County sets date for recreational property auction

WALLACE –– The Shoshone Board of County Commissioners will have a live auction later this month for three six-month leases of property they own near the North Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.

During a meeting between the BOCC and Shoshone County’s Planning and Zoning department last week, the board was presented with a list of properties owned by the county that are part of an agreement between the county and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which stipulated that the county could not sell the properties due to their location in high-risk floodways. 

The list, which featured the 23 properties acquired in the deal with FEMA, was divided into five categories, including recreational, residential (long-term lease), property not suitable for lease, county use, and commercial (long-term lease). 

While not a comprehensive list of all of the county’s properties – the list allowed the commissioners to take a look at where they owned land and where it could be used to generate revenue for the county.  

According to Commissioner Jeff Zimmerman, who has been spearheading much of the communication between the board and P&Z, the ‘not suitable for lease’ properties are small “parts and pieces,” that have little to no value, but cannot be sold or annexed by the county due to the FEMA agreement. Many of them border people’s property and have no recreational value which would only cause issues if the country were to allow them to be used as recreational property. 

“They’re not even big enough for recreation,” Commissioner Dave Dose said after reviewing the information. 

The auction will be held on Tuesday, April 30 – The three properties that will be auctioned are located either directly on the river or near it. 

Each lease will run from May 1 through October 31, which makes them both prime summer campsites as well as potentially useful during hunting season. 

Last year, the properties were auctioned for three-month leases, two of them were rented for the entire summer for the sum of $100, while the other riverfront property fetched $500 for three months. 

The board plans on examining their auction plans, to potentially establish minimum bids, as well as adjust their expectations based on the longer lease and rising costs. 

The county is still exploring selling its non-FEMA properties, but those weren’t included in the information presented to the board. 

In the interim, Zimmerman and the rest of the board plan to drive to all of the county-owned properties to familiarize themselves with them. 

The time of the auction has not be determined, but will advertised by the board in the Shoshone News-Press, as well as by the board itself.