Hole in hull of hydro hopes

COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger has denied a water-event permit for the Diamond Cup hydroplane races scheduled for Labor Day weekend.

Wolfinger, in a statement released to all media outlets Tuesday morning, said the organizers failed to meet "several of the required criteria for the event by the July 1, 2014, deadline."

Wolfinger said insurance for the event is needed, as are contracts for emergency medical services, traffic control, crowd management, transportation, and a safety and emergency plan.

An attorney for Diamond Cup hydroplane race organizers said they needed about a month more time to satisfy all of the conditions.

Diamond Cup president Doug Miller referred requests for comment to Coeur d'Alene attorney John Magnuson, who is representing Diamond Cup.

"This is not a situation where anyone has been doing nothing and ignoring deadlines, it's just sometimes there are things outside the control of the applicant," Magnuson said. "With all due respect to the sheriff, an artificially imposed timeline is not helpful."

Magnuson said he has communicated to the sheriff that there are two permits, which are conditions of race financing, that could not have been issued before the deadline Tuesday.

"Nobody is going to finance the race without having the county permit and the Department of Lands permit, neither of which could be granted by July 1," Magnuson said.

There is a hearing July 10 in front of the Kootenai County commissioners when they could adopt a zoning ordinance amendment that would allow the county's community development director to administratively approve special events in the agricultural-suburban zone. The shoreline area along Lake Coeur d'Alene at Silver Beach is not zoned for a special event, so special permission would need to be obtained.

Magnuson said it wasn't known Diamond Cup would need a special permit from the county to use the Silver Beach area when the sheriff's July 1 deadline was set. Diamond Cup didn't get that permit last year.

A permit decision by the Department of Lands for use of the lake won't be made until later this month.

"I'm not saying it was intentional, but the sheriff set forth pre-conditions to the issuance of a permit that were legally and factually impossible to satisfy in a timely manner in accordance with the timeline he set forth, due to agency processes that are outside of the control of the applicant," Magnuson said.

Magnuson said race organizers could seek help in District Court, but that isn't their first choice.

"We'd rather work with the sheriff. We'd rather work the agencies as we have," he said.

Wolfinger stressed that his department's deadlines were made clear long ago.

"The deadline was given to the Diamond Cup organizers on Feb. 6 at a meeting," Wolfinger said in an email to The Press. "They agreed that they could meet that deadline."

In an April 21 meeting, they asked for an extension for the Department of Lands permit, but assured us that all the rest of the criteria would be met by July 1, Wolfinger said.

In a press release, the sheriff listed 16 conditions that he expected to be completed by July 1. Only three of the 16 were listed as completed. Two required no action, and four more were granted extensions from state and local authorities.

Documentation on seven of the conditions was not provided by the July 1 deadline.

"It changes a lot of people's plans for Labor Day weekend," said Sam Cole, chairman of H1 Unlimited hydroplane racing. "It's a disappointment. We're trying to sort out what all of this means for us."

He said Lake Coeur d'Alene is a great site for the races, and teams and volunteers enjoy visiting and staying in the city.

"It leaves a void in our schedule for our championships," Cole said. The race is scheduled between races in Seattle and San Diego.

"Financially, it will impact the teams because they are losing a payday," Cole said Tuesday.