SANDPOINT — In a half-hour session, Bonner County commissioners approved a variety of agenda items for their regular Tuesday meeting.  

In a nothing-out-of-the-ordinary meeting, commissioners Brian Domke and Ron Korn unanimously approved all agenda items, allowing the county to move forward with applicable payments, a sheriff contract, records disposal and policy approvals.  

Commissioners first pushed through a request to advertise for bids to construct a snow removal equipment building at the Priest River Airport. Despite his strong opposition, Korn voted in favor of the bid advertisement to respect a prior board decision to move forward with the project. Because Commissioner Asia Williams was absent from the meeting, an opposition vote from Korn would have stopped the project from moving forward.  

“I will go ahead and move forward with this agenda item because it's just a bid application, and I know that the board wants to move forward with it, so I don't want to hold that up on a technicality or just because I can,” Korn said. “I just want to voice my strong opposition to this as it is an unnecessary expense, and even though it's a small match pay to the county, it's still taxpayer dollars coming from federal money.” 

The bid will be advertised for the construction of a snow removal storage building at the Priest River Airport and will include a pre-engineered metal building with a vehicle and personnel door. The building is expected to be 2,000 square feet and cost approximately $650,000. A Federal Aviation Administration grant is expected to cover 95% of the project cost, with the county required to pay 2.5%, totaling $16,500. An Idaho Transportation Department Division of Aeronautics grant will cover the remaining costs.  

Commissioners further approved an updated polling location for the Southside voting precinct. According to a memorandum submitted to the board, voters in the Southside precinct will join Westmond precinct voters by voting at the Cocolalla Bible Camp. The change comes after the original polling location became unavailable due to a water contamination issue.  

For the second elections office agenda item, the department was approved to dispose of election records that have been stored longer than the Idaho State Mandated Records Retention period. The Bonner County Assistance Office was also approved to destroy records, as part of the Indigent Office Records Retention and Destruction Policy.  

In other business news, commissioners approved updates to the county’s HIPAA and HITECH privacy and security policy, where provisions were added to support substance use disorder and reproductive health care privacy.  

Fiscal year 2026 Claims Batch No. 20 was also approved for $700,474.02, with big-ticket items stemming from the Road and Bridge department for crushed gravel and rock and 911 dispatch for technology services.