For the week of July 18 - July 24, 2001

County builds rainy day fund for construction

Commissioners want to avoid election for courthouse annex

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By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer

To avoid having county residents vote to decide whether to increase their taxes to pay for constructing a proposed courthouse annex building, the Blaine County Commission has for five years been saving for the project by setting aside a portion of the county budget.

The building, which entered the planning stage when the board hired a Boise architecture firm July 2 to complete a needs assessment, will probably be part of the 2001 budget, too.

Called CSHQA, the architecture firm is getting $13,215 from the county to, among other things, decide whether to house the county probation, prosecuting attorney, services and commissioners offices in the proposed annex.

The building would be located on land the county owns across the street from the Old Blaine County Courthouse in Hailey and would be completed in two to three years.

Blaine County Clerk Marsha Reimann said about $2 million has been saved for the proposed building over the past five years. She anticipates that at the end of the budget-setting process this summer, the board will approve another $200,000 to be added to the annex fund.

Commissioner Dennis Wright said the board won’t have to ask for a bond or tax levy "if we can basically squirrel away a few bucks." Either of those options would require a special election with a 66.6 percent voter approval to pass, and would increase taxes.

Wright said courthouse construction is notoriously difficult to fund. At least one Idaho county, he said, hired a firm to construct a building with private money and now leases the building.

Each July, about 30 county departments submit requests to the board to get a portion of the county’s revenues. This year, Reimann anticipates that about $13 million will be available. But even though annex funds would come out of that amount, too, Wright said county departments won’t suffer cuts to pay for the annex.

When asked if the board has had to decrease department budgets, or restrict increases in them, to save for the annex, he said, "No, I don’t think so."

On Thursday, the board tentatively approved a $23,000 budget request from the Blaine County Housing Authority, which is charged with increasing the availability of housing for average- and low-income people.

A request by Wood River Rideshare program director Beth Callister for $23,343, however, was declined. The board said it may approve a request for $15,000 instead.

The board suggested increasing by $900 a request the planning and building departments made Tuesday of last week for $423,199, planning administrator Linda Haavik said. In a memo, Haavik stated the departments are asking for less than the amount of money they generated last year in fees, which was $522,000.

And, Wright has said that the board cannot continue to subsidize Blaine Manor, the county-owned nursing home, at $1.1 million dollars, as it did last year. Blaine Manor director Gail Goglia planned to release her budget request during a meeting with the board today.

The board plans to have reviewed all budget requests by the end of this week. After that, Rheimann said, she will make sure the tentative budget balances before setting a date for a public hearing on the matter. After Aug. 6, she said, the board can reduce the tentative budget, but not increase it, and adopt it by Sept. 4.

Rheimann said the county this year will get about $5.4 million in property taxes, about $5 million in fees and fines and up to several million dollars in grants from the state.

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