Fire destroys guest home on Hayden Lake

HAYDEN LAKE - A guest house on Hayden Lake was destroyed in a fire late Tuesday afternoon.

Investigators said there was an explosion about 4:10 p.m., followed by a few more, as the home was engulfed in flames. The explosions were believed to be related to a natural gas leak.

Jim Lyon, spokesman for the Northern Lakes Fire District, said no one was injured in the blaze at 4300 Deep Water Court, which is off Split Rock Road.

The guest home, considered a complete loss, was not occupied. The owners lived in a primary residence about 100 feet from the guest home. They told firefighters no one had been in the guest home for about a month.

Avista crews were on site to either turn off or cap a broken natural gas line.

Northern Lakes and Kootenai County Fire and Rescue responded to the scene and limited damage to the structure.

Lyon said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Cd'A council approves NIC zone change

COEUR d'ALENE - Zoning on a roughly 7-acre parcel of land inside the education corridor was changed to commercial 17, or C-17, Tuesday by the Coeur d'Alene City Council.

The change could allow North Idaho College to one day expand its campus there.

The 6.79 acres sit on an approximately 18-acre plot that formerly held a saw mill, near the city's wastewater treatment plant. It had been zoned for light manufacturing and Commercial-17 Light.

C-17 zoning allows more uses on the land, such as educational, residential, commercial and civic facilities, which light manufacturing prohibits, according to John Mueller, landscape architect representing NIC, although the Planned Unit Development plan on the project doesn't call for major commercial enterprises.

While C-17 typically doesn't have building height regulations, the preliminary PUD caps building heights in various areas of the site. The final PUD should be finalized by city staff in spring or summer, Mueller said.

The change passed City Council four votes to two votes.

Post Falls declines to support mental health center

POST FALLS - The Post Falls City Council on Tuesday night unanimously decided to decline helping fund a proposed countywide mental health and detoxification center.

County officials recently requested $32,000 from the city to start a facility, possibly next to Kootenai Medical Center, to ease stress on KMC for the service and reduce law enforcement from transferring patients to other cities.

Post Falls has spent less than $7,000 for mental hold services in the past three years.

The city council said it agrees a center is needed, but said it couldn't contribute because the city's budget is already set and it's up to the county to fund the service under state law.