Growth and grief
SHAWN GUST/Press file The scene outside The Altar Church in Coeur d'Alene on March 6 after Pastor Tim Remington was shot while leaving Sunday worship service.
SHAWN GUST/Press file Altar Church members pray together during a vigil held at the church following the March 6 shooting of Pastor Tim Remington.
LOREN BENOIT/Press file Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger, right, and Post Falls police Chief Scot Haug answer questions during a press conference held in October after Bo Kirk’s body was found in the Hayden Creek area of the Coeur d’Alene National Forest.
JAKE PARRISH/Press file The $20 million dollar Parker Technical Education Center offers state-of-the-art manufacturing and automobile repair and technology facilities.
In this Aug. 17, 2004 file photo, Academy Award winner, and television actress Patty Duke poses with her sons, actors Mackenzie Astin, left, and Sean Astin after being honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. Duke, who won an Oscar as a child at the start of an acting career that continued through her adulthood, died Tuesday, March 29, 2016, of sepsis from a ruptured intestine. She was 69. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
There were bright moments in Kootenai County in 2016, but the year was marked with many sad events.
Still, there is reason for optimism for 2017.
Signs of a robust, growing community are also reflected in the stories here on The Press newsroom staff's list of the most read, most talked about, most noteworthy local stories of 2016.
1. PASTOR TIM SHOT
Pastor Tim Remington was shot March 6 following Sunday worship services at The Altar Church in Coeur d'Alene. Remington defied the odds and survived the six hollow-point rounds that ripped into his shoulder and back as he stood in the church parking lot.
“When I went to the ground, I thought I was taking my last breath and I was fine with it,” Remington said, in December. “Usually that is death no matter how you look at it. I owe my life to Christ and the people who showed up on scene and at the hospital. It's all a miracle.”
The Coeur d'Alene man accused of shooting Remington, Kyle Odom, was arrested several days later in Washington, D.C., where he was found throwing flash-drives and other items over the White House fence. Odom remains in custody in Idaho, charged with aggravated battery.
In a manifesto Odom sent to the media and his family, Odom wrote he wanted to kill Remington because he believed the pastor was part of an alien conspiracy to enslave the human race.
Following mental health testing, a judge in December ordered an involuntary psychiatric commitment for Odom to a state mental hospital for treatment. A trial will be scheduled when Odom is deemed healthy enough to participate in his own legal defense.
With bullet remnants and shrapnel still in his body, Remington's recovery continues.
“I got up quick,” he said, in December. “God and the community have been firmly behind me the whole time. I'm healing at an incredible rate. I'm doing better than anybody thought I would. Doctors are amazed.”
2. FROM MISSING TO MURDERED
The search for Bo Kirk, a Coeur d'Alene husband and father of three, turned into a murder investigation Oct. 25 when Kirk was found shot dead in the Hayden Creek area of the Coeur d'Alene National Forest. Kirk, 41, had been missing since around 7 p.m. Oct. 22, after leaving his job as an X-ray technician at Northwest Specialty Hospital in Post Falls. His truck was found burning later that night in a northern section of the county.
The man accused of killing Kirk, David Earl Hutto, was arrested Oct. 28. Hutto, 44, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, robbery and arson. Hutto was charged with robbery for allegedly taking Kirk's 2015 GMC truck and ATM card by means of force and/or fear by pointing a pistol at Kirk, according to court documents. Police report the crimes were committed following a road rage incident, and that Kirk was kidnapped from in front of his Coeur d'Alene home.
Hutto remains in police custody, held on a $2 million bond.
3. NEW HOME FOR NIC TECH EDUCATION
North Idaho College's new Parker Career and Technical Education Facility in Rathdrum opened its doors to its first students last fall.
The new building's opening came years after discussions and debates about whether NIC should expand its skilled trade programs to property it owned on the Rathdrum Prairie.
The 110,960-square-foot facility at 7064 W. Lancaster Road, next to Kootenai Technical Education Campus, was built with $15 million from college capital funds coupled with donations secured through the Building the Future capital campaign. Local auto dealership owners, the Parker family, donated $1 million to the campaign, prompting the college to honor the Parkers when they named the new facility.
4. A PLACE FOR BOYS AND GIRLS IN COEUR d'ALENE
Another long-talked about community project became a reality in 2016 with help from a local couple.
The Lola and Duane Hagadone Boys and Girls Club opened its doors in Coeur d'Alene in September. The Hagadones donated $2 million to the fundraising campaign to finance construction of the $3.65 million, 20,000-square-foot club house.
Built adjacent to Lakes Magnet Middle School on 15th Street, the new club offers 400 youths a safe place to go after school and during the summer to have fun and learn.
5. PATTY DUKE DIES
Hundreds gathered at Lake City Community Church in April for a memorial service for Anna Marie Pearce. Famously known as Patty Duke, the Oscar-winning actress, mental health advocate and beloved member of the Coeur d'Alene community died March 29 at 69.
News of Pearce's death made national headlines, and it deeply affected many in North Idaho.
During her memorial service, Pearce's son, Mackenzie Astin, remembered his mother's battle with mental illness and her decision to document and share it in her book “Call Me Anna.”
“She made it OK to be who you were,” he said. “She took her own story and gave it to the world ... There are people alive today who would not be, had my mom not had the audacity to put into print what had been too taboo before.”
Pearce's nephew, former Coeur d'Alene city councilman Mike Kennedy, also spoke at the service.
“...on behalf of the family she loved, and on behalf of the friends she loved, we want to thank you for the outpouring of affection,” Kennedy said. “And to the people of Coeur d'Alene and North Idaho, who most of all changed her life, thank you for welcoming, accepting, celebrating and loving Patty Duke, but ultimately, in her most contented and happy years, thank you simply for finally calling her Anna.”
6. TRAGIC, MYSTERIOUS DEATHS
The deaths in early November of Misty Phelps, 25, Coeur d'Alene, and her children, Tristan Phelps, 1, and Riley Phelps, 2, shocked and saddened first responders, community members and deeply affected employees of this newspaper.
Phelps, a Press employee, and her children were found dead in a car submerged near a Fernan Lake boat launch.
The sheriff's office has not yet released any details about how or why the vehicle and its occupants ended up in the water.
7. KOOTENAI HEALTH EXPANDS
Constructed with 770 tons of steel, 2,267 light switches and enough electrical wire to stretch from Coeur d'Alene to Missoula, the east expansion of Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene opened in March. The first floor of the expansion includes a new lobby and reception area and a new, larger birthing center and neonatal intensive care unit.
The second floor is designated for orthopedic and neurology patients, including 32 new rooms that are 40 percent larger.
Construction of the $57 million expansion began in 2014.
A second phase of construction — a $45 million project for the emergency department, operating rooms and related support departments — began several weeks after the hospital's east expansion was completed. Phase 2 is expected to be done in the fall of 2018.
Both phases of the project were financed without debt, using cash reserves and philanthropic donations.
8. ORGILL LANDS IN POST FALLS
The world's largest independent distributor of hardware products decided to take up residence in Post Falls in 2016.
Orgill, Inc. agreed to acquire the former Kimball Office property, and in September, state and local officials were on hand to welcome the Memphis-based company to its new 500,000-square-foot facility.
“We're excited to be here,” said Ron Beal, Orgill's chairman, president and CEO, adding that Post Falls will be the company's seventh distribution center. “You have our commitment to be a good employer. We look forward to continuing our tradition in Post Falls.”
With hiring underway, the company is set to bring about 140 jobs to the region, and expects to start servicing customers in early spring.
9. DECISION TO EXPAND JAIL
Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger and his predecessor, Rocky Watson, who retired from the sheriff's job in January 2013, long said inmates at the county jail far outnumber available beds for them.
In 2016, the county's board of commissioners agreed and found a way to finance an expansion of the jail.
The $12 million project is being paid for with money from the county's fund balance of $37 million. Tax money will not be spent on the construction.
When complete, the jail will grow by 118 beds, including 28 medical beds, and a shell for future beds. Construction is expected to start next spring and it will take about 18 months to complete.
10. FATAL BOATING ACCIDENT
A Saturday night boat crash on July 30 on Lake Coeur d'Alene led to a multi-day search for three missing boaters.
That search ended Aug. 3 when the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office's sonar team located three bodies in the waters near Threemile Point, between Stevens Point and Swede Bay.
The victims: Justin Luhr, 34, of Medical Lake, Wash., and his two passengers, Justin Honken, 21, of Post Falls and Caitlin Breeze, 21, of Spokane, went missing, according to sheriff's office reports, after another boat collided with the boat they were in, a 1989 Formula 223LS.
Information about how or why the crash occurred has not yet been released by the sheriff's office.
— This list represents the consensus of The Press newsroom staff.