WECRD leads top 10 stories of 2008

A proposal to build a nuclear power plant in Elmore County was rejected by the county planning and zoning commission.

The November referendum over the status and future of the Western Elmore County Recreation District topped our list of the top ten stories in Elmore County for 2008.

No single issue generated more public comment than the debate over the rec district's operations. A change in its taxing structure, along with charges by some members of the community that it didn't seem to be anywhere near achieving its goal of building a community center, led to an election challenge of incumbent WECRD leader Mollie Marsh, who had been instrumental in forming the district.

That challenge, by Leanna Whitney, led to a considerable community debate on the WECRD's direction. In the end, Marsh and her vision for the future center were endorsed by the voters, in part because the WECRD board seemed close to realizing the first phase of the center, with Marsh and the board indicating construction would begin in late 2009.

Number two on our list was the considerable community debate over a proposed nuclear power plant in Elmore County, a few miles southwest of Hammett near the Snake River. From the initial announcement, through a public meeting by the developer that resulted in one protestor being arrested, to four full sets of hearings by the county planning and zoning commission (marked by Snake River Alliance protestors outside some of the meetings), the community debate of jobs versus environment and the appropriateness of the rezone lasted for more than half the year. In the end, the county P&Z rejected the rezone request, but the developer, Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc., has appealed the decision. The county commissioners will hear that appeal in February.

Number three on our list of top stories was the failure of the $37 million school bond to finish Phase II of the existing junior high and convert it, as originally planned, into a high school.

It was the second effort for the bond, which had failed the previous fall by a slim margin, but this time it went down to defeat by a larger margin, in part because the economy had already begun to sour and voters were in no mood to raise their taxes, no matter how much the school district said it needed the building, in order to rearrange it's district-wide structure and relieve overcrowding at Hacker Middle School.

Number four on our list was the effects of the economy going south during the year, beginning with a massive spike in gas prices that hurt the budgets of many area families (and local governments), and the slide downward of the overall economy that saw many small businesses fail, the potato plant in Glenns Ferry shutting down at a cost of nearly 150 jobs, and by the end of the year layoffs at Micron that affected more than a hundred households in Elmore County. Tight credit caused the real estate market to crash and local car dealers were left with far more cars on their lots than they could possibly sell. Overall, it became a year for everyone to tighten their belts, and for some, there simply weren't enough notches left to do it.

The number five story on our list was the decision by the county to end the ambulance contract with Northwest Paramedics and award it, beginning this April, to Elmore Medical Center. The county had grown concerned over a rising number of complaints about ambulance service and didn't automatically renew the contract as it had in previous years, opening the process for other entities to bid on the contract. In the end, the county commissioners seemed much more comfortable with the fit of a local operation.

The number six story on our list involved a series of centennial celebrations held in the community. The volunteer fire department held a huge day-long celebration to commemorate its 100 years of service to the community, the museum held a celebration of the 100th birthday of the Carnegie Library (the current museum), and the library held a celebration of 100 years of library service and also hosted a huge week-long Lincoln Bicentennial display that was making its first stop on a state-wide tour.

Number seven on the list of top stories involved variety of crime stories that grabbed the public's attention. The liquor store was held up, a bank was robbed, a former police officer was sentenced for inappropriate sexual contacts with two minors, a Mountain Home woman was arrested for fraud in relation to her duties at an Eagle bank, and another Mountain Home woman was arrested for embezzling roughly half a million dollars from the local credit union. In addition, the sheriff's office, in cooperation with half a dozen other law enforcement agencies, made a huge bust of a massive pot-growing operation in the mountains that netted nearly 5,000 plants worth a street value of $1.6 million.

Law enforcement was also heavily involved in the number eight story on our list, the unusually large number of accidental deaths that occurred in the county, ranging from a man who froze to death while walking in a snowstorm, to five men who died falling or driving off cliffs in four separate incidents, a plane crash that killed the pilot, a child who died choking on a toy, and a spike in fatal auto accidents that made the Elmore County section of I-84 one of the most dangerous in the state.

The number nine story was the Camera 8 board's decision to to suspend operations of the public access channel after 25 years of existence. Among other problems, the non-profit group had suffered from funding issues and declining membership and air-time production.

The number ten story on our list was the construction work on American Legion Boulevard, which virtually cut the city in half for months as the main thoroughfare was torn up and completely resurfaced over most of its length, a project that seemed to take forever for most local motorists.

Some other stories caught our eye and made "honorable mention" status, including the demise of the Cheer Basket project, the school district's sponsorship of the Rachel's Challenge program, John Walter's successful first year at the helm of the city police department, the Barker fires near Pine/Featherville that the forest service allowed to burn for more than a month as part of a forest management plan, the brief, humorous debate over whether or not the city should allow "backyard burials (it decided against it), and the success of not only the Tiger football team in reaching the semi-finals of the state playoffs for the first time in years, but the significant successes enjoyed by high school non-athletic programs such as the choir program, the speech and debate program and the drama program.