Widmyer to run again for mayor

By PRESS STAFF

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer announced Tuesday evening that he’ll seek a second term in office this fall.

“Four years ago I ran with the statement of ‘Bringing Coeur d’Alene Together,’” he wrote in an email to The Press. “I believe I have helped do that.”

Widmyer listed some of the ways he’s brought the city together, including:

*Fulfilling its top priority to citizens by investing in public safety with a new fire station on Atlas Avenue and adding to the police force.

*Continuing investment in streets and parks.

*Providing important city services to citizens “while being fiscally conservative.”

“We have reorganized city departments,” he wrote. “I have served as a member of the urban renewal agency and spearheaded the effort to accomplish the first deannexation of an urban renewal agency in the State of Idaho. Because of this we returned over $1.3 million annually to the taxing agencies of the city, Kootenai County, North Idaho College and other taxing districts.”

Widmyer said the city’s tax levy rate is lower today than when he took office.

“We are working hard to keep the property tax burden low and to make growth pay for itself. I have returned hundreds of phone calls and emails from citizens who have reached out to me with questions or concerns. I have made myself available to listen to all of our citizens,” he wrote.

However, Widmyer also noted: “There is much work to be done.”

Some of that work has already begun on the revitalization of Seltice Way, he wrote, while the city is also planning a 370-space downtown parking garage.

“Both of these projects will help jumpstart economic activity and help spur job creation,” he wrote.

The Memorial Field area is now in the second phase of adding park amenities, including a much-anticipated carousel just off Northwest Boulevard. Also, the city has tentatively agreed to purchase 47 acres of the former Stimson Mill site just west of Riverstone between the Spokane River and Seltice Way. It’s a project that Widmyer said “will create more public access to the water and spur private development of an old blighted industrial site.”

“The future of the community that I have called home for 54 years is very bright,” Widmyer wrote. “I would like to continue to work to make our city a great place to live.”

Widmyer is the first Coeur d’Alene City Council candidate to formally announce his re-election bid. The nonpartisan election will take place Nov. 7.