Press conference scheduled at site of new Scientech office complex

Detailed plans for the new Scientech office complex at Snake River Landing are set to be unveiled Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at a news conference at which Mayor Jared Fuhriman will speak.

The event will be at the building site, located off Whitewater Drive and Bluff Street. The project calls for construction of two interconnected office buildings, the first 53,300 square feet of space and the second 55,000 square feet. The project is one of many underway at Snake River Landing. Galusha Higgins & Galusha has a new office under construction, Bandon River Apartments is underway and a new restaurant and retail building on Milligan Road is expected to be open in the fall, with MacKenzie River Pizza as a major tenant.

A business unit of Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Co., Scientech engineers and designs high-tech nuclear and electrical-control instruments. The company employs about 200 people at its existing Idaho Falls facilities on South Woodruff Avenue.

INL division director receives prestigious fellowship from peers

Terry Todd

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers has named Terry Todd, director of the Idaho National Laboratory Fuel Cycle Science and Tech Division, as a fellow. Awarded to outstanding members of the profession who have been working for 25 years or more, it represents the highest degree of recognition by peers of outstanding professional achievements. Todd is the only current INL employee to be named a fellow of the AIChE, which has 45,000 members in 90 countries.

A chemical engineer for 33 years, Todd earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Montana State University. He has a Ph.D. in radiochemical engineering from the Khlopin Radium Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia.

At INL, where he has spent more than 30 years, Todd currently specializes in chemical separations methods to recycle nuclear fuel and reduce waste. He has held numerous leadership positions, and in 2008 earned the INL distinction of laboratory fellow.

In addition to authoring many peer-reviewed publications over his career, Todd has been awarded 29 patents. Some of these patents relate to the Nano-Composite Arsenic Sorbent, an affordable polymer particle that removes the toxic substance from drinking water. The technology received a prestigious R&D 100 Award in 2006.

"I really like what I do," says Todd, crediting his success to teams of collaborators from different disciplines which help foster innovation. "I've worked with some great people … you kind of play off each other."

Aunt Annie's to have ribbon cutting Wednesday at noon

There are 12 flavors of root beer at Aunt Annie's Kitchen, which opened Aug. 1 in the Teton Spectrum.

The Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce has six ribbon cuttings planned between now and the end of the month.

The first will be Wednesday at noon at Aunt Annie's Kitchen, 2631 S. 25th East, next to Cafe Sabor in the Teton Spectrum.

Visitors to the Snake River Roaring Youth Jam may have gotten a taste last week of their fudge and flavored popcorn when they were making samples available there. The business was opened Aug. 1 by John Crook, also the owner of Town and Country Gardens.

Crook 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 is devoted to kitchen space, the other third to retail space. There are close to 50 flavors of popcorn, 30 flavors of taffy, 12 flavors of fudge and 12 different brands of root beer. For more information, here is a link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AuntAnnies.

On Friday at 11 a.m. the Chamber Ambassadors will take their big scissors to The Boot Barn, 1961 S. 25th East, then go at noon to Eagle Home Mortgage, 3040 E. 17th Street. The following Wednesday, Aug. 21, there will be two ribbon cuttings, the first at 3 p.m. at Jacob Grant Property Management, 1075 S. Utah Avenue, the second at 4:30 at The Celt, 398 West Broadway. The latter may seem a little belated, as The Celt is celebrating its first anniversary this month, but better late than never, right?

The last ribbon cutting will be Aug. 23 at 1 p.m. at Reflections Academy of Dance, 680 W. Broadway. It is owned and operated by LaNae Surerus, who also teaches at Eastern Idaho Technical College. For more information and a full class schedule, follow this link: http://reflectionsacademy.com/

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss

Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Thursday it had closed on its previously announced acquisition of Fisher Communications, but KIDK and KXPI, the Idaho Falls-Pocatello stations, apparently won't be part of the $373.3 million sale.

Shortly before the deal, it was announced that KIDK (a CBS/Fox affiliate) and KXPI (a Fox affiliate) were to be sold to VistaWest Media, LLC, a company based in St. Joseph, Mo. The sale is pending, but it means that if the Federal Communications Commission approves the stations will most likely remain operated by News Press & Gazette Co., also based in St. Joseph.

NPG was the company that bought KIFI Local News 8 from the Post Company in 2005. In December 2010, Fisher Communications announced it had entered into a shared services arrangement with NPG, which moved KIDK's operations out of its longtime home on 17th Street and into KIFI's shop on North Yellowstone and also brought about the layoff of more than two-dozen KIDK staffers. That arrangement was finalized Jan. 1, 2011.

Checking in from the East Coast

Dunkin' Donuts in the background. Concord Pike was the 17th Street of Brandywine Hundred when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s. Now it's a superhighway. Also in the background is the Charcoal Pit, a place that dates back to the '50s and was the place to come after football games, dances, movies, etc. Real Archie and Jughead stuff, I know, but those were the days.

Heaven knows I hate to see visits to this blog slow down because of something as trivial as a trip to see my mother, but faithful readers deserve to know I am writing this from muggy Wilmington, Delaware, the city of my youth.

I found this at ShopRite, grocery shopping with my mom. It felt like a letter from home.

I left Idaho Falls Sunday morning at 2:45 a.m. aboard the Salt Lake Express, arriving at SLC International shortly before 7. My first flight, on Frontier Air, was to Denver, leaving at 10:17 a.m. My flight from Denver to Wilmington was at 3:50 p.m., which meant I had a lot of time to kill.

Frontier flies big Airbus jets from Denver to Wilmington three days a week. I sat next to a woman from Bala Cynwd, Pa., who said she was flying in and out of Wilmington because of a.) the cheap fare and b.) that ease of getting in and out of the New Castle County Airport.

This airport, people is, right out of the '60s. No jetways, no baggage carousels, no waiting area to speak of, just a lobby. The last time I'd set foot in it was 1980, when a friend and I went to the lounge to hear saxophone great Dexter Gordon play with a trio. Being quite drunk, Dexter was not "on his game" that night. I don't doubt he was wondering how he had come to the sad state of affairs he was in (this was before Clint Eastwood resurrected his career by involving him in the Charlie Parker biopic "Bird").

Anyway, I don't want any of you regulars to stop coming to BizMojo, so I will be posting notes and letters in the next nine or ten days. If you have any pictures or news to contribute, fire them to me at bizmojoidaho@gmail.com. It has long been my goal to involve readers more in the content of this program, and I will be checking every day.

And if you haven't already, join BizMojoIdaho on Instagram. I will be posting photos of Trader Joe's and Dunkin' Donuts to torment you.

Casapulla's, a sub shop and deli. I would favor bringing a place like this to Idaho Falls for economic development reasons.