With the high price of gasoline the trails of Madison County would like to see more bicycle lanes developed in Rexburg as a way of helping people with their budget. The committee thinks the lanes would be used heavily by people going to and from work, or by students getting to BYU-Idaho from their apartments. Committee Chairman Keland Draney says three areas of bicycle lanes were proposed to the Rexburg City Council.

Draney says, “We want to add them on 2nd South and 5th West, Porter Park and the University to Milhollow Road and then on 5th West from the South edge of Nature Park to 7th South and then on 2nd East from North Yellowstone Highway by Horkley’s to 1st South.”

Keland Draney says the proposals call for creating bicycle lanes as the width of the streets would allow. City Clerk Blair Kay says the proposal was accepted with approval for city engineering.

The University of Idaho has created a website to help the state’s potato growers. Extension Specialist Nora Olsen says the website was designed to help potato growers’ clear hurdles with the Good Agricultural Practices Audit.

Nora Olsen says, “It actually allows a grower or anybody in the industry to put together a manual, or all of the documents into a 3-ring binder. We tried to make it real easy, and the documents are all listed on the website. You can download them, and you can make any changes that are necessary.”

Olsen stresses that while potato experts have put together all the documents for the grower, the GAP Audit needs to be specific to the individual farms. She says, “We’ve put the documents in two different formats, that way people can make changes very easily.”

The site can be found at: www.kimberly.uidaho.edu/potatoes/gap/GAPwebpage . Olsen also says that the website includes Spanish and English language employee policy forms and information on ordering such items as employee training placards and videos.

The city of Rexburg is one of 19 Idaho communities and school districts that have received grant money this year for the Safe Routes to School program. Madison School District will share the $33,000 the city received in an attempt to get more students to walk or bicycle to school. In this case the Kennedy Grade School. Mayor Shawn Larsen says the city is grateful to have received the funding that will help create safe routes where children can walk or bike to school and to promote the benefits of these activities. He says this program makes Rexburg a safer community.

Elaine Clegg is the projects manager for Idaho Smart Growth. She says American Falls, Pocatello and Idaho Falls were some of the cities that were grant recipients, along with the Bonneville School District.

Clegg says, “Bonneville School Districts has already started and education program and a proposal this year was to expand it to three more schools. The success they showed previously was helpful in determining that this was a viable project.”

Some schools promote a walk to school day once a month or as often as once a week. Clegg continues, “On the walk to school day they promote walking, give incentives, count the number of kids who walked, and talk about it and why it is important. There are things such as bicycle rodeos to show kids ways to bicycle safely, whether they are doing it on the road or on the sidewalk. So there are a variety of things different folks are looking at, since it is such a new program and we do not have a lot of data yet on which are most effective, be we have seen some effects.”

Clegg says children are healthier if they can walk or bike to school. She says the goal of the Safe Routes to School program is to raise awareness among communities about the need to provide good connectivity between neighborhoods and schools when planning development and future land use to enable students who could be walking and biking to do so.

Madison Memorial Hospital recently received a generous $10,000 grant from Rocky Mountain Power Foundation. Jeff Hymas, a spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power, tells us more about the foundation.

Hymas says, “The Rocky Mountain Power Foundation is the company’s charitable arm. It awards grants for different community projects and programs that make a difference in the areas where we serve in Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho.”

He tells us why thy chose Madison Memorial Hospital as a recipient of one of their grants. “The Madison Memorial Hospital is an essential part of the community there in the Rexburg Area. We are pleased to be able to support the hospital by providing funds to help purchase the necessary medical equipment that they need for the expansion and remodeling of the facility that they are involved in right now.”

The money awarded from the grant will go to help purchase medical equipment for the current expansion project at Madison Memorial Hospital.

Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott recently announced that it will now be required for backcountry campers to store their food in approved bear-proof containers. Jackie Skaggs, Public Affairs Officer at Grand Teton National Park, tells us why this new rule is so important.

Skaggs says, “Bears have an incredible sense of smell. They are very intelligent also, so once they get one food reward they really tune into and hone into that location. Even if someone isn’t injured by a bear, oftentimes bears will tear into tents or backpacks or whatever in search of food. Once they become food conditioned they become more assertive about getting food, because they have learned that people mean food."

Bear-proof containers will be loaned out to campers for free. Currently, Grand Teton National Park is the only park with grizzly bears that does not require campers to camp in designated areas. Skaggs said that if this rule is not closely followed, campers may be required to camp in specific areas to prevent danger to them as well as to other campers.

Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit, or START, continues to grow in Western Wyoming. Numerous buses run from Jackson to Teton Village and through part of the Star Valley. It also makes runs over Teton Pass into Driggs and Victor Idaho. START began running buses in 1987 for skiers to commute from Jackson to Teton Village. Since then the service has grown. Administrator of START, Michael Wackerly, talks about the growth.

Michael states, “Our total overall riders are continuing to grow significantly. We carried over 712,000 riders in 2007, which is the most ever. In January we carried the most we have ever had in a single month. It was somewhere around 125,000 riders we carried in January.”

Wackerly adds that the total riders for January were up 16% from 2007. He says, “We are growing by leaps and bounds. There just seems to be more and more demand for public transit in our community, and we are doing the best we can to keep up with it.”

START is looking for ways that they can benefit the community and environment as they continue to grow. Wackerly says the business is looking into a new bus storage and maintenance facility that would reduce energy and fuel emissions. For a list of times and a schedule of bus runs, go to www.startbus.com.

The Teton Dam Flood Museum in Rexburg has a new addition. The Rexburg Children’s Museum is located within the museum for the hands-on use of building children’s education.

Creating a Children’s Museum in Rexburg was first inspired by the late Steven George of Rexburg who had a vision of a Children’s Museum with giant dinosaurs to climb on and scenes of the Teton Mountains. President of the Children’s Museum Rhonda Seamons says it will take a while to complete his vision, but this is a great start to getting kids involved and learning.

Seamons says, “I think it will be a wonderful place for kids to come and learn. I think it unites families. Parents that have come are very excited, and kids don’t want to leave. It’s a lot of fun.”

The Teton Dam Flood Museum has also been renovated with new displays and new monthly activities. Because of the many changes, from February 8th through the 29th admission is free for the museums, and hours have been extended Monday and Thursday from 10 to 7, and Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 to 3.

As the snow keeps piling up in the high country, fish and game biologists are getting concerned on the impact it’s having for certain herds of deer and elk. The Fish and Game’s Winter Feeding Advisory Committee is making preparations to help big game. Kent Marlor is chairman of the committee and he says survival of big game herds and preventing the transmission of Brucellosis from deer and elk to cattle are the driving factors in this plan.

Kent Marlor states, “This is something we have not seen in years. The herds of deer have built up significantly because they have had great survival during the winter. One of our problems is that many areas have been converted to housing. These are great places for summer homes, but it chews up the winter ranges that animals have used for years.”

Marlor says feed sites will be created where a special alfalfa-mix pellet will be distributed to big game, but he says the public should not feed the animals.

A lobbying group that wanted higher speed limits for small electric vehicles was turned back on their proposal by the House Transportation Committee in Boise. Representative Dean Mortimer who sits on the committee explains that the concept is good but the committee felt it would create safety issues on the highways.

Mortimer states, “They were asking to allow those cars to be able to travel on any streets that have speed limits of 35 mph or less. The committee felt that putting vehicles that max at 25 mph with vehicles that travel at a speed of 35 mph would create a safety hazard.”

Mortimer says that the Idaho Automobile Dealers Association introduced the bill saying it would help people save money on gas.