6/21/2019

District 4
Loaders, Backhoes and Snowplows - Where’s the Livestock?
On Tuesday, June 11, D4 put on quite a show at the district’s annual truck roadeo.  Riding broncos and bulldogging is one thing, but taking on $200,000+ machines weighing well over 20,000 pounds puts this roadeo into a category all its own.  Then, how about using that full-size backhoe to get a tennis ball into a small round opening!?!?
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Collaboration
Westbound Bliss Rest Area on I-84 now features pollinator garden
If you’re traveling west on Interstate 84, you’ll notice something new and soon-to-be colorful at the Bliss Rest Area. A ITD partnership has resulted in a new pollinator garden. This year, the rest area will be buzzing with pollinators, demonstrating to the traveling public what is possible in an arid region of Idaho.
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Employees
Beckstead and Freeman advance to nationals after state roadeo 1-2 finish
The 2019 equipment roadeos for ITD are now in the books for this year, but the top two finishers, champion Matt Beckstead of District 5 and runner-up Robin Freeman of District 3, still have one more trip to make. They will next participate in the national event at the Western Snow & Ice event in Colorado in late September.
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One Highways
ITD’s “One Highways" concept leads to new Headquarters section names - no more DES or DEPP
There are two new names to add to your vocabulary, as two units that house the department’s HQ Highways staff reorganized under new titles. Together, Highways Development (HD) and Highways Construction & Operations (HCO) account for a dozen different sections.
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Employees
ITD's MVPs
ITD employees have an avenue to share their appreciation for the assistance and guidance of colleagues. Recognition and acknowledgement is an essential component of job satisfaction. These are the MVP cards submitted by employees in the past week:
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Career Development
ITD Job Openings UPDATED
The current list of job openings may help inform employees of the career choices available to them that make ITD a great place to work. It also may assist in external recruitment when looking for the best candidates.
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ETS/IT
Infrastructure Cleanup saves almost $1 million, safeguards much more than that
Call it a 5S exercise for the data center. Spring cleaning for our servers. Starting last fall, ETS/IT undertook a concerted effort to clean up, streamline and consolidate the department’s software and hardware environment, removing old equipment and outdated programs in favor of newer, more secure assets.
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Department History
Early Trailblazers Jones and Plessinger
These are first-person accounts from the early days of the department. Some of these stories are fascinating - a look at life on the road crews 70 to 100 years ago. J.O. Jones was from Blackfoot and Roy Plessinger worked on the Twin Falls crew. They likely had nothing in common,except their shared history with the department.
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