Zions names new president for eastern Idaho

Merri Johnson

Zions Bank has named Merri Johnson its Eastern Idaho region president.

Johnson joined Zions in 2001 as a customer service manager in the Idaho Falls Downtown Financial Center and later was promoted to operations manager for the region. She has served as financial center manager, commercial loan officer and consumer loan officer.

In her new position she is responsible for the “strategic direction, market share growth and profitability of the region’s 13 financial centers,” according to a Zions news release. She also directs the region’s retail sales and service, small business lending, financial center operations and community relations efforts.

Zions Bank operates 25 full-service financial centers in Idaho and 100 financial centers in Utah. The company's Web site is www.zionsbank.com.

Japanese restaurant opens in Teton Spectrum

Fuji Japanese Hibachi and Sushi, in the Teton Spectrum.

Fuji Japanese Hibachi & Sushi has opened at 2625 S. 25th East, in the Teton Spectrum where Game World used to be.

Based in Little Rock, Ark., the chain typically seeks out smaller markets for its restaurants — places like Grand Island, Neb., and Rapid City, S.D. “We have discovered people love food in the small cities,” said spokeswoman Michelle Guo. “We would like everybody in the community to give us a shot when we open.”

The interior décor has a Japanese theme including hibachi tables where the chef prepares the meal in the middle of the table, which contains a heating element.

There is also a sushi bar, where diners can watch the chef at work preparing rolls and sushi pieces.
The Ammon location has 16 hibachi stations and a separate banquet room that can accommodate up to 40. Overall, the seating capacity is 323.

Hours are Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

To view the menu, visit http://experiencefuji.com/home/3162136. To like them on Facebook, click here.

Pulitzer Prize winning author to speak April 9 in Idaho Falls

Diane McWhorter

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Diane McWhorter, author of Carry  Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climatic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, will be the speaker at the Idaho Humanities Council's 8th Annual Eastern Idaho Distinguished Humanities Lecture and Dinner on Thursday, April 9, 7 p.m., at the Shilo Inn in Idaho Falls.

Tickets are available for purchase by clicking here or by calling the IHC toll free at 888-345-5346.

General tickets are $45. Benefactor tickets are $75 and include an invitation to a pre-dinner reception with McWhorter in a private home and preferred seating at the dinner and lecture.

At the Shilo, the evening will begin with a no-host reception at 6 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7 p.m. with McWhorter's talk to follow. Copies of Carry Me Home will be available onsite from Barnes and Noble, and McWhorter will be available for signing afterwards.

The event is being supported by the William J. and Shirley A. Maeck Family Foundation, Teton Toyota and Volkswagen, Bank of Idaho, Idaho Public Television, INL, Barnes and Noble, Melaleuca, Steve and Cindy Carr, the Carr Family Foundation and KISU Radio.

A native of Birmingham, McWhorter started Carry Me Home as an effort to understand her own family's involvement in the cataclysmic events of 1963. "McWhorter pursued her search as both daughter and citizen, making her family a metaphor for her country," says the writeup in the New York Times Book Review of March 18, 2001. "Each encounters its own wrongdoing and lives with suspicions about itself, but her family's revelations inspire more relief than what she learns about her country."

Currently a professor at Harvard University, McWhorter is an American journalist and commentator who has written extensively about race and the history of civil rights in America. She is a longtime contributor to the New York Times and has written for the op-ed page of USA Today, Slate, and many other publications. Carry Me Home was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize in 2002. It also won the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, is one of Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Non-fiction Books since 1923, and made the "Best Books List" in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Chicago Tribune, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and American Heritage.

Here is a program from 2013 in which McWhorter talks about her experience researching and writing about civil rights in her native state.

Teton Toyota celebrating 10th anniversary this weekend

Mario Hernandez

Teton Toyota/Scion will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this weekend, and to say the past 10 years have not been an adventure would be a gross understatement.

Pocatello native Mario Hernandez came to Idaho Falls in 2005 to take over Rocky Mountain Toyota when it was still on East Anderson Street. At the time, Sunnyside Road had not been expanded westward to link with Interstate 15, and the Snake River Landing development was in its birthing stages.

Hernandez and his crew led the land rush to the south, planning a new dealership on the north side of Sunnyside. It opened there about the same time the economy went into recession, but at least publicly Hernandez never questioned the wisdom of the move.

Ten years later, Teton Toyota has been joined by Teton Volkswagen in Idaho Falls and Teton Honda and Teton Hyundai are coming to Pocatello.

In its ten years, the company has proved itself a good corporate citizen, supporting events like the Great Race for Education. Hernandez and his wife, Glenda, are involved with The Idaho Falls Arts Council, the Idaho Falls Symphony, the Snake River Animal Shelter, School Districts 91 and 93, the Holy Rosary School, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and Ducks Unlimited.

The celebration begins today at 11 a.m. Lunch will be served today and tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Anniversary pricing will be available all weekend. And of course Buddy, Hernandez’s black lab, will be on hand to greet guests.

Hotel on the Falls reopens today

The view from the balcony of the Hotel on the Falls' Presidential Suite, on the eighth floor.

The Hotel on the Falls, an Idaho Falls landmark for almost 40 years, is back in business today, with a new owner and refurbished rooms.

The 85-room, eight-story building at 475 River Parkway, which dates back to 1978, when it was known as the Westbank Tower, was sold at auction Jan. 22. The new owner is Idaho Falls Lodge LLC, a company affiliated with Colorado Hospitality Services Inc. of Northglenn, Colo. Colorado Hospitality Services is owned by Bruce Rahmani of Denver, Colo. The Bonneville County Assessor’s Office reported the sale price to be $2.3 million.

It had gone into receivership in June 2014, when the property’s  then-owner, Idaho Hotel Holdings, filed a default judgment against the management company, Om Shiv Ganesh LLC, for more than $3.4 million. In the interim, it was run by Westerra Realty & Management, a Salt Lake City company that found the new buyers.

"It's in pretty good shape, really," said Brady Kraupp, who has managed the property throughout the transition and oversaw the refurbishing of rooms. There are new TVs, artwork, linens and furniture, but the eight-story hexagonal tower still boasts a lot of its old character. ”I could be partial, but we still have the best view and the biggest rooms,” Kraupp said.

The Westbank dates back to 1928, when Ferris Clark, son of Mayor Barzilla W. Clark and the grandson of Joseph A. Clark, Idaho Falls' first mayor, built two log buildings by the Snake River to accommodate an ever-growing number of motorists on their way to Yellowstone National Park. Over 52 years, Clark expanded the Westbank, first with a red brick motel, then a restaurant and lounge, then a two-story red brick motel. Clark is said to have had plans for a second tower, but declining health sent him into retirement in 1980. He died in 1987 at age 79.

Since the '80s, the hotel has gone by different names, including Red Lion and finally the Hotel on the Falls. Until 2012, the property was owned by Jim and Sharon Bennett and Robert and Sharon Paulus, the children of Olga Gustafson Rigby. In 2012, the hotel was deeded to trusts set up by the families while local businessman Dane Watkins bought the motel, restaurant and lounge and convention center.

Watkins told BizMojo Idaho in November he is looking for someone interested in leasing or buying the business. Signs in the door to the restaurant say "Closed for remodeling," but they're waiting to hear what any potential operator might say needs to be done, he said, adding that he recognizes the site's great location and historical significance.

Empty boxes in the hotel lobby, waiting to be carted away.