Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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TEN SLEEP – Washakie County School District No. 2 is seeking input from stakeholders regarding a potential transition to a four-day school week this upcoming school year. This meeting will be at 7 p.m. next Monday, Feb. 22, via Zoom. The meeting will be held by a task force that was formed by Superintendent Jimmy Phelps prior to the school board meeting on Feb. 8 where the idea was first brought to the board. The decision to form a task force came after increasing interest from faculty members t...
WORLAND – Washakie County has administered the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to 1,176 residents with around 400 residents having received both doses of the vaccine as of Tuesday, Feb. 16. So far in February, Washakie County Public Health has received 400 doses of the Moderna vaccine with a total expected of 800 doses this month. However, due to inclement weather nationally this week’s shipment of doses is not expected to arrive on time. Washakie County Public Health Nurse Manager Am...
HYATTVILLE – When COVID-19 struck the nation in 2020, meat became a scarce product in most grocery stores across the country, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon began the Meat Processing Expansion Grant Program in April 2020 in order to help Wyoming meat processing plants expand their processes and this allowed additions to be made to the Paintrock Processing plant near Hyattville. Paintrock Processing was originally founded by Lois Shirran and was operated by her for approximately 17 years until h...
TEN SLEEP – Ten Sleep Mayor Ernie Beckley discussed with the Ten Sleep Council the likely cuts coming out of the Wyoming State Senate and House of Representatives likely being between 10% and 20% from their direct distribution funding through the state. “It is pretty substantial, it may not be $100,000 for us but we do not have that type of revenue coming in anyways,” Beckley said. He discussed how the budget looking to be passed through the state would impact the town a two-year period. He al...
WORLAND – The Wyoming Extension's Strategically and Technologically Informative (WESTI) Ag Days will continue this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Feb. 16-18. This year WESTI Ag Days is being held in person in the Washakie County Extension Meeting Room and Washakie Museum & Cultural Center. A virtual option will be provided for several of the workshops for those not wishing to attend in person. On Tuesday, Feb. 16, an Agronomy Workshop will be at the Washakie Museum by certified professional agr...
WORLAND — The Washakie County Commissioners announced Tuesday on how through Governor Mark Gordon’s Community Charitable Relief Program were distributed to local non-profit organizations. The funds are to help the non-profit organizations that have been hurt financially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds were approved as follows: Ten Sleep Senior Center $5,400, Worland Senior Center $25,000, Crisis Prevention and Response Center $28,090, Washakie Museum & Cultural Center $21,500, Cloud Pea...
WORLAND – The Worland High School Speech and Debate team finished third overall in class 3A among those schools that competed in the Virtual Mustang Classic held by Natrona County High School Jan. 29 and 30. Speech and Debate Coach Rick Dorn noted that they placed third overall among all 3A teams but second among Wyoming 3A teams. Dorn said that this was the biggest meet of the year besides state which has more schools and less allowed entries among competitors. Kim Sumida and Chase Johnson l...
WORLAND – The Washakie County Commissioners signed a three-year contract agreement with Cody Regional Health (CRH) to take over the volunteer Washakie County Ambulance Service (WCAS) at a cost of $195,000 a year. WCAS Director Luke Sypherd and Commissioner Fred Frandson said that the ambulance service has a separate enterprise account for themselves that will pay for the first three years of the contract with CRH. According to Sypherd, this account has doubled in the three years since he has b...
The Worland High School Speech and Debate team took part in the Powell Virtual Invitational last weekend and came away with a victory placing first as a team over Green River, Buffalo, Lovell and Rawlins. Chase Johnson and Kim Sumida took first in cross-examination debate. Sumida also took third in oratory while Johnson took sixth in congress. Jade Hefenieder took first in program oral interpretation and fifth in humor. She also advanced to the semifinals with Alexis Sandoval in duo...
WORLAND – Emergency management directors from Big Horn, Park, Washakie and Hot Springs counties met in a conference call led by Hazard Mitigation and Emergency Management Consultant Jeff Brislawn with Wood Environment and Infrastructure Solutions to hold their first of three planning meetings for the Region 6 Hazard Mitigation Plan. Other stakeholders in these counties were also in attendance for the online meeting Tuesday, Jan. 12. According to Brislawn, this plan update began as a part of t...
WORLAND - The Washakie County commissioners received their yearly audit during their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 19, and accepted a clean audit report for the 2019-20 fiscal year. The county did receive minor deficiencies regarding passing the threshold for the $750,000 limit regarding federal funding, which the auditor, Jason Lund stated is unusual but not a problem. There was also a discussion around a technical error regarding how the Washakie County Library Funds were...
WORLAND – After finishing last weekend in first place at the Sundance speech and debate tournament in Utah competing against teams from California and Utah, the Worland Speech and Debate team finished with another top finish this last weekend finishing second in the Thermopolis tournament. The Worland team finished second behind Riverton in class 3A. Taking first for Worland were Kim Sumida in extemporaneous speaking and Jade Hefenieder in program interpretation. Sumida also finished in cross e...
By SETH ROMSA TEN SLEEP – At the end of the Washakie County School District (WCSD) No. 2 Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, Jan. 11, WCSD No. 2 Superintendent Jimmy Phelps told the board he will not be seeking an extension on his current contract which expires at the end of June 2023. Phelps had his contract extended through that date during the board’s evaluation of him in February of 2020. Phelps felt it was the right time to inform the board that he would not be seeking an extension and...
WORLAND – During their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 5, the Washakie County Commissioners discussed different ways to help offer temporary relief to the Washakie Ambulance Service who is dealing with increasing calls and COVID-19 as they continue to discuss a potential takeover of the service by Cody Regional Health (CRH). The commissioners discussed with Washakie County Fire Chief Chris Kocher about him potentially asking members of the fire department to temporarily drive for t...
WORLAND – If you have walked by or looked inside the future location of the new Washakie County Library you will notice that construction has been well underway over the last month and a half as progress continues towards a June 2021 completion for the project. During their regular meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 15, Washakie County Commissioners Aaron Anderson and Fred Frandson went on a tour of the building to view the progress. Also touring were Washakie County Clerk Mary Grace Strauch, the c...
WORLAND – The Washakie County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees came to the end of an era when former chairman Don Bryant who has served as the board’s chairman for 20-plus years was not nominated to continue at the position, instead the board decided to solely nominate trustee Sarah Lungren to take over the position of madam chairman of the school board. Lungren takes over the position halfway through her first term as a board member as she was elected for the first time in 2018. Oth...
WORLAND – Delay after delay after delay of their banquet led to the Worland Volunteer Fire Department (WVFD) finally being able to present the awards for the year 2019 at a business meeting on Nov. 24. The original banquet for the event was set to take place back in March, but was unable to occur due to restrictive guidelines brought about from the COVID-19 pandemic. Awards this year were given to Rookie of the Year Matt Borovatz, Operator of the Year was given to Mike Orona, Spirit of S...
Wyoming Senate District 20 Senator-elect Ed Cooper was elected to serve on the Judiciary Committee and the Minerals, Business & Economic Development Committee when assignments were made for the 66th Wyoming Legislature. Cooper along with the new senators and all members of the Wyoming House of Representatives are set to be sworn in on Jan. 12, 2021; however, according to Cooper's understanding, the in-person session to address the COVID-19 pandemic is not set to occur until March at the...
WORLAND – Worland drama students met via tele-conference with voice actress Katie Leigh who has been a voice on many television shows, movies, video games and even appearing on radio. Leigh has appeared in various roles including the Aladdin television series, My Little Pony television series and film, Despicable Me and the Sonic the Hedgehog television series. Worland drama teacher Rick Dorn said that he originally set up the call with Leigh through her Facebook and webpage along with some h...
WASHAKIE COUNTY – The mask mandate that is in effect for Washakie County to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus 2019 faces an uncertain future with the end of the mandate looming. The mask mandate for Washakie County is currently set to end on Friday, Dec. 4. Calls attempting to reach state health officer Dr. Alexia Harrist about whether or not the mandate will be extended were not returned before press deadline. Harrist is currently serving as acting Washakie County health officer a...
WORLAND – The Washakie County Commissioners met with landowners around Lane 17 1/2 to discuss the progress and where they stood on adopting Lane 17 1/2 during their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 17. The discussion began with a brief discussion on the new plan for the commissioners to adopt Lane 17 1/2 up through the west end of a parcel of land that the county recently discovered they owned. There was still confusion among some landowners about why the road was not already b...
WORLAND – After a nearly two-hour long discussion, Washakie County Health Officer Dr. Ed Zimmerman informed the Washakie County Commissioners on Tuesday that he had sent a order to the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) for approval that would impose a mask mandate for Washakie County due to a recent uptick in cases and hospitalizations in the county and statewide. Zimmerman told the commissioners that the request was in response to a letter recently sent by public health officers from 21 of t...
WORLAND – Thermopolis joined Ten Sleep moving students to online learning due to increased COVID-19 cases. Ten Sleep School decided to move their students from sixth through 12 the into phase two of Washakie County School District (WCSD) No. 2’s Adapted Learning Plan (ALP) earlier this month. They, along with Washakie County District No. 1 and Hot Springs County School District (HSCSD) provided an update regarding their plans with COVID-19 surging statewide. In a weekly update provided on Fri...
WORLAND – Eloy Madrid Aguilera, 41, appeared in Fifth Judicial District District Court via teleconference on Monday, Nov. 16, to enter into a guilty plea for an armed robbery that occurred on Feb. 13, 2020. The guilty plea that Aguilera entered into had him plead guilty to count two that was filed against him, , a felony count of aggravated robbery; along with count three, which was a misdemeanor count of conspiracy to commit theft. The felony count carries a minimum penalty of five years and a...
WASHAKIE COUNTY – A mask mandate has been approved by Washakie County Health Officer Dr. Ed Zimmerman, state health officer Dr. Alexia Harrist as well as the State Attorney General’s Office. In an article released in tomorrow’s edition of the Northern Wyoming News it is noted that the order may have been in effect until the end of January 2021, but according to a copy of the order received by the NWN it will go into effect on Sunday, Nov. 22, and last until Friday, Dec. 4. Other infor...