Idaho
How former mayor helped Idaho Falls become home to nation’s leading nuclear energy research facility – East Idaho News
Thomas Sutton served as mayor of Idaho Falls from 1949 to 1951. He played a role in the city becoming the headquarters for the Atomic Energy Commission, the agency that managed the National Reactor Testing Station. Today, it’s known as Idaho National Laboratory. Gen Miner, his great-granddaughter, talks about Sutton in the video above. | Photo courtesy Gen Miner
SHELLEY — Above the mantle in the living room of Gen Miner’s Shelley home hangs a treasured family heirloom.
It’s a framed map showing a trail leading to a cabin near Mack’s Inn in Island Park. The cabin holds a special place in Miner’s heart.
“We’d come here every summer. It was our happy place,” Miner tells EastIdahoNews.com. “We went up there to fish and spend time with cousins. It felt like a family reunion every year.”
But there’s another reason Miner loves it so much. It was originally owned by her great-grandfather, Thomas Sutton.
“He purchased the land and built the cabin (in the 1930s). My great grandma loved to fish and he … loved wood work. It was their vacation home.”
Sutton ran a grocery store in Idaho Falls with his wife, Jennie — from whom Miner gets her first name — for 23 years.
Although Sutton died before Miner was born, she’s always felt a special connection to him and wanted to live closer to the area where he spent a lot of time. Her dream came true in 2023 when she and her husband moved to the area and opened a Bricks & Minifigs LEGO store in Ammon.
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It was shortly after moving here that she discovered something about Sutton she’d never heard before.
“I was at Walgreens and they had a book of prominent Idaho Falls people. I was flipping through it and there’s my grandpa’s picture. I was like, ‘Whoa! Why is he in this book?’” Gen explains. “I started reading and was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I had no idea this was a thing.’”
The book explained that Sutton served as mayor of Idaho Falls when the Atomic Energy Commission selected the city as its headquarters. The AEC was the government agency that managed the National Reactor Testing Station, the predecessor to Idaho National Laboratory.
There was a lot of competition with Arco, Blackfoot and Pocatello for this role, but a great deal of lobbying and schmoozing by Sutton and other city officials is what ultimately led to Idaho Falls being selected.
As Miner reflects on the role her great-grandfather played in this, she says her decision to move here and open a business in the same town feels like a divinely-orchestrated plan.
“It makes sense now why this was something that felt like it was the thing that was supposed to be,” Miner says. “I was supposed to come here and I was able to do this because it’s my history and it’s in my blood.”
Sutton’s story
Thomas Laker Sutton was born July 3, 1896 in the Paris-Fish Haven area near Bear Lake. Based on Miner’s knowledge of historical and family records, she says Sutton was an outgoing guy who loved making jokes.
At age 21, he moved to Idaho Falls after getting a job at Anderson & Sons lumber company. It was short-lived because the U.S. was propelled into World War I a short time later.
Sutton served in the Marine Corps for two years before returning to Idaho Falls. After working in the grocery business for many years, he opened his own shop. Sutton Grocery (some records refer to it as Market Basket) opened on 1st and Lee Street in 1939.
It was around this same time that Sutton got involved in politics. He was elected to the city council in 1933, a position he held for the next 16 years.
Miner says her great-grandfather’s personality made him a good fit for public office.
“He was business-oriented and liked to make change and was interested in impacting people,” she says.
In 1949, four years after the end of World War II, the Atomic Energy Commission selected a desert site 50 miles west of Idaho Falls to be used as a nuclear research facility. The site was designated as the National Reactor Testing Station on Feb. 18, 1949.
The year before, as AEC executives were still considering where to set up shop, Miner says her great-grandfather saw a unique opportunity for the city’s growth. He filed to run for mayor and ended up winning the general election.
Weeks into his inauguration, Sutton flew to Washington, D.C. to sell the AEC on the idea of Idaho Falls becoming its headquarters. Later, when AEC executives came to town, Sutton and his team went to work to roll out the red carpet.
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Senior INL Ambassador Shelly Norman told us last year the city held a big party for them.
The idea was to sell Idaho Falls as the cultural center of eastern Idaho. City officials purposely seated the AEC executives next to people who shared similar interests. One of the commissioners liked fly fishing and was seated next to a gorgeous woman who also loved fly fishing. Another man who liked opera was seated next to a beautiful opera singer.
In those days, U.S. Highway 20 from the desert site to Idaho Falls did not exist. There was a gravel road Bonneville County had built that ended at a certain point, according to a history book about the INL.
A road between Blackfoot and Arco did exist, which Bingham County officials argued could easily be updated for traffic traveling to and from the desert site. A clever scheme by the Idaho Falls City Council was successful in diverting the AEC’s attention from that fact.
“The mayor brought the AEC out and had a friend move some dirt around at the edge of town (to look like they were preparing to lay asphalt). He had a friend come up over the hill and tell the AEC he just came from Arco and the road was looking great the whole way,” Norman said. “That was enough to select Idaho Falls as the headquarters.”
While the decision sparked outrage in neighboring communities, Idaho Falls celebrated the decision. An old photo shows Sutton shaking hands with Idaho Falls City Councilmen E.F. McDermott and William Holden.
In news reports at the time, Sutton said he eagerly anticipated the influx of people it would bring to the area.
“I am confident they will be warmly received by the people of Idaho Falls and find this a city in which they will be proud to live in and become an active part of,” Sutton is reported to have said.
The decision set the stage for Idaho Falls becoming the largest city in eastern Idaho and the third-largest metropolitan area in the state.
Today, what is now the INL is managed by the Department of Energy and is the nation’s leading center for nuclear energy research and development. Roughly 6,200 people work across the desert and Idaho Falls campuses, making it the largest employer in the region.
Despite the city’s success in gaining this designation under Sutton’s administration, he was unsuccessful in his bid for re-election. He lost the 1951 election to E.W. Fanning.
In the ensuing years, he worked as a truancy officer for the Idaho Falls School District. He ran his grocery store until 1961.
Sutton passed away in 1979 at age 83.
Coming full circle
Looking back on her great-grandfather’s accomplishments in his short time as mayor, Miner notes what she calls the “coy expression” on his face in the photo taken after the AEC’s decision. She offers some additional perspective.
“That’s how you feel when you’re smart about how you win,” she says. “When I heard this story, I realized I’m a lot like him. I try to find ways to be strategic about how I meet people and talk to people and find ways we can connect and make it work for both of us.”
Although Miner has no current plans to run for public office, she says the idea is appealing to her because of her connection to Sutton. She’s open to running for an elected position sometime in the future.
The cabin Sutton built in the 1930s has been rebuilt over the years, and is now owned by a distant member of Miner’s family. She tries to visit as often as she can.
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In 2023, the INL reached out to Miner and her husband to help design a LEGO minifig for patent applicants. To her, that’s an example of life coming full circle and she can’t help but think her great-grandfather had something to do with it on the other side.
“It’s like (he’s sending a message that) I’m doing the right thing in my life, that I’m focused on the right stuff,” she says. “I think there was some divine guidance there.”
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MISSOULA, Mont. — An Idaho Falls angler is back in the Idaho record books after landing a record-setting lake trout at Payette Lake.
Idaho Fish and Game said Dylan Smith caught and released a 43.25-inch lake trout on May 2, setting a new state catch-and-release record for the species. The fish surpassed the previous record of 42 inches.
The catch marks Smith’s second appearance in Idaho’s record books. He previously held the state catch-and-release lake trout record after landing a trophy fish in 2018 before that mark was later broken.
According to Fish and Game, Payette Lake has become one of Idaho’s premier lake trout fisheries thanks to years of management efforts aimed at improving both lake trout and kokanee populations.
Pride Month looks different this June along Boise’s Harrison Boulevard, where a long-standing tradition of hanging Pride flags on lamp posts has been put on hold after a new state law restricted which flags can be flown on government property.
For several years, Pride flags lined lamp posts along Harrison Boulevard in Boise’s North End neighborhood. But Idaho House Bill 561, signed by Gov. Brad Little in March, restricts which flags can be flown on government property, including the City of Boise’s Harrison lamp posts.
In response, a group of neighbors formed Pride North End and launched a distribution effort to help residents show support from their own front yards. The group has been making Pride flags and yard signs available to people who want to display them at home.
“I thought that I would…be a personal example of ‘yes, this is what I do.’ This is what I believe in,” said Edna Schochat, a North End resident.
Pride North End has already distributed more than 900-yard signs and 250 flags. The group’s original donation goal was around $2,000 to order 100 flags and 200 yard signs, but it has exceeded that GoFundMe goal, reaching $10,000 worth of donations.
The group plans to continue holding public flag and sign distributions through the end of the month.
“We cannot just say something without doing something that proves that we mean what we say,” Schochat said.
Pride North End said any leftover funds after materials are distributed will go to local LGBTQ+ nonprofits. A link to the group’s GoFundMe can be found here.
July 1 isn’t just the start of a new fiscal year for Idaho public schools. It’s also the effective date for many new education-related laws.
From mandatory moments of silence to restrictions on taxpayer funding for teachers’ unions, the Legislature enacted a slew of new policies affecting public schools during this year’s session.
Here’s what educators, parents and students should know:
School trustees, administrators and teachers
Here are the new laws that will affect school trustees, administrators and teachers:
Union activities. Public schools can no longer use taxpayer resources to accommodate teachers’ unions — including by giving teachers paid time off for union “activities” or by using payroll systems to deduct union dues.
The list of union “activities” in House Bill 516 is long. Among other things, it includes:
- Supporting or opposing candidates for office
- Influencing legislation
- Promoting union membership
- Participating in the “administration business or internal governance” of a teachers’ union
- Preparing, conducting or attending a union event
- Distributing union communications
- Speaking on the union’s behalf
- Engaging in union negotiations
- Filing a grievance on behalf of the union
A school district can’t give teachers paid time off to participate in these activities, unless the union reimburses the district.
HB 516 was based on a report from the Washington-based Freedom Foundation, an anti-union think tank, which alleged that public schools have spent more than $1 million subsidizing teachers’ unions.
The bill also prohibited districts from:
- Deducting union dues through payroll systems.
- Increasing teacher pay to cover union dues.
- Requiring that teachers meet with the union.
- Sharing employees’ contact information with the union.
- Communicating on the union’s behalf.
Civics instruction. Public schools must now ensure that their civics instruction aligns with a law aimed at cultivating the “virtue and knowledge necessary for self-government.”
Senate Bill 1336 codified nearly four pages of requirements for civics instruction. By the time public school students graduate, they must exemplify the virtues of “prudence, justice, fortitude, moderation and patriotism” while understanding the “fundamental principles of the nation’s republican form of government” along with the “history, meaning, significance, and effect of key historical documents.”
Click here to read the list of principles and texts that students must understand.
The bill also required that high school students complete two credits in American history and two credits in American government. These classes must include instruction on the American Revolution and founding along with instruction on the incompatibility of totalitarianism with the principles of American government.
The bill also “encouraged” public schools to display historical portraits of George Washington “in a conspicuous place” in each classroom where civics is taught.
Public charter schools can request an exemption from many of the new requirements. Traditional public schools cannot.
Lastly, the bill pushed back the implementation date for a new civics test that the Idaho Department of Education is writing. The new test will be required in 2027-28, rather than during the upcoming school year.
High-needs funding. Public schools are now eligible to receive up to $100,000 in state funding for “high-needs” special education students.
Senate Bill 1288 set aside $5 million for students who require full-time staff support or specialized equipment. Districts can apply for the state funds to cover students whose individual education program-related costs exceed $30,000 annually.
The state will fully reimburse costs between $30,000 and $80,000. Costs above $80,000 will be reimbursed at 80%, and reimbursement is capped at $100,000. Forty percent of the state funds are reserved for rural schools.
Sexual abuse reporting. School districts are no longer allowed to conduct an internal investigation of abuse in lieu of reporting an incident to law enforcement.
Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, proposed the law in response to sexual abuse complaints against Gavin Snow, a former special education assistant in the Boise School District.
Senate Bill 1412, which passed with unanimous support, also requires that school districts ask job applicants for sworn statements disclosing pending or prior investigations, resignations during investigations or disciplinary action stemming from misconduct. An applicant who lies in the disclosure is no longer eligible for the job.
Funding flexibility. Public school districts and charter schools are now eligible for flexibility in how they spend state funds — if they meet performance benchmarks.
To qualify for the “earned autonomy,” districts would have to post high marks on test scores and graduation rates while charters would be graded on academics and financials.
House Bill 883’s sponsors estimated that about 10 districts and 15 charters would qualify.
Parents
Here are the new laws that parents should be aware of:
Social transition reporting. Parents will now have a right to be notified if their child identifies as a different gender at school. Schools could face a six-figure penalty for failing to comply.
House Bill 822 requires that public school officials notify parents within 72 hours if their child requests help with “social transitioning.” This includes when a student asks to go by a different pronoun or use a bathroom or participate on a sports team that doesn’t align with their birth sex.
Sponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, the law gives parents the right to sue a school or healthcare provider for relief and monetary damages if they aren’t notified within the 72-hour window.
The attorney general can also seek a civil penalty up to $100,000.
Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa
Virtual school policy. Parents of virtual-school students will have new restrictions on money they receive to cover the costs of home learning.
After a state report last year found examples of taxpayer money being misused, lawmakers added limits on “supplemental learning funds.” According to House Bill 624, this money can only be spent on “eligible educational expenses, including:
- Computer hardware, internet access or other devices used to meet a student’s educational needs.
- Textbooks, curricula or other instructional materials, including educational software.
- Fees for standardized tests, advanced placement exams, certificate exams or college admissions exams.
- Therapies, including behavioral, physical, speech-language and audiology therapies, along with other State Board of Education-approved services.
In addition to the rules around supplemental learning funds, HB 624 added reporting requirements for private vendors that contract with virtual schools. Vendors must disclose the costs and services they provide while demonstrating a “clear relationship between the public funds received and the services provided.”
Military preference on charter waitlists. Active-duty military parents could be eligible for preference on charter school waitlists.
Lawmakers passed a bill that allows charter schools to place children from military families third among categories of students given preference on waitlists. It’s up to each charter school whether they implement the change.
Students
Here are the new laws that students should know about:
Moment of silence. Public school students will now have to start each school day with a moment of silence.
They can use the 60 seconds however they want — to reflect, meditate or pray — but they must be silent, and “no other activities shall take place,” according to House Bill 623.
Sponsored by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, the law requires that a moment of silence occur “at or near the beginning of each school day.” It prohibits teachers from instructing students on the “nature of any reflection” they might engage in.
School leaders also must notify parents about the moment of silence and “encourage” them to “provide guidance” to their children on how to use it, according to the law.
Idaho Launch cuts. Less state aid will be available for students going to college after they graduate in 2027.
For the current fiscal year and next fiscal year starting July 1, state lawmakers — with Gov. Brad Little’s approval — cut $10 million from Idaho Launch. The program offers high school graduates $8,000 to spend on an in-state higher education degree or workforce training certificate.
While the award amounts will remain the same, the state now has $65 million in scholarship money to dole out, compared to $75 million in previous years.
IDLA cuts. Fewer students are eligible to take discounted courses through the state’s online learning platform, the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance (IDLA).
House Bill 940 cut funding for IDLA’s elementary program, limiting the platform to students in grades 6-12. The bill also cut driver’s education, and eliminated state funding for students attending all-virtual schools and non-public schools — although private- and home-schoolers can pay IDLA’s full course fee and seek reimbursement through the Parental Choice Tax Credit.
HB 940 also set new fees for courses that are eligible for state funding. Courses that satisfy a graduation requirement are $40, while courses that don’t meet a graduation requirement are $100.
Copyright 2026 KMVT. All rights reserved.
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