Under the Hood of the Underpass

The new councilors and mayor got right down to business this week, including dealing with complications with a highway underpass project. Hear about that issue, as well as county department updates, a comment on the East City Park stage, and more in this week’s report!

Read the full transcript of the video below:

How’s it going y’all? Aiden Anderson here with the Moscow Minutes. Due to MLK being this week, the county and the city held their meetings on the same day, which means most of my time was spent sitting in and taking notes. Let’s get into it.

We’ll start with the county. The commissioners had a pretty typical set of meetings overall, including the approval of an MOU between the county and the Latah County Soil and Water Conservation District, in which the county contracted with the district for some grant writing work related to wildfire mitigation. They also approved an extension on the deadline for liquor license renewals to February 3rd, provided that those renewal applications are received by January 30th. The commissioners mentioned that they are still waiting on 12 or so renewals to come in. If you’re one of those 12 liquor license holders, now’s the time to submit your paperwork!

The county also held its regular monthly meeting with the department heads and elected officials. Highlights from that meeting included a refresher on the county’s internal computer use policy, training updates on the sheriff’s drug dog, and the county’s plan to send out a survey to the public on the jail situation at the start of the next month.

To end the day, the commissioners held a public hearing to secure rural schools funding for fire mitigation work at Virgil Phillips Farm. The work being done at the park has thus far been split between public and private entities, and additional funding for the work required the public hearing process. The commissioners discussed a breakdown of the funding and management responsibilities of the project before formulating a motion to move funds towards it.

The Moscow city council held its first full meeting as a new mayor and council, so of course they’re all still getting used to how things work, and this meeting in particular provided ample learning opportunities. To begin, the council heard a public comment from former city council candidate, John Slagboom, and the mayor had a chance to respond. Let’s take a look…

The council then turned to address the evening’s action items. First on the docket, the appointment of a new deputy city administrator and community development director. The previous deputy admin, Cody Riddle, retired in early December. The city’s hiring process had identified Nichoel Baird Spencer as a good candidate to replace him. Nichoel has been previously working for the city of Eagle, Idaho, and has 22 years of experience in that regard. The council approved her appointment unanimously.

Next, Drew Davis presented on the 2026 council liaison assignments. Last week, the city had a workshop, where all the councilors and the mayor sat down to discuss which city commissions each councilor would sit on for the rest of the year. While the councilors themselves have no voting power on the commissions, these assignments do determine who reports on what when it comes to future commission meetings. These assignments were approved unanimously by the council.

The next set of items were all somewhat related to each other, each having to do with funding from the Transportation Alternatives Program, or TAP. Alisa Anderson of city staff unpacked the background of the program. While it has undergone some changes through the years, TAP’s current focus is funding for non-motorized transportation projects, like walkways and bike paths.

For the first item, the city intends to apply for grant funding through TAP for two different projects. The first is a shared use path on Mountain View Road, and the second is the widening of a pedestrian path between 5th and 6th street alongside some street improvements in the area. In order to apply for the grant, the city needs the council’s approval, which they gave unanimously to both these projects.

For the second item, Scott Bontrager explained proposed modifications to the highway underpass project, a project currently being funded with TAP money. In 2018, planning began on a pedestrian and bicycle underpass to go under highway 95. Funding in the amount of $1.07 million was obtained for this project in 2020.

However, a recent updated construction estimate has complicated things. Flooding and normal seasonal change have caused sediment buildup in the creek near where the underpass is supposed to be built. The buildup is severe enough to heavily impact the cost and timeframe of the project, provoking the city’s engineers to revise the scope of their plans, especially since entities like the Idaho Transportation Department and the Idaho Department of Water Resources are involved.

The revised plan is to use the remaining federal funds to pay for alternative above-ground pedestrian safety improvements at the same intersection, and it’s this revision that was on the table. Staff fielded questions from council about planning details, timeline, and scope, before turning the decision over to them. The council then approved the project modifications unanimously.

That’s all I have for you this week. As an aside, I should remind you that the Idaho state session for this year has begun, which means state legislators will be busy about their work for the next several weeks. If you’re interested in state-level politics, now is the time to pay attention. As always, we’ll have the relevant links posted with this video, and if you have any questions, please reach out. I’m Aiden Anderson with the Moscow Minutes. We’ll see you next time!