Local banks announce promotions

There were two new promotions in the local banking sector, announced in press releases this past week.

Wells Fargo & Co. has named Grant Nelson its new business banking manager, serving the Idaho Falls and Pocatello markets.

With more than 25 years of experience at the bank, Nelson previously served as a senior business relationship manager in Burley. He also is a former manager of Wells Fargo's St. Anthony and Rexburg branches. Nelson was Southeast Idaho District manager in 2010 and was named to his most recent position as a senior business relationship manager in 2011.

He is a graduate of Utah State University in Logan, Utah, with a degree in agriculture education. He also has a master's degree in adult education from the University of Idaho.

D.L. Evans Bank has announced the appointment of Dee Darrington to investment representative for eastern Idaho. Darrington has a bachelor's degree in economics from Utah State University and an MBA from Idaho State University.

He has more than 16 years of experience in investment consulting and has been in banking for 19 years.

Study names Idaho Falls second happiest city in United States

Should we add "Have a Nice Day" to the water tower?

For a place nobody seems to know much about, Idaho Falls gets a lot of attention when it comes to stories rating places as "most liveable," "best quality of life," etc.

The latest is a story we spotted Sunday night on the U.S. News on NBCNews.com Web site, listing the happiest and most miserable cities in the United States. Wonder of wonders, among the happiest places Idaho Falls ranked second, behind Napa, Calif.

Before we go into more detail, here's a link to the page: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/22/17059015-here-are-the-happiest-saddest-and-most-miserable-us-cities,

I think that with an adequate budget for wine and regular reservations at Mustard's Grill, I could be very happy in Napa, Calif. I was surprised to see Idaho Falls beat out such places as Santa Cruz, Calif., Ashville, N.C., and Boulder, Colo., happening places that I think I could be very happy in.

The obvious question is, "How do they come up with this stuff?"

It turns out that these particular lists were based on a highly detailed survey of people on Twitter and the words they used. It released Valentine's Day by the University of Vermont, its title "The Geography of Happiness: Connecting Twitter sentiment and expression, demographics, and objective characteristics of place." It was put together by five people: Lewis Mitchell, Kameron Decker Harris, Morgan R. Frank, Peter Sheridan Dodds and Christopher M. Danforth. If you're a statistician, here's the link to the paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.3299.

In a blog posting today, author Lewis Mitchell said the team plotted over 10 million geotagged tweets from 2011, looking for happy words.

"With a score of 6.25, we found the happiest city to be Napa, Calif., due to a relative abundance of such happy words as 'restaurant', 'wine', and even 'cheers', along with a lack of profanity," he wrote. "At the other end of the spectrum, we found the saddest city to be Beaumont, Texas, with a score of 5.82. In general, cities in the south tended to be less happy than those in the north, with a major contributing factor being the relative abundance of profanity used in those cities."

Idaho Falls posted a score of 6.21. Here's the chart that details all the words they were looking at to determine this score (click to enlarge):

 

So congratulations, Idaho Falls, the happiest town in the whole U.S.A. that doesn't have to resort to a bottle of fermented grape juice to find it!

Idahoan introduces new bacon-flavored mashed potatoes

Idaho Falls-based Idahoan Foods has added a new flavor to its line of flavored mashed potatoes: Bacon & Cheddar Chipotle. The newest product to come out of the Idahoan test kitchens, it comes in a four-ounce pouch that serves four. Gluten-free, it's made with Idaho potatoes and blended with cheese, chipotle pepper and bacon flavors.

For appetizer and meal concepts with the full recipes, go to www.idahoan.com/recipes. According to the company's press release, Bacon and Cheddar Chipotle Flavored Mashed Potatoes can be found at most Wal-Mart stores across the country. Wider distribution is expected later this spring.

Founded in 1960 in Lewisville, Idahoan has grown from 50 people to one of the world's leading producers of dehydrated potatoes, with seasonal employment peaks of nearly 500. In addition to its Idahoan retail brand, it manufactures food service products for restaurants, schools, cafeterias and hospitals. These include such offerings as mashed potatoes, hash browns and casseroles

Dancing With the I.F. Stars raises $15k for American Cancer Society

Jenna Schweinsberg, 2013 winner of Dancing With the Idaho Falls Stars

Congratulations to Jenna Schweinsberg of Snake River Landing, the winner Wednesday night at "Dancing With the Idaho Falls Stars."
In addition to looking fabulous and dancing divinely, Schweinsberg raised $4,645 for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. This is the fourth year the fund-raiser has kicked off Relay for Life, an annual event that culminates every summer with a big all-night gathering at Thunder Stadium near Bonneville High School.

As for DWTIFS's connection with Snake River Landing, it goes back to the beginning, as it was originally conceived by Michelle Ziel during the time she was marketing director there.

For the show, dancers are paired with young people from the Extreme Ballroom dance studio, who teach them a routine that lasts about a minute. Having participated myself, this year and last, let me assure you this is long enough. The other responsibility is to collect money, in advance and from the audience at the show.

The total this year was approximately $15,000. In addition to Schweinsberg, the top fund-raisers were: Sandy Moore, EIRMC, $2,816; Cindy Jones, Cargill, $2,352; and Dayne Dingman, Artcore Visual Studio, $1,707.

This was only the kickoff. If you would like to contribute to Relay for Life you can do so online at http://www.relayforlife.org/.

EIRMC hires new HR director, promotes another to head emergency services

Matt Campbell

Matt Campbell has joined Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center as the hospital's director of human resources. He brings 11 years of human resources management experience from his tenure with Melaleuca, Inc., where he was responsible for globalization of the company's HR departments. Campbell holds a Masters of Public Administration degree from the University of Utah. An Idaho Falls native, he enjoys youth sports coaching and spending time with his family.

Jared Rickabaugh

Also at EIRMC, Jared Rickabaugh has assumed a new role as director of emergency services. A registered nurse, he has held many positions at the hospital, moving from staff nurse to clinical team leader and then to the quality department as core measures coordinator before becoming clinical manager of the emergency department. During this time, Rickabaugh earned the CPHQ professional certification in quality improvement and won the HCA Mountain Division “Peak” Award for piloting quality management systems that were eventually adopted by the entire division. In addition, Jared and his emergency department team won a statewide Qualis Award, which is given in recognition of quality improvement initiatives that significantly reduce patient wait times.

Most recently, he served as the director of quality management. He said he is excited to resume an “active duty” role with his current promotion.

A native of Iowa, he holds a Masters of Business Administration from Idaho State University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Brigham Young University. He has served on the Board of Directors of United Way of Idaho Falls & Bonneville County, and is active in Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Brooks Internet Software announces co-marketing agreement with OKI Data

Brooks Internet Software, Inc., an Idaho Falls company that has made a niche for more than a decade with online printing applications, announced on Wednesday a co-marketing agreement with OKI Data Americas, a subsidiary of OKI Data Corp. of Japan, a multi-national corporation that reported sales of nearly $5.2 billion in 2011.

The agreement ensures that OKI Data printer users will be able to easily access and deploy Brooks Internet Software applications for customized, end-to-end, enterprise printing systems.

"By offering Brooks Internet Software's printer management applications, OKI will be able to provide our enterprise customers with an array of solutions to manage all workgroup printing environments," said Keith Fenton, OKI's product planning manager for MFP Software and Solutions, in a joint press release issued on PR Newswire.

"Brooks Internet Software shares a number of enterprise customers with OKI Data Americas," said Dave Brooks, president of Brooks Internet Software. "Our co-marketing agreement with OKI Data expands the range of our joint support and systems, ensuring these customers can more easily manage and maintain their enterprise printing systems."

Headquartered in Mount Laurel, N.J., OKI Data Americas markets PC peripheral equipment and customized solutions, including digital color and monochrome printers, color and monochrome multifunction products, serial impact dot matrix printers, thermal label printers and POS printers. The company also serves the graphic arts and production market with the OKI proColor series.

Brooks Internet Software
 (www.brooksnet.com) develops TCP/IP network printing solutions that allow Windows-based computers to receive print data from platforms such as Unix and IBM Power Systems. The data can then be transformed, processed, formatted and delivered to a single destination or multiple destinations simultaneously. Its RPM Remote Print Manager supports major print protocols and also modifies data on demand, including deletions, insertions and appends, and can drive many printers directly at higher speeds. RPM can simultaneously send a single print job to multiple printers, format and send emails and archive to disk.

Pace picks up on Idaho Falls construction projects

When there's a hole being dug, people want to know what it is going to be. On First Street, this will be Turtle & Crane's third assisted living unit.

Spring may be a month away, but since the weather warmed up (relatively speaking) the construction season is heating up around Idaho Falls. It might be hard to top the $83 million in project valuation that distinguished 2012, but with two new schools going up and a number of other projects being talked about it could be close.

If you've been out First Street past Woodruff Avenue, you might have noticed a big hole in the ground near Cardon's. It is going to be Turtle and Crane's third assisted living facility, and at 8,683 square feet it will also be the largest.

A foundation has also been poured at 2680 North Holmes, across from Vicker's, for The Gun Shop. Owner Casey Wheeler has laid plans for an 8,000 square foot store, with a valuation of $330,000, according to the city of Idaho Falls Building Department.

After a significant period of waiting, remodeling work is finally under way at 2196 Channing, behind Dixie's Diner, where the new Social Security Administration office will be going in. Morgan Construction is the contractor on the project, valued at $375,000 by the city.

Before they were awarded the bid, the Venture One commercial development company worked for three years with the General Services Administration to make a deal involving 6,100 square feet in the building that also houses the UPS Store and Batteries Plus. The space is being refitted to accommodate about 60 people.

For all the red tape, the upside is 10-year fixed lease with a five-year extension option, said Venture One owner Shane Murphy. The plan has been to have people moved in by April.

On the food front, a building plan has been filed for Carl's Jr. at the corner of West Broadway and Utah Avenue, where the Arctic Circle once stood. The architect on the project is Erstad Architects of Boise.

Last of all, Brian Tomsett of the city building department said he received a phone call from a sign company working with Panda Express, asking about regulations and height restrictions on Utah Avenue near Wal-Mart. Efforts to reach a person in the Panda Express real estate department were unsuccessful, but you can be sure we'll keep at it.