It’s Time to BUILD!

This week, the Moscow city council focused heavily on the buildup to a BUILD grant which Whitman County is applying for (and which might be helpful for Moscow as well). Also, the primary elections are looming the horizon!

Read the full transcript of the video below:

How’s it going y’all? Aiden Anderson here with the Moscow Minutes. Once again, a holiday on Monday shifted things so that the city and the county meetings all took place on Tuesday. We’re gonna be unpacking it all in this report, starting with Latah County.

The county commissioners began their day with a fairly routine set of items, including interacting with some water rights applications, property tax exemptions, and voting to approve the creation of a state public defender institutional office here in Latah County. This week, they also held their regular monthly meeting with the county department heads and elected officials.

There are several highlights to point out from that county leadership meeting. First off, the clerk noted that election season is starting, and over the course of the next couple weeks, federal, state, and county level positions will be open if you wish to run for any of those offices. BJ Swanson and David Sutherland, the incumbent treasurer and assessor, both announced that they will be seeking re-election this year. That said, a complete list of candidates will likely be available once the filing period is over, and we’ll keep you posted on that.

Aside from election stuff, the sheriff and Commissioner Johnson both articulated their ongoing efforts to obtain funding for a new county jail, including offering tours of the current facility, and looking to tour the Grangeville jail in pursuit of possible examples to show the state. And speaking of the state, county leadership is watching the ongoing Idaho legislative session very closely, to see what new laws might make changes or impacts at the county level.

Let’s switch gears over to the city of Moscow. The first item on their agenda this week was a public hearing for a Right of Way Vacation Request on Moser Street. The applicants are the owners of the Pine View Addition adjacent to Moser, and they wish to plat the area. In order to do so, the law requires that the right of way be vacated first, hence the public hearing process. 

When it came time for public testimony on the subject, two residents spoke. Greg Bowhide represented concerns about traffic in the area, while Nancy Chaney addressed ambiguity in the language of the paperwork, which she thought the city might want to consider cleaning up. With public testimony concluded, the city conducted their own deliberations, wherein they talked about legal considerations when it came to the city’s paperwork. Ultimately, they voted unanimously to approve the right of way vacation request.

Next up, a public transportation services agreement with SMART Transit. If you’ve spent any length of time in Moscow, you’ve probably seen the buses which SMART Transit operates on routes throughout the city. While the city has provided financial support to SMART Transit for over 20 years in exchange for their services, they have never had a formal agreement with them for these services.

As Bill Belknap explained, city staff has thus prepared an agreement. SMART Transit shall provide their transportation services, and the city will maintain the bus shelters. The agreement goes for a rate of $142,329 a year, for five years, with a 1% annual escalator. This number is based on a previous year’s number when it comes to financial contributions the city has made to SMART Transit.  The city council unanimously approved this agreement.

The bulk of the meeting was spent on the final item of the night, which was a resolution of commitment to a local match for a BUILD Grant. For the newer members of city council, this item took some explaining, and Bill Belknap led them and the audience through the long history which got us here.

Without going into the same level of detail which Bill got into, the item in question has to do with a grant application which Whitman County is making in order to obtain funding for an east-west road route for freight traffic. There’s much work that’s been done over the past decade regarding traffic and future road plans in our area, and state, county, and local government agencies have all been involved. The plan for which Whitman County is currently seeking funding is a route that incorporates roads in Moscow, including Palouse River Drive and Mountain View Road.

On September 15th, 2025, the city of Moscow approved a memorandum of understanding, which stated that the city and Whitman County would jointly fund consulting services for the preparation of a BUILD grant application. These grants are highly competitive, and the agreement to help fund the project may help the chances of Whitman County getting the grant.

With a total design cost of $2.53 million for the project, $1.1 million is expected to go towards plans for improvements in Moscow. These improvements include road widening, bike lanes, and street lighting for Palouse River Drive and Mountain View Road. Moscow needed to confirm a grant match commitment of 10% of that $1.1 million (which is $110,000) in order to move the grant application forward. The promise, if you will, to commit to that amount, is what was on the table at the city council meeting.

Apparently, this item sparked a significant degree of public input, as the city council and the mayor referenced receiving a number of emails on the subject in their discussion. Mayor Hailey Lewis and Councilor Drew Davis in particular made points of clarification about how long this particular set of plans has been on the table, as well as the long term benefit to Moscow if the BUILD grant goes through.

Councilor Bryce Blankenship described the resolution as a proactive rather than reactive move on the city’s part. Councilor Evan Holmes expressed his concerns about uncertainty when it came to the future of the various road projects involved, as well as his concern about the seeming perception of the public that the city had not done enough to communicate effectively on the subject.

Mayor Lewis described it further; since Moscow will likely need to make improvements to Palouse River Drive and Mountain View Road anyway in the future, obtaining this grant could go a long way to help reduce the cost and move the future construction along. At the end of this discussion, the council voted 4-1 to approve the resolution, with Evan Holmes being the dissenting vote.

That’s all I got for you this week. One quick reminder: with candidate filing starting up, the primaries will also soon be upon us. There are a lot of positions up for grabs this year, and therefore a lot of candidates to choose from. So, pay attention, do your research, and seek out the candidates in person if you can! 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.