Papa Murphy's files plan for Ammon store

Knowing how hungry people here are for news about new restaurants, we’re always on the lookout for it during our weekly visits to the Idaho Falls and Ammon building department offices. It’s not every week we see names like Popeye’s or Panera on the white board (Ammon) or in the three-ring binder (Idaho Falls), but we do our best.

This week, we can report that Papa Murphy’s Take ’N’ Bake Pizza is moving into Ammon, at 1360 17th Street, roughly across the road from Kmart. The plans call for development of 2,434 square feet. Clayton Myers, the company’s local contact person, said they hope to have it open by December.

This will be the third Papa Murphy’s in the Idaho Falls-Ammon area. The chain also has stores in Rexburg, Blackfoot and Pocatello. Worldwide, with more than 1,425 stores in 38 states, Canada and United Arab Emirates, the 34-year-old company has established itself as the largest Take 'N' Bake pizza company in the world and the fifth-largest pizza company.

Napa Auto Parts building new store

NAPA Auto Parts has broken ground on a new store at 2517 North Holmes Avenue, to replace its longtime location on East Anderson near C-A-L Ranch Store.

The plans call for a 10,584-square foot building on 1.165 acres of land. The store on Anderson is owned by Jake Dyson. Valuation of the project, according to the Idaho Falls Building Department, is $750,000.

NAPA has nearly 6,000 stores and is a subsidiary of Genuine Auto Parts, a company founded in 1928 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. For a would-be owner, the company requires at least $75,000 to $150,000 in liquid capital available. According to the Web page www.napaautoparts.biz, the average total new store investment is approximately $600,000, with the overall investment varying on the basis of market and store size. There are no franchise fees or royalties, but owners are asked to participate in the company’s national advertising program to maximize the true benefit of the NAPA system and drive traffic to their stores.

After tumultuous year, Double Down closes doors

Double Down's owners announced Monday it was closing.

Double Down, 3078 Outlet Boulevard, has closed its doors, its owners saying they can't stay in business now that an Idaho Supreme Court ruling has made historical racing machines illegal.

Melissa Bernard, who ran the establishment with her husband, Jim, told East Idaho News they’d invested more than $3 million dollars since opening in 2014, the year the Idaho Legislature made historical racing machines legal. “Unfortunately, when historical racing was pulled, it was no longer feasible to remain in operation,” she said.

Historical racing machines came front and center earlier this year in the Idaho Legislature after drawing the ire of anti-gambling forces and Native American tribes, the latter regarding the machines to be competition to what they offer at their reservation casinos.

A historical racing machine works like this: When a player makes a wager, a race is randomly selected from a video library of over 60,000 previous races. Identifying information such as the location and date of the race, and the names of the horses and jockeys, is not shown.

The player is able to view a "Skill Graph" chart from the Daily Racing Form, showing information such as jockeys' and trainers' winning percentages, and based on this handicapping information the player picks the projected top three runners in order of finish. Many players use a "handi helper" feature, which allows the machine to automatically make the selections.

While early versions of the terminals looked like self-serve wagering terminals, over time some began to mimic slot machines, with symbols on spinning reels showing the results of the player's wager and the video of the actual race consigned to a 2-inch square in the corner of the screen.

Once the similarity to slot machines became common knowledge, legislators began pushing for a repeal of 2014's House Bill 220, which had made the machines legal.  Senate Bill 1011 repealed the Legislature's prior approval of the devices, passing the House by a 49-21 vote and the Senate 25-9.

Otter vetoed the bill, and the Senate’s 19-16 subsequent vote to override him fell five votes short. While he then called for a moratorium on any new instant racing machines, Senate leaders took more direct action, entering statements into the official record that they had failed to receive the veto within the five days required by law.

In a unanimous decision Sept. 10, the Supreme Court ruled that Otter had essentially botched the veto. Otter told the Idaho Statesman he was “disappointed” in the ruling and maintained that his actions were legal. “While I disagree with (the) ruling, I will continue working toward a solution that ensures a viable live horse racing industry in Idaho,” he said.

All this will be too late for Double Down and its 70 employees. Any thoughts?

DOE cleanup contractors receive six-month extensions

A scene from inside the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, where transuranic legacy waste is characterized and readied for disposal.

The two contractors taking care of waste cleanup at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho site got six-month extensions this week, amounting to $179 million in work.

Idaho Treatment Group (ITG), which is running the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project, and CH2M-WG Idaho (CWI), which is running the Idaho Cleanup Project, will both remain on the job while DOE moves toward awarding and transitioning to a new ICP Core contract. Both of their contracts had been scheduled to end today. The extension will allow cleanup to continue without interruption as DOE evaluates bid packages for a new cleanup contract.

The CWI contract extension is valued at approximately $114 million, while the ITG extension is valued at approximately $65 million. CWI was first awarded the ICP contract in March 2005, while ITG received the Mixed Waste contract in October 2011.

Under its contract, CWI is responsible for:

• Treatment and disposal of radioactive waste
• Retrieval, disposal and other remediation related to buried waste
• Safe management of spent nuclear fuel
• Disposition of nuclear materials
• Environmental remediation activities
• Sodium bearing waste processing activities

ITG’s contract dictates that it will safely and compliantly:

• Characterize, certify, package and store transuranic waste offsite disposal
• Disposition mixed low-level waste at an appropriate treatment and/or disposal facility
• Retrieve stored waste from the Transuranic Storage Area-Retrieval Enclosure.
• Complete upgrades to the Waste Treatment Facility

DOE offers help to small businesses developing clean energy products

Small businesses developing clean energy technologies are now able to compete for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is offering $20 million in vouchers to help clean-energy entrepreneurs and small businesses get their products to market.

Idaho National Laboratory has partnered with Ames and Oak Ridge national laboratories to assist with outreach, merit reviews and selection of proposals. The INL-Ames-Oak Ridge team was recently selected as one of five pilot teams implementing the Small Business Voucher Pilot Program, which is part of EERE's Lab Impact Initiative. The team has jointly received the largest of the five awards, which together total $20 million.

The vouchers are intended to help U.S.-based and U.S.-owned small businesses that are developing clean-energy technologies in advanced manufacturing, buildings, vehicles, wind, water, bio-energy, fuel cells, geothermal and solar.

EERE released the first call for small business requests for assistance today. More information – including how to submit applications online – is at www.sbv.org.

Vouchers of $50,000 to $300,000 per small business will be awarded to initiate collaborative research projects, provide technical assistance and facilitate third-party validation. INL can provide unique materials, prototyping, technology testing and validation, engineering designs, and scale-up of samples. The selected businesses must provide 20 percent matching funds or in-kind services.

Three cycles of competitions will be offered to small businesses through 2016, and DOE estimates more than 100 businesses will receive funds.

Other labs participating in the pilot program are National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.