Bandon River Apartments holds grand opening

Angie Ferguison of Thomas Development Co. (left) and Sheila Mitchell, Bandon River Apartments manager, handle the scissors Friday at the apartment complex's grand opening.

Bandon River Apartments at Snake River Landing had its grand opening today, with the obligatory ribbon-cutting by the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors.

Half of the complex's 48 one- and two-bedroom apartments are already occupied. Like Rosselare and Summerhill, Bandon River was built by Thomas Development Co. and Northwest Integrity Housing Co., a development team committed to providing quality housing to people who might otherwise scramble to find a roof over their heads that doesn't leak.

"All people deserve to have a safe, sanitary and very decent place to live," said Tom Mannschreck, a member of the Northwest Integrity board of directors.

In addition to Snake River Landing and the developers, organizations involved in the public-private networking included:
Idaho Housing and Finance Association (low income housing tax credits)
Key Community Development Corp. (equity partner)
Key Bank (construction loan)
Idaho-Nevada Community Development Financial Institution (permanent loan)
Catholic Charities of Idaho (support services)
Erstad Architects (architects)
Pacific West Construction (general contractor)
Tomlinson & Associates (property management)

The project was also aided by tax increment financing made possible through the Idaho Falls Redevelopment Agency. Under tax increment financing, property owners pay taxes on the land as if it were still undeveloped. Taxes they pay on improvements to property are administered by the Redevelopment Agency to pay for streets, storm drainage, power lines, etc. This allows for the development of land that would otherwise be too expensive to improve.

To live in Bandon River, you must be 62 years or older. Rents are charged according to a resident's income on a scale set by the Idaho Housing and Finance Administration.

The developers expect to be awarded the US Green Building Council LEED for Homes Platinum certification, which recognizes attention to sustainable design, energy efficiency and the use of "green" materials.

About 85 percent of the work on the project was done by local subcontractors, said Jason Kunde of Pacific West Construction.

Fall River Electric Co-op holding annual meeting Saturday in Driggs

Fall River Electric Cooperative is hosting its annual meeting for owner-members on Saturday, and for the first-time ever, the meeting is being held in Teton Valley.

To give owner-members from Teton Valley an opportunity to learn more about the co-op's services and product, the meeting will be held in Driggs at Teton High School. The annual meeting is free to anyone who receives power from Fall River Electric.

Free breakfast will be served starting at 8 a.m. -- pancakes, eggs, sausage, hash browns or yogurt, granola and fresh fruit. The first 500 members through the door on Saturday will receive a free seven-outlet advanced power strip, which not only provides quality surge protection but reduces the amount of standby power used by electronics in your home or office.

Members will also be able to register for prizes including a 55-inch flat screen HDTV, a Convectair radiant convection electric heater (a value of over $700), a free home energy audit (which normally costs $235), a 7-in-1 propane gas smoker, and many other smaller items.

The annual business meeting will start at 10:30 a.m. It will include a financial report, a report on key 2013 activities and future plans, presentations from the six candidates vying for three board of director positions, and an opportunity for members to ask questions.

Over a dozen vendor booths will be on-site, featuring information on home improvement, alternative solar and wind energy, summer recreational products, lawn and garden, health and wellness providers, and insulation. Electrical safety demonstrations conducted by Fall River's linemen will be held Saturday morning at 8, 9 and 9:45, where attendees can register to win a free professional grade chain saw.

For the kids there will be a play area, jump houses and rides on the Fall River Propane train.

People who visit the Fall River Propane booth can get a free certificate to fill as many propane cylinders as they want for just $5. Cylinder filling will take place June 10 and 12 in Driggs .

Fluor, NuScale expanding office presence in Idaho Falls

Now that they have a deal with the U.S. Department of Energy, Fluor Corp. and NuScale Power are getting ready to expand their offices in Idaho Falls, in the Taylor Crossing on the River development.

It is not a huge expansion, but it represents the first step in a nine-year march toward building small modular reactors on the Idaho desert.



Oregon-based NuScale, in which Fluor has been the the majority investor since 2011, announced last week that it had signed a contract agreement with the DOE for $217 million in matching funds to support development, licensing and commercialization of the company’s nuclear small modular reactor technology.

After review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NuScale expects to submit an application for design certification in the second half of 2016. This will allow the company to meet a commercial operation date of 2023 for its first planned project, in Idaho, with partners Energy NorthWest and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (of which Idaho Falls Power is a member.)

NuScale's Chief Commercial Officer Mike McGough said the DOE's award was a "very important validation of our efforts," and would make it easier to raise the matching funds from investors. The office in Idaho Falls is more Fluor's than NuScale's -- "They're letting us co-habitate with them," he said -- but it will be where meetings are held regarding such matters as supply chain.

NuScale has had a prototype small modular reactor in operation since 2003.

An artist's rendering of how NuScale's small modular reactor assembly would work. For a full story, visit this link: http://greenbuildingelements.com/2013/07/01/nuscale-powers-small-modular-reactor-chosen-as-preferred-technology-by-western-initiative-for-nuclear/

"The DOE money doesn't pay for construction of a project; the idea is to help fund the development and licensing of the technology," McGough said. The cost of the entire project could top $2 billion.

NuScale has to research an "Idaho-wide region of interest," identifying possible sites on the desert, gathering geological and meteorological information. A lot of that has been gathered at the Idaho National Lab, which dates back to 1949.

While the desert west of Idaho Falls was once home to 52 reactors, only three remain in operation now, most prominently the Advanced Test Reactor, which was built in the mid-1960s. At a conference in Idaho Falls last year, NuScale detailed a goal of building 12 small modular reactors, linked together and generating 545 megawatts by 2025.

Compared to a typical pressurized water reactor generating 1,000 megawatts, the advantage to a small modular reactor of 45 megawatts is that it is a "plug and play" proposition, McGough said. Fluor wants to market nuclear power plants to the world, which is why it bought NuScale.

A design certification application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is typically a document of around 10,000 pages, after which the company would need to get NRC permission to build.

"There's lots of things you have to do, and you have to do them right," McGough said.

Unlike traditional reactors, which rely on electric pumps to keep water on the fuel rods to keep them from melting, NuScale's self-contained, self-circulating reactors shut themselves down during a station blackout.

As for the selection of Idaho Falls, it's a case of going where you are wanted. "If the community won't support it, you just shouldn't try," he said.

As part of the Intermountain Energy Summit scheduled for mid-August in Idaho Falls, NuScale has set up a Supplier's Day on Aug. 21, where possible vendors can engage in "speed dating" -- 15-minute meetings where they can discuss possibilities. "We were blown away by the response," McGough said. "There is a lot of interest in this project."

In its "State of Energy in the West" report of June 2013, one of the Western Governors Association's stated goals was to find ways to accelerate introduction of small modular reactors into Western states.

Landing the Right Job Starts With Your FaceBook Profile

Social media has taken the world by storm. From keeping in touch with family and friends around the world, to event invitations and even how businesses market themselves and their products, social media without a doubt has impacted how businesses operate. It also affects how businesses recruit.

I will be the first to admit that as a business person I thrive on utilizing social media for my recruiting projects. I have 24/7 instant access to a marketing monster that literally markets and recruits for me -– all at the touch of a button. I can’t even imagine why I wouldn’t recruit without at least a small portion of my efforts filtered through social media.

On the flip side, social media is also helping not just my firm, but others to get an idea of the type of candidates that are applying for the jobs I am recruiting. Before you get upset and start screaming out that “social media spying” is an invasion of privacy, it really isn’t.

Recently, CareerBuilder conducted a survey of 2,300 hiring managers on their use of social media in the hiring process. According to the survey, 65 percent of the managers reported they wanted to see if candidates presented themselves professionally.

This alone is important to businesses, because employees represent their companies beyond the workplace. I’ll never forget applying for a job in college and the business owner openly asking me, “If I asked my colleagues about you would they say you were one of those wild and crazy girls drunk and dancing on the bar on the weekend?” This was well before the social media revolution took hold, but it still shows that businesses had a genuine interest in who candidates are as a part of the hiring process.

“Social spying” has been going on for a very long time, but it has expanded well beyond asking your professional pals about candidates and their weekend activities.

When someone sets up a profile on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, etc., there are options for how little or how much information the individual wants the general public to see. Some people are dead set on the general public not being able to see anything unless they can control it (through friend requests, account settings, etc). Then there are those individuals that feel social media is their stage and want to share everything with the world. Either way, that information is online 24/7, which in turn gives instant access to at least some information about you to potential employers.

If you don’t want a potential employer, or anyone else, to know things about you that you don’t want them to know, you really shouldn’t create a profile at all.

Once a resume has been submitted or application has been filled out, I guarantee a handful of hiring professionals are using their favorite search engine to see what results may come up based on a name search. Or they are plugging a candidate’s name into a search on their favorite social media site to get a “real-life” view that goes beyond a resume.

Hear me out when I say this isn’t really a bad thing. Based on the type of profile and content on the profile, your odds of landing an interview, even a job may actually increase based on your last status update or your favorite hobbies. A carefully crafted profile can help showcase personal and professional qualifications while giving a well-rounded view of a candidate. Social media gives businesses the opportunity to have a snapshot of the person behind the resume.

On the flip side, businesses could instantly throw your resume into the shred pile if your profile screams irresponsible party animal. Rule of thumb: If you don’t want to answer questions in a Monday interview about the weekend you just had, you might want to think twice about posting pictures or comments.

Keep in mind that employers are not solely basing their decisions on status updates and profile pictures, but they can have an impact on the decision if you end up as a lead candidate or on the "maybe" list.

If you are serious about seeking out better opportunities anytime in the near future, I suggest taking a serious look at what you are presenting to the world and making sure it is in line with what you would like hiring professionals such as myself to see.

Monica Bitrick is a human relations consultant who lives and works in Idaho Falls.

Bandon River Apartments sets open house Friday

The interior of a model unit at Bandon River Apartments.

Bandon River Apartments at Snake River Landing will be having its grand opening Friday morning at 11.

Like Rosselare on 12th Street, this is an apartment community for people 62 and over. It is a joint project by Thomas Development Co. and Northwest Integrity Housing Co.

Formed in 2009, Northwest Integrity Housing is an Idaho non-profit corporation whose mission is to provide affordable housing for residents in the Intermountain West. Since its formation, Northwest Integrity Housing Co. has helped develop 3 senior apartment communities, which total 129 units. Thomas Development has developed 65 housing communities, including 52 in Idaho.

It is anticipated that Bandon River will receive the prestigious U.S. Green Building Council LEED for Homes Platinum certification, just as did Rosslare, Summerhill and Cardona, our other recent eastern Idaho developments. USGBC LEED for Homes is a rating system that champions energy, water, and resource efficiency, reducing waste, improving indoor air quality for a healthy home, and sustainable, green building design, construction, and operations.

The ribbon cutting ceremony will be held Friday from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Refreshments, prize drawings and apartment tours will be available from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The address is 1755 White Sand Creek Way. For more information, call (208) 524-1268.