Washington County Planning and Zoning reappoints two members to the board

Former commissioner knows the issues

Weiser resident and business owner, Jeri Soulier, was recently appointed to the Washington County Planning & Zoning Commission.
 She moved to Weiser 30 years ago and has worked as a licensed real estate broker/owner for the past 28 years.
 Some of the projects she has been involved with over the last several years include the following:
 With IDEQ – 2 year project – determining causes/consequences of the Sunnyside Feedlot ground water contamination.
 With SWDHD/Washington County Commissioners – 2 year project with Jeff Batten – testing “static well level” in 18 domestic wells in Weiser, to help determine which areas of development had aquifer recharged from snow melt levels elsewhere, and which were subject to application of irrigation water to keep domestic wells in some level of production.
 With a local project with SWDHD to locate some domestic wells with potentially harmful levels of arsenic in the ground water.
 Served on Washington County Planning and zoning – created CAFO ordinance, first county in the state of Idaho to create balanced Oil and Gas Ordinances – intention was to make the extraction of oil/gas rights available for those who do have the rights to the minerals below their ground while also allowing protection of property value, health and use of their land for those who did not own their mineral rights or chose not to lease them.
 Soulier is very involved in her community – led Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University for the past 12 years, volunteered with ROSE Advocates, Lions Club member, volunteer manager for Two Rivers Free Clinic in Ontario for five years, volunteer financial mentor/coach for Christian Life Fellowship. Taught beginning Spanish this year with the Bee Tree Folk School.  
 Soulier and her husband raise a small herd of registered Highland Cattle.
 She is semi-retired from full-time real estate and says she is obsessive about the real estate market locally, and mentor/advise many in Washington, Payette, Canyon and Ada counties.
 “After attending several P&Z meetings this year, I felt it important to put together a thorough list of local and state experts for Bonnie Brent to use for educating/training of the Planning and Zoning commission and the County Commissioners, as Washington county faces historic pressure to develop/expand residential opportunities and how it may be planned better, knowing what other areas have learned/experienced as “best practices” or “avoid this at all costs” for the long term prosperity and benefit of the citizens of Washington County,” she said.
 

Jaeger wants to help guide growth

Cambridge resident Ron Jaeger was recently appointed to the Washington County Planning and Zoning board.
 Jaeger, a local farmer, attended Cambridge High School before transferring and subsequently graduating from a private Christian school.
 He previously served as a commissioner from 2000 to 2013.
 Jaeger said he lived for a few years in Meridian and near Kuna and that growth in Washington County, and the lack of its direction, is the reason he accepted the appointment.
 “I see what’s going on in the Boise valley with the growth and how the agricultural land is disappearing,” he told the Weiser Signal American. “We are going to get hungry one of these days if we keep covering up all the farm ground.
 “We are beginning to see it here and we are not ready for it. It’s not crazy growth, but it’s coming fast and we don’t have any ordinances in effect to direct it in place. I just see that we have issues. You can’t stop the growth, but you can try to manage it.
 “In a conservative county like this, it’s not popular to put in the ordinances to do it. They just want everybody to be able to do whatever they want. We have to have some guidelines. We have to figure out what it will take to make sure we all get along.”
 

Category:

Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

Connect with Us