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How about a blast from the past you guys.
Just moved here in January and was asking most of the same questions myself.
Definitely a better place to raise the kids, however lots of trailer trash in the area, with that said lots of great folks and mostly friendly. Stay away from wal-mart in Hayden. Fred Meyer is so much better.
Our kids have yet to attend school here. The best rated school cda charter has a waiting list, and the magnet elementary does as well. Both are free public schools. The other schools are struggling based on reports I read in local news. ( someone please correct me if I am wrong). However with proper parental or tutor supplementation I hear the kids will do great.
If you want to be in CDA city limits you should look at Canfield area which is well within your price range and close to the popular schools. You could get a very nice view for $450k.
I moved here in January. Clark fork and Sage of Sagle helped me make up my mind. They are very knowledgeable and you should trust what they say.
I will never leave here if it is my decision to make. Just too damn good here. I make what I did in Texas and I am much happier with the climate and people as well as smaller population.
All that said.
You come to CDA to be an Idahoan. I didn't bring Texas here except for my smoker. Please leave California in California
When you move here its because your escaping where your at now. If people come a ruin it it is no longer a place to escape to.
The small lakes typically freeze, but this last winter my lake was not safe enough to hold the annual ice fishing day that they put on. Two weeks earlier though I saw people fishing out there. I have seen some kids clear out a rectangle to skate on. The long term average in CDA is something like 68" of snow. The last few years were up and down 173", 145", 18", 120" and I think last one was 84" or so. Not a mistype on that eighteen inches. Roofs did collapse on that real heavy year.
I lock my car doors wherever I go. Just keeps a whole segment of opportunistic crimes from ever happening. This is a tourist area and right next to 600000 other people who may not be as nice as your neighbor. I have read in the paper before of windows getting busted to grab a quick electronic gadget.
I don't see many stories about meth in the paper and they will write a story about a cow being stuck in the fence so I am sure they would if it were a huge deal. I have not seen it or all these tweakers people talk about, but I don't go looking for it either.
Where did you find that snowfall listings? I tried looking it up for my area to get some perspective and I used the same source to look at CDA and it shows way more conservative numbers. 33.32" annually for CDA and 35.20" for Seymour CT according to this source
I don't know how accurate it is but the numbers you mentioned are pretty scary but if CT accumulated similar and I didnt realize it then I guess it's something I'll have little issue getting used to.
One big difference between the winters in CDA and Idaho Falls is southern Idaho has more wind and drifting snow than N. Idaho. I also think because of that wind and snow their roads can be worse in winter.
I live in I.F. That info is pretty accurate.
Idaho Falls is higher, drier and sunnier than CDA as a general rule, and a few degrees cooler in the summers. The humidity here is always lower except for rare occasions.
The winters here are also colder, but are sunnier, and the snow is usually much drier powder snow. We often get the weather CDA gets earlier, but a lot of the moisture is wrung out by the Rockies when it gets here.
As often, our weather comes eastward from N. Oregon and lower on the coast. This is especially true of the winters; CDA often gets winter weather straight down from Canada that is tempered by the lower elevation and moisture coming in from coastal Washington. This is part of the reason CDA is prone to overcast and fog. Fog here is rare.
More importantly, the terrain between the two cities is much different. Idaho Falls is snuggled up to nearby foothills to the east that eventually join the Teton mountain range or the Blackfoot mountains, and the country westward is a large dry plain. I.F. is very close to a lot of alpine country, but isn't directly in it.
I.F. lies close to the Continental Divide, and the mountains here are more rugged and higher. The area has always been largely agricultural.
CDA is in the middle of alpine forest and small glacial valleys that lie just to the north. The area has always been logging and mining country.
The cities are about the same size, and the counties that both lie in have really boomed in housing before the Great Recession. I.F. has a lot of high tech stuff going on here, but CDA has become a more popular retirement area.
If you are interested in both, the only real way you can decide which may be best for you is to visit both. Idaho is a huge state; many north Idahoans have never been south of Boise, which is in the center, and many south Idahoans have never been north of Boise. A very large belt of impassible mountains divides the state horizontally in the center.
Warden, how come you chose not to move back to Colorado? I also learned that IF is downwind from the INL so if there ever was an incident there, it might be bad news for IF. We're going to make the long drive to Idaho either this weekend or next to visit IF, CDA and Boise!
Nope. Idaho Falls is upwind from the INL.
The INL has always been a testing laboratory. None of it's reactors have ever been large, and almost all are shut down now, as advanced testing methods have replaced the need for reactors. The INL site's mission changed in the early 90's to other types of energy testing and development, but nuke testing will always be a part of their mission.
There have been incidents, of course. the INL was originally a naval gunnery range, where all the largest guns in the fleet were tested. It was the first place to ever use a reactor to make commercial electricity. The Navy had it's nuclear training school out there for over 50 years, and at one time, the Army tried to develop portable reactors there, for use in the Arctic circle. A nuclear powered bomber was once considered, and the INL has a hanger that was built for it, but the aircraft never got off the drawing board.
Over the years, the INL established re-fueling, parts testing, and emergency shut-down procedures for both Naval and commercial reactors, done at 1/4 scale. Given it's long and diverse history, it's natural that accidents of all kinds have happened out there, but almost all have ever been the same accidents that happen at any testing facility. There is no dangerous hot spot of contamination there; the site's purpose has always been the prevention of hot spots. But individuals have become contaminated, for sure, on rare but regular occasions that happen once or twice a decade or more. Most of the accidents come from suppression and/ or heat. One of the worst came from a large accidental CO2 fire suppression release in the 1980's. It trapped some workers in a room that lost all it's oxygen when the CO2 was dumped suddenly.
There are 'downwinders' who have objections to the INL site; many of them live in Jackson Hole, a billionaire's paradise, and others live in Pocatello and Twin Falls, both cities that are downwind.
But unlike Rocky Flats, the Tri-Cities in Washington, and other places, there has never been any of the major contamination problems that were so common or large as Rocky Flats. INL was never involved in plutonium production, which was the mission for both of the others I mentioned.
Even so, when it comes to nuclear stuff, there is always going to be a lot of NIMBY. The residents of I.F. have been closely associated with the INL since it's earliest beginnings, and the town has never had any nuclear-related problems at all. We would be the first to know, since about 1/3 of our population works out there, and everyone knows someone who does.
Nope. Idaho Falls is upwind from the INL.
The INL has always been a testing laboratory. None of it's reactors have ever been large, and almost all are shut down now, as advanced testing methods have replaced the need for reactors. The INL site's mission changed in the early 90's to other types of energy testing and development, but nuke testing will always be a part of their mission.
I must have come from a pretty bad place, because I think the Hayden Walmart is clean, and the people seem very nice. The summer time traffic is pretty bad the closer you get to CDA, but thins out as you get a bit north of Hayden. This place is spectacular for numerous out door activities especially if you drive a little off the beaten path, and I do mean spectacular!
Nope. Idaho Falls is upwind from the INL.
The INL has always been a testing laboratory. None of it's reactors have ever been large, and almost all are shut down now, as advanced testing methods have replaced the need for reactors. The INL site's mission changed in the early 90's to other types of energy testing and development, but nuke testing will always be a part of their mission.
There have been incidents, of course. the INL was originally a naval gunnery range, where all the largest guns in the fleet were tested. It was the first place to ever use a reactor to make commercial electricity. The Navy had it's nuclear training school out there for over 50 years, and at one time, the Army tried to develop portable reactors there, for use in the Arctic circle. A nuclear powered bomber was once considered, and the INL has a hanger that was built for it, but the aircraft never got off the drawing board.
Over the years, the INL established re-fueling, parts testing, and emergency shut-down procedures for both Naval and commercial reactors, done at 1/4 scale. Given it's long and diverse history, it's natural that accidents of all kinds have happened out there, but almost all have ever been the same accidents that happen at any testing facility. There is no dangerous hot spot of contamination there; the site's purpose has always been the prevention of hot spots. But individuals have become contaminated, for sure, on rare but regular occasions that happen once or twice a decade or more. Most of the accidents come from suppression and/ or heat. One of the worst came from a large accidental CO2 fire suppression release in the 1980's. It trapped some workers in a room that lost all it's oxygen when the CO2 was dumped suddenly.
There are 'downwinders' who have objections to the INL site; many of them live in Jackson Hole, a billionaire's paradise, and others live in Pocatello and Twin Falls, both cities that are downwind.
But unlike Rocky Flats, the Tri-Cities in Washington, and other places, there has never been any of the major contamination problems that were so common or large as Rocky Flats. INL was never involved in plutonium production, which was the mission for both of the others I mentioned.
Even so, when it comes to nuclear stuff, there is always going to be a lot of NIMBY. The residents of I.F. have been closely associated with the INL since it's earliest beginnings, and the town has never had any nuclear-related problems at all. We would be the first to know, since about 1/3 of our population works out there, and everyone knows someone who does.
I'm confused. If INL is just north of IF, and Pocatello is south of IF, how can IF be upwind, and Poctello be downwind? Does the wind direction blow in a big circle?
And yes, I know this is an older post, but considering a move to IF, Rexburg, areas.
Im so grateful for this thread...Im in central CA and hope to head your way in June of 15. This place has become a living hell on EVERY Level. WAY too liberal for us, highest taxes, highest power rates, highest unemployment, highest gas, highest level of folks on assistance, to many people, too little resources. Lordy we can hardly wash our hands for lack of water. It is no place to raise my kids. And I AM concerned about winter and work. Hope hubby can transfer or get work before we get there. Im embarrassed to even tell people Im from CA as we are viewed as a cancer. Im hauling the homestead with me and hope it will all work out. Criminy I can go to JAIL for selling my goat milk here. I need out. I can deal with the meth. I live near 1.5 million nut jobs now.
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Does the wind direction blow in a big circle?
