Bonner County workshop adjusts Priest Lake groomer budget, preserves funds for grant matches and heavier snow years

Bonner County Recreation Director Mazel and members of the Priest Lake Groomer Board met with county staff at a budget workshop to revise the Priest Lake snowmobile grooming budget, discussing how to classify a $1,500 payment from Sandpiper Shores, raise small-equipment and salary lines, and allocate contingency funds for heavier snow seasons.

The discussion centered on two financing questions: whether a $1,500 payment from Sandpiper (characterized at the meeting as payment for plowing rather than a donation) should be recorded as revenue, and how best to budget for variable costs — fuel, labor and contract plowing — in a program that is moving to a forward-paying model tied to state sticker-distribution estimates. "This isn't just smoke and mirrors," Mazel said of the revenue estimates, noting state distribution numbers inform the projections but final figures arrive in July. "These are real numbers of what we have currently up to date with sticker sales, and that's how we're making this prediction for the following year if we can go to a forward paying program."

Board members and county staff proposed moving the Sandpiper Shores $1,500 from a…