TETON VALLEY HEADLINES

A Driggs man who allegedly threatened to kill his family, himself and any law enforcement that got in his way, was taken into custody outside the Driggs Broulim’s grocery store late Friday afternoon. The Teton County Sheriffs Department says the suspect…who has not been identified….made the threats after claiming he had been “gang stalked” for the past nine years and had been “zapped with NAARP”.   Officials don’t know what that acronym is supposed to mean.   

 

Acting on a call from the suspect’s mother, the deputies began surveillance about 4 p.m. Friday while awaiting a court order to detain him. At around 5:20 p.m. as the man left his parked car and attempted to enter the grocery store, deputies determined not to allow him to enter the store.

 

At the time of his arrest, the man was carrying a loaded and concealed .40 caliber handgun and two ten round clips. He did not have a valid permit. A loaded Springfield SOCOM 16 assault rifle and eight magazines for it were found in his pickup.    The man was taken to Idaho Falls’ Behavioral Health Center for evaluation pending a mental hearing sometime this week.

 

As it sets calendars for the next two years, the Teton School board is proposing to break a long-standing tradition.   Superintendent Monte Woolstenhume tells us….”the feedback from the school board unanimously was to eliminate fall break for our school district and consider two days in October that are state in-service days that most districts (that don’t have fall break) participate in.” The proposed calendars will be up for review in April.

 

The city of Driggs has won two Idaho Office of Energy Resources grants for energy upgrades. Mayor Dan Powers says the “stimulus” grants will give the city two years to complete the work. ”It’ll include $92 thousand for an energy retro-fit at the community center and to replace street lights with higher efficiency bulbs.   The second (for $220 thousand) was for a solar photo-voltaic installation at the waste water treatment plant.” Work on the retro-fit will begin in July. The wastewater treatment plant work will come later after a final design for the new facility is complete.

 

Tetonia will use a $51 thousand grant to upgrade its street lights and retrofit city hall for energy efficiency.  

 

Victor will get $164 thousand. It’ll be used to install solar panels on top of the city building to provide electricity for city hall operations. That work should be complete in June.

 

The city of Tetonia has formally set a referendum election May 25th to put the so-called Egbert annexation to a community vote.   The action is in response to a petition questioning the annexation earlier this year.   It’s still unclear if the referendum would be binding.

 

Teton County, Idaho Commissioners indicate they are not interested in participating in a Clark County solid waste proposal. In conjunction with a consultant called Whisper Mountain, they’re proposing five eastern Idaho counties join to create a solid waste district then seek a $35 million revenue bond to build a plant that would convert garbage into electricity.   But, Teton County officials say they’re skeptical of the technology as well as the terms Clark County has outlined.   They say they might be interested “customers” if the technology is proven.

 

If Idaho’s public school budget holds at current levels, it’ll reduce funding to local schools by about seven and a half percent.   In the Teton school district that translates to about $625 thousand under this year’s allocation. Superintendent Monte Woolstenhume hopes to accomplish those cuts without severe impacts on programs and without tampering with teacher contracts. ”The three strategies we’re looking at is attrition…how can we reduce our overall budget…and how can we transfer the remaining balance to our local supplemental levy that is really saving our school district and our budget and the programs that we’re able to offer to our students.” Calendar adjustments may also be used to reduce the budget impact.

 

The Tetonia City Council has rescinded its call for a “committee of nine” to review a proposed area of impact agreement with Teton County. The county, you’ll recall, originally said it wouldn’t accept the agreement unless Tetonia agreed to contract for law enforcement support. Tetonia has argued that kind of policy decision shouldn’t be tied to a planning issue.   The city and county have tentatively slated a negotiating session next month.

After meeting with Driggs officials two weeks ago, the Victor City Council will likely decide tonight whether to join Driggs in constructing a new waste water treatment facility.   For Driggs, Mayor Dan Powers says, ”We don’t have a choice, but to go ahead. In order to meet our new permit requirements we’re going to have to upgrade the plant.”

The city is currently preparing a Request for Qualifications to select a final engineering design and grant manager for the project.

Victor and Driggs are among 23 Idaho communities to win grants in the second round of awards by the Idaho Office of Energy Resources.   Driggs will get $219 thousand and Victor $164 thousand.  

Teton County Commissioner Kathy Rinaldi says that’s on top of over $96 thousand awarded to county projects last week. Most of that will be directed to Teton Valley Hospital. “That’ll be for energy efficient window replacement at the hospital as well as a solar water heater, so it’ll address some of the overdue capital expenses the hospital has been lagging on.”

The rest of the funding will help the county adopt new building codes and replace 19 streetlights in the city of Victor.

 

The Idaho Children’s Trust Fund is finalizing plans for an upcoming Strengthening Families Training Institute….featuring Prevent Child Abuse America CEO Jim Hmorovich. Hmorovich says nationwide child abuse prevention campaigns have long focused on images of children in peril. But, he says new research indicates…that was the wrong message. "The public just literally just became overwhelmed with the idea. I don’t know what to do – I can’t deal with this. And that’s not what we were looking for." Now, he says, the message will focus on protecting children as a health issue. "Child abuse and neglect is, in fact, preventable. And we also know that it takes everyone in Idaho to make sure that children are safe in their homes, in their communities, in their state and in our nation."

The training institute is planned March 16th and 17th in Boise.

 

A law that would put grandparents and other willing relatives at the top of the list of qualified foster parents for kids that have to be removed from a home is moving thru the Idaho legislature. It’s sponsored by Representative Sharon Block. "We want to have a placement for them that can be stable, and can be someone that they know and love."    Spokesman David Irwin says the Idaho AARP has been pressing for that kind of consideration for some time. “Children from broken homes do not have to lead broken lives. This legislation moves towards helping children of Idaho have a solid family foundation from which to build their futures upon."

House Bill 610 is now under Senate consideration.

While it’s become a political issue…the health care advocacy group Families USA claims health care reform is really a matter of life and death. Executive Director Ron Pollack says his group’s studies indicate about 11 hundred Idahoans and 500 Wyoming residents will prematurely die over the next nine years if a pending health care reform bill fails to pass Congress.

Pollack said Friday, “In the 15 years since health care reform was last debated (1995-2009), more than 290,000 American adults (25-64 years old) died prematurely due to a lack of health coverage. If Congress fails to pass health reform, the number of Americans who will lose their lives will continue to grow. In the next 10 years (2010-2019), more than another 275,000 adults will die prematurely due to a lack of health insurance coverage across the nation.”

 

Today marks the first day that people interested in running for Idaho local or state elected offices may file to run.   Whether you’re a republican, democratic, independent or anything else you must file by March 19th.   Teton County Clerk Mary Lou Hansen explains…”You need to get a ‘declaration of candidacy’ form on the Secretary of State’s web-site or from your individual county…specifying what office you want to run for. When you bring that to your county clerk you need to bring either a $40 check or a petition of candidacy signed by five registered voters.”

Candidates for statewide or legislative offices have to file with the Secretary of State in Boise.

Every assessor, treasurer, clerk and coroner is up for election this year along with two county commissioners in each county.

 

The Idaho Board of Examiners has agreed to move $30 million from the state’s general fund into its State Tax Refund Account. That account hit a zero balance this week…meaning people seeking an income tax refund, couldn’t get one.   Division of Financial Management director Wayne Hammon told the board, “between the end of January and the end of February the account had paid out over $90 million in refunds and received only $17.2 million in deposits.  Between February 28th and March 3rd that number had gone to zero.  We we’re now at a point where tax payers who are seeking a refund will not be paid. That $30 million will allow the Tax Commission to cash flow the account without delaying refunds and move us into April of the largest single tax collection month.” Whatever’s left over in that account on June first will be moved back to the general fund. 

 

Idaho missed the cut for federal funding under the “Race to the Top” program.   State Schools Superintendent Tom Luna was counting on millions of dollars in funding to help public schools next year. He says he’ll try again in a second round this summer.   Teton and Sugar Salem were among Idaho school districts hoping to participate in the program.

 

Six months ago, the Driggs City Council authorized the Driggs Urban Renewal Agency and Chamber of Commerce to proceed with plans for a Visitor Center addition to the Driggs Community Center.   Now, Mayor Dan Powers says, ”We will be actively involved in amending the agreements that we have with them to allow for building the “geo-tourism” center in an exterior building. Right now, all the grant documents call for the center to be “inside” the (existing) building…..then we’ll be starting the process of issuing an RFQ for the design part of it.” Funding grants give authority for that process to the city of Driggs.

 

2010 Census forms will officially hit the mail the week of March 15th.   But, they will not be delivered to post office boxes…and that’s how most people in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley get their mail.   With that in mind, Census Bureau spokesperson Stacy McBain explains,”90% of people in our country will receive the census form right in their mail at their house. Other areas, and Idaho has a bunch of them, are going to have forms dropped off right at their door by a census worker.” That mail delivery issue contributed to an extremely low census return rate in Teton Valley in 2000. Only 43% of Teton County residents returned the census…compared to 71% in Madison and Jefferson Counties. Door to door delivery of those forms began in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley this week.

If you’re worried about security issues, McBain advises census workers all carry identification and a name badge and they’ll be dropping the forms at the door. A census worker will never ask for bank or credit card numbers.

 

Following a public hearing this week, the Driggs City Council has adopted new zoning ordinances to deal with temporary vendors.   Mayor Dan Powers explains, ”It creates three different standards for mobile, temporary, and seasonal vendors. It requires a seasonal vendor…someone who is one place for up to 180 days….to go through some of the design review standards

Those already in place will get “grandfathered” protection under the new ordinance.