Restaurant, convention center slated to reopen

An old postcard of the Westbank from the 1960s

While a name has yet to be determined, the old Westbank restaurant, lounge and convention center are scheduled to be reopened soon.

Joel Henry, who has been running Republic America Grill and Tapa Bar since the fall of 2013, has gone into partnership with Bruce Rahmani of Denver, Colo., whose company, Colorado Hospitality Services Inc. of Northglenn, Colo., bought the eight­-story tower in January 2015. The two are leasing the property from Dane Watkins, who locked everything up in late summer 2014 in a dispute with Om Shiv Ganesh, the financially troubled company running the tower and leasing the restaurant and convention center.

Henry said he is shooting to have the business open by June 1, but hopes to have the lounge open earlier. “It’s going to allow us to do all sorts of things,” he said.

Since moving into the convention center’s office, much of his time has been spent going through the files to gather information about people and organizations who have used the space for meetings, parties, receptions, etc. Since the convention center has been closed, the only place in Idaho Falls available for big functions has been the Shilo Inn.

Henry, 32, grew up in Traverse City, Mich., where he became executive chef of Poppycock's, a local restaurant, at age 21. He attended the Johnson and Wales College of Culinary Arts in Providence, R.I. "I believe in old­ school, no ­frills cooking," he said. No­ frills doesn't mean no imagination, however. "If you're not creative enough, there's no reason to be doing what you're doing," he said.

He plans to keep the Republic name for the new location, with tapas and small plate offerings. For the restaurant in front, however, he is debating between Italian or a steak­ and­ seafood. He also has plans to turn the building where the Republic is now into a delicatessen. “There are seven places to eat by the river right now, but they’re all sit­-down restaurants,” he said. “It would be nice to have a place where you could go in and get a sandwich.”

Overall, Henry is going to be spending more time in the office and less in the kitchen. At the various locations, he anticipates managing between 25 and 30 people.

“There’s a lot of moving parts, but we’re all in this together,” he said.

Mayors' Business Day coming April 19

Todd Pedersen, founder of Vivint

There is a little more than a week before the Mayors’ Business Day, scheduled this year for April 19 at the Shilo Inn.

Hosted by the mayors of Idaho Falls and Ammon, the event began in 2008. This year features presentations and panel discussions on a variety of subjects, the theme is a “Talent Pipeline.” This refers to the reality that a lot of longtime skilled workers are going to be leaving their jobs in the next five to 10 years and that young, trained people are going to be needed to replace them if eastern Idaho’s economy is to keep moving forward.

The keynote speaker is Todd Pedersen, founder and CEO of Vivint, Inc., Pedersen started the company in 1999 as APX Alarm and built it into one of the largest residential security companies in North America. In 2010 he rebranded it to Vivint and launched an innovation center to create smart home products. Under Pedersen’s leadership, Vivint evolved from a dynamic startup into a smart home technology company with 9,000 employees and more than a million customers.

In 2012 it was acquired by the Blackstone Group for more than $2 billion. In 2013, Vivint was named to the Forbes’ list of America’s Most Promising Companies. In 2015, Vivint was one of 500 companies on the Forbes' list of America's Best Employers.

Pedersen went on to launch of Vivint Solar, which had a $1.1 billion IPO in 2014 and became the second largest residential solar power provider in the United States.

He was named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 for the Utah Region. He was also named Utah's Entrepreneur of the Year by Mountain West Capital Network, voted one of Utah’s 10 Coolest Entrepreneurs by Utah Valley BusinessQ, and was inducted into the David Eccles School of Business Hall of Fame.

Tickets to the event are $60 for chamber members and $75 for non-members. For more information, visit www.idahofallschamber.com.

Melaleuca announces record-breaking sales in 2015

Melaleuca released its annual report for 2015 Thursday and, as expected, the company announced another record-setting year in 2015 with annual sales exceeding $1.33 billion.

Headquartered in Idaho Falls since the mid-1980s, the company has grown 40 percent in the last five years alone.

Its U.S. and Canadian operations continue to lead in volume. Melaleuca also saw particularly high growth in its Asian markets, especially China. There are now more than 1.2 million households purchasing Melaleuca products on a monthly basis across the 18 countries where it operates. Melaleuca has more "preferred customers" — meaning loyal customers who order consistently month-after-month-than at any point in its history.

"Melaleuca is experiencing an era of explosive growth. We expect that to continue," said Frank VanderSloot, the company’s CEO, in a news release. "We continue to gain momentum as people experience our products. I think it's safe to say that Melaleuca products are being discovered around the world."

VanderSloot said he expects continued growth in 2016. “We are getting better in all that we do. “Our management team is getting stronger. Our scientists are getting better. Our processes are getting smoother.”

INL seeks housing for summer interns

Idaho National Laboratory through its contractor, Battelle Energy Alliance, is seeking temporary housing options for summer interns. These are typically undergraduate and graduate students from universities across the country who come to work at the laboratory for approximately 10 to 16 weeks. Most INL interns receive a housing stipend to help pay rent.
Temporary housing criteria may include, but are not limited, to:

• Furnished rooms or blocks of rooms
• Furnished apartments
• Ease of access to INL work locations in Idaho Falls and to the INL desert facilities
• Availability between early May and late August
• Clean, safe environment

To learn more – or to be considered for inclusion on the list of temporary housing options for interns – please send a description of the temporary housing and contact information to academic@inl.gov.

INL researchers develop microgrids for diversity, reliability, resilience

INL researchers Kurt Myers, left, and Robert Turk inspect solar panels at Utah’s Dugway Proving Ground.

This is the age of sharing, so in hopes of driving traffic to the inl.gov Web site, I'm posting a link to an article I wrote that was posted today (yes, I wear many different hats.) It's about microgrids, renewable energy and the work that researchers at the lab are doing in those areas.

Having lived here for almost 34 years, it has been fascinating to watch the evolution of what was at the time called the INEL. In 1982, "the site" was about nuclear energy, the Navy, reactors, etc. The non-Navy work was done for essentially two clients, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the commercial nuclear power industry. Today, "the lab" is about nuclear energy, but also about such things as electric vehicles, microgrids, flow batteries, biomass conversion and cyber-security. Stories such as the one I'm sharing here are allowing me to wrap my head around the importance of what's really happening.

Anyway, here's the link:

MICROGRIDS CAN ENHANCE DIVERSITY, RELIABILITY, RESILIENCE