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2010 in review
As one Air Force flying squadron, the 390th Fighter Squadron left Mountain Home Air Force Base in 2010, efforts to acquire a new mission at the base led the Mountain Home News list of top 10 stories in Elmore County for the year.
The year began with high hopes the base would be selected for one of the new F-35 fighter squadrons, but despite overwhelming local support, the base did not make the final cut as a preferred alternative.
Efforts then turned to acquiring an unmanned aerial vehicle (Predator) control squadron, but the base also lost out on that effort as well.
Finally, as the year began to come to an end, the base was selected as the preferred alternative to become the home of a training squadron for the Royal Saudi Air Force. If given final approval after hearings scheduled to begin in 2011, new personnel and their F-15SA aircraft would begin arriving in 2014. Between now and then, up to $50 million of construction on base would be required for the new unit.
The move follows the establishment last year of a training squadron on base for the Republic of Singapore Air Force. Only two USAF flying squadrons remain at the base.
Number two on our list of top ten stories was the effort to pass an emergency supplemental levy by the school district in the wake of historic cuts in educational funding by the Idaho Legislature. The measure passed by a 3-1 margin, saving the bulk of the district's extra-curricular programs, but the school district was still forced to make $1 million in program and staff salary cuts in order to make up for the shortfall created by the legislature.
Third on our list of the year's top ten stories was the effort by the Western Elmore County Recreation District, the Treasure Valley YMCA and the Community Leadership Development Committee to come up with a recommendation for the construction of a community center in Mountain Home. The CLDC operated under the auspices of the Y, which was under contract with the WECRD, to determine if it would be feasible to build such a center, which would be run by the YMCA.
A series of high-quality surveys and studies were done that ultimately resulted in the CLDC recommending construction of such a center, with an indoor swimming pool, but to get it built a capital campaign would have to be launched to raise $4.5 million in donations locally, in addition to funds available to the WECRD. That campaign is expected to kick off in 2011.
Number four on our list of top stories involved the effort of the Catholic Church to build a new parish hall in the downtown area. That effort led to contentious and divisive debates within the city council that lasted for months, especially over parking concerns, until a final compromise was reached that cleared the way for the project to begin. Demolition of nearly half a city block to make way for the new facility began at the end of the year.
Fifth on our list of top stories involved the May primary and November general elections, which saw a Republican sweep of contested races. The county will have two new commissioners and a new assessor.
Incumbent state Sen. Tim Corder also had to fight off a challenge from within his own party, led in part by the Elmore County Republican Central Committee, to earn re-election. The county GOP central committee itself suffered a shake-up in membership over the internal battle.
In addition, a contested race for the two open WECRD board positions saw the incumbents earn re-election.
Sixth on our list was the 50th anniversary of Air Force Appreciation Day, which saw near-record crowds turn out to celebrate the event honoring the area's military personnel. Following in the footsteps of her father, Lloyd Waters, who had been the first grand marshal of the parade, Mountain Home News publisher Coleen Swenson was named grand marshal for the event's golden anniversary.
Seventh on the list of top ten stories for the year was the fireworks explosion that wound up canceling this year's Fourth of July fireworks show. Three firemen were injured while setting up the fireworks for the show. The fireworks that survived the chain-reaction blast, sparked by static electricity, will be added to the show in 2011.
Our eighth-place story on the top ten list was a compendium of crime and punishment. Mountain Home saw: two armed robberies during the year; the lockdown of an entire subdivision for half a day while they searched for a suspect who had fled a routine traffic stop; the arrest of a man accused of being a bomb-maker (in Garden City); the accidental shooting of a teenager by a toddler playing with a loaded gun; the arrest of the Wells Fargo branch manager for embezzlement; several major auto accidents, including one involving an illegal immigrant driving the wrong way on the interstate that killed a family of four; the conviction and sentencing of former county vehicle records clerk Mava Terharr for embezzlement, and the third attempt to retry Mike Martin for his role in a fatal auto accident, which resulted in his conviction on lesser charges for which he ultimately received a lengthy probation.
Ninth on our list of top stories was the opening of the new Elk's Lodge, following the destruction of the old facility in a fire in 2007. The new, expanded lodge facility opened at the start of the year, once again providing the community with a facility suitable for large events, which had been sorely lacking during the period of reconstruction.
Finally, the tenth item on our top ten list involved the second year in a row that the Lady Tigers softball team won the state championship. The two state titles won in 2009 and 2010 are the only two varsity sport championships ever won by Mountain Home High School.
It was, as the Chinese proverb says, "interesting times," in Elmore County during 2010, a year of many major events played out across the background of a severe economic recession that left many citizens simply struggling to quietly survive on a day-to-day basis.
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