Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 91
Last week, representatives from the Teton Science Schools (TSS) were in town to participate in their annual week-long teaching collaboration with Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD #2) Science Summer School. According to the TSS website, their mission as a school is to "connect people, nature and place through education science and stewardship." They are based out of Jackson, Wyo. - and although a portion of their work is solely based out of the Yellowstone region, the Teacher Learning...
At 6 p.m. on July 8 at Saratoga Town Hall, the Airport Board determined that a contract they have with a company to re-pave the taxiway will have to be terminated for re-bid after a contract technicality arose. Dave Shultz, Engineer at Sage Engineering, explained how the gravel material that the company STC Construction was planning on using is insufficient for this project – because of the fact that the consultant did not specify in his contract that he would be using that material. This b...
During the monthly Riverside Town council meeting at 6 p.m. on July 9, a guest from the Carbon County Museum presented a plan for the Town of Riverside and explained why the town should be involved. In addition, an update to the Riverside Bio-Dome was given. Kelly Bohanan, Director of the Carbon County Museum, explained how they acquired land along I-80 near Rawlins on Merrill Hill and that they decided to create a interpretive trail that depicts a map of Carbon County. At each ‘town’ on the...
At 9 a.m. on July 9, John Zieger, Carbon County Emergency Management Coordinator, met to finish the last meeting needed to gain stakeholder input on a Threat and Hazard Identification Risk Assessment (THIRA). Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a list of Core Capabilities that are considered during this scenario. There were 47 different Core Capabilities that needed to be ranked in terms of importance — high, medium or low priority. There were five different categories that the c...
The High Savery Dam and Reservoir, according to Brad Tribby, Fishery Biologist for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), has always had good intentions for the region. It supplies irrigation for countless agricultural properties in the lower end of the tributaries and that, in turn, supports economic development. However, its execution resulted in some environmental issues that multiple stakeholders in the region have been now tackling. Tribby explained that on the lower side of the dam, on...
ere will be a mass casualty exercise taking place at the Saratoga Municipal Pool. The scenario will be a lightning strike. According to John Zeiger, Carbon County Emergency Management Coordinator, this is only a training exercise to prepare emergency responders. Zeiger discussed the hypothetical scenarios that have been done in the past. “I decided to go outside the box,” said Zeiger. “We are always doing hazardous materials — there were school shootings, there were accidents, so I decided...
At the July 1 Town of Saratoga Master Plan meeting, a top consultant was chosen for the bid to create a Town Master Plan for Saratoga. Community Builders Incorporated (CBI), a company out of Douglas, Wyo. was chosen out of five other contenders for the bid to create this plan. The choice was made using a Consultant Evaluation Ranking system provided by the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT). They will be providing funding for the plan and wanted to ensure that the town went through a...
The Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA) has filed a formal protest to the “Wyoming Greater Sage-Grouse Proposed Land Use Amendments”, an Environmental Impact Statement, recently finished by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Unites States Forest Service (USFS). According to the WSGA press release, these land use plan amendments have been applied to the six BLM field offices and three National Forests. The Rawlins BLM field office and the Medicine Bow National Forest are included wi...
At 1 p.m. on April 24, the Master Planning Committee met with stakeholders to discuss who would be involved in creating the Town of Saratoga Master Plan; and they decided to schedule a second meeting to further research the consultants who bid on the project. Originally, the intention for many was to make a decision that day; however, after some time debating over the intended method of making the choice, the group thought calling references should be an important part of the equation....
Lately I have been cursing myself for my incessant need to over-plan everything. I am not one of those ‘go with the flow’ kinds of people. Planning is my security blanket, and it leads me to make some difficult decisions. So last summer, I was in a situation where one of my most intricately detailed plans fell quicker then I had time to process. I was unbelievably close to a job as an environmental planner. From the time-intensive work I had put into the job hunt, I was confident that I wou...
The Saratoga Encampment Rawlins Conservation District (SERCD), Wyoming Game & Fish, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and volunteers spent last Saturday removing old fence near Bennett Peak for their 3rd Annual Platte Valley Volunteer Day. The removal has been a long time coming, according to Biff Burton, Game Warden for Wyoming Game and Fish. "This fence has been a concern for a number of years - in fact, as long as I've lived here," Burton stated. According to Joe Parsons, Supervisory...
The Wyoming toad has been extinct in the wild since 1984; however, this does not stop many from doing what they can to reintroduce the species into the environment. Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) ran a population survey for the Wyoming toad. According to Lizzy Mack, Wyoming Toad Biologist and Project Manager for U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the toads are being reintroduced in only three different locations in the entire world. "That's it. These three places are the only place...
The Carbon County Realtors Association has selected their 2015 Realtor of the Year and Businessperson of the Year. This year Carolyn Terry, associate broker/manager at Century 21 Cornerstone Realty, was selected Realtor of the Year and Liz Wood, publisher of the Saratoga Sun, was selected Businessperson of the Year. According to Laurie Forster, Realtor at Town & Country Realty and this year’s Chairman for the Realtor of the Year selection committee, Realtors throughout Carbon County nominated t...
Ken and Karen Gisleson have been on-and-off campground hosts for the past 30 years throughout the Medicine Bow National Forest―and they wouldn’t change it for the world. They are both from Washington, Ill., a medium-sized suburban town in central Illinois and worked in the education sector for most of their lives. They had every summer off, so they decided to spend it the best way they knew how―in the mountains. They started off in 1963, casually camping for summers in places such as Color...
At the Riverside Town Council meeting Thursday, the town decided to not allow camping at Rick Martin Memorial Park. The action was mainly driven by the impending WhatFest that will be in Riverside in July. Requests have been sent in from many residents that surround the park to not allow camping. “There were several people that wrote in, none in favor of it,” said Leroy Stephenson, mayor of Riverside. After doing some research, Liz Swynarczuk, found there are little to no towns that act...
On June 10, the Saratoga Airport Board met to discuss updates to the construction this summer at the airport, hangar inspections and updates to the hangars for safety concerns. Engineer for the project Dave Shultz, updated the board on construction at the airport. It was determined a material that they were planning on using, called base coarse gravel, has not been used by many airports in the West—so little that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) does not have it listed as an approved co...
Designs for the Saratoga Outfall Project were reviewed at the Saratoga/Carbon County Impact Joint Powers Board (Water and Sewer Board) on June 10. The DEQ sent a letter addressing the outfall and whether Saratoga can minimize the load of one outflow. Then, during flood events, the extra effluent would overflow into a secondary outflow. Heath Overfield, Chief Executive Officer of Engineering Associates, says he would be talking with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on Monday...