Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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By KARLA POMEROY and SETH ROMSA WORLAND — When fire management for the Neiber Fire south of Worland transitioned to a Type 3 Management Team, the Bureau of Land Management called up the Worland Community Center to provide shelter for firefighters. According to Marketing Director Sheryl Ley she was notified shortly before 5 p.m. on Wednesday by the BLM that they would be needing use of the facility for the management team. “We’re providing them the main conference room to utilize for eatin...
WORLAND - For the third year in a row the Washakie County Fair Board contracted with professional event consultant Daniel Kosel to set up the musical lineup for this year's Washakie County Fair. This year due to COVID-19 concerns the board opted for three days of music instead of six. Kosel said while the lineup is half as many days there is still quite a variety of music genres for people to enjoy. As far as securing contracts during the pandemic, Kosel said, "Most people are sitting around une...
WORLAND — The Washakie County Fair Board continues to finalize plans for fair and make sure COVID protocols are in place. During Monday’s regular meeting Chairman Jeff Lapp reported that his initial request seeking a variance from the state health order requiring no more than 250 people in attendance to an outside event was denied by county health officer Dr. Ed Zimmerman. He said guidelines were provided by Public Health Nurse Manager Amanda Heinemeyer, including that separate variances needed to be requested for each event. The board discusse...
I have steered away from COVID-19 thoughts in this space for a while to give everyone a break but a lot has been happening so I’m going to over a few facts and provide a few thoughts. Fact 1: Novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is not a hoax. It is a real disease, real people have gotten sick, real people have died and real people have recovered. We have reported on all of these specific to local residents here in Worland. According to the World Health Organization (more on them in a minute), under their Mythbusters Tab on their website, they l... Full story
WORLAND — After going more than a month without a positive COVID-19 community case (June 1) or a case from the outbreak at the Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center (June 4), Washakie County reported its 35th case on Tuesday, July 7. Two additional cases were reported early Wednesday morning. The 35th case is an adult male. According to Washakie County Public Health, prior to becoming symptomatic, the individual had prolonged contact with several individuals in the county. Epidemiologists with the Wyoming Department of Health are a...
WORLAND — Several requests for events this weekend were approved by the Worland City Council, including closing a block of Seventh Street for the Wyoming Thunder Run. Bruce Briggs from the Rendezvous Lounge came to the council at the Worland Community Center Tuesday night to request having Seventh Street closed from Big Horn to Coburn in order for the lounge to serve about 150 motorcyclists participating in the annual Wyoming Thunder Run. Bruce Johnson of the Big Horn Basin chapter of the Vietnam Vets Legacy Vets Motorcycle Clubs (VVLVMC) a...
WORLAND — The 20th Nowoodstock music festival in Ten Sleep will have to wait a year with organizer Pat O’Brien announcing Monday that he is rescheduling the 20th event for Aug. 13-15, 2021. In a statement to the Northern Wyoming News and on Facebook, O’Brien said, “The current public health situation is trending the wrong way to responsibly hold Nowoodstock XX as scheduled.” Nowoodstock XX was originally slated for Aug. 7-9. He said the contractual obligations had a deadline of this week to cancel without financial ramifications. O’Brien s...
WORLAND - Worland Public Transportation/Worland Senior Citizen Center's dispatcher Patricia Owens was honored as the Wyoming Public Transit Association Dispatcher of the Year. She was "totally surprised" by the announcement made by WSC Director Wendy Fredricks during lunch on Wednesday, July 1. According to the nomination letter written by Debbie Fields, Worland Public Transportation manager, "We are proud to nominate Patricia Owens for the Dispatcher of the Year. "Over the years Pat has...
WORLAND - After 13 years as the Washakie County School District No. 1 technology coordinator and 40 years overall of service to the district, Kathy Wise retired June 12. Wise has been the district technology coordinator for 13 years. Prior to that position she taught for 27 years in the district and one year at Emery, South Dakota. She also served in the district as an instructional facilitator for 13 years She began teaching in District 1 as a special education teacher and taught sixth-grade...
Wyoming National Guard Captain Eli Varney and his unit were deployed to Kosovo last year to patrol an administrative boundary but the unit wanted to do more. They found ways to engage with the people so that the Kosovo residents did not just see them as soldiers but instead they saw them as individuals, as people. I heard him tell this story last winter when schools were collecting supplies for Kosovo students. I heard it again on Monday when he was presenting thank-you plaques to our local... Full story
WORLAND — The shows will go on. That was the final word from the Washakie County Fair Board Monday night at a special meeting. After a nearly two-hour discussion on COVID-19 safety protocols for the upcoming Fair July 25-Aug. 1, the Washakie County Fair Board unanimously approved a motion to have the animal shows continue as normal, with COVID-19 guidelines in place. Chief Washakie FFA Advisor Grace Godfrey, along with beef and pig show superintendents Myles Bush and Lynn Murdoch, respectively, and 4-H Educator Amber Armajo presented a few i...
WORLAND -Wyoming Army National Guard Capt Eli Varney, returned to Worland this week to visit family and to say thank you to the Worland and Big Horn Basin schools who sent supplies for the Adopt-A-School program in Kosovo. Last fall, Varney, a captain of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 297th Infantry Regiment for the Wyoming National Guard, and 2006 graduate of WHS, served with his unit in Kosovo. The unit returned back to the states about three months ago. Monday, Varney presented plaques to...
WORLAND - The Worland Community Garden is growing, not just in produce but in volunteers with four AmeriCorps members working in the garden and with Washakie County Extension this year. Extension Educator Caitlin Youngquist said, "The AmeriCorps program has been very beneficial to the garden over the past four years. With so much great help this year we have been able to get some big projects done, like the new shed and the geodesic dome." THE VOLUNTEERS This year's AmeriCorps volunteers are Han...
WORLAND — The Worland Board of Adjustment and Planning Commission (BAPC) has begun reviewing proposed changed to the subdivision chapter of the city code. Changes have been proposed by Building Official Randy Adams and city engineering representative Mike Donnell. The changes were initially presented to the BAPC at its regular meeting on June 18. Some of the changes update language to include updated technology for copies of plats. One change is a new section on amending a previously approved plat. Another recommended change is that a final p...
WORLAND – A project that began last fall with raising funds came to fruition last week with the construction of the geodesic dome in the northeast corner of the Worland Community Garden. The dome will help extend the growing season. University of Wyoming Extension Educator from Washakie County Caitlin Youngquist said they raised $2,000 as a match for a SeedMoney grant for the dome workshop that involved building the dome. "It will allow us to increase our production by extending our growing s...
WORLAND - The Slick Creek Fire at 8:30 p.m., Sunday, June 14, burning approximately 14 acres of sagebrush and cheatgrass on Bureau of Reclamation land two miles southeast of Worland. Washakie County and Bureau of Land Management firefighters responded and the fire was contained by midnight. "I can't thank the Washakie County volunteer firefighters enough for their quick response to the Slick Creek Fire," said Fred Tucker, BLM fire operations specialist for the Wind River/Bighorn Basin District....
WORLAND — While Ten Sleep continues to finalize plans for their Fourth of July celebration, other events this summer have been canceled due to concerns and the impact of COVID-19. The latest cancellation was the 2020 Wyoming BBQ Championship and Bluegrass Festival originally scheduled for Aug. 13-15 at the Washakie County fairgrounds. Committee member Val Busch said, “We are all pretty sad that it came to this, but the safety of our state and community was our major concern.” Other events in Washakie County that have been canceled inclu...
WORLAND — The Worland City Council approved three citizen requests, two ordinances on third reading, two resolutions including one for the new fiscal budget and two loan applications in a meeting that lasted about 30 minutes. The meeting, held at the Worland Community Center Complex to provide social distancing to follow state COVID-19 guidelines, began with three citizen requests that were approved unanimously: •Washakie County Library Foundation Board member Laura McDonald said George and Carol Sheaff have generously agreed to donate ano...
TEN SLEEP - A great local tradition returns Saturday, July 4 when the Ten Sleep/Hyattville Lions Club will offer residents an opportunity to mail a letter by Pony Express. For at least 25 years, the club has organized this fundraiser in conjunction with the Ten Sleep Fourth of July celebration. Longtime riders and this year's organizers, Lyle and Shelley Spence, said that between 15 and 20 intrepid riders will run a relay beginning in Hyattville, and concluding in Ten Sleep, arriving for the...
Our country is in turmoil. In some cities, citizens have taken over police buildings and whole city blocks. Groups are calling for police departments to be defunded. In Wyoming, we had protests against police brutality and for racial justice and equality but we have not, thankfully, seen the destructive rioting. All of these things have been sparked by recent deaths of citizens at the hands of law enforcement. In Wyoming we are not immune to police shootings or police misconduct. There was a... Full story
WORLAND - With the resignation, effective June 30, of Washakie County Clerk of District Court SuZann Whitlock the Washakie County Republican Central Committee has begun the process to submit names for potential replacements to the county commissioners. According to state statute, 22-18-111 (ii) "if a vacancy occurs in a county elective office, the board of county commissioners of the county in which the vacancy occurs shall immediately notify in writing the chairman of the county central...
WORLAND — Prior to Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announcing the upcoming closures of 10 state rest areas and painting a bleak upcoming financial picture, Rep. Mike Greear (R-Worland) provided similar news to the Worland City County on Tuesday, June 2. Greear told the council, “It’s been an interesting several months. We came out of our last legislative session around March 12, had a good budget in place. Everything seemed normal in the world. The state’s investments were doing well, oil was doing quite well … It really wasn’t but days later the...
WORLAND — Washakie County saw its slowest growth in COVID-19 since the outbreak at the Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center began May 9 with just two cases from Tuesday, June 2 through Tuesday, June 9. Previous to the outbreak, Washakie County had five cases. As of Tuesday, June 9, there were 34 cases. Five of the new cases were community spread. The two newest cases, reported on Thursday, June 4, were two residents from the WHRC, bringing the total number of residents to 16 residents and 12 staff members positive for COVID-19. After J...
WORLAND — A Worland resident joined about 300 people from Casper and Wyoming in a protest in downtown Casper last Wednesday, June 3. Amanda Hoffman of Worland said she decided to participate in the June 3 protest in Casper as soon as she saw it posted on social media Tuesday morning, June 2. Why the need to participate? “I feel really strongly that there is a very pervasive problem of racism in this country and there’s a lot of police brutality in this country. The time to say enough is enough was a long time ago. It’s really time now to stan...
WORLAND — One more death and four more cases were reported in Washakie County over the past week, mostly due to the outbreak at Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation (WHR). Washakie County had remained at five cases for several weeks before an outbreak at the center was reported on May 9. There have been 32 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Washakie County as of Tuesday, June 2. The Wyoming Department of Health is also listing five probable cases. Of the total 37 cases, there are only 16 active cases with 18 reported recoveries, 14 l...