From family business to industrial operation: Neighbors fight against PDI's expansion in Naples

BONNERS FERRY — After people voiced concern about environmental contamination, air quality and other factors, Boundary County commissioners will consider whether to revoke a conditional use permit issued to a Naples furniture manufacturer.  

About 100 people gathered Wednesday in the Bonners Ferry High School auditorium, where commissioners heard two appeals to the conditional use permit for Panhandle Door Inc., a cabinet door and drawer manufacturer.  

Appellants Kelli Martin, Jeffery Steinborn and Jim Dewberry alleged PDI has contaminated the local environment and created health risks for nearby residents.  

In the early 2000s, Martin’s parents moved to Boundary County and settled on three wooded acres, adjacent to the property where PDI now operates. Martin’s children grew up visiting their grandparents’ home in Naples.

“We never saw the neighbors,” she said. “Couldn’t see them through the trees.”

Martin said she moved out of state in 2018 but returned in 2022, after her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She said she was shocked to see how the neighboring property, where a small, family-owned cabinetry business previously operated, had transformed. Many of the trees that once insulated the neighbors were gone. But what stood out most was the smell.    

“It smelled like someone spray painted inside my parents’ house,” she said. “The smell was so strong it hurt your nose and throat.”    

Martin’s parents have since passed away. She said she believes environmental factors contributed to health problems they experienced in their final years.    

“They’re gassing lacquers and paints off the side of the building,” she said. “Huge fans blowing within 60 feet of my parents’ house. Six years blowing fumes right at us.”    

Public records show that multiple neighbors submitted complaints about the business, citing concerns about air quality and hazardous materials.    

“Panhandle Door/Maveric in Naples seems to be a chronic dispute between neighbors, although there may be merit to the claims,” a DEQ employee wrote in a June email. “I think I remember more bad acting on the part of Panhandle Door/Maveric than I was able to find in the complaint tracker.”

After inspecting the site last fall, the Idaho Department of Enviornmental Quality sent Nelson Mast, who purchased PDI in 2018, a warning letter to notify him of seven “apparent violations” of the Idaho Rules and Standards for Hazardous Waste.

These violations were failure to count monthly hazardous waste generation to determine generator category, as well as failure to comply with satellite accumulation area labeling requirements, excess satellite accumulation area containing labeling requirements, emergency procedures posting requirements, preparedness and prevention arrangements with local authorities, preparedness and prevention equipment requirements and failure to manage solvent-contaminated wipes as hazardous waste or comply with disposal exclusion requirements.  

“We have all kinds of evidence,” Dewberry said Wednesday of the alleged contamination to the area. “We're swimming in evidence. What we don't have is a legal team, but we will if this continues like it is.”

Steinborn told commissioners he believed PDI’s location is not appropriate for the business due to being in a Forest/Agriculture zone.  

“This isn't a mom-and-pop cabinet shop anymore,” he said. “This is an industrialized business,” Steinborn said.

Don Jordan and Kathy Konek are appealing PDI’s permit due to concerns about road access and noise. Jordan and Konek own Pot Hole Road, the lone access road connecting PDI to U.S. Route 2, along with property adjacent to the manufacturing facility. 

Jordan told commissioners that PDI’s expansion from a permitted employee capacity of six to eight in 2005 to 70 today has created traffic and noise conditions that have harmed his property’s value.   

“If that operation was continuing, of course, we'd be fine with it,” Jordan said Wednesday, referring to PDI’s past size. “That’s not what happened.”   

Jordan voiced a desire to see PDI construct a dedicated road connecting the business with U.S. Route 2 and told commissioners he worried PDI would continue to grow, to the detriment of neighbors.   

“Look at the expansion he's done,” Jordan said of Mast. “There’s no reason to think he won't continue.” 

Mast testified at the hearing after the appellants.  

“I probably didn't realize what I was getting into when I bought the business, but whenever concerns have come up … we've always done our best to be in compliance and to run a clean operation,” he said.  

Mast told commissioners he agreed that Pot Hole Road is overused and said he is pursuing an initiative with the Idaho Transportation Department to create a new access road from the highway. He added that he has done his best to limit his facility’s noise, and that he believes the contamination claims made by the second appellant party are unsubstantiated.

“We are in the correct zone. Ag/Forestry does allow what we're doing,” Mast said. “I don't see that there's any evidence or reason that we should not be where we're at.” 

After two and a half hours of testimony from the appellants, commissioners held off on making a decision and agreed to reconvene Nov. 6. In the meantime, the board intends to get more information about alleged inhalation hazards at the site and potential changes to road access on the property.  

The hearing will resume in the Bonners Ferry High School auditorium at 6:30 p.m., Nov. 6.