PRIEST RIVER — Candy Turner and Billy Mullaley were sworn into office during Monday’s City Council meeting.

Turner, who was also re-elected as council president during the meeting, has served on the council since 2018 and was re-elected again in November 2025, running unopposed for the seat.

Mullaley took office in January 2022 and was subsequently re-elected to his seat in November 2025.

Both Turner and Mullaley ran unopposed and were automatically declared the winners of their races earlier this year.

A meeting to hear an update on the city’s Two Rivers Park project was set for February, and the council approved a transfer of funds from the state investment pool to allow the city to pay its bills until taxes are paid.

The council also heard an update from City Planner Jake Gabell on the city’s efforts to update its Comprehensive Plan.

Cities are required by state law to adopt a comprehensive plan and regularly update it. The plans serve as a guiding document on everything from growth to policy and provide a vision and direction for the coming decade.

Gabell told the council that, with building slowing down for the winter, he’s had time to continue his work to update the plan. At present, he said he’s completed all chapters except the one on land use, which is being finalized.

The chapters have been sent out to city officials, including Mayor Jeff Connolly, city councilors and other officials and agencies for feedback.

“It’s been pretty slow in the office, so I’ve had plenty of time to continue to draft,” Gabell told the council. “So we’re currently still in kind of phase two, phase three of our comp plan update process, which is data gathering.”

Gabell said he’s been working on a land use map to accompany the plan and is creating a digital document that will include hot links to corresponding information where applicable. As an example, items referencing a previous chapter or subject will include a link taking individuals to that chapter or subject.

Once chapters are reviewed, the planner told the council that he adds them to a master document.

“I think we’re about 120 pages into this now, and we still have one chapter left to write, so it’s going to be pretty extensive,” Gabell added.

Gabell said he’s working to make the document easy to read and navigate, with an extensive index, tables and photos.

While the state requires cities to update their plans every 10 years, Gabell said it’s a good practice to review the planning documents every five to seven years to begin the process in a timely fashion.

Connolly said he appreciates Gabell’s hard work and is looking forward to seeing the completed document.

“Good job in getting us this far,” he added. “I’m pretty excited to get this thing redone and have a better, better document so that obviously things have changed since the last one.”

    Billy Mullaley takes the oath of office as he is sworn in at Monday's Priest River City Council meeting. Mulley took office in January 2022 and was subsequently re-elected to his seat in November 2025.