MOYIE SPRINGS — The city of Moyie Springs has begun preparing the site next to city hall as it prepares for the city’s new permanent 15,000-square-foot U.S. post office.  

Preliminary work started Monday, Feb. 16, with crews beginning to level the site the following day. 

“I brought the excavator down and cleaned some trees off that were up here on top of this mound, and hauled those off, dug a couple of trenches around the outside,” Moyie Springs Public Works Superintendent John Nelson said. 

The city of Moyie Springs, Boundary County and Idaho Forest Group — which donated the land for the post office — are contributing to the project. Five dump trucks were used on the first day of excavation. 

“We started off using a front end loader and I had five dump trucks to start, one from the county and four others, one from the city and three private,” Nelson said. “I was driving the city’s dump truck for a while. Then, I crawled on the excavator and started digging. Some of this is pretty hard.” 

The site is uneven because of debris placed there by the mill over the course of several years. All of the dirt and debris is being transferred to the Boundary County landfill to be used for cover.

“Most of this material was put here by the mill years ago,” Nelson said. “It’s spoils off the log yard. They used to pile it up around the log yard.” 

Nelson said it was exciting to begin work after months of paperwork and planning. 

“It’s great,” Nelson said. “I wish we’d have started last week or two months ago, but a lot of paperwork had to be done before we could actually do this.” 

The excavation is expected to be completed by the end of the week. 

“We originally estimated it would take about four days with five dump trucks,” Nelson said. “I’m going to say it’s probably going to take that amount of time, four eight-hour days. We were originally thinking that we’d only get about three trips an hour with each dump truck, and the ones that we have are getting four.” 

A recent snowfall did not affect the first day of excavation. 

“I had to plow snow this morning before we started,” Nelson said. “But as far as what we’re doing, not really.” 

After the site is leveled, Nelson said the next phase will be up to the U.S. Postal Service. 

“I don’t know if there is too much after we get the lot cleared off and leveled,” Nelson said. “Then it’ll be up to the post office.” 

    An excavator works to remove the hill it sits on.