Western Recycling to begin offering curbside service Aug. 6 to Idaho Falls, Ammon

Western Recycling will begin offering curbside recycling to Idaho Falls and Ammon residents starting Aug. 6.

The cost will be $5 a month for homes and $10 for businesses, with billing conducted quarterly. The cost includes a 65- or 95-gallon container (customer's choice). Pickup will be every two weeks on the same days as regular trash pickup. Containers must be placed at least four feet away from other trash containers.

“I think (curbside recycling) is something that the people in Idaho Falls have been wanting to do,” said Craig Stephenson, Western Recycling's manager.

Idaho Falls residents can currently drop off their recycling at sites located throughout the city. The materials get picked up by a truck operated by Idaho Falls. Western Recycling’s management hopes that once curbside recycling catches on, these sites will be phased out, ultimately saving the city money.

With the Western Recycling program, no sorting is necessary. Here's what can be placed in the container:

• Mixed paper products: newspapers, magazines, phone books, catalogs, cardboard boxes, cereal Boxes, frozen food boxes, paper towel cores, office paper, note pads, index cards, coated paper, brochures, envelopes, manila folders and junk mail.
• All plastic beverage, food, and household cleaner containers #1-7 (must be rinsed of contents and caps replaced).
• Tin and aluminum cans (must be rinsed of contents).

Materials that can't be recycled include glass, plastic bags, medical waste, food waste, packaging materials (peanuts, bubble wrap, styrofoam, etc.)

Neighborhoods outside of city limits will be included in the program case by case, depending on participation levels and distance from city limits.

You can sign up by visiting Western Recycling's Web site, http://www.westernrecycling.net/, or by calling 1-888-977-4733.

This is the second big recycling story in the region. Earlier this month, after a two-month trial period in two neighborhoods, the Rexburg City Council approved moving forward with a city-wide curbside recycling program. The city plans to spend about $170,000 to buy a baler and household containers. The program will expand city-wide after the equipment arrives.

Under a cooperative agreement, Brigham Young University-Idaho students will sort and transport collected recyclables. Revenues generated through the sale of those products will be used to hire student workers and pay transportation costs.

During a two month test period, BYU-Idaho project manager Eric Conrad reported 23 percent to 25 percent participation in a trial area. The program's initial goal is 30 percent overall participation. He estimates recycling will save the city $90,000 per year by keeping recyclables out of Rexburg's overall waste cycle.

Former Post Register staffer wins prestigious environmental reporting award

Brandon Loomis

Former Post Register reporter Brandon Loomis is one of a three-person team from The Salt Lake Tribune to be awarded the 2012 Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment. 

Loomis, Rick Egan and Dave Noyce will receive a total of $75,000 for "Our Dying Forests," a series examining the link between climate change and the spread of beetles that are destroying millions of acres of forests in the American West.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse named winners at the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation's Leadership Awards Dinner on June 5, in conjunction with Capitol Hill Ocean Week, the premier ocean conference in our nation's capital. Sunshine Menezes, executive director of Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting, which administers the prize, introduced the winners to the public at a news conferenceat the National Press Club.

"I'm thrilled to have such recognition for a project we knew from the start was bigger than Utah or the Rocky Mountains," he said. "I hope reporters everywhere will pick up where we left off to investigate and explain what's happening where they live."

The Grantham Jury praised the Tribune team's methodical and measured reporting. "Experts have long been aware of the dangers implicit in the wholesale disappearance of ancient forests," said Grantham Prize Juror Robert Semple, Jr. of The New York Times. "Brandon Loomis' incredible reporting has now deftly alerted a wider public to this important issue."

Here is a link to the series: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54154633-78/dyingforests-forests-beetles-trees.html.csp

Three at EIRMC receive Frist Humanitarian Awards

Dr. Ronald Arbon

Dr. Ronald Arbon, Education Coordinator Bonny Jennings, and Volunteer Sharon Laird have won Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center’s Frist Humanitarian Awards for 2011.

The annual award recognizes physicians, employees and volunteers who have demonstrated concern for patients and service to the community.

Nominated by fellow physicians and hospital staff, Arbon has been practicing medicine for 54 years, 42 of them in Idaho Falls. With typical humility, he said he was "very surprised” to receive the award.

Bonny Jennings

Sharon Laird

An EIRMC employee for more than 30 years, Jennings is also a longtime volunteer in the community, serving as an instructor for the American Heart Association and with the Boy Scouts of America, currently serves as vice-president of training.

Laird serves at EIRMC as a volunteer and also represents the hospital as a member of the Idaho State Hospital Association Committee on Volunteers. She is also the treasurer for the EIRMC Volunteer Auxiliary. All three were honored May 10 in a reception at the hospital.

MCS Advertising execs receive certification

Lisa Fischbach and B.J. Kane of MCS Advertising in Idaho Falls received their official certification last week as Certified Agency Account Managers from the Second Wind Certified Seminars Program they recently attended in Chicago.

Based in Wyomissing, Pa., Second Wind offers one of the few training programs for agency bookkeepers, controllers, traffic managers, production managers and operations managers. This is really important, in case you've been watching too much "Mad Men" and think advertising is all about whiskey at 11 a.m. and round-the-clock hanky-panky.

Checking out Second Wind's Web site, http://www.secondwindonline.com/, I found a lot of interesting information that I would encourage anyone who's involved in marketing to investigate.

This link in particular, on how to make a pitch and win new business, caught my attention: http://www.secondwindonline.com/knowledge_display.asp?id=12196.

For those of you who don't want to go all in, here are the bullet points:

• Rehearse every word of every pitch before you do it for real.
• Try to give the presentation on your turf or neutral turf.
• Insist the written presentation be fully completed at least one day before it is due to be presented.

 MCS is a full-service ad agency with its offices in historic downtown, at Park Avenue and B Street.

EIRMC promotes Rick Goodwin to program development director



Rick Goodwin

Rick Goodwin has been promoted to the position of director of program development at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.

He has been with EIRMC for 10 years, most recently as director of therapy services (which
encompasses physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, employee health,
wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy). In his new position, he will step back from day to day clinical management to take on new responsibilities helping to shape overall strategy.

Mileen Langley

Goodwin has a master's degree in speech-language pathology and brings more than 20 years of management and clinical experience to a newly-created position. He is well-published in the rehabilitation and therapy field, and frequently gives guest lectures and presentations at local, state and regional conferences. He has served as an adjunct faculty member for several universities. He said his guiding philosophy has always been, “If we focus on the patient, we will always do the right thing.”
The position he is leaving has been filled by Mileen Langley, a 17-year EIRMC veteran who served most recently as manager of therapy services.

In that job, she has demonstrated a proactive and innovative clinical approach to therapy, particularly in sharing knowledge of advanced wound healing techniques through her leadership of the annual EIRMC Wound Care Conference in Idaho Falls. That event has drawn hundreds of caregivers from rural practice environments, giving them access to advances in the field and allowing them to better serve their communities.

Remembering Perry Swisher, one of a vanishing breed

Perry Swisher

Here's Rocky Barker's obituary in the Idaho Statesman for Perry Swisher, who died this week at 88. When I was at the Post Register, I interviewed Perry several times. He always had great insights and intriguing stories, especially about Idaho Falls in the '40s, when it was Honky Tonk Central (if you can believe that!)

For all his experience in politics and public service, in his heart Perry was a newspaper man. His passing marks a big loss in the ranks of a vanishing breed.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/06/06/2145558/perry-swisher-longtime-idaho-legislator.html

Idaho Liquor Division relents (sort of) on "Five Wives" vodka

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, June 6, 7:48 PM

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho reversed direction in the face of a lawsuit Wednesday and said it will sell Five Wives Vodka, but the liquor producer whose label makes an unmistakable reference to polygamy would not immediately rule out legal action.

The Idaho State Liquor Division rejected as offensive last week the product that features an antiqued sketch of five women hiking up their skirts. Idaho is more than 25 percent Mormon and the church at one time allowed polygamy but abandoned the practice in 1890.

The vodka originates from Ogden’s Own Distillery in Utah, where the Mormon church is based. The company said it would sue Idaho on principle if necessary.

Then on Wednesday George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley in a letter to Idaho officials and posted on his website said he planned to sue on behalf of the producer of Five Wives Vodka. He called the ban unconstitutional and gave the state 10 days to reverse its position.

The state only took hours:

“In a shared desire to avoid unnecessary litigation costs to Ogden’s Own Distillery and the people of Idaho, today we have informed the makers of ‘Five Wives’ vodka that we will immediately begin processing special order requests for both on-premise licensees and retail consumers,” Anderson said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

Steve Conlin, a partner and marketing chief for Ogden’s Own Distillery, said Wednesday the company’s attorneys would review Idaho’s decision before making a statement, likely on Thursday.

But he said selling the vodka as a special order request meant it wouldn’t be available on store shelves but only as a special order. Bars would face the same hurdle.

“It’s a cumbersome process on special orders,” Conlin said. “But I’m not saying that it’s not a solution for us at this point. I can’t say one way or the other right now.”

The company is also apparently still smarting from comments made by state officials questioning the quality of Five Wives Vodka as part of the state’s initial decision not to sell it in Idaho.

Anderson, in a letter to alcohol distribution company Elite Spirits Distribution owner John Challenger and officials at Ogden’s Own Distillery informing them of the change in Idaho’s policy, included an apology that wasn’t a part of his public statement.

“I apologize for comments reported in the media that may have led consumers to believe ‘Five Wives’ is an inferior vodka product,” Anderson wrote. A copy of the letter, obtained by The Associated Press, was also sent to Idaho Deputy Attorney General Tim Davis.

Turley did not respond to an email Wednesday evening concerning the change in Idaho’s position and his website had not been updated to reflect the change either. Earlier he wrote, “Idaho is the only state to raise religious and social sensibilities as a basis to deny entry to this product.”

Five Wives Vodka was first sold in Utah in December 2011. Shortly after the ban was announced in Idaho the company started selling T-shirts with the five women behind bars and the caption “Free the Five Wives.”

Conlin said the publicity from the ban has been good for the company but hasn’t boosted sales much because the vodka has only been available in Utah.