News

SANDPOINT \'d0 Opponents of the proposed U.S. Highway 95 bypass laid siege Friday on an Idaho Department of Lands decision to grant an encroachment permit for the project.\

The Association of Concerned Sandpoint Businesses and the North Idaho Community Action Network called on IDL to rescind the permit needed for the Sand Creek Byway because of inadequate technical review and numerous inconsistencies in the Idaho Transportation Department\'d5s application.\

The encroachment permit would allow dredging and filling in Sand Creek to make way for the controversial highway re-routing project.\

The two groups raised a host of similar concerns and questions when IDL and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a joint public hearing last fall, but the state opted to conditionally grant the permit. The corps decision on the permit request is pending.\

Pierre Bordenave, spokesman for ACSB, pointed out on Friday that the state permit was approved the same day the hearing recommendation report landed on the desk of George Bacon, IDL\'d5s interim director. The timing suggested a rubber-stamp approval and a disregard of the concerns that were raised during the permit process, according to Bordenave.\

\'d2It looks like the ink hardly had a chance to dry on the hearing recommendation before the final order was developed, printed and signed,\'d3 Bordenave said during a permit reconsideration hearing.\

Bordenave contends close scrutiny of ITD\'d5s application raises more questions than answers and outlines a proposal in which the technical dots do not connect.\

The acreage of fill, for instance, varies among regulatory agencies, Bordenave said, explaining that the corps\'d5 seems to be processing a permit for a total of 8.35 acres while the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality lists 5.53 acres.