Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
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The Saratoga Town Council discussed on March 19 whether to bring back for consideration a short-term rental ordinance which would regulate vacation rentals after a group of residents expressed their interest and the planning commission indicated it wanted to pursue this. Town Planning Administrator Emery Penner said in his report the planning commission had “a long conversation” with the public about an ordinance to regulate short-term rentals, such as AirBNBs. Four members of the public came to the meeting, he said. McCall Burau, chairman of...
Memorial Hospital of Carbon County recently hired Margaret Fontana as their new Chief Financial Officer. She started her position as CFO the first week of March. Fontana is the former CFO of Prairie Health in Langdon, North Dakota with over 15 years of financial management experience both in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. She also earned her Masters in Business Administration from Louisiana State University-Shreveport along with different healthcare management certifications. Fontana...
Grace Iona Craig of Saratoga, Wyoming, passed away peacefully on March 7, 2024, at Platte Valley Nursing Home at age 91. She was born January 22, 1933, to parents Rachel (Buff) Craig and Thomas Craig in Mountain View, Missouri. She was one of nine children, with four sisters and four boys. Her family moved to Saratoga, Wyoming in 1942 to work in the mountains and Grace graduated from Saratoga High School in 1951. She married Bobby Gene Johnston on June 23, 1951, and moved to the Lazy CJ Ranch....
Kenneth Lehmkuhl resident of Rawlins, WY, passed away March 20th, 2024, at the hospice center in Casper, WY at the age of 81. Kenneth was born June 12, 1942, in Carpenter, WY to Clarence and Irene Lehmkuhl. He married Julie in April 14,1965. Kenneth worked on several ranches in Saratoga and Encampment area. He was an avid truck driver and spent many years in the oilfield. Towards the end of his life, he worked as a delivery driver for O’Reilly’s. Kenneth enjoyed woodworking, reading old wes...
Brian Jay Detterer, age 58 passed away in a commercial trucking accident on Wyoming Highway 30 on Monday, March 11, 2024. Brian was raised on the family farm in Windsor, Colorado where he graduated from Windsor High School in 1983. He spent a few years farming in the Windsor area, before moving to Wyoming to pursue his dream of being a cowboy. He worked on ranches until the last few years where he was employed driving commercial sand truck. Brian was a member of the Platte Valley Christian...
Frederic (Fred) Ray Lorenz, resident of Riverside, Wyoming, passed away on March 24, 2024 at home at the age of 78 years. Fred was born November 26, 1945 in Goshen, Indiana. He moved to Fox Park, Wyoming in 1976. He moved to Encampment, Wyoming in 1978 where he operated a sawmill with his brother, Richard Lorenz. He later worked at the University of Wyoming in the transportation services department. HIs hobbies were antique tractors and building scale model trucks. Fred was very involved in the...
Beginning in the spring/summer of 2028, there will be a new road through Encampment.well, at least new asphalt. At the March 14, 2024 Encampment Town Council Meeting, Aaron Spenny, WYDOT District 1 Resident Engineer in Rawlins, outlined a pavement preservation project for the town of Encampment beginning in 2028. The project would proceed in two phases with the second phase being contingent on lower costs in the initial phase and/or additional funding secured prior to construction. In the first phase, the pavement from the Highway 70 and...
Women’s basketball, both in high school and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), is on the rise. Believe it or not it is catching the attention of those who follow sports especially those in the sports journalism world. One of the many reasons is because of Iowa University Lady Hawkeyes point guard Caitin Clark, who has been taking the NCAA by storm. Clark has broken a record no one ever thought would ever be broken. She became the NCAA’s men’s and women’s all-time leading...
Newspapers from coast to coast last week celebrated Sunshine Week, a time to champion openness and transparency in government in issues from access to public records to open meetings. Ironically, Sunshine Week 2024 happened to coincide with an example of transparency worth celebrating right here in our neck of the woods. Thursday night, Big Horn County School District No. 2 held a public forum during which citizens were able to question three finalists to be the next principal of Lovell Elementary School. We’re not sure most folks realize how r...
The Saratoga Planning Commission has its hands tied, for all intents and purposes and we at the Saratoga Sun believe it is a disservice to the planning commission itself and the residents of Saratoga. While it is an advisory board, the role of the planning commission is to not only interpret existing zoning code but improve upon it as well. Such is the case regarding short term rentals in residential zones, which culminated in an 18 month process of drafting a proposed short term rental permit. At the recommendation of Kylie Waldrip, legal... Full story
We live in an age that tends to shrug its shoulders when confronted with spreading information that is not true. Instead of asking, like Pilate, “What is truth?” the postmodern man says, “Truth is relevant to each individual” or perhaps “There might be truth somewhere, but we cannot know it.” Those of us who follow Christ realize that not being ashamed of speaking lies is another dangerous deception that much of our progressive culture has accepted as normal. God is perfect in all of His ways. He does not lie and neither should we. Our human n...
The phrase Good Friday has always stood out to me. Is it really good? It signifies the day that our Savior Jesus Christ was brutally crucified and ultimately left our world of flesh and blood. Perhaps dark Friday would be more appropriate? Some speculate the word “Good” in Good Friday was once God Friday. Others think it refers not to how Jesus was brutally treated but in what Jesus did for us on the cross. It is my testimony that Jesus’s life is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on “Good Friday” on the cr...
No fooling, everyone is invited to a free meal of glazed meatloaf, homemade mash potatoes with milk gravy, saut? vegetable blend, fried cornbread corn fritters, strawberry pistachio cheesecake and drinks Monday, April 1st, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. The complimentary meal, along with fun and fellowship, is being served at the Saratoga Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall at the corner of Third & Bridge streets. Sponsored by the “Gather at the Table” committee, the event is open to the hungry, lonely, depressed and anyone wishing to gather with fri...
Short term rentals and their regulation—or lack thereof—in municipal code was yet again a topic of discussion for the Saratoga Planning Commission during their March 12 meeting. While a proposed short term rental permit was created by the planning commission last year, it was ultimately tabled in November 2023 on the recommendation of Kylie Waldrip, legal counsel for the Town of Saratoga. In February, James “Jimmy” Campbell asked the planning commission to continue to pursue some form of perm...
Saratoga Panthers guard, senior Finn Rolseth signed a commitment letter to the Rocky Mountain College Battlin Bears on Wednesday, March 20 with his coaches and family right by his side. Rolseth has had an outstanding season from his game-winning basket against Southeast Cyclones in the quarter-finals of the 1A State Tournament to his dominant performance against the Cokeville Panthers in the semi-finals which lead Saratoga to the State Championship Round. Rolseth has also won All-State Honors...
This year, the Saratoga Middle Panthers has had another successful basketball season under the guidance of Head Coach Bob Keel. Under Keel’s leadership, the Panthers have had a three-year straight undefeated conference streak. Keel’s basketball squad only had two losses to the Laramie Scouts, but his squad dominated their conference and it was not an easy task especially the teams they had to face. The Panther’s A Team had to face different challenges each year. Some of the players had limit...
In an exciting collaboration, the Sound Design Program at Casper College recently embarked on a unique learning experience by recording two singles for the country music band Third Rail out of Cheyenne and Saratoga. This hands-on project not only provided students with a practical application of their sound design skills but also allowed Third Rail the benefit of a state-of-the-art recording studio and the fresh talent of students. Third Rail: A dream in the making. “Third Rail is a band I p...
Next time you are considering a burger or steak, consider 307 Pub and Grub. Not only are you sure to have a wonderful meal, but you will also be supporting the Platte Valley economy. That’s because 307 Pub and Grub buys local beef. To date, 307 Pub and Grub in Encampment has bought steers from Zeller Cattle, the Silver Spur Ranch, the Big Creek Ranch and, at the 2023 Carbon County Fair, a steer raised by Quade Jordan. Each steer is appropriately named 307-1, 307-2, and so on. These steers h...
The University of Wyoming’s annual ram test will conclude with a public field day Saturday, April 13, at the Laramie Research and Extension Center. The event, which begins at 11 a.m., will present results from the 140-day performance test and discuss how test results can be used to make selection decisions. Lunch, provided by Wyoming Wool Initiative, will be served at noon. Starting at 1 p.m., attendees will have the opportunity to view the tested rams and participate in a silent auction. “We’ve conducted this central performance test since...
When Ed Glode’s great-grandfather, E.J. Shively, bought Tilton & Son Hardware Store in December 1925 it came with a list of vendors. “The top vendor was International Harvester,” said Glode, who is the fourth-generation to own and run the business. “When they settled the West from Chicago to San Francisco, next to every other rail hub was an International Harvester dealer. We were the product of one of those. Most of those are closed in the western United States. We’re one of the few that’s st...
A new study in the UW Department of Animal Science suggests that investigation of maternal microbiomes in cattle may yield promising results for producers looking to improve herd health, reproductive efficiency, and even feed efficiency. In November 2020, graduate student Madison Shults and assistant professor Hannah Cunningham-Hollinger took vaginal swabs and rumen fluid samples from a group of cows and heifers at the Laramie Research and Extension Center. Open (not bred) cows also received uterine swabs. This was the first step in a study...
Tack shops were once a common sight across the country, but especially the West. As the tools used in ranching have evolved from riding a horse to riding an all-terrain vehicle, these iconically western businesses seem to have all but disappeared. Not in Saratoga, though, where Hatch Tack has set up shop on Bridge Avenue. Cordell Hatch and his wife, Siara, have operated Hatch Tack for nearly two decades and opened up their storefront in Saratoga over a year ago. Since then, said the couple,...
Danny Burau, owner of The Malt in Saratoga, knows the concept of farm-to-table isn’t new or revolutionary in the food industry. It’s been around long enough it was once parodied by the sketch comedy series “Portlandia” when two characters—played by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein—are so invested in the chicken on the menu they visit where it was raised. Being a comedy series, hijinks ensue. While it may seem almost hyperbolic in its critique of the locally sourced movement, there is perhaps...
The University of Wyoming Extension welcomes Jennifer Faulkner as a local foods coordinator in the Department of Agricultural and Applied economics. Faulkner grew up on a Wyoming cattle ranch and managed a ranch operation in Riverton for three years. As a rancher, she was highly active in the local foods movement and sold meat, dairy and produce to local customers. Faulkner’s experience with agriculture and passion for local foods serve her well in her new role. “Jen rolled up her sleeves and...
The University of Wyoming Extension welcomes Rob Ziegler as the new livestock production and marketing extension specialist with the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. Ziegler earned his bachelor’s degree in animal and veterinary sciences from UW in 2018 while working as a laboratory technician for the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory. He went on to earn a master’s degree in ruminant nutrition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2020. His master’s thesis focused on co...