NEWS
Sandpoint council adopts Little Sand Creek Watershed Rec. Plan By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff The Little Sand Creek Watershed Recreation Plan has been given the greenlight, after Sandpoint city councilors voted unanimously June 7 to approve the document at their regular meeting. After a year of active planning, followed by many more years of conversation among various landowners and recreational users on the nearly 7,413-acre property — 3,921 acres of which are owned by the city and held primarily as a water source — the plan puts in place a raft of action items and concepts touching on everything from conservation and placemaking to the construction of a network of trails for use by bicyclists, hikers and backcountry skiers. Incorporating feedback and collaboration with fellow landowners Schweitzer, the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and Idaho Department of Lands, the city is looking ahead to the future of the watershed as performing multiple roles, including water supply, commercial timber
harvesting and a larger recreational footprint. A network of trails were created by users in the watershed over the past almost two decades, and made formal by a 2015 agreement between the city and local biking organization Pend Oreille Pedalers. Today, those trails cover 13.5 miles and are maintained by POP, and according to the newly adopted recreation plan could expand by an additional 52 miles of trail — primarily in the “lower basin” area, where the bulk of POP’s existing trails are located. Sandpoint Parks Planning and Development Manager Maeve Nevins-Lavtar told council members that the final plan included some slight changes from her previous presentation at the May 17 meeting of the City Council, notably expansion of the buffer zones along year-round fish-bearing streams to 300 feet of slope distance — in keeping with the U.S. Forest Service’s policy. “We are at the conceptual, 30,000-foot level,” Nevins-Lavtar said, noting that while there are ideas for how to build out the trail network in the watershed, “it is
still conceptual, and they are not much more than lines on paper.” Still, adopting the plan put the city in the position of creating a committee to get the process started on identifying trail locations and creating designs, though a multitude of steps will have to be undertaken before users see any substantial changes on the property. That isn’t expected to begin until 2024.
City officials and community members alike applauded the plan, noting that POP has been engaged with trail building in the area since 2004. “[I’m] really excited to move forward with it, protect it and make it better,” said Councilor Deb Ruehle, who has for years worked on watershed-related issues. “It’s been amazing what POP
Volunteers work on the Watershed Crest Trail in 2015. Photo by John Monks. has built here in this community,” said Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad, later adding, “Now we have a recreation plan for our watershed that has ubiquitous community support — everybody’s behind this.”
Idaho Labor Dept. data shows statewide wages approaching $25 per hour By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff New figures released June 6 by the Idaho Department of Labor show that the average hourly wage throughout Idaho rose $1.64 to $24.69 in 2022, while the state’s median wage went from $18.50 per hour in 2021 to $19.26 per hour last year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wages Statistics survey provides details from across the state, as well as breakdowns for all seven of Idaho’s metro areas and two rural county regions. Meanwhile, the Idaho Department of Labor compiles data on the six labor market regions, which include the eastern, north 4 / R / June 8, 2023
central, northern, south central, southeastern and southwestern parts of the state. According to the Labor Department, “all seven MSAs in Idaho experienced average wages increase of more than $1 in 2022 compared with 2021. The Coeur d’Alene MSA saw the largest average hourly wage increase of $1.90 from 2021 to 2022.” Southwestern Idaho, which includes the largest urban centers in the state, reported the highest average hourly wage in 2022, pegged at $25.29, and the highest median wage at $19.83 per hour. The lowest median wage was in southeastern Idaho, with $18.33 per hour. Idaho’s minimum wage comes in at $7.25 an hour,
which is identical to the federal minimum wage, while tipped employees earn a minimum of $3.35 per hour. The northern part of the state — consisting of Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Kootenai and Shoshone counties — trails the overall state for hourly wages, reporting an average hourly wage of $23.87 across all occupational categories. That amounts to a mean annual income of $49,642, compared to $51,351 per year statewide. The top five wage-earning occupations in the northern labor region included: • general internal medicine physicians, earning an average of $248,278 per year; • family medicine physicians,
with $246,866 per year; • chief executives, with $168,350 per year; • dentists, with $140,018 per year; and • pharmacists, with $130,867 per year. The bottom five wage-earning occupations in the region included: • fast food and counter works, earning an average yearly wage of $24,928 per year; • dining room and cafeteria attendants, as well as bartender helpers, with $24,851 per year; • bartenders, with $24,730 per year; • restaurant, lounge and coffee shop hosts and hostesses, with $24,604 per year; and
• sports officials such as umpires, referees and others, with $18,481 per year. Occupations earning roughly the statewide average in North Idaho included community and social services workers; computer-controlled tool programmers; graphic designers; real estate sales agents; and child, family and school social workers. The Occupational Employment and Wages Statistics survey includes both hourly and yearly data on mean, median, entry level, 10th and 25th percentile wages for more than 400 occupations throughout the state. Find the report at lmi.idaho. gov and the searchable database at https://lmi.idaho.gov/data-tools/oews.