North Idaho Briefs September 7, 2011

Emergency office gets federal funds

Help is on the way for Kootenai County's Office of Emergency Management.

The county is finally able to receive $84,000 in federal funding to support OEM operations, after the dollars were hung up by Congressional deliberations over the nation's financial disaster.

"This funding is critical to the county having an Emergency Management Office," said OEM Manager Sandy Von Behren. "Dollars are tight. A lot of times people don't want to spend funding on what they think might never happen."

Although the county receives this Emergency Management Performance Grant every year, Von Behren said, her office always prepares its budget in case those funds don't come in.

That's why the grant will reimburse dollars already spent, she added.

"The majority of the stuff this is paying for has already been done," Von Behren said.

The grant will fund salaries for the office's three and a half positions, she said, as well as OEM operations.

Grizzly bearkilling trial is postponed

COEUR d'ALENE -

The trial of Jeremy M. Hill, of Porthill, for killing a grizzly bear on his property in May has been postponed from next month to Nov. 1.

Hill's defense attorney, Marc Lyons of Coeur d'Alene, sought a continuance because he needs more time to prepare. The trial was scheduled for Oct. 4 in U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene.

Post Falls women survive car crash with buck

A Post Falls woman and her daughter avoided serious injury when a deer literally dove at the windshield of their 1996 Honda Accord.

According to the Montana Highway Patrol, Tammy Gibson, 41, and her 22-year-old daughter, a passenger, were westbound on Highway 2 when a deer crossing the road leapt onto the windshield about 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 30.

"Gibson never saw the deer coming," said Trooper Neil Duram of the Montana Highway Patrol.

The windshield was fractured and inverted, predominately on the driver's side of the Honda, causing little injury to Gibson's daughter who was not admitted to the hospital.

Libby Volunteer Ambulance Service transported Gibson to St. John's Lutheran Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Gibson and her daughter were wearing safety belts, police said.

The 3-point male deer that sent Gibson to the hospital with facial trauma caused by impact and glass fragments was killed.