Health & Safety

DRIGGS — Teton County asked the Driggs City Council on July 7 to help pay for its Sheriff's Office, requesting $150,000 for two dispatcher positions, $5,000 toward a data dashboard, and, later, money toward more deputies.

Before it commits any money, the council wants to see how the county's law enforcement uses the funding it already receives. Its members pointed to a "public safety task force" as the place to sort that out. But the same task force is being asked to be three different things at once: a fix for the dispatch center, the county's vehicle for getting the cities to help fund the Sheriff's Office, and the lever Driggs brought to its July 7 meeting to hold that office accountable. The county has already decided the body will advise, not govern.

Teton Valley sheriff blotter, the week of June 14–20. Three hundred ninety-seven calls came in to the Teton County Sheriff's Office. Most were patrol, traffic enforcement, and after-hours security checks.

DRIGGS — Five weeks after Teton County commissioners agreed to stand up an advisory committee to rebuild the county's 911 dispatch arrangement with the fire district, they spent much of an hour on July 1 relitigating what the committee is, who belongs on it, and when it should meet. They pushed their first full meeting to early August.

Teton Valley sheriff blotter, the week of June 7–13. Three hundred forty-five calls came in to the Teton County Sheriff's Office. Most were patrol, traffic enforcement, and after-hours security checks.

Editor's note: The following Fourth of July fireworks safety advisory is from Teton County Fire & Rescue Chief Mike Maltaverne.

DRIGGS — Teton Valley Health Care handed Teton County a $164,750 check Monday that included a $94,749 share of the hospital's 2025 profit. But the recovery behind that payout still rests on a billing operation that isn't working yet, CEO Leianne Everett told county commissioners.

DRIGGS — Highway 33 between Driggs and Victor carried as many as 17,367 vehicles in a single day last summer, an Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) planner told Teton County commissioners June 22. The agency's highest-priority safety project on that stretch, turn lanes at the 6000 South intersection, was scheduled for 2031 and now has no construction money after the Legislature cut the department about $1 billion over seven years.

Teton Valley sheriff blotter, the week of May 31–June 6. Four hundred eighty calls came in to the Teton County Sheriff's Office, the busiest week logged this spring. Most were routine patrol, traffic enforcement, and after-hours security checks.

Teton Valley sheriff blotter, the week of May 24–30. Three hundred and sixty calls came in to the Teton County Sheriff's Office over the Memorial Day holiday week. Most were routine: 93 traffic stops, 65 after-hours security checks, 19 permitted burns. Just one was a DUI arrest.

Three hundred and ninety calls came in to the Teton County Sheriff's Office the week of May 17–23. Most were routine: 118 traffic stops, 46 after-hours security checks, 29 permitted burns. None were DUI arrests.

DRIGGS — Teton County Fire & Rescue Chief Mike Maltaverne asked county commissioners Wednesday to "amicably terminate" the 2024 dispatch services agreement between his district and the county and replace it with a multi-stakeholder advisory committee. Commissioners agreed at the table. The new committee will first draft a replacement agreement before the BOCC winds down the 2024 contract.

Three hundred and three calls came in to the Teton Valley sheriff's blotter this week. Someone set off a firework in a Driggs field on Friday morning, and the field caught fire. It burned a couple of acres before crews knocked it down. A separate unpermitted burn went up in Driggs the same afternoon. No arrest or citation followed either.

DRIGGS — Teton Valley Health Care CEO Leianne Everett told Teton County commissioners May 11 that the hospital is running ahead of budget six months into fiscal 2026, posting a $13,000 operating margin against a forecast loss of $478,000.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — A grizzly attack on the Mystic Falls Trail near Old Faithful injured two brothers on Monday, May 4, the National Park Service said. The agency airlifted both men to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.

DRIGGS — Federal forecasters expect an above-normal fire season across southern Idaho this July. Snowpack across most of the West is at or near record lows after a record-warm mid-March. Spring snow and rain since have driven a fast green-up that's complicating the prescribed burns the Caribou-Targhee National Forest planned to run this spring.

Two hundred and eighty-one calls came in to the Teton Valley sheriff blotter this week. A white horse spent part of Tuesday evening weaving through Highway 33 traffic north of Victor while the sheriff's office worked its way through five possible owners, none of whom owned the horse. The animal left the highway on its own; its fate is unknown.

DRIGGS — A statewide petition drive to put reproductive rights on Idaho's November ballot enters its final 24 days, and Teton Valley volunteers are collecting signatures at four local businesses through the April 30 deadline.

TETONIA — A 35-year-old Rexburg man died Monday morning after his truck struck a dead elk on State Highway 33 and rolled off the road.

DRIGGS — Teton Valley Hospital has secured enough philanthropic support to keep its doors open while leadership evaluates the hospital's long-term future, according to a public FAQ the hospital posted on March 6.

Driggs, Idaho — March 23, 2026