Foam tray review continues

Rawlins Daily Times, Jerrett Raffety

Rawlins Middle School head custodian Balentin Pacheco emptied a trash can full of Styrofoam lunch trays in the school's cafeteria on Wednesday. Some students want the foam trays banned fro the school.

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Limited options and budget restraints have faced school officials as they’ve tried to eliminate plastic foam trays from the Rawlins Middle School kitchen inventory.

School Board member Dave Dingman plans Thursday to meet with the sixth graders who requested the elimination of the trays. He wants to talk about options with the students.
“There’s not a lot that you can do with Styrofoam right now,” Dingman said. Still, he has found some possibilities.

Dingman’s favorite idea is to purchase biodegradable trays made of corn and sucrose that decompose fairly rapidly. At 10 to 15 cents a pop, the trays are expensive, but address all the concerns of the students, including safety when carrying hot food. And the trays have environmental benefits. By contrast, plastic foam trays cost between 1 and 5 cents each.

Two other options exist, Dingman said. One involves gathering the trays after use and applying a chemical substance — acetone — to shrink them into a glue-like resin. The chemical is typically used on foam packing peanuts, so Dingman is not sure if it would effectively interact with food remnants on the lunch trays.

Another option is to install a dishwasher in the school’s kitchen and purchase permanent trays that would be reused.

Politics part of curriculum

• Teachers throughout Carbon County find ways to incorporate real politics into the classroom.

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

The presidential game of tug of war won’t last forever, and it seems young voters have the pull to decide whether the ribbon falls to the right or the left in 2008.

According to a post-Super Tuesday Rock the Vote poll, the energy of young voters is at an unprecedented level.

Requiring a senior government course is one step Carbon County schools have taken in an attempt to mobilize teens. From there, teachers can embellish the curriculum as they see fit.
“There’s so much outside the book, so why stick with a simulation when so much else is at your fingertips?” asked Doug Tieszen, Encampment’s government teacher.

Tieszen starts locally by asking each student to track three to five bills before the Wyoming Legislature that are of interest to the student, such as changes to driver’s license regulations or the Hathaway Scholarships.

“They see laws being made that directly affect them,” Tieszen said. “That’s when they realize they’re adults.”

Tieszen stands among a crowd of county teachers who incorporate a media unit where students explore bias, points of view and vested interests of various media outlets. He believes understanding the media and being exposed to the gamut of outlets is important in making educated decisions.

Last week, Tieszen’s class discovered that the BBC has a different definition than NBC of world news. “(The students) counted 16 different countries in the BBC report versus a brief about Iraq (on NBC),” he said.

Amy Hazelwood, Rawlins High School’s American history teacher, encourages conversation about satire. Students watch, but do not always understand, television programs like the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Little Bush and South Park, so they ask their teacher about the jokes.
“Satire gets them interested,” she said.

Most government teachers in Carbon County encourage students to register to vote and most have the county clerk visit their classrooms. Saratoga’s Ginger Miller even takes a class field trip to the voting booths to cast ballots while non-voters watch. Her students also participate yearly in a national mock election, where the voting process is simulated in entire schools.


Teachers notice changes

In 2001, an MTV survey of young adults found that about half thought that rather than vote, they could make more of a difference by getting involved with the community.

By contrast, a 2008 Rock the Vote survey showed that 89 percent of the people polled believed they have the power to change the country through the ballot box.

However, after 20 years of teaching, Encampment’s Doug Tieszen doesn’t think much has changed in terms of young voters being excited about the elections.

“All students are pretty apathetic and have been,” he said, “but I am encouraged by the reports of new voter registrations throughout the country.”

Saratoga teacher Ginger Miller believes the apathy “is mixed. I’ve found that if their parents voted, they are more likely to vote.” Parental influence is listed as one of the top reasons for a lack of student votes.

Meanwhile, Amy Hazelwood at Rawlins High School said that “this year is the most interest I’ve seen (in the elections). It was interesting to see the heartbreak when candidates dropped out.”

Recycling bags is smart for business

My first business story!

Rawlins Daily Times, Jerrett Raffety

Plastic bags may be recycled at City Market in Rawlins. The bags are shipped to Denver and eventually to Idaho where they're used to manufacture new plastic shopping bags.


By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Plastic bags collected by City Market in Rawlins see much of the west before they find their way back into grocery stores.

Once most people drop the bags off at the store, they are out of sight and out of mind. But what happens from there?

According to Pat Greaser, director of retail operations at King Sooper’s Denver headquarters, the bags come in from various stores, including Rawlins, and get compacted into a tight brick. Each brick is put on a pallet and sits in the warehouse until there are enough pallets to fill a semi.

Since the debut of the bag recycling program in the fall of 2007, two trucks have been filled in Denver and a third is nearly full. So far, 6.6 million bags have been gathered in Denver for recycling.

The trucks travel to Idaho, directly to the bag manufacturer, to melt the bags into reusable pellets. Mixing the recycled pellets with new plastic pellets at a ratio of about 80 new to 20 old, new bags are made.

“(The bags) have to meet the specifications for rigidity,” Greaser said. “That’s why the mix so highly favors the new plastic.”

The recycling program was set up by the stores’ bag manufacturer, to ensure that 100 percent of the bags get reused and are not lost in a landfill. “We are in control from start to finish,” Greaser said. That way, the ad on the bag boasting recycled material is sure to be true.

The Rawlins store empties its bag barrel once a day, according to store Manager Otto Novota. The plastic gets stuffed into large, black garbage bags and loaded daily into a semi-trailer destined for Denver. Accompanying the bags are 12,000-pound bales of crushed cardboard, also meant for recycling.

To discourage the wasteful use of a resource, the grocery store chain pays customers five cents per bag if they bring their own, a cost that far exceeds the price of simply manufacturing more bags. It’s costly, but Greaser said it’s the right thing to do.

According to Novota, “more often, people bring (the bags) in and reuse them because we offer a nickel for each. It’s better than having them blow around in the wind.” He sees people reusing the plastic bags or bringing their own canvas ones.

Recruiting effort advances

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

This summer, officials at the Rawlins hospital plan to move toward abating the nurse shortage in Rawlins.

Dawn Dingman, Memorial Hospital of Carbon County’s director of nursing, reported that a University of Michigan student is “very excited” to possibly come to the hospital after graduating in May. Dingman plans to follow up with the prospect.

Dingman also said that three University of Wyoming students are expected to take part in a six-week rotation between the emergency room, the intensive care unit, the obstetrics department and the operating room. The program has students split time with Memorial Hospital of Carbon County and a hospital in Rock Springs. Each student will be assigned a nursing preceptor to oversee the students’ work.

A Casper student is also scheduled to do a respiratory therapy externship this summer.
Dingman hopes that exposing the students to the hospital’s work and benefits program may encourage them to sign on for full-time employment.

School board sets meeting

Times staff report

Several issues that were tabled at a previous meeting of the Carbon County District 1 School Board are expected to be discussed at the board’s April 10 meeting.

The board meets at 6 p.m. in the board room of the Central Administration Office on Rodeo Street. The meeting is open to the public.

Associate Superintendent Neil Terhune said a contract between the district and Pine Cove Consulting should be discussed. The consulting firm could provide a wider range of technical expertise for less money than hiring a technology director, he said.

Other items listed on the agenda include discussion of working with Pre-Construction Services, a company that would help select an individual to serve as construction manager at risk to oversee progress in the Highland Hills project and consideration of first reading of a policy concerning staff vacations and absences.

City recycling options could increase

Rawlins Daily Times, Jerrett Raffety

Bart Lockhart sorted his plastic recyclables at the Rawlins Recycling Center on Friday.


By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

The recycling business is like trading in cash crops.

Similar to farms, the productivity of a plant is limited by space and demand. Also like farms, a plant buys and sells its product with the markup necessary to operate.

This information explains why the recycling program in Rawlins is limited. The city’s recycling center is but a transit point for Ark Recycling Center, a nonprofit organization in Laramie.

“We are maxed out on what we can do,” said Bill Vance, Ark recycling services coordinator. Because Vance has a market for plastic products that bear the numbers one and two, he sticks with them.

Milk jugs, categorized as No. 2 opaque, go to Heartland Biocomposites in Torrington which uses the plastic as a component in composite wood.

“I believe in supporting a business right here in Wyoming,” Vance said.

Vance ships most of his No. 1 plastic to Michigan where it is processed. No. 1 plastic often get shredded and heated which turns it into pellets for stuffed animal filling.

The Rawlins Recycling Center currently accepts the things it can resell to Laramie. Aside from plastic, it gathers aluminum cans, steel cans, newsprint, magazines, office paper, corrugated cardboard and brown and clear glass. Last year, the center shipped off 792,498 pounds of material.

Between 2006 and 2007, Rawlins nearly doubled its recycling efforts, with the largest increases in the deliveries of cardboard, newspaper and magazines, No. 1 plastics, brown glass and office paper.

If Rawlins residents want to see recycling options expand, particularly to include other types of plastic, they should tune into Ark Recycling’s goal to buy a $5 million piece of machinery — the automated sorter. To make such a large purchase, the organization needs the volume to make it profitable. The machine’s efficiency would result in more “crops” to trade and could mean instituting a curbside pickup in Rawlins, Cheyenne and Wheatland.


Mulch for the taking

The Rawlins Recycling Center has made no changes to what products it will accept this spring, but it will offer free mulch.

Last fall, the center stopped accepting wood to turn into mulch because it was overloaded with limbs because of tree damage from a storm. “The parking lot was a sea of broken tree branches and limbs,” said John Medina, superintendent of the recycling center. Now, those branches have been converted to mulch, available to the masses.

Timber is again being accepted at the center along with the usual materials. Medina encourages Rawlins residents to keep the recycling center in mind during the city clean up period.

“People are less willing to separate and recycle when the landfill opens its doors at no charge,” he said. “They often opt to get it all done in one shot.”

Trailer design challenges LSRV teen

Rawlins Daily Times, Janice Kurbjun

Chaunce Criswell, a Little Snake River Valley School senior, used a metal cutting torch to modify a winch for his trailer.


By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Of all the Little Snake River Valley vocational agriculture metal shop projects, one outsizes them all.

Measuring 41 feet long and 8 1/2 feet wide, senior Chaunce Criswell’s trailer occupies nearly one-third of the garage space at the Little Snake River Valley School.

“As the American dream grows, you need a bigger, tougher machine,” Criswell said. His project even has a hydraulic lift that angles 22 feet of the 30-foot deck toward the ground for easy loading. It is powerful enough and has enough leverage to function as a jack, too, lifting the heavy iron off the ground enough to change the rear tires.

Criswell pulls on fireproof coveralls — a requirement since he singed the others — twice a day to work on his project. He’ll even stay after school to get work done.

“I ordered the parts toward the beginning of the (school) year,” Criswell said. His family purchased the parts while the school allowed the use of the shop and its equipment. Criswell started working in October and has had little help from anyone but his teacher, Dale Wille.

The hulking web of interconnected beams has Criswell’s custom mark all over it, literally. The fancy metal light fixtures, a total of 29, that run the length of the trailer have a Baroque-like curved design with two Cs, Criswell’s initials, on either side of the opening for the light. These and the winches still need to be attached to the deck.

“I hide the tools I like to use,” Criswell said with a laugh as he moved toward the torch tucked far into the corner of the shop. “Why would anyone use this one when that one is right there?” He gestured toward the smaller, older machine in the center of the room. “They don’t know this one’s better.”

Lighting the torch with a simple spark, he turned some knobs, adjusting the flame to cut part of the metal winch.

Criswell’s trailer is a custom design, but some of the parts were pre-fabricated, including the winches, the hydraulic lift and the torsion axles — each of which can handle 10,000 pounds and allowed Criswell to widen the load-bearing frame for better support.

Could his untried, untested custom design fail? “I’m trying to think of a part I’m worried about,” Criswell said. “But really, I can’t think of anything. But, if it did break, I could fix it.” He grinned and said, “I mean, I put it together in the first place.”

Criswell thinks the vocational agriculture program at his school has utmost practicality. Almost all the LSRVS students participate in the classes. According to him, all of what the students learn in the classes is applicable.

“You can diagnose your sick dog or really understand your food,” he said.

Criswell plans to enter the trailer in the county fair with the goal of moving on to the state competition. If he goes to state, he is up against kids around the state from larger programs. Trailers usually don’t win in the contest with calf tables and loading chutes, but Criswell hopes his attention to detail and custom engineering design will prove the extra step necessary for success.

The trailer is a practical project for Criswell and his family. He’ll take it home when it’s finished, with hopes to put it to use as a hot shot worker, hauling materials from Casper to the energy fields.

Moms weather snowstorms

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

When early spring storms roll in, the Wyoming frontier becomes a proving ground for good mothers.

Amid the 10 or so inches of snow that fell earlier this week, four cows at Sandstone Ranch had calves, causing Colleen Stratton to worry. If it got too cold, the calves were at risk.

Still, each year she trusts the instincts of the mothers to take care of their young.

Born wet with low circulation, calves depend on their mothers to lick them dry and in the process, stimulate circulation.

Many cows are left on the range to give birth naturally, and sometimes this means a loss for ranchers. Other times, it simply amounts to cosmetic damage such cropped ears or shortened tails resulting from frostbite.

“(The cows) take them into the brush or into a protected spot,” she said. “In that way, they’re a lot like deer and antelope or anything else ... (they) try to get out of the weather best they can.” But, if a cow comes back without a calf in the fall, Sandstone Ranch prepares to sell.

It shows “they aren’t good mothers,” Stratton said. “It’s a process of elimination. (Bad motherhood) is a trait we don’t want in our herd.” Often, a cow is young and in good enough shape to either be sold for meat or to a rancher who wants to give her another shot at carrying young.

On the other hand, two-year-old cows — heifers — often get assistance in the mothering process. Cows, like humans, must learn how to take care of their young. They are kept in corrals or barns until they learn the motherhood ropes and can join the herd on the range.

Though some spring storms can threaten to drop a foot of snow or more, Stratton said it’s difficult to move a herd indoors each time the weather changes. Early spring temperatures generally rise quickly enough after storms to provide a livable environment for the animals outside.

Saratoga begins bug battle

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

With this year’s hefty snowfall, the cost of keeping mosquitos at bay in Saratoga for the summer may increase.

“It is a good possibility that there will be a bigger (mosquito) problem this year,” Saratoga Public Works Director Chuck Bartlett said. “It depends on how the snow melts.”

Saratoga officials are advertising for a contractor to spray for mosquitos. Bartlett expects to finish evaluating bids by the end of the month.

“We have stepped up our efforts because of the threat of the West Nile virus,” Bartlett said. Last year, Carbon County saw its first case of the virus. “But one case is one too many,” Bartlett said.

The plan of attack is to target the larvae. The first phase begins in late May, as public works personnel plan to place a larvicide in pools of standing water. The large tablets that last a few months, are designed to inhibit mosquito growth. Usually, larvicides do not pose threats to humans or wildlife because they do not generally leech into groundwater.

In mid-June, mosquito spraying is expected to begin. The Saratoga town budget includes about $70,000 for mosquito control, but because this is a wetter year, Bartlett said it may cost more to spray Scourge 412.

The mosquito control crew monitors Scourge 412’s success by setting up mosquito traps, nets that capture the pests. “We have to count and classify them,” Bartlett said.

According to Bartlett, Scourge 412 doesn’t have major environmental ramifications. It isolates four types of mosquitos and should not harm honey bees or most other insects, though it often does kill some flies.

Still, since all pesticides are inherently toxic, residents should take precautions such as minimizing contact with sprayed surfaces for 24 hours so the pesticide has time to sufficiently degrade.

LSRV building planning progresses

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Getting a head start on the evaluation of a building that has an estimated third of its life left, an advisory board at the Little Snake River Valley School has teamed with the district’s planning architect Brad Oberg to create a list of facility recommendations.

“Every square inch is well used,” Oberg said of the building in his presentation to the Carbon County District 1 School Board. In fact, the space is so well used, the appeal for adequate storage popped up more than once throughout the evaluation.

“The art room definitely needs to be addressed.” Our art teacher “is constantly struggling with where she can store supplies,” advisory board Chairwoman Janet Herold said.

The recommendations include space for teachers when they’re not in the classroom. Advisory board members consider the existing lounges to be less than ideal.

Since the gyms are used by the community members as well as sports teams, a second gym is also in order.

Technology updates were high on the priority list. Audio enhancement is becoming a staple for educational environments nationwide, and the advisory board wants to adopt it soon.

As the school’s programs excel, teachers need more space and better facilities. Herold outlined a need for an expanded vocational agriculture department as well as updated athletic facilities.
“The locker rooms are antiquated, horrendous,” she said.

Other suggestions involved sprucing the school up so that the students, staff and community would be proud to call it a community center.

Herold pointed out that the elementary, junior high and high school students should have boundaries between them to foster grade-level pride. Currently, elementary students walk past high school classrooms to get to gym class, and Herold said that middle school students sometimes get lost in the shuffle.

Upgrades to electrical, lighting, fire safety, security, plumbing, flooring and heating and ventilation work are all on the agenda.

Since the community takes pride in the school, it is well maintained. “A lot of schools are not half this old and are not in half as good of shape,” LSRV Principal Rick Newton said. Still, the roofs, the parking lot and general accessibility need to be addressed, he said.


Partnership should help

Ken Daraie, director of the Wyoming School Facilities Commission, has agreed to help with the design of the Little Snake River Valley community center as a precursor to future school construction.

According to Jim Espy, a Carbon County District 1 School Board member, the school usually comes before the center.

In Baggs’ case, Daraie acknowledged the community’s predicament and suggested that the commission become part of the community center’s joint powers board. As part of the design process, the board would decide together where to put the school and center complex.

“The design process is always expensive,” Espy said. “If the SFC helps out, it will save a lot.”
The partnership could help secure a grant from the Wyoming Business Council. The grant requires that the funds go toward expanding, renovating or enhancing existing structures or schools.

The town of Baggs planned to purchase a building to which the new center could be attached. However, the expense may be circumvented if the business council takes into consideration plans for a new school at the same location.

Summer film series planned

Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Carbon County Higher Education Center officials would like to extend community education efforts and address economic development from a new angle this summer.

Planning is under way for the western pine beetle film festival, to be co-hosted by the CCHEC and the Carbon County Economic Development Corporation.

Films should portray the “myth of the West,” CCHEC Director Dave Throgmorton said. Ideas range from the 1914 silent film, “The Virginian,” to a John Wayne film, “The Searchers,” to the popular “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and the short classic on Western justice, “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”

“We want it to be more than just showing movies,” Throgmorton said. “We want people to have a chance to talk to some film critics and film professors so they can become more sophisticated in the way they look at films overall.”

EDC Director Mark Ducker said the series “should be internal and external. Internally, we hope it will create a lot of discussion. There is a lot to the concept of the myth of the West because films often don’t reflect reality. In studying them, we should learn a lot about the history of the American West.” Ducker is also hopeful festival attendees will learn more about Wyoming and Carbon County.

Lectures and workshops would be interspersed with the screenings.

Grant falls short of floor repair cost

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

A miscalculation in a recreation board grant application cost Carbon County School District 1 nearly $25,000.

The recreation board gave the school district $105,000 to replace the gym floor at Rawlins High School. Last week School Board members awarded a $102,100 contract to Ponder Construction to replace the floor. However, the school district has already spent money on design plans and bid packets and the money to pay those costs will now come from the district’s general maintenance fund, according to District 1 Business Manager Garry Goergen.

“They can’t return to the rec board and ask for money already spent,” said Pat Sheehan, board member and recreation board representative. “It’s against the rules.”

The floor design includes a contingency clause that allows for additional repairs if the construction firm discovers damage that would require the installation of a moisture-wicking mat. If the work needs to be done, RHS Activities Director Darlene O’Melia can apply for more grant money to cover the costs, estimated at $8,990.

Also at the meeting, School Board members:

• Approved a land exchange with the Carbon County Fair Board to make property lines congruent with a fence.

• Approved a new policy capping expenditures for student participation in competitive events that reinforce academic goals at $10,000 for students in grades six to 12.

• Awarded a $251,310 contract to Hutch’s Hi-Country Plumbing and Heating to replace the boiler in the small gym at RHS. The contract is significantly above the anticipated $80,000 cost of the project.

A metropolitan traffic jam in the windy west

Never got published, but was quite the experience...

Rawlins Daily Times, Janice Kurbjun

A mile from Walcott Junction on Interstate 80, traffic just about stopped due to road damage caused by Monday’s truck fire. When the road reopened for westbound travel at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, the highway’s truck and car volume resembled Colorado’s Interstate 70 on a wintery Saturday morning.

Rawlins Daily Times, Janice Kurbjun

The skeletal remains of a semi-truck were parked in the median of Interstate 80 near Walcott Junction on Tuesday. The truck caught fire on Monday, forcing westbound traffic to halt so firefighters could arrive on scene. Heat from the flames melted the frame to the asphalt, causing road damage that slowed traffic Tuesday afternoon when the highway reopened.

Technology big part of new school

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Technology is at the forefront of the planning discussions for the new Highland Hills Elementary School complex.

“Technology is the future for kids,” said Debbie Wright, a computer technician for the Rawlins elementary schools. “They’re never too young to learn.” Wright, also a school planning committee member, is an advocate for the integration of technology into the classroom. That position is supported by Carbon County School District 1 Associate Superintendent Neil Terhune.

Touting a concept of “flexible thinking,” Terhune sees the new schools less as buildings built around a certain type of technology and more of an effort to build the infrastructure to accommodate any new technology that might be installed.

He wants the new school to fit into the district’s goal of providing “authentic learning via a project-based, technology enhanced, multidisciplinary approach. For the lay person this means using technology in real world settings to accomplish real world results,” Terhune said.

Wright is also pushing for a building that can accommodate new technologies. However, she hopes to develop a program that first gets teachers and students proficient in the current technologies.

“There is exciting technology out there, but we haven’t incorporated it in the past because the teachers often don’t know how,” Wright said. According to her concept, the district should save money by only buying new technology when it’s necessary for continued learning.

Terhune acknowledged the difficulty of fitting the plan into the School Facilities Commission’s budget. However, with the help of consultant Brad Oberg, he believes it can happen. “Ken Daraie (of the commission) has given us a square-footage footprint (for our school), but we have the flexibility to operate within that footprint,” Terhune said.

Both Terhune and Wright believe that technology is a way of teaching. In particular, it is a way of reinforcing the curriculum already in place “without having to expend a lot of extra time,” Wright said. “It is not just another subject to teach, but it is a way to teach better and with more excitement.”

While much of the school’s specific technology is still up in the air, Terhune and Wright both expect audio enhancement, the digital amplification of a teacher’s voice, to be a staple in each classroom. The SMART boards and voting devices, handheld electronics that allow students to answer questions simultaneously, should continue. Wright plans to push for Web cast video technology in the gymnasium in a distance-education style for teachers. “The cost is considerable to send several teachers to a meeting, but if we connect with video, we can learn (on-site) the same,” she said.

The blue sky through the blizzard

The reason I can't get home tonight: "I-80 is closed due to multiple crashes in both directions, road surface damage due to a truck fire and severe weather conditions." How ridiculous??

I made to Fort Collins through the blizzard, safe and sound. I used my chains for about 40 miles to get over one of the more treacherous all-season passes in the state of Colorado. The rest of the valley was virtually blocked either by massive amounts of snowfall or adverse conditions in areas with a lack of civilization.

Ah, the west.

Now, I'm safely at my brother's house in Fort Collins, awaiting the road opening in Wyoming... silly trucks.

The bright side of it all: I got in two hours of fantastic skiing this afternoon. Powder splashing into my face, new snowflakes crawling down my neck, and smiles from everyone I came across. It was all worth it to get out the frustration of not being able to be a good employee and be back at work. Hah! I'd never make a good ski bum!!!

In Kirk Hanna's rating system, that two hours was 5 billion stars out of 10. :-D

Trio prepping for state history event

Rawlins Daily Times, Janice Kurbjun

Lauren Kudera, Morgan Jensen and Natalie Duncan of Little Snake River Valley School gathered around a podium to deliver one of several scenes in their history fair dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials. The presentation won the girls a place in April's state competition in Laramie.

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

They shouted, they screamed, they moaned — all in an effort to illustrate the conflict and compromise of the Salem Witch Trials.

Dressed all in black with minimal stage props, the Little Snake River Valley middle school students moved deliberately around the stage. They sometimes faced the audience of School Board members, while other times their backs were turned.

Eighth-graders Lauren Kudera and Natalie Duncan teamed with seventh-grader Morgan Jensen to write a script, based on historical documents, which dramatized the 1692 conflict as their entry in the history fair. Their performance, “Salem Witch Trials: Compromising by Confessing,” placed in the top two for its category in the district competition. They travel to the state competition in Laramie on April 21.

Duncan donned a bowler hat to indicate she had just taken a man’s role. In a false deep voice, she rumbled a death warrant to Dorothy Good, 4 years old at the time she was accused of being a witch.

Switching scenes, Kudera became Ann Putnam, a woman who was one of the main accusers in the late 17th century. Kudera delivered Putnam’s apology, issued 13 years after the trials.

Again, the scene changed. Now, Jensen was in the spotlight as Rebecca Nurse, a pious woman accused of being a witch after she lectured neighbor Benjamin Houlton about letting his pig root around her garden. When Houlton died soon after, Nurse was accused.

Duncan took the stage again, reciting the end of a poem. “‘More weight,’ now said this wretched man. ‘More weight!’ again he cried; And he did no confession make, but wickedly he died,” she cried. The scene illustrated what happened to people who did not confess. Giles Corey, accused of being a sorcerer, was sentenced to death by pressing.

The girls’ presentation fits into the overall theme of conflict and compromise, for Wyoming History Day. While LSRVS usually tries to keep the projects local, the girls had all taken a keen interest in the Salem Witch Trials after reading a book on the subject. With guidance from the school’s drama teacher, they were able to compile and fine-tune a winning performance.

“We are excited,” the three said in unison about their trip to Laramie. “Well, we are a little nervous too,” Kudera admitted.


Second project bound for state

Little Snake River Valley School’s Morgan Wille and Caelee Criswell also travel to the state history day competition in Laramie later this month.

Their documentary, “No More Room for the Wild Horses and Burros,” focuses on the problems wild horses and burros faced in the past and how their situation is being remedied by the Bureau of Land Management.

Weaving stories of various horses with facts about land use and efforts to protect the animals, the girls illustrated their research on conflict and compromise through a silent slide presentation.

The BLM responded to the illegal sale of wild horses by rounding them up for adoption. According to the presentation, this is still a way the horse-to-land ratio is managed, since there are currently 29,000 horses in 10 western states that have enough space for 27,500.

Digital TV means changes

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

The old adage, out with the old, in with the new often doesn’t work in rural communities, particularly when referring to technology.

On Feb. 18, analog cell phone frequencies officially died, forcing some Carbon County residents to convert to digital cell phones. In February of 2009, the Federal Communications Commission plans to phase out analog television broadcasts, affecting two towers operated by Saratoga’s Elk Mountain TV.

Currently, the towers operate as analog-only, picking up free, over-the-air local television through channel 2 in Casper and channel 5 in Cheyenne. The two channels still send their analog signal even though both have been broadcasting digitally for four years.

“There are a number of people in town here, many who are elderly, whose sole source of connecting with the outside world (is through the local channels),” Dan Gorton of Saratoga said. “It would be a real shame for it to go away.”

Before the channels drop analog service in 2009, Elk Mountain TV hopes to install a digital-to-analog converter. The device would pick up the digital signal and convert it back to analog, making the transition seamless for old-fashioned viewers of the local stations. However, one obstacle stands in the way — the signal strength.

When the snow melts on the mountains where the towers stand, channel 5 Chief Engineer Keith Yosten plans to test whether Cheyenne’s digital signal is strong enough to warrant the $1,600 converters. If the signal is not strong enough, local television viewers who use antennas to pick up the analog channels will be left with no service.

“There will probably be people that will be calling us (on the day of the phase out) wondering what is going on,” Yosten said.

Subscribers of Bresnan Communications and Communicom Services should see no effect in local television.

“If nothing happens,” Gorton said, “our access to any kind of news, the weather or anything that’s going on in Wyoming, for the residents of Saratoga, Riverside, Encampment or Baggs that don’t have Bresnan cable, will disappear.”

Even satellite TV subscribers in much of southeastern Wyoming who opt for local channels do not get the two in Wyoming. Officials at Dish Network and Direct TV confirmed that all or most of Carbon County is in the Denver marketing area and gets Denver channels, not Wyoming stations.

Hospital's contract labor stays high

• Continued staffing shortages mean the hospital spends more money to hire contract employees to cover all shifts.

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Board members again raised their eyebrows Tuesday at the amount of money spent to pay contracted employees, hired to fill staffing gaps at Memorial Hospital of Carbon County.

So far this year, contracted labor expenses at the hospital are in the millions of dollars. Whatever the expenses each year, they are not in the budget because hospital Chief Financial Officer Florence Kostic wants the costs to be in the open.

“We are working diligently to hire people,” she said. “Until then, the staff is working overtime. We have the contract staff to ensure patient care.”

An non-itemized, high-dollar expense raises a red flag that is hard to miss. Kostic said she could hide the contracted labor expense, but it would then be too easy to brush it aside without attempting to fix the situation that causes the hospital to hire contract employees. The remedy is in finding more nurses and physicians who agree to stay at the hospital for the long term, she said.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, hospital board members:

• Heard a report that the hospital’s effort to recover unpaid health coverage by patients has turned up about $643,000 of more than $6.9 million of bad debt. The amounts include debts incurred in multiple years.

• Saw a draft of a presentation planned for April 4 before the Carbon County Commission. The presentation outlines financial and equipment requests from hospital department heads.

• Noted that two physicians are in the final stages of paperwork to begin work at the hospital. Two more are in beginning or intermediate stages of evaluation.

• Made no decision on the employee health insurance plan. The board members plan to continue to evaluate staff comments and options of how best to cover the $80,000 increase. One idea is to charge 1 percent or less of each employee’s salary, across the board.

• Evaluated the progress of the Southeastern Wyoming Ambulance Service and the formation of its joint powers board. The ambulance has made 41 runs since December. The hospital stands to break even with expenses amounting to about $50,000.

• Accepted an adult home care policy that does not limit the number of hours hospital staff can provide care unless the hospital is short of employees. The policy arose out of the need to avoid patient claims of care discrimination.

• Agreed to pay $267,250 to URS Construction for stored material and subcontractor work for the energy savings project. Hospital officials are still waiting for design approval from the state in order to create a schedule for the installation of heating and ventilation equipment.
Consultant Joe Jones reported that positive asbestos samples on the third floor of the hospital would require a special type of removal.

Health fair is Saturday

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Saturday’s Health Fair at the Jeffrey Center in Rawlins should prove informative and amusing for adults and children alike.

The fair is an ongoing effort to bring low-cost health screening exams to area residents. Representatives from more than 30 area organizations are to provide information between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. People who had their blood drawn earlier this month can pick up their results and talk to nurses who can explain the information.

The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office plans to fingerprint children, making it into a fun activity while providing parents the security of having information about their child on file in case the child goes missing. Carbon County Child Development plans to hand out toothbrushes for adults and children to promote oral hygiene.

Event participants can get their height, weight and blood pressure checked at the Wagon Circle Family Practice booth. If back problems are an issue, Davidson Chiropractic will be at the fair offering pamphlets on various conditions and handing out samples of the topical cream the office uses.

April is sexual assault awareness month, so Carbon County COVE plans to hand out brochures and information on the subject. Meanwhile, Project Prevention hopes to talk with visitors about healthy behavior as well as pointing folks in the right direction to get help with tobacco or alcohol use.

South Central Rehabilitation will have giveaway items to promote the center. A staff member should be on site to demonstrate various therapeutic techniques and answer any questions. To prepare Rawlins residents for fires, the fire department plans to hand out information on smoke detectors and home escape plans.

Weight Watchers, the Rawlins Family Recreation Center, Wyoming Independent Living and Rawlins Eye Care are a sampling of other organizations who are expected to have booths at the health fair.

Goals matter, senator says

Rawlins Daily Times, Jerrett Raffety

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., engaged Rawlins High School students and others on a variety of topics from the next presidential election to how young people can achieve their goals when he spoke at the high school’s Fine Arts Auditorium Tuesday afternoon. He made stops in Hanna and Wamsutter while in the region.


By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

When U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., asked Rawlins high school students to vote for their preferred presidential candidate, about a third of the teens raised their hands, and it appeared the votes were split equally three ways.

At the senator’s Tuesday afternoon visit to Rawlins High School, students found energy at the end of the day to engage in political discussion.

The cliché, “follow your heart, follow your dreams and never give up, no matter what,” summarizes the senator’s brief motivational speech that kicked off the half-hour question-and-answer session. Barrasso told the students they can achieve their goals if they think about them, practice them and make movements toward their achievement.

“We have so many opportunities in this world, but years go by and we don’t think about it,” Barrasso said. “Right now, we have many who will be experts in TV re-runs and video games. We should be dreaming really big dreams.”

Barrasso outlined two goal-setting techniques. He challenged students to make a list of 100 goals and check them off each year upon completion. The other is to make a goals collage, illustrating aspirations using magazine or newspaper clippings. “The idea is to keep our goals in our thoughts and to make steps each day toward them,” he said.

The discussion turned political when the senator asked who was following the presidential race.

Student Kyle Poplin asked if Barrasso supports Sen. John McCain’s health care policy. Since McCain is from Arizona, a state that has its share of rural health issues, “he gets it,” Barrasso said.

Barrasso refocused the conversation by asking about the Democratic candidates. Comments throughout the student audience echoed media statements of Barack Obama’s “fresh face and fresh view,” one student said.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton “can bring a lot to the presidency. She ran Bill’s presidency,” Poplin said.

English teacher Travis Moore asked the senator about preparing young voters to wade through the media spin and make informed decisions. “You have to find out what you’re looking for, and often that’s (a candidate with) beliefs similar to your own,” Barrasso responded.

“The interesting thing about this election is that it will be the first time two senators have run against each other,” Barrasso said. Regardless of the debates or the media framework, both candidates will have a political history. However, he said, often senators’ votes are swayed by a portion of a bill, not its entirety. Additionally, a senator’s responsibility is to his or her state’s interests, as opposed to the president’s responsibility to the nation, he said.

The visit was prompted by Barrasso’s intrigue with two of his aides, Ryan Taylor and Kelsey Campbell, who are Rawlins High School graduates. “Rawlins High School is very instrumental in our staff,” Barrasso said.