BRAWLEY — City officials here are looking to the future and revitalization of the downtown area now that the dust of the most recent fire to hit the locale has settled.

While correcting much of the fire-related damages in the area rests on the shoulders of the privately owned and fire-affected businesses, City Manager Rosanna Bayon Moore assures the city is doing what it can to rebuild “the heart of the city.”

Progress reports documenting what steps businesses have taken since the string of fires are presented to City Council members on a weekly basis and the city continues to pressure for cleanup, Moore said.

“When it’s a hazard we’re in the mode of contact, follow-up and addressing,” she said. “We want to maintain cleanup efforts.”

Despite the challenging economic times, Moore said the city is optimistic about the future of the downtown area and will continue to invest in improvements to facilities.

Also, Moore said the city is “very open to combining with the private sector to see what is possible and viable in the downtown area.”

“It’s a challenging chapter in the city’s history to be certain,” Moore said. “We hope we can continue to be an anchor in the downtown along with a few of the other agencies and businesses that are our core presence. As the economic times improve we’re hopeful that people will not forget that the downtown is the core of the city and we’re not ready to abandon it.”

In an effort to renew and bring focus back to the area, the city is looking to bring items and events to downtown that would otherwise be held at different locations.

Recently, the downtown area played host to the “Taking Back Main Street” event and could potentially be the site of other events in the near future, Moore said.

“Every time we have the chance to use downtown as a venue we will,” she said. “We hope we can continue to feature the attractive part of downtown as a place for convening and enjoying being in the city of Brawley.”

Beginning in the fall, downtown will host a series of farmers markets complete with vendors, produce and a beer garden, said Keira Sparks-Jacques, Brawley Chamber of Commerce administrative assistant.

“There will also be entertainment and a kids’ fun zone and this will tentatively be located at the south plaza in downtown Brawley,” Sparks-Jacques said.

The farmers market will hopefully begin in October and will be held on the second Saturday of each month for six months and is a joint project between the chamber and the local Boys and Girls Club, Sparks-Jacques said.

The chamber is also doing what it can to help the area progress and is working with the Brawley Community Foundation to restore parts of downtown.

“We’re working to revitalize the Brawley theater and bring back the feeling that it had in the past,” Sparks-Jacques said. “We’re bringing back some of the people who went there so they can get involved or help or volunteer.”

Mayor Sam Couchman added the city is also hoping to bring certain Cattle Call and other city events to downtown in order to limit the Cattle Call Arena and Wiest Field to equestrian events and baseball games, respectively.

Ultimately, Couchman said the purpose of harnessing focus to downtown was a way to revitalize, recover and progress.

With the recent addition of the Transit Transfer Station to the area, Couchman said he hoped it would create more pedestrian traffic and in turn benefit the businesses there.

“The (transit transfer) station was very beautifully done,” Couchman said. “It has a very nice set up and we’ll maintain to keep it that way so it can be a positive attraction in the downtown area.”

In addition to trying to bring more pedestrian traffic to the area Couchman said the city is also looking into parking to create a better and easier flow of vehicular traffic.

“We want to maximize the amount of parking down there and we’re looking at safe ways to do that,” Couchman said. “We’ve discussed diagonal parking and how that might impact the area.”

Also, the city is looking into lighting for the area and perhaps encouraging businesses to have two entrances.

“With limited funding we will do what we can and do our best to work with the private sector businesses,” he said.

In addition to working with the local businesses, Couchman said the council is also open to hearing ideas from the public regarding beautification, landscaping or parking.

“Historically things are highly resistant to change and I think it’s important to be more open to experimentation,” Couchman said. “We look at downtown and we are encouraging innovative ideas to enhance economic development and too see how we can make it better off. We encourage the community to continue to support the downtown area because we still have viable businesses there.”

Staff Writer Karina Lopez can be reached at 760-337-3439 or klopez@ivpressonline.com

BRAWLEY — City officials here are looking to the future and revitalization of the downtown area now that the dust of the most recent fire to hit the locale has settled.

While correcting much of the fire-related damages in the area rests on the shoulders of the privately owned and fire-affected businesses, City Manager Rosanna Bayon Moore assures the city is doing what it can to rebuild “the heart of the city.”

Progress reports documenting what steps businesses have taken since the string of fires are presented to City Council members on a weekly basis and the city continues to pressure for cleanup, Moore said.

“When it’s a hazard we’re in the mode of contact, follow-up and addressing,” she said. “We want to maintain cleanup efforts.”

Despite the challenging economic times, Moore said the city is optimistic about the future of the downtown area and will continue to invest in improvements to facilities.

Also, Moore said the city is “very open to combining with the private sector to see what is possible and viable in the downtown area.”

“It’s a challenging chapter in the city’s history to be certain,” Moore said. “We hope we can continue to be an anchor in the downtown along with a few of the other agencies and businesses that are our core presence. As the economic times improve we’re hopeful that people will not forget that the downtown is the core of the city and we’re not ready to abandon it.”

In an effort to renew and bring focus back to the area, the city is looking to bring items and events to downtown that would otherwise be held at different locations.

Recently, the downtown area played host to the “Taking Back Main Street” event and could potentially be the site of other events in the near future, Moore said.

“Every time we have the chance to use downtown as a venue we will,” she said. “We hope we can continue to feature the attractive part of downtown as a place for convening and enjoying being in the city of Brawley.”

Beginning in the fall, downtown will host a series of farmers markets complete with vendors, produce and a beer garden, said Keira Sparks-Jacques, Brawley Chamber of Commerce administrative assistant.

“There will also be entertainment and a kids’ fun zone and this will tentatively be located at the south plaza in downtown Brawley,” Sparks-Jacques said.

The farmers market will hopefully begin in October and will be held on the second Saturday of each month for six months and is a joint project between the chamber and the local Boys and Girls Club, Sparks-Jacques said.

The chamber is also doing what it can to help the area progress and is working with the Brawley Community Foundation to restore parts of downtown.

“We’re working to revitalize the Brawley theater and bring back the feeling that it had in the past,” Sparks-Jacques said. “We’re bringing back some of the people who went there so they can get involved or help or volunteer.”

Mayor Sam Couchman added the city is also hoping to bring certain Cattle Call and other city events to downtown in order to limit the Cattle Call Arena and Wiest Field to equestrian events and baseball games, respectively.

Ultimately, Couchman said the purpose of harnessing focus to downtown was a way to revitalize, recover and progress.

With the recent addition of the Transit Transfer Station to the area, Couchman said he hoped it would create more pedestrian traffic and in turn benefit the businesses there.

“The (transit transfer) station was very beautifully done,” Couchman said. “It has a very nice set up and we’ll maintain to keep it that way so it can be a positive attraction in the downtown area.”

In addition to trying to bring more pedestrian traffic to the area Couchman said the city is also looking into parking to create a better and easier flow of vehicular traffic.

“We want to maximize the amount of parking down there and we’re looking at safe ways to do that,” Couchman said. “We’ve discussed diagonal parking and how that might impact the area.”

Also, the city is looking into lighting for the area and perhaps encouraging businesses to have two entrances.

“With limited funding we will do what we can and do our best to work with the private sector businesses,” he said.

In addition to working with the local businesses, Couchman said the council is also open to hearing ideas from the public regarding beautification, landscaping or parking.

“Historically things are highly resistant to change and I think it’s important to be more open to experimentation,” Couchman said. “We look at downtown and we are encouraging innovative ideas to enhance economic development and too see how we can make it better off. We encourage the community to continue to support the downtown area because we still have viable businesses there.”

Staff Writer Karina Lopez can be reached at 760-337-3439 or klopez@ivpressonline.com

Geordie superstar Sting has thrown his support behind plans to bring a derelict open-air pool back to life.

The Friends of Tynemouth Outdoor Pool are spearheading a fundraising campaign to revive the rundown lido in North Tyneside.

They aim to raise around £5.5m to help realise their ambitions.

Now the group have received a major boost after the Wallsend-born music legend agreed to support the scheme.

The singer, who in 2010 was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of North Tyneside in recognition of his artistic and humanitarian work, has made a donation towards the cost of the pool’s revamp.

The amount of the contribution has not been revealed but the Friends say his support is a big boost and will help propel them towards their goal of achieving charitable status.

This will now allow the majority of donations received by the group from the community and other supporters to increase by a further 20% through Gift Aid.

Barry Bell, of Cullercoats, a founding member of the campaign, said they were thrilled to receive Sting’s help.

He added: “We have been trying to come up with fundraising ideas for the pool and we had a brainstorming session about celebrities from the North East who we could approach.

“Sting is originally from Wallsend, which is only five miles away from Tynemouth, so we decided to contact his management team. And he gave us his backing, which is absolutely amazing.

“He is one of the world’s biggest stars. His support is a real boost for us.”

The group was formed with the aim of keeping the pool site as an outdoor swimming facility.

They submitted their regeneration proposals to North Tyneside Council in January and the authority gave them an extra year to hone the plans further.

The proposals will explore methods of heating the pool and using renewable energy sources, such as geothermal heating.

As the campaign built momentum, the group received help for free from professionals in the fields of architecture, building, design, surveying, engineering, planning, landscaping and law.

Mr Bell added: “When you discover that Sting is passionate about backing a project like this, you know that it definitely has a future.

“Not only did Sting provide us with the initial donation we needed to gain charity status, but his support alone will help us raise the profile of this project immensely. And because our supporters, wherever they are in the world, also now have the chance to back the project financially, we’re hoping to increase the fantastic sense of ownership that the community already has when it comes to the pool.”

 

The outdoor lido, based at the southern end of Longsands Beach, was originally opened in 1925.

It quickly became a popular destination for locals and visitors, hosting events including Miss Tynemouth and Bonny Bairns.

In its heyday, bathers lined up to take a plunge in the water, with queues stretching along the Grand Parade.

However, the site’s popularity began to wane in the 1970s when cheap package holidays and indoor pools started to become available.

In 1996, attempts were made to restore the area by creating an artificial rockpool but it proved unsuccessful.

The site deteriorated and became a neglected eyesore.

The Friends of Tynemouth Outdoor Pool, which has more than 11,000 supporters on Facebook, is looking for a mixture of grant aid, private funding and public donations.

The group have opted to use JustGiving to raise cash to regenerate the lido. Supporters can make donations at http://justgiving.com/tynemouthpool

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By Claire Lieberman
Terry Sanford

A patch of dirt that students once walked on without a second thought is now a blooming bed of yellows, reds and purples.

The flowers are part of a beautification project at Westover High School that aims to bolster school pride. Principal Thomas Benson asked Willie Freeman, a teacher who has done similar work in the past, for ideas about upgrading the facility to increase students’ morale.

“I feel an obligation to enhance where I’m employed,” Freeman said.

Freeman used school funds to buy flowers and solicited donations from a local business to revamp landscaping around the school. The result, according to assistant principal John Green, is a “mini botanical garden.”

Westover students helped Freeman plant, distribute mulch and replace rotted wood around flower beds with bricks.

They planted roses, boxwoods, pansies, sunflowers and other long-lasting and low-maintenance greenery.

Stone benches provide an extra touch to the tranquil area near the high school’s main office entrance.

“When my students were asked by other students why they were doing this,” Freeman said, “they started to say, ‘This is our school, and we want to enhance our school.’ “

Green was involved in a similar project when he worked at Terry Sanford High School. He said that success can be repeated at Westover.

“I’m hoping we’ll see them being a little more conscientious,” Green said, noting that students are already leaving less trash around.

“When I put up the wood fence,” Freeman said, “I wasn’t sure it would still be there the next day, but it was.”

Freeman and his students will maintain the landscaping throughout the year to reinforce the school’s motto – “Powerful Beyond Measure: Wolverine Pride.”

Green, who graduated from Westover in 2002, plans to broaden the recycling program at the school this year. Also, the Wolverine paw prints at the school’s entrance will be repainted to honor notable faculty members and students.

“When I went to school here, we took the mind-set of, ‘It’s just Fayetteville; I’d rather be somewhere else,’ ” he said. “But as I grew up a little more, I realized home is what you make of it.”

Photo by Michelle Gross

The new parking lot and the removal of the town comfort station will make way for trucks to access the store. [More Photos]

Stop Shop representatives went head to head with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) on Thursday in a continued public hearing that left commissioners with a collection of unresolved questions. The hearing began on July 11 when traffic was the main concern, but this week commissioners tackled several new issues, notably a reconfiguration of the proposed municipal parking lot, including the removal and replacement in the new market building of the town’s comfort station now at the western edge of the lot, between Main Street and Water Street.

Stop Shop’s proposal – to consolidate three abutting properties and remove the existing buildings to make room for a new, two-story, 23,800-square-foot market  also includes a parking lot for 42 vehicles in an enclosed area on the ground level and a loading area at the rear, fronting on the town lot.

MVC analyst and planner Paul Foley began Thursday’s hearing by presenting letters of concern and support. Among them,Steamship Authority (SSA) general manager Wayne Lampson said boatline operations would be affected by the store’s expansion.

“The Steamship Authority has reviewed the proposal for the expansion of Stop Shop on Water Street in Vineyard Haven and wants to make certain the MVC is aware that any increase in traffic in the Water Street/Five Corners area will have an adverse impact on the SSA’s operations and its customers without the implementation of appropriate mitigating measures, particularly in the summer months.”

Although the Tisbury planning board recognized in its letter the improvements the market’s expansion plan offered, “The proposed project would replace a worn out building, provide a larger range of consumer choices, and stimulate economic growth in the village,” the board added a list of issues that should be addressed as the process continues.

David Taglianetti, the Boston based planning, design, and engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB) representing Stop Shop, described key differences between the proposed parking lot arrangement and the existing lot. The new market, he said, would be pedestrian friendly, with better landscaping, an easier two-way traffic flow and the relocated comfort station.

“The removal of the comfort station is something that the town of Tisbury has been supporting,” Mr. Taglianetti told commissioners. “It is an expense for the town,anywhere from $30,000 per year to $50,000 per year.” Mr. Taglianetti said the removal of the restroom facility is necessary to provide adequate space for trucks to access the store.

In exchange for removing the existing public restrooms, Stop Shop would provide publicly accessible restrooms on the second level on the Water street side of the store. Commissioners were skeptical of the location of the new restrooms.

“I’m deeply concerned about accessibility,” West Tisbury commissioner Erik Hammarlund said. “There are people walking up and down Main Street. You make it so people walk down a hill, toward the ferry, through a parking lot to get into your store up an elevator with their strollers, with their bags of stuff, to use the bathroom. You’re making a huge mistake.”

Tisbury lawyer and former selectman Geoghan Coogan, counsel to the Stop Shop project, argued that the proposed move benefits the town. “The comfort station is open right now for about four months a year from about 9am to 5pm,” Mr. Coogan said. The Stop and Shop furnished restrooms would be open to the public all year-round.

“Yes, it’s only four or five months out of the year, but those are the months we have the most activity coming off the ferry, downtown is loaded with people,” said commissioner Fred Hancock of Oak Bluffs. “The fact that the comfort station is only open from 9am to 5pm, I don’t see as a detriment, I don’t think a tourist town can have too many restroom facilities.”

Audience members commented

Tony Peak, Tisbury planning board co-chairman, discussed the proposed new parking lot, as well as traffic issues on Cromwell Lane, which runs north and south behind the existing market building. “I would like to see this project go forward, if it’s beneficial to the town,” Mr. Peak said. “But I’d like to be sure, and I don’t see any reason why the project cannot go forward without foreclosing other options in regards to the parking lot.”

Mr. Peak also suggested to commissioners that it would be beneficial to change the direction of traffic on Union Street, to help with the traffic flow in and around the downtown Vineyard Haven area.

Tisbury selectman Tristan Israel spoke for the town selectmen. “We’re not monolithic, we’re trying to come to a consensus of ideas, and I believe that our administrator is trying to coalesce that and we hope to communicate that to you and to Stop Shop as we go forward,” Mr. Israel said. “But there’s been no votes taken or no overt decisions made.”

About the bathrooms, Mr. Israel said the planning board has been in talks with representatives from Stop Shop. “We will continue to do what’s right for the town and what’s right for Stop Shop,” he added.

Harold Chapdelaine, a general contractor, offered a long list of concerns and recommendations. “I was somebody who originally saw that application and did not want to support this effort, and I was going to be an old, cranky guy who didn’t want to support change,” Mr.Chapdelaine said. “But, I think that if you really think about this, if you really do think about what’s best for the town, we should be considering supporting this effort with a very unified and cooperative effort to facilitate the needs of the entire community.”

Vineyard Haven resident Judy Federowicz speaking on behalf of the Tisbury historic district commission. “The traffic is obviously of major concern” Ms. Federowicz said. If you change the direction of Union Street or even make it two-way, you’re going to lose parking spaces.” Ms. Federowicz also asked if it would be possible to lower the height of the building.

“It is the gateway,” Ms.Federowicz said. “We don’t want to increase the unattractiveness. If we reduce the height, I think that would be great.”

 “I can’t help but ask the question, when is this bowl of Jell-O we’ve been dealing with going to turn into an application?” Tisbury commissioner Ned Orleans, reacting to the collection of issues surrounding the project, most of them unresolved in the supermarket’s plans, asked  Stop Shop representatives and his fellow MVC members at the close of the hearing.

The hearing reconvenes on August 29, at 7pm.

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A couple dozen people took a quick stroll around downtown Kalispell on Wednesday, looking for ways to make it a friendlier place for bicyclists and pedestrians. 

Ideas didn’t take long to surface during the “walking audit.”

Several people rode their bikes to Depot Park where the walk started. Randy Kenyon, a member of the Kalispell City Council and someone who regularly pedals around downtown, was one of them. They all had to find a spare bench or tree to chain their bikes to before setting off on the eight-block walk.

Jennifer Young, recreation superintendent for Kalispell Parks and Recreation, apologized for the park’s lack of a bike rack. It went missing some time ago and has never been replaced. 

“The rack got stolen,” she said.

An almost complete lack of bike racks downtown was just one observation that participants raised as a possible improvement as they walked along Center Street, First Avenue West and Main Street.

Drinking fountains were nonexistent as the sun beat down. Trash cans were scarce in places. Sketchy bike lanes on Main Street and First Avenue East start and stop in strange places and are not clearly marked as bike lanes. 

Drivers use the bike lanes on Main Street as right turn lanes, so it might be best that they aren’t used much by bicyclists. “They’re only for the hard-core bikers. And they’re all dead,” one participant said about the bike lanes over the roar of passing traffic.

Downtown’s bike routes might need to be reinvented, especially with city officials trying to pull out the railroad tracks and build a new linear park through the railroad corridor just north of downtown. 

Like Kalispell’s often spotty network of sidewalks, the existing bike routes don’t run all the way through downtown, let alone connect to other trails in and around the city or to neighborhoods, schools, parks, shopping areas and other places someone might want to go without hopping in a vehicle.

Maybe it would be best to run bike routes along First Avenues East and West and other periphery roads. 

Whatever the route, Kalispell needs functioning and clearly marked bike lanes so bicyclists don’t ride through town switching between bike lanes, sidewalks and busy streets and putting themselves and other people at risk, another participant said.

Sidewalks peter out around Kalispell Center Mall, a major downtown anchor. And crosswalks leading to the mall need some fresh white paint before they fade out of sight into the gray asphalt of Center Street.

Walkers encountered mysterious, shin-threatening fire hydrants sprouting from the middle of sidewalks on First Avenue West. 

They briefly marveled at the decayed appearance of city-owned parking lots with their crumbling asphalt and dead landscaping and walked through a gauntlet of parking signs that pop out of the sidewalks along Main Street.

The goal of the walking audit is to start creating a conceptual plan to improve the usefulness and safety of pedestrian routes downtown. Such an event raises awareness and gets people thinking about problems and solutions. 

“It’s all about accessibility, safety and connectivity,” Parks and Recreation Director Mike Baker said about sidewalks and bike paths in Kalispell and the work that lies ahead.

Some of the desired improvements that get identified in the conceptual plan might take years or even decades to plan and implement. Pam Carbonari, coordinator of the Kalispell Business Improvement District and Kalispell Downtown Association, is hoping some inexpensive improvements can be fit into budgets and help make things better in the meanwhile.

“The crosswalks are in dire need of being painted,” Carbonari said. “We’re missing bike racks and a water fountain downtown. The whole way we walked on First Avenue West there was no trash can. Maybe there’s a way of striping the lanes differently on First Avenue East or West to actually create a bike lane. I think a lot of things we could see in this downtown core would make it a little more pedestrian friendly and take care of some of the issues.”  

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.

TWIN FALLS • Inside Glanbia’s new downtown center, food scientists soon will look to explore new cheese frontiers, revitalize the company’s passion and expand its footprint in the global cheese industry.

Those in the local business community have equally lofty expectations of how the center’s arrival could help revitalize the downtown, local and regional economy.

“It’s a really big deal, and I’m just blown away,” said Jan Rogers, executive director of the Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization.

Glanbia’s 14,000-square-foot Cheese Innovation Center and three-story, 35,000-square-foot corporate headquarters will house about 100 employees. The company will hold a grand opening celebration Wednesday, Aug. 7.

“The idea is to create a little more passion for cheese for all of our employees,” Glanbia President and CEO Jeff Williams said. “Having a physical asset that does that is a daily reminder that’s what we’re all about — creating passion around cheese, being more excited about it and getting involved with our customers.”

Those close to the situation expect the center to generate a four-fold growth — cheese production within the company, Glanbia employees generating more downtown business, leading growth in downtown vitality and strengthening the national business magnet that Twin Falls has become.

“I think it just takes a little bit of momentum, and I think we’ve provided a pretty good boost down there,” Williams said. “We’re really excited about being downtown, and there’s a buzz around the place and getting everybody moved under one roof.”

Growing from Within

Wednesday’s grand opening will feature speakers starting at 10 a.m. and guided tours of the recently completed center at 161 Fourth Ave. S.

The event is open to the business community, and tours can be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis, marketing manager Whitney Beem said. The event also will feature cheese tastings in an “around-the-world format,” she said.

The innovation center will allow Glanbia to experiment with cheese by making small, 100-pound batches instead of the 1,000-pound lots the company makes now at its local commercial plants, Williams said.

Food scientists will work “shoulder to shoulder” with customers to make new cheeses. Williams said he’s coining the phrase “innovation around the edges” to illustrate that the company won’t stray far from what has made it successful — high-volume, low-cost, top-quality commodity cheese.

“Our goal is to be more and more relevant to our customers,” he said. When someone “has an idea, we’ll be on their speed dial.”

Glanbia expects about 60 percent of the innovation center’s work to come from customers’ ideas. About 30 percent will be ideas generated from marketplace trends, and 10 percent will be “blue sky or serendipitous” activity, he said. The latter is where Glanbia will let its scientists “play around.“

Cheese innovation is a broad subject, but “accelerated aging” is an example of what the company hopes to accomplish, Williams said. Scientists can use certain enzymes to mature cheese more quickly than the natural aging process.

A culinary center will let employees use the cheese the same way customers do.

“We can bake it, stretch it, cook it — do things that our customers would do with it, like put it on a pizza,” he said. “Then we’ll be able to shred it, slice it, dice it, chunk it and those sorts of things.“

In March, Glanbia bought a Blackfoot cheese plant one-third the size of its Twin Falls factory specifically to be an “incubator plant,“ Williams said.

“So the plan is to take the things we make in the cheese innovation center, and then we’ll go to commercialize those. Once a customer gives us a big order, we’ll want to make the cheese on a commercial basis, and we’ll take it to our Blackfoot plant.“

The idea for the innovation center came from a “very successful” similar model Glanbia uses in its whey protein division.

“I can’t think of any of our competitors that have a cheese innovation center like we’ll have,” Williams said.

Planting a Seed

Glanbia employees moved into their new offices about two weeks ago, and Williams said he’s seen what their presence can do for downtown businesses. He went to a small area restaurant the other day and saw nine Glanbia employees already there.

“I think it’ll be huge for downtown Twin Falls,” he said. “People are just going to go out the door, hit Main Avenue and hit some of the sandwich places. I’m hoping that someone opens up a few more restaurants down there.“

A few blocks down from the new Glanbia center, Adair Johnson was busy Monday, July 29, hanging a chandelier from Stonehouse and Co.’s ceiling. Johnson and his wife hope to open the building in mid-August for catering events.

Glanbia will be a magnet that draws people to the area and allows other businesses to thrive, Johnson predicted.

“We’re glad to have them in the area, and it’s going to … benefit everybody,” he said.

Johnson said he’s also reassured by Glanbia’s presence. Although much of Stonehouse’s business will come from elsewhere, he said he hopes the cheese company will notice his space.

“In the business that we’re in, we hope to host some of Glanbia’s meetings and parties and stuff like that,” he said. “It’ll be very beneficial. But a lot of our (business) is going to be weddings and several business meetings, as well.“

Ryan Horsley, general manager of Red’s Trading Post in the warehouse district near Stonehouse, said he is pleased to see Glanbia moving into the neighborhood. Although Glanbia employees might not be his direct customers, he said, it’s exciting to be part of business growth.

“You bring these people down, and they want a place to shop, they want a place to go eat,” he said. “It drives more people down here.“

Glanbia and St. Luke’s Magic Valley Patient Financial Services building, remodeled in 2010 from the old Crumb Building, showcase the area’s potential, he said.

Several other new restaurants and businesses have decided to build or move into downtown in recent years, said Horsley, a former member of the Twin Falls Planning and Zoning Commission.

Lots are cheap and plentiful, and empty warehouses can be renovated or torn down to accommodate growth constrained by Twin Falls’ natural barriers — the Snake River Canyon to the north and Rock Creek to the west, he said.

“A lot of people don’t see it right away, but if you take a look at the growing trend, the momentum that’s building, there’s a lot of exciting things that are happening (downtown),” Horsley said.

Gaining Momentum

The warehouse district just off Main Avenue looks “significantly different” than it did five years ago, said city spokesman Joshua Palmer. The city’s Urban Renewal Agency (URA) has helped clean and develop the area, he said.

“If you would have looked at those streets five years ago, the curb was at best gravel and the road was not very good,” Palmer said. “There was no parking, dirt fields and a closed-down nightclub” where Glanbia now sits.

URA spent $1.25 million preparing the Glanbia site, said Melinda Anderson, director of URA and the city’s economic department. That money went to the purchase price, demolition, new water and sewer, wastewater treatment, landscaping, streets and sidewalk improvements, parking, power, gas and telecommunications, she said.

Extra property taxes collected from the land’s higher value will go back to URA to pay off those costs, Anderson said. Some of the upgrades — such as water and sewer lines — also will benefit other projects, she said.

“The more developments like Glanbia, like St. Luke’s, helps other developers realize, ’Oh, that is worth developing. Let’s go down and see what we can do.’”

A strong downtown is important to any city, said Mark Lopshire, board chairman for the Twin Falls Chamber of Commerce. If a city’s focus shifts away from downtown, the tax base can be lost and the area becomes dilapidated. A vibrant, healthy downtown gives a town flavor, history and a sense of belonging, he said.

“If you go out to Blue Lakes or Pole Line, what’s the personality there? Great businesses, but you don’t have that historical personality that a downtown has and a city needs,” Lopshire said.

A nice downtown is also a corporate recruiting tool, Anderson said. Companies hiring from out of the area want to make sure their employees enjoy a good quality of life.

Lopshire said Glanbia’s new facility and business leaders’ focus on downtown are the next steps in future, sustainable regional business.

“You look at Glanbia, and they are a national and a global company, and they have people coming in from all over the U.S., all over the world. And they take a look at that building and that downtown, and they say, ’This is a great place,’” he said.

Rogers agreed. Glanbia will brighten the spotlight shining on Twin Falls as a premier food research and production destination. The area has added cheese and whey innovation to its already strong base of sugar, aquaculture, bean and seed research.

The cluster of expert food scientists working across all those fields can be used as a recruiting tool as well, further cementing the excitement building in the area, Rogers said.

“We are the food kings of Idaho,” she said.

GAINESVILLE – The North Central Texas College Horticulture department will be offering two new degree plans starting this fall.

One will be a marketable skills award in Landscape Design, while the second is a certificate in Sustainable Horticulture.

“A marketable skills award is kind of like a certificate in that it kind of pinpoints and targets a few classes that are absolutely necessary for the industry,” NCTC Horticulture instructor Ashley Hartman explained. “From that, students can kind of stair-step into certificates or an Associate’s degree.”

The certificate in Sustainable Horticulture may be the only program of its nature in the entire state of Texas, according to Hartman.

“Being able to meet the needs of that industry and kind of train those that are entering the ‘green’ industry is really important,” she said. “The whole premise of sustainability is just kind of to take care of our Earth and our land so it can take care of us, not only now but for future generations.”

The program will feature five different classes including Introduction to Sustainable Ag, Greenhouse Management, Naturalistic Gardening, Food Crops and Small Farming.

“What we are planning to do is offer that class at several small farms and the farmers themselves will teach the class,” Hartman said. “Students will be able to go through an entire growing season with the farmers. Everything from planting the seeds, tending the crops, harvesting them and then preparing them for market.”

The marketable skills award in Landscape Design includes three classes.

The first is Landscape Design where students learn how to sketch out their landscaping ideas.

“I’ve had students take just that class in the past and then start their own businesses because it’s such a thorough class,” Hartman said. “There are not only students who want to enter the workforce in that class, but also hobbyists. So folks who just love to landscape and would like to take a class to know what they are doing in their own yards.”

There is also a second-semester class in Advanced Landscape Design, which utilizes computer applications.

“Students take what they learned in the basic class and apply it using CAD programs,” Hartman explained.

The third class is in Landscape Irrigation.

“Students learn all about drip irrigation and sprinkler systems, how to install them and how to plan for them so they can go on and receive their state certification,” Hartman said.

The instructor said that students do not have to take the classes in any certain order. Also, there are no prerequisites and no testing that has to be done to enter the program.

For more information on the Horticulture program at NCTC, contact Hartman at 940-668-7731 Ext. 4488 or by email at ahartman@nctc.edu.

A few months ago, Obamacare critics were pointing to alarming predictions that some insurance rates would spike when the law took effect — by as much as 41 percent in Wisconsin, 85 percent in Ohio and so on. In Virginia, though, the potential increases are not all that bad.

Some are actually much worse.

Virginia’s State Corporation Commission soon will assume control over insurance policies offered through the new state-level exchange. That’s where those who don’t get in-surance through their employers will shop for policies they will be forced by law to ob-tain.

Recently the SCC asked Virginia’s major underwriters to provide information on what they charge now and what they will charge starting Jan. 1, when Obamacare regulations take effect. Specifically, the SCC asked for rate estimates in the individual market and the small-group market.

In the individual market, the SCC asked for the rate for the most popular insurance plan for a 29-year-old male; a 45-year-old couple with two children; and a 60-year-old couple. For the small-group market, the SCC sought quotes for a business with eight 29-year-old male employees; a business with four male and four female employees, all 45; and eight 60-year-old female employees.

Ready for the results? Brace yourself.

Aetna says its most popular policy for a 29-year-old man currently costs $118 per month in Richmond. Once Obamacare kicks in, the rate will jump to $225 — an increase of more than 90 percent.

Obamacare supporters say this is only natural, because one of the ideas behind expanding coverage is to get young, healthy people to help pay the health-care costs of sicker, older people. (Not exactly a point they stressed during debate over the bill, but never mind.) That’s why the law forbids charging the latter more than three times the rate charged to the former. Jacking up rates for “young invincibles” is supposed to help hold down rates for old vulnerables.

But it doesn’t appear to be working. Aetna says its rate for the family with two kids is liable to jump 36 percent, and the rate for the older couple is liable to jump 44 percent.

The CareFirst BlueChoice outlook is similar: Premium increases of 108 percent, 40 per-cent and 36 percent, respectively. For Group Hospitalization and Medical Services (an independent licensee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield), the percentage hikes are: 113, 89 and 69.

Where’s the “affordable” part in the Affordable Care Act?

For small employers, things could be equally grim. Take Optima, which operates in the Hampton Roads area. Optima says the premium for a policy covering eight young male employees — a landscaping business, say — could jump 132 percent. A similar policy for Anthem HealthKeepers would double in price.

Not all the premium increases are this bad, and the increases for companies with female employees are smaller. Obamacare’s defenders may seize on that as proof that the presi-dent’s signature policy is working. There’s just one problem: It isn’t working according to the president’s own standards. “If you already have health insurance,” candidate Obama promised, “the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less.” The law’s advocates echoed the talking point; MIT’s Jonathan Gruber, for instance, said, “What we know for sure the bill will do is that it will lower the cost of buying non-group health insurance.”

To be fair, many people will be eligible to receive subsidies offsetting part of the bill, and some of them — though by no means all — might see lower costs year over year. But this does not reduce the actual cost, it only shifts some of it. And cost-shifting — such as a hospital charging 10 bucks for aspirin to subsidize emergency-room care for the uninsured — was supposed to be something Obamacare would reduce, wasn’t it?

The ACA’s cheerleaders also might argue that what happens in the state exchanges is a sideshow, since most people get their insurance through their employers anyway. This is not an argument made gracefully by those who, during debate over the bill, lamented the 45 million Americans without health insurance. They were supposed to be the chief rea-son for the law’s passage. Some sideshow.

What’s more, the non-group market will grow more relevant, not less so, as time wears on. Thanks again to Obamacare, companies are either dropping health-insurance coverage al-together, shifting employees to part-time status to avoid providing coverage, or (if they’re small) finding ways to avoid crossing the 50-employee threshold for mandatory coverage. Partly because of such developments, the leaders from three of America’s biggest unions, including the Teamsters’ James Hoffa, wrote to the administration complaining that “you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat.” Their support for the president, they said, “has come back to haunt us.”

The administration has delayed the employer mandate for a year. But when it kicks in, it will dump many more people into the exchange market. There — if the news from the SCC is any guide — they will get a rude awakening.

A. Barton Hinkle is deputy editor of the editorial pages at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. bhinkle@timesdispatch.com

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A new local group is exploring ways to get people outside, starting with a vacant lot at the corner of Quaker Alley and Sixth Street in downtown Stroudsburg.

The group hopes the space will eventually include amenities like an outdoor performance area, park, community garden and space for a farmers’ market.

“Our value in the Poconos is the outdoors, and in a way that’s been lost,” said Zech Strauser, addressing the crowd gathered at his landscaping business, Strauser Nature’s Helpers in Smithfield Township, where the project was announced Wednesday.

Strauser recently began working with Jim and Beth Paluch, founders of the “Come Alive Outside,” campaign based in Cleveland.

The campaign was started in 2010 as a response to the growing sedentary, indoor lifestyle many people now lead, Beth Paluch explained. The campaign works with local landscapers to help them develop outdoor community projects in their local towns.

About three weeks ago, Strauser approached Monroe County commissioners about starting a Pocono chapter of Come Alive Outside.

Strauser also told commissioners that since last spring he has been searching for a place in downtown Stroudsburg to start a community garden.

John Moyer, chairman of the Monroe County commissioners, suggested the empty lot at the corner of Quaker Alley and Sixth Street, across from Quench on 6th Caf and Juice Bar. The lot, which is owned by the county, has been empty for at least a decade, Moyer said.

Prior to that, a warehouse-type building was there, but it burned down.

The commissioners had looked into expanding the county’s administrative buildings there, but in the end decided the cost of acquiring an existing building would be substantially less, Moyer said.

In addition, the lot is not very big, only “a couple hundred feet by about 150 feet,” and it would be difficult to construct there due to an underground tunnel that runs from Main Street TV Appliances to the municipal parking garage, Moyer said.

Although he has never seen the agreement, Moyer believes the owner of Main Street TV Appliances has a permanent easement to use the tunnel.

“My thought is if the lot is turned into a park, (the store owner) can continue to have access to the tunnel,” Moyer said.

Right now, the project is in the very early stages and still requires the approval of the county commissioners. The park would also likely require the approval of Stroudsburg Borough officials, Moyer said.

Strauser is hoping to start conversations with local business owners and community leaders about how to best develop the space.

In the meantime, a website for a Poconos Come Alive Outside chapter has been started where people can share their ideas about the proposed park and other potential outdoor projects. Because it is in the very early planning stages, organizers are still trying to determine the park’s cost and how they will raise money.

For more information, visit comealiveoutsidepocono.com.

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