SANDPOINT — County commissioners completed another efficient business meeting Tuesday, where they approved a short list of agenda items.  

Parks and Waterways was approved to be the custodian of Fairgrounds Park, assuming a minimal amount of maintenance on the property to encourage a safe park. The park, which was built by the city of Sandpoint and turned over to Bonner County, was maintained by the fairgrounds until ownership was turned over to the county.  

The county, according to Commissioner Ron Korn, is responsible for maintaining the park now that the fairgrounds chose to longer take care of it.  

“We have a duty as the county to maintain the park, and it comes with an added expense, and I think at this time doing the bare minimum is probably the right thing to do, until we can figure out negotiations in the future,” said Korn.  

The approved minimal maintenance would resume for the remainder of the year and cost the county an estimated $1,640. Part of the estimated costs include the installation of a portable toilet at the park.  

The prosecutor’s office was given approval to continue utilizing Westlaw services, an online legal service platform. The request to continue services with the platform was originally brought up in a May 27 business meeting, where Commissioners Brian Domke urged deputy prosecutor Bill Wilson to seek a competitor quote and use it to potentially leverage a more favorable quote from Westlaw.  

To keep Bonner County as a service user, Westlaw provided a quote that would require the county to pay $500 a month for the rest of the year, a $25,000 savings, and $2,621 per month afterwards, a $19,000 savings. Before the negotiation, the county would have been expected to pay $4,150 a month for utilizing Westlaw’s services.  

During commissioner updates, Domke acknowledged the number of emails the commissioners were receiving in relation to the recent vacation of a conditional use permit for Panhandle Bike Ranch. Domke reminded community members that, while they could accept emails, it was against the law for them to reply or share information about the permit. Communicating about the application with the public would violate the public hearing that was set to take place in late summer.  

“We are not legally allowed to discuss any details of that conditional use permit application that will be coming back to the board for a decision. So, I'd like the public to please understand that we can, as a county, receive your comments and put them in the record, but we cannot respond to them as far as having any kind of a dialog about the details,” said Domke.