Road work delays traffic on 17th, Pancheri, Yellowstone

Crews are milling the tops of Yellowstone Avenue and 17th Street, so lanes will be closed this week. Expect delays.

I don't know how many of you were driving on 17th, Pancheri or Yellowstone this morning around 8:45, but anyone who was probably wondered what was going on. There were lanes blocked off and cars lined up for blocks and blocks.

Here's the most current information from the city of Idaho Falls Public Works Department:

17th to Pancheri: Crews began milling the top of the roadway Monday at 8 p.m. Today HK Contractors was to install traffic loops and Wednesday morning the plan is to mill up to Holmes Avenue. Milling involves taking the top of the roadway off and flattening it.

D Street Underpass: Cannon Builders will finish the demolition of the old bridge structure this week. One lane of Yellowstone will be closed from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

John Adams Bridge: Cannon Builders will be paving approaches off bridge this week and finishing concrete sidewalks.

ADA/Gutter replacement: At various locations throughout the city, curbs and gutters are being made compliant to the Americans With Disabilities Act.

If you don't like waiting in traffic, it would probably behoove you to find an alternate route this week.

Idaho Falls gearing up for annual July 4 festivities

Fireworks over the Snake River at the 2012 Melaleuca Freedom Celebration.

Hard to believe, but the Fourth of July is one month away. As usual, Idaho Falls offers a lot on Independence Day. Nothing as extraordinary as a dog fighting a badger, which actually was offered as entertainment in the 1920s (I wrote the Post Register's "Looking Back" column for 12 years, so I know these things), but nevertheless there's good, wholesome fun for people of all ages.

The Military Affairs Committee will start the day with the Firekracker 5K Fun Run, 7 a.m. at Tautphaus Park. Registration forms can be found at Firekracker 5k. Will the race be more fun than ever now that they're spelling its name with a "k"? I kan't wait to find out, but I need to do some serious roadwork in the next month if I hope to finish at all.

Once the run is over, South Boulevard will be cleared for the State of Idaho's largest Fourth of July parade. Beginning in the Idaho Falls High School parking lot, the route goes down Fourth Street, left on South Boulevard and all the way to Tautphaus Park. At 9 a.m., classic cars and Idaho Falls Police Department will start the parade, the theme of which this year is "Pride in Patriotism.” There are more than 100 floats signed up, and more 50,000 people are expected to line the route. This year's theme:  "Stay True to the Red, White and Blue."  Click HERE for Parade Rules & Guidelines.

The Liberty Festival on the Falls bridges the gap between the parade in the morning and the fireworks in the evening. Sponsored by Snake River Landing, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, Apple Athletic Club and Melaleuca, the festivities will be located on Memorial Drive between Broadway and E Street in beautiful downtown Idaho Falls. Over 20 food vendors and 50 businesses, which include arts and crafts vendors, will showcase their products and services during the festival. Fair-like games and activities will amuse the whole family. There will be pie and watermelon eating contests for children and adults. Children will enjoy the inflatable jumpers which will entertain them for hours. And finally, it wouldn’t be a festival without live music by local bands:  Desert Harmony, Happyville, The Galaxy Forest and the Affection Collection.

In the evening at 10 of course comes the big show, the fireworks display, the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration, one of the most spectacular fireworks displays west of the Mississippi. which draws tens to thousands of people to town. Find your favorite spot early. Here's the Web page if you want to read about it: Melaleuca Freedom Celebration.

Idaho Falls drive-in theaters open for summer; owners seek buyer

Right now the Sky-Vu and Motor-Vu drive-in theaters in Idaho Falls are only open on weekends, but that will change to a full-week schedule in a few weeks with the advent of summer.

Idaho Falls' two drive-in movie theaters, the Motor-Vu and the Sky-Vu, are still for sale, but if you think you're going to buy them for a peanuts you've got another thing coming.

The price for both is $2.4 million or $1.2 million apiece, said Marcia Leonard, who owns the properties with her mother, Dr. Elizabeth Page Dewsnup. "They make a lot of money," she said. "The people here love them."

It costs adults $7 for a double feature at the Sky-Vu.

The Sky-Vu sits on 9.1 acres on the south side of town, on land near the Snake River that could be very valuable for development. Anyone who wants to buy the property by itself has to promise not to operate the drive-in, because they don't want competing theaters, Leonard said.

The Motor-Vu is on 6.0 acres on the north side of Idaho Falls, with good canal frontage and water rights.

One can be forgiven for wondering how Idaho Falls, Pop. 57,000, hangs onto two "ozoners" while they are disappearing right and left all over America. In 1958, the United States had close to 4,000 drive-in movie theaters, said Jennifer Sherer Janisch, who operates the Web site www.drive-ins.com. Today, that number is less than 400.

Two things brought about their demise in the ’70s and ’80s -- rising land values and the advent of VCRs, DVDs and the Internet. That trend slowed down in the ’90s, and although she recognizes drive-ins will never be the mass market phenomenon they were in the Eisenhower era, Sherer said she’s hopeful about the future.

“In the last several years we've seen drive-in expansion, drive-in re-openings, and even brand new drive-ins,” she said. “Aside from the unique atmosphere and the fact that it's so affordable, people want good, clean fun, and drive-ins have it."

Leonard said people's love of the outdoors and family activity have made the local drive-ins successful. Although only open on the weekends at the moment, the Sky-Vu has a first-run double feature, "Star Trek: Into Darkness" and "Fast and Furious 6." The Motor-Vu's fare is a little older -- "Iron Man 3" and "Oz The Great and Powerful" -- but still fresh enough that some people may have not seen them.

Even if they have, "For $7, it's a good value," Leonard said.

Health Care Reform seminar scheduled June 12 at EITC

The Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce, Eastern Idaho Technical College and the law firm of Hawley Troxell are sponsoring a seminar June 12 called "What Employers Need to Know About Health Care Reform."

With 2014 only six months away, the clock is ticking for Idaho employers to bring themselves into compliance with the Affordable Care Act. Larger employers are looking at penalties if they do not provide minimum health coverage, but even before implementation employers are going to have to comply with new rules, fees and reporting requirements.

The program will be from 9 to 11 a.m. in the EITC Health Care Education Building, Rooms 6163 and 6164. Breakfast will be provided. To secure a seat, RSVP by 5 p.m. Friday using this link: Health Care Seminar Reservation.

The speakers will be Tom Mortell, Kara Heikkila and Bret Clark of Hawley Troxell, who will walk employers through a timeline for compliance and provide background information to make sense of the law. Topics will include compliance deadlines and how to properly classify employees and independent contractors to avoid or minimize penalties.

For more information, email jswenson@hawleytroxell.com or call (208) 388-4919.

D is for "demolish"

It has been said that if anything stands long enough, however ugly it may be it will become a landmark. This was certainly the case for the old D Street Underpass, which became history on Wednesday. The city and the Union Pacific Railroad are engaged in replacing the ancient, crumbling subway with a much wider and safer structure, to be finished in 2014. Sentimentalists, take heart. The old stone tower, on the right, the last remnant of the railroad depot that was torn down in 1964, remains on the grassy knoll overlooking North Yellowstone Avenue.