Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Sorted by date Results 319 - 343 of 346
On Friday, Oct. 30 your Bobcats came to Lovell to play the Bulldogs in the first round of state football playoffs. I was very impressed by your players. They were sure tacklers and good blockers. But what impressed me more was that after each hard block or solid tackle, your players offered a hand to help our players stand up. That shows a great level of sportsmanship. I noticed that when the game began to wind down and it appeared as though Lovell was going to win, your young men continued to help our team stand back up. They may have lost...
As someone who utilizes the recycle trailers weekly I am greatly appreciative of those who have made recycling a possibility for Hot Springs County residents; thank you! In recent months numerous articles have appeared in our local and area newspapers concerning diminishing landfill space and what can or will be done to alleviate this problem. Recycling is part of the solution and numerous communities throughout the Big Horn Basin have implemented this successfully. Given our distance from major recycling facilities and other cost prohibitive i...
This year I have the privilege of working with three extraordinary students as they tackle various work opportunities throughout town. After two months they have developed an opinion that they want to share with the residents of Hot Springs County. Because they are minors working in the special education program at the high school, they cannot sign their names to any letter. I have signed my name in their place. The following is their opinion: This school year three of us empty garbage cans and pick up garbage in the state park. We go to the...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Well, it seems there is at least one unhappy person in our community, someone who leads such a melancholy life that he/she can only attain satisfaction by spreading his/her misery to others, including our local businesses. This person sought to attack my employer by filing an anonymous (of course) complaint with the fire chief. This person hides behind the cloak of anonymity just as others have done recently through complaints on social media. Such brave people. The complaint was that my employer was creating the business’s main product u...
After reading about the proposal about the park issue – it’s way redundant. There is no way a building like that wouldn’t affect the beauty of the park. Looking down at that end of the park is the most beautiful scene that you can ask for. A wooden structure, stone structure – what ever – it would be a distraction. The building, parking spaces, etc. would eliminate about one half of the park. And using the lack of parking as a reason for the project – it’s a park. A park is for walking and relaxing. As for the Starbuck’s style restaurant, a l...
“The best fly fishing in the country,” is what some are calling the short stretch of the Big Horn River from Wedding of the Waters through Thermopolis. Newspapers, magazines and television have been luring anglers from all parts of the country, as far as New York, Louisiana and Texas, giving the local economy a ‘shot in the arm.’ A history of other rivers, once considered, great fisheries, are fished out and only “so-so” today. The Big Horn is now the champion attraction. Along with the increase of fishermen and “tubers” comes empty cans, plast...
Every citizen able to vote should boycott any or all groups who want to keep us from hearing every Presidential candidates explanation of why they believe they are the best....
I see that the no-trespassing signs are up again at the ‘King-Spiller Learning Center.’ Cal had a good idea to set that land aside for that. The tourist could come up and learn something. Kids could spend time at the park and then do some exploring up there. People could talk about everything that they had seen up here. Now they can go back and talk about everything they couldn’t see. Heck, they can take pictures of the sun setting over a no-trespassing sign – beautiful. We need something for people to see and enjoy. I hope the town had eno...
Flag Day will soon be here so this is a good time to remind business owners and individuals to replace your tattered, dirty U.S. flags with new ones. Please dispose of them properly....
A representative of the Set Free Church seems to want the Law Enforcement Center rules changed to suit himself and some family members of inmates of our local jail. Someone should remind him, our jail is not a WalMart, open 24/7 for a reason. Possibly the inmates could have used his ministering before they committed their crimes. Then they might be on the outside, not incarcerated....
Thanks to everyone who supported trying to change the city ordinance to let chickens in the city limits. I got about 100 signatures in less than a week, but for the town council that wasn’t enough. They commented that all they got was people calling them and saying “no” to the chickens. It would have been more fair I felt if they would have given me more time, or told me how many signatures I needed. Then it sounded like I should have rules and regulations for keeping them. Only one council member had an open mind to take it further. I’ll...
