Silver Star plans data center for Idaho Falls

Ron McCue

Silver Star Communications is planning to set up a data center in Idaho Falls by next summer, but the challenge is to find a building the right size that is in the right place.

Ron McCue, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said they envision an operation between 30,000 and 50,000 square feet located in a spot that can serve both Idaho Falls Power and Rocky Mountain Power.

“We would like to find an existing building to retrofit,” he said. Rather than constructing something new and nondescript, the company would much prefer to find and interesting old building to remodel. He estimated the cost will be more than $10 million.

Silver Star has already been partnering with Idaho Falls Power, using the city’s dark fiber to provide service to commercial and industrial customers. From Idaho Falls, it has its own fiber to Salt Lake City, where it has Tier 1 servers in the Kearns Building.

“We think eastern Idaho is incredibly important to our economic vitality,” McCue said.

The company has a commitment to rural customers that dates back to the 1920s, when farmers and ranchers in lower Star Valley, Wyoming, built their own phone system. Silver Star Telephone Co. was incorporated in 1948 and in 1953 it a loan from the Rural Electrification Administration that allowed them to build a modern dial system.

Melvin and Ardell Hoopes purchased the controlling interest in the company in 1956, eventually acquiring the remaining stock, and by 1961 they had expanded service into Idaho, providing service to Irwin, Palisades and Swan Valley, and expanding in 1964 to serve the tiny communities of Henry and Wayan.

McCue came to work for the company in 1989, just in time for the revolutionary changes brought on by the Internet. There is no such thing as a telephone company anymore. “Companies really need to be focused on being a broadband company,” he said.

Good Internet service is essential to electrical utilities operating at maximum efficiency. By having large commercial and industrial customers on a high-capacity system, Idaho Falls Power can shed load automatically during times of peak usage. “Say you’ve got a really hot day during the summer when everyone is running their air conditioners at maximum capacity,” McCue said. “We can find industrial equipment that may be unnecessarily consuming power and shut it down, avoiding brownouts and outages.”

Silver Star also sees opportunity in Ammon, which has been building its own fiber network the past three or four years. Unlike Idaho Falls’ network, which dates back more than 10 years and is focused mainly on serving government and business, Ammon is stringing fiber to residences as well.

“People take rising levels of speed for granted,” McCue said. “In a way, it’s just like the old days. When they called Aunt Bessie in Denver, they didn’t really care how the call was routed.”

EIRMC fills three leadership positions

Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center announced today that three leadership positions have been filled, two by people in interim positions.

Dr. Aaron Harris has been named executive director of  EIRMC's Behavioral Health Center. For the past five years, Harris has served in multiple clinical and leadership roles at the Robert J. Dole Veterans Administration Medical Center – a level 2 teaching facility in Wichita, Kan. Most recently, he served as the associate chief of staff, providing daily operational oversight and strategic direction to more than 100 staff and 14 mental health programs. He and his wife, Erin, have six children.

Iris Torvik, current interim director of women's services will be continuing her role permanently at EIRMC. Before coming to EIRMC, she served as the vice president of Baylor University Medical Center, a 1,017-bed flagship hospital of Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, Texas, a position she held for 10 years. She is most looking forward to helping build the Women’s and Children’s Services lines.

Barry Hawthorne, interim director of emergency services, will be continuing his role permanently at EIRMC. Hawthorne has worked in health care for more than 35 years. With a base of clinical services in ED, Trauma and Open Heart Critical Care, Barry brings over 10 years in CNO roles and over 6 years in transitional/ interim leadership/operational consultant roles across the nation.

Hawthorne said decided to stay at EIRMC because he loves the people here and sees great potential for EIRMC to lead the region in emergency care.

Black Rock plans March 28 grand opening

Vino Rosso is no more. Black Rock Fine Wine and Craft Beer is planning a grand opening March 28. New owner Chuck Chute, who bought the A Street business from Bret and Sara Scibior, has repainted the interior dark sage and peppercorn grey, and the bar top and fireplace have been refaced with stone. “We want to take all the best that is already here and optimize it,” Chute said. That will include more music and food. Since the place has a kitchen, Chute described his culinary concept as “small plates, big flavor, low cost.”

Melaleuca holds open house at new world headquarters

Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot speaking on the grand staircase Monday at the company's new world headquarters south of Idaho Falls.

Melaleuca held an open house Monday at its new world headquarters south of Idaho Falls. Given its size, it’s impossible to ignore whichever way you are headed on Interstate 15.

With a 355,000-square-foot floor plan, it’s big enough to cover six football fields. The facility incorporates at large meeting room that can hold 1,700 people, a call center that can hold 400, and all the company’s research and development labs and audio and video studios.

All of it is paid for, said CEO Frank VanderSloot. With facilities in Idaho Falls, Rexburg, Knoxville, Tenn., and Shanghai, China, the company is debt-free, he said.

As big and new as the world headquarters building is, Melaleuca’s 30-year history has been mostly one of renovating old places. The company started in the old S&H Green Stamp building on Broadway in downtown Idaho Falls, where it stayed until 1991. By that point, worldwide sales had brought things to the point where people were crammed in shoulder to shoulder.

When the Ziggy’s Hardware store on South Yellowstone became available, that’s where they moved, renovating it and, in time, a building next door, acquired from the city of Idaho Falls. Meanwhile, research and development was conducted in the old Union Pacific depot, attracting hardly anyone’s attention.

The move to the location near Exit 113 has been a long time in the making. The company opened its $11 million, 150,000-square-foot distribution center there in 2007, announcing that it had repaid in full the $2.5 million interest-free loan it had received from the Regional Development Alliance in 2002. The RDA administers money from the 1995 settlement between the State of Idaho, U.S. Navy and Department of Energy over spent fuel at the Idaho National Laboratory.

At the time of the shipping center’s opening VanderSloot said he had created three time the jobs it had promised the RDA in its proposal.

The announcement that Melaleuca was moving its world headquarters came in December 2012, a year after the company announced its worldwide sales had passed the $1 billion mark.

The complex has been a keystone in the development of infrastructure in the New Sweden area. In 2004, it announced it was contributing $1.3 million toward the Regional Wastewater Treatment Project, a joint effort between Shelley, Ammon, Bonneville and Bingham counties (another $500,000 came from the State of Idaho).

When it came to the actual construction of the $60 million world headquarters, Bateman-Hall of Idaho Falls was the general contractor. Thirty-two Idaho subcontractors were engaged in the project, including Johnson Brothers of Idaho Falls, which did all of the woodwork.

Melaleuca vice-president Damond Watkins speaking Monday in the meeting room at Melaleuca's new world headquarters.

Guns and Gear owner to speak at Advertising Federation luncheon

Ryan Later of Guns and Gear will be the next guest at the Idaho Falls Advertising Federation's “Lunch and Learn” series, March 19 at Dixie’s Diner.

Later’s life took a dramatic turn when he was robbed at gunpoint at a business where he was working. In addition to thinking about life, he decided he needed a firearm for his own protection. From there, the idea for Guns and Gear took shape.

He teamed up with Shane and Dixie Murphy in 2012, and in November 2014 they opened their $3 million indoor shooting range and gun shop.

Located on Crane Drive, Guns and Gear features tactical and static target lanes with the latest computer technology and an HVAC system compliant with EPA regulations. Overall, Later and the Murphys spent $2.8 million on the two-story, 15,000-square-foot building, which overlooks the Snake River Landing development, and $700,000 on equipment.

At the Ad Fed luncheon, Later will talk about how to develop a new business marketing plan that is effective and meets your company’s goals.

The luncheon will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Cost is $12 for members and $15 for non-members.

'MORE' the theme of 2015 Mayors' Business Day

The sixth annual Mayors’ Business Day is scheduled to be held April 21 from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Keefer’s Island Convention Center, 780 Lindsay Boulevard, in the Shilo Inn. This year’s event is titled “It’s About MORE ... How Economic Development Can Bring More Business for All.”

Registration and breakfast will be from 7:30 to 8 a.m. The program will then start, featuring six presentations. Time will be allotted between each presentation for guests to visit business vendors set up around the perimeter of the room.

Featured presentations include:

Why Do We Want More? Local Businesses Use Economic Development to Grow
Presented by Mont Crnkovich and Ann-Michelle Jones of Broadway Ford, moderated by Linda Martin of Grow Idaho Falls

How Do We Get More Here? Regional Mayors’ Perspectives on Economic Development
Presented by Mayor Rebecca Casper (Idaho Falls), Mayor Dana Kirkham (Ammon), Mayor Paul Loomis (Blackfoot) and Mayor Stacy Pascoe (Shelley)

How Did the Magic Valley Get More? Big Recruitment Wins Create More Business for All
Presented by Jan Rogers of the Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization and Shawn Barigar of the Twin Falls Chamber

How Can the State Help Our Region Get More? More Assets Mean More Opportunities to Sell Our Area
Presented by Susan Davidson of the Idaho Department of Commerce

What is Eastern Idaho’s Plan for Getting More? An Introduction to Regional Economic Development
Presented by the Regional Economic Development Initiative Board of Directors

Tools for Getting Even More: Development Perspectives on Having the Right Tools
Presented by Tommy Ahlquist of Gardner Company, with an introduction by Cortney Liddiard of Ball Ventures

Pre-registration for the event is required. Seating is limited. The cost to attend is $60 for chamber members and $75 for non-members. For more information or to buy tickets, visit www.idahofallschamber.com.

We leave you with the late Andrea True and her smash disco hit from 1976, "More More More." You have our permission to do the Hustle.

Noodles & Company plans May 4 opening in Idaho Falls

Noodles & Company's restaurant in Idaho Falls.

Noodles & Company has set a tenative opening date of May 4 for its Idaho Falls restaurant. This has been a long time in the making, as we first reported last May that the company had filed a site plan with the city of Idaho Falls to build a 2,812-square-foot restaurant on a pad in the Grand Teton Mall parking lot facing Hitt Road, east of the main mall structure.

The Broomfield, Colo.-based chain has hundreds of restaurants spread out over 30 states. In Idaho, it has built two in Boise and one in Meridian.

The company was founded in 1995 by Aaron Kennedy, a Pepsi marketing executive who got the idea after eating at Mamie's Asian Noodle Shop in Greenwich Village. Kennedy felt there were not enough restaurants that served noodle dishes. So, using personal savings and investments from friends and family, he started Noodles & Co. in Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood. After a rocky start,  the management team overhauled the concept and food critics in several cites began identifying it as the best fast-food restaurant. It grew from $300,000 in revenues in 1996 to $300 million when it went public in 2013.

For a look at the menu, click here.