Idaho Governor Butch Otter concluded the seventh and final transportation funding conference in Boise this week which was attended by Federal Highway Administrator Tom Madison, state Transportation Board Chairman Darrell Manning, Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson and Idaho U.S. Senator Mike Crapo.
Along with gathering public input from the statewide meetings, Otter says state transportation experts now have a broad range of suggestions to help generate the revenue needed to fix the state’s growing backlog of transportation needs.
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) comments
Governor Otter held a total of seven statewide transportation-funding conferences this summer in Lewiston, Caldwell, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Falls, Pocatello and Twin Falls.
The issue is likely to be a top priority for state lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session.
The University of Idaho football program hasn’t had a winning record since the 1999 team finished second in the now non-football Big West Conference with a 7-4 record. Last season the Vandals finished the season with just one victory, and its worst winning percentage in the program’s modern history.
Head coach Robb Akey says the team knows that in order to turn things around they must perform at the highest level come game time.
Head coach Robb Akey comments
The Vandals open the season Saturday night in Tucson against Arizona. Kick off is scheduled for 6pm Pacific with live coverage beginning at 5pm on Talk Radio 950 KOZE-AM.
Filed Under (Idaho, News) by Brian Danner on July-22-2008
A magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck Caribou County Idaho, just before 3:30am Tuesday morning. The U.S Geological Survey says the quake was centered about 17 miles west of Afton, Wyoming, and about 25 miles northeast of Soda Springs. There have been no reports of injuries or damage from the temblor. The latest quake follows a smaller 2.3 magnitude earthquake that hit Monday, 13 miles east of Georgetown Idaho.
Idaho’s wildfire season is off to a slow start compared to 2007 when wildfires burned a nation-high 1.9 million acres, but officials say that doesn’t mean the Gem State won’t see its share of large blazes.
A cold, wet winter and a cool, wet spring has lessened the severity of the start of Idaho’s wildfire season. So far, the state has seen 363 wildfires totaling 21,000 acres burned, while 544 fires had burned across 152,000 acres of forest and range the same time a year ago.
The 2007 Idaho fire season really got going around the middle of July, when blazes like the 600,000-acre Murphy Complex Fire and the massive Cascade Complex east of McCall got their start, and the 48,000-acre Castle Rock Fire that threatened Ketchum started in mid-August.
However, officials caution that Idaho will still have a fire season in 2008, as lower rangelands in southern Idaho have already begun to dry out, and drier conditions are expected to extend into the higher elevation forest by next month. (Idaho Mountain Express)
A governor-appointed task force has decided against new fees for Idaho’s kayakers, canoe paddlers and drift boaters. Governor Butch Otter has suggested non-motorized boaters start paying if they want to use state lakes and rivers to help cover the costs for services such as search and rescue and facilities.
Non-motorized boaters argue most of the services are directed at motorized boaters. According to the Idaho Statesman, a group appointed to explore the possibility of new fees ruled this week that the plan wasn’t feasible.
The governor, who is attending statewide public meetings on transportation funding hasn’t seen the report, but aides say he intends to follow the recommendation of the task force. (AP) (Idaho Statesman)
Federal fire managers predict an increase in severe wildfire activity in northern California through October due to unusually hot, dry weather and scant rain, but say areas like Idaho that were charred by fires last year may be in for a reprieve.
The National Interagency Fire Center, headquartered in Boise, has released a 2008 Wildland Fire Outlook forecasting significant fire activity to increase or persist in California; portions of the Western Great Basin in Nevada; the northern Rocky Mountains in eastern Montana; regions of Texas and the southwestern Appalachians in West Virginia.
95 large fires were burning about 821 square miles nationwide as of Tuesday as the agency upped its national preparedness to Level 5, its highest. California has endured the worst of the fires so far this year with 4,661 blazes, burning about 548 square miles.
Buhl Republican state Senator Tom Gannon has died at the age of 62.
The three-term senator had battled an ailment throughout this year’s legislative session and died at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise.
A retired Naval officer, Gannon was the chairman of the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee and served on the Senate Education Committee. Gannon won his primary this year, easily defeating Doran Parkins with more than 66 percent of the vote. He was set to face Democrat Bill Chisholm in November’s general election.
Most times when a legislator dies in office the governor chooses a replacement for ma list submitted by the central committee of the district the deceased lawmaker represented. Gov. Butch Otter has not yet received the list. Funeral services are pending.
A group debating new fees for kayakers, canoe paddlers and drift boaters in Idaho plans to gather input and meet again in July.
Towards the end of the 2007 Legislature, Gov. Butch Otter suggested non-motorized boat users start paying if they want to use the state’s lakes and rivers in order to cover their share of costs for services such as search and rescue. Currently, motorized boats and sailboats pay fees starting at $20.
However, non-motorized boaters argue most of the services are directed at motorized boaters.
