SANDPOINT — There will likely be few who look fondly back on 2020.

From global pandemics to economic uncertainty, it’s been a year unlike any in recent memory.

However, before the pandemic became daily front-page news around the world, the news early in the year was closer to home, ranging from a new chairlift at Schweitzer Mountain to new council members to the Lake Pend Oreille School District voting to contest a challenge to its 2019 permanent levy.

Below, in no particular order, are a few of the top stories of the year for January.

• The first of the year marked the opening of Schweitzer Mountain Resort's new Cedar Park Express chairlift. A Leitner-Poma detachable quad chair was installed along with the resort’s SkyTrac Colburn Triple to replace the aging Snow Ghost in summer 2019.

“The construction on the two lifts went according to plan and they were both ready to go for the 2019/20 season at the end of October,” Schweitzer CEO Tom Chasse said at the time. “The Colburn Triple was opened to the public on Dec. 13 but, unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t quite give us the snowfall we needed at lower elevations and it’s only now that we are able to add the Cedar Park Express to our operation.”

• A rockslide near Bonners Ferry caused the derailment of a mile-long BNSF Railway train on Jan. 1, sending an engine with its two-person crew plunging into the Kootenai River. The crew — a conductor and an engineer from the Spokane/North Idaho area — were not injured.

Various personnel responded within minutes of the derailment, which was reported at 8:45 p.m. While the crew was rescued, the lead locomotive ended up in the Kootenai River with a second locomotive stuck in the mud of the riverbank.

It would take several weeks for the train to be completely removed from the river.

• Nikolai Cassius Thorp of Sandpoint was the first baby of the year. The son of Jared and Love Thorp, he was born at Bonner General Health on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020, at 5:36 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds, 2.5 ounces, and joined his big sister Nadja at home.

• Sandpoint resident Kailyn Gingerich has loved to sing since she was 2 years old. In early January, the Sandpoint 13-year-old headed to Las Vegas to compete in auditions for America’s Got Talent.

Kailyn has been singing for family and friends as long as she can remember as well as at rodeos and other community events. For her audition, the teen planned to sing “Someone You Loved,” by Lewis Capaldi.

• A new year brought new members to the Sandpoint City Council with Kate McAlister and Andy Groat being sworn in. Also sworn in were Deb Ruehle, who won reelection in November. Mayor Shelby Rognstad, who also won reelection, was sworn in at a December meeting.

• A pair of Priest River youngsters set out on a mission to make sure all the local shelter animals would be warm in 2020.

It didn’t take long for brothers Chayse and Casey Simpkins, who are 7 and 5 years old respectively, to raise enough money and donations for 46 blankets and 10 dog stockings for two shelters. With the $125 raised, the boys were able to give Priest River Animal Rescue 26 blankets, five dog stockings and some extra toys and treats. Panhandle Animal Shelter in Ponderay received 20 blankets and five stockings as well.

• As the real estate market in Bonner County continued to grow, Century 21 RiverStone continued to grow as well, opening a new location in Ponderay, owners Eric Skinner, Brent Stevens and Margie Stevens announced in early January.

Currently, Century 21 RiverStone has five locations, serving Priest River, Schweitzer, two downtown Sandpoint offices and most recently, Ponderay near North 40.

• The Lake Pend Oreille School District voted Jan. 7 to contest a challenge asking the courts to void its $12.7 million permanent levy.

The challenge, filed by Don Skinner on Dec. 23, contends the school district failed to disclose the estimated average annual cost of the levy on the ballot as required by Idaho law. Skinner asked the courts to both declare the election results invalid and prohibit the district from collecting any taxes from the levy but also to find that the district failed to include the necessary language in the first place.

However, LPOSD officials voted to oppose the challenge, saying they acted in good faith and that the levy should not be overturned due to a technical error.

• A Priest River family escaped with their lives after their home caught fire in the early morning of Jan. 6.

Ciera Predmore and her fiancé were upstairs asleep when they were awoken in the early hours Monday by her mom yelling up the stairs that the wood stove pipe was on fire. The family of four escaped with what they were wearing, two dogs and three kittens.

• Tamarack Aerospace’s plan to repay all its debtors as it emerged from voluntary reorganization bankruptcy was approved in mid-January by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

With the Chapter 11 disclosure statement approved by the court, Tamarack Aerospace officials said in mid-January that the Sandpoint aerospace company voluntarily went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2019 and was set to exit it as soon as late February or early spring, an unusually short time for that kind of reorganization process, company officials said.

The bankruptcy protection came about as Tamarack responded to a false incident report last spring that led to the brief grounding of its Cessna Citation Jet fleet equipped with the active winglets.

• Bonner County has been ordered to pay the West Bonner County School District’s court costs and attorneys fees for a failed complaint for declaratory relief over dueling trustee zone boundaries.

In a ruling filed in mid-January, First District Judge Lansing Haynes ruled the substance of Bonner County Clerk Michael Rosedale’s complaint was which map could be used to determined whether an elected candidate was qualified to be seated and the district “completely prevailed on that issue.”

Rosedale said the confusion over a legal description for the WBCSD zones never being filed led to the confusion and necessitated the challenge.

“The whole point was to clarify which map was ‘legally’ the correct map per Idaho Code on which to run the election and seat the trustees so there would be certainty for the voting public,” Rosedale said.

• Judith Marie Carpenter, 57, pled not guilty in a brief five-minute hearing on Jan. 13 to the first-degree murder of Shirley Ann Ramey, a retired city clerk who was found shot to death in her Hope home in April 2017.

Carpenter waived her right to a speedy trial, setting the stage for an eight-day trial which was set to start June 9 but was postponed due to the global novel coronavirus pandemic.

• Tamarack Aerospace celebrated the 100th installation of its active winglet system in mid-January, and company officials said the future looks bright for the Sandpoint-based business.

Not only is the company expanding the jets it makes the ATLAS winglet system — comprised of wing extensions with upturned winglets and additional flight-control surfaces meant to improve range, speed and fuel efficiency — it aims to add them to larger airplanes, airlines and military planes as well, Tamarack founder and CEO Nick Guida told a crowd of about 100 employees, community residents and officials gathered to celebrate the installation.

• Public education has always been important to Shawn Keough, not just on a personal level but during her time serving in the Idaho Senate.

On Jan. 16, Keough was back before her former colleagues — and her replacement, Sen. Jim Woodward — as they met to consider her May 2019 appointment by Idaho Gov. Brad Little to the Idaho State Board of Education.

"Personally – public school provided learning and a sound foundation for me to see and grasp opportunities to be self-sufficient and a productive citizen,” Keough told the board at the confirmation hearing, which she described as “basically an interview.”

Keough said her goal, in accepting the Little’s appointment, is to support the governor’s efforts to build up Idaho’s education system.

• A Boise man ended up behind bars in mid-January on up to dozen charges after a pursuit originating in Spokane County led to the discovery of a large amount of cash, more than 10 pounds of marijuana and other drugs, and a stolen gun.

Jarred Lee Butler, 36, of Boise, was arrested Jan. 17 in the 37000 block of Highway 41 following the pursuit. He was charged with possession of controlled substances, felon in possession of a firearm, felony eluding, trafficking controlled substances, resisting/ obstructing arrest, possession of stolen property, and a felony arrest warrant.

• In mid-January, Pend Oreille County Sheriff’s officials said human remains found in November 2019 were those of Marty Lang, who went missing in July 2017.

The circumstances surrounding Lang’s disappearance are considered suspicious and this case is still active, sheriff’s officials said. Lang was last reported seen near his home on Scotia Road and was reported as a missing person on July 17, 2017.

• The Idaho Supreme Court has denied a review in late January of its affirmation of the conviction and sentence of a Washington state man who pled guilty to a 2017 brutal stabbing attack that killed a cab driver in Bonner County.

Jacob Corban Coleman had appealed the judgment and sentence, saying First District Court Judge Barbara Buchanan abused the court’s discretion by imposing an excessive sentence, 1st District Court records show. Coleman, a 22-year-old from Puyallup, was sentenced in January to life in prison with a chance at parole after serving 40 years.

Idaho Supreme Court justices affirmed the sentence in late December 2019, and denied Coleman's appeal, saying that “sentencing is a matter for the trial court’s discretion.”

• A status conference in a civil lawsuit over a firearms ban at the Festival at Sandpoint was postponed Jan. 28 after Bonner County filed an amended complaint earlier in the day asking the court to determine if the gun ban violated Idaho law.

“My primary concern in bringing this declaratory judgment action is to ensure that everyone involved in the Festival is acting in accordance with the law so that everyone attending can be confident in their safety,” Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said in a press release posted to the BCSO Facebook page. “This matter is more appropriately resolved in the court system and not on the streets.”

In the amended complaint, Wheeler said he has learned that armed Second Amendment advocates plan to attempt to occupy War Memorial Field during the 2020 Festival at Sandpoint, scheduled for Aug. 6-16.

• On Jan. 31, it was announced that a former Sandpoint resident was facing an almost $13 million fine proposed by the Federal Communications Commission for alleged caller ID spoofing linked to thousands of illegal robocalls.

The proposed $12,910,000 fine against Scott D. Rhodes, a former Sandpoint resident linked to racist CDs left on the cars of Sandpoint High School students and attacks on local media, was announced Jan. 30, 2020, by the FCC.

FCC officials say they identified “a widespread campaign” with six identified campaigns that they said violate the Truth in Caller ID Act, linked to Rhodes. In addition to the Idaho calls, the FCC identified five other spoofing campaigns — California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Virginia — that contained racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic and anti-immigrant messages.

In addition to the CDs left at SHS, Rhodes was implicated in the distribution of flyers, emails, and robocalls targeting Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad, local media, and other community members. Many of the flyers and robocalls featured an anti-immigrant, racist message and sought to promote the area as a supposed haven for white supremacy.