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Bits ’n’ Pieces
Proposed gas station at From east, west and beyond Dufort and Vay roads headed East, west or beyond, sooner or later to resumption of student loan payments; to BOCC for a second time events elsewhere may have a local imfood instability will increase for some; By Lorraine H. Marie Reader Columnist
By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff A rezone proposal for a gas station and other amenities to be built at the intersection of Dufort and Vay roads, southeast of Priest River, will go before the Bonner County commissioners for a second time on Wednesday, June 14, after the previous board remanded the file back to the Planning Department in December 2022, encouraging the property owners to also file for a Comprehensive Plan map amendment and to be more detailed in their plans for the site. Property owners Sean and Laura Hammond, of Priest River, are applying for a Comp Plan map amendment from Rural Residential to Neighborhood Commercial and a zone change from Rural-5 to Rural Service Center on about 12 acres just south of Willow Bay Resort. Application documents show plans for a gas station, convenience store, boat storage and five residential lots of approximately one-acre each on the property. According to the amendment application narrative, written by Jeremy Grimm of Whiskey Rock Planning + Consulting on behalf of the Hammonds, growth at Willow Bay Resort and the surrounding neighborhood has made it so “many area residents and visitors demand a variety of commercial retail services including gas/fuel sales
which currently are unavailable in the area.” “Without a successful Comprehensive Plan map amendment and subsequent rezone to Rural Service Center, it is impossible to provide retail services to the local residents and tourists who flock to the area,” Grimm wrote. While the application narrative argued that the map amendment and rezone are in accordance with the goals and objectives of the county’s Comp Plan, members of the Bonner County Planning Commission found March 21 that the file did not align with several elements, including property rights, economic development, community design, public services and land use. The recommendation to deny the Comp Plan map amendment will now go to the board of Bonner County commissioners for a final decision at the June 14 planning hearing, which will be held at 1:30 p.m. at the Bonner County Administration Building (1500 U.S. Hwy. 2 in Sandpoint). Also at that hearing, the BOCC will consider the rezone for the same property, which is the file previously approved by the Bonner County Zoning Commission in October 2022 but subsequently remanded back to planning staff by the board in December. To view the map amendment application, as well as an aspirational site plan map, go to bonnercountyid.gov/ FileAM0002-23. The rezone application can be viewed at bonnercountyid.gov/ FileZC0012-22.
Garfield Bay Park to see grant-funded improvements By Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey Reader Staff The Bonner County commissioners on May 30 unanimously approved accepting a grant from the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation to fund improvements to Garfield Bay Park in Sagle. The grant would pay for new picnic tables, benches and fencing at the park, which is adjacent to the Garfield Bay Campground and open from the weekend prior to Memorial Day to the weekend after Labor Day. IDPR has pledged $30,600 in funds to the project, and the grant requires a $7,100 match from Bonner County. 6 / R / June 8, 2023
“About half of that [match] is in cash and the other half is in labor,” Bonner County Recreation Director Pete Hughes told commissioners May 30. During public comment, Deputy Prosecutor Bill Wilson commended Hughes for his work to improve the site. “Those picnic tables out there are pretty tough to sit on right now,” Wilson said. “They’ve been out there a long, long time.” Also at the May 30 meeting, Hughes received unanimous approval to request $116,200 in reimbursable funds from IDPR in relation to a Waterways Improvement Fund grant for the county’s Lakeview breakwater repair project, which Hughes said is now complete.
pact. A recent sampling: No party got everything they wanted, The New York Times pointed out, but a debt ceiling deal passed the House and Senate, and was signed by President Joe Biden. Republicans said they would not raise the debt ceiling, which could have resulted in the nation’s first-ever default on bills already approved, unless their demands were met. Those demands would have diminished most of Biden’s accomplishments. Bipartisan support dodged that scenario and avoided financial collapse. In the House, 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats voted “yes” to raising the debt limit, while 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats were opposed. In the Senate, 44 Democrats, 17 Republicans and two independents voted “yes,” while four Dems, 31 Republicans and one independent voted “no.” The final deal: the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit was extended until early 2025, and federal spending was cut by $1.5 trillion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That would be accomplished by freezing some spending, limiting spending to 1% growth in 2025; reducing promised funds for IRS updates and catching wealthy tax cheats; pulling back unspent COVID-19 relief funds and ending the student loan repayment freeze. Hard right-wing Republicans wanted deeper spending cuts. Meanwhile, Democrats were alarmed by cuts that will affect environmental protections, food benefits and the IRS. According to the CBO, food benefit spending will actually increase by $2.1 billion, since it will embrace the needs of veterans and the homeless. Also, the CBO stated that Republican-initiated cuts to the IRS will cause a loss in revenue and increase the deficit by $19 billion. Had there been no bipartisan effort to address the possibility of a default, Biden said “America’s standing as the most trusted, reliable financial partner in the world would have been shattered.” As well, “It would have taken years to climb out of that hole.” According to experts consulted by The Washington Post, the debt ceiling deal does little to balance the budget; 43 million will take a financial “hit” due
weaker government spending will lead to a trickle down of an estimated 150,000 fewer jobs by year’s end; and the spending cap would reduce economic growth by 0.3% next year. But, said a former Federal Reserve economist, all that “pales in comparison to the global catastrophe” that could have occurred without a debt ceiling deal. Ironically, Congress just passed an increase in Pentagon spending. A recent 60 Minutes documentary laid out the case for examining ways that military contractors can profit by both tax breaks and product price-gouging when contracting with the Pentagon. This has led to the reintroduction of the “People Over the Pentagon Act,” which would shave funds from the Pentagon’s budget and invest it in nurses, teachers, Head Start and household renewable energy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, another 339,000 jobs were added in May. A parent’s complaint about violent and vulgar content in the Bible led to a Salt Lake City school district removing the book from its elementary and middle schools, the AP reported. Blast from the past: President John F. Kennedy’s American University speech, in June 1963, not long after the Cuban Missile Crisis, moved the world away from nuclear catastrophe. The speech called for peace, rather than an arms race. JFK proposed a nuclear test ban treaty, preceded by discussions, in Moscow, with the U.S. and Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev. The Soviet press, which usually suppressed American news, published the speech. JFK’s military leaders, who frequently wanted to use atomic weapons for conflicts around the world, were rebuffed by the president. That forced him to secretly reach out to Khrushchev; both leaders discovered they felt boxed in by their country’s military leaders, who wanted confrontations that would have led to catastrophe. Khrushchev convinced Cuban leader Fidel Castro that JFK could be trusted, and Castro cautiously explored how to proceed. He and JFK were due to meet for discussions, but the president was assassinated first.