It was a wild, wild weekend

And the first post shall be a personal recap of the third weekend in Wyoming.

After working late on Friday night to help my sports writer coworker - Kirk Hanna - cover sports, I packed for the weekend and crashed in preparation to leave early for Steamboat skiing on Saturday.

Blink. Awake.

It's way past 6:30 a.m. Oops. Still needed to shower and get out the door. Patty began stirring... that means conversation. I got out the door at 7:30. As usual, I-80 was terrible. Driving slowly and leading a pack of Wyoming drivers, I finally got to the turnoff to head to Colorado, and the roads were thankfully better. Cruised along to music, watching the sun continue to wake up as I thought about how lucky I was to be witnessing such beautiful county.


Arrived at Steamboat at around 10:30 a.m. The fella at pay parking let me park for free, then I "bought" ski poles at Christy's Sports under the pretense of renting them. The day was awesome! Deep snow, sweet slopes, cool people, fantastic weather! Just wish I'd had someone to share it with, or even just a camera to take pictures! Definitely got a great workout on the first run down Easy Face over there on the outskirts of the resort. Decided to try to go through the gully in the deep snow instead of down the long runout... and ended up hiking out. Was knee deep in heavy powder with skis on- can't imagine trying to walk out! I'd have been up to my chest in snow!

At the end of the day, I hopped off the slopes and hit the road to get back to Craig, CO to meet up with the coworkers, Kirk and Clancy. Clancy has the city beat and also enjoys writing about Wamsutter, WY. It's a dinky little town that for some reason has him fascinated.

Perfect timing in Craig, though the guys will say I was unclear about where I'd be. They just didn't listen. Typical guys. Stocked up on some goods for the road and started road trippin' to Aspen.

Darkness fell, Clancy and I got to work as passengers. Nah, no need for navigator, shot gun, whatever you call it. Just annoying drinking buddies. Good thing Kirk didn't mind because I was really craving that beer after a day of skiing. Bonding ensued. And laughter. Much laughter. Those boys are crazy. In fact, I think I can say that it was this leg of the trip that Kirk rapped in chicken lingo to a song. That's right, "bak bak baaaak bak-bak-bak..." You had to be there.

Next stop: Glenwood Springs. Just long enough to check in, change, and hit the road again for Aspen. XGames were finished for the night, but Kirk had a stellar showing with Helly Hansen gear. And I quote:

One of the guys: Man, Argentinians are good looking people.
Me: Yeah, that guy was hot!
Kirk: They have cool names too - one of their name's was Helly, it was written on her butt, Helly Hansen.
[Clancy and I look at each other]
Clancy: Uh, Kirk? Helly Hansen is ski gear. I don't even ski and I know that.

Good stuff. He didn't live that down, nor will he. And apparently I won't live down my confession of charging interest to classmates as a child, because Clancy handed me a check today saying, "I added two dollars interest."

At the bar Bentley at the Wheeler, yes, I did flirt with the guys at the bar to get drinks for my coworkers. The problem is when I do that, as a reporter, I tend to find something interesting about them, and wind up talking to them much longer than planned. This time it was because one works for Luftansa in Denver and the other for U.S. Customs in Denver. For anyone who knows me, can you figure out why this matters?

Back to Glenwood Springs for drinks, meeting up with Chris Riley & Co. and Karl, Kristin and Jimbo. Hit up Hippy Dippity Springs, the springs situated next to the ice-cold river. Would be a beautiful location if it wasn't under the highway and serviced by a massive drainpipe that looks like it is spilling out sewage. Good ol' hot springs. Always sketchy whenever they are free.

Blink. Awake.

It's 8:00 and Clancy's damn cell phone alarm has been chiming "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In" for the past half hour. I couldn't sleep any longer, so I decided everyone else had to get up too. They were great, pulling themselves together to get to the slopes for skiing.


Clancy's a quick learner! He was tearing down the slopes to the hazard of those around him, but overall, a good showing from the athletic young chap wearing women's clothes (he had borrowed my warm ups, ski hat and gloves). And Kirk thinks he was slowing us down on the chutes, but what he doesn't understand is we don't give a crap if we're skiing or talking while waiting... the point about it all is we're together and on the slopes. So just for the rest of you, if you come out, don't feel like you're holding us up!!

Sunlight's a good resort, but I'll still choose Winter Park over it all so far. Nothing beats the trees and mogul playgrounds there!

Next up: Aspen XGames. Coffee. Food. Found myself inside the ESPN and athlete headquarters simply by not paying a damn bit of attention to what was going on around me. Apparently neither did the security guard. Clancy somehow knew what had happened when he grabbed my arm and told me Kirk didn't make it in. He'd made eye contact with the guard. Guess his Michigan garb gave him away as not an XGames athlete.

Anyway, some great pizza, a visit to the ESPN broadcasting center and a walk down the executive hallways later, we exited back onto the icy base of Aspen to check out the Snowmobile Freestyle and the Superpipe Finals. Snowmobiiles were SWEET because these massive machines were being launched off jumps right in front of us with their drivers hanging on with one or no hands performing craziness right before our eyes! Definitely worth the trip.

I can say my Uggs are not great in ice, but they do pretty well in snow, and damn are they warm. Which satisfies me as long as I have a coworker to hang onto, the purpose Kirk served by having great hiking boots that may as well have been cramp-ons.

The drive home was definitely an hour and half longer than intended, due to white out conditions for part of it, elk herds for some of it, and just terribly icy/snowy roads for the rest. Good thing Kirk was leading, he kept us sane and driving slowly for most of the trip. But when we got back on I-80 and it was 3:00 a.m. and he was still going 30 mph with 30 miles left, I said, "Sorry mate, but I can't do this for another hour," and picked it up to a speedy 45 mph. Found myself "home" at 3:30 a.m. Unfortunately, I'll probably do it again.

Blink. Awake.

It's Monday, and I need to get up and start getting my brain in work mode.

Check out Hanna's Helping for Kirk's take on the weekend (and the photos he wont' share with me).

Actual news to come, I promise! But beware, it will come all in one shot, probably tomorrow morning.

CCHEC students increase

• Higher education enrollment increase stems from more aggressive marketing.

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Year-end enrollment reports throughout the county show that numbers are up in higher education, but have dropped for Carbon County school districts 1 and 2.

In a constant roller coaster of incoming and outgoing families, Carbon County School District 2 is on the downward trend. At the start of the school year, there were 683 children enrolled, while January’s numbers showed 663. Between December and January alone, the district lost five students.

“Those are significant numbers,” District 2 Superintendent Bob Gates said. “We’re in a down phase right now. Last year, we were in an up phase. We’re hoping real soon here we’ll go back up again. It’s hard when the numbers go up and down.” He expressed the value of having a stable student population for budgeting, staffing and other school planning.

Gates acknowledged that the falling student population in his district this winter could be affected by the flow of energy workers from companies like Sinclair Oil for the winter.

The enrollment report for Carbon County School District 1 also showed a student population decrease from 1,875 in August to 1,798 in December. Between November and December of last year, the district lost nine students. The January figures have not yet been gathered. District 1 officials were unable to accurately pinpoint any reason for the decrease.

Meanwhile, Patty Pedersen, academic advisor for the Carbon County Higher Education Center, reported that the total number of full-time and part-time students at the school has increased by five from the spring 2007 semester. In January of last year, the education center had 139 students, while this semester there are 144 enrolled.

Carbon County Higher Education Center Director Dave Throgmorton attributed the higher number to the aggressive marketing done by his staff.

“Patty, in particular, has been very effective about talking to students who have been here in the past,” he said. “People are responsive. They know they had a goal. And then they get a phone call that says, ‘hey, get in here.’”

Kids Campus family should grow

Two in a row! (Another front-pager with photo)!

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

The Kids’ Campus, an extension of the Carbon County Higher Education Center, plans to expand in size as well as numbers as it seeks to contract with Memorial Hospital of Carbon County to care for the hospital staff’s children.

Working in symbiosis with the community, the Kids’ Campus previously adopted children of penitentiary workers into its initial community of youngsters from the higher education center. It now plans to add to its family 28 new slots set aside for the hospital in an agreement awaiting approval by representatives from each party.

Kids’ Campus officials planned to expand their facilities when the taekwondo center vacated the property connected to the child care center’s playground, Kids’ Campus Director Nicole Wright said. “The landlord offered it to us and we took it, because the current space does not provide much room for the kids.”

The new lease creates a courtyard complex with two buildings on either side of the playground. The infants and “wobblers,” up to age 2, should receive care in the new building while the toddlers, the “pre-pre-schoolers,” and the preschoolers, from ages 3 to 5, should remain in the older building, Wright said.

Some renovation is required for the new building to be fully functional for the Kids’ Campus, Carbon County Higher Education Center Director Dave Throgmorton said. Throgmorton hopes work begins in the next few weeks so the complex can be open by the end of March.

The hospital saw the opportunity to negotiate with Kids’ Campus officials when it signed the new lease, said Nurse Manager Dawn Dingman. Wright said the expansion had been arranged when the hospital began expressing interest in adding children to the Kids’ Campus.

“It would give our staff a place to take kids without having to take classes,” Dingman said. Currently, it is hard to find infant day care, a specialty of the Kids’ Campus, in Rawlins, Dingman said.

Once the contract is finalized and signed, the hospital can add another tool to its belt in recruiting future employees. “It was one of (the nursing community’s) suggestions to get childcare as a recruiting tool,” Dingman said.

The 28 slots should be open to all members of the hospital staff, she said. The number is based on surveys issued by the hospital board where employees had the opportunity to express their needs. The numbers have been adjusted to accommodate the children of new employees.

The Kids’ Campus currently receives two-thirds of its funding from the higher education center, while the penitentiary contributes one-third of the funding, Wright said. She expects the contract to contain the hospital’s contribution for the expansion. “(The hospital’s subsidy) is important so we can continue to have our employees,” she said.

Wright spoke of retaining folks of the caliber of Tera Voss, the preschool teacher at the Kids’ Campus. From Encampment, Voss received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Wyoming. “We’re glad to have her,” Wright said. “She has so much knowledge.”

The contract between the hospital and Kids’ Campus officials should be ironed out by the next hospital board meeting on Feb. 28 at 5:15 p.m. The hospital has made a verbal agreement, but the official contract has yet to be written, Wright said.


The future is bright

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Building and occupancy expansions are the immediate focuses for Kids’ Campus officials, but Carbon County Higher Education Center Director Dave Throgmorton said he sees other advances in the future of the Kids’ Campus.

“We are exploring the possibility of a brand new Carbon County higher education facility,” he said. The school contracted with Pedersen Planning Consulting, based in Encampment, to evaluate its needs — staffing, space and curriculum. Funded by a grant from the Wyoming Business Council, the evaluation should be finished by early February.

“Before we get carried away with this space that we’re leasing,” Throgmorton said, “we want to see what their report says about a permanent home for the higher education center.”

Also in the works at the Kids’ Campus is the possibility of developing the child care center into what Throgmorton called a laboratory school. “I would like to see it as a place to teach nutrition and parenting skills to parents, and maybe neonatal skills to future parents,” he said.

Such skills are currently being taught at various places around Rawlins, but Throgmorton hopes the Kids’ Campus might become the primary place to hold such classes. “I’m not anxious to step on toes,” he said.

The laboratory school would be both a place to bring parents into their child’s learning and a place for the Carbon County Higher Education Center to expand its curriculum. Higher learning in elementary education, curriculum development and other courses could be fostered there.