“I can tell you from a personal perspective, Hayden is a great place to live,” Hayden Mayor Scott Forssell said.

Forssell spoke to a packed room at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn during his State of the City address Thursday, organized by the Hayden Chamber of Commerce.

He spoke about accomplishments city staff members have made in the past year, plans for the future and a few areas where he thinks the city is doing well, such as community outreach.

The year in review

The mayor highlighted successes through 2022. The city purchased the Lakes Highway District building, which will allow Hayden streets and park crews to move there. The location will serve as a hub for snow plows or park maintenance vehicles, as well as staff.

“Our current park staff is in a very small old building at Stoddard Park,” Forssell said. “And our street department is out in the back behind McIntire Park. We’re really looking forward to moving in.”

The departments should be able to move into the new location in roughly two years, when the highway district completes construction of a new building where it will move, shuffling the departments. The new location will allow the street and park departments to be more efficient, in addition to accommodating all of their equipment, Forssell said.

Traffic is one of the top concerns for Hayden residents. It has also been identified as an issue by the mayor, city staff and the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, which provides law enforcement services for Hayden. To address traffic priorities, money from the city's “savings” account is currently aimed at addressing intersection improvements. In 2022, the city installed its first roundabout at Honeysuckle Avenue and Fourth Street. Five other key improvements are in planning phases.

“Roundabouts are expensive,” Forssell said. “But they cost about as much as a traffic signal and require less maintenance.”

Another point of pride for Hayden was a $540,000 grant the city received for Croffoot Park, funds from which will be used for much-needed soccer fields, bathrooms and expansions at the public space on Lancaster Road.

But one of Hayden's proudest accomplishments of 2022 was the successful effort to get a levy measure on the ballot to fund an increase of police presence in the city. The measure was approved by the residents of Hayden.

“The city of Hayden, in most situations, was really short on law enforcement,” Forssell said. “We’re working with the sheriff’s office right now to get a contract put together to sort all of this stuff out.”

The budget increase will allow for six new deputies to be assigned to Hayden and provide 24-hour coverage of the city.

Growth points

A few places where the city is seeing moderate growth are in commercial or industrial businesses, with the number of new office space projects going up significantly.

“Hayden is a city of single-family residential homes,” Forssell said. “I like it that way. It’s a good thing.”

Multi-family development project permit requests dropped in 2022 from 2021. The bulk of new residential permits were for single-family residences.

“You will hear some folks say, ‘Hayden is growing too fast, it’s growing too far,'” Forssell said. “I have to admit, I’m a proponent of that thought. But Hayden really isn’t growing that fast.”

Forssell continued that Hayden citizens like himself don’t have a problem with the growth in housing, so much as they have a problem with the impact on traffic.

Increased traffic from Athol through Hayden is spilling from U.S. 95 over to Ramsey Road, Government Way or North Maple Street, backing up traffic during rush hour.

“That’s the problem we’ve got, is traffic,” Forssell said. "We can’t fix it, we’re stuck with it. Our city isn’t growing that fast; it’s the people driving through Hayden that are causing the issue.”

Looking ahead

What citizens can expect to see from the city in the year ahead are infrastructure improvements on the sewer system. Hayden will pay about $9.5 million of a $24 million project to build the infrastructure.

“Hayden has very little debt, except for its sewer system,” Forssell said.

Construction or planning should also begin on other projects like Croffoot park, Hayden Canyon Park and potentially another road intersection.

“The city of Hayden is good,” Forssell concluded. “We’re vibrant and we have a lot going on.”