Mountain West plans new branch

Mountain West Bank of Coeur d’Alene is planning a new branch in Boise — the fifth new location this year for the rapidly growing community bank.

The bank will open a commercial lending center on the 11th floor of the historic Hoff Building in downtown Boise. Plans are also under way for a branch office on the first floor of the Hoff Building, pending regulatory approval.

Mountain West also has branches under construction or recently completed at Ramsey Road in Coeur d’Alene, in Hayden Lake and in three southern Idaho communities.

New name, symbol

Metaline Mining & Leasing Co., of Liberty Lake, has a new name and a new trading symbol, reflecting a large stock purchase by the Hunt Family Limited Partnership.

The partnership is led by Tim Hunt, 52, the founder and president of Huntwood Industries, a large custom cabinet manufacturer in Liberty Lake. Earlier this year, the Hunt Family partnership bought 7.7 million shares of Metaline’s stock for about $500,000, giving the partnership a 51.5 percent ownership.

The junior mining company was renamed HuntMountain Resources. It will trade under the symbol HNTM on the over-the-counter market.

Metaline was founded in 1927, but has been inactive for decades. Hunt said he hopes to restart the firm’s exploration activity.

“We are proud to be moving this company forward after such a long period of inactivity,” Hunt said. “HuntMountain Resources is laying the foundation for a successful future in precious metals exploration.”

Fine year for sawmills

Sawmills in the western U.S. had their best year since 1990 last year, a new report said.

“Sawmills in the West rode a record wave of lumber demand in 2004 to the highest annual production volume in 14 years,” the Portland-based Western Wood Products Association said.

Western mills produced 18.8 billion board feet of lumber, with an estimated wholesale value of $7.99 billion, the organization said. In 1990, the mills produced 20.8 billion board feet of lumber.

Oregon was the top lumber-producing state, with 7.1 board feet, but No. 2 Washington had its best production year since 1930, at 5.5 billion board feet of lumber, the WWPA said. Idaho was fourth-largest producer, generating 2 billion board feet of lumber.

A strong housing market drove last year’s market, the association said.

Carl Wilgus honored

Carl Wilgus, Idaho’s tourism director, has been named the 2005 State Tourism Director of the Year by the Travel Industry Association of America.

The annual award is given to an individual whose influence has had the greatest impact on raising a state’s travel and tourism profile.

Wilgus was appointed to his job in 1987. Since that time, the state’s tourism budget has grown by 350 percent, and requests for tourism information have increased exponentially.

Wilgus launched Idaho’s first national advertising TV campaign, which ran on CNN, the Weather Channel and the Discovery Channel. He also established the first state advertising co-op to develop an advertorial section that ran in Midwest Living, Sunset magazine and Better Homes and Gardens.

Wilgus also worked on the 2002 Winter Olympic Strategic Plan and the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration. He is the second-longest tenured state tourism director in the nation.

Rollovers targeted

WASHINGTON — Federal officials, upgrading a longstanding auto regulation, proposed new rules Friday that would require automakers to build stronger roofs on vehicles in an effort to protect passengers in rollover crashes.

The proposal would apply for the first time to large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks weighing up to 10,000 pounds, covering popular vehicles such as the Ford Expedition, the Chevrolet Suburban and the Dodge Ram. The current standard exempts vehicles over 6,000 pounds.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it would also seek information from the industry and safety advocates on other ways to protect occupants in rollovers, including the potential use of improved safety belt technology.

Rollover crashes account for more than one-third of traffic fatalities. In 2004, 10,553 people died in rollover crashes, up from 10,442 in 2003. About 60 percent of the people killed were not wearing seat belts.

Drive time extended

WASHINGTON — Truckers can still spend six days on the road during the week and drive for 11 hours at a time, thanks to a rule the Bush administration decided to leave intact even though truckers and safety advocates say it’s unsafe.

For 60 years, truckers could drive for 10 consecutive hours. On Jan. 1, 2004, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration changed the rule to allow them another hour behind the wheel.

A federal court, however, threw out the changes.

On Friday, the truck-safety agency announced that a revision to the rule would still allow the big rigs to roll for 11 hours, three hours more than safety advocates say they should.

The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety said the Bush administration had simply repackaged an unsafe rule.

Buyers more cautious

NEW YORK — While middle-income consumers have surprised economists in their willingness to spend despite gasoline’s upward trek, they’re increasingly feeling the pain of higher prices. So retailers are wondering when — not if — these shoppers will finally pull back.

Stores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Family Dollar Stores Inc. that cater to low-income shoppers have already seen sales slow over the past year. Now mid-tier retailers like J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Gap Inc. are anxious as they enter the crucial fall and holiday selling seasons.

Despite generally solid early back-to-school results, merchants including Wal-Mart and Gap issued muted forecasts along with second-quarter earnings reports this past week. The companies cited concerns about oil’s impact on the economy; some said higher energy costs are making it harder to run their businesses.

“There is definitely caution out there,” said Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics LLC, a research firm in Swampscott, Mass.”We are seeing consumers on the low end becoming squeezed by the higher energy more so than we have seen all year,” Perkins said. “If the current situation persists, we will likely see more consumers feel the pinch as higher energy prices squeeze middle-income shoppers, hurting mid-tier retailers.”