POCATELLO — A massive crowd gathered on Saturday morning for the long-awaited groundbreaking for what will soon be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Pocatello temple.

While most of the over 3,000 people in attendance of the event were members of the LDS church, representatives of several other religions were present and participated in the groundbreaking at the future site of the temple off Satterfield Drive on the city’s north side.

It was a historic day for Pocatello, a city many LDS church members say has been waiting for a temple for generations.×

Also in attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony was Gov. Brad Little, who acknowledged Pocatellans’ hunger for an LDS temple.

“I know that Pocatello was a little bit grumpy about Idaho Falls getting (a temple) way back years ago,” said Little in a Saturday interview. “So that’s good that this took place, even though it was a little delayed. Pocatello’s had a chip on their shoulder.”

Little, the first Idaho governor in recent memory to attend an LDS temple groundbreaking, was among the dozens of people who were given gold-colored shovels to participate in the event, held on a sunny March morning with a chill in the air.

Also holding shovels were religious leaders from several other Pocatello faiths, including Mohammad Safdar, president of the Pocatello Mosque; Dale Spencer, president of the Jewish Temple Emanuel; and Jacqualine “Big Momma” Thomas, the pastor of Praise Temple of God church.

Safdar said Saturday’s ceremony reminded him of the community effort to build the Pocatello Mosque a few years ago.

“We got so much support from the community,” Safdar said about the mosque effort. “So likewise, we are here today to support the community. Temples, mosques, synagogues, all of them are places that emit the light of love, the light of care, the light of friendship.”

Thomas said Pocatello is a strong community rooted in faith and tolerance as evidenced by the involvement of so many different faiths in Saturday’s temple groundbreaking — a first in the history of the LDS church.

“We are supposed to be children of the most high God,” Thomas said. “It should never be difficult to come together. It should be something very easy and natural to do.”

Numerous Pocatello police officers provided security for the groundbreaking, most of them wearing plainclothes, according to Deputy Police Chief Roger Schei.

Schei said the LDS church contacted local law enforcement about the need for security at the groundbreaking and several Pocatello police officers volunteered their time to help.

Though Schei said it is standard for local law enforcement to be present at any large event where many dignitaries will be present, he added that there was an elevated sense of tension among police during Saturday’s groundbreaking due to the mass shooting that resulted in 50 deaths at two mosques in New Zealand on Thursday.

Police said Saturday’s groundbreaking occurred without incident with the crowd of over 3,000 people being very well behaved.

During the event several LDS church members addressed the crowd. Among those who took the podium to speak was 8-year-old Braiden Wilde of McCammon.

According to local LDS church spokesman Larry Fisher, the 22 stakes that will be served by the Pocatello temple were each assigned a different part to play in the groundbreaking ceremony, and the McCammon stake was asked to assign one of its youth to speak at the event.

Wilde said it took him three days to write his speech, during which he expressed his love for the LDS church and his excitement for the new temple.

“It just came from my heart,” Wilde said after the groundbreaking. “I was excited and nervous. I was excited at first, but when I got up (to talk) I was scared.”

Taysom Hill, a Pocatello native who now plays football for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, gave the opening prayer at the groundbreaking.

“It was an honor,” Hill said afterward. “I’m certainly aware of what a big deal this is and what it means to the city of Pocatello. To be able to be a part of it was a special experience.”

Wilford Andersen, the LDS church’s Idaho area president, gave the dedicatory prayer at the groundbreaking and thanked the representatives from Pocatello’s other religions for being a part of the ceremony.

“I think that it pleases God when we can support one another,” Andersen said to the religious leaders from the other faiths who attended the groundbreaking. “We’re touched and honored that you would be with us, and we want to reciprocate in the future as we work together, arm in arm, to accomplish our mutual goals of addressing human suffering and helping people turn to God.”

Spencer said the interfaith display at the groundbreaking was reminiscent of the Judaic principle “tikkun olam.”

“It means to heal the world,” Spencer said. “And when you heal the world, you do that by doing things as a community and recognizing that we’re much more the same than we are different.”

S. Gifford Nielsen, a member of the LDS church’s Quorum of the Seventy, said at the groundbreaking, “We’re grateful for the relationship that has been established between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our friends of other faiths.”

Arlo Luke, a Pocatello community leader and LDS church member who attended the groundbreaking, said the LDS church has been making an increased effort to include other faiths in its ceremonies and practices.

“Our understanding is that we’re all children of our Heavenly Father,” Luke said. “We’re here to bless each other.”

LDS church officials said the temple will take two to three years to build. Construction is expected to start this week.

The temple has a valuation of $62 million and cost the LDS church about $395,000 in fees paid to the city of Pocatello.

Article and photo originally published by Idaho State Journal

By Brady Halbleib

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) – Idaho Power could be among the first energy company to go to completely clean in the U.S.

By 2045, the company says it will phase out coal plants and begin generating energy from solar and wind sources.

Idaho Power has already reduced its carbon emission by almost 50 percent since 2005. Today, they are nearly 70 % clean energy.

“It’s an exciting time here at Idaho Power,” Idaho Power Energy Advisor Dave Spillet said. “Clean energy is non-CO2 emitting. Some non-CO2 emitting we have is our hyrdo, our wind, our solar, geothermal and biomass. That’s some of the clean energy we have in our resources.”

Among their hydro resources is Power County. The American Falls Dam is one of 17 dams throughout the state that is helping the Idaho Power go completely clean energy.”

It is primarily used for irrigation but It has three generators, producing more than 92,000 kilowatts of energy.

In addition to the dams, solar energy has become another clean energy source. Idaho Power has recently purchased land, providing 120 megawatts of solar power.

“That’s really exciting, especially for the deal we were able to get,” Spillett said. “We got that for $21.75 per megawatt hour. And that’s the lowest price we know of on a publically recorded contract.”

This initiative is called “Clean Today, Cleaner Tomorrow.” Idaho Power says it will be better for the environment but also better on your wallet. The first step, however, is phasing out of coal plants.

The company has already agreed to end partnerships with two coal plants and is expecting to end a third very soon.

“That’s a big step to becoming clean is to get out of those coal plants and to move towards something else like this solar farm,” Spillett said.

Article and photo originally published by Fox News

Earlier this month the City of Chubbuck unveiled the plans for its new city hall. But the city isn’t the only one benefiting from the change. “It’s super exciting, but I’ll tell you what, to see the excitement of our police side on what’s going to happen for them, it’s wonderful it really is,” said Chubbuck Mayor Kevin England at the announcement on March 8th. With the city moving out, the Chubbuck Police Department will take over the space left behind. “There’s some excitement, but at the same time we still know and understand that we’re still a couple years away from it all coming to fruition,” said Chubbuck Police Chief Bill Guiberson.  While the department knows they’re staying put until the new city hall is built, just having light at the end of their very narrow tunnels is enough. “The police department that we’re sitting in right now was built in 1983, the other half of the building was built even prior to that. When the police department took over this portion of the building we had a bout a dozen employees, now we’ve got 35 employees operating in the same area,” said Guiberson.  Many of the offices you’ll find in the department’s building support two people. The hallways on the other hand, aren’t wide enough for two people to walk down at the same time, and that’s without all of the gear officers wear. The interview room shares a wall with the city’s break room, so serious questioning can be interrupted by laughter and casual conversation. And most of all, they’re beginning to have a storage shortage. So with the shift to the current city hall building, the hope is to provide more space, more efficiency, and more pride. “We do scout tours on occasion, and getting a bunch of scouts through a narrow hallway isn’t real conducive. But it’ll be nice to have an area where we can show the public, and the public can be proud of the building as well as our employees,” said Guiberson. There will be remodeling done to better fit the needs of the police department, which will come directly out of the city’s budget.

Article originally published by KPVI news.

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The Your Future in Technology (YourFIT) Program will once again display High-Tech, High-Wage and High-Demand career paths at local high schools this spring!

Nine Career & Technology Expos will promote nine technical career paths and training to middle & high school students, their parents and the public. These career paths qualify as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Careers.

The Technology Career Expos start on Feb. 28 at Aberdeen High School. All Expos begin at 5:30 p.m., with refreshments and a survey to assess current career knowledge. This is followed by tour of company career demonstration booths and COT training booths. An acquired knowledge survey is then administered follow by door prize drawings.×

The YourFIT Program was started 3 years ago when premier regional employers, such as the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), indicated that good technical positions were becoming difficult to fill. Surveys of high school students throughout Southeast Idaho indicated that 96 percent of them had little or no knowledge of, or interest in, the high wage and high demand technical careers available in the region.

The first two years of YourFIT improved knowledge and interest in technology careers and more needs to be done with new high school and middle students. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the Idaho STEM Center, Bayer, Williams Inc, Simplot and other regional companies fund the coalition’s project, YourFIT.

This support enables development and execution of Technology Career Expo events at high schools in the region, allowing students, teachers, and parents to see hands-on demonstrations of these careers in practice.

In 2018, the RightFIT Program was deployed using the Department of Labor’s Growing Together Program to educate high school career counselors and educators about technical careers and tour actual industries.

Kandi Rudd, regional manager of workforce development for the Idaho Department of Labor in Pocatello, says that not only are the jobs and education available locally, but most require only two years of study and compare favorably with careers requiring four or more years of university study.

“Our statistics show that the median wage for someone entering the workforce with only a high school diploma is $29,700, while the median wage for someone with a four-year college degree is $44,500,” she said. “However, the median salaries for the nine selected career paths range from $34,500 to $80,600 with only two years of college study.”

Rudd said that each of the eight career paths offer opportunities for career-long growth, with employers paying for the costs of increased training in most cases.

“Training opportunities for these high-tech, high-wage, high-demand jobs are currently available at ISU’s College of Technology” says R. Scott Rasmussen, Dean of the College of Technology.

The nine high-tech, high-wage, high-demand career paths include:

Welding Information Technology GIS/CIS/Cyber-security.

Instrumentation/Controls Maintenance engineers/mechanics.

Nuclear Operating technology Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones).

Outdoor Electrical Machining (CNC).

Diesel Mechanics.

Case No. INT-G-18-02
Final Order: No. 34154

Contact: Matt Evans

Office: (208) 334-0339

Cell: (208) 520-4763
matt.evans@puc.idaho.gov

BOISE (Sept. 26, 2018) – Rates for customers of Intermountain Gas Company will decrease by an average of 10.2 percent on Oct. 1 after state regulators approved the company’s annual Purchased Gas Cost Adjustment (PGA) proposal.

The PGA is the variable component of natural gas rates that can be adjusted each fall to reflect changes in the costs of purchasing gas from suppliers.

These costs include transportation, storage and other related expenses incurred acquiring and delivering natural gas to approximately 350,000 customers across southern Idaho.

The decision by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission calls for returning to customers approximately $24.5 million.

That equates to a 10.0-percent decrease to residential rates, or $4.12 per month based on average consumption and weather.

Commercial, or General Service, customers will see a reduction of 11.9 percent on average, or $21.89 per month, when the new PGA takes effect Oct. 1.

Intermountain Gas said several factors contributed to the decrease, including lower-than-expected transportation costs, a decrease in the Weighted Average Cost of Gas, benefits resulting from the company’s management of storage and firm capacity rights on several pipeline systems and benefits related to changes in federal and state corporate income tax laws.

While three customer classes (Residential, General Service and Large Volume) will see a reduction in rates as a result of the PGA change set to take effect Oct. 1, rates will increase for some Industrial customers.

Those in the T-3 class, Interruptible Distribution Transportation Service, will see a 6.84-percent increase, and customers  in the T-4 class, or Firm Distribution Only Transportation Service, will see a 2.3-percent increase.

The decision does not impact the company’s earnings.

All documents related to this case, including the Commission’s decision, can be reviewed here. Or go to the Commission’s website, www.puc.idaho.gov, click on “Open Cases” under the “Natural Gas” header and scroll down to Case No. INT-G-18-02.

– Don’t forget to call before you dig.