Board approves sonar grant request

SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners approved Sheriff Daryl Wheeler's request to seek a state waterways grant to purchase sonar equipment.

Wheeler is seeking the grant through the Idaho Department of Parks & Recreation waterways improvement program.

"Side-scan sonar provides the ability to quickly search underwater areas for objects in a fraction of the time it would take to search with divers alone," Undersheriff Ror Lakewold told commissioners on Tuesday.

Lakewold added that the towable sonar gear will also allow for searches at depths greater than the range of sheriff's dive team members.

The device costs $74,472. The county is seeking a $63,472 grant through IDPR and is kicking in a local match of $16,000, according to Lakewold.

The grant project has been in the works for the better part of a year, but was delayed so sheriff's officials could double back on the sonar's specifications.

"It provides better capabilities with a much better platform and much better ratings," said Lakewold.

"We’ve been talking about this a little while. A lot of it is just wading through the grant process," Commission Chairman Dan McDonald said on Tuesday.

The grant request comes after a scuba diver suffered a heart attack and drowned while diving among railroad car wreckage in Lake Pend Oreille at Trestle Creek on New Year's Day. The diver, who has not been identified publicly, was found after a six-day search which repeated dives and included side-scan sonar gear from Kootenai County.

In other items before the board, Justice Services is receiving $23,759 in unanticipated revenue from the Idaho Lottery via the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections. It's also receiving $135,088 in unanticipated revenue from the state's cigarette tax.

Justice Services, which has contracts to house juvenile offenders from Boundary and Lincoln counties, in addition to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, is receiving another $25,083 in unanticipated revenue from those contracts.

McDonald said the unanticipated revenue is significant because it's not simply used to fatten line items in a budget.

"Unlike normal government where we increase the budget, we actually use it to offset the money we take from taxpayers," said McDonald. "I love seeing this money come in."

Hoodoo Valley resident Maureen Paterson said a petition drive in underway to oppose a 160-acre rezone in western Bonner County, which will chip away at already shrinking agricultural lands.

Paterson called on the commission to decline the development proposal in order to protect agricultural and ranching lands in Bonner County and meet the objectives of the county's comprehensive land use plan.

"This would be a disastrous precedent," Paterson said of the development plan.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and followed on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.