SANDPOINT — Area residents and visitors will have a convenient new option for withdrawing cash and accessing credit union accounts, just as the busy shopping and ski seasons kick off.

STCU, a not-for-profit credit union, is installing an ATM, along with a bike rack, bench and landscaping, on an 8,500-square-foot site at the corner of Oak Street and Fourth Avenue in Sandpoint. It is expected to be available for use starting this weekend.

The ATM installation caps a busy year for STCU in Bonner County. In June, STCU’s Bonner Branch moved into a new location at 477123 Highway 95. Three months later, STCU acquired the accounts of 1,200 of Banner Bank’s former customers, who were used to visiting the bank branch in downtown Sandpoint.

“While they love our new building, we hear regularly from members who wish we had a downtown location where they could make cash withdrawals and deposit cash or checks, and take care of other routine transactions,” said STCU Branch Manager Stacey Darley, a fifth-generation resident who has worked at the Bonner location since it opened in 2009. “For them, the new ATM will be a welcome addition.”

In 2002, Bonner County residents became the first outside the state of Washington to be offered membership at STCU. Today, STCU has five branch locations in North Idaho, with a sixth scheduled to open in Rathdrum in early 2020. About 15 percent of STCU’s nearly 200,000 members live in North Idaho.

The new ATM isn’t just for STCU members. Users will incur no surcharge from STCU for accessing accounts from any of the 3,500 credit unions that are part of the nationwide CO-OP shared branching network.

Founded by educators in 1934, STCU has nearly 200,000 members, and more than $3.2 billion in assets.

Earlier this year, STCU was named Idaho’s best credit union by Forbes magazine.