This truck was involved in a fatal accident near Bench and Airport roads south of Montpelier Thursday night.

BY JOURNAL STAFF

Idaho State Police investigated two fatal accidents and another that resulted in an injury requiring hospitalization Wednesday and Thursday.

Alcohol is believed to be a factor in contributing to a fatal accident that occurred around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday in Caribou County along State Highway 34 at Fish Hatchery Road, according to ISP.

Jon Sorensen, 49, of Grace, died of his injuries at the scene of the crash. He was driving a 2011 Nissan Juke.

While stopped at the intersection of State Highway 34 and Fish Hatchery Road, ISP officials say Sorensen was struck from behind by a 2009 Chevrolet Silverado driven by Ann Sorensen, 46, of Downey.

Delilah Bitton, 51, of Grace, was a passenger in the Nissan Juke. She was transported by ground ambulance to the Caribou Memorial Hospital in Soda Springs. According to ISP, Ann Sorensen was also transported by ground ambulance to the Caribou Memorial Hospital.

Officials indicated that both Jon and Delilah were wearing seat belts, while Ann Sorensen was not wearing her seat belt.

A second fatal accident was reported near Bench Rd. and Airport Rd., south of Montpelier Thursday night. No other details were available at press time.

The injury only accident took place about 3:30 p.m. when two cars collided at 785 E 1200 N, in Bingham County in front of the Shelley Cemetery.

Jayme A. Wheeler, 22, of Idaho Falls, was attempting to turn out of the Shelley Cemetery onto 1200 N, in a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta. Wheeler’s view of 1200 N was blocked by cars legally parked along the side of the road and he pulled out in front of a 2000 Jeep Cherokee driven by Itsel A. Moreida Gonzalez, 15, of Shelley.

Wheeler was transported by ground ambulance to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls. Both drivers were wearing seatbelts.

BY JIMMY HANCOCK
jhancock@journalnet.com

SODA SPRINGS — Agrium is in the very early stages of developing two new phosphate mines in Caribou County, but John Tippets says it’s at this stage that the company wants the public’s input.

To get that input, they’ve slated three meetings this week at various locations in Southeast Idaho for what they call the “scoping process.”

“The purpose of the scoping meeting is to give us ideas about what we should be considering when we do our environmental impact statement,” said Tippets, public affairs manager for Agrium. “We are reaching out to a broad area because even though they don’t live in Caribou County, they may have an interest in the area.”

Among those interests, Tippets said is the many people throughout Southeast Idaho who hunt and fish in Caribou County as well as those who take advantage of the many other recreational opportunities there.

All three meetings are scheduled for this week and each will be conducted from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The first is on Sept. 5 in Pocatello at the Bureau of Land Management office, located at 4350 Cliffs Drive. On Sept. 6, the meeting is at the Soda Springs City Hall, located at 9 West Second South. The final meeting is on Sept. 7 at the Shoshone-Bannock Hotel & Events Center in Fort Hall.

The information gathered at the meetings will be used in considering the creation of the environmental impact statement for the new mines. That’s a document the public will be given an opportunity to comment on once it’s completed.

While Agrium is working toward creating two new mines, they are actually seeking one mining permit because of the two mines’ locations. Dan Kline, mine engineer for Agrium and the developer of the mining plan, says the two new mines, Husky 1 and North Dry Ridge, are part of a deposit the company previously mined in the mid-1980s, the Maybe Canyon Mine.

Kline said the proposed Husky 1 mine, the larger of the two, is about 750 acres with about 11 years supply of phosphate rock, and is located to the south of the historic Maybe Canyon Mine. The proposed North Dry Ridge Mine is about 301 acres and has roughly three-and-a-half years supply of phosphate rock to mine, and is located north of the old mine.

Tippets notes those projections on the times the mines would be active are based on current production figures.

Permitting mines is a lengthy process and Tippets says they are very early in the infancy stage of these two mines. If all goes well, Agrium has a projected start date on the Husky 1 and North Dry Ridge mines of 2019.

BY JOURNAL STAFF

Firefighters responded to a roughly 50-acre brush fire burning in Caribou County on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation on Monday night.

The fire started around 9:30 p.m. east of the Chesterfield Reservoir. It was still growing in size as of 11 p.m., according to a news release.

Firefighters and emergency responders from Fort Hall, BLM and Caribou County all responded to the scene, including officials from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ Transportation and Fish and Game departments, according to the press release.

Additional details were unavailable at press time.

BY KENDRA EVENSEN
kevensen@journalnet.com

A fire burning on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation grew to an estimated 850 acres in size on Tuesday.

The Rocky Canyon Fire, which is burning near the Chesterfield Reservoir on reservation land located within Caribou County, started around 9:30 p.m. on Monday. Officials with the Eastern Idaho Interagency Fire Center say it was likely human caused, but the incident is still under investigation.

They haven’t yet set an estimated time of containment.

Firefighters were using three engines, a water tender and a dozer to extinguish the flames on Tuesday, said Lynn Ballard, a fire information officer with the Eastern Idaho Interagency Fire Center, adding that they also had a 20-person hand crew on scene. Firefighters and emergency responders from Fort Hall, BLM and Caribou County have assisted with the fire, as well as officials with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ Transportation and Fish and Game departments.

Randy’L Teton, public affairs manager for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, said the fire, which is burning in sagebrush, hadn’t damaged any structures as of Tuesday night. Although there was a structure located about a mile west of the fire, it wasn’t threatened.

By Journal Staff

Firefighters are still working to contain a wildfire northeast of Bancroft, but they were able to get control of two smaller fires near Pocatello and Blackfoot on Wednesday. They were also fighting a grass fire in Idaho Falls on Wednesday night.

The Maybe Fire, which was started by lightening roughly eight miles northeast of Bancroft on Monday, was estimated to be 1,140 acres in size on Wednesday — down slightly from Tuesday’s estimate of 1,250 acres, said Lynn Ballard, a fire information officer with the Eastern Idaho Interagency Fire Center.

“They made good progress, the winds weren’t quite as strong today,” Ballard said, adding that they also brought in some additional resources.

As of Wednesday afternoon, they had three helicopters, four 20-person crews, 12 engines, six water tenders and two dozers assigned to the fire, Ballard said, adding that they are hoping to be able to contain the blaze by Thursday evening.

Although firefighters were concerned about five primary structures and numerous out-buildings in the area earlier this week, Ballard said the threat had diminished on Wednesday. Still, they were prepared to bring in additional resources to protect the structures if need be.

Ballard said there are some other concerns in the area as well, including sage grouse habitat and a sensitive species of cactus, which firefighters are also trying to protect.

Area firefighters were also working on two smaller fires on Wednesday.

Pocatello firefighters were called to a grass fire adjacent to Highway 30, just west of the Hoku plant, around 6 p.m.

The Pocatello Fire Department dispatched four engines and two brush trucks to the fire that burned approximately a half acre before it was contained shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, although firefighters said it was likely caused by a train due to its proximity to the train tracks.

BLM firefighters were also able to contain a fire that started in the area of 2000 W. 600 N., west of Blackfoot, on Tuesday night.

Ballard said that fire covered 17 acres, but was contained shortly before noon on Wednesday.

The fire, which was started by a camper cooking in the area, destroyed a motorcycle and a utility trailer, according to Blackfoot firefighters who assisted at the scene.

Idaho Falls firefighters were also called to a grass fire behind a salvage yard in the area of 1218 E. Iona Road around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, according to emergency dispatchers. Additional details weren’t available on Wednesday night.

By Journal Staff

Area firefighters responded to three separate fires on Monday.

Blackfoot firefighters responded to a fire at Millcreek Metals in Moreland, located in Bingham County, on Monday night.

Capt. Branden Wall said that fire started in a pile of scrap metal shortly before 8 p.m.; he was still trying to determine the cause of the fire on Monday night.

Wall said they had to rely on some heavy equipment to move some of the scraps before they could access the flames. No injuries were reported in the incident, and no buildings or vehicles were threatened.

Firefighters remained on scene for about an hour and a half on Monday night, Wall said.

Caribou County firefighters also responded to a wildfire about 10 miles north of Lava Hot Springs.

Caribou County firefighters were also called to a wildfire about 10 miles north of Lava Hot Springs.

That fire was reported around 5 p.m. in the area of Old Highway 30 and Pebble Creek Road.

Efforts to reach emergency officials regarding the size of the fire and whether it threatened any structures failed on Monday.

A small brush fire also broke out around 1:30 p.m. along the Portneuf River near Kraft Road on Monday.

That fire burned approximately an acre before area firefighters extinguished the flames. Some trees were also charred.

No structures were threatened by that blaze, and there were no injuries to report.

FILE PHOTO

By Journal Staff and wire reports

When Idaho’s 44 counties report their official election results in a couple of weeks, Secretary of State Ben Ysursa expects voter turnout will stand at about 57 percent.

That would be lower than the 58 percent turnout recorded four years ago, during the last mid-term election and it doesn’t sit well with Ysursa, who oversaw his last Idaho election before he retires at the end of the year.

While the turnout doesn’t seem dire, it is, Ysursa said, when you compare it to the 1.2 million Idahoans who are eligible to vote. Then it would likely be no higher than 38 percent.

“That means that more than 60 percent of those eligible to vote stayed home on Tuesday,” Ysursa said.

“It’s alarming and we need to turn it around,” he said.

In Bingham County, roughly 55 percent of the registered voters participated in Tuesday’s election.

Although Bingham County officials are always hoping for a high turnout, Jessica Lewis, the county’s election assistant, said Tuesday’s turnout reflected what they were expecting.

“I think it’s good that many people came out to vote,” she said.

Bingham County used some new machines to count votes at precincts this year, Lewis said, adding that officials were able to declare the results much faster as a result.

Power County election officials are still working on numbers there, but they estimated voter turnout was as high as 66 percent. Still, that’s down from what it was in the last mid-term election in 2010.

In Caribou County, about 54.5 percent of the voters turned out, election officials said.

Clerk Lon Colton said Oneida County had nearly 48 percent of the registered voters participate in the election, which was higher than the primary election that drew only about 30 percent.

He said there seemed to be a lot more pre-election activity at his office this year, with more people requesting absentee ballots and stopping by to vote early.

“I was pretty pleased,” he said.

Colton said his office is still trying to educate people about the many ways to vote — the county offers curbside voting for those who can’t easily leave their vehicles and will even take ballots out to people who are homebound.

They try to accommodate voters as much as possible.

“We encourage people to do their civic duty and come out and vote,” Colton said.

In Ada County, nearly 63 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s election, up 1 percent from the last mid-term election four years ago.

A total of 130,913 ballots were cast in Idaho’s largest county from its 209,431 registered voters. That’s 8,738 more ballots than in 2010, when there were 199,995 registered voters, according to statistics from the Ada County Clerk’s Office.

“That’s a great turnout,” Chief Deputy Clerk Phil McGrane said.

In neighboring Canyon County, the turnout was about 57 percent, with 44,971 ballots counted.

The percentage is likely to drop a bit when folks who registered to vote on Election Day are added to the registered voter total. Statewide, 41,609 residents registered on the day of election during the 2010 primary.

McGrane doesn’t expect that to make a significant difference in the Ada County turnout percentage.

Ada County had a crew of 150 regular and temporary elections workers helping to collect ballots, process them and run them through the counting machine. A smaller crew of about 30 people worked through the night after all the ballots were processed and just needed to be fed into the counter. The job was finished about 9 a.m. Wednesday.

“It was a very long night for us,” said McGrane, who at 10 a.m. was headed to bed. “At the end, we had a tired group of workers.”

Voter turnout across the state will likely rise in two years, as it always does for a presidential election, but that will still be too low for Ysursa’s taste. Two years ago, 74 percent of Idaho voters cast ballots.

On Tuesday, 439,535 votes were cast statewide in the governor’s race won by Gov. Butch Otter. With 753,840 registered voters in the state, that translates to a 58 percent turnout, providing a rough estimate of the overall turnout, Ysursa said.

That percentage will dip after the number of people who cast ballots but who did not vote in the governor’s race is factored in, along with the addition of same-day voter registrations that will bolster the overall voter registration number.

Friends and family of motorcyclist Staci Shryock at the scene of the Friday morning crash in Pocatello in which she was killed. Shryock was one of four people who died in traffic accidents in Southeast Idaho between Friday and Sunday. Find a photo gallery of Friday’s Pocatello crash at idahostatejournal.com.

By Journal Staff

Statistically, more people are killed in vehicle crashes between Memorial Day and Labor Day than other times of the year, and, tragically, four fatal accidents that occurred over the weekend offered further proof of that.

The timeframe between the two holidays is known as the “100 Deadliest Days,” according to a news release recently issued by the Idaho Transportation Department. Last year, 40 percent of the fatal crashes in Idaho occurred during that period, officials said, and over the past five years, 328 people have died.

Although the season is just beginning this year, several crashes over the weekend have already led to the deaths of four people.

“I can’t imagine the grief people are going through right now,” said Capt. Eric Dayley with the Idaho State Police, adding that many people have been affected by the deaths and officers are working hard to determine exactly what happened in the incidents.

In Caribou County on Sunday morning, motorcyclist Thomas Latta, 59, of Rock Springs, Wyo., was driving east on U.S. Highway 30 near Fish Creek Summit when he tried to steer around a deer in the roadway and lost control of his vehicle, state police said. Both he and his wife, Niki Latta, 61, were ejected during the crash.

Niki died at the scene, police said. Thomas was treated at Caribou Memorial Hospital in Soda Springs and later released, according to hospital officials.

As previously reported, three fatal wrecks also occurred on Friday in Blackfoot, Pocatello and Aberdeen.

Irving Escalante, 27, of Armona, Calif., was killed in a one-vehicle crash involving a tree along U.S. Highway 91 in Blackfoot, and three others were hurt. Andrew Littlefield was airlifted by emergency helicopter to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, according to family members. He was listed in critical condition on Monday, hospital officials said. Jose Garza, 34, of Blackfoot, was airlifted by emergency helicopter to the Portneuf Medical Center (PMC) in Pocatello, where he was listed in stable condition. Saul Luna, 33, of Blackfoot, was transported by ground ambulance to PMC, and he was also listed in stable condition.

Police have not said who was driving in that crash, which involved two ejections. They have said that alcohol may have been a factor.

Another crash involving a car and motorcycle occurred on U.S. Highway 30 in Pocatello. Motorcyclist Staci Shryock, 44, of Pocatello, died in that incident. The driver of the car, Joanne Christofferson, 29, of Pocatello, was transported to PMC and later released. She was then arrested for her role in that accident, which occurred after she allegedly went into the wrong lane.

There was also another crash involving a car and a motorcycle south of Aberdeen on Highway 39 on Friday. Motorcyclist Jamie Gallegos, 29, of Aberdeen, died after he struck a car, driven by Ethan Ferry, 19, of Meridian.

Dayley said they are still investigating some of the incidents.

“We’re doing our very best to investigate the crashes so the truth can come out (as the) facts are presented,” he said.

Dayley said all of the crashes that occurred over the weekend kept his office busy.

“We had to bring people in on overtime (because) we did not have sufficient resources,” he said.

Although it’s easy to assume the worst crashes would occur in the wintertime when roads are slick, Dayley said people are usually going slower at that time and the snow on the ground can actually help reduce damage to vehicles.

When the roads are bare in the summertime, people may not be paying as much attention to their driving. Dayley said it’s easy for people to become distracted — they may be texting, listening to music, eating or putting on makeup — and they’re often tired from gardening and other summer activities.

“We all, to a certain degree, take driving for granted,” Dayley said, but added that it’s “an activity that can be very dangerous (and we need to) give our full attention to that task while we’re doing it.”

Dayley said rollovers in the summertime are particularly dangerous. When a car goes off the road, drivers automatically want to sharply turn the wheel to get back on the road, but that can send them into a side slide and then cause them to roll, which most cars don’t handle well.

Dayley said it’s better to slow the car down before trying to get back on the road unless there is an immediate threat.

“If you’re heading for a ravine or pole, you do what you need to do for safety,” he said, but added that sometimes it’s better to hit obstacles, like delineator posts, which can easily be replaced and won’t likely cause a lot of damage.

Dayley encourages people to wear their seat belts to help protect themselves in the event of a crash.

Kim Stouse, community relations education specialist for the Pocatello Fire Department, said it’s also important for people to watch out for motorcyclists during this time of year since the weather is warming up and more people are out riding.

Bingham County Sheriff Craig T. Rowland said more vehicles are also on the road since people are heading to vacation spots. He thinks that’s another reason why crashes occur during this time of year.

He encourages people to pay attention while they are driving.

“Take your time, stay off your phone (and) don’t drive aggressive,” he said.

Photo courtesy of C-A-L Ranch Stores, Inc.

By Journal Staff

Searchers have located the body of a 64-year-old Blackfoot man who went missing during a boating incident on the Blackfoot Reservoir on Saturday.

William Wallace’s body was located near Cinder Island at about 9:30 a.m. His family was at the staging area when he was found.

Wallace was a local rancher and former partner in C-A-L Ranch Stores, Inc.

C-A-L Ranch officials said Monday that Wallace, who retired in recent years, always had a smile on his face and was a great person to work with.

“(His death is) a great loss to C-A-L Ranch,” officials said.

Caribou County Sheriff Ric Anderson said the incident was reported at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Wallace was on the reservoir in a jet boat along with his wife, 15-year-old granddaughter, and her friend, who is also 15, when the boat became clogged with moss. He entered the water to try and clean the propellers, but Saturday’s storm blew the boat away.

The passengers also ended up in the water, but they were able to swim to shore. Wallace didn’t make it there.

The boat was later located and towed to shore.

Dive teams from Caribou, Bingham and Bear Lake counties aided in the search.

By Kendra Evensen, kevensen@journalnet.com