‘You don’t get into public service to not serve the public’

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

About 40 people turned out for a public meeting May 1 in Ponderay, where U.S. Army Corps of Engineers personnel provided updates on a number of local issues. 

Col. Kathryn Sanborn, USACE commander for the Seattle District said that while the Albeni Falls Dam is still under restricted operations due to defects in the steel found on Spillway Gate 3, the weather outlook points to a rising lake level that resembles past seasons.

“It’s going to look a lot more normal and not what we had to go through last year,” she said, referring to the uncertainty in 2024 related to the initiation of restricted operations and the beginning of the ongoing gate replacement project.

Col Kathryn Sanborn, left, leads the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public meeting May 1. Photo by Ben Olson

Sanborn projected a goal to reach 2,060 feet by late May and full summer pool of 2,062 by June 20. The Corps plans to operate at the half-foot summer range through the season, which fluctuates from 2,062-2,062.5 feet. The lake level was at 2,056.9 feet as of May 7.

“This is all subject to change because weather gets a vote,” Sanborn said. “If something happens that affects spring runoff, if snow is still in the basin and is melting really fast, there could be conditions that would change what we have to do.”

Under restricted operations, spillway gates are fully opened or closed one at a time to minimize risk to the crane operator as well as reduce the chance of a mechanical malfunction that would prohibit the Corps from operating the gates at all. If a gate failed, the lake level would drop well below summer pool, as the Corps would be unable to manage the water level.

“That’s the situation we’re trying to avoid and that’s why we’re still operating under restricted operations,” Sanborn said.

The flaw in Gate 3 was discovered in April 2024 as part of a major gate rehabilitation contract initiated in June 2023. The Corps removed the gate — stripping its paint to uncover a metal defect that likely dates to its manufacture more than 70 years ago — and installed a spare.

A rehabilitation and replacement project is underway for all 11 gates.

“The downside [of this rehab program] is we’ll stay in restricted operations until all the gates are replaced,” Sanborn said. “Because the gates were manufactured with the same steel during the same time period, they presumably all have this defective steel.”

Sanborn said the first stage of the replacement project is ahead of schedule, with a contract anticipated to be advertised later this year and the first gate set to arrive by 2027. 

“The first one is always the hardest; but, after that, there would be gates coming every six months,” Sanborn said.

Chief of Natural Resources for Albeni Falls Dam Taylor Johnson also presented updates on changes in services at recreation sites around Lake Pend Oreille. Johnson pointed to several “changes and challenges” the Corps is experiencing due to a federal hiring freeze resulting in staffing shortages, which forced the Corps to announce the closure of Springy Point this summer and reducing services at a number of other sites.

“Resources are extremely scarce,” Johnson said. “This is about as tight as we’ve ever been.”

Johnson said he normally has eight permanent and 10 seasonal staff members, as well as 12 volunteer couples to help manage recreation sites during the summer.

Currently, staff is operating with four permanent and six seasonal members, and seven volunteer couples. Some personnel loss came from resignations and retirements, but replacements can’t be hired due to the Trump administration’s hiring freeze.

“You don’t get into public service to not serve the public,” Johnson said. “My team is really struggling with this. We ask for your patience this summer. … Hopefully it’s just for this summer.”

Sanborn also hoped the staff shortage would be a temporary one.

“This is something we didn’t want to do, but … of all of our sister districts in the Pacific Northwest, everybody has, if not one, multiple recreation areas they’re having to close. It’s heartbreaking.”

Johnson said the Corps manages more than 4,300 acres of public land for recreation, which draws 450,000 visitors on average annually. The economic impact of those visits equates to about $18 million in spending and about 170 jobs within 30 miles of Lake Pend Oreille.

When asked what exactly is causing the hiring freeze, Sanborn told the Reader, “We fall under the Department of Defense and that’s under a hiring freeze.” 

During the Q&A session, audience members shared concerns that the Corps didn’t find the gate malfunction sooner and others used the meeting to push for the state of Idaho to “take over” managing sites currently under the purview of the Corps. Still others lambasted the Corps for closing sites due to staffing shortages.

“We are, across the country, seeing impacts to some recreational areas as a result of the evolving federal guidance,” Sanborn said. “That is a fact of where we’re at. We have to make tough choices to maintain safety and those essential operations. … We have to comply with the personnel guidance that comes from the Army and the secretary of the Army and that’s where we’re at with the hiring freeze.”

Resident Foster Cline asked why the Corps couldn’t “put up a sign that read, ‘The government will not save you here,’ at Springy Point? Try that for a month and if it turns out that … people aren’t picking up their trash and people are dying right and left, then OK, but … I long for the old days. I’d say ‘Jeez, if I do something stupid I’ll probably die and no one from the Corps will be there to help me.’”

“We made this decision less than seven days ago,” Johnson replied. “I don’t have the park ranger staff and I don’t have the people to keep our visitors safe. We can rally all the people we want to clean up the trash and put money on it, but if we are in a hiring freeze, we can’t bring these people on site. … We simply can’t onboard the seasonal staff that we need to have here and we can’t replace the ones we’ve lost.”

Sen. Jim Woodward, R-Sagle, asked if the Corps had applied for an exception to the hiring freeze.

“We have,” Sanborn responded. “We’ve been putting up for exemptions since the DOD freeze started and we haven’t had any one granted yet.”

Woodward also asked if it was possible to transform Springy Point into a day use area so it could remain open like sites such as Trestle Creek.

“Springy Point is a multi-purpose area with a campground, boat ramp, beach, parking lot,” Johnson said. “While it may seem simple on paper, it’s more complex than just putting up barriers and letting people launch. There would be no spring cleanup, no parking lot maintenance, the swim lines haven’t been installed, there is debris in the boat launch area. … The parking is a fiasco in the summer, there’s people everywhere. If we have an emergency, I don’t even know if I have the staff to get somebody out of there.”

Another member of the public asked what type of enforcement would be in place to prevent the public from going to Springy Point while the gates are closed.

“The closure is public land,” Johnson said. “I’m hoping people will respect it, but … the gate is closed in the winter. I have no problem with people going in there fishing and hunting and ice skating; but, unfortunately, the features that are needed there to keep the public safe, I don’t have the staff to open it and make it safe as I’d like to and need to.”

Sanborn thanked the community for the input during several public meetings since the gate defect was detected. She encouraged members of the public to remain patient with changes to services and continue to reach out with questions and concerns.

To learn more about the spillway gate replacement or how federal guidance is impacting the services offered in public recreational areas, visit nws.usace.army.mil.