It's unlikely one of the Idaho Transportation Department’s main administration headquarters will stay in Shoshone.
The ITD Board of Directors voted unanimously Thursday to study moving the headquarters to one of three locations in the Twin Falls or Jerome area. An ITD maintenance yard in Shoshone will remain in the city.
One option includes a 108-acre site ITD currently owns southwest of the I-84-US-93 junction. The other two plans are both within the Crossroads subdivision in Jerome: one, an existing, but vacant office building, and another that's a bare lot.
State Rep. Sally Toone (D-Gooding) says she’s disappointed with the decision.
“We’re fighting every day for our jobs in rural Idaho and the state commits to that, or that’s always part of the conversation and now it’s not.”
Toone and others against the move claim it’ll cost the city and Lincoln County hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in lost revenue from workers who would buy gas, groceries or lunch locally.
District 4 spokesman Nathan Jerke says ITD is considering what’s best for all Idaho taxpayers. The new building would be closer to College of Southern Idaho, which could be used to more easily train existing workers or recruit freshly-educated graduates.
Jerke says if costs of constructing a new facility elsewhere are "astronomical" then Shoshone may be back in the running.
Should commissioners approve one of the new sites, construction could begin as early as next year with a grand opening in early 2020.
Find news director James Dawson on Twitter @RadioDawson
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