Gooding Community Newsletter

Tickets are on sale until February 8th.

Congratulations to the 6 GHS Music Students to Make it to Perform with the IMEA All-State Honor Groups

I am pleased to announce that, after a STATE wide audition process, SIX of our GHS music students were selected to perform with the IMEA All-State Honor groups in February. Join me in congratulating them!

This is a great honor and an amazing opportunity for these students. This is the first time ever that GHS will have student representatives at this event. They will be traveling to ISU February 1st-4th to represent our school district. These students will be joining with the best student musicians from around the state to work with highly qualified music conductors and educators from across the country. They will be preparing difficult and high quality music that would not be possible at their individual schools. All of them have spent several hours outside of school working hard to audition and prepare for this event. Once again, please join me in celebrating the musical excellence of these students!

For anyone wishing to attend, their concerts will be Friday, February 3rd and Saturday, February 4th at ISU (times to be announced at a later date). We hope that you are able to attend to support these amazing students!

All-State Honor Band:

Emily Pereira-Trumpet

All-State Honor Choirs:

Derek Peterson

Addie Davis

Clara Goodman

Elizabeth Paul

Miriam Goodman

The 5th District Rodeo Club is looking for sponsors! If you or your business would like to sponsor the club you can contact any of the club members or parents.

Raffle was a success! In two weeks we raised $1678 for the Senior Center!!!

Thank you to all who contributed!! You are all amazing!!

Extra thank you to our local businesses that donated prizes for the raffle.

• Highline Power Sports
• Bath N Body Boutique
• Valley Country Store
• Zeppes Pizza & Subs

The Gooding County community needs your help with a simple internet speed test.

Log into https://www.imagineidaho.org/speed-test and follow the simple instructions to do an internet speed test that will benefit you, your community, and the entire county.

Gooding County is working with community leaders to obtain a considerable grant to bring affordable and reliable internet access to residents. As part of the application process, a critical step is to measure and evaluate the actual speed of the internet services offered in the County (all, cities and rural areas). There is a minimum of individual connections that need to be tested to be able to even be considered for the grant application, and we are falling behind on those numbers. A little effort and participation from all of us will benefit yourself and the whole community.

Idaho ranks 46th in the nation on access to broad band (100Mb) internet. In Gooding County, only 53.4% of people has access to 100 Mb internet (source: https://broadbandnow.com/Idaho). We know that many residents have less than ideal internet or no access to internet at all. For those that have access, periodically low speeds and significant monthly costs are common.

This funding will allow Idaho to improve its overall internet connectivity, accessibility, and costs. The county needs your participation to be sure Gooding is not left behind because we couldn’t demonstrate our own needs using the available tools.

As many tests as possible are needed from Gooding. We are still far from the minimum requirement, but if we surpass that minimum, we will demonstrate the need to improve our internet connectivity and ensure that needed investment in infrastructure come to the county.

If you have questions or want to collaborate with community leaders working on this broadband effort, please contact Commissioner Susan Bolton at sbolton@co.gooding.id.us.

Log now into https://www.imagineidaho.org/speed-test and follow the simple instructions to do an internet speed test at your home (preferred), business, or institution.

Thank you for your help on bringing Gooding County a step closer to improve our broadband internet connectivity!

Mario E. de Haro-Martí, Ph.D.

Extension Educator

University of Idaho Extension – Gooding County

mdeharo@uidaho.edu

You may have seen Mayor Houser on the KTVB news addressing whether or not chickens are allowed in city limits. Since the price of eggs was increasing, we were seeing some citizens asking if they could have chickens. The city had an ordinance which did not allow chickens or any other livestock. On July 18, 2022, the City Council passed Resolution No. 277 temporarily allowing citizens to have up to 4 hens. This resolution temporarily suspends a portion of the Gooding City ordinance 6-4-3 and allows hen chickens (4) to be kept in city limits for a trial period. Why a trial period? The City Council wanted to see if chickens within city limits would cause problems with neighbors, dogs or cats. At this time, we have not heard any complaints. The City Council will revisit this decision in July 2023.

If you would like to have chickens, you must come before the City Council and submit your proposal as to how many chickens you are planning on having and where your chicken coop will be located. To be added to the agenda please call (208) 934-5669.

The City of Gooding was awarded $40,000 to prepare a drinking water planning study and $20,000 by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to prepare a wastewater planning study to evaluate the current drinking water and wastewater systems and identify needed improvements. The total eligible project cost for the drinking water study is $80,000 and the total eligible project cost for the wastewater study is $40,000. The remaining $60,000 will be funded by the City of Gooding.

These studies help us understand the water and wastewater systems and make decisions on where to spend our maintenance dollars most efficiently and effectively. In addition to these grants, we were awarded 13.87 million dollars to fund improvements to the wastewater treatment plant, nine lift stations and our collection system.

“Calling all riders”! The City began working with the American Ramp Company last year to create designs concepts for a new Bike Park which will be located adjacent to the existing Skate Park.

We need your help deciding which concept best fits our community and help funding this vision. The City started with the Duke Morton Memorial Skate Park in 2015. The Park is now a tribute to our much loved, former Mayor, Duke Morton. Through his tireless efforts and many city staff hours, the vision became a reality. We would like to honor him further by expanding this facility to become the envy of the Magic Valley by adding the Bike Park, restrooms, lighting and who knows maybe even seating for event spectators! The sky is limit, within budget of course, to build something we can be proud of. If you would like to be a part of this awesome project or you just have some ideas that you would like to share, please contact City Hall at (208) 934-5669.

Many are unaware of the 20 plus years of ongoing efforts of the City, to support, encourage and beg the United States Army Corp of Engineers to replace the rock wall which is, arguably, our community's hallmark geologically historical feature. The wall was funded and constructed by forces mobilized through the “Work Projects Administration” in the late 1930's and early 1940's, to contain the flows of the Little Wood River. This channel completely dissects our town. Since then, over 80 years in fact, the wall has deteriorated to the point we have now. Not only does the channel not move water as efficiently as it once did, but it has also become a huge eye sore. The City has done its share of work over the years to lengthen the lifespan of the structure but cannot be expected to be the only source of funding to ensure the preservation of a "Federally Owned Project”. It’s a river and does solely not fall under local jurisdiction.

December 23, 2022, President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law. Why is this important? Congressman Mike Simpson, Senators Mike Crapo and James Risch were instrumental for the inclusion of 2.3 million dollars to the USACE Budget for updating the design work for our project. We thank them so much for their support. Also included in the bill that was passed were some key components that raise the project funding level to 40 million dollars, up from 9 million, which is a large reason the project kept failing. Every time it was considered, it would fail because construction estimates would come in higher and stall the work. The next step will be this funding piece in 2024, if successful, we could see work begin within the next few years.

We have had a lot of folks comment on the possibility of opening up the channel for recreational access. While this is a widely popular idea, the reality comes down to funding. The USACE plans to replace the wall with precast concrete panels, not pretty, but they are for the most part picking up the tab, at least 90% of the cost, which is another key piece of the legislation. The City will be responsible for 10% of the cost, but will have the opportunity to provide “like and kind services” i.e., use of land to staging equipment etc. to bring the 10% cost share down even further, with the ability to finance our remainder over 30 years.

While we are not there yet, this step is definitely in the right direction.

The City has begun the process of upgrading the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) along with Keller Associates. As of December 2022, the yard preparation and construction of the panel walls have been completed, the excavation, installation and testing of underground piping has been completed, the contractors will be forming process basin slab on grade and constructing wall forms, begin placing rebar for Process Basin slab on grade and wall dowels, they have completed the layout and installation of concrete forms for sand filters. Despite the cold weather the project is moving along nicely!

The Gooding Community Newsletter is a publication designed to share the positive happenings in our community. If you have an event or news item you would like to share, please send along your information to the email address listed below. Should you have an idea you think could improve our community, we encourage you to bring those ideas to the city council with plans on how we can work together to make our city even better. Thanks for listening and sharing!

Email: info@goodingidaho.org
Website: www.goodingidaho.org
Location: 308 5th Ave W, Gooding, ID, USA
Phone: 208-934-5669
Facebook: facebook.com/goodingidaho