celebrating independence day, Sandpoint has hit upon the real thing this year. The revival of frontier days, in mockery of course, is something which cannot fail to interest old and young. The plan is such that everyone may participate. It will be nothing short of a real drama, in which Sandpoint will be the stage and all the people actors.
The event is set for July 3 and 5. Sandpoint never could do full justice to itself in a oneday Fourth of July celebration and since the Fourth occurs on Sunday this year, the committee has decided to celebrate the days before and after.
Rink opera house has been secured for the public dance, and will be open for continuous dancing in the afternoon and evening. In the street in front of the Rink will be erected a large tent 36x110 in whcih will be enacted many of the frontier day features, such as the gambling house and all sports of the days when this country was “wild and wooly.” Of course, this doesn’t mean that there will be real gambling, for the medium of exchange will be “wooden money,” supplied in large quantities and which will be used in all of the various sports, the high prices of frontier days prevailing. Everybody will have money to burn and fortunes will be spent in a day. The streets of the city will be converted into frontier scenes also, and there will doubtless be many a holdup and stage coach robbery.
BACK OF THE BOOK
‘America never was America to me’
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff
I wrote a snippet titled, “On a more bitter note...” in the June 12 “Junk Drawer,” wherein I argued that members of my generation are doing the best we can to fix the broken world into which we were born, and that the reason we don’t see many Zoomers at local rallies is because we can’t afford to live here. I also said that wealthy, retired activists need to stop condemning us for “not doing enough” simply because we don’t have the time and resources to keep up with them.
That little rant sparked an insightful discussion, and I want to thank everyone who engaged with it. In an effort to keep the dialogue going, here are some responses to the most common thoughts from readers:
What about the young people who couldn’t afford to run away to college? A quick search on apartments.com shows a slew of housing options in Seattle for $800-$1,000 and a limited number in Sandpoint, the cheapest being around $1,500. The difference: Seattle residents have access to affordable health care, public transportation, help with groceries and jobs that make rent manageable. At least half of my graduating class from Sandpoint High School did not attend college, but they still had to leave due to the high cost of living and the scarcity of housing and jobs.
I have affordable housing due to the generosity of friends. Yes, but you have to understand that most of you secured your housing before the 2008 market crash and before many Zoomers were born. All that’s left are overpriced, unattainable studio apartments. That’s not a criticism, just a reality.
Gen Z activists like Greta Thunberg
STR8TS Solution
were moved by moral conscience. No one “stole their childhoods.” Yes and no. Young people like Thunberg are spurred to action by morality and desperation because they understand that world leaders are damning the planet, committing genocide and stripping much of the world of their human rights and older generations are doing little to stop them. There are many activists older than Gen Z fighting the good fight, but they haven’t stopped their peers from causing exploitation and death. Therefore, activists like Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai, faced with institutions bent on killing them or the planet as a whole, had to become international activists as children.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here,” said a 16-year-old Thunberg, addressing the United Nations Climate Action Summit. “I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope? How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”
I would never suggest that kids sit idly by, ignorant of the world, but they should not be forced to put down the doll or the school book and take up a bullhorn to beg the powers that be not to destroy their futures. It’s the adults’ job to make a better world for children. Those kids — some as young as 13 — should not bear the weight of sins committed before they were born.
Calling them “child soldiers” is overthe-top. You want them to live in a Mayberry-esque fantasy land. Gen Z has never had the luxury of ignorance or the belief that this is “the greatest nation in the world.” We have grown up with the glut of information the internet and 24-hour news cycle provides, and we understand the history of geno-
cide, racism, sexism, xenophobia and more. We know our government still perpetuates these crimes — that’s why the Trump administration is trying to undermine our schools. We know too much.
We are the generation that grew up with the War on Terror. We are the generation of school shootings. We are the generation of childhood suicide. I lost SHS classmates every year — three in my freshman year alone — to suicide. We are not sheltered. We have been raised in a hopeless situation, robbed of joy, robbed of innocence and then told by adults that we are the problem because we aren’t “doing enough.”
We are soldiers every time we stage a walkout to protest the gun violence that necessitates buzz-in entry, bulletproof windows and fences at schools. We were soldiers when my peers organized Sandpoint’s George Floyd protest and were met with armed militia members in tactical gear. We were soldiers when we formed and ran the Human Rights Club at SHS despite the personal risk. We were never able to form a Gay Straight Alliance like we wanted, because the school told us we would be targets of violence from students and parents.
I’m not being divisive or unfair when I tell previous generations to stop trying to tear us down and invalidate our work because we aren’t “children of the ’60s” and can’t take time off work to participate in every protest. It’s wonderful if you have that privilege, but that’s what it is — a privilege.
We want your help, your mentorship and your leadership. We want intergenerational alliances, but it’s the older generations who have to extend the olive branch instead of questioning our dedication and principles.
Laughing Matter
Solution on page 22 Solution on page 22
By Bill Borders
/sahy-fer/
1. a coded message
CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1. Pauses
Alliance
Small island
Earth tone
Adriatic resort
Devastation
Grill 18. Assert 19. South African monetary unit
Litheness
Nights before
Durable wood
Adored
Germinate
Soft leather
Blow up
Yellow flower
Beak 38. Assumed name
Therefore
Employ
Type of bottle
Implored
3 64. Canvas dwellings Word Week of the
“She spent hours trying to crack the ancient cipher found in the margins of the diary.”
Corrections:
Either we didn’t screw anything up last week or nobody had the heart to tell us about it.
When people say that the desert is lifeless, it just makes me want to grab them by the collar and yell, “Why you stupid, stupid bastard!” Then I drive them out into the desert to where the circus is, and point out the many forms of zebra and clown life.
20th 42. Bless with oil 43. Multitude 44. Birdbrain
Adjust
Soviet space station
Zig or zag
Incapable of failure or error
Dry
Caprine animal
Utopian
All-night party
DOWN
Steals
Voyage
No tickets left
Not prerecorded
Lyric poems
Pieces of body
10. Impertinent 11. Debonair
12. Delineated
Terminates 21. Consume food 25. Flowery verse 26. Dispatched 27. Front part of a vessel 28. Diversion 29. Generous 30. Hotel apartment 31. Mormon state
33. Hemorrhaged 34. Ship workers
35. Type of fruit
36. He writes in stanzas
38. Having no weak points 41. Not bottom
Emergency plane transport
Zero 45. Ear-related
Pilot a car 47. Pirate’s pal 48. Waterproof cover 50. French for “Black” 51. Fee for transit 52. Inactive
53. Leguminous plant 54. Not first 55. Large northern deer
