This one was a front pager. AND my first to get picked up by the Wyoming AP!
(the top blurb is the AP rendering. the bottom part is what appeared in our paper)
Workers remove asbestos from Rawlins hospital
Eds: APNewsNow.
RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) — Asbestos is being removed from Memorial Hospital of Carbon County.
Hospital administrators are closing four rooms at a time to perform the work.
The asbestos removal is part of larger renovations that started in November to help the hospital in Rawlins save on utility costs.
Work has included an overhaul of lighting fixtures and the installation of tinted film on windows.
———
Information from: Rawlins Daily Times
• Asbestos abatement is part of the hospital’s energy savings project.
By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer
Hunched over her microscope, Susan Annon was in the midst of evaluating whether it would be safe to re-enter the four closed rooms in the east wing of Memorial Hospital of Carbon County’s second floor on Wednesday.
As asbestos is removed, hospital administrators are closing four rooms at a time to perform the precise, dangerous work. The abatement is part of larger renovations that started in November, an endeavor deemed the energy savings project.
The first two stages of the project are complete. One stage included an overhaul of the lighting fixtures that made them more energy efficient. A slightly tinted film was also installed over all the windows to control the temperature in the building. The final stage is to install new heating and air conditioning ductwork, but the project is currently held up in state department offices, awaiting approval. Once approved, the installation should take 20 weeks.
Joe Jones, the consultant overseeing the work, has his hands full with asbestos right now. Several years ago, he did a study on the presence of asbestos in the building and knew it was there. “It’s not harmful unless disturbed,” he said. The ductwork scheduled to take place will go through the asbestos areas, so it needed to be removed.
Jones sought the help of two firms to perform the project. Casper-based Enviro Engineering is doing the actual labor while Annon, an industrial hygienist for Century Environmental Hygiene in Colorado, is checking the progress. By monitoring the air inside and outside the four-room containment areas, she ensures the safety of the hospital’s air.
“We will do nothing to endanger human health and the environment,” Jones said. As the project consultant, he is there as a liaison between the hospital and the contracting companies. His job is to see that everyone’s needs are met, particularly the needs of the hospital in terms of both its business and its patient care.
“The project is extremely clean,” Jones said as he walked into the plastic-shrouded containment area after being informed that the air inside was safe.
“We can’t shut the hospital down,” he said, “so we have to work around it.” Inside the rooms, the walls were covered in thick plastic secured with heavy duty tape. The plastic is pulled inward by a negative air machine. “This machine sucks 99.9 percent of the air out of this room,” Jones said. “No air escapes from these rooms into the hospital.”
The abatement of the four rooms took approximately two days between preparation, removal and cleaning. Even though the plastic was scrubbed clean, Jones said it would be thrown away with the old ceiling tiles that were dressed in paper-like asbestos film to provide fire-proof safety.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Carbon City was a hoot
By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer
It was hazardous and unhealthy, yet raucously fun, to be working and living in Carbon City and its mines in the 1860s.
“It was an active community,” Nancy Anderson, an authority on the history of eastern Carbon County towns, said during Tuesday’s “The Power of Place: Legacies of Carbon County” lecture. She outlined and provided anecdotes for the extensive history of a population growing roots in the West, first in Carbon City and then moving with the Union Pacific Railroad on to greener pastures in Hanna.
“They bet on everything,” she said. Horse racing, pigeon shooting, wrestling — the miners and their families watched as well as participated in the events.
There was also music. Carbon City had its own Carbon Boys Band, a group that practiced on combs before their instruments arrived by train.
There still exists a program from the 1888 Fourth of July function, which Anderson said is full of activities for children and adults. Strawberry festivals, opera house events and general jokesters in the community made that blip on the new frontier an amusing place to be.
One jokester in Carbon City made himself particularly memorable. Coffee Johnson was a Swedish traveler who owned a store called General Merchandise, which, according to Anderson, was a favorite among children.
“We was learning a lot right there in Carbon,” wrote Mont Hawthorne in his autobiography, “Them was the Days.” “At night, I’d go to his store and stand and look at the bottle of water from the Dead Sea, the sand from the Sahara, the bullets from Gettysburg, the lion skin from Africa, and the eight-legged lamb that was growed here in Wyoming.”
How much of his collection actually existed isn’t know, particularly since the autobiography was written late in Hawthorne’s life. Anderson thought it might be possible that some of it existed. She pointed out that when Johnson’s coin collection was stolen and taken to Denmark, the newspapers recorded his endeavors to travel to the European nation to recover it.
Johnson was also photographed throwing a welcome home party with parrots and sombreros from the West Indies. “You know, I always take my sources for what their worth. Even if they’re perceptions, that’s just as real as anything,” Anderson said of Hawthorne’s account of Johnson.
Thomas Henry Butler was another fellow who made life interesting in 19th century Carbon City. As an 11-year-old boy, he started working in the mines and went through all the steps to earn the title of general superintendent of the Union Pacific coal mines. As such a hard worker, Butler earned respect in the community.
Despite his hard exterior, Anderson said, Butler did have a prankster side. He rode in a town parade on a white horse with a bowler hat mechanized to tip side to side, making onlookers giggle with delight.
Carbon City had its entertainers, but it also had its hazards. A community that built wherever it could to extract the coal necessary to fuel the railroad, the town did not have the most ideal planning.
Walking, the primary mode of travel, led some to get caught in the railroad tracks. Others were caught in a surprise spring storm and froze to death. Some drowned, others were victims of accidental shootings. Some were dragged by horses to their deaths.
Diphtheria and typhoid took many children, as is shown by a mass of graves atop the still existing cemetery at the Carbon City site.
The mines also proved dangerous. While there were few explosions, deaths occurred by falling rocks or coal, where entire roofs would collapse on the miners.
A visitor to Carbon City today would note that nothing substantial stands at the site except for the cemetery. “It is very quiet there,” Anderson said.
The railroad altered its tracks to Hanna in the early 20th century to capitalize on better coal. Many of the buildings of Carbon City were moved to Hanna and others were recycled for materials.
There still exists evidence of dugout homes built in the early settling days when workers had to be creative with their abodes. Some stone walls remain.
The elevated spot where the railroad track used to lay is marked by black cinders. Otherwise, there is little to no evidence that Carbon City was once a thriving mining town, chock full of settlers of every nationality, personality and mentality.
Times staff writer
It was hazardous and unhealthy, yet raucously fun, to be working and living in Carbon City and its mines in the 1860s.
“It was an active community,” Nancy Anderson, an authority on the history of eastern Carbon County towns, said during Tuesday’s “The Power of Place: Legacies of Carbon County” lecture. She outlined and provided anecdotes for the extensive history of a population growing roots in the West, first in Carbon City and then moving with the Union Pacific Railroad on to greener pastures in Hanna.
“They bet on everything,” she said. Horse racing, pigeon shooting, wrestling — the miners and their families watched as well as participated in the events.
There was also music. Carbon City had its own Carbon Boys Band, a group that practiced on combs before their instruments arrived by train.
There still exists a program from the 1888 Fourth of July function, which Anderson said is full of activities for children and adults. Strawberry festivals, opera house events and general jokesters in the community made that blip on the new frontier an amusing place to be.
One jokester in Carbon City made himself particularly memorable. Coffee Johnson was a Swedish traveler who owned a store called General Merchandise, which, according to Anderson, was a favorite among children.
“We was learning a lot right there in Carbon,” wrote Mont Hawthorne in his autobiography, “Them was the Days.” “At night, I’d go to his store and stand and look at the bottle of water from the Dead Sea, the sand from the Sahara, the bullets from Gettysburg, the lion skin from Africa, and the eight-legged lamb that was growed here in Wyoming.”
How much of his collection actually existed isn’t know, particularly since the autobiography was written late in Hawthorne’s life. Anderson thought it might be possible that some of it existed. She pointed out that when Johnson’s coin collection was stolen and taken to Denmark, the newspapers recorded his endeavors to travel to the European nation to recover it.
Johnson was also photographed throwing a welcome home party with parrots and sombreros from the West Indies. “You know, I always take my sources for what their worth. Even if they’re perceptions, that’s just as real as anything,” Anderson said of Hawthorne’s account of Johnson.
Thomas Henry Butler was another fellow who made life interesting in 19th century Carbon City. As an 11-year-old boy, he started working in the mines and went through all the steps to earn the title of general superintendent of the Union Pacific coal mines. As such a hard worker, Butler earned respect in the community.
Despite his hard exterior, Anderson said, Butler did have a prankster side. He rode in a town parade on a white horse with a bowler hat mechanized to tip side to side, making onlookers giggle with delight.
Carbon City had its entertainers, but it also had its hazards. A community that built wherever it could to extract the coal necessary to fuel the railroad, the town did not have the most ideal planning.
Walking, the primary mode of travel, led some to get caught in the railroad tracks. Others were caught in a surprise spring storm and froze to death. Some drowned, others were victims of accidental shootings. Some were dragged by horses to their deaths.
Diphtheria and typhoid took many children, as is shown by a mass of graves atop the still existing cemetery at the Carbon City site.
The mines also proved dangerous. While there were few explosions, deaths occurred by falling rocks or coal, where entire roofs would collapse on the miners.
A visitor to Carbon City today would note that nothing substantial stands at the site except for the cemetery. “It is very quiet there,” Anderson said.
The railroad altered its tracks to Hanna in the early 20th century to capitalize on better coal. Many of the buildings of Carbon City were moved to Hanna and others were recycled for materials.
There still exists evidence of dugout homes built in the early settling days when workers had to be creative with their abodes. Some stone walls remain.
The elevated spot where the railroad track used to lay is marked by black cinders. Otherwise, there is little to no evidence that Carbon City was once a thriving mining town, chock full of settlers of every nationality, personality and mentality.
District eyes Suburbans
Times staff report
Carbon County School District 2 officials hope to buy three new Chevrolet Suburbans to drive students throughout the district.
Board members approved the purchase during a Tuesday meeting and said the funds should come from the district’s five-year transportation budget. Old vehicles should be used by staff. Suburbans are used because of their capacity and four-wheel drive, District 2 Superintendent Bob Gates said.
Board members agreed to request bids for the asbestos abatement and demolition of both Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow elementary schools. Bids are scheduled to be read in early April. A bid should be awarded at the board’s mid-April meeting.
The asbestos abatement should be completed in May and demolition should be done in June. However, Medicine Bow Elementary School’s timeline hinges on other agreements and could change.
While the board approved a letter of understanding for a land trade between the school district, the town of Medicine Bow and the School Facilities Commission at its meeting, the town must publicly post an intention of land trade prior to holding a public hearing. At the hearing, the town can agree to the trade or reject it.
In other action, Gates reported that enrollment was up by six students from December 2007 to January 2008. He also reported that the bid for the Saratoga track project’s bleachers was awarded to DGJD.
The District 2 home schooling policy was approved with slight revisions to make it match the state’s policy more closely. The board also approved the home school application submitted by David Deegan for the education of David, Moriah and Joshua Deegan.
Carbon County School District 2 officials hope to buy three new Chevrolet Suburbans to drive students throughout the district.
Board members approved the purchase during a Tuesday meeting and said the funds should come from the district’s five-year transportation budget. Old vehicles should be used by staff. Suburbans are used because of their capacity and four-wheel drive, District 2 Superintendent Bob Gates said.
Board members agreed to request bids for the asbestos abatement and demolition of both Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow elementary schools. Bids are scheduled to be read in early April. A bid should be awarded at the board’s mid-April meeting.
The asbestos abatement should be completed in May and demolition should be done in June. However, Medicine Bow Elementary School’s timeline hinges on other agreements and could change.
While the board approved a letter of understanding for a land trade between the school district, the town of Medicine Bow and the School Facilities Commission at its meeting, the town must publicly post an intention of land trade prior to holding a public hearing. At the hearing, the town can agree to the trade or reject it.
In other action, Gates reported that enrollment was up by six students from December 2007 to January 2008. He also reported that the bid for the Saratoga track project’s bleachers was awarded to DGJD.
The District 2 home schooling policy was approved with slight revisions to make it match the state’s policy more closely. The board also approved the home school application submitted by David Deegan for the education of David, Moriah and Joshua Deegan.
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