LOWMAN, Idaho — Nestled along the Payette River and down Highway 21 from Lowman, Kirkham Hot Springs has become a flashpoint for the small Idaho community.
On Tuesday, county commissioners met with Lowman residents to discuss the issues locals and business owners see with the popular hot springs and to begin brainstorming solutions for the chronic issue.
"The diapers, the condoms, the female products, the cans and the needles. It is getting horrific. It is getting downright scary," Lowman resident Angela Hellwege told county commissioners on Tuesday.
Boise County Commissioners, the county sheriff and Lowman residents all agreed that the National Forest Service could do more to help address the plague of trash left behind.
"It starts at the Forest Service level – it requires a ranger to be proactive. My guys can roll in there, they can do certain things and enforce certain things but there is a lot of it we can't do," Sheriff Scott Turner said.
However, locals worry that the Forest Service might clamp down hard on the hot springs and close it down, much like what the Bureau of Land Management did with Skinny Dipper Hot Springs five years ago.
"If they shut Kirkham down all of our spring, winter, and fall business goes away, I will guarantee you half of our business this winter was from Kirkham," Marla Lawson, a business owner in Lowman, said.
Despite their complaints about the overused and abused hot springs, residents did provide possible solutions to the issue, including adding entrance fees and reimbursing people who pick up their trash.
"I think after this meeting we can agendize it, we can have some solutions and start moving on it, but I think everybody here can agree we have to light a fire under the Forest Service's butt," Commissioner Steven Twilegar said.
Officials from the Forest Service did not attend the commissioners' meeting but the department will host its own meeting at 6 p.m. on June 11 at the Lowman Fire Station on Highway 21.