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The Valley County Transfer Site on Spink Lane will be revamped next year at a cost of about $3.9 million, one of the largest expenses in the county’s 2025 budget, which was adopted on Tuesday. The focus of the project is the “tipping floor” building, where trash is dumped to be hauled to landfills.Last year, an assessment of the building by Great West Engineering of Boise found several structural issues, advising that they must be addressed as soon as possible.Metal supports at the front entrance to the building are close to failing, and must be replaced.

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Hunters are now required to test all locally harvested deer for chronic wasting disease following a positive case of the fatal neurological disease south of New Meadows last fall.Testing is required for all deer harvested in units 23, 24, and 32A, which include the areas around McCall, Cascade, Donnelly, New Meadows and Council.Hunters must submit heads or lymph nodes from all deer in these areas within 10 days of harvesting the animal, according to the new rules implemented by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.For more information, visit www.idfg.idaho.gov/cwd/monitoring.

Washington, D.C., diplomat Forest Atkinson has accepted an offer to serve as the next city manager for the City of McCall.The offer was approved last Friday by the McCall City Council, and Atkinson, who was born and raised in McCall until age 14, accepted shortly thereafter.

Warmer weather returns to the region this week that will test firefighters efforts to contain fires in the West Mountain Complex.The warmer weather following a few days of colder temperatures and precipitation gave firefighters the chance to conduct controlled burns around several fires, strengthening containment lines by removing burnable materials.The main focus in the area continues to be the Snag Fire about eight miles east of Cascade, which grew to over 27,000 acres as of Tuesday with 3% containment.Warm Lake Road was opened last week for residents and contractors in the Warm Lake, Yellow Pine and Big Creek areas, but it was closed again temporarily following a windstorm on Tuesday evening.

Most of what Michael Perry knows about wildland firefighting he has learned on the frontlines of the West Mountain Complex wildfire over the last two weeks.Perry is among 250 U.S.