IDAHO FALLS/POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) —The City of Pocatello officially welcomed new Mayor Mark Dahlquist and City Council Members Dakota Bates, Stacy Satterfield, and Ann Swanson during the City Council meeting on Jan. 8, 2026.

Mayor Dahlquist, a lifelong resident of Pocatello, brings extensive experience in leadership and management to the role. From 2007 until 2025, he served as Chief Executive Officer of NeighborWorks Pocatello, where he focused on housing, community development, and neighborhood revitalization. Before that, he spent 17 years in leadership and management positions with Farmers Insurance.

After the ceremony, Dahlquist said, “To make our community the very best it can be. Just remember to be involved. Volunteer being advocates for the community. We all together will make this community rise and be the very best it can be.”

The City also recognized the three City Council members who were sworn in following the November election.

In Idaho Falls Mayor-elect Lisa Burtenshaw officially began her term, taking the oath of office alongside elected City Council members during a ceremony at the City Council Chambers.

In addition to Burtenshaw, Brandon Lee was sworn in to City Council Seat 1. Jim Francis and Jim Freeman, who were reelected to Seats 4 and 6, also took the oath to begin their new terms.

Burtenshaw’s term begins following her election in December 2025. She succeeds outgoing Mayor Rebecca Casper, who served the city for 12 years and leaves a legacy of dedicated public service.

“I am honored to serve the residents of Idaho Falls and to begin this next chapter with such a dedicated City Council,” Burtenshaw said. “I look forward to engaging with our community, listening to their ideas, and working together to make Idaho Falls a great place to live, raise a family and grow a business.”

BOISE, Idaho — It has been a dismal year for snow, but we’ve actually received more precipitation than normal in the Boise and Payette River basins. The difference has been the temperature, and we are trying to learn what the change in climate means for water users— both commercial and recreational.

“If you think about the lack of snow we have gotten in the Treasure Valley, it is unusual,” said hydrologist Troy Lindquist with the National Weather Service.

Click here to see the conditions and hear from the National Weather Service.

Water Outlook does not look promising, but it could be worse without all the precipitation

The mountains of western and central Idaho received some snow this week, and that bumped up the snow water equivalent to 83 percent of average in the Boise Basin, 81 percent in the Payette River Basin, and 69 percent in the Weiser River Basin.

The lack of snow is obvious at lower elevations, but we have also received 4.88 inches of rain at the Boise Airport since the beginning of October, a full inch above the average. I wanted to talk with Troy Linquist to learn more about this strange winter and what it means for the future.

“If we don’t have that mid and low elevation snowpack, that’s just overall going to decrease the spring run-off,” said Lindquist. “Instead of it holding as snow and holding in the mountains, that rain has increased the reservoir system.”

I’ve been out kayaking as the South Fork of the Payette River is flowing at normal summer levels and has been for several weeks.

Most of Idaho’s rivers are flowing higher than normal, including Mores Creek, which dumps into Lucky Peak Reservoir.

It’s good news, but not as good as if the precipitation was sticking around in the mountains in the form of a deep snowpack.

“If we just don’t get the snow that is going to impact the water supply, it’s going to impact vegetation, spring flows, the health of the ecosystem, and stuff like that,” added Lindquist.

The team at the National Weather Service will continue to monitor the situation daily and Troy Lindquist told me the outlook for the next ten days doesn’t look good. However, the wet winter months are a marathon, not a sprint— with several months left to improve the outlook. That said, it could also get worse.

“We got the second half of January, February, and March where we can accumulate snowpack,” explained Lindquist. “We do have time to see that snowpack recover, and that’s what we are hoping for.”

The Boise system has pretty good carryover from last year between Anderson Ranch, Arrowrock, and Lucky Peak. The system is 58 percent full, and the Payette system is 71 percent full.

Some of Idaho’s river basins are actually doing pretty well right now, but southern Idaho is doing the worst, as the Owyhee River Basin is sitting at 20 percent of its average snowpack.

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