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Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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At the December 2 Thermopolis Town Council meeting, the council held a discussion about employee pay rates. At a previous meeting, the council had agreed to increase the base pay rate for the police department by two dollars per hour. After conducting a survey of similar sized towns in Wyoming and finding that Thermopolis is four-six dollars below the pay rates of other municipalities, Assistant to the Mayor Jim Jeunehomme proposed that the council increase the base pay rate for all other town employees by two dollars. Jeunehomme suggested...
At the December 2 Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting, chairman Tom Ryan commenced a discussion regarding the office hours at the 4-H Extension office. He stated that he had been contacted by a constituent, and was advised that the office has no posted hours, and there is no way of knowing when someone will be in the office. Ryan questioned whether the county should continue to provide funding for a position if the office is not being manned. Representatives from the office were present and advised that the office hours had been made...
The Hot Springs Health Board of Directors met on November 25 for their regular monthly meeting. The board held their annual election for board officers, electing John Fenton as the new board chair. He will take over for current chair, Melissa Johnson. Johnson will remain on the board. John Anderson will continue as vice chair, and Aimee Kay and Jessica Benefiel will continue as secretary and treasurer, respectively. The board received and reviewed its 2025 Audit report. The auditors commended the hospital accounting and finance staff for their...
Last Saturday, Hot Springs County High School played host to the Big Horn Basin Middle School Wrestling Championships. Boys and girls teams gathered from across the basin to match their skills, talent and training on the mat. If you were there, most assuredly, you may count yourself among the most fortunate. With so many grapplers and their families in attendance, parking spaces at the high school were at a premium, and so were seats in the stands. As the matches got under way, interested...
The Thermopolis Christmas Tree Festival will take place this year at the Community Church Fellowship Hall, 631 Big Horn St., on Monday, December 8. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., and the auction will begin at 6. The event is sponsored by the Thermopolis Community Fund, a local non-profit organization, which has hosted the event for more than twenty years. The festival is held this time of year to raise funds from the sale of decorated Christmas trees, wreaths and other holiday decorative items. Bidders will be sure to find something they like...
The Travel & Tourism Board met for their regular monthly meeting on November 18 and reviewed the status of a number of on-going projects. The board approved an expenditure of up to $55,000 for a new web page and support services. Director, Angie Guyon, advised the board that she had received and reviewed a proposal from a company called Granicus, which provides web hosting services for the travel and tourism industry. The board had previously discussed updating its current web page, and the Granicus proposal is meant to address the needs that...
As we head in to the holiday season, it is a good time to take a look back at the many triumphs of Hot Springs County High School in the fall sports programs. The Bobcats and Lady Cats competed in golf, cross country, volleyball and football - with each team hitting new highs, and bringing home new hardware for the trophy case. In golf, the Thermopolis golf teams had garnered state championships in the two preceding years. The Lady Cats were state champs in 2023, and the Bobcats were state champs in 2024. With those wins, and with the Lady...
The Hot Springs County Commissioners met on November 18 for their second regular monthly meeting. With a relatively light agenda, the commissioners made quick work of their tasks. Administrative assistant to the commissioners, Connie Guntly, requested that the commissioners authorize her to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for realtor services for the Overlook at Roundtop project at the old airport. The commissioners were all in agreement with that request. Nate Messenger gave the monthly report on airport operations. The airport had a...
The Thermopolis Town Council met for its second regular monthly meeting on November 18. During citizen participation, Sandy Robertson appeared to raise the issue of the cost of permits to operate a food truck in the town limits. The annual fee is currently set at $300, with is substantially greater than the cost of such permits in other towns in the Big Horn Basin. The mayor and the council agreed that the cost is too high and requested town attorney Marshall Keller to begin drafting needed changes to the town’s ordinance. Meri Ann Dorman f...
Spreading Christmas cheer, the Parade of Homes will take place in Thermopolis on Saturday, December 6 from 2-6 p.m. After operating as an annual event in Thermopolis for around twenty-five years, the Parade of Homes, was put on hold during Covid. Local residents, Debbie Mount and Lisa Shaffer, have revived the holiday ritual. Four local families, Tom and Liz Ryan, Johnny and Meri Ann Dorman, Jerry and Linda Umbdenstock, and the Alwins, will open their homes for visitors to see and to enjoy their holiday decorations. There may even be some...
This past summer, local youngster, Avi Miller, commenced a campaign to raise funds for the See You at the Library event held at the Hot Springs County Library on August 14. Avi loves to read, and as such, she undertook to meet a $1,500 fund-raising challenge issued by a national organization. If accomplished, that would lead to a donation of books to Hot Springs County Library. To raise the funds, Avi, age 9, opened a lemonade stand on four separate days at four locations around town and held a...
To be honest – without trying to be mean: My Mom was not great cook. Don’t get me wrong – I loved her dearly, and I will always be grateful for the knowledge she gave to me. Things like: “A man should always know his strengths - and his limitations”. A sentiment which she accepted for herself, as well as for me. When I was growing up, Mom always worked her full-time job during the day, and would then go to her part-time job at night. That’s what it took to raise her kids by herself. So, the fact was – she never really had a chance to spe...
Sometimes, there are places or things which serve to define a community. Things that when mentioned bring immediately to mind a place or time that everyone knows and understands. For the Town of Thermopolis, one of those things is Hot Springs State Park (HSSP). Anyone who has ever been to Thermopolis knows about the park, and anyone who has ever been to the park knows about Thermop. There are many endearing aspects of HSSP – the springs, the pools, the Wyoming Pioneer Home, the Teepee Fountain a...
The Hot Springs County School Board met on November 13 for their regular monthly meeting. The school district’s auditor appeared remotely to review the district’s fiscal year 2025 audit report. Due to the federal government shutdown, the auditors are still awaiting a final directive from the United Stated Department of Education (USDE), before the report may be finalized, however, the auditor stated that all work has been completed on the report, and he anticipates that the report can be finalized in short order, once the USDE has issued the...
The Thermopolis - Hot Springs County Chamber Board met on November 13, 2025 for their regular monthly meeting. After fully considering the issue, the board determined that given the experience from last summer’s event, the organization will not host the Demolition Derby in 2026. The turn out of driver’s for the 2025 event was low. The board discussed the overwhelming success of the Moonlight Madness event, which was held downtown on October 30. All agreed that the event had been a smashing success with a large turnout of kids and adults. The...
The Hot Springs County Travel & Tourism Board has announced that its Fall Photo Contest is now open for submissions. Photographers of all skill levels are encouraged to enter their photographic works. The contest runs three times per year, in the spring, summer and fall. “Wind River Canyon Work Train,” was recently announced as the winner of the Summer Contest, and was submitted by local resident, Shelley Deromedi. Second place went to Jennifer Emery for her work entitled “Love Thermopolis”, and honorable mention went to Cindy Wollenb...
The Thermopolis Town Council met for its first regular monthly meeting on November. Brad Becerra, VFW Post Commander, appeared to make a veterans outreach presentation for the council. Becerra prefaced his presentation by addressing concerns he had regarding how the town communicates actions taken by the town council to town residents. He stated that he felt the town had not adequately advised residents regarding new stop signs that had been installed on Arapahoe Street and also regarding the allowance of fireworks at home football games....
The Hot Springs County Commissioners met on November 4 for their first regular meeting for the month. Following up on a request made at the board’s October 21 meeting that the county reimburse him for attorney fees incurred with regard to the on-going Governor’s investigation, commissioner Aguiar took issue with advice which had recently been provided by county attorney Jill Logan. She suggested that individual commissioners should not participate in action taken by the board of commissioners with regard to any request to cover the att...
After battling their way to a 6-1 record in the 2A Northwest Division, the Hot Springs County High School Bobcats were set to battle it out in the playoffs. After winning a decisive victory over the Burns Broncs on their home field on Halloween, the Cats headed to Big Horn for a round two game, which the school had not experienced for many years. Big Horn is a big team, having the advantage of drawing upon a large pool of players from several towns in northwest Wyoming. They are a well-coached...
In early 2025, the Hot Springs County Republican Party elected new officers for their organization. Joe Martinez was elected to serve as Chairman, Clay Van Antwerp was elected to serve as Vice-Chairman, Phillip Scheel was elected to serve as State Committee Man, and Meri Ann Dorman was elected to serve as Secretary. Then, in April of this year, the Wyoming Republican Party implemented a dispute resolution procedure, which resulted in a recount of the votes cast, and changed the elected party leadership of the Hot Springs County Republican...
The Hot Springs Health Board of Directors met on October 28 for their regular monthly meeting. CEO, Scott Alwin, opened the meeting by recognizing several staff members who had received awards from the HealthCare Service Excellence Conference. Alwin advised that the Summit Awards are a North America-wide recognition program established and managed by the Conference. The Summit Awards are presented annually, and the top 3 to 5 nominees are recognized as “Pinnacle Achievers.” From those awardees, the winner of the Summit Award will be sel...
Beginning in 2018, long-time local resident, Cassie Owsley, operated a small business out of the shop on the family farm on Black Mountain Road. She sold specialized feeds and enjoyed being able to save friends and neighbors a trip into Thermopolis, or into Worland, to purchase necessary livestock feeds. When the feed stores in Thermopolis and Worland closed down, and folks could no longer locally acquire items, which Owsley did not supply, Cassie expanded her list of suppliers, and began to...
Last Friday night was Halloween, and there was a lot going on in Thermopolis. The Burns Broncs were at Leroy Hayes Field looking to defeat the Bobcats on their home turf. At games end, however, the Broncs would head home – sans treat, and with their season coming to a screeching halt. In Friday night’s round one play-off game, Burns came in as the number 3 seed from the 2A East, with a season record of 7-2, and 5-2. The Bobcats finished their season at 7-1 and 6-1, and stood as the number 2 seed from the 2A West, and the number 3 ranked tea...
The Hot Springs County High School Lady Cats volleyball team was in Lander last weekend, to compete in the West Regional Tournament. Four teams from the Northwest quad, were joined by four teams from the Southwest quad. Each team needed two wins, over the course of the two-day tournament, in order to punch their ticket for a trip to play in Casper this weekend, at the state tournament. On Friday morning, October 31, the first round of the tournament got under way, with Shoshoni defeating Kemmerer by 3 sets to 1. Then Wind River went down to...
Sometimes, life becomes a bit boring. Each day seems to follow a script, which was written long ago, and which allows for no changes or deviations to “the usual.” Most days, we wake up in the morning, knowing full well how the day will go – each moment has been scheduled, and we are convinced, we know just how the day will end. But then, there are those other days. The days when things don’t go according to plan. For local resident, Cecelia Easton, October 15, 2025 was “that other day.” Easton grew up in Wyoming, and for many years, she lived i...
