New $65 million, 88-bed Idaho Falls Community Hospital to be built

A screenshot of the permit set's cover page.

Idaho Falls will see major work at Mountain View Hospital in 2018. The owner of the property, MPT Hospital LLC of Birmingham, Ala., has filed a permit with the city of Idaho Falls Building Department for a $65 million, 88-bed wing on the building's east end.

According to the specifications accompanying the permit, work will involve demolition of the existing Rosemark clinic attached to the hospital’s east end. In its place, there will be a new, three-story structure, plus basement and penthouse. The name of the hospital will be Idaho Falls Community Hospital, and will be a separate entity from Mountain View. The latter will see some remodeling in the lab, and a new lobby will be added to the front of the existing hospital, attached to both the existing and new hospital.

Site work is to include utilities, grading and rework, including an outdoor sunken dining area, an ambulance drop-off and a helipad. The hospital will require fully independent structural steel, HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems. The plan calls for the existing hospital to remain open, with minimal interference.

The general contractor for the project is Layton Construction of Sandy, Utah, and the architect is Architectural Nexus, a Salt Lake City company.

INL carbon capture technology gets attention from Clean Technica

Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory have developed an efficient process for turning captured carbon dioxide into syngas, a material that can be used to make fuels and chemicals.

Capturing and sequestering carbon from industrial processes has been a daunting proposition, but Idaho National Laboratory researchers in the Energy Environment Science & Technology directorate have come up with a new carbon capture system that could provide a path forward.

Here's a link to a story posted today in Clean Technica, a leading cleantech news and analysis website, about research into clean energy being done at INL: The Long, Slow Death Of Carbon Capture & Sequestration (Hello, Carbon Recycling!)

The scientific paper, principally written by INL chemical engineer Luis Diaz-Aldana -- Electrochemical production of syngas from CO2 captured in switchable polarity solvents -- has just been published in Royal Society of Chemistry’s Green Chemistry journal.

Cookie Place, Maltese Crossfit open new locations

The Cookie Place's new Idaho Falls location, on East 17th Street.

On the small business front this week, we have a couple of items to report.

The Cookie Place, a designer bakery that opened in Rexburg in August, has expanded to an Idaho Falls location at 2087 E. 17th Street, in the Teton Plaza shopping center next door to Little Caesar’s. The business, owned by Garth and Amy Romrell, specializes in gift boxes, does deliveries and offers catering.

Doors open at 11 a.m. For more information, check them out on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/thecookieplace.co/ or on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/thecookieplace/.

The interior of Maltese Crossfit's new gym.

In a completely different vein, Maltese Crossfit has moved to a new, expanded location, at 3899 S. American Way, off Sunnyside Road. Owners Sam and Becky Harmer opened Idaho Falls’ first Crossfit Gym roughly eight years ago and have now moved twice. At 10,000 square feet, the new facility is the largest Crossfit gym in southeastern Idaho.

They will be having an open house Dec. 30 from 9:30 a.m. through the afternoon. Guests are welcome to bring friends and family to check it out and even try a workout.

Crossfit emerged in the 1990s as a way to keep soldiers, firefighters and police in top shape. Harmer, an Idaho Falls firefighter who started his gym in his garage, has seen steady growth in interest. This is the third and final expansion, he said.

For more information, call (208) 360-9423 or visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/maltesecrossfit/.

Fall River Electric announces holiday lighting contest

Owner-members of Fall River Electric have a chance to win a $250 energy credit by entering the co-op’s holiday lighting contest. Members who have decorated their home or business with outdoor holiday lights are eligible to enter just by taking a photo of their light display and submitting it by Friday, Dec. 15.

Submissions can be made via email to memberservices@fallriverelectric.com or by mail to 1150 N. 3400 East, Ashton, ID 83420, or by posting on Fall River’s Facebook page. Entries should include your name, address of the holiday display and a phone number. Only one entry per member is permitted.

Winners will be selected and notified the week of Dec. 18, and will be announced on Fall River Electric’s Facebook page. There is no cost to enter the contest.

Fall River Electric serves electrical and propane consumers in three states (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming), covering eight counties, covering 2,524 square miles. Fall River has 13,082 electric owner-members,15,575 electric meters and nearly 5,000 propane customers.

Jeff Sollis named EIRMC's new CEO

Jeff Sollis

Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center has named Jeff Sollis, the hospital’s current chief operating officer, its new chief executive officer, effective Jan. 1, 2018. Sollis is taking the position held by longtime CEO Doug Crabtree, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

Sollis has nearly 10 years of leadership experience in large hospitals across the nation. At EIRMC, he has had administrative and operational oversight of the 334-bed medical/surgical hospital, freestanding behavioral health hospital, and cancer center. He has played an integral role in recruiting physicians to support major services at EIRMC: cardiovascular and thoracic surgery; electrophysiology; psychiatry; pediatric subspecialties; and radiation oncology.

Sollis recently completed his three-year team on the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce board of directors, and currently serves on the Idaho State University Physician Assistant Advisory Board.

Prior to joining the EIRMC leadership team, Sollis served as chief operating officer of Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah.  He was also the assistant COO at HCA Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kan., and assistant administrator at HCA North Suburban Medical Center in Thornton, Colo. 

Sollis earned his Masters of Health Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a B.A. in Behavioral Science and Health from the University of Utah.