County
Old Canyon Sheriff Vows To Return
February 6, 2007 
A group of Canyon County watchdog voters have been fighting their commishes over a proposed jail and sheriff’s office on land that has been acquired through long term debt with no vote by taxpayers.
The group has had a rough time getting any traction (“standing”) in court and a majority of commishes has pretty much ignored their pleas to not spend taxpayers money for something they don’t need AND without a vote of the people.
It apparently got so bad recently that former sheriff George Nourse who headed the department for over 20 years has made rumblings about coming out of retirement to clean up the mess.
Details are hard to come by, but we hear the jail–or part of it–was shut down due to mold and ventilation problems. Canyon county has spent upwards of $300,000 housing inmates in Ada County at $54 per day.
Turns out the problem was caused by inmates stuffing wet toilet paper in the ventilation system causing a mold problem. When a citizen filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for inspection details on the mess, Sheriff Chris Smith apparently decided to reopen the jail.
That’s when Nourse started rumbling about running for his old office at the age of 67!
We don’t do a lot of Canyon news, but this looks like it could get interesting.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Feb 7, 2007, 1:34 am
Well, gee, isn’t it nice to know Boise City and Ada County aren’t the only jurisdictions run by jerks?
Feb 9, 2007, 3:19 pm
Some of the Canyon County inmates get housed in Ada County. Some of the Ada County inmates get housed ______________. Some of the Idaho inmates get housed ____________. Why don’t we house inmates that belong in Idaho in all the empty Idaho buildings and all the empty offices in all the Idaho buildings around Idaho? I know. I know.
Feb 9, 2007, 4:17 pm
Sounds to me like Sheriff Nourse just wants to inject some of his wisdom garnered from 67 years into modern Idaho politics.The question in my mind is ; Does honesty and personal integrity take a back seat to mis-use of taxpayers money with many of our county politicians? It seems to be an unconfronted issue all over Idaho.