Young ready for a second term
SANDPOINT - Bonner County Commissioner Joe Young is seeking re-election to the District 2 seat to continue working on land use issues, economic development, public safety and roads.
"Those are things I worked on a lot in the last four years," said Young, a Republican who was a shoo-in for the GOP nomination in the primary.
Young is going head-to-head again with former Commissioner Brian Orr, a Democrat he unseated in the 2004 general election by a margin of 361 votes.
Young, a 52-year-old rural Priest River resident, wants to protect county residents' way of life by thoughtful land use policies and good leadership. A new comprehensive plan has been adopted and new zoning and development codes are going to be presented again to the public this fall.
The new codes were pulled back for more modifications and tweaking earlier this year and Young said it's a better document as a result. The revised code allows secondary homes on five-acre lots and expands the potential for home-based businesses.
"There's more for property rights in the new code than the old code," Young added.
On the subject of roads, Young said the county's purchase of road reclaimer equipment has enabled the Road & Bridge Department to triple the amount of maintenance. The county has also increased its dust-abatement program on gravel roads.
Complaints about roads will undoubtedly never go away in Bonner County, but Young said they are decreasing.
"Usually, that's what I get beat up on," he said.
Young's initial four years on the commission were anything but routine. He weathered a mass property tax revolt, the growing pains of a fledging emergency medical services system, a sea change in the board's makeup, a massive land use code reform effort and the perennial struggle over how to beat back Eurasian milfoil.
If elected, the next four years won't be a walk in the park either. The board continues to face some of the same struggles and a piping hot batch of new ones, including mounting pressure to formally adopt the International Fire Code in Bonner County.
"It's a mess. I don't know where it's going," Young said of the fire code dilemma.
The Sagle Fire District announced this summer it would be applying the code to a controversial hillside development at Morton Slough even though the code isn't officially recognized here. Moreover, several landowners are suing the county for allowing the Ledges Over Pend Oreille development and are asking a court to force the county to adopt the code.
Young said one solution would be to form a countywide fire district, a scenario he admits is outside the realm of possibility given there are more than a dozen fire districts, some of which are fiercely independent.
Young continues to support the county's role in providing EMS and said coverage on the west side is vastly improved with the construction of a new station in Priest River and substation at Priest Lake
"We are doing very well. The west side has never been in better shape. Response times are cut in half," he said.