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Gershom Richard "Dick" Barkhurst , 93, passed on to his heavenly home and to reunite with the love of his life, Marion, on the most appropriate day, February 14, 2022. Born September 8, 1928 to Gershom Jay and Vera Large Barkhurst in Rawlins, WY; he was raised an only child on the Barkhurst Ranch southeast of Saratoga, WY on Brush Creek which had been homesteaded by his grandparents G.H. (Gus) and Elizabeth Green Barkhurst in 1886. When Dick became of school age he attended country school on... Full story
To say the photo used for my column in the Saratoga Sun is outdated would be a bit of an understatement. In October 2021, I made the decision to finally commit to my balding and began shaving my head. Now I’m beginning to think it was some serious forethought on my part, presumably to prevent me from pulling out what was left of it. The past few months at the Sun office have been a little strained, to say the least. Change, they say, is the only constant in life. For those who pay attention t...
Darrin Jennings was happy to talk about his new position as superintendent of Carbon County School District No. 2, but he said he didn’t have long for an interview because he needed to drive a busload of kids home. “I help out wherever I can,” he said Thursday. “I’ve only done it a few times this year.” He later explained that the bus is really a Suburban, and he was driving a regular route, “to take our country kids home.” The CCSD2 board of trustees announced Wednesday that it had chosen Jennings as the district’s new superintendent. H...
Prior to their rescheduled February 15 meeting, the Hanna Town Council meeting held a special meeting for the presentation of the preliminary design of the Hanna Old Town Water System Rehab Phase 2 Project. Craig Kopasz of Engineering Associates gave the presentation. All council members were present as was Mayor Lois Buchanan. Kopasz went over the funding and costs that are estimated, but acknowledged there were still some approvals from agencies that were needed before firm numbers could be pu...
The Saratoga School Spelling Bee was held on January 21 at the Platte Valley Community Center with 57 students in grades 2-7 participating. Fifth grader Cooper Smith was declared the champion by spelling the word, "rhetorical." Seventh grader Snowdon Williams took 2nd place, and Averie Sanchez, a fourth grader, took 3rd. These students, along with the top 3 spellers from grades 2-7 as identified by their classroom teachers, attended the Carbon County Spelling Bee in Rawlins on February 9. The...
On Tuesday, February 15, a Community Forum was held for superintendent of schools candidate Darrin Jennings at the Platte Valley Community Center (PVCC) in Saratoga. Doctor Jim Copeland, the current superintendent for Carbon Country School District No. 2 (CCSD2), retires on June 30 of this year, and candidates have stepped up to the plate to hopefully fill his role. Community Forums were organized for each of the candidates at both the Hanna Recreation Center in Hanna and the PVCC. Members of the public were encouraged to come and ask...
Carbon County School District No 2 (CCSD2) Superintendent candidate Noel Manning came to the Hanna Recreation Center to take questions from community members of the north part of Carbon County even though the weather was challenging to get around on Wednesday when the event started. The audience was a mix of adults and students. Hanna Elementary School 6th grade teacher Jackie Jones moderated. Manning gave the audience information on his professional and personal background. Currently he is the...
Patricia (Pat) Wilson Bensen passed away on Friday, January 28, 2022 in Reno, Nevada. She was born on August 8, 1938 in Saratoga, Wyoming to Roy E. and Mildred Woody Wilson. Pat spent the majority of her life in Saratoga. For many years she and her husband Len operated Len’s Sport Shop. She was also a teacher in the Carbon County School District for over 30 years and was devoted to her students and to her profession. Many former students remember her as their favorite teacher because she made l... Full story
In another life, much younger, I was a kindergarten English teacher in Taichung, Taiwan. It was an early job when I first arrived fresh from Hawaii. It laid the ground for me teaching English at hospitals and becoming a private teacher. It was an amazingly fun era for me; as I look back. Especially teaching kids. After living in Hawaii for two years, I came to island with only an English degree from the University of Maryland. Good luck was with me and within three months I found myself working...
Class, integrity and character. These are words not often found in this day and age when describing individuals, but there is a man known by just about anyone who has met him to have these attributes. His name is Dario Soto, but to most-friend, student, player, parent or colleague-he is known respectfully as Mr. Soto. After coaching basketball for nearly 60 years, Mr. Soto finished his coaching career on January 11 at Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School on the court which bears...
The Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees met for their final meeting of 2021 on December 20. Early in the meeting, Superintendent Jim Copeland shared a Good Sportsmanship Award letter from the Wyoming High School Activities Association for Eddie Buford during the 1A Six-Man State Championship on November 12, 2021. Also in sports, Copeland congratulated Rex Hohnholt on being named the Wyoming Coaches Association Girls 2A Cross Country Coach of the Year. Todd Weber was...
I find it funny how I have to go to kids’ concerts to remind myself how important the arts are to school programs, and to me. I was a lucky kid growing up around Washington D.C. because both sets of my folks liked to take me to plays and concerts even though, sometimes, I wasn’t really into going. Still, I saw Broadway shows which came to town and I even went to New York a few times. Culture was being ingrained into me whether I wanted it or not. My mother was always playing classical music in... Full story
Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) advised parents today of a post shared widely on the social media platform TikTok. The post, which appears to be part of a national TikTok trend, refers to a threat to school safety “for every school in the USA, even elementary” on December 17. The notification comes as the United States saw its 29th school shooting of 2021 on December 1 at a high school in Humboldt, Tennessee. Parents throughout the district were notified of the post by CCSD2 Thu... Full story
Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) continues to prepare for the retirement of current Superintendent Jim Copeland. Copeland’s final day will be June 30, 2022—the end of the current school year. The Board of Trustees voted unanimously to contract the Wyoming School Board Association (WSBA) $65,000 to assist in the search for a new superintendent. The Wyoming School Board Association will assist by creating ads and other materials, as well as expectations of the new superintendent. The...
The outcome may not have been what many fans of the Encampment Tigers were hoping for on November 12 as Encampment fell 65-24 to the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Rattlers in War Memorial Stadium. Despite the outcome—and a loss to the only team they had fallen to in the regular season—the Tigers had already made school history before the 1A Six-Man Championship had even begun. As they walked onto Jonah Field in their red and white uniforms, it was the first time in school history a football t...
Just three years into their six-man program, the Encampment Tigers have obtained their Golden Ticket to the University of Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium on November 12.For some of the players, who stood before the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees their freshman year, it is an almost poetic end for their senior year. For 30 years, Encampment played for nearby Saratoga and have spent the past two seasons in a varsity schedule earning their stripes. Denied entry into the champi...
The teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) hasn’t been outright banned by Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2). Instead, a resolution passed by the CCSD2 Board of Trustees on October 18 states neither teachers nor staff within the district will promote CRT “or similar ideologies”. The unanimous passage of the resolution comes one month after the board discussed the topic during a September 20 work session at Saratoga Elementary School. CRT, which began as a legal framework in the 1970s...
Editor, I commend the Carbon County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees for unanimously adopting a resolution addressing the teaching of Critical Race Theory. Your resolution takes aggressive pro-active action against a divisive, destructive theory that should not be promoted in a public school classroom. Thank you, Mark Jones Saratoga, Wyoming...
Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Superintendent Jim Copeland will retire effective June 30, 2022. “It is with mixed feelings I submit my resignation,” wrote Copeland in a letter submitted during the October 18 meeting of the CCSD2 Board of Trustees. “I plan to retire after 45 years in public education - the last eight of which have been as superintendent of Carbon County School District No. 2. It has been such a blessing to me to be able to serve alongside a great Board, a wonde...
Garden boxes are at the new community garden site and the Hanna Agricultural Resource Committee (HART) is working hard to get them ready before winter sets in. There are 31 boxes in total, which had been supplied by C. J. Mahon Construction. The company made a deal with HART and Carbon County School District No. 2, which owned the land where the former community garden resided. If they could have the land for their cement manufacturing site, the construction company would build HART a garden...
When it comes to traveling in Carbon County, there are many unsung heroes who make it possible. Chief amongst those are the employees of the Carbon County Road and Bridge Department. On September 7, Encampment resident Gary Jacobsen appeared before the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC) to change that. In what Jacobsen would later call a “good precedent”, he proposed the county commissioners consider naming the road and bridge building in Encampment to honor long time employee Dav...
Laurie Forster gave the long-time reins of her real estate company Town & Country Realty to her agent Amanda Shahadey back in July. Amanda bought the business and building but the same faces are in the office. Laurie including her husband Reg, along with Associates Shelby McGuire & JoAnn Capellen in addition to long time Administrative Assistant Mary Martin have all made the transition with the new owner. “I am proud of each and every one of my Associates & Staff and am excited with OUR Town & Country,” said Forster Amanda became the Bro...
“It’s going to creep in in ways we don’t know.” At the May 17 meeting of the Carbon County School District No. 2 (CCSD2) Board of Trustees, Joe Gaspari proposed Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a potential subject for a future board work session. Five months later, on September 20, a 45 minute discussion over CRT took place in the cafeteria of Saratoga Elementary School. CRT, similar to vaccines and masks, has been a proverbial lightning rod in the ongoing culture wars both in and out of schools...
Janet G. Herring Kennaday, 86, passed away Sunday, August 29, 2021 at Mission at Castle Rock Rehabilitation Center in Green River, Wyoming. She was a life-long resident of Wyoming. Janet was born December 25, 1934 in Rawlins, Wyoming; the daughter of Charles A. Herring and Alice Grace Hunter. She attended schools in Rawlins, Wyoming and was a 1952 graduate of Rawlins High School. After graduation, she attended business school in Denver. Janet married James Kennaday in Rawlins in 1975. She and... Full story
On the evening of August 26, the hunt for a suspect involved in a drive-by shooting in Denver came to a dramatic end on Highway 789 between Baggs and Rawlins. By the time law enforcement apprehended 30 year old Jose Valdez of Craig, Colorado, he had been pursued across state lines and through five Wyoming communities. Encampment K-12 School also initiated a two-hour delay on Thursday morning to allow law enforcement to search the property. With the pursuit of Valdez beginning in Colorado, both...