Horrocks Engineers opening office in Idaho Falls at Snake River Landing

Horrocks Engineers will be opening a new office in Idaho Falls at 901 Pier View Drive Suite 205 in Snake River Landing. The company will occupy approximately 1,400 square feet on the second level of the building.

Founded by Gilbert Horrocks in 1968, Horrocks is one of Utah's leading civil engineering firms. The company designs and builds roadways, water systems, treatment plants, utilities. Headquartered in Pleasant Grove, it has 12 locations, in Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada. The Idaho Falls office is the second in Idaho,, following Nampa.

The new office is being managed by Clint  Boyle, who has 18 years experience in all stages of land development working with developers, architects, government agencies and other regulatory entities. Boyles’s specialized knowledge of planning and development spans both public and private sectors. In the 1990s he was employed by the city of Idaho Idaho Falls Planning and Building Department.

“After growing up in the Idaho Falls area, I am excited to now have the opportunity to open a branch office for Horrocks Engineers here,” he said. "With the depth and breadth of Horrocks’ services supporting this office and my familiarity with the area, we will provide exceptional services.”

For more information about Horrocks Engineers, contact Boyle at (208) 522-1223.

Town & Country Gardens plans remodel for 50th anniversary

Town & Country Gardens owner John Crook

Town & Country Gardens' 50th anniversary will be next year, and for the occasion owner John Crook hopes to have a remodel done that will expand the business both in size and purpose.

Crook's father, Howard, started the nursery in 1964 on three acres of ground south of Idaho Falls. Today, Town and Country covers seven acres, with 11,000 square feet of green house space, 8,000 in shade house and 8,000 in storage.

Having survived the last five years, when the market for landscaping collapsed alongside new home construction, Crook said they are on an even keel. The plan for expansion is one that has been in the works for a long time. The front buildings will be torn down to make room for more parking and the front of the business will be where the shade houses now are. There will be more pooling in the greenhouses, and better climate control for the really hot times of the year.

Crook had thought the remodel would be farther advanced, but the architects and engineers have have presented him with surprises from time to time. At one point they were telling him that it would be more expensive to remodel than it would be to tear everything down and rebuild, but they have since learned they don't have to meet any different codes in the county to put the buildings to new uses.

As if Crook doesn't have enough on his mind, he is also opening a fudge and popcorn shop, Aunt Annie's Kitchen, in the Teton Spectrum near the Edwards Cinema. He said he got the idea from someone he met last year during a meeting in Chicago.

Two-thirds of the building's 1,200 square feet will be devoted to kitchen space, the other third to retail. There will be close to 50 flavors of popcorn, 30 flavors of taffy,12 flavors of fudge and 10 different brands of root beer.

"I think it's going to do well," Crook said.

Bakery opening on First Street; Happy Chinese, Idaho Youth Ranch plan moves

Here are a few more tidbits gleaned today from my visit to the Idaho Falls Building Department office and keeping my eyes and ears open as I go about my business

F.J ."Tiger" and Neccia Hahn, are remodeling a house at 335 First Street into Buttercup Bakery and Bistro. They hired Alderson Karst and Mitro of Idaho Falls for the redesign, and when finished the project will be 977 square feet. Neccia Hahn recently spent time in Northern California to learn the ins and outs of making artisinal bread.

The Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/pages/Buttercup-Bakery-Bistro.

Happy Chinese Restaurant has filed plans to relocate to 504 Shoup Avenue, where the Grand Victoria Wedding and Reception Center used to be. The floor plan features seating for 135.

Idaho Youth Ranch is planning to relocate its thrift store from 478 Shoup Avenue to the vacant Honk's 99 location on Woodruff Avenue next to WinCo Foods. More floor space, more parking. The opening date of the new store has been set for Aug. 3.

We'll be reporting more on this as the summer progresses.

Galusha Higgins & Galusha moving to Snake River Landing

Can you guess what this foundation at Snake River Landing is going to be? No, it's not McKenzie River Pizza, Bandon River Apartments or Scientech. This will be the new home of Galusha Higgins & Galusha, the accounting firm that will be moving from downtown into a building that has 6,265 square feet on the main floor and 1,429 in the basement, according to plans at the Idaho Falls Building Department office. The address is 1220 Whitewater Drive. The contractor is Morgan Construction.

Movie Review: World War Z

Brad Pitt and family flee the zombie apocalypse in "World War Z"

Reviewed by NATHAN COOK

Doubters thought this apocalyptic effort could only end in disaster, but the latest zombie thriller manages to be surprisingly good and constantly engaging.

It starts out like any regular day in Philadelphia. Brad Pitt plays a family man who has left behind his old life as a United Nations specialist to spend more time with his wife and kids. After breakfast, he drives the family around town only to enter into a traffic jam.

This is no ordinary traffic jam, however since the civilians trying to drive through have no idea of what’s going on. The terrifying answer: ZOMBIES!

It seems that everybody is running through the streets to escape the hordes of the undead. Some aren’t lucky. They are killed and instantaneously transformed into zombies themselves. Others, like Pitt and his family, manage to get out alive … for now.

After taking refuge in the nearby apartments for a night, they rush up to the rooftop evading yet another wave of ghouls. Successfully boarding a helicopter, they are guided to an aircraft carrier in the ocean. The family is given a place to stay while Pitt agrees to travel across the globe to fight zombies, find answers, and perhaps come up with some sort of solution that will allow humanity to fight back against the epidemic.

This film is different from other zombie flicks in that it treats the situation less like an arena of carnage and more like global crisis, giving it a more realistic air. Director Marc Forster handles the thrilling set pieces and suspenseful moments well, which gives life to the proceedings. Kudos to the animalistic movements of the zombies, which give a new meaning to the term “horde”.

When the undead aren’t wreaking havoc, Pitt and company are locked in a briskly paced race against time to stop the infection from spreading. Unlike most apocalyptic films, the film has a visual flavor all around, from the cool, busy center of Philadelphia turned into a heart of doom to the bleak, desolate South Korean outpost trapped in the rain, to the warm, walled-up city of Jerusalem still abundant with life. The score is minimal, though the main opening theme is ambient yet attention-grabbing. It is like a warning of the perils to come.

The film’s major asset, Pitt himself. He gives a solid performance as a hero who relies mostly on his wits and experience. Behind the scenes, ever since a film adaptation of Max Brooks’ 2006 novel was first conceived, it was Pitt who had interest and faith in the material. He sought to get it backed by a major studio and launched into production. There were many struggles between Pitt and Forster, production problems, script rewrites (the third act was entirely altered), and release delays for conversion into 3D, which resulted in it being the most expensive zombie movie ever made. It seems as if Pitt has endured the brutalities of war just to see this film come alive onto the big screen.

WWZ is not without its flaws though. The opening sequence is marred by an excessive amount of chaos with the dreaded action-film combination of shaky-cam and quick-cut ending, to the point that some of it is nearly incomprehensible. Plot holes progressively unravel as the film winds towards its wide-open ending.

It’s hard to make a PG-13 zombie film, as graphic displays of blood and gore are the bread and butter of the genre. The filmmakers attempted to tone all of this down, but the lack of grisly carnage causes the result to feel watered down

I cannot compare the film to the novel since I have not read it. I have heard from those who have that this film is loosely adapted, which is a drawback for them. Gamers might recognize that a few scenes are similar to levels in the video game “Left 4 Dead.” Nothing like having your story-boarding done in advance, I guess.

All in all, though, “World War Z” is a well-done, effective piece of work that turned out to be much better than expected. It delivers the goods for a summer blockbuster and offers a pleasant, mindful diversion from the other apocalyptic flicks coming out this year.

Nathan Cook is a recent graduate of Skyline High School who will be attending Boise State University in the fall.