January 2024

Nick Ingram carefully released a 40-pound granite stone and watched as it glided across the ice toward a blue and black target last week at the Manchester Ice and Event Centre in McCall.Ingram, 21, is among nine members of The Chosen Ones, a curling team made up of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.The Chosen Ones compete each Sunday at the Manchester in a 22-team league assembled by the McCall Curling Club, leading up to a tournament for the McCall Cup in March.The team was started by McCall resident Jim Campbell, who encouraged several of the team’s original team member to attend a “Learn to Curl” event at the ice rink in November.“The kids are amazing but they were hesitant at first,” said Campbell, who volunteers to help local people with learning disabilities.

The opening of Brundage Mountain Resort’s Lakeview Chairlift has been delayed after snowmobilers illegally entered the ski area, according to resort officials.The snowmobile tracks damaged what little snowpack exists on Brundage’s south-facing slopes in the Lakeview Bowl, including ski runs known as “Kickback” and “Springboard,” Brundage General Manager Ken Rider said.“In what is already a very challenging season this damage will take an extra amount of time and snow to get repaired to open these runs,” Rider said.“This could put staff out of work due to not being able to open Lakeview as soon as we would like,” he said.Snowmobiles have also trespassed into skiable terrain in the non-motorized area outside the resort’s boundary on the backside of Brundage Mountain.“There are users of all types in the Payette National Forest, but when users start to encroach upon other areas, it just creates bad blood with everybody, and we don’t want that to happen,” Rider said.John McClain, President of the McCall Area Snowmobilers, said his group has tried to find out who the trespassers were, but with no success.“We do not condone any of those types of activities at all, period,” McClain said.“We’ve got a lot of areas to ride, but we don’t’ need to go out on Brundage Mountain, that’s for darn sure,” he said.The club, which has 116 local members, promotes responsible recreating like packing out trash, and not violating private property or restricted areas.“We do have very good maps available of that area that show where you can and can’t ride,” McClain said.

A proposal that would build 125 apartments in downtown McCall was recommended for approval on Tuesday by the McCall Area Planning and Zoning Commission.The proposal by Boise Developer Michael Hormaechea will now advance to a public hearing before the McCall City Council, which has final say on the proposal.

The Payette National Forest is seeking public comments on a 40,000-acre project that would thin 13,300 acres of forest north of McCall and create a permanent snowmobile ban on Granite Mountain.The Granite Goose Landscape Restoration Project is roughly located to the north of McCall up to Granite Mountain and east of New Meadows to Payette Lake on the McCall and New Meadows Ranger Districts.The project includes forestry work centered on wildfire prevention, stream and wetlands improvements and recreation projects like a 3.5-acre expansion of the Gordon Titus winter parking lot.Other improvements include upgrades to a boat ramp at Brundage Reservoir and a pedestrian bridge added to the Last Chance Campground.Under the project, snowmobiling would be banned within the areas maintained by the Bear Basin Nordic Center.

The McCall Library Board of Trustees toured the library expansion construction site this week and were pleased with the progress.“This is a real jaw-dropper.