When Idaho government’s inability to act ends in a child’s death | Opinion

The Idaho Transportation Department has known for nearly two years that dead and dangerous trees should be removed along a stretch of Highway 55 near Banks.

But most of the trees haven’t been removed until the last couple of weeks.

It’s coming too late for 13-year-old Coltin Jones, who was killed by a dead tree whose top snapped off in a windstorm on June 7 and hit the car Coltin was a passenger in.

According to an article by Idaho Statesman reporter Noble Brigham, ITD officials raised concerns about the trees as early as November 2021.

“I would like to start working on getting a contractor to come in and remove the dead trees on Hwy 55 from Horseshoe Bend to Donnelly,” an ITD technician wrote in an email in November 2021.

Only about 20 trees were removed in 2021.

One year later, another ITD manager wrote in an email: “I just got off the phone with the Forest Service and they would like ITD to remove some hazard trees on ID-55 between Milepost 73-79.” Coltin was killed at milepost 77.

“I think I know the trees they are talking about, been dead for a while now,” an ITD supervisor replied.

Still, only about six trees were removed last year and another half-dozen removed this year, even though ITD identified at least 150 hazardous trees.

An ITD official told the Statesman the project to cut down the trees was more than their maintenance workers could handle. The project was dependent on the Forest Service’s schedule to cut the trees, he said, and it was difficult to coordinate the two agencies.

The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management said it was the responsibility of the Idaho Transportation Department.

We’ve heard this before, unfortunately.

It’s reminiscent of a story just a couple of weeks ago about the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the Idaho Department of Education not being able to coordinate efforts to bring $15 million in federal funding to Idaho to help feed low-income children during the summer.

In the case of the dead trees on Highway 55, ITD discussed for two years a larger contract to cut down the trees that would be separate from the Forest Service work, but it’s taken so long because the state agency has a lengthy contracting process, one official said.

In that time, others noticed the hazard, including a letter writer to the Idaho Statesman and a conservation associate from the Idaho Conservation League.

Idaho seems to have a pattern of incompetent and inadequate government agencies that can’t even provide the most basic public services, such as public safety.

Complicated bureaucracy, lengthy contracting processes and an inability to coordinate among various public agencies are getting in the way of the simplest government functions.

Or is something else going on in Idaho?

In a state that touts itself as the “least regulated” in the country, Idaho seems to have a bias toward having the government do as little as possible.

Sadly, ITD officials say they don’t plan to do anything differently to speed up the process. A contract to fell trees between Horseshoe Bend and Banks still has to finish its public comment period and then go for a board vote in the next couple of months.

At some point, doesn’t the head of state government get involved or at least have something to say?

There’s a lot of crowing about “cutting red tape” and staving off intrusive government from the current governor, but it’s radio silence when the state is dysfunctional and derelict in feeding hungry kids or keeping motorists safe on the state’s most heavily used north-south highway.

Is this typical bureaucratic impotence or another instance when people could use a little more government in their lives?

Regardless, it’s a failure of governance and oversight of agency responsibilities.

Unfortunately, in this case, the end result was the death of a child.