From Council to Cascade, local governments were scrambling on Monday to make contingency plans for employees and operations affected by a month-long closure of U.S. 95.
The closure, which began Sunday night, is expected to remain in place until late April or early May as damage from a March 16 landslide between Council and New Meadows is repaired.
No direct detour around the slide is available for motorized traffic, which means the most direct route from Council to the McCall area requires driving down 95 to Payette, across Idaho 52 to Horseshoe Bend, and then north on Idaho 55—a trip of about five hours.
Some government departments have moved to provide temporary housing for employees caught on the wrong side of the closure, while others have little choice but to wait it out.
Extra bins key for transfer site
The New Meadows Transfer Site, which is staffed by Adams County, is collecting extra dumpster bins to continue operations during the closure as long as possible, Manager Steve Shelton said.
“We’re not able to haul our bins down to the landfill,” Shelton said. “When we run out of bins, then we’ll have to shut down.”
Normally, the transfer site hauls two to four bins twice a week down to the Goodrich Landfill south of Council. Hauling the bins around the closure on Idaho 55 would be too expensive, Shelton said.
No impacts are expected at the Valley County Transfer Site in Lake Fork, which continues to haul waste away to a regional landfill in Payette using Idaho 55, said Scott Clingan, facilities and solid waste director for Valley County.
Weiser River Trail detour
Last week, the Idaho Transportation Department cleared a 0.75-mile section of the Weiser River Trail to provide a detour around the closure zone for pedestrians and bicyclists. The detour is also open for emergency access.
The Adams County Sheriff’s Office has staged a UTV at the southern end of the trail and a patrol car at the northern end so that deputies can continue responding to calls in the northern part of the county, Sheriff Ryan Zollman said.
“We are also using ISP to help as our response times will be very extended,” Zollman said.
New Meadows working on shuttle
Meanwhile, New Meadows Mayor Julie Good is working to establish a shuttle linking the north end of the closure zone into the town, which is about 15 miles north.
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“Our public works contractor lives in Council so this is very important to us,” Good told Valley Lookout.
Good also noted that the shuttle would link Council residents to jobs in McCall by providing access to the Gold Line bus route, which provides free rides between McCall and New Meadows Monday through Friday.
If the shuttle cannot be arranged, then Kirk Kundrick, the city’s water operator, will likely ride his bicycle through the closure zone on the Weiser River Trail and then catch a ride to work in New Meadows.
“That’s what he is doing today,” Good said.
The New Meadows City Council is also set to consider granting emergency RV permits for workers displaced by the closure.
“We have had several requests from local employers,” Good said.
County roads
Adams County Road and Bridge Superintendent Adam Balderson expects maintenance on county roads north of the closure to be limited until one of the two operators who works in the New Meadows area can return to work.
“As of right now, we can’t get him up there,” Balderson said. “Because of the flooding stuff that’s starting to show its face, that’s about all he can deal with—the emergency type stuff and nothing maintenance-wise.”
Balderson is optimistic that the Weiser River Trail access and the shuttle Good is working on could return the employee to work sooner than later.
Temporary housing
In Valley County, the City of McCall and the county commissioners are making temporary housing plans for employees who live south of the closure zone.
On Monday, the county commissioners agreed to pay for motel rooms or a short-term rental for two affected employees. One of the employees works in the Valley County Jail and the other is a Road Department worker, Valley County Clerk Doug Miller said.
“The one employee with the road department, he was actually sleeping on a couch up at the Lake Fork shop for a little while,” Miller said.
The commissioners agreed to pay about $110 per night to stay in the area each week between shifts for four or five days.
The employees who live in Council and Cambridge, will not be paid mileage for commuting to and from Valley County.
“It saves them a lot of mileage throughout the week, so I think that offsets it with us putting them up in a hotel,” said Sherry Maupin, who chairs the board of county commissioners.
McCall police, parks affected
In McCall, the city has two employees affected by the closure, including an officer with the McCall Police Department, Communications Manager Erin Greaves said.
Police Chief Dallas Palmer is currently coordinating housing arrangements in the McCall area for the officer, Greaves said.
The other worker, a Parks Department employee, will stay in “the Toaster,” a city employee housing unit on Davis Avenue.
The Toaster was donated to the city in 2022 and moved from a site on West Lake Street. This marks the first time it has been used since the building was remodeled in 2023 for use as employee housing, Greaves said.
“It will be helpful as we prepare for our new GIS employee starting at the end of May,” she said. “This will also allow us to evaluate the Toaster House for comfort and amenities.”
The cities of Donnelly and Cascade are unaffected by the highway closure, officials from each city told Valley Lookout.
