A candidate for Lakes Highway District commissioner is concerned the current commissioners are pursuing a transportation project that he says will cost a third of a million dollars and benefit few.

"It just doesn't make sense to me why we would spend that kind of money," said Corky Witherwax, running for the district 2 commissioner seat.

Witherwax said he heard at a recent district meeting that the commissioners plan to rebuild and pave a mile of Dodd Road, running between Hayden Lake Road and Strahorn Road north of Coeur d'Alene.

He has seen a capital improvements project list that puts the project cost at $350,000, he said.

Too much, Witherwax thinks, for a piece of road that only 60 cars drive on each day.

"I believe we need to spend our money wisely," he said.

The Hayden retiree would prefer such funds go to higher priority projects like widening Government Way, he said. He would like to see a pubic hearing before any such project is approved, he added.

And Witherwax, who is running against Commissioner Monty Montgomery, worries the Dodd project is being pushed by Montgomery, who lives at the intersection of Dodd and Hayden Lake roads.

"It's right in his neighborhood," Witherwax said.

But Commissioner Marv Lekstrum said Witherwax is jumping the gun on this.

The project hasn't been approved yet, Lekstrum said, and is tenuous at this point.

"We don't have the funds to do that right now," he said.

The rebuilding and paving of the gravel section of road was promised to the residents there at least one generation of commissioners before the current officials, Lekstrum said.

Neighbors of the road have complained that the mud and dust is egregious, especially for individuals with asthma. Applying magnesium chloride to quell the dust hasn't seemed to be effective, Lekstrum added.

"It (the paving) is something that has been promised to them for quite awhile," he said.

The district has also had an eye on realigning the vertical curve on Dodd that has limited visibility, Lekstrum added.

Commissioner Rod Twete said the district is conducting preliminary engineering on what a realignment would cost.

"If it's too expensive, definitely work like that is based on traffic count," Twete said. "No doubt there are going to be roads that need it way worse than that."

That's also why past commissioners weren't able to come through on the project, Lekstrum said.

"The same reason as now. There's no money," he said.

The commissioners have other ideas, Montgomery said. For instance, installing a chip sealant on the road instead of paving, which he estimated would cost about $50,000.

It might be more appropriate, he said, since paving is usually reserved for roads that see more than 400 cars a day.

"They've got about 60 (cars a day), so it really, honestly, doesn't warrant being hard surfaced," he said. "I would love to see every gravel road in the county paved, but it's cost prohibitive."

Montgomery isn't pursuing work on Dodd for private gain, he added.

Because that portion of Dodd Road is gravel, he said, he never drives on it.

"I might gain a little bit, because then I would drive on Dodd Road then," he said.

He doesn't know if the commissioners will hold a public hearing on the project or not.

"I've always believed the best thing the commissioners can do is what is done by the law, what legally we can do," Montgomery said.

Lekstrum was unsure how many folks live on Dodd Road, but said it isn't densely populated.

The commissioners will wait to see if any funding becomes available for major work on Dodd, Lekstrum said. If nothing comes along, he added, they will consider other dust abatement options.

And the rebuilding of Dodd will be tabled again.

"I don't think it's quite a project yet," Lekstrum said. "It's sort of a gleam in our eye."