City Council adopts arts, culture and historic preservation plan
A mechanical failure caused partially treated water to be distributed by the Sand Creek water treatment plant in mid-July.
SANDPOINT — City Council members unanimously Wednesday voted to adopt the city’s Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation Plan.
The plan’s approval had previously been delayed pending a review by the Kalispel Tribe.
“I was really holding this up because I wanted to make sure we had the tribe’s participation,” Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rongstad said. “I thought it was critical we slow down a bit.”
Some of the changes to the plan based on feedback from tribal leadership and the tribe’s historian and archeologist included correcting wording for which groups of the tribe lived in which regions, and wording concerning a section titled “Plateau Indians in the Archaic Period.”
“It was the lower Kalispels that were in the Sandpoint area,” said city Administrator Jennifer Stapleton. “We wanted to correctly recognize the tribe that was in our area.”
Elle Susnis, former chair of the Sandpoint Arts Commission, spoke in favor of the plan’s adoption.
I have to say how impressed I am with the consultants, the Lakota group and Surale Phillips,” Susnis said. “I hope you share my enthusiasm by approving the plan.”
Council members also held a 30-second moment of silence for those who had died of COVID-19 at the request of councilwoman Deb Ruehle.