Taxable retail sales rose sharply in Kootenai County in the third and fourth quarters of 2003, showing that the economy is gaining strength there.


Farther east, Shoshone County, long an underperformer, also basked in the glow of strong increases in such sales.


Meanwhile, the wood-products industry, an important North Idaho sector that has lagged because of poor markets, is profiting from a resurgence in the lumber and plywood prices in the last part of 2003 and the early part of this year, boosting spirits in Idahos Panhandle counties.


Writing in the January issue of the Idaho Department of Labors newsletter, Kathryn Tacke, the departments Coeur dAlene-based regional labor economist, called Kootenai Countys 11.5 percent increase in third-quarter taxable retail sales one indication of the (countys) strengthening economy. Such sales rose in the county to $267.9 million in the third quarter, from $240.2 million in the year-earlier period.


In Shoshone County, where the economy is surging, taxable retail sales jumped 11.3 percent in the third quarter, rising to $27.4 million from $24.6 million, Tacke said.


Tacke was writing from data that had been reported before the end of the year, but in the fourth quarter the two counties turned in good performances again. In Kootenai County, fourth-quarter taxable retail sales hit $284 million, up 12.7 percent. In Shoshone County, they rose 18.2 percent, to $29.1 million.


Kootenai County, which has enjoyed considerable economic growth in the last decade, has posted some dramatic increases in taxable retail sales at times, so its double-digit growth in the second half of 2003 doesnt mean we had raging increases over a long period of time, Tacke said in an interview. It means things werent as bad as they had been, she says.


Taxable retail sales in Kootenai County dipped in 2002, slipping to $923.9 million from $935.7 million a year earlier, partly due to a falloff in tourism after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Tacke says.


In Shoshone County, however, double-digit increases in such sales are unusual, partly because theyve seen some pretty strong declines over the years, she says.


In the last year, Shoshone County has enjoyed some unusually strong construction activity, and housing prices have firmed up solidly after sliding earlier because of the North Idaho mining industrys lengthy downturn, Tacke says.


There was a time when banks were really paying people to live in houses theyd taken back from previous owners, she says. Only in the last year or so, the vacancy rate has gotten back down to the normal levels.


The stronger wood-products prices are benefiting all five of the Panhandles counties, including Kootenai, where that industry still employs a third of all people who work in manufacturing, Tacke says. The resurgence particularly is helping Benewah County, where Spokane-based Potlatch Corp. employs 330 people at its St. Maries complex, she says.


At wood-products mills across the Panhandle, weve seen more hours being offered to workers, and some rehiring, Tacke says. The most important thing is that were unlikely to have major layoffs.


Such stability at millsmany located in small towns that dont have other major employershelps communities, she says. Also, Tacke says, the industrys economic reach is deep in that the dollars from it flow to the loggers who cut the timber, vendors such as machine shops that provide services and equipment, and other local businesses.