Idaho Falls seeks public comment on business plan for golf courses

The venerable clubhouse at Idaho Falls' Pinecrest Golf Course.

The City of Idaho Falls Parks and Recreation Division is seeking public input about the operations of the City’s three municipal golf courses -- Pinecrest, Sand Creek and Sage Lakes.

At the request of the mayor and City Council, the division is working on a Golf Operations Five-Year Business Plan, the aim of which is to improve customer service, bring financial stability and create more effective and efficient operations.

Surveys and suggestion boxes have been placed at all three golf courses, and survey forms can also be found on the city’s Web site here: www.idahofallsidaho.gov/wwwroot/userfiles/files/pr/survey.pdf

There will be a public hearing to review the plan Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council chambers.

The city is looking for people who have played golf at the courses to share their thoughts and suggestions, and non-golfers are also encouraged to complete surveys and attend the hearing to offer ideas about potential off-season uses.

Plans filed for $2.7 million remodeling at Idaho Falls Regional Airport

Idaho Falls Regional Airport's terminal is looking at $2.7 million in remodeling and expansion.

The city of Idaho Falls filed plans Tuesday for a $2.7 million terminal remodeling and expansion at Idaho Falls Regional Airport.

The work will involve 47,570 square feet and take place at the northwest end of the terminal and involves an addition to the terminal, TSA baggage screening operations and expansion of the existing commercial aircraft ramp area. The architect for the project is HDR-Insight Architects of Boise, whose contract for the project was approved by the Idaho Falls City Council in April.

In June, the airport administrator, Len Nelson, learned they would be receiving a $1 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration new snow removal equipment, apron construction and terminal building expansion. Nelson retired in August and has been replaced by Craig H. Davis, who started on Monday.

International Isotopes receives plant construction permit from NRC

International Isotopes President and CEO Steve Laflin at the company's plant site in Lea County, N.M.



The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a combined construction and operating license for International Isotopes' $125 million fluorine extraction facility near Hobbs, N.M. The license was signed and issued Tuesday during a brief ceremony at NRC offices in Bethesda, Md.

International Isotopes, which is based in Idaho Falls, submitted its license application to in December 2009. The planned facility is a first-of-its-kind depleted uranium deconversion facility and the first source material facility to implement full-integrated safety analysis and will also be the first source material facility to be licensed by the NRC for a 40-year license term.

The company intends for the project to be a "green, environmentally friendly" production facility that will extract fluorine during the de-conversion process to produce high-value and commercially important products used widely in solar energy, microelectronics, and petrochemical refinement.

Steve T. Laflin, the company's president and CEO, said the license from the NRC is essential to them securing financing for the project. Last year, the company applied for a $97 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Renewable-Energy Technology Development program, which evaluates whether a technology might reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Our patented fluorine extraction process uses seven times less energy than conventional industrial processes for making hydrofluoric acid," Laflin told blogger Dan Yurman of Idaho Samizdat Nuke Notes. "This means we can show reductions of six million pounds of carbon dioxide a year over the life of the planet."

Business opportunity conference set for Oct. 25 in Idaho Falls

Idaho Commerce Director Jeffrey Sayer

The Idaho Business Opportunity Conference will take place Oct. 25 at the Shilo Inn in Idaho Falls, 780 Lindsay Boulevard.

This represents the 24th annual opportunity for manufacturers, contractors, distributors and service providers to meet with procurement officials from government agencies to discuss purchasing needs and ways businesses can improve their selling techniques.

The event begins at 7:30 a.m. and will go to 3:30 p.m. The program includes government panels and speakers who will offer insight into the entire process of doing business with the federal government and the state. Topics include Getting on the GSA Schedule, Certification and Loan Programs, Subcontracting with Large Prime Contractors, and Doing Business with the Idaho National Laboratory.

“The Idaho Business Opportunity Conference attracts a diverse group of small businesses who are either actively engaged or have the capability to provide the government with goods and services,” said Jeffery Sayer, director of Idaho Commerce. “This is an excellent opportunity for Idaho companies to receive personalized assistance to connect with government procurement experts and enhance opportunities to expand their business contracts.”

Registration is $55 and covers all seminars, access to all buyers and purchasing agents, continental breakfast and lunch. Idaho businesses interested in attending can register by going to this link: https://www.ptassist.com/secure/idaho_ptac_register.php?id=9319A37225

Idaho outdoor journalist's work voted best in nation

Outdoor journalist Kris Millgate

Tight Line Media's 2011 film "Sanctuary" has been voted the best TV story in the nation by the Outdoor Writers Association of America.

Outdoor journalist Kris Millgate's story about the elk whisperer and elk habitat in New Mexico won first place for hunting and shooting sports with OWAA earlier this summer. Then the OWAA President's panel chose the story as President's Choice for best outdoor TV story in the nation at its annual conference in Alaska in September.

“Kris is one of our newer members who has hit the OWAA floorboards running," says Robin Giner, OWAA Executive Director. "This year’s Presidents’ Choice Award is her second in two years, and I expect we’ll see her name on this list of the best of the best in future years, too.”

To view the story, and other clips Millgate has done, visit this link: www.tightlinemedia.com/production-services/video-samples.html

Idaho nuke wannabe eyeballing small modular reactors

Alternate Energy Holdings' ground in Payettte County.

This appeared on PR Newswire this morning and we thought it worth posting, considering the passionate interest around here concerning all things nuclear.

Alternate Energy Holdings today announced it is exploring the use of small modular reactors (SMR) on its proposed nuclear power plant site in Payette County, Idaho. SMRs range between 45 and 220 megawatts, and because of their modular and easily expandable design their implementation can be modified based on future energy needs.

"This would not necessarily replace our plans to build a large-scale reactor on the proposed site, but there may be an opportunity to build one or more years in advance of the larger reactor," said Don Gillispie, the company's CEO.

Several SMR designs are being reviewed including designs from Babcock & Wilcox, Westinghouse, NuScale Power and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). "We are seriously reviewing these options," Gillespie said. "SMR designs may give the company the flexibility it needs in the short term, while at the same time providing a very lucrative addition to AEHI's long-term plans."

Here is a link to the company's Web site, detailing its plans for Idaho: http://www.alternateenergyholdings.com/idaho-energy-complex.aspx

Of course, announcing that you intend to do something and actually getting it done are two different things. AEHI's plans for bringing nuclear power to Idaho have gotten a fair amount of attention since 2006. Our most trusted source on all things nuclear, Dan Yurman's Idaho Samizdat Nuke Notes blog, posted this in April: http://djysrv.blogspot.com/2012/04/far-west-follies.html

Key point: "(The Snake River Alliance) still has harsh things to say about the project on its web site. It calls AEHI a 'cartoonish nemesis' and says it does not take its proposals seriously enough to devote time to opposing them. That's probably the last word on the firm. If the local anti-nuclear group can't be bothered to stir up trouble for a nuclear reactor project, how viable can it be?"

I.F. Visitor Information Center, Chamber offices, relocating to Memorial Drive

The scene Tuesday inside the Eastern Idaho Visitor Information Center, at 420 Memorial Drive. 

After nearly 10 years on West Broadway, the Eastern Idaho Visitor Information Center is moving across the river, sharing office space not only with the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce but with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Idaho and Western Wyoming and the Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corp.
Starting Wednesday, the offices will all be under one roof at 420 Memorial Drive, in the space formerly occupied by the Moffatt Thomas law firm.

While this moves the Visitor Information Center farther from Interstate 15, it will also expose visitors to the renovations taking place on the downtown side of the Idaho Falls Greenbelt. Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman said Tuesday that he is hopeful the first phase of the Memorial Drive project will be finished by early November, before the onset of harsh weather.

Officials said the transition has been in the works for the last year or so, and that the idea has been for people to park, visit and find an all-encompassing variety of information in one spot.

Kerry McCullough. Holly Romrell and Jerda Judy of the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce pause to flex Monday during the move from West Broadway to Memorial Drive.