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Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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Held each year during the third week of October, National School Bus Safety Week is designed to promote and celebrate school bus safety at school across the country. School buses are used to transport precious cargo to and from school and school activities regularly. Designed for safety, with flashing lights, giant mirrors, high seat backs and that bright yellow color, school buses are used to transport over 25 million students nationwide each school day. Staff in the transportation department at Hot Springs County School District work to...
I was privileged to be among the educators from various school districts to hear Dr. Anthony Muhammad during staff development day on Monday, October 12. I would like to invite the public to join in with all of us for his challenge to take a 30-day moratorium on complaining in order to make a real difference not only in our schools, but also in our community. We can begin within the walls of our own homes and bring it into our places of work and of worship. We can develop a healthy culture of problem solvers and leave behind the toxic culture o...
Wow! What wonderful community support I witnessed during the high school homecoming parade and activities last week. The parade was especially well attended. A big thank you to business owners, parents and relatives, Ralph Witters Elementary students and staff, Thermopolis Middle School students and staff, and ex-Thermopolis Bobcats. The high school students, staff, and HSCSD #1 sincerely appreciated your presence and support. Also, a big shout out to our community emergency departments for providing man-power, vehicles, fire trucks, and...
Thank you for your editorial noting the celebration of the United States Constitution on Constitution Day, Sept. 17 and during Constitution Week Sept. 17-23. As a member of Washakie Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, I had asked you to publish notice of this celebration. Perhaps you were also contacted by our Chapter Regent as well as other members. The appreciation of this special time written by different members of the 5th grade taught by Jessie Rode show, in general, how much freedom is provided...
by Joey Johnson, University Extension Educator More than 6 million young people across the country will celebrate National 4-H Week, an annual celebration of 4-H during the first full week of October. Hot Springs County 4-H will leverage National 4-H Week this year to showcase the great things that 4-H offers young people and highlights the incredible youth in the community who work each day to make a positive impact on the community. This year Hot Springs County 4-H took part in the Thermopolis Octobrewfest Saturday, Sept. 26. 4-H members...
by Sue Blakey, Director Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation This week, Thermopolis citizens, almost by accident, created an old-fashioned “Chautauqua.” What’s a Chautauqua? Its history actually goes back to the 1820s, when the first American Lyceum was founded by a traveling lecturer and teacher, Josiah Holbrook. He believed education was a lifelong experience, and he hoped the traveling lyceums would provide lectures, dramatic performances, class instructions and debates to remote rural American communities. For nearly 50 years, these...
Recently the Wyoming Department of Transportation installed edge-line rumble strips on a section of Highway 20 N. For those living along the highway that have accepted the very high volume of traffic with the accompanying noise, the addition of the rumble strips has drastically elevated the noise level. Three of my neighbors added their names to a complaint I made to WYDOT. WYDOT’s answer was basically that rumble strips have proven to reduce traffic accidents due to inattention and resulting off-road excursions. Basically, we are supposed t...
U.S. Constitution Week is the commemoration of America’s most important document. It is celebrated annually during the week of Sept. 17-23. The week is kicked off by Constitution Day Sept. 17. On that day in 1787, the U.S. Constitution was signed by 39 men who changed the course of history. Thermopolis Middle School fifth grade teacher Jessie Rode asked her students to write a short paragraph about what the Constitution means to them. TMS fifth graders recently started a unit to learn about the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution is the law. I...
As a senior citizen with steadily declining health, I'm forced to think about my own mortality. Last week's newspaper stated Wyoming as having “one of the nation's highest rates of suicide, often leading the U.S.” You know what else we lead the country in? Elderly. According to the WY Dept. of Health: Aging Division, “it is projected that by the year 2020, WY will have the highest proportion of people between the ages of 65-74 in the U.S WY population is aging fast intensified as the baby-boomer cohort reaches retirement at an annual rate inc...
Through years of attendance to State Park facilities, we have been impressed with the staff that we have met in these facilities. Friends, family and guests have come to our State Park and have been very impressed with the appearance of the grounds and efficiency of the workers there. A personal thank you is given to the employees of these Parks. My wife and I, and others in our community, have attended a number of meetings in regard to the Hot Springs State Park and the formation of a 20 year master plan. In many of these meetings we have...
On Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015 there was a range fire on Copper Mountain. It was not known how the fire started but the from the time 911 was call the Thermopolis Volunteer fire fighters and BLM fire fighters arrived on Copper Mountain it seemed like a very short time. Their teams went right to work and had the fire contained within a couple of hours. The wind stayed calm and the borate bomber was able to keep the fire from really getting out of hand. We would like to thank all the men that were involved, their fast response and for keeping the...
Harry and the “Just Say No PAC” pretty well summed up their stance in the opening paragraph of Harry Hughes’ letter to the editor in the Sept. 10 Independent Record. They would like a hospital in our community, they just don't want to have to help pay for it. In fact, one of their group said that very thing at a hospital board meeting. That is their interpretation of “The Wyoming Way” as near as I can tell. As someone who was born in, raised in and lived nearly my whole life in Wyoming that interpretation is frankly kind of embarrass...
Suicide continues to plague Wyoming. Year-in-and-year-out our state has one of the nation’s highest rates of suicide, often times leading the United States. Despite numerous efforts by state, city, and volunteer groups our state’s rate of death by suicide continues to grow. This can no longer be acceptable. September is Suicide Prevention Month and September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. During the month there will be numerous opportunities and trainings to equip each of us with a better understanding of suicide and how we can beat thi...
I am President of the Just Say No Political Action Committee (PAC). Some folks in town believe that we are opposed to a new hospital. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every member of our PAC thinks that our county needs adequate health care. We are opposed to a special use District; because the recent developments in Washakie and Fremont Counties demonstrate that there are other business models available to provide quality health care without taxation. We have a management model in place that has not worked, is not working now and will...
America has now reached a very dangerous crossroads, a time in history far more treacherous than during our civil war. For the very first time since the founding of this nation, we and our Constitution are betrayed by all three branches of our federal government: executive, legislative, and judicial. I write this as Kim Davis, a County Clerk in Kentucky, sits in a jail cell, imprisoned by our legal system when she should have been protected by it. She could very well be America’s first political prisoner, jailed for her beliefs. I sincerely hop...
8 has been interesting. We welcomed in the New Year with an ice jam which had the potential to create great damage and evacuations, but fortunately a temperature increase during the second night, to -15, reversed the growth of the jam and the day was saved. Memorial Day weekend it rained…and rained and rained. Flash Flood Warnings were issued from both sides of our county, and several occurred. The heavy rains which were seen here in Hot Springs County were also seen in the Wind River high country, soaking into the snowpack. Predictions for...
In the August 27, 2015, issue of the Independent Record there appeared a picture and article about the removal of the yellow rose bushes, expect for a few from the south end of the Bicentennial Park. These bushes have added beauty and protection of users of the park from dangers to which they were exposed to along the alley going next to the south end of the park. The park was established in honor of the Bicentennial of our Nation. It was and is for the enjoyment of adults and children alike. There is a children’s play park elsewhere. This p...
Each day comes bearing gifts. But not in the way you might think. I wake in anticipation of the presents they have left for me this time. “They” are not leprechauns or Santa’s elves. The gifts in question come from my kids. Yeah, I find it hard to believe myself. When I enter the kitchen each morning, I’m guaranteed at least one cardboard pizza round left over from the last night’s midnight feast. Pizza cardboard is much too valuable to toss in the trash, if they could locate the trash (which I’m not sure they could). They also leave me ch...
Back to school schedules are starting, families are getting back into a routine - but I am convinced that ranch kids have a somewhat different schedule than other kids. Instead of setting the alarm to simply wake up and get ready for school, their alarms are set several hours earlier to take care of ranch chores that must be done prior to school. Growing up, I remember having to be pulled out of bed to get my work done in the wee morning hours before the bus came. During high school years, I...
Earlier this year the House of Representatives passed legislation that’s supposed to fix once and for all the formula the government uses to pay doctors who treat Medicare patients. The Senate is expected to agree. The so-called doc fix legislation has been a political hot potato since the late 1990s when Congress tried to slow down healthcare costs by cutting doctor payments. The docs complained when Medicare tried to cut their payments, and 17 times Congress stopped the cuts. This time was different, though. Democrats and Republicans came tog...
When I first started a garden in the Thermopolis area many years ago, I eagerly planted my favorite perennials in the fall for spring blooming. All winter long I imagined a beautiful garden come spring, only to have my expectations dashed by the local deer population, which apparently loved my perennials as much as I did. So, I started looking around the area and questioning local residents to find out which perennials survive the local conditions. My surveys and in-garden experiments have resulted in a select group of local deer-resistant...
As technology relentlessly consumes low-end jobs, the skill-ladder has become a skill-pyramid, i.e., there is not room for everyone at the top. Whenever I can, I try to tell young people that they need to find a skill that cannot be outsourced, cannot be automated, and is still useful when our house-of-cards begins to collapse. The recent book, “Rise of the Robots,” by Martin Ford, speaks to this issue in ways that should scare us all. Jim Harvey, Salt Lake City, Utah Former Thermopolis resident...
For many rural families, summer climaxes at fair time. “Why?” you may ask. Well, it’s not a simple answer. Imagine acquiring (purchasing, being gifted, etc.) a steer calf. This calf is not a pet but rather livestock that will be sold in less than a year’s time for the purpose of slaughter. Your task is to, on a daily basis, nurture this animal, feed it, and handle it to best prepare it for show. You may have a young lifetime of experience working with cattle, but this steer is yours and it is y...
I am so glad I taught at the schools at the time when vocational education was looked upon with enthusiasm. Today at Hot Springs County schools we no longer have the courses for the world of work. Our business education is nil, family and consumer science is nil, industrial arts is not good and auto mechanics is good but should have a full day to meet the student’s needs. We used to have two full time industrial arts teachers and the person building your house, making changes in your house, roofing are all graduates of the high school p...
Fifteen years ago this week, the Kate’s Basin Fire was raging up on the divide between Hot Springs County and the Wind River Reservation. On August 11, 2000, in a place called Mexican Pass a firefighter lost his life in that fire. His name was James Alan Burnett. Mr. Burnett was 51 years old and though he lived in Hatfield, Arkansas, he worked for Oklahoma Forestry Services. He came to Wyoming as part of a five man team, first to battle the Enos Creek fire and then the enormous Kate’s Basin fire. Through the winds and flames some very bra...
