Bill's Bike Shop breaks ground on new building Friday at Snake River Landing

An architect's drawing of the new Bill's Bike Shop building at Snake River Landing.

Bill's Bike Shop will be breaking ground Friday on its new 10,000-square-foot building at Snake River Landing, which owner Gary Wight hopes to see finished as early as late December.

Bill's was established in 1947 on Idaho Falls' south side by Bill and Alice Murdoch, and has put at least four generations on two wheels. They've been on Holmes Avenue since the mid-1980s, but Wight, who bought the business in 2010, announced earlier this year they would be moving to Snake River Landing. He said he plans to keep the Holmes Avenue store open in some capacity, but the new building will be a full-service bicycle shop from the ground up, with rooms for meetings and classes and a service department that will help them keep up with the massive amount of repair work they do (roughly 600 bikes a month.)

When it came to finding a bike-friendly location, Snake River Landing, with its miles of paved trails and incorporation of the Idaho Falls Greenbelt, presented itself as an ideal place for test rides and rentals. A 400-acre, master planned community on the west bank of the Snake River between Pancheri Drive and Sunnyside Road, it is laid out to incorporate retail, office, restaurant space, along with homes, all in a development that includes parks, trails and water features.

"I wanted to be where it was bicycle friendly," Wight said.

Before buying Bill's Bike Shop in December 2010, Gary Wight had 30 years of experience in the car business in eastern Idaho. "Aside from two extra wheels and two extra zeros, there isn't much difference between selling bikes and selling cars," he said. (Photo by Melissa Bristol)

KidMojo Idaho: Battle of the Bands applications being taken

KidMojo Idaho: Battle of the Bands applications being taken: Here's the scene from a few years ago, with a combo from Ririe called C.O.V. (according to their MySpace page, now abandoned). Did these y...

City to alter John Adams Parkway, considering speed limit increase

The city of Idaho Falls plans to begin work soon on converting John Adams Parkway from four to three lanes, and is considering raising the speed limit from 25 to 30 miles per hour. The roadway will be restriped with a center two-way left turn lane, one lane eastbound, one lane westbound, bicycle lanes and on-street parking (where roadway width permits).

In order to accommodate the change, on-street parking will be removed between Holbrook Drive and Delbert Drive with minor exceptions.

Two separate roadway projects are scheduled. Starting July 15, the first involves a pavement seal coat that will be placed between Holmes Avenue and John Adams Court. The second, in August, will involve a pavement overlay of John Adams Parkway between Woodruff Avenue and Croft Drive.

If you have questions, contact the city engineering office at 612-8250 or click http://www.idahofallsidaho.gov/city/city-departments/public-works/engineering/john-adams-restriping.html or http://www.idahofallsidaho.gov. For PDF images and maps of this and other project, go to http://www.idahofallsidaho.gov/city/city-departments/public-works/

Commerce Department adopts Main Street Program

The Idaho Department of Commerce has adopted the Main Street Program, created by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as an economic development tool to encourage revitalization in historic business districts throughout the state.

The Main Street Program is already active in several Idaho communities, including Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Nampa, Lewiston and Sandpoint. The Commerce Department's action is intended to expand the program to smaller communities that might not have the resources to implement it on their own.

Department Directory Jeffrey Sayer said the Main Street Program has generated more than $51 billion in new investment and created hundreds of thousands of jobs in commercial districts across the nation. “Many of Idaho’s communities have historical assets in their downtown corridors, and the Main Street Program will enable us to leverage these resources to attract new businesses, while at the same time respecting the history of the buildings that currently occupy these districts," he said.

With partner agencies such as Preservation Idaho and the Idaho Rural Partnership and Idaho universities, the Commerce Department is offering local Main Street organizations training, tools, information and networking they need to be successful.

Gloria Mabbutt, a 33-year veteran of the Idaho Department of Commerce, has been named interim executive director of Idaho’s Main Street Program. Her job is to coordinate the designation and national accreditation of local Main Street programs and provide the support needed to help the local programs succeed.

For additional information, call her at (208) 334-2470 or e-mail Gloria.Mabbutt@commerce.idaho.gov

To learn more about Main Street programs, follow this link: http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/about-main-street/the-programs/

Beaver Dick the Fifth Beatle?

Went out to take a picture this morning of the excavation work on Memorial Drive and what did we see? OMG! Yes, the work is proceeding, and traffic between Broadway and E Street is limited to two lanes. No, we didn't see John, Paul, George and Ringo crossing the road except in our fevered imagination, because the picture we came away with made us think of the iconic Abbey Road album cover, albeit with Beaver Dick in the background. With Adobe Photoshop at our disposal, we couldn't resist.