North Idaho Briefs February 18, 2012
Nominations accepted for Dalton award
Nominations are being accepted for the 2012 Max Dalton Open Government Award sponsored by the Idaho Newspaper Foundation.
The 2012 award will be the 14th annual award given to each year since 1999 to a citizen or group judged to be an outspoken advocate of openness in either public records or public meetings on the state or local level.
Nominations should be submitted by March 16 by sending a letter of nomination to starnews@frontier.com. Go to www.idnewsfound.org for more information and profiles of previous recipients.
The letter should provide a general description of the nominee's dedication to open government and cite specific examples of the nominee's use of the Idaho Open Meeting Law or the Idaho Public Records Law to advance the public interest.
IDEQ offers construction loan to KWSD
BOISE - The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality announced the award of $440,000 low- interest drinking water construction loan to the North Kootenai Water and Sewer District in Kootenai County.
The funding will be used to provide centrally treated drinking water to district residents that no longer have individual wells and to add standby power.
The loan from DEQ's State Revolving Loan Fund carries a simple .25 percent interest rate and is payable over 30 years.
School district Community Chat slated for Feb. 27
COEUR d'ALENE - The Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees and Superintendent Hazel Bauman will host the next Community Chat on Monday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. at Bryan Elementary School.
The board and superintendent welcome all comments and topics. They also encourage patrons to come and share thoughts on the district's facilities needs.
Currently the district's Long Range Planning Committee is reviewing the district's 10-year plan for facility upgrade priorities. It is anticipated the LRP Committee will make recommendations to the board later this spring.
Recommendations may include asking taxpayers to vote on a School Plant Facilities Levy or a Capital Improvement Bond to support health and safety upgrades to many of the aging school buildings across the district.
The district has hosted informal "chats" for the past two school years, listening to citizens' thoughts and sharing information about the district without a formal agenda.
The public is welcome.
Training can help reduce high suicide rate
The Suicide Prevention Action Network is bringing to Coeur d'Alene Shawn Christopher Shae, M.D., one of the world's leading experts in suicide assessment and psychiatric interviewing, on Feb. 24 for an all-day workshop at the Kroc Center.
Shae's workshop is part of a series of suicide prevention trainings community groups and organizations are providing in North Idaho.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Idahoans between the ages of 15 and 34. The state's highest suicide rate is in the five northern counties where 53 suicides in 2010 equaled 25 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Mental health professionals have called for decades for increased formal training in the area of suicide. SPAN decided to schedule Shae's workshop to prepare mental health professionals in the region for the increase in referrals they're likely to see as a result of such trainings as QPR.
The Shae workshop has room for 175 participants and is filling fast. It will cost $99 per person and includes Continuing Education Units. For information on or to register for the workshops, e-mail spannorth@gmail.com.