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Monday, July 14, 2008

Governor Otter In Town Wednesday For Public Meeting

Governor Otter and the Idaho Transportation Department will be in Coeur d'Alene this Wednesday for a meeting called 'Building Roads, Bridges, Building Consensus' to get input from the public on how best to pay for repairing, maintaining and improving the state's crumbling roads and bridges.

The 4-7 p.m. public meeting is at the Best Western Coeur d'Alene Inn. An introduction to the funding challenges will be presented at 4:15 p.m., 5:15 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. Gov. Otter will lead the presentation at 4:15 p.m.

In addition to the public meeting, the governor's staff and transportation department officials will meet during the day with area legislators and other local elected officials, business and industry leaders and local highway district representatives.

Escalating highway construction costs, declining revenue and unprecedented demand on Idaho's transportation system have converged to create an annual revenue shortfall estimated at $240 million.

One in five miles of state highway is considered to be in poor condition by engineering standards, and nearly half of the bridges on the state system are approaching their life expectancy of 50 years.

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