UPPER VALLEY HEADLINES

Fremont County Search and Rescue was called out at around midnight Saturday when a 29 year old Island Park native was reported lost in the Rock Creek drainage. He had contacted his family that afternoon to report trouble with his snowmobile. Family members headed to the area to find him…but lost contact.   Search and Rescue volunteers finally reached the man and his family shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday. All were safe.

 

Following a tip from the Fremont County Sheriffs Department, a 21 year old Rexburg man faces four felony charges for two break-ins at the Rexburg Arctic Circle. Rexburg Police say Jared Mason Bryan of St. Anthony was an employee of the restaurant.   He faces two counts of burglary and two counts of grand theft.

A second suspect is being questioned at the Fremont County jail, where he’s being held on unrelated charges.  

The suspect allegedly kicked through a drive-thru window and made off with 11 to 12 hundred dollars in cash January 25th.   An identical theft struck the restaurant again on January 29th.   

 

When the upper valley lost power for an extended period on two different occasions in December…it was a major inconvenience for thousands of residents…but it also created a significant test for local emergency response plans.   Madison County Local Emergency Planning Committee Chairman Randy Lords says the county’s emergency operations center was activated during one of the events. The concern was that the elderly people of the community may not be able to go through the night without power for basic things like power or oxygen supplies. The EOC was working on plans to move them to places with power.

On that note…officials learned only one nursing home had an emergency generator and its function was limited.

He says law enforcement agencies discovered other issues. If the outage had gone longer, their vehicles would have run out of fuel because pumps didn’t work. They’ve made arrangements to avoid those problems in the future.    It also resulted in purchase of a 200 kilowatt generator that’ll be used to power the Rexburg Police and Fire Departments in the event of any similar incident in the future. That’s expected to be installed this week.

 

Application deadlines close today as the city of Rexburg seeks to fill a grant-writer and community development facilitator position.   Mayor Richard Woodland says that person will be in charge of helping guide developers through the city’s ordinances and opportunities….and assist existing economic development programs.

 

Ten Americans, including eight Idahoans, have been formally charged with child kidnapping and criminal association in their attempt to take 33 Haitian children into the Dominican Republic. Our Congressional delegation says they’re working with the State Department to ensure the Haitian judicial process is swiftly followed and that the detainees are treated humanely.

 

In his annual report to the legislature, Idaho National Guard Brigadier General Gary Sayler confirmed Thursday, Idaho’s 116th Heavy Brigade Combat Team will be deployed to Iraq this September.   The deployment is to last no longer than 12 months. 

Sayler also announced ”The 116th has been selected by the US Army to receive fully modernized digital equipment….the M1-A2 tank and the M3 Bradley fighting vehicle. We anticipate this new equipment will be fielded in Idaho in 2011 and 2012 time frame and make the 116th the most modernized heavy brigade in the National Guard.”   Citizen soldiers from across the state are part of the Brigade…including armories at St. Anthony, Rexburg, Rigby and Idaho Falls.

Sayler says none of Idaho’s heavy equipment will be sent to Iraq with the deployment. Much of it never returned after the brigade’s last tour of duty.

The state of Idaho will receive $92,662 from a legal settlement with FORBA holdings…the management company for Small Smiles Dental Clinics. Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden says it resolves allegations the company submitted claims to Idaho Medicaid for dental services to low income children that were either unnecessary or didn’t meet standards of care.   Those allegations ranged from performing root canals on baby teeth to inappropriately restraining child patients.

 

The city of Rexburg has signed a new letter of cooperation, intended to help manage impact area decisions affecting Rexburg, Sugar City and Madison County. Mayor Richard Woodland believes it reflects a new level of cooperation between the entities…particularly Rexburg and Sugar City.

In spite of other across-the-board budget cuts, the Idaho Department of Water Resources still intends to pursue its Comprehensive Aquifer Management Program this year. Interim Water Resources Director Gary Spackman is proposing a million dollars towards that project. ”It’s coming from stimulus money and requires a 50% match. The Idaho Water Resources Board has passed a resolution to dedicate another million dollars out of funds it has available to it.”

The Water Board would pay its share as groundwater users repay a loan they used to purchase water rights in southern Idaho.

Idaho’s use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds is paying dividends in at least one area…energy conservation. Office of Energy Resources Administrator Paul Kjellander says $18 million has been put to use for energy audits in public schools. ”What we see is that every dollar in energy efficiency that we give a public school, every kilowatt hour saved is a dollar of general fund money that never has to be spent on that kilowatt hour again.”

In addition to that program, Kjellander says “smart grid”, and weatherization programs will continue in the year ahead.

The office will also use a $1.4 million federal ARRA grant to launch a statewide “energy star” program next month. Kjellander said,”It will allow residential customers to go out and purchase energy star appliances to upgrade for their homes and businesses and then get a rebate for that.”

Appliance retailers have put up necessary matching funds to launch the program.

A little over 15 hundred Fremont school patrons turned out Tuesday to approve a special ballot issue. Just over 68% authorized the school board to spend over two million dollars in leftover construction bond money on other building projects. It’ll have no effect on tax rates. The final vote was 1081 in favor to 496 against…68.5%. 

Americans are tired of politicians blaming one another for the country’s problems. That, from Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson, whose House Budget committee questioned White House Budget Director Peter Orszag Tuesday. “If anybody wants to understand what the problem is in Washington, D.C., all they need to do is listen to the debate that’s gone on here, pointing fingers and trying to decide who’s to blame. The reality is the American people don’t care who’s to blame, they just want the problem solved.” Simpson continued, “This budget is not fiscally responsible over the long term, and what the American people are saying is we need to quit spending money, it’s that simple.”

Simpson had one complement for the President’s new budget…saying this was the first time any administration has actually matched its nuclear energy rhetoric with actual funding.

 

In an attempt to bolster revenues, the Idaho Fish and Game Department substantially raised non-resident hunting licenses this past year. The result….a 3.8%...or $1.2 million decline in non-resident license sales. Department Director Cal Groen surveyed non residents to find out why.

“Wolves was the number one issue. The second was unfair non resident prices…the third was the economy”. He says the biggest problems with wolves have been detected in the Clearwater region. There, hunters accounted for 2% of elk mortality…wolves, 47%.

He says the way to address that is through active wolf management, including annual hunts and marketing….specifically, bundling certain hunting tags as part of a package deal for non resident hunters.  

Resident hunting license sales, by the way, were up 8.6% and fishing license sales were up 14%.

 

Fremont School district patrons are going to the polls Tuesday to decide what to do with leftover funds from a completed construction project. 

District business manager Craig Summers told us that, whether it passes or not, it’ll have no effect on taxes. If there’s any excess funds, with voter approval, they can be used on other capital projects. If not approved, the funds will be put into an escrow account and after ten years the funds can be used to retire construction bonds early.

There will be an estimated $2.1 million leftover from a Central Elementary construction bond.

The ballot issue requires a super majority to pass.   The district cancelled a supplemental levy originally scheduled as part of today’s vote.

The process of writing a new long term winter use plan at Yellowstone National Park is officially underway. Park spokesman Al Nash says a public scoping period is underway thru the end of March.

Those comments will be used to craft a new Environmental Impact Statement that will be released sometime in 2011.   Four public meetings have been set to discuss the scoping process. One is set in Idaho Falls February 16th and another in Cheyenne on March 15th.

Nash says the park is wide open to ideas…although there are some basic assumptions. “A winter use plan is certainly going to look at different ways visitors may access the park. We also know that this planning process began in 1990 because it was determined that the approach we were taking to allow unregulated winter use was having unacceptable impacts on the park resources and on visitors and employees.”

 

Annual visitors to Idaho’s state parks have a $40 million dollar economic impact on rural economies. That, from State Parks Director Nancy Merrill…who told the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee Monday local grants are helping communities take advantage of that impact. Case in point...the Jefferson County Lake at Rigby. ”An RV grant for $47 thousand removed old vault toilets and installed new toilets, allowed for new signage and construction of new kiosks and engineer design plans for future upgrades.   The Jefferson County Lake campground receives over 93,600 visitors each year.”

But, Merrill said the department plans to reduce those grants by two to four million dollars next year. Lawmakers want assurances that so-called “sticker funds” aren’t re-allocated to general fund expenses.