PRIEST RIVER — While the downtown area is under construction as part of the Priest River’s revitalization project, other streets around town need some attention as well.

City officials are aware of this, as a number of streets are slated to be chip sealed or fog sealed among other repairs beginning this week.

The street improvement project will include Eleventh Street and West Jefferson Avenue by Priest River Junior High. The sections that are “blown out” will be patched up this year, with a more permanent fix in the works for next year, said Priest River Mayor Jim Martin during Monday’s City Council meeting. Council approved the bid from Interstate Concrete and Asphalt on Monday for the patchwork, in addition to an $86,935 agreement with Road Products, Inc., for improvements to various streets around the city.

“Other than West Beardmore, it gets all of the streets in town hard surfaced,” Martin said.

The city has also received a number of complaints regarding the dust and rough surface of East Settlement Road and Anselmo Lane within the city’s boundaries. Council members approved a proposal by Bonner County that, while crews are out grading and applying magnesium chloride to the county roads in the area, they would do East Settlement and Anselmo as well. The county will do the work and the city will pay half of the cost, Martin said, for a total of $4,140.

In other city news, during the May 20 meeting, council members approved a conditional use permit with a minimum house size variance of 480 square feet for a proposed tiny home complex. The request was made by Mark Mazenko, who recently purchased the mobile home park on Gregory Street on the west side of Highway 57.

Mazenko proposes to turn the 2.13-acre parcel, which currently has 20 mobile home lots, into 38 tiny homes.

Under the conditions, Mazenko has a year to start on the project, with two six-month extensions possible, and 12 years to complete the development. Mazenko said he sees it as an eight- to 12-year project because he does not want to displace any of the current residents. As they move on over the years, he plans to put four units at a time for each two lots that become empty.

Mazenko asked the city to consider allowing up to 10 recreational vehicles in the park at any given time. Mazenko said the RVs would serve as “placeholders” until two lots at a time are available for buildout. While the city recently passed an occupied RV ordinance that this would be in violation of, council members voted in approval of allowing the RVs temporarily, though if Mazenko fails to meet the conditions of the timeline, the property will revert back to its previous use as a mobile home park.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.