wednesday • july 2, 2014 • volume 127 • no. 48 • $1 river … · 2014. 7. 1. · the platte...

The PlaTTe Valley’s NewsPaPer siNce 1888

The SaraToga SunWEDNESDAY • JULY 2, 2014 • VOLUME 127 • NO. 48 • $1

Public sounds off at DKRW meeting 3

Students “Journey into the Past”

In theSun: 7

Bartholomew electedWMS Pres. 8

Veterans take 3,100 mile walk 11

Branching out on Hwy. 70 16-17

Warriors fish, bond and heal

Photo by Liz Wood

Volunteer fishing guide Steve Heinitz holds the net as Lenny Beutelspacher, an Army Vietnam veteran picks up the fish he just caught. Beutelspacher was one of 12 veterans who participated in the Wounded Warrior Event last week.

Independence day events in the ValleyBy Mike Dunn

As America celebrates its 238th birthday, Valley residents will be putting on their own celebrations this weekend.

Cancer WalkFor the third year in a row, the

SkillsUSA chapter of Saratoga High School will be hosting their annual Cancer Walk in Saratoga. Starting at 8 a.m. on July 4, res-idents will participate in a walk through downtown to benefit the Wyoming affiliate of Susan G. Komen.

Over the past two years, Skill-sUSA raised $8,000. This sum-mer, they hope to raise at least $10,000 for cancer research.

More than 120 people partici-pated in the walk in 2013, and at the April 1 Saratoga town council meeting, SkillsUSA advisor Scott Bokelman said they are expect-ing more participants in 2014.

ParadeAmerican Legion Post No.

54 will once again lead Carbon County’s only parade through the town of Saratoga.

The parade will begin at the old AmeriGas building on First street, and will continue north then turn west on Bridge street.

Deb Clark, the adjutant of the American Legion in Saratoga, said their organization has co-ordinated the parade for at least the last seven years.

“It should be a fairly large pa-rade,” Clark said. There tends to be more participants on election years.

Continued page 19

River claims Laramie manNational Guard, Search and Rescue, Game and Fish and various locals assist in recovery

By Liz Wood

Tony Seahorn knew it was a dangerous situation he was putting himself into, when he made the decision to help the stranded rafters.

“I couldn’t have gone past them, not with my military training. We were taught ‘leave no man behind’,” Seahorn said. “I could not have lived with myself if I had not tried to save him.”

Stephen Kaisler, a 70-year-old man from Laramie, was trapped in a log jam lodged up against the island. His family and friends were crying for help, Seahorn said.

Seahorn, who was guiding Vietnam veteran Keith Bauss-erman on the river, knew he had to take care of the passen-ger who was on his boat, and the people who were crying for help. Bausserman suffers from multiple sclerosis, and would not be able to help in the rescue effort. Bausserman was also not experienced on the river. Seahorn said he knew he had to make sure Bausserman was safe too. Seahorn pulled his drift boat into a small eddie.

Seahorn, an experienced Wounded Warrior Event guide and a decorated Vietnam War veteran, made every effort to help the trapped rafter, but the force of the water was overpow-ering.

Seahorn said he had only sec-onds to assess the situation as he was guiding last Thursday on the North Platte River.

Bob Smith, another experi-enced guide who was also part of the Wounded Warrior Event,

was downstream of Seahorn’s boat. Seahorn heard Smith shouting to someone, but could not see what was happening until he came around the bend.

Smith was telling the floaters “You’ve got to pull away, you’ve got to pull away.”

Smith then yelled to Seahorn, “Raft overturned, occupants in the river, one didn’t come out.”

Seahorn knows the Platte River well, and he knew they were in the most dangerous part of the Platte between Treasurer Island and the hot pool public access. An island sits between the river and Cottonwood Creek, and the current pushes right into the island, according the Seahorn. Large ripples were pushing up into a log jam caught on the island. Seahorn said it is a crucial area and rowers need to make a decision early to go to the left or right at that point in the river, or be pulled in by the current.

Smith, who had two military veterans with him, rowed his boat to the east side of the river, called for a search and rescue team and ensured his passen-gers were out of harm’s way.

Seahorn said he first ran to the three rafters who were hanging along the shore in the swift wa-ter, and then he ran with the oarsman to where Kaisler was located. “Most of the raft was submerged under the massive log sweep,” Seahorn said. “With the full river current, it was not allowing any movement of the victim or the raft.”

Seahorn got into the water where he could grab a hold of Kaisler and try to lift him out of the log jam. At one point, Seahorn was up to his chest in water, and the current was so strong it kept sweeping him off his feet. There were times that Seahorn felt he may become a

Continued page 6

, July 2, 2014 The Saratoga Sun

LET YOUR VOICEBE HEARD!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Voices of the Valley307-710-8646

[email protected]: vovwyoming.org

Check out Voices of the Valley on Facebook

This ad co-sponsored by The Saratoga Sun

For more information, please visit our web site at www.pvcenter.org,click on calendar of events or call 326-7822.

SARATOGA FARMERS MARKET

Going on Mondays 3:30 - 6:30 pm in the Platte Valley Community Center parking lot. The market runs every Monday from June 16 through September 29. There will be excellent produce, as well as local crafts and products. If you are interested in being a vendor, please

call KayCee at 710-8646.

OUR MISSION:“Voices of the Valley (VoV) is a transparent public forum respectful of all points of view. Open to community members and other in-

terested parties, it fosters the widest possible public engagement in learning, collaboration and discourse about economic, social and eco-logical factors shaping the future of the Upper

North Platte Valley.”

June 30 - July 3, 8-4:30 p.m.Driver’s Education

Sponsored by BOCES, CCSD #2PVTR

June 30, 3:30-6:30 p.m.

Farmer’s MarketPVCC parking lot

July 3, 7 p.m.

Collin Raye ConcertTheater

Dorman EwingDorman Ewing, of Saratoga,

passed away on June 23, 2014 at the Deseret Health Care Center in Saratoga.

Dorman James Ewing was born on Nov. 10, 1927 to Amos and Helen (Warner) Ewing in a ranch house east of Sundance, Wyo. When he was nine years old, the family moved to a ranch they bought on Hous-ton Creek, west of Sundance, where he grew up. He attended rural Crook County Schools. When he was 17 years old, he enlisted in the United States Navy and was honorably dis-charged in 1946.

He married Ellen Frederik-sen on May 21, 1949, and they lived in several Wyoming towns including Sundance, Newcastle, Sheridan, Edgerton and Gillette, as he worked on road construction and drove a truck. In 1969 they moved to Saratoga and in 1970 estab-lished Saratoga Corporation, a heavy equipment construction and trucking company, which he managed until retirement in 2010. In 1983 they bought some acreage north of Saratoga and established a small ranch. He built a big shop, sheds, barn and a nice cabin there

and moved the Saratoga Cor-poration equipment there from a shop he had on West Bridge Street. He always had horses, mules or calves there that he enjoyed caring for, and also spent lots of time restoring old farm equipment, which worked like new when he was finished. He always had a team and gave wagon rides and sled rides to all who enjoyed doing that.

He was a member of the Town Council, the Planning Commission and the Landfill Board for many years. In 2002 he was presented with the Pi-oneer Award by the Wyoming Trucking Association for driv-ing two million miles without

an accident or a citation. In 2009 he was privileged to go on the September Honor Flight to Washington, DC where he viewed the World War II Memorial and other war me-morials.

He was preceded in death by his parents, an infant sister, Louella, and a sister, Mercedes Peery in 2009.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Ellen; his children, Billy Ewing, Linda (Chuck) Larsen, both of Saratoga, and Sharon (John) Anderson, of Encampment; 12 grandchil-dren, 18 great-grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchil-dren; and a sister, Gail Fall of Belle Fourche, S.D.

He was a wonderful man who truly loved his family, his home and his little ranch.

Services are planned for Saturday, July 5, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. at the Valley Chapel in the Saratoga Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials to the Platte Valley Community Center, PO Box 128, Saratoga, WY would be appreciated.

Tributes and condolences may be offered online at www.carboncountyfuneralhome.com.

Tree removal road closuresStaff Report

A series of closures are scheduled to begin June 30 on Medicine Bow National Forest Road 225 (South French Creek Road) in the Snowy Range.

These temporary closures aid in the safe and efficient removal of hazard trees from roads managed by the Brush Creek-Hayden Ranger District (BCH).

The closures will occur be-tween the junctions of WY Highway 130 and Forest Road 227. Once operations have been completed on that portion of the road, the closure will shift to the next section.

Except for Fourth of July holiday weekend, closures will be continuously in effect all day, every day until Aug. 31. Beginning Sept. 1, closures will

be modified to be open during evening and weekends.

Visitors to this part of the Medicine Bow National Forest are encouraged to check the status of work areas by call-ing 307-326-5258 or stopping by the BCH Ranger District office at 2171 S. Highway 130 in Saratoga between 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday this summer.

Library looks to the starsStaff Report

At the Saratoga branch, the Carbon County libraries will put on “GermBusters.” The MythBusters-style program will take teens 11 to 18 years old through germy and nauseating experiments. The program will take place at 1 p.m. on July 11.

People will also be able to explore culinary chemistry

at the Saratoga and Encamp-ment branches. Families will have kits available to make handmade Mozzarella cheese. Registration is required due to limited supplies. “Make your own Mozzarella Cheese” will take place from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on July 18 at the Saratoga branch, and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on July 22 at the Encampment

Library. The Saratoga branch will

host “Astronomy for Everyone: Size & Scale of the Universe.” The family program will in-clude a formal presentation, then will go outdoors to view celestial objects in the night sky. The program will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on July 26, and all ages are welcome.

July 2, 2014, Page 3The Saratoga Sun

SARATOGA SUN • SARATOGA SUN • SARATOGA SUN

Public sounds off on DKRW

By Liz Wood

Wade Cline, executive vice president of construction for DKRW, told an audience of around 47 people in Medicine Bow Thursday that there are only two things left for DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC to get their coal to liquefaction plant built, but they are big things.

One is the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) agreement. Cline said Sinopec was not meeting the time lines they need to com-plete the EPC and that was becoming very problematic for DKRW.

Cline said DKRW has had multiple meetings with EPC contractors who are familiar with the project and had bid on it the first time it went out for bid.

“We have a conceptual agree-ment with them on the process forward, what it takes from today to signing an EPC agree-ment with them,” Cline said.

Cline said the agreement also includes the front end engineering design (FEED) study, which is a very detailed blueprint of the project. Cline said that they are still trying to determine what the project will cost; how long it will take to build the plant before the lender can be paid back and the financial strength of the EPC contractor.

Cline referred to the U.S.

Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee that DKRW sought in 2009 and said that after two years of inaction on the loan the DOE has pulled it out and said “Let’s look at this again.”

Part of the reason is because the DOE has money allocated from the federal government that they have not spent in programs that were developed in 2005 and 2007, Cline said.

“The current administration is getting a lot of criticism for basically adopting rules that are hurting the coal industry,” Cline said.

Cline talked about equity ownership, which could pos-sibly change the percentage of the company that DKRW could own. “It could go from 68 percent down to possibly 50 percent, or 63 percent,” Cline said.

A timeline was presented with the cautionary note that it changes daily. Cline said timeline will be updated con-tinually.

In the second half of 2014, the FEED will be reviewed. It contains around two tera-bytes of information. The EPC contractor validates the information. With these plans, the EPC contractors say “We can build it with ‘X’ and then explain what ‘X’ is,” Cline said. They are receiving prelimi-nary numbers on what ‘X’ is.”

DKRW will then select the final EPC contractor and will be diligent with the DOE loan guarantee. Documentation will be supplied to the parties and DKRW will continue to work on permits through 2015. In 2015, they will also update the socio-economic impact study, a process that takes around four months Cline said.

In 2016, DKRW will finalize the plans to begin construc-tion. The plans include deter-mining where the man camps will be located.

Once the permits from the Industrial Siting Council are approved, Cline said he pre-dicts construction will begin in the fourth quarter of 2016. The beginning construction work will be ground preparation work, according to Cline.

After 40 minutes of explain-ing the details of what is required to build the plant, public comment began.

Carbon County Commission-er Leo Chapman asked about a $66 million loss written off by Arch Mineral. Cline did not know the details. Chap-man also asked why DKRW was delinquent in paying the $10,000 owed to Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Cline stated that they had already paid around $250,000 in cost reimbursement to BLM, and had received a letter that they needed to pay another $10,000. Cline did not explain why the $10,000 was not paid by the first deadline, but said the amount had been paid.

Cindy Chase, with the Med-icine Bow Town Council, said that she knows a lot of people think that DKRW is just a big farce, but people have no idea what DKRW has to go through to meet the demands of the federal government.

Cindy Wallace, with the Carbon County Economic De-velopment Corporation, said she is received calls from housing developers and how this is going to be coordinated with the Sierra Madre and Choke Cherry projects. “I like to be kept in the loop because we do get a lot of questions,” Wallace said.

Wallace said people are losing interest because the project it taking so long. Cline replied that he too is receiving calls from people who want to come to Medicine Bow. He referred to one lady from Mon-tana who wants to operate a food service truck. “I told her

Photo by Mike Dunn

Dr. Jay Lillegraven asks Wade Cline to mark on the map where the man camp for Medicine Bow Fuel and Power will be will be located.

Continued on page 10


We have been very happy in Saratoga, and life in a smaller town is treating us exceedingly well. We bought a great house with an amazing view of the golf course, Old Baldy, and the Medicine Bow mountains and it cost less than our old house in Fort Collins. Instantly, we found the residents of Saratoga, Encampment, and Riverside to be welcoming and now feel we are a part of this neck of the woods. Being a part of, and giving back to the community has been a pri-ority of mine, and I think working at the Sun will really help me with that. I have also been on the board of the Saratoga Museum since last summer which has given me the chance to be more involved around town lend some of my archaeological expertise to a great little museum.

My wife and I are lucky enough to be starting our family here as Jillian is due with our first child at the end of October. I have to say I have been really impressed with the medical care we have received here and in Rawlins.

Getting to cover schools, sports, politics, entertainment and peo-

The Saratoga Sun is published every Wednesday, by Saratoga Sun Inc. Entered as Periodical matter at the post office at Saratoga, Carbon County, Wyoming. USPS 482-040.Postmaster: Send address changes to the Saratoga Sun, P.O. Box 489,

Saratoga, WY 82331.Owned by: Saratoga Sun, Inc. Gary

and Sue Stevenson, owners.Subscription Rates: $37 in Carbon

County, $47 elsewhere in the United States

Established in 1888 116 E. Bridge Ave. Saratoga, WY 82331

(307) 326-8311

Letters poLicy

Submission deadlines are Monday at Noon

Publisher:Gary W. Stevenson

Office Manager:Sue Stevenson

General Manager: Liz Wood

Advertising/General questionsnews and editorial [email protected]

Reporters:Mike Dunn

School board, SportsTown of Saratoga government

[email protected] Gantt

Sports and general newsRiverside/Encampment govt.

[email protected]

Graphics & Layout:Keith McLendonAdvertising copy/Artwork:

[email protected]

We welcome your letters. Letters should be timely, local, brief and contain no libelous statements. The Saratoga Sun reserves the right to edit or reject any letter for brevity, content, clarity. Anonymous letters will never be considered for publication. Thank you letters, political endorse-ment letters or political campaign letters will not be included in letters to the editor. All letters must be signed and include com-plete contact information. Deadline is Monday at noon. Mail it, deliver to the office or e-mail to [email protected].

National Weather Service

Erik the

ReadBy Erik Gantt

Still digging up dirtAs one of my favorite mu-sicians, Red Knuckles, used to say “mighty fine and a great big howdy!” After 17 years of being an archaeologist I am very happy to be starting a new career as a reporter and photographer here at the Sun. My wife and I have been in Saratoga full time for just about two years now, but since I still don’t know many of you I’ll give you a brief introduction to myself.

I was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, but raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. I think the D.C. area is a place everybody should visit for its outstanding culture, architecture, and natural beauty, but I was not built to live with so many people in such a small area.

After graduating from high school, I made my escape to the Rocky Mountain West and settled down for college in Fort Collins. In what was a great surprise to me I ended up living in Fort Col-lins for 22 years. While there I acquired both undergraduate and master’s degrees in anthropology and worked a very successful a career in archaeology. Not long before I left Fort Collins, I mar-ried my beautiful wife, Jillian, who is an archaeologist with the Forest Service. When Jillian had the opportunity to move her duty station to Saratoga, we took a leap of faith and moved to the Valley along with our oldest dog, Pancake. Since living here we adopted Meatball, another rescue dog.

ple in general gives me a great vision for the future of my child here in the Valley.

While I do not have a back-ground in journalism I have been writing archaeological reports and journal articles and giving lectures for the last 17 years. I’ll have to adapt my writing style a bit, but I think I can bring a new perspective to the Sun and its readers. Growing up in the Washington, D.C. area, where national news is local news, made politics a part of my daily life. I also played football, soccer, and lacrosse, until my sophomore year in high school when I be-came a comparative runt at 5’ 7” and only 150 pounds. I never got any taller, but I sure have gotten heavier since then.

In a rare occurrence for the D.C. area, my family has a farm where I grew up taking care of horses and became familiar with horse shows, even if it was that sissy English riding.

During high school I worked for a while setting up concerts and sporting events at George Mason University, and got to understand what backstage life is like and what rigors touring musicians and athletes face. I’m also a mu-sician who played in a bluegrass band for several years down in Colorado. I’ve finally been get-ting out and playing some music around town, so maybe I’ll see some of you folks in that capacity.

As for how I view the socio-political world around me, let’s just say I may not be as conser-

vative as many in the Valley. I consider myself a moderate, but in Wyoming that seems to make me a liberal. I intend to keep my reporting free and clear of any socio-political views I have, but in my monthly columns you should be prepared for a dose of my views on the world. I am a gun owner, but I believe in gun control. I am a straight, married, white male, but I believe in the right of anyone to marry whomever they choose. I think there are major problems on both sides of the aisle in Con-gress, but we have to work within the Republic that we have, which includes the necessity of voting for our beliefs. It is a pet peeve of mine that so many people blame congress for not acting like the supreme court, the president for

not having the powers of congress and the supreme court for being both too political and not political enough.

I think education is the key to our future, and teachers are un-derpaid and undervalued. Those are just a few of my thoughts on the world at large.

So, if you read something of mine that you don’t agree with down the road, let’s have a civi-lized debate. I have a pretty thick skin and a good sense of humor, which are already proving to be critical around the office here at the Sun. I invite any comments, criticisms and questions the readers of the paper have for me. Stop by the office and say howdy if you get a chance, I’d love to meet as many of you as I can.

Wednesday Sunny, with a high near 76. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming north-west in the afternoon.

Wednesday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 49. North northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southeast after midnight.

Thursday Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. South southeast wind 10 to 15 mph becoming west in the after-noon.

Thursday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 52.

Independence Day A 20 percent chance of showers

and thunderstorms after noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 81.

Friday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 50.

Saturday Sunny, with a high near 82.

Saturday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 50.

Sunday Sunny, with a high near 82.

Sunday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 50.

Monday Sunny, with a high near 82.


More Letters to the Editor on page 7

#1 R

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GEN

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318 N. First St. | P. O. Box 725Saratoga, Wyoming 82331

www.century21cornerstone.com

307-326-5760

EACH OFFICE IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED.

RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL RANCH • RECREATIONAL

Will Speer,Assoc. Broker

Susan Speer,Broker

Dave ShadrickSales Assoc.

Pam SandovalAssoc. Broker &Rental Properties

304 N. 2nd - Saratoga

Let your imagination be your guide! A newly renovated home with 7 bedroom

suites and a guest cottage with a bedroom and bathroom. Suites have full bathrooms,

some with skylights. Sunken great room features a circular fireplace and wet bar. Heated sun porch, underground sprinkler system and lots of parking, all on a corner lot. Owners are licensened Wyoming Real

Estate Brokers.

Listed at $310,000

Editor It is time to dump our Mayor

and his administration and get new blood to run our town that will hopefully demonstrate some administrative compe-tence that has been totally lacking. Here are a few of the in-competences demonstrated by the current administration:

1) The new $4M budget they approved that is an 84% in-crease. That is ridiculous!

2) The disastrous water me-ter/sewer line replacement project. I am an engineer and I watched the implementation of this project with total dis-may. I did not see a city official inspect one piece of the work at our location at N. Veterans St., nor probably anywhere else in town. Any engineer knows that no matter how good the design or planning may be, the work must be closely inspected as it is performed to prevent failures…especially when the low bid contractor has limited credentials. The Sun article on May 28 quoted the contractor as saying during his fight with the town for payment that

the specification issued by the Town didn’t even require the contractor to have any certi-fied plumbers. I watched them attempt the installation of our meter pits 3 times before they got it right…all without any inspections. I also watched the contractor install the new sewer line at the corner of N. Veterans and Saratoga St. as a 90 degree right angle which immediately started clogging. Everyone knows you install corner sewer lines with two 45 degree angles to avoid clogging. As a result they had to dig it up and do it over. Again, I saw no inspectors from the Town.

3) To date the Town is still trying to get the wireless me-ter network to work. Costs to the Town budget have been astronomical and are still not over. Other towns have not had problems with this wireless meter system, implying the problem is local.

4) The proposed walking bridge from Hobo Pool to Veterans island. Why is it even needed...especially with an 84% budget increase? I

learned from STANTEC that the Town failed to tell them of this intended bridge until Dec 2013, which could have been a major impact on their river restoration project design.

5) The decision by the Town to pursue a $1.5M outfall transmission sewer project, which will discharge raw am-monia into the river and can potentially devastate our pre-cious trout population. When questioned as to what alter-native approaches had been investigated that would be cheaper and not create a dis-charge into the river, the an-swer was vague at least. Many cities in the country don’t have a river to discharge sewer effluent into and have to use other alternatives. For exam-ple a close friend who lives in Las Cruces, NM tells me that they solved their sewer plant problem (without a river) with a closed set of lagoons that use an algae process to handle the sewage..all without any envi-ronmentally hazardous dis-charges. Why can’t Saratoga do something similar?

6) Failure to enforce Town Ordinances. After the Town ap-proved the “Clean up ordinance” practically nothing was done to enforce it. I submitted a com-plaint under this ordinance as a fire and health safety hazard for an adjacent property shortly after it was passed and waited 7 years for the city to actually do anything to enforce the ordi-nance with the property owner in question. One of the draws of our town as a tourist site should be its appearance. I have had relatives tell me that Saratoga looks to them like a dirty little river town with so many prop-erties littered with old cars, trash, broken down equipment, etc. That is not the appearance or reputation you want to have as a tourist town.

7) I have watched the battle for 3 years over the ordinance that requires property owners who are running a business on their property to be permitted. Still it is not resolved. The one case of an owner basically run-ning a saw mill and log home construction business on his property within the city limits

goes on and on without resolve. Even after the owner was presented a cease and desist order he continues to operate and the Town seems unable or unwilling to take action and enforce it.

Space limits me from pre-senting a much longer list. A common thread among all of them is the lack of good com-munication by the Mayor and his administration. Latest meeting with STANTEC to hear their status of the river restoration project and collect input, was given in the newspa-per with only two days notice…no other announcement. Town council and Planning Com-mission meetings are a joke... parliamentarian rules of order usually ignored, lots of the members telling the citizens how it is going to be whether they like it or not, and prac-tically no listening/acknowl-edgement to their concerns or complaints. It is time to clean house and change the culture of our Town administration!

John EllisSaratoga

Resident calls for new blood in town hall

Town isn’t bike friendlyEditor:Is Saratoga friendly to bicy-

cle tourists who come peddling through town almost every day in the summertime?

I’m inclined to think not after observing a situation that occurred this last Friday the 27th. I watched two young men as they approached town hall after 5 p.m. Since the business day was over, they went around the corner to the police station, where I learned later, they asked directions to the nearest camp site and were told they had to go to Saratoga Lake. As I was finishing up my recycling for the day, I watched them peddle around town, first to Veteran’s Island then to the hot pool where I first made contact with them. Having suspected they were told to go to the lake, I took the time to drive there and measure the distance. From the police station to the pay booth at the lake is 2.3 miles. In an attempt to determine the shortest route I took the back road back to Saratoga. It was 1.9 miles.

When I discussed the distance with them they were disappoint-ed, and inquired if there were any closer options. They had traveled 65 miles from Walden that day and didn’t relish two more miles to a patch of grass with a bathroom and no shower. Sadly I could offer no other option. I did suggest Deer

Haven Campground only to find out later there was no tent camp-ing allowed, due to lack of public bathrooms and showers.

These men were spending the summer peddling from Arizona to Glacier National Park. They indi-cated this was the first town they had come to in their travels that had no camping facilities within the town for bicycle tourists. The irony was this conversation oc-curred beside the hot pool where they could have taken a shower and soaked their sore muscles after a hard day’s ride before going downtown to spend money in our community buying a meal and maybe a beer.

Why couldn’t they have spent the night on that undeveloped land, owned by the city, right be-hind the hot pool? In my opinion, Saratoga is sending a bad message about their friendliness to bicycle travelers and Continental Divide hikers by not having camping fa-cilities within the town limits. It began to rain and I broke off the conversation. How did these fel-lows spend the night in Saratoga and what memories did they take with them as they peddled out of “Happy Valley” the next morning?

Sincerely hoping we can do better.

Richard HodgesSaratoga

More Letters to the Editor on page 7


casualty himself.Both men grabbed Kaisler’s

wrists and pulled. Kaisler’s face was only partially above water, Seahorn said.

Seahorn used his knife to puncture the raft bladder to relieve the pressure of the river pushing against the raft.

“We were able to grab both wrists and turn him slightly to try and get his head and shoul-ders above water,” Seahorn said. The pressure was too great and the current eventually pulled his body and the raft beneath the log jam and out of reach.

Seahorn said when he grabbed Kaisler’s wrist the second time, he felt the life leave Kaisler’s body. He still was desperately trying to retrieve the body as the family and friends cried for help.

The Rescue TeamBrad Cary, with the Saratoga

Search and Rescue team, had rowed his rescue raft to the site as Kaisler slipped out of Seahorn’s hands.

“I was still in recovery mode,” Seahorn said, as Cary ap-proached the scene. “The wife was crying for us to retrieve the body and I was trying to see if there was anything else I can do.”

Cary told Seahorn, “Tony, you have done everything you can. We need to do our work. If you would take the survivors in your boat across the river, we have an ambulance coming across the Kelley Land and Cattle hay meadow. If you get them across, they will be out of the way and they need to be checked for hy-pothermia.”

Seahorn said the survivors had lost their shoes and were soaking wet.

“(Brad) basically relieved me and said ‘you need to get them across if you would please and get your vets on down the river,’” Seahorn said.

“He helped me a lot, because number one he said ‘Tony, I am relieving you from your mission, you have done all you can.’ When he asked me to shuttle the peo-ple across they were afraid of the water; they were afraid to get back in the river,” Seahorn recounted.

“(Brad) says, ‘Tony is veteran, he is one of our local heroes, he’s been guiding or rowing on this river for 40 or 50 years.’ I thought ‘I didn’t know Brad knew this much about me,’” Seahorn said.

Cary told the survivors “I guarantee Tony will get you across the river.” Seahorn said he didn’t have extra life jackets for the survivors and theirs had been lost with the raft.

“Brad was so reassuring to them and did such a good job of saying ‘Let me tell you about

Tony so that you know he can take you across safely’,” Seahorn said. “Those types of reassurances are very important in a situation like this.”

Cary had two other search and rescue team members with him on the raft; Bo Alameda and Bub Barkhurst. Melanie Fullman, Chuck McVey and Randy Sikes also responded with the search and rescue team.

As Seahorn approached the bank, he saw a four-by-four vehicle approach. He saw his neighbor, Jason Theisefield, and Matt Roberts with a chainsaw. Both men are on the search and rescue team. Once he dropped off the survivors, he took the search and rescue team members back across the river. The river was so treacherous he had to row down-stream around 400 yards from the rescue site to drop off the rescue team. The search and rescue team walked up to the accident site to see if they could recover the raft and Kaisler’s body.

The log jam was extremely extensive and complex, Seahorn said. “I think they would have had to cut 15 logs to try and figure out where they were.”

Seahorn estimated that the depth of the river was more than 10 feet. Kaisler’s body was pulled down by the current past the log jam, which Seahorn thought was down six feet or more. Kaisler’s body was recovered downstream by a group of Wyoming Army National Guard who were floating the river.

The National GuardMembers of the National

Guard, who earlier in the month had worked sandbagging the area during major flood stage, had come to Saratoga Thursday to float the river. They were downstream from the accident when they saw the body. Sandy Streeter, a Wounded Warrior Event volunteer, witnessed the National Guard team and said she was very impressed with the great care in which they had tak-en when retrieving Kaisler’s body.

Steeter advised the National Guard team where to dock and called Randy Sikes to lead him to the recovery site.

Streeter had just left the station 15 where she had rendezvoused with members of the Wound Warrior Event. Streeter was part of the support team that provided drinks and food as the floaters stopped to rest.

Streeter said she was flagged down by the National Guard and stopped to see if they needed help. She soon discovered through conversation they had found Kai-sler’s body. As she walked toward the shoreline, she could see the blinking lights of the ambulance, the fire department’s search and rescue suburban. They identified

themselves as National Guard.Sandy explained to the Na-

tional Guard they would not be able to dock near the am-bulance. “They can’t get to you from there,” she told them. You need to come to this side (of the river).”

Streeter walked up to a big grassy spot and witnessed the treatment of Kaisler’s body. “She was so kind, reverent and gen-tle,” Streeter said of the way a female National Guard member treated Kaisler’s body as they rowed across the river.

At first, Streeter thought the National Guard had been called out on the recovery effort. They told her they were on days off and were floating the river.

The National Guard mem-bers had already contacted the sheriff’s office, and when the ambulance had not arrived, Streeter called Sike’s to advise him of the recovery location. She met them at Shay Bridge to told them where the National Guard was with the body.

Seahorn’s wife, Janet, also was at the recovery site.

Janet said it was so important to the female National Guard member to know Kaisler’s name. “I thought, ‘she wanted his wife to know (her husband was in good hands),’” Janet said.

Dr. Dean Bartholomew was also on the Wounded Warrior Event float trip as a guide and medical support.

Bartholomew and Seahorn drove from the picnic site to the recovery site and help move the body from the raft to the shore, Streeter said. Seahorn confirmed this account in his interview.

The Game and FishRyan Kenneda was called out

to the rescue site to fill in for Game Warden Biff Burton, who was out on another assignment. Kenneda, who is the Game Warden in Elk Mountain, said he was on standby with the Wooldridge 110 horse power jet boat. “Biff uses the jet boat to check fishing licenses on the riv-er,” Kenneda said. The boat can also be used in search and rescue operations, Kenneda added.

Burton said the boat is also used to check boating compli-ance, access areas and for wild-

life and fishery surveys.By the time Kenneda was in

place to launch the boat, he was told the survivors had been res-cued. On Friday, Kenneda and Burton returned to the river to retrieve the raft as evidence in the investigation.

The raft was lodged on the east side of the river upstream from the Old Baldy Club cook-out site, and took more than 45 minutes to retrieve. Kenneda said that Game and Fish is often called in for search and rescues on the river, because they do have jurisdiction in the investi-gation. The Game and Fish then report their findings to the Coast Guard, as Wyoming has adopted the Coast Guard rules. Since Game and Fish is reimbursed by the Coast Guard for the work on the inland waterways, reports of accidents on the river are turned over to Coast Guard.

“This is a tragedy for the family and my heart goes out to them,” Kenneda said. The river is a valuable resource, and fun to float on, but it can also be dangerous, Kenneda said. “It takes a certain amount of skill to navigate,” During snow runoff, the flows of the river change and it is the most dangerous during the spring, Kenneda said. When the river is high, that is when it changes the quickest, Kenneda said. Trees fall over and create hazards and people must use caution.

Just five days into summer, the river was still high and proved that it is still a danger.

The Wounded WarriorsSeahorn said one of the things

that Platte Valley Trout Unlim-ited is trying to do is to make a difference in the lives of the veterans who have a disability, using the river has a healing affect for the veterans, Seahorn said.

“Of all the tragedy we have in war, we are trying to move forward and heal through the wounds of war. Our Wounded Warrior Event is all about that,” Seahorn said. “We are trying to make a difference with those we are hosting. They are struggling with a lot of physical and emo-tional issues.”

“It also helps those of us who are involved, I think,” Seahorn said. “Whether to heal from our wounds or issues and in some way by giving back, we can con-tinue to move down that road of healing.”

Seahorn knows first-hand what it like to be a wounded veteran of war. His helicopter was shot down in Vietnam and he has dedicated his life to work-ing with wounded warriors. He is the co-founder of the Wounded Warrior Event and participates every year. The program has been in Saratoga for four years.

Many of the veterans have expressed their gratitude each

year at the closing dinner on Thursday night.

After the closing dinner Thursday night, the veterans who witnessed the rescue efforts visited with Tony and each other to debrief on what happened earlier that day. Seahorn ex-plained at the briefing, the first thing that went through the veterans’ mind is it was one of the rafts with the Wounded Warrior Event, which included Dr. Dean Bartholomew, Ethan Bartholomew, this reporter and three employees of the Veter-ans Association – Vickie Rich-ards, Kristi Rubin and Janel Melinkovich.

Whether or not it was a fellow wounded warrior boat has also crossed Seahorn’s mind, but he knew Bartholomew was good on the river and the raft was not the color of Bartholomew’s raft. “The shock went through me at first, oh my God, it’s them and then I realized it’s not the right color.”

The veterans, who did not process the fact the rafts were different colors, were still afraid that it was the support boat that Bartholomew was operating. “That was part of the emotion,” Seahorn said. “Tears were roll-ing because they were so con-cerned about Kristi and Janel.”

Rubin and Melinkovich were part of the debriefing, and the veterans told the ladies “We thought it was you.”

“I reassured them. Accidents and tragedies in life can happen. But when we put you in boats with our Wounded Warrior Event you are with the best people available,” Seahorn said. “We are not going to put you in a boat with anybody who is not totally capable.”

Seahorn explained to veterans that all of the guides that day were experienced, and several people volunteer to guide the event, but the organizers hand pick who is guiding the veterans because they want to ensure their safety.

That made them feel better, Seahorn said. “They were think-ing it could have been them and it could have, but I wanted to reassure them that we are not going to put them in harm’s way.”

The veterans shared their experiences of losing their best friends in combat and friends dying in their arms. “Some of us can relate to that,” Seahorn said. Vietnam veterans have seen so much death and destruction and this accident really brought out the emotions. “I shared some of my emotions.” The veterans said to Tony, “We hope you are not second guessing what you did today.”

Tony said “I am going to grap-ple with this for a while, but I know that I did what I could do and reacted the way I thought I would react.”

River claims Laramie man, Continued page 1

He still wasdesperately

trying to retrieve the body as the

family and friends cried for help.


WRA Sanctioned Rodeo Events plus Amateur Events:Barrel Racing • Team Roping • Bareback Riding

Breakaway Roping • Saddle Bronc Riding • Calf Roping

Kid’s Activities include: Mutton Bustin’ • Boot RaceSign-up at the Arena. First come, first serve

Entries for the WRA events will be through the WRA Entry System. Sign-ups for the Amateur events will be taken June 30th from 6 - 8 p.m.

and July 7th from 6 - 8 p.m. by calling either (307) 329 5769or (307) 710-8949. Callbacks are July 8th from 6 - 8 p.m.

By Erik Gantt

Summer school students from Saratoga Elementary visited the Saratoga Museum Thursday as part of their sum-mer theme “Journey into the Past”. The group was made up of 17 children, kindergarten through sixth grade, led by first grade teacher Annette Kelley and kindergarten teacher Kelly Horn.

The kids were toured through

indoor and outdoor exhibits by museum Director Virginia Parker and board member and geology and archaeology expert Rod Laird.

Parker said “everybody found something they were interested in,” and the most comments during the tour were about a monkey hair cape, a Union Pacific caboose, and a sheepherder’s wagon.

Laird showed the students

Monkey hair capeand a mammoth tooth

around the artifact-filled ge-ology and archaeology rooms, quizzing students about fossils and what the Paleoindian ver-sion of a grocery store might have looked like. According to Laird, “education is … the major goal of the museum. We seize every opportunity that comes along to show the youngsters of the community information about our past.”

Photo by Erik Gantt

Rod Laird, center, teaches summer school students about the Casper Site bison kill. Left to right, are Byron Bates, Chloe Shumaker, Avangalye Purchase and Rhea Irby.

Editor,I write in opposition to the

Town Council passing an ordi-nance which would add a 4% franchise fee to the franchise agreement in negotiation now with the Carbon Power and Light (CP&L) which would begin July 1, 2014. This would affect the CP&L bills of the 1032 households and 262 com-mercial accounts within the Town of Saratoga. This is an anti-business maneuver by this administration that will last for the next 10 years. In the last 10 years our water bills have gone up greatly, despite the “money-saving” wells that replaced the treatment of water from the river. Families are now charged an often unattain-able $250 to use the Town pool in our short summer. Charging a franchise fee to CP&L will increase our electric bills as it must be passed down to its

customers - it’s a non-profit company we all own. This 4 % fee/tax hurts our citizens on fixed incomes. But it most greatly impacts our schools and our businesses. In Janu-ary 2014 the 262 commercial accounts were billed $130,301 by CP&L, that’s an average of $497 per month per account, while the 1032 household ac-counts were billed $126,258. That means our schools and businesses would provide 51% of this tax from ¼ as many accounts. This from a Town administration that is not receiving less income in fiscal year 2014/2015, and has done little to decrease their budget. It is estimated that CP&L col-lects 2.8 million a year in the Town, so the Town proposed 4% franchise fee would add $112,000. Fifty-one per cent or $57,120 of that fee/tax would be on the backs of our

businesses and schools. Last year’s electric bill for CCSD#2 in Saratoga was $120,000 (be-fore sales tax). Four percent added to their electric bill is a $4800 decrease in the CCSD#2 budget. What school program will they have to cut? And I can’t imagine the margin on 2 X 4s is very high and I would bet our newest major employer is also our largest user of electricity who will be hit hard by this fee/tax. Think also of the Town taxing their own large electric bills and the Platte Valley Community Center – will the Town add that back to their budget? This Town has never had an executed franchise agreement with CP&L that charged a franchise fee in 70 years. Why start now and hurt our schools and businesses?

Cindy BloomquistSaratoga

Fee will be bad for business


By Erik Gantt

Dean Bartholomew, M.D., the physician-owner of the Platte Valley Medical Clinic (PVMC), was elected Presi-dent of the Wyoming Medical Society (WMS) last week. Bartholomew said “It is excit-ing, it is an honor and a priv-ilege to be able to represent the society and the physicians throughout the state.” He feels that his presidency will help represent the rural voice and be of benefit to smaller clinics, especially in this time when there are policy changes involving Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.

In Bartholomew’s view, it’s a difficult time for medical practice’s in Wyoming right now, especially in regard to electronic filing and sharing of medical records. It’s hard for smaller clinics that don’t have large staffs with administra-tive officers that are tasked solely with compliance respon-sibilities. This is an area where Bartholomew feels particularly adept at representing the view

Dr. Bartholomew elected President of WMS

of the small clinic to the WMS.Bartholomew’s duties will

call for added time away from the clinic, but he is comfortable with that because his nurse practitioner Jennifer Oiler and physician’s assistant Ed-

win Sheils will be there to see patients.

Bartholomew’s duties as president include being a spokesperson for the WMS, heading quarterly board meet-ings, and managing day-to-day

affairs of the Society along with the Executive Director.

Because of his exposure as president of the WMS, Bartholomew thinks “It’s a great chance for Saratoga and the Corbett Medical Foun-dation. People know what’s happening here at the state level.” He would also like to have a WMS Board of Trustees meeting in Saratoga as a way to introduce members to the Valley and the PVMC.

The WMS represents over 500 physicians state-wide with approximately 25 members on the board of trustees. The primary goals of the Society are physician and patient rep-resentation at the state level and physician recruitment; especially in rural areas.

Bartholomew feels that phy-sician recruitment is a partic-ularly sensitive issue in state because of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the fact that Wyoming has not approved an expansion of Medicaid. The WMS is in favor of expanding Medicaid in order

to allow more patients access to insurance.

When asked if the Affordable Care Act is a good thing for small practices in Wyoming, Bartholomew said that obvi-ously there is a political side, but from a patient standpoint, it is overall a good thing be-cause patients who didn’t use to have access to healthcare now do.

From a clinic standpoint the Affordable Healthcare Act probably helps because there are more patients with insur-ance and they can pay their medical bills, although there has been an overall increase in deductibles. Bartholomew said, “health insurance is get-ting to be a little more like car insurance…it kicks in when you have a major incident.”

In regard to Medicaid expan-sion, patients from zero to 138 percent above the poverty level could be covered, but Wyoming has opted not to participate and that group now does not have access to insurance.

Photo Erik Gantt

Dr. Dean Bartholomew was recently elected president of the Wyoming Medical Society. He is hoping to give rural health care a voice to benefit smaller clinics.


UPDATE

Faith & Freedom Film FestivalFree Event! Sunday, July 6 at 5pm

at the Saratoga Middle/ High School

Kids Club at the City Gym during film for grades K-6

Sponsored by:First Baptist Church in partnership

with Samaritan’s Purse, ProjectPrevention, Grace for 2 Brothers and

North American Mission Board.For more information,

visit our website:www.fbcsaratogawy.org

RE-ELECT

Jerry Paxton“My goal isto preserve

and promoteYOUR

quality of life.”

house district #47

Paid for by the Jerry Paxton Campaign Committee

By Mike Dunn

Editor’s note: This is the sec-ond story in a series about Mi-chelle McWain. She is a wife, a mother, a Carbon County School District No. 2 employee and a breast cancer survivor.

***When Michelle McWain re-

ceived the call telling her she had breast cancer, there was no time for her to feel sorry for herself. Her life was at risk, and waiting was not an option.

“The most frustrating thing was being your own advocate,” Michelle said. “You are trying to deal with the shock of being diagnosed, and in my mind, things didn’t go fast enough.”

But along her road to re-covery, there was literally a mountain range in her path.

Michelle chose the Meredith and Jeannie Ray Cancer Cen-ter in Laramie for her treat-ment. The staff there was incredible, Michelle said, but the 100-mile drive was anything but convenient. Additionally, from June to September, Michelle would drive to Cheyenne once a week to meet with her plastic surgeon.

According to statistics from the American Can-cer Society, in 2014 there will be on average 1.5 new cases of breast cancer, 1 new case of colon cancer and 1.5 new cases of lung cancer in the Platte Valley every year. Local physician Dean Bartholomew, M.D., said those numbers are standard with the national av-erage, but still creates a prob-lem for Platte Valley residents who are looking for treatment.

“ P r o b a b l y t h e b i g g e s t struggle is the distance,” Bartholomew said. “When you start talking about cancer treatment, that takes a lot of visits with the oncologist.”

Michelle drove to Laramie and Cheyenne numerous times throughout her fight with can-cer. She would take Highway 130 across the Snowy Range to get to Laramie until October. Once the road closed for the season, Michelle was forced to take Interstate 80 to Laramie.

The road conditions on I-80 were hazardous; Michelle fought the blowing snow just to get to her treatments. The cost of gas driving to her ap-pointments back and forth was high.

***With the cancer she had,

there was a good chance it would spread to her other breast. Her doctors at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center gave her choices; she could have a lumpectomy, which would remove just the tumor and infected tissue in her breast; a single mastecto-my, which would remove the entire breast with the cancer-ous cell; or a radical double mastectomy, which would re-move both of her breasts.

Going through treatment once was more than enough for her.

Without deliberation from family members, she chose to undergo a double mastectomy.

“I wanted them both gone, I don’t want to have to deal with this in two years,” Michelle said.

She had the surgery, but Mi-chelle still had another moun-tain to cross: chemotherapy.

***Michelle watched as the slow

drip of the chemotherapy went into her arm. The treatment took seven hours to complete. She would pass the time by reading, watching TV, visiting with staff and talking with family members who accom-panied her.

According to the National Cancer Institute, chemothera-py is a type of cancer treatment that uses drugs to destroy can-cer cells. The treatment works by stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells, which grow and divide quickly.

She was scheduled to have six treatments.

Michelle would have her treatment on Thursday and would feel well enough to work on Friday. However, once the weekend came, she would start to feel nauseous as the side effects of her treatment kicked in.

Michelle would be back to work on Monday. If nothing else, work took her mind off

Cancer in the Platte Valley Part Two: Crossing mountains

chemotherapy and cancer.But everyone has a breaking

point. By the fourth chemotherapy

treatment, Michelle had lost 30 pounds, the holiday season was coming up and she want-ed to feel well again. She just wanted to be done.

Michelle would not have done the fifth and sixth treat-ment without support from others. “You’ve come this far, just a few more,” she was told by nurses and friends.

She counted down every treatment until her last “Five more chemo sessions, four more sessions … ”

It was only by the grace of God, Michelle said, that she finished the last two treat-ments.

***Chemotherapy did not phys-

ically pain Michelle — the side effects just made her feel nauseous. It was uncom-fortable, she said.

However, the treat-ment took its toll on her mentally.

Michelle never saw her-self as much of a vain per-son. She cared about her looks, she said, but it was never her top priority.

“But the minute my hair started falling out, that was so sad,” she said.

Michelle would find her hair on the pillow after a night’s sleep. It would fall out while she was washing her hair. She would occasionally reach up to touch her head, only to come down with globs of hair stuck to her hand.

This is typical while under-going chemotherapy. While chemotherapy kills the can-cerous cells, it kills healthy cells with it. Most commonly, hair cells are the first to die off after the treatment.

Eventually, Michelle’s loss of hair became too much for her; she asked her husband to shave her head.

“When you have no hair, no eye lashes, no breasts; you just lose a part of your femininity,” she said.

Michelle never wanted to look in the mirror. She avoided all photos. It was too much to see herself like that.

But the hair does grow back. The sickness does go away. “It’s just the light at the end of the tunnel that you have to constantly push to,” she said.

“You’ve come this far, just a few more,” she was told by nurses and friends.

THE SARATOGA SUN • 116 EAST BRIDGE STREET, P.O. BOX 489, SARATOGA, WY 82331


Advertising in the Sun is a bright idea!Advertising in the Sun is a bright idea!

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REWARDA reward of up to $10,000 is hereby offered for the information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the theft or willful destruction of cattle or sheep owned by producers having livestock operations in Carbon County, Wyoming and adjacent counties. The amount of such reward, up to $10,000, will be determined by the sole discretion of a committee appointed by the Carbon County Stock Growers Association and will be paid upon the conviction of the criminal(s). The theft or destruction must have occurred between May 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014 and the information must be reported within one year of the crime.

Contact the CARBON COUNTY SHERIFF’S Office at (307) 324-2776 or (866) 324-2776 with any information.

Happy

70thBirthday Cowboy

—Love your wife and family!

not to spend a dollar yet. Proj-ects have risk and although I do believe this project will go forward, I can’t guarantee it.”

Wallace has concerns that all of the construction could hit all at once. Cline responded that is part of the socio-economic impact study and if there is not enough housing for the con-structions workers, DKRW will be required to build the housing at their own cost.

Reese Johnson, whose ranch is located near the plant pro-posed by DKRW, asked why DKRW has submitted and with-drawn three different construc-tion proposals over the course of 12 months. Johnson asked for specifics on a man camp near the construction site. She also asked for the name of project manager at the Department of Energy.

Cline responded the project manager with the Department of Energy is Lynn Alexander.

About the construction sched-ule, Cline said, “We had an unrealistic schedule … it was too optimistic.”

Johnson said she couldn’t un-derstand how they can have 360 pages about the FEED and can’t

have an idea of where the man camp is going to be lo-cated. Johnson said the man camps will have a significant impact on the communities.

Cline told Johnson while the man camps are signifi-cant, they are not part of the FEED and EPC process.

Determining the location for a man camp is not nearly as critical as knowing exactly where the gasifier is going to be, Cline said. He explained there are several companies that build man camps and they have several modular designs those companies can use for the man camps.

Lillegraven said that the geographic location of the man camp is required by the Industrial Siting Council. Based on that, Lillegraven stated the permit should not have been approved by the Industrial Siting Council. Lillegraven has been asking where the man camp is going to be placed for a very long time and said “I really want to know and I think a lot of people want to know.”

Lillegraven had a copy of the official map and asked

Cline to mark where the man camp is going to be placed. “We should have known in 2007 and certainly in 2008 when the per-mit was approved.”

Cline said he would not sub-mit anything the night of the meeting. “On that map as I see it, our facility is further east and north of that.”

Cline and Lillegraven dis-agreed on the township in the legal description of the map.

A discussion began asking about the number of workers and when they would be in the construction area and whether or not they are coordinating with Power Company of Wy-oming. Cline said that one of the purposes of the Industrial Siting Permit and that it is explained in the permit how many people will be on the job site during certain times of con-struction. “It’s on a bell curve,” Cline said.

D a v e T h r o g m o r t o n , o f Rawlins, asked what would happen that if the Department of Energy doesn’t award the loan guarantee.

“If they turn us down, we will continue to pursue other means of financing,” Cline said.

DKRW, continued page 3

Staff Report

Two Platte Valley residents have graduated from Western Wyoming Community College in the Spring 2014.

Brandee Forster received her A.A.S. in Of-

Two graduate from WWCC

Bird on a wire

Photo Mike Dunn

A Western Wood-Pewee rests on the Treasure Island Foot Bridge near the Treasure Island boat ramp.

fice Information Systems, and Lionel Escobe-do earned his A.A. in Secondary Education.

Degrees were conferred at Commencement on May 16.


G. GleeJohnson

Candidate forMayor of Saratoga

I will bring this belief to the table with the hope of benefiting all who live here in our beautiful valley.

A vote for Glee is a vote FOR Saratoga.AD PAID FOR BY THE JOHNSON FAMILY AND CONTRIBUTORS TO GLEE FOR MAYOR

Good leaders study to be informed, to understand what an ordinance is saying in order to fairly enforce it.

BULLFEST IS BACK!Same place, but we brought a new date!

BUCK SPRINGS ARENA • AUGUST 2, 2014

Craig Cameron

horsemanshipClinic* FREE! *

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- F

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Saturday, July 26, 2014 • 10am to 2pmBuck Springs Rodeo Grounds • Saratoga, WyomingLunch available at concession stand from Noon to 1pm

Craig Cameron, world-champion cowboy,hall of fame member, star of RFD-TV,will conduct a clinic on horsemanship

and how to “Put a Handle on a Horse”,followed by questions and answers.

By Doug Radunich

Three ambitious military veterans from across the U.S. are hiking the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (CDNST).

The veterans—Thomas Gath-man, Rob Voorhis and Shawn Murphy—are hiking the 3,100-mile trail as part of a “Walk Off the War” trek done through the Warrior Hike program. The program is designed to sup-port all veterans transitioning from their military service by “thru-hiking”, as it is called, along America’s National Sce-nic Trails.

According to the program website, Warrior Hike was founded by Sean Gobin, a Ma-rine who returned home from three combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan in 2012. After hiking the Appalachian Trail, Gobin recognized the therapeutic effects of long-dis-tance hiking, and later created the program.

Warrior Hike’s “Walk Off the War” treks allow veterans to experience a journey and transition process with the camaraderie of other veterans, who also understand the chal-lenges facing today’s veterans. In addition to the CDNST, the program trails include the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail.

Out of the hikers currently on the Continental Divide, Gathman and Voorhis are both Marines. Gatham is from Lewisburg, Penn., and Voorhis is from Chenango Forks, N.Y.

Murphy, who had served be-fore 9/11, is an Army veteran from Auburn, Wash.

The three vets took a break in Encampment June 13 as part of their journey along the trail. All three began thru-hiking along the CDNST on April 13 this year, and according to an estimate from Gatham, they are roughly more than 900 miles into the trail thus far.

“Today we hiked to the top of Bridger Peak, and we had about a foot of snow over our heads in many places,” Gath-man said. “There were six of us at the start of the trail, but the other three injured themselves and had to quit. On a trail like this or any long-distance trail, you’re going to have a high attrition rate. Just because we put in our time in the military, that doesn’t equate to everyone hiking a full long-distance trail because injuries and accidents happen.”

The veterans began at the trail’s starting point in Mexico, and will keep heading north, expecting to finish at the trail’s end in Canada by mid-Sep-tember. The CDNST runs

through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana before ending in Canada.

“The three of us have done every single mile so far, and we aim to try and do every single mile from here on out too,” Gathman said. “An Army Blackhawk Pilot with us frac-tured his foot and had to take time off to heal, but he’s hoping to catch back up with us by July 1. He wants to pick up on the trail where we are and continue on. Another guy with us had a herniated disc issue that stemmed from an issue in combat, and another had a torn meniscus in his knee that required surgery.”

From 2006 to 2010, Gathman served in the Marine Corps and did two combat tours to Iraq. After completing the Appala-chian Trail, he said he wanted to try his luck along the Conti-nental Divide.

“I did the Appalachian Trail last year with the Warrior Hike, and I loved it so much I wanted to keep hiking,” Gatham said. “I got the bug as soon as I hiked the Appalachian, and I realized I wanted to continue doing this. This is one of the best trails on the market so I figured I’d give it a shot, and so far so good. We haven’t even hit the hard parts yet as far as I’m concerned.”

Voorhis, a Marine for five years, served in Afghanistan and took tours in Southeast Asia after 9/11. He said he had also heard good things about the Continental Divide Trail.

“They call this the king of all trails, and if we haven’t hit the hard parts yet, we’ve hit enough of it,” Voorhis said. “It’s pretty difficult, and I’ve even traveled around a bunch before this. This was a great opportunity to get out here and really give the thru-hiking thing a shot. This is my first thru-hike, and I didn’t choose the Continental Divide Trail, it chose me.”

Voorhis said it is easy to get lost at times during their jour-ney along the divide.

“A lot of the trails are not completely marked yet and there isn’t really a defined route, unlike the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails,” he said. “You can’t get lost on those trails, especially Appala-chian, but on this one you can get misplaced a lot. I’ve been misplaced dozens of times so far, but you always find your way back and it always works out in the end.”

Murphy served in the Army from 1984 to 1990. He said he mostly served during peace time, but dealt with the Unit-ed States invasion of Panama near the end of his service.

Be fore a t tempt ing the CDNST, Murphy said he hiked the Pacific Crest Trail all by himself.

“I love thru-hiking, and I’ve done the Pacific Crest Trail on my own,” he said. “I was going to do this one as a solo hike, and Sean Gobin, the director of Warrior Hikes, asked if I’d go with these guys. I jumped on it on it because I thought, ‘You mean, I get to hike with a bunch of Marines?’”

Gathman said they usually hike between 20 and 30 miles per day, but hike around 10 or less miles if walking through a town that day.

Gathman added, the whole hiking experience gives them a way to prepare for life outside of the military.

“We’re using this experience, adventure and journey as a way to give ourselves a little bit of a different perspective on life,” he said. “We can kind of work through sights, sounds and experiences that we may have had in combat while in the Middle East and Afghan-istan. This will better help us determine what we want to do next in life after those ex-periences, and it’s a good tool to give yourself a goal to work toward. We can find some kind of solace and use nature as a tool to have some decompres-sion time, which is what this program is all about.”

Veterans take 3,100 mile walk

Photo by Doug Radunich

Left to right, Shawn Murphy, Thomas Gathman and Rob Voorhis, are participating in the Warrior Hike.


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PUBLIC HEARING

A public hearing on the budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year for the

Saratoga Cemetery District will be held at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 08,

2014 at the Saratoga Town Hall.

The Sun. News you can hold in your hand.The Sun. News you can hold in your hand.

By Erik Gantt

Sue Anderson traveled a hard road before bringing her award-winning artistic talents to Encampment. Severe head and neck injuries resulting from a car accident in 2010 forced her to end a 20-plus-year career in nursing.

The loss of her job meant liv-ing on a Social Security disabil-ity payment. She couldn’t afford the mortgage on her house.

To add to her woes, she has a violent ex-husband with a history of physical abuse who began stalking her and vandal-izing her property. The police were of no help in ensuring her safety.

In December of 2013 after not seeing her sister in 20 years, Riverside resident Kim MacDonald decided she didn’t like the way Anderson had to live and feared for her physical well-being. MacDonald then started a community effort to get her sister out of the big city and into the Valley.

After convincing Anderson to get out of Arvada, a suburb of Denver, MacDonald and several other Encampment and Riverside locals showed up at Anderson’s door with a horse trailer. They loaded up her belongings and resettled her in Encampment.

According to Anderson, “Out of everything bad there is some-thing good.”

Having to leave nursing has allowed her to focus on her art. She has been painting with oils since 1992 when she met her teacher and mentor, Jodie Bin-kley. Anderson primarily paints wildlife, focusing on wolves and bears, but also paints flowers in a style influenced by Georgia

Adversity becomes artistry

Photo by Erik Gantt

A glimpse into the life of an artist reflects in her studio. Anderson, who works in her home uses art to overcome her hardships.

O’Keeffe.After moving to Wyoming,

Anderson wants to start work-ing with local wildlife including antelope and coyotes. She said, “Animals have souls like peo-ple.” She tries to capture the soul in the eyes of the animals she paints. Currently, Anderson has reproductions and prints of her work at The Red Wagon in Encampment.

Anderson has won several awards at juried art shows, but says her favorites are those voted on by the public. It just means more to her than the awards handed out by judges.

After being in Encampment for a few months, Anderson is really enjoying getting away from the stress of the city and feels like she is “done with Colorado”.

Staff report

On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Wyoming Governor Matt Mead announced the final approval of a comprehensive management plan for public lands in central Wyoming. The Lander Resource Management Plan (RMP) will provide direction for managing 2.4 million acres of BLM-admin-istered surface land and 2.8 mil-lion acres of BLM-administered sub-surface mineral estate.

County Commissioners in Fremont, Natrona, Hot Springs, Carbon, and Sweetwater Coun-ties have been involved in the development of the plan as co-operating agencies

The RMP is the first of its

kind to address management of important greater sage grouse habitat. The State of Wyoming, the Wyoming County Commis-sioners Association (WCCA), and many other state organizations have taken the task of protect-ing sage-grouse seriously, and actively engaged with the BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to draft a plan all parties can accept. The Lander plan proactively adopts policies and measures that are designed to minimize disturbance in key hab-itats, while providing certainty for economic development.

“Today is the culmination of many years of hard work by County Commissioners, the BLM, the State of Wyoming and

many other groups with a vested interest in maintaining multiple use of our public lands. We hope that the success of the Lander RMP will be a benefit to other groups working on reviewing or developing similar plans across the West,” Fremont County Commission Chairman Doug Thompson said.

The Lander resource manage-ment plan and Record of Decision are available at the Lander BLM Field Office and on the project website: www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/Planning/rmps/lander.htrnl. The BLM will soon announce dates for open houses that will provide additional information regarding the plan and how it will be implemented.

Saving sage grouse


Summer Events?Find out about them in the Sun.Summer Events?Find out about them in the Sun.

Summer Market Review

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phone: (307) 328-0621fax: (307) 324-4500

By Mike Dunn

A Medicine Bow student’s art will help save lives.

Bethany Howard, a third grade student at Medicine Bow Elementary, won the Kids for the Cure art contest. As first prize, her drawing will be featured on the shirts of chil-dren at the Wyoming Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

When she heard she won, Bethany said she was sur-prised. But it was hardly a surprise when looking at the votes. Using Facebook “likes” to determine the winner, Beth-any’s drawing won by a land-slide, receiving the most sup-port from voters with 81 likes. The second place drawing only had 39 likes.

Bethany said her fantastic drawing ability comes from her family tree.

“Everyone in my family likes to draw,” Bethany said.

The rules required Wyo-ming children 12 years old and under to only use four colors, include the pink ribbon associated with breast cancer awareness to draw a picture that representing Wyoming Race for the Cure’s theme “Racing for Wyoming.”

“I thought about putting in

Student drawsfor the cure

for the contest and when I was drawing it, I decided to make the face between the ribbons,” Bethany said about her art process.

Bethany used markers for her drawing because she liked what colors she could get from it.

“I knew what colors I could get [with markers],” Bethany said. “It just looked better.”

Using a horse in her design, Bethany said she got the inspiration for her drawing from her ranch in the Sherley Basin. Though she does not have any horses, she said her ranch has many other animals like sheep and cattle.

Bethany’s teacher, Heather Booth, said when she heard about the contest, Bethany instantly came into mind.

“She is a fantastic artist,” Booth said. “When you give her a book on how to draw something, she just come out with it looking nice.”

Bethany and her family will be attending the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Aug. 9 in Cheyenne with free overnight accommodations.She will lead the pledge of al-legiance before the race.

Courtesy Photo

Medicine Bow student Bethany Howard won the “Kids for the Cure” contest with this drawing. Her design will be featured on the shirts of children participating in the Wyoming Race for the Cure.


Healing waters ...Platte Valley Trout Unlimited spent two days teaching veterans how to fly fish.

Photos by Liz Wood

Jeff Streeter prepares to row onto a pond at Upper Cedar Creek Ranch June 25 as Rex Hohnholt pushes the drift boat off the bank. Rod Steiger, left, gets his fly rod ready to fish as Vietnam Veteran Lew Waldron, a 20-year veteran with the Air Force waits to cast.

A leaping trout’s reflection is crystal clear at the Upper Cedar Creek Pond.


SARATOGA SUN • SARATOGA SUN • SARATOGA SUN • SARATOGA SUN

By Liz Wood

The Wounded Warrior Event is intended to make a differ-ence in a military veteran’s life, co-founder Tony Seahorn said.

It made a difference in Randall Steiger’s life.

Last year, Steiger attended his first Wounded Warrior Event. Steiger is an Army veteran of the Iraq war.

It was the first time he ever caught a fish. “I was hooked,” Steiger said. He went on to catch around 10 fish. He caught three at Tom Arthur’s pond, then sev-en more on the Platte River the next day.

When Steiger went home after the two day event, he said, “I felt amazing … it was a really cool experience and it was awesome.”

He enjoyed the food, the peo-ple and met Duane Cook with Project Healing Waters. “We spoke briefly on the river during lunch and Duane asked me if I would like to do this more often,” Steiger said.

“I said ‘yes, like sign me up. I would really like to’.”

Steiger said he went fishing a couple more times last summer at local places near Cheyenne. Over the winter Steiger learned how to tie flies. “That was some-thing fun to do on Saturdays and get to know the people.”

Steiger said he also learned how to fly fish and how to tie knots and get ready for this summer to put it to use.

“This is the first time I have successfully fly fished. Today I caught seven fish on my fly rod with flies I made and it was re-ally cool,” Steiger said.

Last year, Steiger came as part of the Veterans Administration group, which transports the vet-erans to Saratoga for the event.

This year, he came with the Project Healing Waters group.

The advice Steiger has for wounded warriors who have not tried an event like this, “Give it a shot. Come out, meet some guys, have some good food, some laughs. It is a great experience,” Steiger said. “I understand why it’s called Healing Waters.”

Vietnam Army veteran Keith Bausserman is all smiles after catching his first fish on a fly rod. Ken Messick, left, a member of the support group works on Bausserman’s fly rod and Roger Thimm congratulates Bausserman on his catch.

Fishing lines frame a trout as it jumps high to try and release itself from Ray Sautter’s line.

... make a difference


NOTICE OF BUDGET HEARING

Carbon County School District #2 Recreation Board’s budget hearing will be held Wednesday, July 16, 2014 following the school board meeting at the Central Administration Office in Saratoga.

NOTICE OF CHANGE OF MEETING DATE

Carbon County School District #2 Recreation Board will hold its July meeting on Monday, July 7, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. at the Central Office in Saratoga.

NOTICE OF BUDGET HEARING

Saratoga-Carbon County Impact Joint Powers Board’s budget hearing will be held Wednesday, July 9, 2014 following the regular scheduled meeting at 6:00 p.m. at the Saratoga Town Hall in Saratoga.

The Saratoga Sun(307) 326-8311

The Saratoga Sun(307) 326-8311

Mary Martin digs a little deeper for the Canadian Red Chokecherry tree along Highway 70 Saturday morning.

Bob Berger and Leroy Stephenson move trees onto

the highway right-of-way.

Bob Berger pounds in poles to stabilize the trees.

Trees on the east side of Highway 70 after they are

planted by volunteers.

Photos byLiz Wood


We Welcome Adult Title 19 Patients!

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and Partial and Complete Dentures.We accept patients over 15 year of age.

Peter J. PappasD.M.D.Check theyellow pages

933 Main St., Lander

307-332-34341-800-332-0502

Recycling Tidbit of the Week

Over 144,000 newspaper come into Saratoga each year.

Do you recycle yours?

Join us in recycling.Brought to you by:

Paperman’s Recycling Service

Saving the Earth one box at a time.

(307) 326-8082

www.saratogasun.comwww.saratogasun.com

Hill, Wyoming Tough, stands for:The Constitution: Peoples rights & liberties first

Decentralization (back to Wyoming’s voices!)

Transparency • Accountability • Accessibility

Come join Teense and the gang at the Saratoga Museum Pavilion on July 12th at 5:30pm for a barbeque and to meet & greet Cindy Hill, candidate for governor, Sheryl Lain, candidate for Superintendent of Schools, and Jennifer Young, candidate for Secretary of State.

Tenacious

Intelligent

Keeps campaign promises

AD PAID FOR BY CITIZENS FOR CINDY HILL

By Liz Wood

Sunday morning, Encamp-ment and Riverside volunteers worked together planting trees along WY Highway 70.

The Encampment/Riverside Tree Beautification project was organized by Lee Ann Stephenson, after she noticed that the trees along Highway 70 had died.

Stephenson who often walks along Highway 70 from Riv-erside to Encampment enjoys the bluebirds that fly in the area and wanted to improve their habitat and beautify the area along the highway.

Trees had been planted in 1989 for the bicentennial. While the cottonwood trees in front of the Riverside/Encamp-ment Lions Club arena were thriving, the trees east of the arena had died.

Stephenson presented the idea of planting trees to the Riverside Town Council and they gave $1,500 toward the purchase of trees.

They still needed water. Stephenson went to the En-campment Town Council to see if they could help, and they offered to supply the irrigation

water and replace the irriga-tion pipe.

Stephenson’s husband Leroy, who serves on the Riverside Town Council, volunteered to be the liaison between the two towns.

“What I think is so great about this, is this is a project that Riverside and Encamp-ment cooperated on,” Stephen-son said.

Through the winter and spring, Stephenson researched information on trees. She discovered the Wyoming De-partment of Transportation (WYDOT) no longer allows cottonwood trees to be planted in their right-of-ways, so she looked for another type of tree. She picked the Canadian Red Chokecherry tree.

Stephenson said she picked the trees because of the blos-soms in the spring and the trees only grow to about 20 feet tall.

Volunteers worked to remove the roots of the dead trees, removed the old irrigation pipe, saving the drip nozzles to reuse.

They also saved the metal fence poles and wire and rub-

ber hosing to help stand the trees.

Encampment councilwoman Mary Martin and Riverside councilman Stephenson vol-unteered along with a small group of others to plant the trees. Bob Berger, who works at Lazy Acres Campground, Lee Ann Stephenson, Sandra Martin and Gus Geisick moved trees dug holes and planted and stabilized the trees.

The trees were purchased from Doggett Greenhouse and Brad Hebig, owner of High Plains Foam Building Systems, volunteered his time and equip-ment to dig holes for the trees.

With the $1,500 from the town of Riverside, 10 trees were purchased. The other five trees were purchased by people in memory of loved ones.

“One of the trees was pur-chased in memory of Jeff Gools-by, who worked for the town of Encampment until he lost his battle with cancer,” Stephenson said.

WYDOT doesn’t allow mark-ers, but people will be able to drive by the trees and remem-ber their loved ones, Stephen-son said.

Gus Geisick and Mary Martin dig holes while Sandra Martin watches.

Encampment and Riverside branch out


Brought to you By:

Email [email protected] with events for the community calendar.

The celebration at Grand Encampment

Wednesday, July 2, 20148 a.m.-6 p.m., Children’s activities at The Hub, 106 W. Bridge9:30 a.m., Prayer Shawl Knitters, Presbyterian Fellowship Hall11 a.m.-7 p.m., Saratoga Branch Library11:15 a.m., Story Time, Saratoga Branch LibraryNoon, Chamber of Commerce meeting, PVCC1:30 p.m., Overeaters Anonymous, PV Lutheran Church, 326-59175:30-7:30 p.m. Family History Center at LDS Church, 950 Hugus5:45-6:45 p.m., Yoga Session, Saratoga Library7 p.m., Order of Eastern Star, Masonic Hall7 p.m., Saratoga Volunteer Fire Dept. Business Meeting, Firehouse7 p.m., Theta Rho Club, Odd Fellows Hall7:30 p.m., Alcoholics Anonymous, Saratoga Senior Center

Thursday, July 3, 20148-6 p.m., Children’s activities at The Hub, 106 W. Bridge11 a.m.-7 p.m., Saratoga Branch Library7 p.m., Knitt

wednesday • july 2, 2014 • volume 127 • no. 48 • $1 river … · 2014. 7. 1. · the platte...

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