Karla's Kolumn: Moving into 2019

As I read through our year-end review last week I realized we covered quite a bit of local news starting with impacts of a government shutdown (déjà vu?) and ending with a bomb threat at Worland High School.

There were many highs and lows in between.

The residents also approved the one-cent sales tax for another four years. You may think this could be a high or a low. Taxes won't increase but will continue as they are and many organizations will be helped with this tax including the City of Worland who has put an emphasis on street improvement with their tax money, it will help Ten Sleep with their sewer lagoon project, helps the senior centers maintain services, will help the fire department get a new ladder truck, help with renovations for the Crisis Prevention and Response Center and help with operations and community projects sponsored by the Worland Community Center Complex.

We saw residences displaced by fire with a home destroyed on U.S. 20 displacing the man residing there, and an apartment fire displacing a mother and son.

We saw the community rise up to help others with Dan and Nancy Frederick starting a local chapter of Sleep In Heavenly Peace to ensure no children sleep on the floor in the Big Horn Basin.

The community was generous with donations at Christmas time with Angel Trees, Toys for Tots, our own Silver Tree and the donations to the food bank helping many area families and residents this holiday season.

2018 brought new faces to local government with new council members in Ten Sleep and Worland (Worland's new members were elected in 2018 and sworn in Tuesday) and new school board members in both communities. We have new judges as other judges retired or moved up along the ranks in the judicial system.

The city worked to "Grow Worland" through an annexation effort that was stopped by landowners preferring to stay in the county, despite many of the comforts of city life including water and sewer. The city also worked to improve and relax temporary vendor guidelines moving from a cumbersome ordinance on the books to one that is more business friendly but still ensures the city knows who is selling what inside the city and ensuring that all health codes are met to protect residents.

We chronicled many achievements of our youth including state title by the drama department and top ratings for the marching band, and state titles in several high school sports including the first-ever state soccer championship for Worland, as well as many others.

While areas of Wyoming were devastated by wildfire, our Terek Fire that burned more than 40,000 acres fortunately did not destroy any structures and all firefighters that helped fight the fire left uninjured.

With the removal of the sandbar on the Big Horn River near the U.S. 20 bridge, we avoided any ice jams and any ice jam flooding. Work continues on efforts to mitigate any further flooding with the county awarded a project for a feasibility study. That's one thing to watch in 2019.

Other things to watch in 2019:

- The impact locally of the government shutdown, if the shutdown continues long-term as those in D.C. are not willing to compromise on either side.

-Weather. One never knows what Mother Nature will bring in the winter, spring or summer.

-The renovation of Hot Springs County Memorial Hospital.

-Continuing renovations of Pioneer Square.

-Second annual RT Trim-A-Tree lighting ceremony with the first one on Thanksgiving weekend a huge success getting rave reviews from those in attendance.

-Annual events including Nowoodstock, Battle of the Bands, Pepsi Wyoming State BBQ Championship and Bluegrass Festival, Culture Fest, Hunter Fest, Christmas Parade of Lights (in Worland and Ten Sleep), county fair, and much more.

A BIG CHANGE FOR US

And perhaps the biggest change or thing to watch in 2019 is happening right in our own backyard.

As I was reading and looking back on all that we had covered, I realized that our change to a weekly (yes another thing to watch for this year) won't change much in our coverage. All of the things I mentioned above we will continue to cover, it will just all be compiled into one large weekly publication rather than spread out over five days of newspapers each week.

We will continue to cover community events, school events and school sporting events.

Our hope and plan is that instead of fighting to meet deadline every day, with just one publication we will have more time to cover other events that we may not get to or don't cover in depth.

We will still be bringing you coverage of the local school boards, city and town councils, county government, fair board, hospital board and the courts.

We will still have special features in the paper, as well as in our special sections (yes, we will continue those) including Health and Wellness coming later this month and FFA coming next month.

A change to a weekly publication means that we won't have room for all of our nationally syndicated columnists, or our comics page.

We will still have our classified page, we will still have a puzzle or two or three.

We will still publish the circuit court dispositions report, the municipal court dispositions report, the calls for service from law enforcement, fire department, ambulance. Births and marriages will still be reported. We will still publish obituaries and death notices.

We will no longer publish the Sun Country Review that includes the Around the Basin calendar and the TV guide. A revised version of Around the Basin will be included in paper, as part of our community calendar.

Our emphasis will continue to be, as it should, on local events, issues and people.

Jan. 31 will be our last daily publication and Feb. 7 will be the first publication for the Northern Wyoming News.

Join us in 2019 to see what the year has in store for Washakie County and the Big Horn Basin.