SANDPOINT — Bonner County’s Waterways Advisory Committee met for a special meeting Thursday, Dec. 11, to hear and discuss projects around the county that are slated to request grant money from Idaho’s Waterway Improvement Fund.  

During the meeting, projects were presented related to aging Oldtown boat ramps, updated boating equipment for the Sam Owen Fire Department and motor replacement for two vessels from the Bonner County Marine Division.  

Applications for the WIF grant must be approved and signed by the waterways advisory committee before they can be submitted to the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. The deadline for the applications is Jan. 30, 2026.  

Oldtown Mayor Lonnie Orr presented the first project request, which aims to replace the Oldtown boat ramp and dock. Installed in 1979, Orr told the committee that there were multiple holes in the decking and floats of the dock, posing danger to community members utilizing public water access.  

Comment cards were handed out to regular boat ramp users, for which the city received about 40 responses. Officials noted two main requests by users — extending the boat ramp, and breakwaters, farther into the river to accommodate fluctuating river levels and moving the docks closer to the boat ramp, within a foot of each other.  

Orr put further emphasis on the necessity of the upgrades, sharing that the boat ramp was the only public ramp below the Albeni Falls Dam. 

“That ramp gets a lot of use. We’re the only public ramp below the dam that’s in Idaho,” Orr said. “It gets a lot of use from the people in Washington also. The sheriff’s department uses it at times, the fire department.”   

The project is expected to be completed in two phases, with the first phase estimated to cost $141,000 for the replacement of the docks. The grant match for the project is about $16,000.  

Committee chair and Parks and Waterways Director Matt Zoeller read Sam Owen’s Fire Department request, as representatives were unable to attend the meeting. According to him, the department is aiming to update equipment on their boat such as lighting for search efforts. The updates are estimated to cost $40,000, with a department match of 50%.  

Lieutenant Doug McGeachy presented two projects on behalf of the Bonner County Marine Division, requesting the replacement of two motors for the division’s two largest vessels.  

“We try to cap the hours of a motor at 4,000, and for comparison, the Coast Guard runs their boats to 3,000. And when I talk to my primary mechanic, he’s always amazed that we can even get 4,000 out of a boat,” said McGeachy. “We’re really proud of the effort that we put into maintain our equipment and keeping it running as long as we possibly can.”  

McGeachy shared that the two applicable vessels have about one more season left before operations start to fail. The two motors are estimated to cost around $65,000, with a grant match of between 33% and 40%, depending on the motors’ costs.  

He also shared the idea of building a breakwater at Garfield Bay, saying that swells from the lake roll into Garfield Bay, damaging docks and the Marine Division’s boats. The breakwater, according to McGeachy, will help protect the county's dock by breaking up the waves.  

McGeachy said that the breakwater could be done in a couple of ways, by either constructing the breakwater to just serve as a way to protect the docks or adding a dock on top of the breakwater to serve as a dock during high pool.  

The breakwater is estimated to cost $90,000. If it was turned into a usable dock space, the project would cost about $126,000.  

All projects were supported by the waterways committee but will appear again in front of the committee during a January meeting for official approval.