Posted: May 12, 2008  08:04

If the ghost of Edwin Bonner could hover above the little city named after him for a fortnight, the sight of it emerging from the shadows of its logging past as a work in progress would give the good ghost a mighty startle.

Boasting an Italian bistro, a dynamic art gallery, chic clothing and gift boutiques flourishing on a Main Street that only a few years ago crackled with vacant storefronts, it's hardly your father's timber town anymore.

Nor is it the same struggling Bonners Ferry of a decade ago, searching for a road map for its economic rope of survival.

If it is still a work in progress, it's beginning to adjust the focus of its changing face more clearly, suddenly developing like a Polaroid snapshot before our very eyes.

But sustaining communities are always works in progress, whether it is the south side of Chicago or Kalispell, Mont., and unlike paintings, they are never quite finished. They keep reinventing and advancing themselves, almost like evolution itself. If not, they will perish.

Percentage-wise, Boundary County had the 11th largest population increase of Idaho's 44 counties from 2006 to 2007. Its 2.44 percent rate well surpassed neighboring Bonner County, while nearly matching the growth rate of Twin Falls County, which sports a population of 75,000.

For those who don't crunch statistics for a living, a 2.44 percent growth rate seems like a hiccup, hardly significant enough to start blowing trumpets on Main Street.

But since 1976, Boundary County has so significantly diversified its economy from a timber-reliant industry that the number of employed residents has skyrocketed 90 percent.

That's the kind of stuff that makes you want to blow trumpets, French horns and even tubas down Main Street.

"So many rural timber communities are stuck and not moving," says Idaho Department of labor's Kathryn Tacke. "But you have strong leadership in Bonners and a community that knows how to get things done and hold together."

Bonners Ferry may always be a work in progress, forever evolving as well as enduring. In five years, it will most likely assume an entirely new look as the focus of its future becomes clearer, its leadership stronger and its economic base more diversified.

And when annexation at the south end of the city comes into fruition, it will have a huge impact on the crank that turns the engine a little further for powering a work in progress.

Economic development is slow, snail's pace work. Rarely is there a brass ring or a kewpie doll at the end of the ride. Flourishing communities are ones that are always works in progress, becoming better and more defined as they stretch their wings.

Unless Micron or Dell Computer decides to relocate their manufacturing divisions here, it is unlikely Bonners Ferry is going to morph into a Coeur d'Alene or Post Falls. Its lacks a large enough labor pool and is not situated on a major Interstate or near a municipal airport.

But that's why it has preserved its unique character that urbanites sweating out gridlock each day dream of: A downtown without traffic lights and a couple of stop signs, where a guy like Wayne Nishek still drives his horse and buggy through Main Street.

"I don't know if you want to emerge from a work in progress," says Tacke.

Despite major economic setbacks suffered through mill closures, layoffs and the loss of 300 jobs when CEDU schools closed, Bonners has not only managed to endure like life itself; it has refused to take no for an answer.

"Bonners has been remarkably successful, especially how it has diversified its economy and is going forward," says Tacke. "Many people may not see it, but Bonners is definitely progressing."