[Vision2020] Latah Commission 'Shocked' By City's Action

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (January 20, 2007) Lewiston Tribune -

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Latah commission 'shocked' by city's action

By DAVID JOHNSON of the Tribune

MOSCOW -- Bottom line: The Moscow Rotary Veterans Memorial Pavilion ice rink
at the Latah County Fairgrounds should remain open through the current
skating season and probably beyond. 

It also appears the powers-that-be have joined ranks to ensure a permanent
enclosed multipurpose building, which includes a bigger ice rink, will be
built in the near future. 

Those predictions prevailed Friday after miffed members of the Latah County
Commission voted unanimously to appeal a Moscow cease-and-desist order that
threatened to shut down the popular ice rink next week. 

"That's the first cease-and-desist order I've ever gotten," Commissioner
Jack Nelson said, adding he was "shocked" with the city's action. 

The order came from City Attorney Randy Fife, apparently with Mayor Nancy
Chaney's concurrence. "I think it's in keeping with enforcing the city's
laws," she said earlier in the week, and she stood by the statement after
the commission meeting. 

But two Moscow city councilors, Aaron Ament and Bob Stout, washed their
hands of the tactic. Stout said he was "embarrassed" by the cease-and-desist
order and Ament said the administrative action was a "slap in the face" to
city council members and county officials. 

The rink is located on county-owned fairgrounds property within the Moscow
city limits. 

The city order, issued last week, said the threatened shutdown was based on
the county's failure to finish a parking lot paving project around the ice
rink under a city special-use permit. Several people at the meeting said
afterwards they couldn't believe city officials would actually close the
rink, especially to all the children who use it, over an unfinished asphalt
project. They said the situation smacked more of a power struggle between
political entities. 

Latah County Prosecutor William Thompson Jr., acting as the commission's
legal council, said evidence shows the county had done much of the paving
work and substantially complied with the special-use permit. 

But the bigger issue, Thompson suggested, revolves around a legal question
whether the city has any authority over what happens with the ice rink. The
county, Thompson said, has never acquiesced to city authority. The
commissioners agreed to provisions of the city special-use permit, he said,
mostly as a good-neighbor gesture. 

The county appeal of the cease-and-desist order will go to the city's board
of adjustment, Thompson said. The appeal should result in a stay of any
enforcement action and the rink will remain open. If the board denies the
appeal, the matter can then be appealed directly to the city council. The
courts ultimately could get involved and that would buy even more time,
Thompson said. 

That's good, said Tim Ewers of the Palouse Ice Rink Association (PIRA),
because the rink is extremely popular and hundreds of people devoted to
figure skating, hockey and open skating would be left without a facility
should the city take enforcement action. 

In the meantime, the commissioners, PIRA representatives, members of the
Latah County Fairground Board and apparently city representatives have
apparently agreed to resume talks leading to construction of a permanent
enclosed structure at the site. 

Chaney said the city's cease-and-desist action served as a catalyst to bring
all interested parties together to ultimately build what the majority of
people want at the fairgrounds. But Stout and Ament said the same ends could
have been reached through less drastic means. 

The meeting was attended by about 50 people, most of them ice rink users. 

Mike Fredrickson, chairman of the fairgrounds board, said he and other
members want to work with PIRA to develop a multi-purpose facility that
meets the needs and wants of those who like ice-skating and others who could
enjoy different activities under the same roof. 

Steve Bush, spokesman for the Moscow Rotary Club that's supplied most of the
financial backing for the ice rink, said it's time to keep all entities
working together toward construction of a facility that meets the growing
demands of a public hungry for ice time. He said a better building will
easily attract more people and pay for itself.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Only by going too far can one possibly find out how far one can go." 

- Jon Dyer