Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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Dawn Peil is the new 4-H Educator at the UW Extension Office. Peil grew up here in the 4-H and FFA programs and she has always been involved in ag. Prior to this new position, she spent around 19 years at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Peil said, "when this opportunity opened up, it just seemed like a good fit. Part of Peil's background with the NRCS, which used to be the Soil Conservation Service as a part of the USDA, she was a range conservationist. Some of the work range...
At the November 2 Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting, William Long and Tom Rean attended to tell the commissioners their desires to change the Red Lane Domestic Water and form it into a district. Right now, it is private. The commissioners told them they have no issue with the idea, but they said Long and Rean should get an attorney to properly move forward. The commissioners also said that this change would require a vote from the public to decide. Nate Messenger gave the FBO report and...
CEO Garry Freel is retiring from Big Horn Enterprises (BHE) after being associated with them for around 32 years. Freel started out as a case manager in August 1989, then a year later he became the director of rehab. In 1994, Freel left BHE for three years to work at the Children's Center. During those three years, he became a board member of BHE. In January 1997, Freel became the CEO of BHE. Freel said coming to the job was by happenstance. He had an education degree but couldn't get a...
At the October 26, Hot Springs Health board meeting, CEO Margie Molitor said in the growth report, that they are excited, they added two permanent positions to our senior leadership roster. Verlene Luna has been the interim chief physician clinical officer and has accepted the position permanently. Also, Scott Alwin accepted the position as the chief clinical officer, and he will start on December 13. Molitor continued and said they are expanding their Riverton hours to add a half day on...
Brian Parker is the new Recreation Center Director. He is 25 years old and recently moved from Connecticut, where he was a college student in recreation management and a personal trainer. Parker said he was excited to move across the country. Parker found the job opportunity with Hot Springs County on an online job board and applied. He had been searching for opportunities out west, specifically Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Parker interviewed and then first visited Thermopolis at the end of July,...
At the October 19 Thermopolis Town Council meeting, in citizen participation, the council voted to approve the golf course minutes. Also, town engineer Anthony Barnett presented the town shop roof replacement estimate change order in the amount of $2,744.25. The council voted and passed to accept the change order. Mayor Mike Chimenti asked town attorney Mike Messenger if he had anything to report. Messenger said they should proceed with action based upon the earlier work session about waste mana...
At the Hot Springs County, Land Use Planning Commission meeting on October 20 at the Annex Building Planner, Bo Bowman presented three applicants. They were Britt Taylor; Daniel and Leila Porath; and Elyse Dufour. All were requesting the change from either agricultural or residential use to commercial so that they may operate short-term rentals of various kinds. In new business, Britt Taylor was not present because she is a landowner from out of state, but a representative was. Taylor wanted...
At the October 19 Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting held at the Annex building, Bo Bowman presented the finalized O’Rourke Subdivision survey map for signing. The commissioners voted and approved to add the signatures of Chairman Tom Ryan and Clerk Becky Kersten. Billie Jo Norsworthy, representing the Hot Springs County Fair Board, was present to discuss the fair building roof. The roof has five spots where leaking is occurring. Some of the insulation is wet and heavy, dripping out w...
The Chamber of Commerce held their annual banquet at the Fair Building last Saturday. The event was keynote by renowned authors W. Michael and Kathleen Gear, who spoke on the subject of censorship. Chamber President Howie Samelson made an announcement that Chamber Director Meri Ann Rush is now the Chief Executive Officer. Rush said about the Gears, "When we were planning the 100th Annual Chamber Banquet and decided on the theme "Hats Off-Dr. Seuss", it was suggested to have Mike and Kathy be...
Montana’s Strongest Man Chad Lowry and Gottsche are holding a Strongman Training event on Sunday, Oct. 24 from 2-6 p.m. at the Gottsche gym. Lowry is from Montana and started his interest in this type of training in December 2020. He searched for a coach in Billings and started working with Ron Wilson, who provided great guidance where they worked well together. Wilson trains out of the Iron Bar Gym. Lowry is an Air Force Veteran and was 300 pounds and overweight from inactivity when he started...
At the October 14 Chamber of Commerce meeting held at Big Horn Federal, during old business, President Howie Samelson brought up the chamber banquet. Director Meri Ann Rush said that the planning for the banquet on October 16 started in the spring. The nominations were also made in January and February. Rush said the goal was to put the event together before the summer. At the time of the meeting, they had sold 131 tickets. Next, the chamber discussed the October 28 Moonlight Madness event....
At the recent Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting, Tricia McPhie of Public Health and Prevention held a discussion with the commissioners about the executive order from President Biden to mandate vaccinations. Chairman Ryan expressed concern over it and the entire board of commissioners opposed the mandate. The mandatory vaccination executive order was proposed by Biden to be administered through OSHA regulations to have all federal employees, healthcare workers, and businesses with more...
At the Hot Springs County Annex Building on October 5, the County Commissioners met to hear a variety of reports. Bill Gordon gave the Emergency Management report and presented the 2021 EMPG Grant Award Agreement. This grant covers 50% of Gordon’s salary and a few additional things. Gordon said this is the same document that the commissioners have been receiving year after year, approximately 20 years. The amount for this agreement is the same as in the previous year. The commissioners voted to...
The Thermopolis Town Council met on October 5 for a brief meeting to take reports from various departments. During citizen participation, the council voted and passed to approve a liquor permit for One Eyed Buffalo for the Chamber of Commerce Banquet. Town engineer Anthony Barnett was not in attendance, therefore, Assistant to Mayor Fred Crosby gave his report. Working with Interim Police Chief Pat Cornwell, Crosby wants to place speed signs on the outside of town on both the north and south end...
At the September 28 Hot Springs Health Board meeting, CEO Margie Molitor spoke on the decline of Covid cases in Hot Springs County. “I’m still seeing bigger numbers around us, but Hot Springs County is down. So that’s much appreciated. I think we surged earlier than everybody else, and now we’re down and everybody else is up. From a vaccination standpoint, we have 121 staff that are fully vaccinated or 67% of our staff. We have 71% of our staff that have had at least one shot. Hot Springs...
At the September 29 Hot Springs County Travel and Tourism meeting held at the County Museum, in the financial report, Treasurer Audra Dominguez reported and said they had another record-breaking month in receiving lodging tax revenue, now being five months in a row. August brought in $33,734.00 with a historical average of $29,014.64. This amount is 41% greater than the previous year in the same month. This amount combines revenue within Thermopolis at $22,469.93 and Hot Springs County $6,544.72...
Three Hot Springs County High School students have become 2021 National FFA Agriscience Fair Finalists and will attend the National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 27-30. Finalists, Tymber Eckley, Austin Slagle and Lexi Overfield will be supported by FFA advisors Britton Van Huele, Becky Martinez and Ranell Hindman. Martinez explained the process and level of the competition and said, "the agriscience fair is something that we do intra-curricular. As part of the curriculum for...
A concerned citizen, Sherman Skelton, attended the September meeting of the Travel and Tourism Board to present his thoughts about new developments in the Airbnb world. Skelton said, “I was reading through your minutes of your last meeting. A couple of your guests that were here last month have some proposals in front of the planning commission. I went to last month’s meeting. I am coming to you guys to see if there’s a way to find a collective voice within the county for anybody in hospi...
At the Bobcat Hall of Fame ceremony held at the Thermopolis Middle School, Shawna Farrell, Jack Kuiper and Tom Zupan were inducted. Additionally, members of the 2009 State Champion Football Team were also inducted. Those who attended included players Luke Casciato, Chris Ryan, Tanner Cornwell, William Enis and former assistant coach Matt Mason. Shawna Farrell is a 1998 graduate of Hot Springs County High School and received varsity letters in volleyball, basketball and track and field. She was...
Marie Britting is a local artist who has been painting a variety of images that include still life and plein air landscapes. Her work is currently being featured at the Three Sisters Gallery. During the Covid shutdowns and especially during the cold, snowy winter, Britting spent a majority of her time painting still lifes at her home studio. Britting said about her still life art, "I came to really love it." Britting expanded on her painting through the inspiration of other artists such as...
Newly appointed interim Thermopolis Chief of Police Pat Cornwell started his career in Park County at the Cody jail in 1994, where he worked for five years. Later he was promoted to deputy and then moved to Powell, where he received additional training. In Powell, where he worked for four years, Cornwell said, "We dealt with a lot. We had a lot of college kids living out of town. We did a lot of backing up the Powell Police Department, and they would back us up if we requested it." Later...
Karen Leyba, a speech pathologist at the Children's Resource Center, is celebrating her 30 years of work. Leyba performed speech services and said, "When I started out, I did babies through five-year-olds. And then we had Jenny Manning for a few years that helped, which took over the babies. And Jenny left two years ago now. And so now I'm back to doing all of them. Zero through five-year-olds." Regarding what it is like working with the children, Leyba said, "It's exciting. It's rewarding. To...
During their September 15, meeting, the Hot Springs County Land Use Planning Commission continued to review an application from Elyse Dufour. Dufour is requesting a land use change from the Residential category to the Commercial category to allow short-term rental of a duplex unit, two existing RV spaces and three tent campsites. The property is Lot 1 of the Kirby Creek Subdivision. During the meeting, a public hearing was held with a quorum that included Chairman Adam Estenson, Harvey Seidel...
Recently appointed Hot Springs County Clerk Becky Kersten said her background in accounting gave her the preparation to fulfill her new role. The county's previous Clerk Rose DeSeyn resigned this summer and the county commissioners appointed Kersten to fill the vacancy and finish DeSeyn's term. At that time, Kersten can run for the clerk's office in the election. Kersten's prior occupation was working at Korewitz, Michel,Wright and Associates as an accountant. For four of those years, she was a...
Sergeant Pat Cornwell was named as interim Thermopolis Chief of Police during the September 7 Thermopolis Town Council meeting. Mayor Mike Chimenti announced that Chief Julie Mathews retired on September 15 and said with the council’s approval he wanted to appoint Cornwell as chief beginning September 16 until January 1. Chimenti said that this period of time would be a probationary period and the appointment could become permanent or Cornwell could return to the position of sergeant on J...
