BONNERS FERRY — City engineer Mike Klaus presented a plan to convert sections of overhead power on Riverside Road to underground in April 2022 at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Conduit has been placed for the underground work, previously approved by the council. The current proposal is a contract with Palouse Power for approximately $110,272.80, which will cover the cost to pull wires, install transformers, remove certain power poles and move others to facilitate the underground work.

The electrical work is part of the Riverside Road improvement project through the Federal Highway Administration and administered by Western Federal Lands with the goal of reconstructing approximately 4.5 miles of roadway which access the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge, Bureau of Land Management lands and the Panhandle National Forest.

Klaus noted that the Riverside Road may be delayed beyond April 2022, and the council has yet to approve any agreement with the FHA. Until an agreement is approved, he told the council that he did not recommend completing the entire two miles worth of electrical work needed for the project.

Instead, Klaus said his proposal is only for sections of Riverside Road adjacent to the Davidson and Walter residences due to past tree damage. He said that the location of the trees and high winds in the area will create future issues and that moving the lines underground is a necessary improvement.

The council discussed putting off the project until next year in hopes that costs would come down, as well looking into what past costs were on similar projects. They ultimately decided to table the discussion until they could get a better understanding of costs.

Wednesday morning, Klaus shared that Mayor Dick Staples had contacted the city line superintendent Kevin Cossairt to get more details about the project to bring to council at their next meeting.

Klaus also wanted the public to know that “a lot of this kind of work is going on with IDT” and that “crews are doing a great job.”

On a lighter note, council also authorized volunteer Barb LePoidevin and assistants to decorate the Georgia Mae Plaza for Christmas, as well as voting to give all city employees the Friday after Thanksgiving off.