expandable div help please

[swatdesigns]

I am trying to figure out how to get the left side bar here: http://www427.pair.com/madgtech/dyna...pe=temperature
to fit the length of the page, on every page, currently it is part of the header file, I was thinking that it should be a file of it's own but someone told me that because the pages very in size this method would not work. Any help??? It would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks

ps. This site currently uses adobe golive, Smarty & php, Ruby on Rails, MySql....It is database drivin and that is why I need the side bar to expand with every page. (It is confusing the heck out of me.)

[swatdesigns]

Aha I got it now, ecept there is a part of the fiv that is repeating more than I want is to. Any suggestions or help would be great.
the area that I am refering to is just under the products menu item, there is a grey rectangle appearing there.

http://www427.pair.com/madgtech/dynamic_site/view_product.php?itemnumber=QUADTHERMOVAULT

Thanks for any help or advise that anyone may be able to give.