owyhee avalanche

Sheriff’s GV substation moved

In a move to save money and build efficiency, the Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office relocated its Grand View substation last week.
Sheriff Gary Aman announced an agreement with Idaho Power Co., to move the substation to the utility company’s building near Jacks Creek from its current location inside Grand View City Hall.
“This will substantially reduce the mileage driven by officers to write reports therefore reducing fuel dollars,” Aman wrote in a press release announcing the contract. “It also has heat and hot water something that was at a premium at the old Grand View city hall building.”
Aman said the substation was relocated Aug. 19, completing a process that had been in the works for about two years. He said office furniture has been donated at the new site, so the only costs to the sheriff’s office in the move is the establishment of a new phone line.
There will be no lease costs and no utility costs at the Idaho Power location. Aman said the county paid about $100 for water, sewer and power at Grand View City Hall.
Aman said a poor Internet connection at Grand View City Hall forced deputies to drive 30 miles to Murphy to file reports. Now, the deputies will be able to write reports from the Idaho Power substation and file the documents electronically via a high-speed Internet hookup.
“This will keep them in their area of patrol longer per shift,” Aman said.

-JPB

Snake River Lumber closes doors

Snake River Lumber owner Dave Holton confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the Pioneer Road business outside Homedale has closed its doors.
A sign on the showroom doors at the Pioneer Road business said the company had been closed since Wednesday, Aug. 6.
Holton said Wednesday that while the lumber yard is closed, he is in negotiations with a local buyer to sell the business, which sits on about three acres of ground leased from neighboring Filler King.
"We had been contemplating it for 90 days now, and things got to the point where we were negotiating (a sale) back and forth, and it didn't make sense to keep it open because we were losing too much money every month and there was no way to cut any more cost."
An Owyhee County resident, Holton said he expects news on the new buyer within 30 days.

-JPB

Dow buys Homedale seed plant's parent company

No major changes are expected at the Dairyland Seed Co. plant on West Idaho Avenue in Homedale in the wake of Dow AgroSciences gobbling up the alfalfa seed conditioning facility's 101-year-old parent company.
Dow AgroSciences announced in a Friday press release that it had acquired both West Bend, Wis.-based Dairyland Seed Co., and Dairyland affiliate Bio-Plant Research of Camp Point, Ill.
Doug Gross, operations manager at Dairyland's Homedale plant, said no changes in the local work force was to be expected.
Dow AgroSciences said that it would continue to market seeds under the Dairyland name.
Dairyland acquired the Homedale plant, which employs 16 full-time and part-time workers, in 2000 through the bankruptcy dispersal of AgriBioTech (ABT) assets.

-JPB

County budget projects tightened funds, job losses

With revenues down, county officials have slashed 2009 budgets in nearly every department. Jobs will be lost and services cut.
“We’re in the same boat as all the other counties,” Owyhee County Board of Commissioners chair Jerry Hoagland said. “The revenue is not there. We’re really looking at all departments.”
Commissioners approved a nearly $7.5 million tentative fiscal year 2009 budget Monday. The proposed budget is 15.3 percent leaner than the FY 2008 budget.
The public hearing for the FY 2009 budget will be held at 10 a.m. on Sept. 2 inside the county courthouse in Murphy.
Faced with dwindling revenues, the commissioners have set a budget that anticipates $675,000 less income for 2009 than was estimated for 2008.
County Clerk Charlotte Sherburn said the anticipated budget woes have forced the commissioners into some tough decisions regarding job layoffs and suspending plans for county construction projects.
“We do have positions that are being cut,” Sherburn said without giving specifics. “(Cuts will be made) in most everybody’s departments.”
Sherburn said the county will save about $200,000 in salary and benefits by eliminating both full-time and part-time positions.
The clerk said which jobs are cut won’t be final until department heads talk to their employees. Sherburn said the layoffs will be made prior to Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

-JPB

• Stories to look for in The Owyhee Avalanche
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• Commissioners set to raise sheriff's fees
• Marsing council mulls revamping misdemeanors
• Tight county budget means job losses
• Little more than a dozen show up for ATV hearing
• Homedale moves toward vendor ordinance
• Grand View councilman wins main event at Meridian track