City to rewrite comprehensive plan

BONNERS FERRY — Bonners Ferry Council members unanimously approved Shea, Carr and Jewell, Inc. as an independent contractor to rewrite the city’s comprehensive plan.

The goal is to rewrite the plan, which was last updated in 2006, and include the 17 statutory requirements and five social determinants of health throughout the plan, city officials said. The total cost to rewrite the plan is estimated at just under $70,000. The city has received $50,000 from the Blue Cross Foundation in aid of the project.

Councilwoman Valerie Thompson said SCJ was chosen because the city’s comprehensive plan committee found the company had innovative ways of partnering with community members to find out what they value and what they want to invest in.

“Besides us [Bonners Ferry] and one other city in the state, most cities do not receive any kind of funding for their comprehensive plans, let alone $50,000,” Thompson said.

These funds from Blue Cross come only a few years after the $250,000 to help increase healthy activities among citizens.

Thompson said Blue Cross refers that the city provide some of their own funds to the rewrite.

“I think for us with the ongoing relationship that we have with Blue Cross Foundation, it makes sense for us to contribute to this and to show them our good faith in this process in our commitment to creating a comprehensive plan,” Thompson said.

The money for the remainder of the project will come from other sources and grants that the city has.

The city received $20,000 from the Community Health Champions grant, Thompson said. She said that she had hoped those funds could be used for just code reform.

“What we are looking at right now is how we can provide some of the money so that we can use that Blue Cross Foundation's money for another purpose,” Thompson said.

Currently, the city has the possibility to invest funds from the American Rescue Plan Act in order to promote healthier living environments, Thompson said. She also said that the Idaho Treasury has said ARPA funds could be designated for the growth and development of public, outdoor parks and other amenities that are for the purpose of outdoor socialization and recreation to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

“As I look at that, there are certain aspects of the comprehensive plan that fall under some of those conditions, not fully. Not for the whole thing. But I would like to use the ARPA funds to offset the city's contribution,” Thompson said.

She went on to encourage the rest of the council to consider splitting the remaining $20,000 expense for the rewrite between the city and the ARPA funds to address the health of the community development and policy level.

Thompson also said that SCJ wants to include a lot of community involvement in the process.

“We all know that our citizens don't like being told what we're doing without being a part of the solution. And we'd like for them to have some input on that,” she said.

Thompson went on to say that she would like the city to leverage dollars from the community health champion grant to go to another project that will immediately and directly impact the health of people living in the community and participation in healthy activities.

She said that the city had funds that could support the comprehensive plan rewrite due to a $40,000 overage.

Mayor Dick Staples summarized Thompson’s presentation.

“In a nutshell, the council has approved the SCJ contract. We funded $50,000 aside towards that and the decision is how we find the other $20,000,” Staples said.

While Staples said ARPA funds are a possibility, council members indicated they weren’t sure at this time if using them for the comprehensive plan is how the funds are described for use.

Thompson said that she would rather the city take $10,000 from the contingency fund, $10,000 from ARPA and the $20,000 other grant money be used for a different project.

The council voted 4-0 to use $50,000 from Blue Cross for the comprehensive plan rewrite and that the other $20,000 needed would be from wherever the city could get the funds.