Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 269
WORLAND – The Washakie County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees honored their newest Bell Ringer Award winner Loretta Alcaraz during their monthly meeting on Monday, May 24. The Bell Ringer is annually awarded to an outstanding citizen from the community who contributes to the district behind the scenes. When she was honored with the award, Alcaraz was under the impression that she was going to the meeting to translate for a family who spoke Spanish. "I was shocked," Alcaraz said. "I t...
WORLAND - Wyoming first lady Jennie Gordon took a tour through the Big Horn Basin as she visited local area entities that have either worked with or supported the Wyoming Hunger Initiative including three stops in Washakie County. The visits around the Basin included the Worland Community Garden, Crisis Prevention and Response Center, West Side Elementary and Paintrock Processing in Hyattville. Gordon said that the tour of the Crisis Prevention and Response Center showed the impact that the...
WORLAND – The Washakie County School District (WCSD) No. 1 Board of Trustees approved an $850 increase to the base teaching salary which raises the district’s base salary to $45,000. With this increase, WCSD No. 1 Superintendent David Nicholas and Business Manager Charlie Cauffman acknowledged that despite the increase, the district still is placed at a tie for 32nd in the state for base pay out of 48. “How are we going to pay for this?” Nicholas said. “We are going to pay for it this year with...
TEN SLEEP – The Bighorn National Forest Service (NFS) held a second virtual public meeting regarding the Ten Sleep Climbing Plan on Wednesday, May 19, and began to address the more than 500 comments that they received after the first public comment period. The presentation from the NFS stated they are not planning in any way to ban recreation, and will provide diverse recreation opportunities around the area. They understand that climbing is a large part of the recreation in the area, but t...
WORLAND – The Washakie County Commissioners met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, May 18, to hear board reports and receive updates on projects happening around the county. Washakie County Planner David Anderson came before the board and said that the Lower Nowood project would be slightly delayed for completion until the end of the month as they had troubles receiving the speed limit signs in time. Anderson also said he was unsure if they had completed the striping on the r...
WORLAND - Worland High School recognized five valedictorians from the Class of 2021 at Sunday's graduation ceremony - Carmyn Buckman, Robyn Horath, Annalise Newell, Tanner Stott and Kimberly Sumida, as well as salutatorian Logan Yule. •Carmyn Buckman is the daughter of Kristin and Jeffrey Buckman. Throughout high school Buckman was involved in indoor track, softball, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), W-Club, student council, National Honor S...
WORLAND – School districts across the nation have been tasked with the difficult decision of how to open safely for students and provide a quality education while maintaining social distancing amid an COVID-19international pandemic. As the school year winds down to a close on Friday, Washakie County School District No. 1 has been one of the few districts across the country that has maintained in-person learning for students throughout the year without having to move back to an online setting a...
TEN SLEEP – The Washakie County School District (WCSD) No. 2 Board of Trustees met for their regularly scheduled meeting Monday night to discuss a potential change to an eight-period school day, a staffing situation and approve positions for next school year. At the April meeting the board was presented with a proposed eight-period schedule for the upcoming 2021-22 school year, which would shorten class periods from the current seven-period schedule already in place. Responses from teachers, a...
WORLAND – Cloud Peak Counseling Center is getting set to host a mental health awareness event this Friday, May 14, beginning at 11 a.m. at the Worland Community Center, which will feature Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon providing the keynote address. With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, Cloud Peak was looking for a way to help connect with the public and help spread awareness that mental health is not a subject that should be taboo to talk about. The event will open with a speech from a p...
WORLAND – Local resident Landis Benson approached the Washakie County Commissioners during their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, May 4, to discuss an idea that would extend the bike/walking path. Benson was joined by Washakie County Planner David Anderson to look at the original drawings of the bike path that were created in 2003. Benson said that he had discussed with the planner at that time about the possibility of extending the path down Lane 14 to South Flat Road and then e...
WORLAND – The Washakie Prevention Coalition’s (WPC) Drug Free Community Walk/Run is set to take place Wednesday, May 12, on the Worland Walking Path from 6:30-8 p.m. “We want business and community members to come and enjoy the fresh air to get the summer kicked off in a positive way by showing support for a drug-free community,” Lila Jolley of Washakie County Prevention said. Donations made during the event will go toward the activity pass program. The activity pass program gives activit...
WORLAND – The Washakie County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees approved a preliminary budget for the upcoming 2021-22 school year during their normal meeting on Monday, April 26. The board along with Business Manager Charlie Cauffman and Superintendent David Nicholas discussed how the budget would be complex this year and the coming years due to the influx of federal funding flowing into the district due to COVID-19. They also discussed how this year the budget would remain the same at th...
WORLAND – After a nearly 40-minute executive session to discuss litigation, the Washakie County Commissioners accepted a counter-offer to sell the current Washakie County Library located at 1019 Coburn Ave. The commissioners received an offer during their March 16 meeting, but according to the commission they were unable to reach an agreement with that purchaser and were approached by a different buyer. Details of the contract were not publicly available at press time, as the County C...
TEN SLEEP - “Design for new Ten Sleep School is in the budget,” Superintendent Jimmy Phelps said during his legislative update to the Washakie County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees Monday. In addition to the funding for the design of the new building remaining in the statewide budget, Phelps said that the Wyoming School Facilities Commission approved the vocational building as an enhancement, which means that the district will not have to pay for up to 5,000 feet of the new bui...
WORLAND – Registered nurse Julie Stott was named the Banner Health Washakie Medical Center (WMC) Employee of the Year for 2020. Stott has been an employee at WMC for nearly 32 years, and was nominated for the award after showing her versatility as a nurse in a rural hospital setting. "I am very honored to be the employee of the year," Stott said. "I work with some very skilled professional people so to be the employee of the year out of such a great group is such an honor." According to WMC C...
WORLAND – The volunteer Washakie County Ambulance Service (WCAS) is nearing the end of its transition period as the service is anticipating the takeover by Cody Regional Health (CRH) to be completed by May 1. The WCAS along with the Washakie County Commissioners reached a three-year agreement year back in late January 2021with CRH at a cost of $195,000. Current WCAS Director Luke Sypherd came before the commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday, April 6, to discuss the current status of the t...
WORLAND – Washakie County Public Health (WCPH) is set to host a vaccine clinic next Wednesday, April 14, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Worland Community Center for those receiving their second dose of the Moderna vaccine from the March 17 clinic. WCPH has also said that those wishing to receive their first dose of the vaccine may also attend the clinic, the vaccine is open to any Washakie County adult aged 18 or older. Those receiving their first dose should bring an insurance card if they h...
WORLAND – Washakie County School District (WCSD) No. 1 Superintendent David Nicholas brought the idea of a 2:15 p.m. early release on Fridays for the upcoming 2021-22 school year before the Board of Trustees during their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, March 22. Nicholas brought up the idea in order to help teachers meet on Fridays as there has become fewer times that they are able to meet due to decreased staffing over the years. Nicholas said the idea for an early release as opposed t...
WORLAND – The Worland High School Speech and Debate competed in the National Qualifiers Competition this past week from Monday March 15-20 and saw 11 students qualify for the national competition. The 11 students who qualified for the National Competition were Jade Hefenieder and Raeth Tolman in humor, Kimberly Sumida in domestic extemporaneous speaking and cross-examination debate, Tate Green in domestic extemporaneous speaking, Chase Johnson in cross-examination debate, Elizabeth Bleicher i...
WORLAND - Sarah Garcia of Washakie County Youth Alternatives discussed financing and the importance of the county’s diversion program during the Washakie County Commissioners meeting Tuesday. Funding to the diversion programs is expected to be cut drastically this year due to declining state revenues. The diversion program is a program that allows for youth to choose an alternate pathway through programming, supervision and supports rather than the traditional adult record, detention or other f...
TEN SLEEP – A task force on a four-day school week recommended that the Washakie County School District (WCSD) No. 2 Board of Trustees not seek a four-day week for the upcoming 2021-22 school year. Andrew Mills, a parent on the task force, presented the task force’s findings during the meeting on Monday, March 8. The idea came from an increase in support from staff. District 2 began exploring the idea of a four-day school week at the beginning of February. A task force was formed and a pub...
WORLAND – Jack Stott will be retiring this month as business manager for Washakie County School District No. 1 (WCSD) and he took a moment to look back at some of his accomplishments and memories over his more than a quarter century of work with the district. DISTRICT PROJECTS Stott's first big project that was introduced was the building of Worland Middle School which began in 1997, just two years after he took over the position. "We finally moved in, in January 2005, so it was a seven-year p...
WORLAND – The Bighorn National Forest Powder River Ranger District rangers hosted a public meeting regarding climbing in Ten Sleep Canyon on Thursday, Feb. 18, to discuss where they are at in the process of the project and to accept and respond to public comment. The project is currently in the beginning stages of a plan to help address rock and ice climbing in order to address capacity in the area, safety concerns, access to the public, scenic integrity as well as placing signage in the a...
WORLAND – Washakie Medical Center (WMC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jay Stallings announced during the WMC Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 23, that WMC has moved into the green zone for visitation at the hospital. Stallings said that the decision came due to decreasing positive COVID-19 tests in Washakie County as well as decreased hospitalizations. According to the Wyoming Department of Health Washakie County has not had a hospitalized COVID-19 patient at WMC since the end of J...
WORLAND – After the January board meeting, the Washakie County School District (WCSD) No. 1 Board of Trustees was faced with a difficult decision regarding the future of the Worland High School automotive program. The district found a solution by partnering with local businesses to help keep the automotive program intact to help students work toward Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification. The problem first arose when long-time automotive teacher Michael Sapp was approved for retiremen...