Tucked into a hill on the western edge of St Maries is the Idaho Department of Lands newly constructed St. Joe Area Field Office. On a warm, sunny day in early July the new facility and fire response station stood ready to deploy as many as eight crews to respond, if necessary, to any lightning strikes on this red flag day.
“Our goal is to be able to keep any wildfire to just ten acres, so they don’t get out of control,” said Michelle Andersen, Deputy Director, Idaho Department of Lands. “Having the facilities and resources to respond quickly to any potential fire threat is vital to protect our forests and the public.”
The new facility was built through the project management of the Division of Public Works in the Department of Administration and funding from the State of Idaho’s Permanent Building Fund.
“We build more than buildings. We build relationships,” said Dale Reynolds, Director of Public Works. “We want to provide the best possible facilities for our other State agencies so they can get their work done to the best of their ability. And that takes a lot of time, dialogue, and understanding of how agencies work and what they need.”
By early July, this district had already responded to 22 fires. Only one was caused by lightning. The rest were human caused.
The work of the Division of Public Works is performed in conjunction with the State of Idaho’s Permanent Building Fund and their Advisory Council. The Idaho Lottery contributes 3/8 of its annual dividend to the Permanent Building Fund every year.
The bulk of the state’s permanent facilities are on the Gem States college campuses. Annually, the Permanent Building Fund Advisory Council tours state facilities and campuses across the state to see the current work underway and assess future needs for facility improvements and upgrades.
“We have a large need for completing deferred maintenance projects, along with alterations and repairs,” added Reynolds. “Our focus is to get our current buildings more modern.”
That amount of work was evident when the tour visited the campus of North Idaho College (NIC) in Coeur d’Alene. From the renovations to food services and other facilities in the Student Union and basketball arena, to the HVAC upgrades and complete overhaul of their administration facility, to the recently completely and modern Meyer Health Sciences Building, NIC had summer construction projects on nearly every corner of campus.
The same was true for the University of Idaho campus in Moscow, where additions were being made to their new medical school, housing improvements and development was well underway, and historical restoration was being completed on the oldest buildings on campus along Presidential Grove.
Perhaps the most compelling project of all was the work completed to the JW Martin Agricultural Engineering Building with the inclusion of new soil monitoring silos to scientifically study and provide nutrient analysis on soil core samples of up to 14 feet deep – the only facility of its kind in the world.
It's projects like these that Idaho Lottery dividends support every year. According to Reynolds, the Idaho Lottery is frequently the largest financial contributor to the Permanent Building Fund. This year the Idaho Lottery returned $28,125,000 to the Permanent Building Fund. And since the Lottery was created in 1989, more than $560 million has gone back to support buildings and campus facilities across Idaho.
