Keep your company off the naughty list

Merry all are we during the holiday season, aren’t we? What is not to love about the festive fare, catered events, lights, parties, sugary treats, white elephants gifts, and time off from work?

I will share a little secret with you. For employers, the holidays create increased liabilities and open the door for long-term legal problems. Holiday enthusiast that I am, I hate to say that the season of cheer during the work week gives me visions of lawsuits instead of sugar plum fairies.

While holiday decorations, cards, costume contests, gift giving, and parties all seem innocent enough, unless they are carefully managed they can easily become holiday headaches for employers. It’s important to remember that while some employees take for granted beautiful nativity scenes and cards adorned with paintings of Mary and Jesus, other employees may consider them offensive and an invitation to file discrimination claims.

In considering what to allow in the workplace during the holiday season, it is safe to say most people are comfortable with secular symbols of the season such as Santa, reindeer, snowmen, and Christmas trees. In contrast, a nativity scene and religious symbols, cards, programs, or music could easily divide employees with differing beliefs.

The potential holiday headaches continue in considering holiday bonuses and gifts. While I am certainly not encouraging any business to cut bonuses or gifts, discriminatory practices or favoritism can easily creep into those festive envelopes. Businesses should streamline ways to allocate holiday bonuses, and give out similar presents to all employees. Failure to fairly streamline these practices could easily go as bad as egg nog left out in the breakroom.

Since we are lighting the way to holiday headaches, let’s not forget the liabilities that come with holiday workplace parties. From sexual harassment to “harmless” jokes, inappropriate touching, comments and behavior, to collect calls from the county jail the day from the employee who got stopped on the way home, holiday parties can pose major problems for businesses. Businesses should remember and communicate to all employees that workplace policies still apply during holiday parties — and will be enforced.

It’s also important to remember that it is the employer’s responsibility to provide holiday gatherings that demonstrate a commitment by the employer to maintain compliance with company policies.

Lastly, the holidays are a time for creating memories with family and friends – that means most employees are interested in some time away from the workplace. While it is not required, it is widely accepted among most companies that Christmas and New Year’s Day should be paid holidays. For businesses that operate 24/7, isn’t it fair to offer some incentivized pay to the employees who gladly hold the fort at work while the rest of the team enjoys festive celebrations with loved ones?

“Scrooging” your employees out of holiday pay for a day or two doesn’t make sense and only lowers employee morale.

The holidays are a great time to enjoy festive fun, even in the workplace, a time to close out one year and get ready for another. Still, it’s important to remember that the holidays are not a “hall pass” for employers and employees alike to forget company policies, acceptable workplace standards, and employment/labor laws.

Monica Bitrick is the CEO of Bitrick Consulting Group, a human resources company in Idaho Falls.

Togo's sign up on Hitt Road

Togo's Sandwiches is going in at 2994 S. 25 East, in the Sagewood Shopping Center.

It looks like the first Idaho Falls Togo's Sandwiches is going to be at 2994 South 25 East, in the Sagewood Shopping Center next door to Costa Vida. The sign went up this week and inside the work is progressing steadily.

This will be the second Togo's in eastern Idaho. The first opened last month in Rexburg. The California-based chain announced last spring it had a plan to develop five restaurants in eastern Idaho and eight in Salt Lake City.

The Idaho Falls and Rexburg restaurants are two that Ty and Debbie Jenkins have signed on to develop, along with others Twin Falls, Pocatello. Ty Jenkins is CEO of DocuTech, a company that develops and markets Web-based mortgage compliance software.

Overall, Togo's has more than 325 locations open and under development throughout the West. Last year, the company launched a franchise development incentive program to drive expansion in key growth markets. Both new and existing franchisees who sign new agreements for three or more locations receive reduced royalty fees for the first two years for each new restaurant developed in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Arizona. Additionally, franchisees benefit from $10 million for remodels and transfers, as well as $5 million to build new restaurants.

To become a part of the Togo's team, candidates should possess liquidity of $150,000 for a single restaurant and a net worth of $300,000. Area developers looking to develop three or more restaurants should have liquidity of $450,000 and net worth of $900,000.

Post Register names digital media specialist

Donna Nims

Donna Nims has been named the Post Register’s digital media specialist, a new position in which she will provide support for all of the Post Register’s online efforts.

Nims had previously worked at the Post Register, for more than two years in two different positions, most recently as a sales manager for Farm & Ranch and digital advertising sales.

She has a bachelor of science degree in computer and mathematical sciences from Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. She also has a management background in wireless Internet sales and services.

Local photographer offers discount on online drone course

Here's a aerial video tour of the Idaho Falls Greenbelt and the LDS Temple made by Mark Richardson and posted on his www.camerastupid.com Web site.

Are you planning on getting a drone for Christmas? If you are, you might want to learn how to fly it, in which case Mark Richardson, a local photographer, is offering a course through udemy: Aerial Photography and Videography with Drones.

As a professional photographer, Richardson has traveled extensively in the United States and abroad to use quadcopters to capture aerial imagery for corporate and commercial productions. He has built a few of his own, but now prefers the DJI Phantom platform, because it is easy to use and portable.

“The people who know how to fly drones are about to have a whole new world of opportunities open to them,” he said. “The photography and videography trades alone have already and will continue to see major transformations as multi-rotors are used as flying cameras.

Richardson is offering the course at $49 to anyone who uses this link: https://www.udemy.com/aerial-photography-and-videography-with-drones/?couponCode=drone+49. In addition to 40 online course videos and materials, students will be able to get one-on-one instruction from Richardson himself. The course is comprehensive, offering information to people who already own drones as well as those looking to buy. The lessons also cover legal and safety issues.

A few things are needed:

• A computer, to update and calibrate the drone that I recommend.
• Basic tools such as soldering iron, wire cutters and screwdrivers, for customizing your aerial platform.

In addition to his work as a photographer and droneographer (does such a word exist yet? I predict it will) Richardson is also the proprietor of the www.camerastupid.com blog/Web site. Want to like him on Facebook? Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/camerastupid.

Camping World coming to Idaho Falls near Pancheri overpass

Work going on at the future site of Camping World, scheduled to open in May.

The dirt being moved southwest of the Pancheri overpass will be the new home of Camping World, a company that started nearly 50 years ago in Kentucky and most recently bought the OK Trailer RV dealership in Shelley.

The company and its Boise developer, Zoke LLC, signaled in May they wanted to develop 12 acres near Interstate 15. As the land was designated for high-density residential development in the city of Idaho Falls’ comprehensive plan, the City Council had to take action before annexation could take place and work could get started.


The site is bordered by Tara Street and Skyline Drive. It will feature multiple service bays, a Camping World retail store and a state-of-the-art collision center.

Camping World began with a small store in Beech Bend Park, an amusement park and campground outside Bowling Green. Campers at the park were requesting a place where they could buy supplies, so David Garvin, son of the park's owner, took out a loan and opened a store. Garvin amassed a large customer list as the years went by. In 1997, he sold the company to the current owners, Good Sam Enterprises of Ventura, Calif.

The company now has more than 100 retail and service locations throughout the United States, and also sells goods through mail order and online. The Idaho Falls center will be the second in Idaho. The other is located in Meridian.

Keefer’s Island plans grand opening Thursday

William and Eldora Keefer and their children in the early 20th century. Twins Fred and Frank are on either side of their parents. (Photo courtesy Museum of Idaho)

When the crew at the Shilo Inn were looking for a new name for their catering business, all it took was a look out the window, where Keefer’s Island sits right in the middle of the Snake River.

Formerly O’Callahan’s, Keefer’s Island Restaurant and Catering will be having its grand opening Thursday, starting with a ribbon cutting by the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber Ambassadors at 10 a.m.

Complimentary breakfast Danishes and beverages will be served.

In the evening at 6, there will be Champagne, hors d’oeuvres, dinner and drink specials, and live music by Happyville (the band in which I play guitar, if you don’t know that already.) For the historically minded, there will be a display of items from the Keefer Family Collection, provided by the Museum of Idaho.

The Keefers were one of the most important families in Idaho Falls’ history. William W. Keefer came to town with the Utah & Northern Railroad, and once the bridge and shops were built he decided to stay. With a developer's eye, he began buying real estate.

Keefer was a builder and a brewer, and his most lasting impact may have been on the Snake River itself. In 1909, he and his twin sons, Fred and Frank, built a dam and retaining wall north of Broadway, creating the actual falls and providing water for hydropower generation.

Fred and Frank were the most colorful of William and Eldora Keefer’s seven children, and it was Fred who filed a mineral claim on the island in the Snake below John’s Hole, then built a cabin. In 1962, he deeded it to the city of Idaho Falls on condition that the cabin stayed and that the island be called Keefer’s Island.

The menu features American cuisine, new and traditional, burgers, seafood and southern-style cuisine. Breakfast, brunch and buffets are served, and its hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The lounge is open until 1 a.m.

For more information, call 523-1818. For catering, 523-4318.

Local gasoline prices edging lower

Just like many of you, I've been waiting to see local gas prices nose below $3 a gallon, and today it looks like we have a winner. The Tesoro station at 125 S. 25th East has regular unleaded listed at $2.919 a gallon.

Don't everybody head out there at once. Although we have been lagging behind other parts of the country -- on Tuesday, Idaho gas prices were reported the seventh highest in the nation -- we can expect lower prices between now and the end of the year, said Dave Carlson, AAA Idaho spokesman.

Today, the nation's average is $2.76 -- 52 cents less than a year ago and the lowest average price since the 2010 holiday season.
 
Even some parts of Idaho have been following suit. Last Tuesaday, the average price per gallon in Coeur d'Alene on Tuesday was $2.80, and in neighboring Post Falls, typically higher than in Coeur d'Alene, it was $2.79. In Idaho Falls, however, it was more in line with the statewide the average of $3.06.

I know some of you have been tearing your hair over this, but let's keep things in perspective. This is the lowest price since February 2011 and 71 cents cheaper than it was on Labor Day.

"Lower pump prices should be around for a while," Carlson said. "Gas prices are down thanks to lower oil prices, weak demand here and abroad and plentiful unconstrained gas and oil supplies."

On the global front, Saudi Arabia's oil minister told fellow OPEC members on Thursday it was a bad idea to cut output. The Saudi view is to keep the spigot turned on in order to undermine the profitability of North American producers. This strategy could work over time. It costs the Saudis a lot less to get their oil from desert compared to the highly involved fracking process American producers have been using. But we're likely to see oil prices to continue dropping.

Carlson said Idaho's Idaho prices have stayed higher on the national scale because there is less incentive for retailers to cut prices. "An isolated market means less competitive factors," he said.

Also, any retailer who has bought gas at a higher wholesale price has to keep the price higher to make any sort of margin. It the station across the road gets a new shipment at a lower rack price, that's when the first retailer is more likely to slash prices in order to stay competitive.