North Wind names new company president

Leichtweis

Christopher P. Leichtweis has been named the new president and chief strategic officer of the North Wind Group, according to a news release from the company.

He replaces Sylvia Medina, North Wind's founder, who retired from the company in March.

Leichtweis comes to Idaho Falls from Knoxville, Tenn., where he was a senior vice president and executive officer of Perma-Fix Environmental Services Inc. He previously worked for Bechtel National and Chem-Nuclear Systems, Inc., and has more than 30 years of experience in environmental services and government contracting.

Founded in 1997 in Idaho Falls, North Wind provides engineering, construction and environmental services to federal and state agencies and private industry. It employs more than 300 scientific, engineering, management and professional personnel.

A brief introduction to the Great Race for Education

The Great Race for Education is this Friday. Plenty of people have been involved, even obsessed with it, but for those of you who don't understand the fuss, here's an article I wrote last fall for the Eastern Idaho Technical College publication Insight.

Last year's theme was zombies. This year's theme is superheroes. But whether you want to wear a pair of tights or just some gym shorts, this is an event you might want to check out.

When it came time to bring something new to the four-year-old Great Race for Education, the Eastern Idaho Technical College Foundation turned its attention to the world of the living dead.

Foundation Board President Daren Long has a passion for all things Halloween. Combine that with the intense fan base for zombie television shows and film, and the 2012 Great Race for Education: Zombie Edition was a no-brainer.

"We knew we could really take this event to the next level if we had a theme," said Long. "Zombies are trendy, so it was extremely easy to find ideas, promotional items and new twists to take the event to the next level."

The Great Race already has a corps of passionate participants. When the zombie idea was announced, "(The) reaction from the teams was above and beyond anything we expected," said Michelle Ziel, the foundation’s executive director. Thanks to the Bonneville High School cheerleading squad, the race also had a troupe of zombies pacing the course to throw teams off of their game.

Begun in July 2009, the Great Race is an event in which teams are given clues that lead them to different locations around downtown Idaho Falls, where they perform challenges. Once they've performed five challenges they head back to Snake River Landing. How fast they are able to do this has a lot to do with how quickly they can decipher clues. Teams can also buy additional clues, with the proceeds going to the EITC Foundation's scholarship program.

Although it was a success from the get-go, the race's support in the community has grown dramatically in the past two years. In 2010, once the expenses had been calculated, EITC Foundation reported proceeds from the race around $13,000. In 2012, the foundation came away with slightly more than $32,000 -- an increase of nearly 150 percent.

Although race day is in mid-July, the buildup starts in April with the Trashion Fashion Show at the city of Idaho Falls' Earth Day event. There is active promotion on social media, all with the goal of raising money and recruiting new teams. Teams who participated in the 2012 fashion show had the chance to obtain “zombie immunities” to help protect their runners from lurking ghouls.

The 2012 Great Race saw the biggest number of teams ever. New participants included Premier Insurance, the Old School All Stars, University of Phoenix and Mountain America Credit Union.

While a team can improve its chances of winning by buying clues in advance, taking part in pre-race challenges, and recruiting runners with physical stamina, there are no guarantees. Last summer, first place went to the team from Idaho Treatment Group, which beat out such past-year powerhouses as My Three Stooges, Cargill and Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center (which along with Mountain View Hospital and Snake River Landing, hosts the event).

Once the race is done, everyone enjoys food, music and a special rapport that comes from having done something really significant for the community. At the end of the day, racers participate to change the lives of the students in which their efforts help. Here are a few comments from EITC Scholarship recipients on how their Great Race for Education Scholarship has benefited them and their families.

"Dear Great Race for Education Scholarship Donors: This award allows me to continue to progress toward my degree as a medical assistant much faster than I would be able to do on my own. I will continue to work hard and put forth my best effort to ensure your generous gift was well placed."

"Dear Great Race for Education Donors: I hope that my children will learn from my example that they too can do anything. Thank you again for making this opportunity possible for me and my family."

With next year rapidly approaching, the planning is already underway for the 2013 Great Race for Education. Get your capes and tights ready, and fasten your utility belts. The 2013 year theme will be superheroes, as scholarships save lives one dollar at a time.

Old Stinker station slated for demolition this week

Joe Watkins of Bateman-Hall punches into the pavement at the Stinker Station at First Street and Holmes Avenue. The longtime store, which was Sav-Fast Gas before it became Stinker, was closed Monday, with demolition scheduled to start Wednesday. The new store, diagonally behind it, has been under construction for several weeks and is scheduled to open after Labor Day. The parking lot is going to be expanded, but the gas pumps will remain where they are. And here's some history for you: The old Sav-Fast was where Phylis Nisbet and May McCune of  Idaho Falls bought a Super Lotto ticket in February 1992 that won them $12.3million. Will anyone be so lucky at the new store? One never knows, does one?

When it comes to Greenbelt geese, what about the 'Fido solution'?

Geese and seagulls on the west bank of the Snake River in Idaho Falls.

The city of Idaho Falls has decided it wants to manage the goose population on the Greenbelt. It has approved a $3,000, yearlong contract with USDA Wildlife Services that involves rounding up birds and relocating them to a management area, treating eggs so they don't hatch, and launching a don't-feed-the-birds education campaign.

The City Council is scheduled to consider an ordinance at its July 25 meeting that could impose a fine for feeding wildlife -- not only geese, but seagulls, pigeons and ducks.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned, however, is the "Fido Solution," more commonly called hazing.

I give you this link from the Times Call of Longmont, Colo., from October 2012: Longmont wants dogs for 'goose hazing' on local golf courses.

In the wild, foxes and coyotes are the natural predators of geese. Obviously we don't have an abundance of them in city limits, so the next best critters are obviously dogs.

For a more detailed look at goose management methods, here is an interesting document I found this morning: Managing Problems Caused by Urban Canada Geese.

The section on hazing says this: Geese are afraid of dogs, and they respond quickly when one is in their area. Any dog may be a satisfactory hazer although border collies are preferred because they are bred to herd sheep and are more relentless than other breeds in pursuing geese. However, dogs used for hazing must be supervised by a handler or tethered on a leash or a slip-wire. Some situations may allow the use of an “invisible fence” to restrict the dog. One potential drawback of using dogs to haze geese is that geese may swim out into the middle of the water and wait until the dog leaves. For hazing to be most effective, geese must be made to fly away.

The most compelling paragraph in the report, however, was this one: Elimination of food handouts for urban geese is essential if geese are to be dissuaded from using a site. If people continue to feed geese on the property, the geese will be difficult to remove.

Wild Russet Cafe and Grill open on Lindsay Boulevard

Heather Phillipp, who recently opened the Wild Russet Bar and Grill with her partner, Jay Drahota.

While their main focus is on tourists, Heather Phillipp and Jay Drahota would certainly like locals to come check out their latest venture, the Wild Russet Bar and Grill at 850 Lindsay Boulevard, in the Guesthouse Inn.

The two, partners already in D'Railed, learned last winter that the property was unoccupied after the restaurant, Open Season, and bar, the Twilight Lounge, both closed. Phillipp said she had worked there as a teen-ager and remembered the size of the kitchen.

The kitchen needed work, however, and after reviewing the past arrangement, in which the restaurant was up front and the bar was in the back, they decided to integrate the restaurant and bar and let the hotel have the old bar area for its complimentary breakfast area.

The menu is soups, salads, sandwiches and burgers, supplemented by dishes made from 20 different varieties of potatoes. For the sake of visitors, Phillipp and Drahota wanted to give the place an Idaho theme, so there is a large variety of Idaho wines and locally brewed beers and ales. Guests often ask where they can buy souvenirs, so Drahota and Phillipp would like to start a crafts cupboard with Idaho-themed gift items. Anyone with something they think would fit the bill is welcome to call them at 881-5204.

The Wild Russet does catering and room service, and has a ballroom they hope to rent out for parties and events. "We just keep trying to test ourselves," Phillipp said.