Final verdict
Kootenai County's new Emergency Operations center is officially in the works after a unanimous vote by the Board of County Commissioners sets the project in motion.
After weeks of back and forth conversations between the commissioners, Kootenai County Sheriff's Office of Emergency Management staff, airport officials, and transit directors, the vacant armory at the Coeur d'Alene Airport-Pappy Boyington Field is set to become the OEM's home base.
In Tuesday's business meeting, the commissioners approved the utilization of $655,000 in CARES Act funding to renovate the armory into a 24/7 emergency operations center, with space for first responder training, housing for County Sheriff's K-9 units, and offices for Hayden-based deputies.
While the county owns the 9,4000-square-foot building itself, the land is the property of the airport. Therefore KCSO and the county needed to finance $294,000 to acquire the land. During multiple conversations, the board considered aid from CARES Act dollars, the KCSO budget, airport tax revenue, Federal Transit Administration grants, and general county assistance but lacked an exact funding source.
At this time, the county expects to use $161,000 from airport tax revenue for the first land payment. According to commissioner Leslie Duncan, the county plans to draft a resolution to pay the remaining $134,000 in the fiscal year 2021-22 budget
"The second-year funding is still up in the air, but I think we have a good source moving forward," Duncan said.
Based on the resolution, the $134,000 will be paid after Oct. 1, 2021.
In another unanimous vote, the board of commissioners officially decided not to participate in Gov. Brad Little's Property Tax Relief Program.
Announced in early June, the program offered Kootenai County a possible $10 million in CARES Act dollars to help repay the payroll of public safety and public health employers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program was also designed to provide taxpayer relief by lowering property tax costs by cutting property value.
However, due to a lack of U.S. Treasury confirmation and concerns that misusing the $10 million could potentially lead to federal audits, commissioners felt they could not move forward with the program.
"It's just an unfortunate circumstance that it looked too good to be true," Duncan said. "I'm just really concerned that our future federal dollars will be in jeopardy if we take this, and we are not secure in following the treasury guidelines."