Bonners Ferry gets bigger

November 16, 2011

Despite the objections of nearly every property owner involved, the City of Bonners Ferry grew Tuesday night by about 70 lots and parcels, properties within the city area of impact the city has the right to annex and which, Tuesday night, they were.

By a vote of three to one, with councilman Chris Clark casting the only "nay" vote, the Bonners Ferry city council Tuesday night exercised it's right and brought properties to which the city already provides nearly all utilities under wing.

Those property owners, the city says, have enjoyed city-provided services for years, and with the annexation, those services will improve. Trash pickup will be provided by the city ... something many in the area of impact took for granted, even while paying a monthly fee.

That fee will go away.

Most of those property owners depended on the Paradise Valley Fire Department for fire protection; a measure they voted to adopt; that chit goes off the tax roll as well as the City of Bonners Ferry Fire Department assumes main responsibility.

That fee goes away for those newly adopted city residents.

The city will pick up trash, provided you set it out, and the fee you're paying for that service now goes away.

"I think that if they'll wait and see, most of the property owners brought into the city limits will see their tax bill go down and their services go up," said city clerk Kris Larson. "They won't be able to shoot their guns, as that's prohibited in city limits."

The city council decision was the only sensible one, they decided, to be made in fairness to the people who are getting the benefits versus the people who pay for them.