Fall River Electric schedules meetings over proposed rate increases

Fall River Rural Electric Cooperative has scheduled a series of meetings this week for interested owner-members regarding several rate increases proposed by its board of directors.

Owner-members of the co-op are invited to attend any one of three meetings scheduled for Ashton, Driggs, and West Yellowstone. The Ashton meeting is Thursday, Oct. 22, Driggs is Wednesday, Oct. 21 and West Yellowstone is set for tonight. Each meeting will be held at the respective offices of Fall River Electric and are set to begin at 7 p.m.

The rate increases are the result of Bonneville Power Administration’s increases to Fall River for both wholesale power and transmission costs. The BPA increases included 7.1 percent for wholesale power and 4.4 percent for transmission costs. Both went into effect Oct. 1.

No rate increase has been planned for Fall River residential members or irrigation accounts. According to Bryan Case, the CEO and general manager, “We have made significant efforts over the past few years to reduce our costs of operation, and the result of that effort is our board’s decision to absorb most of these BPA increases. Additionally, the board, at its regularly scheduled September meeting, proposed that there would not be any increase in residential rates or rates to our irrigation members.”

The recommendation from the board and management was to make slight increases to the co-op’s small general service accounts, large commercial accounts, and institute a monthly charge for idle services. Those proposals will be discussed at these upcoming member meetings.

As currently proposed, small general service members would see a 5 percent increase, which will average about $6.81 a month, while the large general service (commercial members) will see an increase of $1 a month. The board is also proposing a new monthly fee for “idle services” of $10 a month.

An idle service is defined as one which has power available but has been disconnected or is inactive, or the meter has been removed, or is not being billed for demand or a line and system maintenance fee.

Owner-members of the co-op are invited to attend any one of three meetings scheduled for Ashton, Driggs, and West Yellowstone. The Ashton meeting is Thursday, Oct. 22, Driggs is Wednesday, Oct. 21 and West Yellowstone is set for tonight. Each meeting will be held at the respective offices of Fall River Electric and are set to begin at 7 p.m.

Input from these meeting will be discussed at the board’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Oct. 26, at which time a final decision will be made regarding the proposed rate increases and its effective date. The final rate decision will be announced in the December issue of the cooperative’s monthly FLASHES newsletter and on its Web site, www.fallriverelectric.com and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FallRiverREC.

New restaurant opening in Captain’s Cove location

Josh Swain is planning a soft opening this Wednesday for his newest restaurant, Abracadabra’s. It will be at 2040 Channing Way, the former location of Captain’s Cove and, before that, Buddy’s and Fanatics.

Swain is a founder of Stockman’s, which moved a few years ago from County Line Road to Snake River Landing. He grew up in the business at Swain Brothers Restaurant in Vernal, Utah, and has a fundamentals approach to the business. “I let my food be the lead,” he said. “High quality ingredients at affordable prices.”

Abracadabra’s (“Where food is magic”) will have a breakfast-and-brunch bistro style menu, with entrees like breakfast reuben and chicken waffles.

The kitchen staff is in place, but Swain said they are still looking for servers. Anyone interested can call 208-881-9024, or email a resume to lysacall@gmail.com.

Breast cancer awareness benefit set Oct. 23

In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Rex & Tiffany Redden Foundation is hosting its second Tapas for Tatas dinner Oct. 23 at the Keefer’s Island Convention Center in Idaho Falls. Last year’s event raised more than $10,000 to aid breast cancer research and to help raise awareness through education and screenings.

Survivors of all forms of cancer are invited to attend and be honored in the  survivor presentation. In addition to the presentation, there will be a raffle drawing, music and a raffle, music, a Survivor Presentation, and a talk from Tiffany Redden, who was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in November 2013. This aggressive form of cancer had advanced to stage 3 and metastasized to her lymph nodes.

The same time she started chemotherapy, she and her husband, Rex, formed their foundation with the purpose of educating other women and men about the necessity of breast self-exams. “If I had listened to my doctor and was performing the monthly self-exams as recommended, I may have caught my cancer earlier,” she said. “I could not let another day go by without doing my part to educate others about the benefits of early-detection.”

Pre-registration is required at http://www.thereddenfoundation.org/survivors. Photos and names of survivors to be honored at the event can be emailed to tiffanyredden@ymail.com.

Dixie's Diner to celebrate 10th anniversary

Dixie's Diner on Channing Way

Dixie’s Diner will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on Saturday with throwback pricing, including $5 hamburgers and $2 milkshakes. The waitresses will be dressing up '50s style, and of course the music will be what it always is, oldies from the jukebox.

Dixie’s, at 2150 Channing Way, started in 2005 as the 5 & Diner, with the tagline “Food, Fun and Fifties.” The arrangement with the franchising company in Arizona remained in effect until July 2008, when owner Dixie Murphy and her operating business partner Tom Hersh decided they could just as easily operate on their own.

While the food and themed atmosphere have obviously been a hit, Dixie’s has also been an example of corporate citizenship. The meeting room is available to groups as diverse as the East Side Rotary, Idaho Falls Advertising Federation and Alcoholics Anonymous. In the 10 years the diner has been open Dixie’s has donated through fund-raising nights more than $15,000 to local schools, athletic teams, churches and the Tautphaus Park Zoological Society. Hersh has served for more than 13 years on the Idaho Falls Parks and Recreation Commission and the golf advisory board.

“I am am proud of being a local owner of a successful restaurant,” he said.

Ammon convenience store offer post office services

Jarom Christensen at Hitt-the-Road, now a U.S. Postal Service contractor.

When you consider that Swan Valley and Irwin each have their own post offices but Ammon, a city of more than 14,500 doesn’t, it sort of makes you wonder how these decisions are made.

The good news, however, is that the Hitt-the-Road convenience store at the northeast corner of Sunnyside and Hitt roads is now an official U.S. Postal Service station where you can mail all your Christmas cards and holiday parcels. This fills a hole left by the closing of CD World, which had a very busy postal station.

In fact, once Jarom Christensen, who owns the store, learned he would getting the business he hired Rachel Barr and Anthony Chabis, the two people who used to take care of the USPS business at CD World. “They know exactly what they’re doing, so we were able to hit the ground running,” he said.

Christensen, whose company is called Voyager Enterprises, said the Postal Service approached him and other businesses in the area in 2014 after CD World closed. He had to submit his financials and undergo a security check, and the entire process took about nine months.

“We worked really hard to get it,” Christensen said. “I think we’re going to do a lot of volume here. They told us that CD World had the highest volume of any contractor in Utah or Idaho.”

The advantages to having a post office in the store are obvious. Convenience stores’ business depends not on gas sales but the sales of soda and snacks. If people are coming in to mail a letter or package, there’s a pretty good chance they might want a Slim Jim or a Pepsi.

“Everything here is an impulse purchase,” Christensen said.