Young seeking third term

SANDPOINT — Bonner County Commission Chairman Joe Young is seeking re-election to the District 2 seat on the board.

“We’ve still got a lot of things we’re working on,” Young said of his decision to seek a third term.

Chief among those issues is the juvenile detention center dilemma, which grew more pressing last month when the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections advised the county it could no longer certify the existing lockup because of its structural limitations.

“That is our biggest issue right now,” he said.

State law requires the county to provide a secure facility for youthful offenders, but taxpayers are unwilling to fund it. A two-year override levy failed at the polls and an effort to have a district judge confirm a lease-to-purchase arrangement for a new facility fell through.

If nothing is ultimately done to resolve the dilemma, juveniles will have to be held at a Region 1 facility in Coeur d’Alene, which could end up costing taxpayers $1 million a year in housing, transportation and staffing costs.

Young, 53, was elected in 2004 and re-elected in 2008. If elected this year, Young would be the first three-term commissioner the county has had in the last 20 years.

Other challenges facing the board include a developing struggle over the county’s plan to adopt a 700-megahertz emergency communications platform, balancing a budget in light of the poor economy and declining revenues.

Young supports the migration to 700 MHz and holds a seat on the Idaho’s Statewide Interoperability Executive Council. But the move to 700 MHz is now attracting opponents who see it as costly and needless.

Young emphasizes that no emergency service providers will be left out of the 700 MHz loop because it can be integrated with VHF and UHF through a series of patches.

“We’re going to take care of all those frequencies,” he said.

Young would also like to see the county finish up the consolidation of its various departments into fewer buildings and locations and amendments to the county’s comprehensive land use map and zoning maps.