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Bottom of the Barrel by Linwood Laughy Moscow-Pullman Daily News, June 12, 2021

From 1993-2018, Idaho's job growth reached 66 percent. Job growth in north central Idaho during those 25 years was 13 percent, just one-fifth of the state average and far below Idaho's other five regions.

Since 2018, J.C Penney, Macy's, Kmart, Shopko and Safeway permanently closed their doors in Lewiston. Horizon Air ended its Lewiston service, and the Lewiston Tribune eliminated its Monday edition after 115 years of daily publication.

In a letter to Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch in 2009, 21 Lewiston business owners identified Lewiston's economic needs, including new transportation infrastructure and funds for economic development. The greatest need identified was the elimination of continued uncertainty surrounding the lower Snake River dams.

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, has proposed an extensive 10-year investment in the Lewis-Clark Valley totaling $850 million, including $200 million for the valley's three ports, $150 million to restore the cities' waterfronts; $100 million for economic development, and much more. Simpson's proposal also includes funding for projects not necessarily in Lewiston that would also benefit the city such as $1.5 billion for grain unit-train loaders, the establishment of a lower Snake River National Recreation Area, and salmon and steelhead recovery. A reasonable estimate of total investment in Region 2 plus Asotin County in eastern Washington is $1.92 billion, yet many of the region's elected officials have trashed Simpson's proposal.

Do residents of north central Idaho prefer remaining at the bottom of Idaho's economic barrel, living with continued dam uncertainty and watching our Snake River salmon and steelhead go extinct? Really?