Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
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"I have been the director for the Hanna Basin Museum for almost two years now and I have been working diligently to getting someone out here to restore this monument," Sunshine Solaas said. "The board has also been working diligently for even more years before me to come out to Hanna, Wyoming to look at it, much less place a bid." The structure Solaas is talking about is the called the "Soldiers' Monument" that was built and dedicated in 1920. The Rawlins Republican mentioned...
Saratoga High School wrestling head coach Jared Mason was happy with the showing his Panther grapplers. "The Saratoga Panthers wrestling team really stepped up at the WHSAA (Wyoming High School Activities Association) 2A Southeast Quadrant Qualifier tournament in Glenrock on Saturday, February 20," Mason said. "Each wrestler contributed to the overall success of the team that placed 2nd. It's exciting that all of the Panther wrestlers qualified for the State Tournament which...
The Saratoga Lady Panthers, if anything, have proven over the last few seasons that they are growing as a team. Two seasons ago, the Lady Panthers bought their ticket to the regional tournament through a pigtail game but, this season, are entering the 1A Southwest Quad in the No. 2 seed. The regular season for the Lady Panthers, in fact, ended with three conference wins as they faced the Encampment Lady Tigers (3-13, 0-8), the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattles (7-8...
Adversity is part of sports, but it is tough when mothernature is your opponent. At Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School, winter weather canceled another senior appreciation night and the game that was to go along with it. On February 4, the wrestling team got the same dose of medicine from old man winter that he put out on Friday to the basketball teams. Roads were closed early morning and Guernsey-Sunrise let HEM know at 9 a.m. they were not coming down to...
"Tis funny about th' constitution," said Mr. Dooley, the legendary, philosophical Irish bartender created by Finley Peter Dunne. "It reads plain, but no wan can undherstant it without an interpreter." The Supreme Court is the final interpreter of the Constitution, but since the dawn of the republic, Americans have engaged in spirited, often heated, debates – constitutional conversations – about how it should interpret the Constitution. This is not surprising for a nation who...
Most artists are happy to be selling the work at any age, but few find themselves a senior in high school having sold about a dozen pieces before graduation. Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School student Haley Felton is such an artist. Felton also just got a scholarship to the University of Wyoming where she will pursue her passion. She noted that her great grandmother started the tradition of Felton women going to that university. Felton said she likes to learn...
It doesn't take an avid basketball fan to see that Saratoga's Whitney Bennett loves to play the game. Whether in person or, due to limits on attendance, on the National Federation of State High Schools (NFHS) network one can see how involved the sophomore Lady Panther is on the court. The love of that game takes the young player a long way. Last year, as a freshman, Whitney and her older sister, Taylor, helped the 2020 Lady Panthers break a longstanding team record. Scoring a...
The last games the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School basketball teams got to play was back on February 8 against the Wheatland junior varsity teams. Both the Miners and Lady Miners won those games. Since then, weather has caused cancelations for every game scheduled until Saturday, when HEM got to face Encampment for the second time this season. Lady Miners vs. Lady Tigers The last time the Lady Miners and Lady Tigers met, it was at HEM and it was a close...
Last week, the Encampment Lady Tigers finished out their regular season as they went 0-3 in one conference game and two non-conference games. With no ticket to the regional tournament, the Lady Tigers are finding the silver linings from a season that didn't quite go their way. "Obviously we are disappointed about our season and how it turned out but when you encounter the injuries that we had during the season and the limited number of players, it makes it difficult to...
The Encampment Tigers will be entering the 1A Southwest Quad Regional Tournament as the No. 2 seed this week following a conference loss and two non-conference wins last week. On February 16, the Tigers were dealt a narrow loss by the Saratoga Panthers (14-2, 6-1) but would go on to win by a substantial margin against the Rock River Longhorns and the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners. Tigers vs. Panthers When Encampment hosted the Panthers earlier in the season,...
While there were rumors of two deaths at the hot springs this past week, Police Chief Ken Lehr, confirmed that there was only one. Details could not yet be released at the time of the interview as the Carbon County Coroner has not yet completed the investigation. Lehr did say that, typically, there are three to four deaths per year. This year however, there have already been three. The higher number may be attributed to the COVID-19 restrictions. Lehr thinks that people are...
The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) wrestling team sent six wrestlers to the WHSAA (Wyoming High School Activities Association) 2A Southeast Quadrant and were able to place four grapplers to send to state. The 106 weight class that had Anthony Solaas and McKaylee Widdison was tough according to HEM assistant wrestling coach McKean (Mac) Madsen. “McKaylee and Anthony drew the number one and two seed in the bracket,” Madsen said. “Even the number three and four seeds...
The Saratoga Panthers held onto their No. 1 spot in the 1A Southwest Conference as they fended off three conference foes last week. On Tuesday, Saratoga narrowly defeated their Valley and conference rivals, the Encampment Tigers (13-3, 5-3) and secured a substantial win against the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers (1-13, 0-8) on Friday. Then, on Saturday, the Panthers secured a single-point victory against the Farson-Eden Pronghorns (11-4, 5-3). Panthers vs. Tigers...
The Saratoga Town Council just barely had a quorum as it met on February 17. With Councilmember Bob Keel and Mayor Creed James both absent and Councilmember D’Ron Campbell joining by phone, the meeting lasted less than 45 minutes. With Mayor Pro-Tem Ben Spaulding chairing the meeting, the governing body covered a variety of subjects in a short amount of time compared to past meetings. Town Hall Since the first meeting in January, the subject of town hall has taken up a fair a...
The USDA has issued final loan approval for the construction of the North Platte Valley Medical Center which means, according to Construction Superintendent Monty Wardell, “We can finally move forward.” Wardell said that his firm, contractor Sletten Construction, had been prepared to begin work at the time of the site dedication in October, but delays surrounding bank approval of the plan appraisal put work on hold through the fall. “We can’t issue contracts without the USDA approval, so we had a lot of renegotiation to do a...
Dear Editor A ban on federal oil and gas leasing in Wyoming could indeed push oil and gas companies to lease and develop more state and private land eventually. After 32 years as a habitat and mitigation biologist though, I have to say, concluding that a ban on federal oil and gas leasing will limit Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s ability to mitigate impacts to wildlife is a cop-out. Ideally, oil and gas development should be done in areas where they can avoid and prevent negative impacts to wildlife in the first place. I...
A couple weeks back, I was in the town of Elk Mountain and a snow squall was making my departure back to Hanna seriously questionable. I guess I have to acknowledge, my trusty white Mazda is not exactly the most snow worthy vehicle. Leaving town, I almost got stuck twice but my trooper of a car pulled through. Driving up WY 72, the road surface was white and I had a feeling it was going to be a harrowing drive. I wasn’t wrong. Because I know my car is not suited for travel i...
During their February 16 meeting, the Board of Carbon County Commissioners heard updates on both the Mullen Fire and the Hanna RR 316 Fire from Lenny Layman, Carbon County Emergency Manager. The commissioners were also updated on the status of a State Lands Investment Board (SLIB) grant for a Type 6 fire engine for the Carbon County Fire Department. Mullen Fire Starting on September 17 just outside the Savage Run Wilderness, the Mullen Fire grew to be one of the largest fires...
The Carbon County Visitors Council (CCVC) met on February 17 via Zoom. It would be a short meeting compared to most CCVC board meetings. As it lasted exactly one hour. After all board members were identified, the agenda and minutes from the regularly scheduled meeting January 20 were approved. CCVC Director Leslie Jefferson went over the lodging tax collected and Carbon County had a major uptick from last month and last year. For the month of February, which included the...
The Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) passed two resolutions during their February 16 meeting that adopted policies proposed by Kandis Fritz, Carbon County Road and Bridge Coordinator. Both policies seek to help the department in managing the nearly 1,000 miles of county roads. Weight Just a Minute The resolution that seemed to elicit the most discussion was 2021-08, which adopted rules and regulations for sizes, weight and permits on Carbon County roads. Fritz...
Vaccinations against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been, by and large, successful in Carbon County despite a brief shortage caused by nationwide weather issues last week. In a February 17 interview with the Saratoga Sun, Memorial Hospital of Carbon County (MHCC) CEO Ken Harman stated that the vaccination rates for the county were sitting at 20 percent for people over the age of 21. While this doesn’t seem like much, especially when considering that 85 percent of the po...
What began as a routine traffic stop quickly turned into a dangerous pursuit according to a recent press release from the Wyoming Highway Patrol. On February 19, a Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper attempted to stop a vehicle between Elk Mountain and Walcott on Interstate 80 for a traffic violation. While the driver of the vehicle initially stopped, he failed to identify himself to the trooper before fleeing. As the vehicle was being pursued by the trooper, the driver of the car began firing rounds at pursuing law enforcement....