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In the two-and-a-half hours before the October 31 midnight deadline for voting, the lead for the Platte Valley Arts Council’s (PVAC) annual Hay Bale Sculpture Contest changed three times. It made for a late night for Mary Martin, who facilitates the contest each year. When it was all said and done, however, Brush Creek Ranch beat out the other 13 competitors with their entry “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.” Lauren Trostle and Dakota Lewis, representing Brush Creek Ranch, accepted the traveling trophy...
The results of the 2024 General Election are now official following an audit held by the Carbon County Clerk’s Office on November 7. Along with certifying the results of the general election, the clerk’s office also reported a 105% turnout. The audit was conducted in the Carbon County Commissioner’s Room at the Carbon Building — Courthouse Annex Room by Gwynn Bartlett, Carbon County Clerk, and Lisa Smith, Chief Deputy Clerk. Of the 6,446 ballots cast, 75 were randomly selected for Carbon...
We all have our guilty pleasures. Those things that we know we shouldn’t enjoy, but we do anyway. For some people, it’s eating dessert first while for others it's drinking a soda from time-to-time. My guilty pleasure is Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom.” There are multiple reasons, perhaps even countless reasons, why this is a guilty pleasure. First, it's not at all lost on me that I-someone who works in print journalism-enjoy watching and rewatching a show about a fictional broadcast news stat...
With just 45 days until Christmas, the annual Saratoga Holiday Bazaar returned to the Platte Valley Community Center on November 9. It seemed the perfect day for it. A heavy, wet snow was falling on the Valley as residents throughout Carbon County made their way around the Great Hall to see what wares area vendors had to offer. The obvious attractions, it seemed, were Pure Dixie—owned by Dixie Berger and her husband, Kirby—and the quaint creations of Mary Hohnholt. Other local vendors included D...
For another year, the Encampment Tigers were unable to make it past the semifinal round of the 1A Six-Man Playoffs to walk into War Memorial Stadium. With their season at an end, they can take pride in the fact that their loss to the Burlington Huskies was a hard fought match. If playing in Laramie is the ultimate goal, then battling the defending state champions into triple-overtime is surely a close second. “I’m super proud of everyone on the team. They left everything they had out on the fiel...
Think WalMart, but local. That’s how Chris and Samantha Starks, the new owners of Aspen Sky Merchant Mall (Aspen Sky) in Saratoga, view their role in the community. “It’s better than WalMart, it’s not a big box store, but you can get everything you need here,” said Samantha. “There’s something, literally, for everybody.” On November 2, the Starks held a grand re-opening of the business they had purchased from long-time owner Linda Rogers. For years, Aspen Sky has hosted a variety of boot...
With a projected 277 electoral college votes and more than 71 million votes as of November 6, former president Donald Trump is the presumptive president-elect according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, Carbon County cast more than 6,000 ballots in the 2024 General Election, turnout surpassed the primary election by more than 1,000. With 6,446 votes cast, the amount was more than the 2022 General Election which saw 5,860 ballots cast. It was just barely under the number of ballots cast in...
When is a potato more than just a potato? According to Jennie Gordon, First Lady of Wyoming, it’s when it represents dignity for one of the 86,000 Wyoming residents who struggle with food insecurity. “At the end of the day, we are just packing potatoes, but they’re not just potatoes. They represent the passion for your community, for your school and for your state,” said Gordon. “They also represent dignity to those folks who are going to receive those potatoes. They can use them in their Thanks...
When Sophia Borg held her inaugural Saratoga FallFest last October, she was already thinking about making things bigger and better for 2024. Mission accomplished. The 2nd Annual Saratoga FallFest was held on October 19 in downtown Saratoga and had already grown from the year before. There were more vendors, there were more activities and there were a lot more people. “Everybody said they had a great time. The music was great, the food vendors were great, the vendors were great,” said Borg. “It...
The Saratoga Lady Panthers’ season came to an end last weekend as they went 0-2 at the 1A West Regional Tournament in Lander. While they may not be playing at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper, Head Coach Shayley Love is no less proud of her team. “The regional tournament was one of the most competitive regional tournaments we have competed in,” said Love. “I felt like the girls truly competed with both Riverside and Dubois with tight matches.” Despite ultimately being knocked out of the tournam...
Though they saw their undefeated streak come to an end in the final game of the regular season, the Encampment Tigers appeared to shake off their loss to the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers for the 1A Six-Man Playoffs. On November 1, No. 2 South-ranked Tigers hosted the No. 3 North-ranked Kaycee Buckaroos. Kaycee came into the quarterfinals with a season record of 4-4 and a conference record of 3-3, compared to the Tigers season record of 6-1 and conference record of 4-1. What may...
When she was 19 years old, Georgia Miller moved to the Platte Valley. It was a new home for her, but a homecoming for her husband, Cody. When she was 21, nearly 22, she began working as a full-time teller for what is now RNB State Bank. That was in 1997. Now, 27 years later, Georgia has been named Saratoga Market President. It’s just the newest position of many which she has held in her nearly three decades with the bank. For eight years, Georgie worked as a teller—even being promoted to hea...
*Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series on Platte Valley school alumni returning as teachers* The author Thomas Wolfe once wrote, “You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood.” Wolfe obviously never attended school in the Platte Valley, where many of those who now teach were once students. Case in point, Encampment K-12 School this year welcomed three new teachers—Mandy (Harris) Westerman, Bailey Miller and Noelle Peterson—who graduated from Encampment in 2013, 20...
In the first half of their home game against the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers, the Encampment Tigers managed to lead three times. No small feat against one of the top teams in both the 1A South Conference and the state. Both teams took to the gridiron with an undefeated record with only one assurance: someone would leave with their winning streak ended. When the final game of the regular season came to an end, the Tigers found themselves on the losing side of a 42-point deficit....
“I did not have it in my mind to be involved in the business,” said Mike Glode, 3rd generation co-owner of Shively Hardware in Saratoga. “That came later on when I was too stupid to get a real job.” Mike, at 75 years old, still heads in each day to the business which was bought by his grandfather, E.J. Shively, in 1925. He’s not hard to miss, he’s tall and has a broad smile on his face. Mike will often stand near the entrance to the local hardware store, greeting people as they come in, or he m...
Trees and fires were the hot topics discussed, though not together, during the October 17 meeting of the Riverside Town Council. Members of the governing body discussed how and when to remove aging cottonwood trees in Rick Martin Memorial Park and whether to plant new trees before or after the older trees were removed. They also discussed changes to Ordinance No. 106, which covers the burning of waste within town limits. Tree Removal The discussion of the cottonwood trees in Rick Martin...
The Encampment K-12 gym was filled with a raucous roar as Valley residents cheered on their favorite team: either the Encampment Lady Tigers or the Saratoga Lady Panthers. They all had good reason to cheer as the fight for the top valley team went to five sets. The Lady Tigers came out of the match victorious, but it wasn’t without some swipes from the Lady Panthers. 1st Set The first set began with the Tigers and Panthers tied at 4, foreshadowing how the fifth set would play out. Both teams h...
I recently had the opportunity to welcome the Encampment K-12 School 3rd grade class at the Saratoga Sun office and I can’t speak highly enough of these young students. At the beginning of this school year, Rayna Greenwood—who is the new 3rd grade teacher—had emailed me about a field trip to the Saratoga Sun. I was ecstatic as I’ve always welcomed the opportunity to talk about this newspaper and the industry itself. I’ve given tours of the office to people just coming through the Valley on...
The Saratoga Lady Panthers are sitting at No. 4 in the 1A Southwest Conference—just ahead of Farson-Eden and Fort Washakie—following two tough losses during homecoming. On Friday, Saratoga hosted the Southeast Lady Cyclones where they went 2-3 against the No. 1 team in the 1A Southeast. Then, on Saturday, the Lady Panthers hosted the Cokeville Lady Panthers where they were dealt a conference loss in three sets. Saratoga vs. Southeast On Friday, the Lady Panther saw moments of brilliance as the...
The Encampment Tigers kept their winning streak going on October 18, dealing a nearly 50-point homecoming loss to the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners. The victory over the Miners adds yet another conference win for Encampment, who has sat all season at the top of the 1A South Six-Man Conference with the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers. HEM, meanwhile, is near the bottom of the conference with a narrow conference win against Casper Christian. “I thought the team played w...
Small municipalities like Encampment may soon have to add yet another round of testing when it comes to drinking water following new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. Director of Public Works Bill Acord informed the Encampment Town Council on October 10 of the upcoming changes. “Earlier this year, the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] put out new regulations on something called PFAS. There’s over 15,000 PFAS chemicals. Mainly it’s used for your non-stick cookware, your...
As 2024 begins to draw to a close, the Town of Encampment has begun the process of switching who they contract with for dispatch services. At the October 10 meeting of the Encampment Town Council, the governing body briefly discussed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Carbon County for dispatch services. Historically, the Town of Encampment has contracted with the Town of Saratoga for dispatch services. Earlier this year, however, Saratoga’s governing body began discussing the potential o...
The Saratoga Town Council is continuing to amend sections of its municipal code regarding council member participation on committees, a process which began last year with the Saratoga Recreation Department. At the October 1 meeting of Saratoga’s governing body, the municipality held the first reading of two ordinances which would amend code regarding the Saratoga Planning Commission and the Saratoga Airport Advisory Board. Saratoga Planning Commission While the current code regarding the term o...
It may come as a shock to members of Gen Z, but there was once a way to communicate with others before the days of social media. Over the past few weeks, the Saratoga Sun’s opinion page gave a preview of how that once looked as we received at least one Letter to the Editor a week since the end of August. I was absolutely delighted to see a letter come through the mail or email because it showed that people were invested in their community. Letters on the topic of “Where the Trout Leap in Mai...
Saratoga Middle High School kicked off its homecoming week on Monday with a pep rally which included a pillow fight between Principal JD Johnson and senior Skyler Wood. During the pep rally, the homecoming court was crowned with Wood and Madi Johnson crowned as the Homecoming King and Queen. As part of the rally, the Saratoga Panther mascot took the Southeast Cyclones—portrayed by Griffin Bartlett—to the mats. On Tuesday, students and staff participated in a dodgeball tournament organized by...