Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
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Chariot Races, long a favorite winter event in the Valley for over 30 years, will not be held this year. But a new event called skijoring is coming into the Valley with the hopes of combining equestrian riding and skiing while drawing visitors to Saratoga. Organizers of the chariot races said there were not enough competitors for chariot racing to make the event feasible. Will Faust, a member of the Saratoga Lion's Club, sponsor of the chariot races, said, in his opinion, shifts in tastes have...
The first couple weeks of 2017 have been topsy-turvy time for wind energy firms in Wyoming, and those that hope to be operating in the state soon. The year started out with State legislature file 127. That bill proposed increasing the state’s tax on wind energy generation from $1 to $5 per megawatt hour. Another bill proposed in the legislature would essentially penalize local utilities who purchase green energy from producers. Yet despite these spots of bad news, Power Company of Wyoming (PCW) received good news in form of the BLM issuing a f...
The Riverside Town Council met Thursday to swear in a new member, make appointments and make other preparations for the upcoming year in governance in the town. New council member Katie Cheesebrough was sworn in by mayor Leroy Stephenson. Cheesebrough ran for the position after former council member Margaret Weber resigned her position because she had sold her business and residence in Riverside and moved just outside town limits. Cheesebrough’s introduction to the world of town council politics went smoothly, with the board conducting mostly h...
Preparations for Winter Carnival, and thanking town employees were top at Encampment Council Meeting The Encampment Town Council swore in two members before moving quickly through routine business and preparations for the upcoming Encampment Winter Carnival. The council then passed on thanks to town workers from community members and approve equipment for a new volunteer firefighter. The council swore in Kimberly Loftice and Bill Craig. Loftice is an incumbent to the office, whereas Craig is a newcomer to the council. After the swearing in,...
The Saratoga Water and Sewer Joint Powers Board (sewer board) met Wednesday for a brief meeting where they discussed potential lagoon improvements and got to the bottom of a supposed illegal lift pump that had been uncovered on Rochester Street in Saratoga. The pump was installed by Triple-D Construction with the purpose of lifting sewage from basement hookups at three lots being developed by the company to a sewage line that runs into a town-owned main that runs through the alleyway. In late 2016, Triple-D ran into issues with the line after...
The 34th annual Saratoga Lake Ice Fishing Derby will be held Jan. 21-22 and will offer prize money to ice fishers who brave the cold and ice of Saratoga Lake. The event will bring ice fishers from the Valley and afar to the frozen surface of Saratoga Lake for a weekend of fishing and, perhaps for a lucky few, some significant cash prizes as well as the fisherman’s favorite; bragging rights. There will be over $6,000 in guaranteed prize money at this year’s event plus up to $35,000 in other prizes, according to a release by the event spo...
After a very successful homecoming week, the Encampment Tigers hit the road for games against conference rivals Cokeville and Farson-Eden over the weekend. Unfortunately, the streak the teams had during homecoming last week did not carry through to the important conference games. At the beginning of the season, Clint Bromley, Encampment School’s athletic director and coach of the girls’ team told the Saratoga Sun that the Tigers would be facing a strong conference, saying that several of the best teams in the state were in the Tigers’ division....
They were offering Rusty Rogers, of Saratoga, his choice of prize. He could choose $25,000 cash, a new car or a kitchen renovation. All he had to do was give his name, address, age, yearly income and Social Security number to the person on the phone. Like millions made across the nation every year, the call was a scam. Fortunately, Rogers knew better than to fall for it, and even took the effort to call the local newspaper so his neighbors could be alerted. Unfortunately, though, the scam criminals tried to pull off against Rogers is not all...
It’s 2017, and there are a lot of people who are happy to see 2016 go. The year saw a rather contentious and seemingly interminable election; ISIS; terrorism; increasing tensions with Russia; unrest at home about race issues and some indications that fascism is on the comeback in many parts of the world, including those that should know better. We lost a lot of celebrities and musicians, too. So as happy as many are to see 2016 behind them, it’s also important to look back and see some of the positive things that happened in 2016, and the...
Encampment School ended its homecoming week Saturday, and a weather-related postponement of the school's homecoming dance did not dampen Encampment students' spirits. The schools boys and girls basketball teams gave students, faculty and families plenty to celebrate with a string of wins. The school also exceeded a fundraising goal in its Penny Wars fundraiser, and concluded the week with a cake auction that raised $12,180 for the school's athletic fund. The boys and girls basketball teams...
Editors Note: This was playfully written in the style of the graphic novel "300." I hope you enjoy it. The Encampment Tigers boys and girls' basketball team stood tall during homecoming after dominating any team so unfortunate as to tread on the Tigers' timber that celebratory week. The boys and girls' varsity teams came out of winter break as ready as the defenders of a coastal pass well memorialized by Herodotus and Frank Miller. Both the boys' and the girls' teams surged though the...
After a somewhat mild December, winter rolled into the Valley during the first week of January, bringing a lot of snow and record-breaking temperatures, along with that famous Wyoming wind. Thursday, the low temperature in Saratoga was -34 degrees according to wunderground.com, a temperature that shattered the previous Jan. 5 low temperature record for the town of -13 degrees that was set in 2014. The bitterly cold temperatures came on the heels of a snow storm that dumped over a foot of snow...
The 4-H shooting sports club will be starting a new season of shooting sports instruction for Valley youth at 6:30 p.m., Jan. 18 at the Saratoga Library. The shooting club is open to youths who are 4-H members in Saratoga and Encampment and between the ages of 8-years-old and 18. The shooting club instructs children on the safe use of air rifles, air pistols, .22 rifles and pistols, as well as archery. The club also has trap shooting events. The first meeting on Jan. 18 is an informational meeting, Louis Braun, one of the instructors for the...
The Saratoga Police Department has received five new portable Breathalyzer machines thanks to a donation by Prevention Management Organization (PMO) of Wyoming. Saratoga Police Department (SPD) Chief Robert Bifano says the machines replaced older machines that had been in use since Bifano started with the Department eight years ago. One of the older machines was donated to the Town of Encampment Police Department, a couple will be kept as spares and the SPD has also offered older machines to neighboring departments, Bifano said. “When we l...
Recent developments abroad in oil markets have some potential to benefit Wyoming's economy in 2017, but it's difficult to predict whether the state will reap the benefits of rising commodity prices or not. In December, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), plus a few other non-OPEC members such as Russia and Mexico arrived at an agreement by members to cut production of crude oil by about 1.8 million barrels per day. This move prompted oil prices to begin a climb in December...
The Obama administration released a draft Environmental Impact Study (EIS) highlighting five plans for limiting mining on federal lands to protect the Greater Sage Grouse Friday, according to documents released by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The Administration did not specify which plan it preferred, and it is not clear which, if any, will be adopted by the new Administration after President-Elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. Under the possible plans, there would be no new mining or...
"It was supposed to be a hernia," Garry Wood says. "A simple, outpatient procedure." But when he woke up after his hernia operation, he learned it wasn't a hernia at all, but a swollen lymph node. Swollen lymph nodes can mean several things, many as simple as a flu or other infection, or a minor injury. But it can mean a lot more than that, and when Wood came out of the anesthesia, his wife told him what the surgeon said. "It was lymphoma," Wood said. "That was the surgeon's hunch." The surgeon...
The Saratoga Water and Sewer Joint Powers Board (sewer board) met Dec. 14 to begin discussing the use of a state grant to improve the lagoon system at the sewage treatment plant, put to rest the controversy surrounding the Happy Tails kennel sewer line on the North side of town, and bid farewell to a member of the board. The Sewer Board hired an engineering firm, Sunrise Engineering, to do a scope of work on improvements at the treatment facility. The Board also heard from the DEQ who lifted an injunction against the town stemming from the...
"I'm a very positive person and I don't like the word 'risk,'" Carolyn Terry, the new owner agent at Century 21 real estate in Rawlins, says when asked if she thought buying a real estate agency at a time when Wyoming's economy is on the skids and home sales in other parts of the state are sliding. "To describe the real estate market in this area, it's like a roller coaster," she says. "This area is so transitional and we're always going to have something going; There's no risk involved." The...
The Encampment High School boys' and girls' basketball teams finished off the final games of December and 2016 last week, ending the week with the boys having a record of 4-4 and the girls slightly better poised at 5-2. Tuesday, the Tigers hosted North Park High School from Walden, Colo., in the Tiger Den in Encampment. The Lady Tigers parlayed their home court advantage into a resounding defeat of the North Park Lady Cats by a 23-point margin, winning 60-37. The Encampment boys also dealt a...
Two U.S. Government agencies released decisions in the last two weeks that may bring a proposed Carbon County wind farm closer to becoming a reality. Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued a record of decision approving a power transmission line project that will allow energy produced in Wyoming to be sold in power-hungry Southwestern States. The BLM’s decision came on the heels of last week’s announcement that the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife had issued a final Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for Power Company of...
The Encampment Town council met Thursday in what one member called “record time,” where it quickly disposed of routine matters before making ordinance changes and extending Christmas bonuses. During the 12-minute meeting, the council held a public hearing to discuss a proposed change to town ordinance to make it illegal for anyone to occupy a dwelling with no water or sewer service, and voted to extend Christmas bonuses to town employees and committee members. The board also bid farewell to council member Gary Stull who did not run for re-...
Riverside Town Council sped through its agenda Thursday in about 30 minutes, dispensing of most routine business quickly. Several issues took up more time than usual council business, however; an apparent reduction in tourism spending, a leash law and a new firearms ordinance. While discussing the Carbon County Visitor’s Council report, council member Fred Lorenz said he had spoken to the visitor’s council and learned that between October 2015 and September 2016, lodging tax collection was down 70 percent over the same period in prior years. Ri...
The Carbon County Classic was held over the weekend in Hanna and Encampment, giving the Tigers a good start to their 2016-2017 season. Encampment's men finished the inaugural event of the basketball season with a 2-1 record, and the Lady Tigers ended the two-day, two town event with a solid 3-0 win loss record. Friday in Hanna, the boys from Encampment took on Laramie's sophomore team and won the game 74-46. On Friday, the Encampment girls also took on Laramie, defeating the ladies from Laramie...
The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental organization that is part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), issued a report Monday saying demand for coal will most likely stall in coming years. In the 141-page report, the medium-term market report for coal, says that while the world is currently burning more coal than it ever has, market demand for the commodity is expected to level off and not see marked increases in demand for the next several years, with decreases likely in even the...