Underground parking garage remains exposed

This hole was made when the asphalt in the Bank of Commerce parking lot collapsed under a CCI crane May 6. No word on when it is going to be repaired, but you might be surprised to learn that Dad Clay's Garage, where the bank now is, offered underground parking to those who wanted to pay for it.

The Bank of Commerce is close to finished evaluating the hole in its parking lot on Yellowstone Avenue, made May 6 when the driver of a 40-ton crane tried to make a wide turn coming out of the alley onto the thoroughfare.

At the moment, the bank's officers need to consult with engineers to decide how much of the underground parking structure they want to save, said CEO Tom Romrell.

Although the existence of the parking structure came as a surprise to many, it's no secret to anyone who has lived here a long time. The bank stands where Dad Clay's Garage used to be. Clay built his garage in 1910 and briefly sold Buicks and Fords before other businessmen acquired exclusive dealership rights.

"People who had a little money would park their cars there because they could walk everywhere," said my friend Catherine Gesas Nelson, a longtime Idaho Falls resident.

Romrell said the door to the underground parking structure is on the bank's south side. He said that while some city officials claim they might not have been aware of it, it has been inspected as recently as five years ago.

Deadlines approaching for Great Race 'Disco Edition'

Because this year's theme for the Great Race for Education is Disco Fever, and because I know you are looking for any excuse you can find to waste time on a Monday, here is a clip of Van McCoy's classic "The Hustle," a production I was too green appreciate in 1975. Gas lines ... stagflation ... the fall of Saigon ... WIN buttons ... who cares? It was just great to be young!

"Disco Fever" is the theme this year for the Great Race for Education, but that doesn't mean people will be running around downtown Idaho Falls July 18 in platform shoes and Afro wigs.

OK, maybe a few, but this event, a fund-raiser that netted nearly $40,000 for the Eastern Idaho Technical Foundation last year, has come to be taken very seriously by some of the people who have been involved since it started in 2009.

For the uninitiated, the Great Race is an event in which teams are given clues that lead them to different locations around downtown Idaho Falls, where they perform challenges. Once they've performed five challenges they head back to Snake River Landing. The first ten teams to return advance to the second round of challenges. How quickly teams get back to the finish line has a lot to do with how quickly they can decipher clues, which they receive over the phone from their team owners at base camp. Teams can also buy additional clues, with the proceeds going to the EITC Foundation's scholarship program.

The race's support in the community has grown dramatically. In 2010, once the expenses had been calculated, EITC Foundation reported proceeds from the race around $13,000. In 2013, the foundation came away with nearly $40,000.

Although race day is in mid-July, the buildup starts in April with the Trashion Fashion Show at the city of Idaho Falls' Earth Day event. There is active promotion on social media, all with the goal of raising money and recruiting new teams.

Once the race is done, everyone enjoys food, music and a special rapport that comes from having done something really significant for the community.

EITC Foundation executive director Natalie Hebard said there is still time for anyone who wants to become a team owner to register. In addition to participating in the event, the $50 registration fee gets a team owner a t-shirt, swag bag, drink tickets and a catered meal.

Between now and race day, here are some deadlines and reminders:

• Team registration forms and a signed waiver for each runner are due by June 27 (to guarantee shirt order).
• Team Owner Entry Forms are due by June 27 (registration is allowed up to the day of the event, but to receive a team t-shirt, registration form and payment must be received by June 27).
• Team Owner BBQ – Saturday, July 12 at 5 p.m. hosted at the home of Daren Long (event is posted on Great Race Facebook page with details, please RSVP.
• Pre-race clues – Each day Monday, July 14 through Thursday, July 17 clues will be released at 7:30 a.m. each morning and again in the evening at 5:30 p.m. (clues released on Facebook and via text if you sign up for text alerts)
• Pre-race Facebook Auction – Thursday, July 17 from 5:30 until 9 p.m. you can bid on items that will help you during the race.

If any teams are raising funds for clue money, Hebard would like to publicize them on the Great Race Facebook page. If you do not pre-purchase a clue package, please be aware you will be given only one clue after the completion of each challenge. Additional clues may be purchased for $50 per clue on race day.  Team owners can help you solve clues and can purchase the additional clues at base camp.

For more information call the EITC Foundation office at 524-0464.

Smokehouse planned for old Happy's location

Work has started inside the space on Park Avenue that used to be occupied by Happy's. The landlord, Thomas Development Co. of Boise, said it is leasing the space to Foster's Smokehouse.

Foster's Smokehouse is moving into the Earl Building on Park Avenue, where Happy Chinese Restaurant used to be. The 2,800 square feet is being remodeled into a fine dining establishment by Thomas Development.

Based in Boise, Thomas Development bills itself as "the leader in sustainable real estate development," It bought the 114-year-old Earl Building in 2008 and the following year it remodeled the interior common space and updated the historic facade. Pachanga's moved into the building in 2011, dramatically expanding its business from its first location on Capital Avenue.

"Thomas Development Co.'s goal is to make sure it continues to contribute to the community's economic vitality," a company news release said. The company has also developed the Bandon River, Rosselare and Summerhill apartment complexes in Idaho Falls.

Employment terminations take careful time and planning

Remember Donald Trump on "The Apprentice" a few years ago? All I can say is that guy used to make employment terminations look good! Seemed so easy, so simple, and so right to the point as long as you were wearing a tailored suit and were seated in an immaculate looking conference room.

In reality, employment terminations don’t start and end within 30 seconds. Nor do they usually end with an empathetic employee that just “understands” the decision and is motivated to moving on to the next step.

Most terminations are far from simple and easy, but necessary in managing a business. I would love to say that every employee makes the right decisions, performs at optimal levels and excels with motivated excitement in the workplace, but that just isn’t true. Sometimes it becomes inevitable for an employment relationship to end, and often times it’s the employer who has to play the role of the bad guy in a workplace breakup.

Living and working within the great State of Idaho means employment is by law at-will. Legally this means an employer (or an employee, for that matter) can terminate employment with or without cause and with or without notice. Pretty open and flexible for both employees and employers, no?

This shouldn’t be construed that employers can let employees go whenever they want to and without careful planning, or that legal issues won’t arise from the way an employer manages a termination.

Every termination or potential terminations should be carefully considered and planned to ensure it is being managed properly. I know that's easy for me to say, being an expert on the subject, but in truth terminations don’t have to be so hard. They can be done in a fair, consistent, and diplomatic manner.

While every termination is different and surrounded by different circumstances and factors, here are some concrete tips that should be applied to every termination:

• Termination meetings should ALWAYS be held in a private and confidential setting. The information relayed in a termination is on a need-to-know basis.
• Termination meetings should be held early in the day if possible. Making an employee work through a full shift isn’t fair or considerate in most cases. Despite the circumstances, remember that your employees are people too and keep in mind how you would like to be treated if the tables were turned.
• Stick to the facts. Start of by making sure you have facts, documentation, policies/procedures and evidence to support your decision. Hearsay won’t be helpful during the meeting or after they are gone, so make sure you have the right information going into the meeting. If the termination involves a specific incident or behavior, get the employee’s side of the story. This allows you to gather insight on items you may have been unaware of or not even considered. This has been a game changer for me in situations when employees had sometimes no other options or courses of action to take in certain situations.
• Bring tissues – but make sure to check the emotions at the door. Emotions are high with employment terminations on both sides. Inserting emotion into an already difficult situation only complicates the meeting. Assert your position but try to be empathetic and make sure to steer clear from drawing in any emotions or personal feelings.
• Mean what you say and say what you mean. Remember, the employee is more than likely going to be defensive, so choose your words carefully. They also may handpick statements made in the termination meeting for action against the company, so be mindful of the long-term impact of your words.
• Ensure the decisions you have made regarding the termination will be uniformly considered/applied to similar situations in the future. Make sure you are compliant with your policies/procedures and that in similar situations in the future you are committed to taking similar actions. If you are making individual specific decisions based on common performance issues/behaviors, you could end up with future legal issues by playing the nice guy with an employee or two.

Document the termination meeting with all the relevant facts. Ensure the employee is able to read the termination notice and, if willing, sign the notice alongside the management member who handled the situation.

Break-ups are never easy – and workplace break-ups are no exception. Unlike the end of a personal relationship, the way a termination is managed can have a long-lasting impact on a company and may even be accompanied by unemployment claims or worse.

If you need help, there are helpful professionals (HR managers/professionals, consultants, even attorneys) with great insight to share. It’s worth the time and money you may have to spare to make the right decisions for you and the employee.
Monica Bitrick is a human relations consultant who lives and works in Idaho Falls.

Bonneville County home sales numbers remarkably consistent

I did one of my semi-regular examinations of Bonneville County home sales statistics today, looking at the first five months for the last five years, and the one thing that jumped out at me is how remarkably consistent the numbers have been for the most part.

The Snake River Regional Multiple Listing Service puts these numbers out every month using four criteria: Units (homes) sold, average days on market, median price and new listings. Considering where our economy has been since 2008, what surprises me is how these numbers stayed pretty steady except for the two numbers I've change to red: the number of new listings in the first five months of 2010 (really up) and the median price in 2012 (down somewhat).

I'm not sure what it means, but here's something to think about. Early 2010 was when the stimulus bill was probably having its greatest effect on local economies. Although a lot of people have dismissed it as ineffective, in Bonneville County it was anything but. Why? Because there was a lot of shovel-ready work on the desert with the Idaho Cleanup Project, and the sudden infusion of federal dollars was all it took to get things rolling.

If you'd care to offer any observations of your own, feel free.

Teton Volkswagen holds ribbon cutting

Ein ... zwei ... drei ... and the ribbon is cut at Teton Volkswagen on Sunnyside Road. The new dealership has 15,000 square feet, including a service department with at laser-guided alignment rack. It has been more than a year since Teton VW went into business, first on Outlet Boulevard, then on Anderson Street. In that time, they have sold 360 new Volkswagens and more than 600 used cars. At the new permanent, high-visibility location they are hoping to do even better.

Social media marketing expert speaks at chamber luncheon

Tim Hong

This might be disappointing, but even if that "Like Us On Facebook" sign you hung on your store got you 500 likes in two days, it doesn't mean all 500 people who liked you are going to see your posts.

When it comes to marketing and social media, change is not only constant but accelerating, said Tim Hong, strategic alliances senior manager for Adobe.

A 1989 Blackfoot High School graduate, Hong was in Idaho Falls Tuesday to speak at the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce's 2020 Vision for Business Luncheon.

Advertising spending on social media platforms -- Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. -- has grown exponentially in the last five years, first for desktop computers and now for mobile devices. Done right, online analytics (Hong's expertise) allow advertisers to measure the success of a campaign in far more detail than it was possible with old media advertising (TV, print, radio).

Nevertheless, a lot of business people, especially small business people, might be wondering the same old question: "How do I know what works?"

A lot of people feel the marketing landscape has changed more in the past two years than it did in the previous 50. Two years ago, the focus was on "vanity metrics," e.g. how many "likes" a business could rustle up on Facebook.

But Facebook has been changing its algorithms, to the point now where 2 percent of the people who've liked your page actually see your posts. Of course you can pay to get better exposure, which is what Facebook wants.

Mobile devices have doubled the amount of time people spend online, and advertising budgets for mobile are growing seven times faster than desktop. "The pace of change, is accelerating, not slowing down," Hong said.

He spoke at length about Foursquare, a web and mobile application that allows registered users to post their location at a venue ("check-in") and connect with friends. Check-in requires active user selection and points are awarded at check-in. To date, there have been more than 5 billion check-ins with Foursquare.

For any business that wants to get a return on investment, understanding the audience is still essential. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, it's best to target your message.

"Be an independent voice, relevant to the people who care about you," Hong said. "Don't try to be popular to everybody on social media."