Sorted by date Results 76 - 95 of 95
Editor, I went to the Town Council meeting at the Community Center last week. I am appalled and frightened with the division in our community over the Clinic. If you are a pot stirrer please sign your name to your verbiage and argue with whoever in private. Many people in our valley do not read the paper or listen to the radio—they listen to the inconsistent and sometimes untruthful and sometimes ignorant Facebook or web pages. Find out all sides—talk to the people involved—before stirring the pot and spreading gossip. We need our clini...
Dear Editor, I have been trying to keep up with the banter regarding the project. From what I have surmised from all of it is that this is a big boondoggle where a big fancy new complex will be built in Saratoga. From my understanding, it will be built with money acquired from grants and other funding. It sounds nice. However, after it is completed, where, realistically, will the money come from to pay the bills to maintain the complex? What we need in Saratoga is the same medical center now standing. It is in good shape and ‘big enough.’ To...
Editor, When issues surrounding the Platte Valley Medical Clinic began publicly last fall, I attended a Saratoga town meeting and I was dismayed to learn most all the discussions and possible solutions were being strictly discussed by the Saratoga council, not including the rest of the Platte Valley communities. I spoke after the meeting with, then, Councilman Faust, and impressed upon him the need for the rest of the valley towns to be included in working on a solution, as the Platte Valley...
Editor, As the second-largest industry in the state, it’s no surprise that tourism is big business in Wyoming. During 2018, Wyoming welcomed more than 8.9 million overnight visitors who spent more than $3.8 billion dollars in our state, while generating $196 million in local and state tax revenues. And while the tourism industry pumps substantial funds into the Wyoming economy, it also directly supports 32,290 full and part-time Wyoming jobs—which account for 8 percent of the state’s workforce. Here in The Upper North Platte Valley, our resid...
Dear Editor, I implore anyone considering supporting a tax increase on Wyoming’s wind-generated electricity to first consider the studies conducted exclusively on wind energy development, taxation, and the renewable energy market and know all the facts. After years of closely considering all issues, we in Carbon County and other counties know that keeping taxes at the current level for wind plants is fair and gives us the best opportunity for securing new economic diversity and billions of dollars in new investment in Wyoming. Two studies c...
Editor, I would like to protest the upcoming changes with the Carbon County Public Defender’s office. The powers that be are proposing getting rid of administrative support staff in Rawlins thus making defendants call Laramie for assistance. As a longtime administrative assistant for a busy real estate agent I can not imagine what a disaster this is going to be. Waiting around for the lawyer to show up when, if there was a paralegal at the office you could get a quick question answered or that piece of paper signed and notarized. How are the f...
Editor, As I write this letter we don’t know who will be the next Mayor of Saratoga but felt I needed to respond to Lynda Healy’s letter in the October 31 edition of the Saratoga Sun. She stated that the previous Mayor (that be me) had entered into a lawsuit with Randy Stevens that even the insurance company would no longer honor. First off, the mayor doesn’t have the authority to enter into a lawsuit without council approval or under the advice of the town’s attorney. Secondly, her claim that the insurance company would no longer honor t...
Editor, Has anyone but me noticed the new 7 vehicle junkyard at the corner of Rochester and 4th St. Both state statues as well as our own nuisance ordinance clearly specify a maximum of 4 unlicensed rigs on private property. The obvious reason is so Saratoga can be a more pleasant place to live. Obviously someone isn’t doing their job of enforcement. If the present city council, mayor, planning officer or police chief isn’t interested in enforcement why not just dump the existing nuisance ordinance we spent hours developing and rename Roc...
Editor, Election time is November 6th. I am writing to remind everyone how the dismal state Saratoga’s financial affairs came to be. The previous mayor had entered into a lawsuit with Randy Stevens that even the insurance company would no longer honor and left Saratoga financially vulnerable. Over a quarter million dollars was spent out of the reserves that I know of for sure. The current Mayor and Council are still paying on the remnants of this. The town is also financially responsible (court ordered) should that $70,000 wall ever fail c...
Dear Editor, I was very upset approximately one year ago when our local National Forest Service (NFS) Director was involuntarily transferred a thousand miles from her home and employment in Saratoga. She had no warning nor explanation and placed under a professional directive to stay silent. The decision was made by the NFS Regional Forester supervisor of Denver, Colo., an unusual decision that employees spanning 25 years of experience had never seen before. This forced transfer surprised everyone as all her evaluations had been very good. As...
Dear Editor, It has come to my attention that the Saratoga City Council is planning NOT to renew the lease on the Platte Valley Medical Clinic building to Dr. Kaiser, and, instead is turning it over to HMS to run. Though I am not a Saratoga resident, I have a vested interest in keeping Dr. Kaiser in his professional position at the clinic. I, and others in Rawlins, have willingly and gratefully driven over to Saratoga from Rawlins to receive excellent health services from the doctors at the clinic; first Dr. Norton, then Dr. Bartholomew and...
Dear Editor, In regard to my employment at the Platte Valley Medical Clinic: Change is hard. For everyone. For those with significant medical needs it is particularly difficult to establish care with a new and unknown provider. Or in a new and unknown health care system. Having worked in nursing for the past 27 years, I have come to understand that change is the norm in health care. It is a constant that cannot be avoided. But it can be managed in ways that are helpful to those most impacted. Or, it can be mismanaged with the most important...
Dear Editor, The Saratoga/Chamber of Commerce has benefited from the 2 percent lodging tax administered by the Carbon County Visitors Council’s marketing grant program: Last year, over 180 visitor and relocation packets were sent by the chamber. The $6 postage cost per packet was reimbursed by the CCVC. Marketing and advertising costs of $8000 were reimbursed by the CCVC for the Steinley Cup Brewfest, Saratoga Lake Ice Fishing Derby and Encampment’s Copper Days Festival. The estimated impact of the 1,600 people attending these three events is...
Dear Editor, “The ideal is full time doc (doctor), that’s the ideal” said Rude, Director of Health Management Services (HMS). Sooo if that is the ideal, why would Saratoga want to hire HMS to provide less than the ideal when Saratoga CURRENTLY HAS THE IDEAL DOCTOR. So what will you get from HMS? Rude said, “If a provider, doctor provider, is available to cover the time and if the patient load can justify the expense of a doctor to cover the time and we can break even and make profit, then I’m absolutely good with that.” A possible translation...
Dear Editor, My congratulations to the UPRSWDD (Platte Valley Landfill District) for winning the Wyoming Solid Waste and Recycling Association (WSWRA) award for recycling for populations under 5,000 for 2018. Congratulations also goes to the citizens and businesses of this landfill district for making this award possible with their support of our recycling efforts in Saratoga and Encampment over the last 10 years. We have come a long way in 20 years, from no recycling at all in 1995 when I arrived here, to a new recycling building equipped...
Editor: It is official. Plastic bottles along with glass are no longer being recycled at the Saratoga landfill/transfer station. At the August 1st monthly meeting of the Upper Platte River Solid Waste Disposal District, its Chairman, Randy Raymer, said; “Glass is being put in the roll off to be put in the CD … pit … and so is mixed ridges (plastics)”, according to the Saratoga Sun article of August 8. If you want your plastic containers as well as your pop and beer boxes recycled, your must take them to the Rawlins Recycling Center. If you lea...
Editor, It is with great horror that I read about what’s going on with the medical clinic! Even though both my husband and I have lived in Rawlins for close to 25 years now, we have always doctored in Saratoga. We’ve always had excellent care, able to get in to see the doc with a short notice, etc. I was very impressed when I met Dr. Kaiser and felt good about him being my new family doctor. He was very easy to talk to and he actually listened! It will force us to find another doctor if you do indeed run Dr. Kaiser off and I would hate tha...
Editor, My heart is heavy with sadness as I compose this letter. I think the powers that be could have been more sensitive and forth coming to the public with our health care provider issues instead of the way it was handled. However righteous you may have wanted it to be, in the end, you treated us as school children and left us feeling something shady was done. I am publicly mourning the loss of a great doctor this little Valley was blessed with, Dr. Brian Kaiser. For the very short time he was here he made a huge improvement to so many...
Editor, After many questions by several different people, I thought I would help clear up what the difference in a PA (Physician Assistant), NP (Nurse Practitioner: may have different first initial depending on specialty, for instance FNP is family nurse practitioner, PNP is pediatric nurse practitioner), MD (Medical Doctor) and a DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) is. In basic form: a DO has medical school training including a focus on the muscular and skeletal systems to treat problems throughout the body. They regard the body as an integrated whole,...
Dear Editor and readership: In my years living in this Valley and elsewhere, which includes several working in administration at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, I have encountered few physicians like Dr. Bryan Kaiser. His combination of attention to current research, and to patient input, and sheer will to find solutions to patients’ problems is uncommon and to be respected and treasured. He has made a tremendous impact for the better on many residents’ lives in the short time that he has been here, with a genuine interest in diagnosis and a pa...