Downtown Development Corp. seeks donors for new flower baskets on Memorial

It costs $85 to fund a flower basket in Downtown Idaho Falls this year.

The remodel of Memorial Drive took place last year in the late fall, which means no one has seen it in its summer splendor.

To maximize the effect, for tourist and townie alike, the Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corp. is looking this year for people or businesses to help fund 42 hanging baskets on the Greenbelt. This is in addition to the 76 baskets that will be hanging from light poles downtown.

Cost of sponsoring a basket is $85. Bob Everhart, DDC's executive director, said he is confident they will get the money they need for downtown baskets, but admitted that finding the money for 42 new ones represents a challenge ($3,570, to be precise).

Still, once summer arrives the results ought to be worth it. "Combined with the city planters on Memorial, we think the baskets will make the Greenbelt look amazing," he said.

Anyone who sponsors a basket gets a sign that hangs by it. "You can have your business name put on, your family name, or donate a basket as a ‘gift’ and have their name placed on the sign," said Mala Lyon, the contact person with DDC.

For more information, call (208) 535-0399 or e-mail Lyon at mala@downtownidahofalls.com.

Lobbyist to give legislative overview at Mayor's Business Day

John Watts of Veritas Advisors

John Watts of Veritas Advisors will be the keynote and luncheon speaker April 2 at Mayor's Business Day.

Watts, who served under Idaho Govs. John Evans, Cecil Andrus and Phil Batt, will deliver a 2013 Idaho Legislative Session Overview. The luncheon is from noon to 1:30 p.m. at O'Callahan's, inside the Shilo Inn. Tickets are $25 and seating is limited. Tickets may be reserved online at www.idahofallschamber.com.

A partner at Veritas Advisors since 1999, Watts manages ballot issues and candidate campaigns and presents campaign seminars across the nation and in Canada. He specializes in campaign issue identification, message development, voter targeting and direct mail strategy. He has been lobbying since 1983, representing public and private clients in the Idaho Legislature, including AT&T, Shell, Nestle, Pacific Ethanol, Windland and Watco Railroads.

Tower closure doesn't mean airport will close

The Federal Aviation Administration's decision to cut funding for the control tower at Idaho Falls Regional Airport doesn't mean the airport will be closing.

Airport Director Craig Davis said he has received word from United Express, Delta and Allegiant Air that they will continue to provide the same number of flights. In fact, more than a dozen commercial flight take off or land at IFRA each week durin hours when the tower is closed.

Idaho Falls and Pocatello were on a list released Friday of more than 100 airports where towers would be closed because of across-the-board federal spending cuts that went into effect Marxh 1.

Local pilot Mike Hart offered this take on what the effect is likely to be: "Imagine what traffic on 17th Street would be like if instead of traffic lights and turn arrows at each intersection you had four-way stops. Traffic would continue, it would just be slowed down and more frustrating."

Davis said the top consideration of the city and the airport management will continue to be safety.

Smith Group plans to move Chevy, Honda dealerships to Sunnyside Road

Excavation work on the land where the Smith Group plans to relocate its Chevrolet and Honda dealerships.

In an update from earlier this week, Stafford Smith, owner of the Smith Group, confirmed Thursday that he plans to move his Chevrolet and Honda dealerships to land he is developing on the south side of Sunnyside Road, near Interstate 15 Exit 116.

Smith has asked the Bonneville County Commission to change the zoning on 19 acres changed from agricultural to commercial. But crews are already digging trenches for the Porter Canal, which flows south from Snake River Landing and needs to be piped under the land before any surface work can start.

Smith said he is racing against the clock. What he is able to do this year depends on whether he can get the canal covered before the water starts flowing. If that happens, they will be able to start grading the land and paving the lots. Smith said he figures he has until around April 15.

Tacoma Screw Products plans 10,000-square-foot store for Idaho Falls

Earlier this month we reported that Tacoma Screw Products, a 66-year-old company with 16 stores in the Pacific Northwest, had bought the old Plaza Lanes property at 1811 North Yellowstone Avenue.

John Wolfe, the company's former CEO and current "executive adviser," said the company plans to start building its new store in early May and that they hope to be open in the fall. It will be about 10,000 square feet and much like the company's stores in Boise and Twin Falls.

The biggest challenge was finding a buyer for the lanes inside the old Plaza Lanes building, which has to be torn down before any new construction can begin. The wood is being cut up and shipped to a business in the southeastern United States that fabricates old lanes into table and bar tops.

"I've learned a lot about bowling lanes on this job," Wolfe said. One thing he didn't know was that maple is used for the parts of the lane where people let go of the ball and where the pins are set up. That's because it has to stand up to more punishment. In the middle section where the balls simply rolls, the lane is made of softer wood, like pine or fir.

Wolfe said he knew very little about Idaho Falls before checking the market out as a possible store location, but that he has been "impressed a lot by the upscale nature of development in the area."

Tacoma Screw Products has a very diversified customer base that includes retail, manufacturing, construction, transportation, aerospace, maritime, agricultural, food processing, recreational, institutional operations, and city, county, state, and federal governmental agencies. When customers need custom or special fasteners that are oversized, require special threading or bending, the company has a machine shop to fabricate them.

The company typically employs three or four people to work in a store and three or four people to handle outside sales.

Here's a link to a story about the company that ran last fall in the Tacoma News Tribune: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/10/28/2347441/tacoma-screw-broadens-its-sales.html.

And here's the link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tacomascrew