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Mountain Home Idaho News and Adventures

Mountain Home Idaho Water - The City Council Nemesis

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(May 14th, 2012) I have taken a break from attending Mountain Home City Council Meetings for about 6 months. And in those 6 months, hardly anything has changed. The biggest “non-changer” issue is water...drinking, bathing, watering the lawn but more importantly the “keep you alive” type of water. But other things were discussed at this meeting you might want to know about.

Mountain Home Idaho City Council on May 14, 2012

1. Numbers: City employee outnumbered “concerned citizens” by a 6:1 margin. Organizations “asking for money” outnumbered “concerned citizens” by a 4:1 margin. Total number of plain old “concerned citizen” in attendance was 3. Of those 3, Brian from the newspaper and the lady who videotapes the meeting are included.

Council Issues in Idaho

2. Some Issues Approved During This Meeting:
- Improvement of the Cook Shack in Carl Miller Park.
- The City will use $600 of your money to help build a fence around a fire truck display in the El Rancho Parking Lot.
- Looks like we will be watched on 7 new traffic cameras being installed around the city? Total cost of installation is $5,600.
- The city will spend over $5,600 on a new computer and some AutoCAD software.
- A new police dog will be bought for a price not to exceed $11,000.

Water issues for Mountain Home Idaho
3. Water Problems: Anyone who has read my Mountain Home City Council articles knows “water is big business in this town” and that hasn't changed recently. Currently there are 3 wells the City is having problems with and this can lead to water shortages. In short, the taxpayers are on the hook for our water system and we need to find a sensible solution to this age-old problem.

In my opinion, our city, county and state leaders must address this water issue eventually. Without some serious water usage restrictions the idea that Mountain Home and/or Elmore County could support more than a few medium sized businesses will be threatened. And I suppose that is okay with our political and business leaders considering we have no vision other than “keep Mountain Home AFB open at any cost”. And I'm sure the United State Air Force will be happy to keep a base open near a community that has water shortages every summer.


Hard proof to get the city money
4. That Time of the Year to Ask for Money
It's time to start looking at the Fiscal Year 2013 Mountain Home budget. Local organizations addressed the council last night. And for the most part these people made good arguments for the City to continue funding them. But...

But, I'm all about ROI when it comes to my tax dollars. “Return on Investment” is rarely discussed during these meeting. Yes...we get attendance records, visitor logs, volunteer hours and other non-hard statistics. But never a get stats like “we brought in 78 tourists, 15 golfers and 12 fishing groups”. And without hard numbers our ROI is really just another tug on the heartstrings and a rubber stamped “Funded” at budget time. So who asked for money?

Mountain Home Senior Center: Hard stats were presented, a history of how last year's money was spent and a plan for next year was presented. How the heck can the City turn down funding the Senior Center with the hard data and information they presented? Heck, I'd increase their funding if I was sitting on the council.

Dig-It: I had a hard time hearing this organization's sales pitch. But from what I could understand, the info was all soft data and heartstrings. Could this money be better spent? I think they were asking for $2000 but I cannot remember. I must sit up front at these meeting...

Mountain Home Visitor Center: Whoever made the sale pitch to the council did a exceptional job. I ate up each and every stat she threw at us. Excellent job woman! However, what is the real ROI the citizen get by handing them $5,000 a year? Could this money be spent in a better way? I suspect so.

The Bus Service: The guy who made the pitch to fund local bus service to a tune of $35,000 this year did a good job. I doubt the Council will approve a $4,000 funding raise but you never know.

So There You Have It
That's what I saw at the Mountain Home City Council Meeting on May 14th, 2012. I suspect there will be a few people who will have some heartache with my opinion and what I saw/heard. Leave a comment and you too can be included in a discussion of local politic...or not.

Thanks,


tim-signature



Last Updated on Wednesday, 16 May 2012 08:10

The 4 Springs of the Long Tom Creek Area

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The 4 Springs of Long Tom Creek Hike endpoint
End of this hike!

(May 1st, 2012) Taking a scenic walk along Long Tom Creek seemed like a good idea. What I didn't expect was to find was a number of natural springs feeding this creek. I took some pictures and video as well as geomarking the location of these springs. Why not come along on a review of the journey to the “4 Springs of the Long Tom Creek Area”.

NOTE: The video I took of these springs on May 1st were inadvertently deleted from my video camera. All videos in this article are from May 11th, 2012.

The Walk Along Prairie Cut-Off Road
This walk can be as short or long as you wish as it follows a relatively flat and well maintained gravel road. For our portion of the hike it also followed Long Tom Creek for all but ¼ of a mile. And the course is rather scenic as it flows through a relatively rugged canyon.

West Fork of Long Tom Creek

The course of this hike was on the “Prairie Cut-off Road” or National Forest Service Road 131 that connects Highway 20 to the South Fork of the Boise River at the Cow Creek Bridge. We also checked out the “2 Forks of Long Tom Creek during this hike. Obviously Long Tom Creek drains a pretty nice sized area of the Danskin Mountains.

The Springs
From 4 Springs of the Long Tom Creek Area


Spring #1: Source of spring is located close to NFS 131 at 43.300955, -115.558080. The marshy growth close to the road is a dead giveaway of a spring close to this location. During this early May 2012 day, water was flowing down the hillside in no particular streambed. There is no indication on the USGS (old maps) Topo Maps of a spring at this location.

See a Video of Springs 1 and 2


Spring #2: Located about 375 yards north of Spring 1, this spring intersect the Prairie Cut-Off Road at
43.303937, -115.557467. But the spring source is likely located about 330 yards up the hillside to the east. The 1990 version of the Long Tom Reservoir USGS Topo Map indicates there is a spring at the location on the hillside.

Spring 2 is flowing strongly near Mountain Home, Idaho

Spring #3: This spring may or may not be a true spring. Water certainly flows down a streambed but its origins appear to be in the hillside at 43.308374, -115.562327. I would have missed this skinny watercourse, but my dog splashed through it and I decided to check it out.

There are trout in this Idaho Spring

I found it incredible that I saw what I thought was a fish in this small spring fed creek. After a few days of thought, I talked myself out of the “fish in the creek” idea. But when I went back 10 days later, I actually saw two fish in the 18 inch wide creekbed and caught them on video if you car to watch.

See a Video of Springs 3 and 4

NOTE:  Google decided to take the "shakes" out of the video and now the video does the hula dance. Laughing

Spring #4: Located at 43.307334, -115.557481 and just off NFS Road 131, this spring is shown on the 1990 version of the Long Tom Reservoir USGS Topo Map. It is my guess this spring consists of 2 or more parts as the soggy wet area is about 150 feet across.

Spring 4 of the Long Tom Creek area

Map of Long Tom Creek Springs

View Larger Map


See more photos from this hike: https://picasaweb.google.com/112532322025941965882/4SpringsOfTheLongTomCreekArea?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIPt0d2337nSKQ&feat=directlink


Comments Create Good Old Fashion Knowledge
Did you know about the springs along the Prairie Cut-off Road? Know of any other springs close to Mountain Home. Why not leave a comment or suggestion about this outdoor article. You never know what you and others may learn about Idaho, the Long Tom Reservoir area or NFS Road 131.

Thanks,


tim-bondy-idaho-blogger


Last Updated on Sunday, 13 May 2012 09:08

Cactus Growing Wild in Idaho? What Kind is This?

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idaho-cactus

(May 6th, 2012) What kind of cactus / succulent plant is this? Found the plant during a cross country, off-trail hike near the Prairie Cut-off Road. If you have an idea, it would be cool if you could comment or e-mail me what you think the plant is called.

I'm no stranger to discovering cactus type plants during my exploration throughout southern Idaho. I've found areas of wild prickly pear cactus, a plant I've been told doesn't exist in Idaho, just 45 miles to the south of my home. But this succulent type cactus is a new one to me.

  • I found the plant at or near coordinates 43.275942, -115.513685, well off the beaten path.
  • Plant has light green succulent type leaves and red flowers.
  • Overall size of the plant was about 1 square foot in area.

See All 3 Photos I Took



What are these plants called? And are they common in this area if Idaho? Leave a comment or use my “Contact Us” form.

Thanks,


tim-signature



Last Updated on Thursday, 10 May 2012 06:40

The Mountain Home Senior Center Political Forum Review

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Crowds at the Mountain Home Senior Center Political Forum in Idaho

See my review from the Elks Lodge/Chamber of Commerce May 1st, 2012 political forum to gain some perspective into this review at: http://bondyweb.com/polical-news-of-idaho/56-mountain-home-political-news/533-the-review-primary-political-forum-on-may-1st-2012

On Monday May 7th, 2012 there was a political forum held in the Mountain Home Senior Center. From my count 14 candidates and about 55-75 citizens attended the event. It was definitely worth the effort to attend even if it just reaffirmed what I learned at the earlier forum.

The Annoying Political Mantra
- “I'll cut your taxes” was heard a few times last night. And I certainly appreciate the pandering but stop telling me you will cut my taxes unless you can tell me what you want to cut out of the State budget first. I want specifics!

Idaho Sage Grouse political issue

- The Sage Grouse: Why the heck is the Sage Grouse a big issue for our State politicians in 2012? The sage grouse warning shots were fired across the bow back in 2004. The time to act was 7-8 years ago. What have you done in the last 8 years to mitigate the sage grouse problem? Now that's what a true problem solver would tell us.

The Questions Were Asked
Questions at this political forum were quite a bit less pertinent than at the Elks Lodge forum on 1 May 2012. The main reason I can say this is because of the obvious anti-Brackett questions that dominated the last 40 minutes of the forum. Also I thought there were a few questions that would have been more suitable for US Senators/Congressmen.

winning-candidates

The Big Winners When Considering both Political Forums
  1. Tim Corder is the best candidate the Republican can put up for the 2012 District 23 Senatorial election. He appears to be very knowledgeable about all the issues, intelligent and most importantly willing/able to solve Idaho's problems. This should be a slam dunk choice for the people of District 23.
  2. Independent District 23 Senatorial Candidate Bill Chisholm: Not in the May 15th Primary but he's an idea man that left to run things would make Idaho a much better place. If all our politician and businesspeople used their brains like Bill, we wouldn't be in the hole we are. It'll be a tough decision if the November ballot has both Corder and Chisholm on it.
  3. Matthew Bundy is a Republican running for District 23 State Representative: The only advice I have for Mr. Bundy is “don't be a one issue candidate” when campaigning down the back stretch. Education is important but so is the economy and solving other problems. He's still “the man” when it comes to the May 15th Republican Primary. While Pete Nielsen and Steve Millington are still throwing tea into the harbor, Mr. Bundy will be solving the problems all people in Idaho are facing.
  4. Bud Corbus running for County Commissioner: I think this man cemented his spot at the top of the Elmore County Commissioners list for me at this 2nd forum. Previously I said Bud was a soft spoken individual but I believe there is “hell-raising” side to this guy that will be good for Elmore County.

Tim Bondy's Parting Shots
- Twin Falls native Senator Brackett was in “enemy territory” during both of these forums and the questions last night reflected that fact. In my opinion, Senator Brackett did more harm than good to his campaign. But he was the only candidate offering an ink pen for political swag at this forum.
- It was disappointing only 55-75 citizens showed up at the Senior Center Forum. While this is “just the primary election”, the people still need to get educated on the candidates. If you are a “declared Republican” you can't just vote for the guy with the “Big R” after his name. They all have R's after their name during this one.
- Buckshot61: You are a lying, extremist jerk and an absolute coward. How's that for hilarious facts?

Comments
Got something to add to the conversation? You can comment all you wish but stay on topic please.


Thanks,


tim-signature


Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 May 2012 08:20

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