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2016: The year in review
JANUARY
Grayson Patton was welcomed into the world at 4:44 a.m. Jan. 3, becoming the first baby born in Elmore County for 2016. Less than 11 hours later, Rylan Jones was born at the hospital at Mountain Home Air Force Base as the installation's first of the new year.
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Mayor Tom Rist was honored for his years of service to Mountain Home during a retirement ceremony. Rist served as the city mayor for two terms following his time on the city planning and zoning commission and the city council.
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Tense contract negotiation between the county commissioners and Idaho Waste Systems broke down during a meeting over a number of landfill and trash fee issues. Four of the six main points in the recent contract negotiations became sticking points with Jack Yarbrough, whose company owns the regional landfill on Simco Road.
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The Western Elmore County Recreation District appointed Art Nelson as its new director. During that meeting, the board suspended a contract to build a community recreation center in Mountain Home while long-time board member Mollie Marsh announced her resignation from the WECRD.
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Dave Bergh and Brandi Garlitz were honored as Mountain Home's man and woman of the year during the chamber of commerce's yearly installation banquet. They joined the 46 other individuals that have earned the distinction since 1993. In addition, the chamber presented its lifetime achievement award to former Mayor Tom Rist and his wife, Shirley, in recognition of their ongoing commitment to Mountain Home and Mountain Home Air Force Base.
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County commissioners reached a possible agreement regarding a contract with the company that runs the regional landfill on Simco Road. Negotiations between the county and Idaho Waste Systems and its CEO Jack Yarbrough had continued over the past several weeks after a fire closed the site in November 2015.
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Classes at Hacker Middle School resumed after rain water leaked through the roof over a section of the school the day prior. The cause of the leak was traced to crews conducting repairs to the roof, who didn't properly cover the exposed surface.
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An effort aiming to dissolve the Western Elmore County Recreation District faced a setback after a petition lacked enough valid signatures. Out of the 1,658 signatures collected, more than a third of them were deemed invalid, including 526 individuals that were unregistered voters and others signing the petition two or more times.
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The voice of the Mountain Home Tigers, Alvin Powers, was silenced after he died Jan. 17 following after a brief and sudden fight with cancer. Hundreds of people paid tribute to the sports announcer during a memorial service at the Mountain Home Church of the Nazarene.
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Family, friends, teachers and school officials gathered to pay tribute to former students and community leaders for their contributions to Mountain Home High School during a ceremony Saturday evening. Those inducted into the high school's athletic hall of fame were Barb Buchan, Will Gulley, Joy Memmelaar, Brent Pease, Rich Pease, Lloyd Schiller, Nikayla Skinner, Maury Townsend and Kenny West Jones.
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The Glenns Ferry community paused to honor Melinda Sterling's dedication to the community and the countless hours she's spent in different volunteer roles by selecting her as the city's citizen of the year. Honored during the Glenns Ferry Chamber of Commerce's Installation Banquet, she joined the 57 other individuals that have earned the distinction since 1968.
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Three years after it opened its doors to help at-risk students in the local area, Bennett Mountain High School expanded its outreach to help those struggling at the junior high school level. The Mountain Home Junior High Intervention Center started with 10 students.
FEBRUARY
Weeks of uncertainty came to an end after the Western Elmore County Recreation District directors voted to cancel construction of a community recreation center in Mountain Home. The meeting started with an announcement that Brian Peterson, the district's long-time legal counsel, had resigned from that position earlier in the day.
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Mountain Home's economic outlook showed signs of continued improvement over the past year, according to a report published by the city's economic development office. In 2015, the city responded to 25 requests from companies and corporations looking for communities in Idaho and the western United States where they could expand. It's the most the city had seen in five years.
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The Western Elmore County board of directors cancelled plans to build a community recreation center in Mountain Home despite concerns raised by its former legal counsel. However, the district's new board argued the project was financially doomed from the start and cancelled it to avoid incurring additional debt.
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Albertsons Companies announced plans to enter into an agreement to purchase the Paul's Market chain, which included closing the store in Mountain Home. As a part of the transaction, Albertsons acquired and rebranded the Paul's Market stores in Homedale, Kuna, Boise and McCall while closing two others in Caldwell and Nampa. The decision affected 45 workers at the local grocery store.
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St. Luke's Elmore Medical Center in Mountain Home returned to the local hospital taxing district as part of a settlement that resolves an investigation from the Idaho attorney general's office involving St. Luke's Health System in the Treasure Valley. The local hospital, as well as one in McCall, were included in the investigation in which St. Luke's was accused of violating state law when it received taxing district funds as part of a contractual agreement.
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Plans to build an alternative energy complex in the vicinity of Anderson Ranch Reservoir were put on hold as developers and county officials met to address five conditional use permits submitted by Cat Creek Energy LLC to build a pumped storage hydroelectric facility that would be located in the vicinity of the existing Anderson Ranch Reservoir and Bureau of Reclamation impoundment area on the South Fork of the Boise River.
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The state fire marshal determined that a gas leak was the likely cause of an explosion that flattened a weekend cabin in Pine on Feb. 14. An investigation later supported evidence that a liquefied petroleum gas leaked underneath the cabin with an ignition source inside the home igniting the fuel.
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Following their domination of the mats during the regular season, the Mountain Home Tigers wrestling team headed to Pocatello for this year's state tournament. The Tigers had 15 wrestlers qualify for the state finals following this year's district tournament.
MARCH
The future of the Air Force's next generation fighter continued taking shape at Mountain Home Air Force Base during a program that aimed to prepare the jet for its first combat deployment. Six F-35 Lightning II fighters from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., flew here along with more than 160 support personnel as part of a program known as initial operational capability, or IOC for short.
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Lajuan Lee, a Nampa man convicted of shooting an airman from Mountain Home Air Force Base, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Lee had previously pled guilty to an amended count of aggravated battery that included an enhancement of using a firearm in commission of the crime. He was originally scheduled to stand trial on charges of attempted first-degree murder and using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.
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State lawmaker Rep. Pete Nielsen, who represents Mountain Home and surrounding communities, drew widespread condemnation from the public and news organizations across the United States after he stated that rape and incest rarely result in pregnancy. The comments were recorded during a hearing regarding legislation that would require abortion providers tell a woman where she can get a free ultrasound.
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City leaders extended a proposal to representatives with the Western Elmore County Recreation District that sought to create a large-scale recreation complex at Richard Aguirre Park. The idea involved transferring nearly six acres of land over to the recreation district in exchange for an existing tract of land on South 18th East Street.
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The Idaho Department of Water Resources moved one step closer to creating a new ground water district in the Mountain Home area. The issuance of a preliminary order, sought to require more than 400 local ground water users to install meters on their wells.
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A Nampa man died in a fire that destroyed a motor home on the interstate east of Mountain Home. The individual had poured fuel down the carburetor of the motor home as a way to "prime" it in hopes of getting it restarted, but the fuel ignited as he tried to start the motor.
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Mountain Home High School athlete Taylor Ogaard took home $500 in scholarship money while earning the title of Mr. MHHS during this year's Business Professionals of America pageant.
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Following two years of changes that have reshaped the Air Force and those who serve this nation, the men and women of the 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base officially welcomed Col. Jefferson "Jeff" O'Donnell as their new commander. O'Donnell took command of the wing from Col. David Iverson, who left Mountain Home to become the senior military assistant to the Under Secretary of the Air Force at the Pentagon.
APRIL
Storm Woodin, a Mountain Home man linked to an arson case at the Day Meadows Apartment complex back in October 2014, pled guilty to a second set of amended charges. He entered pleas on a count of being an accessory to a felony with the same plea entered on two misdemeanor counts of malicious injury to property as part of an agreement reached between the county prosecutor's office and his attorney. Woodin was arrested along with Beau Michel in connection with the Oct. 23, 2014, blaze.
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The Western Elmore County Recreation District board of directors voted unanimously to pay the final invoice of $138,334 to Kreizenbeck Constructors -- the primary contractor hired to build the now-cancelled recreation facility that was being built on South 18th East Street.
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The Elmore County Commissioners reopened a hearing to reconsider a conditional use permit regarding a large-scale subdivision. The initial reconsideration involving the Blue Sage Subdivision was to make a final decision on whether the county should remove some restrictions and conditions they placed on the subdivision when they approved the permit in December 2015.
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For the second time in six months, a fire broke out at the Simco Road landfill in western Elmore County. The fire reportedly began in a pit at the base of the landfill.
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A Mountain Home woman was arrested in connection with the robbery of the US Bank in Glenns Ferry. The Elmore County Sheriff's Department, with the assistance of the Boise Police Department, arrested Charlina R. Folden, 28, on charges of robbing the bank on April 13.
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The Western Elmore County Recreation District board of directors announced they would not appoint a director to fill a seat that's remained vacant for more than three months until they've had a chance to redraw the boundaries within the district. At issue was a plan introduced by the district's attorney to redraw the WECRD's subdistrict boundaries.
MAY
Several local residents spearheaded an effort to recall two Western Elmore County Recreation District directors. A recall petition sought to remove Judy Mayne and Art Nelson, the district's only seated board members, from those positions. The recall petition stated the board was being fiscally irresponsibility by not following the mandate of the original ballot that created the Western Elmore County Recreation District more than 15 years ago in addition to misusing taxpayer dollars and failing to fill, in a timely manner, the director's seat left vacant by the resignation of Mollie Marsh in January.
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Eight soon-to-be graduates from the inaugural year of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy officially marked the "soft" opening of the businesses they have spent the last six months creating during a trade show held in downtown Mountain Home. The YEA! program taught these students to develop a business idea, write a business plan, do the market research and finally pitch their business concepts to a panel of investors before launching their own companies.
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Mountain Home Air Force Base remains one of the nation's most important military installations that's expected to remain well protected against the threat of future base closures, local officials reported following their meeting with senior military leaders. A delegation of elected officials and business owners from Mountain Home met with Air Force officials in Virginia and Washington, D.C., in late April as part of a yearly visit to discuss various issues affecting the local Air Force base.
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Voters go to the polls where they unseated two state lawmakers while selecting their choice for county sheriff and prosecutor. In addition, voters in Mountain Home approved an extension of a supplemental levy to maintain day-to-day operations in local area schools. The two-year levy will raise $2.7 million a year to maintain existing programs.
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Citing a matter of integrity and principle, Mountain Home Fire Chief Alan Bermensolo officially resigned as the head of the department during a city council meeting Monday. Bermensolo resigned three months after city firefighters battled a blaze on the interstate in which a FedEx trailer caught fire on the interstate. Following the fire, accusations surfaced that members of the department had stolen items from that scene. Bermensolo classified the accusations as a type of "witch hunt" and were based on second-hand information, rumors and innuendo.
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Three years after it opened its doors to provide alternative education for local area students, Bennett Mountain High School held its first commencement ceremony May 26. The school celebrated the graduation of its 37 seniors.
JUNE
Thousands of people packed into Tiger Stadium to witness a time-honored tradition as Mountain Home High School's graduating class stepped forward to accept their diplomas. This year's commencement ceremony recognized the 172 students representing the Class of 2016.
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A partnership between the city and Western Elmore County Recreation District sought to build a large-scale skate complex in Mountain Home. The city council met with recreation district director Art Nelson to discuss the possibility of both entities working together to build an 11,000 square foot concrete skate park facility at Legacy Park. In subsequent months, the WECRD board changed directions an announced that it was looking at building the skateboard facility on its existing property on South 18th Street.
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Friday the 13th turned into a very lucky day last month for a former Glenns Ferry resident, who won $100,000 from the Idaho Lottery. Elio Juarez purchased the lucky ticket from the Pilot Travel Center in Mountain Home on a trip while visiting his mother.
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The WECRD swore in Connie Clark as the new representative for District 3 -- seat that had remained vacant following the resignation of former board member Mollie Marsh in January.