Spirit Lake will delay council appointment

Spirit Lake will hold off appointing to the City Council a replacement for Councilman Steve Gaddum, who died last month in a vehicle accident, Mayor Roxy Martin said.

The city needs “some time to mourn,” Martin said earlier this week. “It’s still pretty raw.”

Gaddum, 64, died in a collision with a Union Pacific train on the Rathdrum Prairie.

A memorial service, attended by roughly 300 people, was held last week at the Timberlake Junior High School.

Gaddum was remembered as a good-hearted man “who was always ready to help with whatever needed to be done,” Martin said.

The three members remaining on the council still will be able to form a quorum for the time being, Martin said.

– Hope Brumbach

Post Falls

Church proposal on prairie gets OK

Real Life Ministries, the largest church in the Inland Northwest, will get a new home on the Rathdrum Prairie after the Kootenai County commission approved the 116-acre project last week.

In a 2-1 vote, the commission brushed aside concerns about jeopardizing sewer plans for the prairie.

The decision gives the Post Falls church a conditional-use permit to build a new campus east of Highway 41 that will eventually house a 3,500-seat worship center and nine other buildings, for a total of 458,000 square feet.

City officials from Post Falls, Rathdrum and Hayden had asked the county to hold off on the project until a $300,000 sewer study for the prairie is finished in less than a year.

Commissioners said Real Life has agreed to connect to the sewer once it’s available and that the construction will happen in phases, so the full impact likely won’t happen for 25 years.

– From staff reports

Mayors face off at showdown

Get out the boots and cowboy hat: Post Falls’ Mayoral Showdown tonight is offering free vittles and Western-themed fun for the community.

Post Falls Mayor Clay “White Shirt” Larkin will take on Sandpoint Mayor Ray “Kaniksu Kid” Miller in the mayoral showdown, sponsored by Mary Willeford Allstate Agency as a customer-appreciation event.

The mayors are “just really good sports,” Willeford said. “They’re calling each other out. It’s just too funny.”

The event, held at 306 Spokane St., will feature the Panhandle Gunslingers, prizes, food, a safety demonstration, skits and a cowboy costume contest.

It will run from 5 to 7 p.m., with the shooting beginning at 5:45 p.m.

– Hope Brumbach