Changes coming to a road near you

East Side Highway District has notified residents in Coeur d'Alene and Harrison of three local improvement districts the agency will be creating to finance road improvements.

District Supervisor John Pankratz said the district has assessed needing a $162,000 LID for an overlay on about 2.2 miles of Sunnyside Road in Coeur d'Alene; a $159,000 LID for an overlay on roughly 2.4 miles on Burma Road in Harrison; and a $248,000 LID for an overlay on about 6 miles on O'Gara Road in Harrison.

Because of reduced funding for highway districts, LIDs are the only way to fund the projects, Pankratz said.

"If we didn't do these LIDs, the projects wouldn't get done," he said.

The cost of the LIDs would be split between the owners of hundreds of lots in each of the improvement districts.

Pankratz didn't want to specify how much each individual would pay, as those numbers aren't set in stone yet.

But some affected landowners are upset.

James Sharron wrote in a letter to The Press that all past road repairs have been funded by property taxes.

"This maintenance expense should not be done by LID, but by taxation of all residents in the ESHD, thereby sharing the cost," Sharron wrote.

The highway district will hold hearings on all three LIDs this Saturday, September 18 at the East Side Highway District office at 6095 East Mullan Trail Road.

The O'Gara hearing starts at 8 a.m., the Burma hearing at 10 a.m. and the Sunnyside hearing at 1 p.m. - Alecia Warren