TETON VALLEY HEADLINES

Since last year, Teton Valley bus driver Joe Nethercott has been disabled by injuries sustained in a horseback riding accident. He had used up his accumulated sick days and was in danger of losing income between that time and his eligibility for disability retirement.   But, after surveying staff, School District administrators have announced that 84 different school staff have donated 366 and a half sick days ranging from 1 to 30 days each. Thanks to them, Joe Nethercott will have more than four times the time needed to qualify for disability coverage. 

 

Idaho’s second largest agency will need $178 million to operate Idaho’s prison system next year.   Corrections Director Brent Reinke says the department oversees fourteen thousand inmates at a cost of about $57.44 each, per day. Reinke says the board can meet proposed budget cuts…but emphasized that will put public safety at risk. ”Our goal is to try to move into the future with a controlled growth package that will allow us as an agency to only grow at the rate of the population of the state. System wide we’ve increased by about 21 thousand offenders over the past six years….1 in 34 adult men and 1 out of every 156 adult women.” At the same time, Reinke told budget setters that investment in new facilities…including a new wing at the St. Anthony Work Camp….is paying off.

 

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden says budget cuts will trim his staff by 21 positions and require three weeks of unpaid furloughs. He told budget setters Thursday,”The state cannot afford continued holdbacks in the area of legal services. Further holdbacks will cost the state more dollars than any savings achieved through holdbacks. It will also place the state’s legal position in peril and result in the inability of this office to fulfill its constitutional requirement that it represent the state’s legal interests.”   He also advised,”this office annually brings in more dollars than is appropriated to it. My office was appropriated $18 million and brought in more than $46 million.”

Wasden suggested consolidation of legal services would save money. Specifically, he suggested his office assume the duties of risk management, University counsel, and Health and Welfare Child Support.

 

A new federal study shows reports of child sexual abuse are falling nationwide.   But, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office reports a steady increase over the past decade.   Wickes MacColl with the Idaho Children’s Trust Fund says predators who abuse children also take advantage of parents. So she’s encouraging adults to learn “how a predator grooms a situation so that they can entice a child, and also entice the adult into trusting in them. Keeping children safe from child sexual abuse is having adults aware that indeed it’s the person that’s right in your community who is very adept at manipulating the situation." She says the most obvious red flag is another adult or relative who looks for unsupervised time with a child.

 

The Eastern Idaho Public Health District has received funding to provide free breast and cervical cancer screening services to 400 women who don’t have health insurance to cover the cost.   So far, though, only 155 women have taken advantage of the program. And, of those, Women’s Health Check program coordinator Pat Fletcher says the tests discovered eight women who were diagnosed with breast cancer. ”Having routine screenings will hopefully pick up any cancers or pre cancers in their very earliest stage so they can then be recognized and treated.”

She says eligibility for the program is “generous”. Women who might be eligible are encouraged to contact the health district in Idaho Falls.    Call Veronica at (208) 533-3209.

 

The city of Driggs has authorized Aqua Engineering to proceed with final design for a new waste-water treatment plant. Mayor Dan Powers believes the new technology carries some significant advantages. ”Back in 2007, we were looking at a price tag of $22 to $28 million and this one, with design, is more like $8.5 to $9 million range…and it seems like we’ll get near drinking water quality effluent out of it.” Driggs still hopes Victor will participate in the project.   The two cities will meet to discuss those issues next week.

 

The Driggs City Council will bring some new water rate schedules to public hearing next month. Mayor Dan Powers points out that enterprise fund must operate on a break-even basis. ”We’re running about a 6% deficit on our operating costs and we’re not funding our depreciation at all, so we’re really not putting money away to deal with aging water lines. So, it’s been our decision that we need to start funding depreciation and we need to make up the deficit in the operating budget.”

The new schedule will increase base fees by 15% and increase per gallon rates above the first ten thousand gallons from 52 cents to a dollar per thousand.

 

For the first time, the city of Driggs is establishing a Parks and Recreation Committee. It’ll be led by city councilman Jay Mazalewski. Any resident involved in a group that regularly uses or would like to use Driggs recreation facilities is encouraged to participate.

The Teton Basin Ranger District has begun taking applications for this summer’s Youth Conservation Corps program. Six positions will be offered to applicants aged 15 to 19 for a variety of jobs on the forest.   Applications are due into the Driggs’ ranger district office by April 23rd.

 

Teton Regional Land Trust Executive Director Conrad Kramer will step down from the post Friday. The Land Trust Board and Kramer say they have agreed the agency needs a director with a stronger background in natural resources and land conservation experience. Five year operations director Bonnie Self will serve as Interim Executive Director. Board Chairman Ron Rope and Vice President Jerry Reese will also take on leadership assignments until a new Executive Director is hired.

 

In response to budget cuts the past two years, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has suspended some of its water quality assessments across the state.   But, Director Toni Hardesty says the agency can’t do that indefinitely. ”We will need to figure out an alternative solution…simply because it will not be feasible to have a three year gap in this critical water quality data and Idaho will be at risk in not meeting our federal clean water act requirements.”

Since 2009 and thru 2011…Hardesty says the DEQ budget will have been cut by about four million dollars.

 

Idaho Fish and Game biologists have completed mule-deer trapping efforts for the winter.    And, spokesman Gregg Losinski says mild conditions have allowed animals to conserve energy. “They are in extremely excellent condition. The forage was good this spring and summer and they put on a lot of weight and that means good survival….even if things start to go bad this winter, we should be in pretty good shape.  

 

At this time, there are very few wildlife depredation issues.

Those positive reports will play into next year’s big game hunting regulations. The Department will open its annual scoping process with a pair of public meetings. The first will be at the department’s regional office in Idaho Falls tonight and at the Madison Middle School in Rexburg Thursday. Both sessions begin at 7 p.m.

Last year, in an effort to direct more money to the Idaho Transportation Department, the Idaho legislature voted to eliminate the Idaho Parks and Recreation Department’s 3% share of state fuel taxes to ITD. 

Opponents claimed the move would decimate funding for an array of public improvements ranging from snowmobile trail maintenance to boat docks. After a summer of review, Appropriations Committee Co-Chairman Senator Dean Cameron had a change of heart. ”What we found was that Parks and Recreation still belonged where they were and that the decision that had been made, in order to get us out of the previous year’s session, may be have been made a little too much in haste and that that part of the train needed to be backed up.”

The rest of that legislation remains in effect. It cut the Idaho State Police share of fuel tax revenues by five percent.

 

Battelle Energy Alliance has anted up $60 thousand to help Idaho teachers fund technology or lab equipment or professional development. The mini-grants are aimed at innovations in science, engineering and math education.

 

For the past year, Envision Victor has been using some unusual approaches to gather up public feelings about future planning in the community. Project coordinator Dahvi Wilson says it’ll enter its second year with a “Virtual Tour” at three locations this week. “It allows you to look at a 3-D computer generated model of downtown Victor.” The program will allow people to look at different plan scenario in three dimensions. It’ll also demonstrate some of the “values” Envision Victor has collected through “story telling” events over the past several months.

The programs…all the same…will run from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Knotty Pine Tuesday, Victor Elementary School Wednesday, and the LDS Church on Thursday.