New director driving to get arms around ITD budget

SANDPOINT — Brian Ness is fully aware that his job is where the rubber meets Idaho roads.

Ness took over as the Idaho Transportation Department in January on the exact same day the Legislature went into session.

Ness, a professional engineer whose career spanned  30 years in Michigan, is anxious to get his arms around the agency’s $500 million budget during what has been a tumultuous few years in the ITD.

He was in Sandpoint and Ponderay last week to tour the byway project and to shake hands with ITD employees.

His goal is to meet the more than 1,800 ITD employees by next year. He is a third of the way there.

And, while the personal touch is appreciated by the employees, the public wants answers for what some see as an inadequate highway system.

“We have a need in Idaho to replace bridges every 50 to 60 years,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have enough funding to replace them every 120 years.”

The reality is that if the state of Idaho would have funded the Dover Bridge project instead of federal stimulus funds, it would have taken all funds away from every other project in Idaho.

Ness’s worst nightmare came true a few years ago when a busy bridge in Minnesota collapsed. From his vantage point in Michigan, he also recognized that several bridges in his home state had plywood showing through.

“Nobody wants that to happen under his watch,” Ness said.

“Funding is a universal challenge,” he said.

Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter challenged state lawmakers to address budgetary shortcomings as well as public transportation shortfalls by naming two subcommittees to study the issues and report back to him.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, is on both subcommittees.

The task force will consider everything from toll roads to increasing gasoline taxes and registration fees as a way to fund Idaho roads, said Ness.

“Their job is to look at everything and report to the governor,” he added.

In the meantime, Ness said he has enjoyed working with the politicians but he understands that the local district engineers know what is best for each district and he is asking questions … and getting answers.

He has already gone to work on suggestions from some of his earliest meetings with employees.

“I am really having a ball,” he said. “I am finding out the state has some great employees in ITD and we all want to do a great job.”

Ness will be back in Sandpoint later this year because he couldn’t meet up with some of the employees.