COEUR d'ALENE - Race The Joe is on, and it's full speed ahead, race organizers said Friday evening.

"The entire race committee is just thrilled," said Kyla Sawyer, with Epic Sports Consulting, which is co-sponsoring next weekend's event with the St. Maries Chamber of Commerce. "It was really the push the community made to make this happen. We can't be more grateful for all of the phone calls and emails that were sent on our behalf."

Sawyer said the race committee is now burning up the phone lines to contact the 21 races teams that will be leaving this weekend to attend the event.

"When I get to St. Maries on Tuesday is when it will sink in for me," she said.

The international jet boat competition was temporarily stalled when Jim Boyd, of Calder, got the U.S. Coast Guard involved in an effort to stop the race.

In late April, Boyd insisted that the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation use a little known memorandum of agreement it had with the USCG to assess the "potential" environmental impacts the race may have on the river. He was particularly concerned about eagle nesting and bull trout habitat.

Shortly thereafter, the Coast Guard informed race organizers they were not going to issue a permit for the race because they needed 135 days to do an environmental assessment of the potential impacts.

That launched a weeklong community effort to convince the Coast Guard to reverse its decision.

Idaho's Congressional delegation, Gov. Butch Otter and the Director of Idaho Department of Fish and Game sent letters to the Coast Guard ensuring them that any of the potential impacts could be easily mitigated.

They asked them to reconsider by Friday, so organizers would have the time to hold the races.

"We received an email at 5:45 p.m. confirming the Coast Guard will issue a permit for the race," Sawyer said. "At 5:55 p.m. we received an email from the American Power Boat Association confirming that Race the Joe has sanctioning and is fully insured."

Sawyer said the permit will require some mitigation efforts to be put in place, and organizers will spend the weekend working out how to best implement those.

"We should have more information on those conditions Monday or Tuesday," Sawyer said. "But for now, we are full speed ahead."