Sandpoint (Bonners Ferry, Sun Valley: house, employment, buy)

[seaswirl]

My family and I (children 13 & 15) live in a VERY small town (less than 2000) in Northern Ca. It is the perfect little town, except not enough to do- no shopping, no movie theater, not even a place to eat dinner and two hours to the closest city! We are looking for a place similar in beauty, lakes, mountains, etc., Sandpoint looks alot like our town. We are big into snowmobiling, wake boarding, 4-H, sports - kids play volleyball, football, baseball and softball, we play co-ed adult softball. We are in our mid thirties, have another source of income and would like to both find part time jobs/hobbies.... we have never been as far as Sandpoint, but it sounds perfect!? Can anyone give me some insight, or other places that sound like this (10,000 or less pop)???

[Sage of Sagle]

We moved from a VERY similar sort of town in the SoCal mountains (only MUCH drier than NorCal of course).

Sandpoint doesn't feel like a small town at first, since about 15-20K people use it as their "center of commerce" from Sagle, Dover, Ponderay, Selle Valley, Kootenai, and the areas around the lake. However, it DOES have a relatively small town feel in that people are nice, folks tend to care about our neighbors, and this town has some of the most "small town pride" of any town in America that I'VE ever visited. Parades, festivals, sporting events (Long Bridge Swim, etc), stuff at Schweitzer ski resort (8 miles from town), etc.

We have 4 kids, ages 12-17, all in sports or dance/drama activities, and it's all here. yes, Coeur d'Alene has MORE of it, with more to do, but it has the suburban feel to it. Driving around parts of Hayden, CDA, or Post Falls, I could just about be in Roseville, Gilroy, Mission Viejo, or Rancho Cucamonga. Not condemning it for that reason, but it's not why I moved to Idaho...

Sandpoint has its growth issues, and the area is becoming gentrified to some degree, so I'd strongly suggest a 2-4 day visit to look around and property shop...but be warned, you will fall in love with it and not want to leave...

[gpltlc]

[SIZE=3]As the host of two radio shows - North Idaho Business and North Idaho Arts and Adventure for many years - the perspective of interviewing hundreds of native Idahoans and transplants has given me a unique perspective. While certainly one can lament that this fantastic place has changed over the years, it is still a quaint, high quality of life small North Idaho town with a population under 10,000. Year after year the national media has awarded great accolades to Sandpoint: Best Small Town in the West, Top 10 Resort Towns, America's Dream Town, Top 10 Adventure Town. The NY Times, USA Today, Sunset Magazine, AOL Travel, National Geographic and many, many more all have touted this place as a dream town, undiscovered and hidden from the rest of the world. Right above the city of Sandpoint is Schweitzer Mountain Ski Resort, and similarly, over the last few years, Schweitzer has also garnered national attention, being named for the first time in 2008 to Skiing Magazine's Top 25 Ski Resorts, and #3 for Tree Skiing. Lake Pend Oreille, gargantuan with its 111 miles of coastline sandwiches Sandpoint on one side, with Schweitzer on the other. Manufacturer and national businesses have made the area home, with companies such as Coldwater Creek, Litehouse Foods, Quest Aircraft, Encoder Products, Thorne Research, and many more finding great employees and a quality of life few other places can offer. With the beginning of the Sand Creek Byway a large number of new jobs will add to our economy. Quest Aircraft has hired over sixty people in the last few months, and Schweitzer's ski season will also lower the unemployment rate soon.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Add to this that the small decline in home prices makes our area a good place to buy a home and get a job. While our economy is suffering much like the rest of the nation, we still have good unemployment figures, optimistic future job growth, and are tackling our issues with fervent community involvement.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]With growth has come growing pains, yet the essence of this part of the North Idaho Panhandle has remained. It is a great place to live, raise a family, and enjoy what nature offers. Festivals and events pepper each season, and the people are friendly to a fault. Certainly if one looks, we find issues that are troubling, such as the cost of living, traffic, and attitudes the newcomers bring that differ with the local populace. Many believe, however, that these are comparatively minor aberrations; our slice of North Idaho heaven is still better than most of the places any of us have been before. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]We are so, so proud of our little community, and while we worry about growth, we are also proud, and welcome more than we turn away.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Sandpoint is truly what they say about us. Perhaps Cabin Life, Cabin Living said it best calling our community “the quintessential Western outdoor lover’s town.”[/SIZE]

[SacTown11]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

We moved from a VERY similar sort of town in the SoCal mountains (only MUCH drier than NorCal of course).

Sandpoint doesn't feel like a small town at first, since about 15-20K people use it as their "center of commerce" from Sagle, Dover, Ponderay, Selle Valley, Kootenai, and the areas around the lake. However, it DOES have a relatively small town feel in that people are nice, folks tend to care about our neighbors, and this town has some of the most "small town pride" of any town in America that I'VE ever visited. Parades, festivals, sporting events (Long Bridge Swim, etc), stuff at Schweitzer ski resort (8 miles from town), etc.

We have 4 kids, ages 12-17, all in sports or dance/drama activities, and it's all here. yes, Coeur d'Alene has MORE of it, with more to do, but it has the suburban feel to it. Driving around parts of Hayden, CDA, or Post Falls, I could just about be in Roseville, Gilroy, Mission Viejo, or Rancho Cucamonga. Not condemning it for that reason, but it's not why I moved to Idaho...

Sandpoint has its growth issues, and the area is becoming gentrified to some degree, so I'd strongly suggest a 2-4 day visit to look around and property shop...but be warned, you will fall in love with it and not want to leave...

Uhg....please please don't compare Post Falls to Roseville. I hate that town...it's full of yuppies with mcmansions and suvs. Plus it has over 100,000 people living there. uhg...I hate having to drive through that town...I have to do it today to go visit the in-laws up in Auburn. lol

[Fisherman 100]

I went to Sandpoint last year and did fall in love with it. I plan to return in April with the idea of moving sometime in the next year. Quick question regarding the Sagle area. What is the true story on snow level, and what about power outages.

[Sage of Sagle]

Every winter can be different. Hard to say if there's an "average" winter from what I hear from the old-timers. But we can give you some approximations.

Winter '06-'07, about 8-14" of ground snowpack most of the winter. Some storms would drop more, but it wasn't extreme. In areas where it drifted, some 2-3' drifts.

Winter '07-'08, about 30-40" of ground snowpack and drifts up to 6' deep, and we had 3-10" of snowpack until first week of May. It was just snow upon snow upon snow....but that was a 50 year winter (worst since 1953). I heard the winter of 1996 was really brutal (some say worse) but I think this last winter squeaked by it just a hair in total snowfall (130'ish inches?).

Power outages are occasional. Summer thunderstorms take out the power, and a bad storm can push enough wind to knock down trees into power lines. Typical outages maybe only last 6-24 hours. Bad ones (happened last in July 2007) are 3-4 days without power. Winter...heavy snow/ice will take down lines and it could be a day before power is restored.

Northern Lights is a co-op, and only has so many people, and unless we ALL want to pay a lot more for our power, we deal with what we got...

[mistyriverranch]

We had a brief outage yesterday (first time since we became grid-tied) and our alternative system kicked right in quick as a wink. We have the best of both worlds: use grid power to supplement what we make and store and an immediate backup that comes on automatically in a grid failure. Plus our first power bill was $14.

[Fisherman 100]

Thanks for all the info. We just got 3 feet of snow in Arrowhead Sage. That is pretty good for CA. We plan to put the house up for sale in spring, and when it sells head for Sandpoint. Sounds like we need to get a good standby system. I get tired of keeping the portable generator we have now going when the power goes out. Especially trying to change the oil in a snowstorm. Probably have to break down and get a house with a garage. Have not had one for the past 15 years, and really miss it. Well, here comes another retired cop to Sandpoint. Hope to add to the community and don't plan to change it. Our current neighbors are sad we are leaving so I guess that is a good thing. We will need to find a good church and prove ourselves to the commuity. No problem there. We have a tendency to bless the folks around us, not complain. This is a big deal for me. I have been in the southern CA area we live in for 55 years. Definitely ready for a change. Well, looking forward to meet the good folks of Sandpint and becoming an asset to the community rather than some pinhead trying to change everything.

[Sage of Sagle]

Fisherman 100,

It sounds like you'll fit in well. It's a serious hunting/fishing/gun culture up here, mixed with the artsy folks in Sandpoint (city), so IMO you get it all here.

I saw your snow reports, and talked to friends who still live in Wrightwood. Even friends in Phelan and Hesperia got buried in snow. A friend in Pinon Hills had over 3' in her yard....in the desert. Just crazy.

Anyhow...always good to have yet more retired cops up here. I'm sure you'll assimilate just fine.

[PG13]

What is the difference between Sagle, Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry and Priest Lake in climate and just in general? Much Thx.