Alright, there's a new partial owner of
Cougar Island on Payette Lake near McCall.
And if you had ventured around Payette Lake,
anytime you kind of know where I'm
talking about kind of sticks out there.
The island is visible in a popular spot of
the lake and actually has family on it with
property on the island leasing a spot there.
Right now Island is owned by the state,
that Whole Island, but Idaho is looking
to sell part of that land or at least all
of it or maybe all of it to maximize,
maximize the financial return as
opposed to just leasing it out.
How do you sell an island?
You do that with an auction.
Joe Paris joins me now with kind
of how that went down today.
That happened?
Yeah, it was pretty interesting.
This afternoon in Eagle,
there's an auction to to do just that,
to buy and sell a piece of property
owned by the state of Idaho.
So people registered to bid on
pieces of Cougar Island or the
whole Highland itself and we'll
get back to that in a minute.
But first, how did we get here?
Well, in June,
Idaho officials voted to sell the 14114
acre High End Island in Payette Lake.
And Governor Brad little and four
other members of the Idaho Land Board,
they voted 5 to 0 to confirm
a previous decision that yes,
they wanted to sell this island.
Now the island has five designated
lots with one lot, as we mentioned,
hosting a cabin and a current lease.
But why did Idaho take the land to auction?
Well, the state constitution
requires the land board to, quote,
maximize financial financial
return over the long term,
benefiting mainly public schools.
And state land managers have said
that Cougar Island is underperforming
financially and selling it.
Is in the state's best interest now.
Critics of the auction like
Valley County Commissioners,
the advocacy group United Payette,
and the Idaho Conservation League,
they pushed for a deal to prevent
the island from being privatized.
Another interesting storyline,
the current leaseholder of the lot
with the cabin was there today to try
and win the auction so they could own
the land they're living on instead of
leasing it from the state of Idaho.
The land Board members had concerns about
the timing of selling the property,
with real estate sales
appearing to soften recently.
So contrary to what?
Critics wanted they went ahead
with the auction today in Eagle,
and here's the moment that one of the
five parcels went final in auction.
Right now we're going to
get ready to close auction.
I'm going to say going once.
Going twice. Soul.
So lot 2 lock one.
2.52 acres for $2,025,000
and the bidder number is.
121.
Thank you all for coming.
And if you have any questions,
please reach out to Emily or myself and
we'd be happy to answer any questions.
Thanks again, and have a great day. So
you heard him there,
a little more than $2,000,000 in the
winner of the auction that you saw there
a minute ago holding up his placard.
That is the current leaseholder, Mr Lasky,
and we've seen your questions around
this story over the last several months,
wondering would it be an outsider coming
in to buy the property? Well, no.
He can tell you that, Mr Lasky.
He is in Idaho.
And so that answers your questions at home.
Now, the other lots today,
they didn't sell and they are different
from the lot that Lasky now owns in the
sense that most of the island is not
conducive to comfortable human living.
So proceeds from the auction, they're
going to go to the state of Idaho again,
a little more than $2,000,000 and that's
going to benefit mainly public schools.
The lots that did not sell today,
though, there's still the state of Idaho.
They still own that and will be
interesting to see where they go from here.
Idaho is likely still looking to sell those,
but we'll see what that looks like
in the coming months, Brian.
And there's been a question out there,
you know, Cougar Island,
it's been there for a very long time.
State of Idaho has owned this
for a long time.
So why now?
Why are they actually selling this?
Well again the the state believed
that with the Hot Idaho housing
market and the real estate market
in recent months and years,
that now would be a really good time to
try and maximize all some of that money.
If you've seen some of the headlines lately,
the real estate market,
the market in Idaho is seeming to
have peaked and go down the other way.
So they're trying to maximize funds to
benefit public schools here in Idaho
as they're supposed to in the Constitution.
OK. So the rest of the island not
conducive to public or to human living as.
As you. About it, I mean,
people could still buy and just use it as,
like, camping grounds, right.
Yeah. And that's kind of what was
outlined in the auctioneer pamphlets
and really some of the information
given to the public saying you
could buy these pieces of land that
they'd essentially be campgrounds.
There's only a very few parts of that
island that you could have a septic
system or you could really have
somebody comfortably living there.
But there are certainly people that
be more than happy to, you know,
take a canoe over and camp overnight
on their own land.
So we'll see if someone wants to buy it.
And this is
the only only a piece of what's being for
sale or being auctioned off or about to,
I should say, in that area.
There's another island up there, Shellworth.
And then plus there's there's a Lakeshore
land that is also being auctioned off.
None of that went today. Nope,
just that one parcel on
that on Cougar Island.
Alright, thank you very much, Joe.