6 J The Lovell Chronicle I January 2, 2014
PATTI CARPENTER
Lovell High School students Jordan Harper and
Emilee Reasch sing at a choir concert held on
Thursday, Dec. 19 in the Lovell Middle School
commons area.
MDU and county reach
agreement on Road 17
gas line issue
BY KARLA POMEROY
Big Horn County and Montana Dakota Utilities have
reached an agreement on Road 17.
During the Dec. 17 regular commissioner meeting,
Evan Woolston and Shane Pitt of MDU met with the com-
,nissioners to discuss the line that was installed in the
oad without a county permit. The ,ounty initially had
'asked MDU to move the line.
"We'd like to leave the gas line on Road 17," Woolston
said. "It was an oversight to install at that location, rather
than get a private easement or move it to the side, but due
to the expense of moving it we'd like to leave it and main-
tain that road to your satisfaction."
Chairman Jerry Ewen said before addressing that is-
sue he'd like to address the overall issue of doing the work
without going through the proper permitting process.
Woolston said that MDU has been in the community a
long time and knows the process but there was a changing
of the guard from the Billings office to the Sheridan office
and "we dropped the ball. We don't intend on repeating
that practice."
Engineer Willie Bridges presented a letter to Woolston
and the commissioners that outlined requirements the
county would want met if MDU is to leave the line in place
on Road 17. The requirements included:
• If at any time the county finds the location of the line
to be in conflict with the interests of the county, MDU will
remove it and place it outside the area of conflict at no cost
to the county.
• If repairs to the line are made, certain criteria to
meet county standards must be met.
• During repairs to the line, at no time shall an open
trench be left open unattended after business hours.
• When the line needs to be replaced it will be placed
outside the traveled way of the road and within two feet of
the right of way fence.
"I find this a reasonable approach," Ewen said. "Our
primary concern is to protect the integrity of the road."
Bridges suggested approving the conditions and at-
taching them to the permit.
Commissioner John Hyde recused himself from dis-
cussion and voting since he lives on Road 17.
.Details of blending learning conference
shared with School District One Trustees
BY PATTI CARPENTER
The highlight of the Big
Horn County School Dis-
trict No. One school board
meeting this month was a
report by district admin-
istrators on their atten-
dance at the International
Association for K-12 On-
line Learning (iNACOL)
conference.
The focus of the confer-
ence was on blended learn-
ing, which is a blend of in-
struction delivered over a
computer platform and tra-
ditional classroom instruc-
tion. Rocky Mountain Mid-
dle/High School Principal
Tim Winland, Rocky Moun-
tain Elementary School
Principal Karma Sanders,
Special Education Director
Wes Townsend, Burlington
School Principal Matt Da-
vidson and Curriculum Di-
rector Patrice Riley all had
glowing remarks about the
conference.
All of the adminis-
trators agreed that that
blended learning was an
excellent way to provide
students with the opportu-
nity for individually paced
instruction and that the
potential for tailoring pro-
grams to the needs of stu-
dents was tremendous us-
ing the blending learning
model.
Special Education Di-
rector Wes Townsend said
he thought the blended
learning model provided an
excellent way to reach at-
risk students.
"Major components of
addressing at-risk students
were grading students by
what's been completed, tu-
toring availability and not
tying grading to the quar-
ter, semester or year sys-
tem," he explained in his re-
port. "With this avenue for
instruction, students can
either continue their class-
es whenever they are gone
or can pick up in the unit
of instruction they were on
when they left school re-
gardless of when the grad-
ing period ended."
Around 2,000 school
administrators from across
the country attended the
conference, which was held
in Florida in October.
In 2013, iNACOL
changed the name of the
annual conference from
the Virtual School Sym-
posium to the iNACOL
Blended and Online Learn-
ing Symposium stating on
its website that the new
name "more accurately re-
flect the breadth of tracks,
sessions, issues and people
represented at the annual
conference."
It was an opportunity
for the group of administra-
tors from Big Horn Coun-
ty School District No. One
to learn about the latest
trends, challenges, and op-
portunities in e-learning,
to interact in session pre-
sentations and to gain ac-
cess to information about
the latest research and best
practices being utilized in
the field.
School District No. One
has been in the forefront of
on-line learning and Supt.
Shon Hocker said he thinks
the blended model is the
way of the future.
In other matters, a fa-
cility report noted that al-
though the new playground
equipment has been de-
livered to Rocky Moun-
tain Elementary School it
could not be installed due
to sub-zero weather condi-
tions at the time of delivery.
Hocker announced
that Dec. 11 was a make-
up day at all schools for a
snow day closure held on
Dec. 3. He explained the
state law requires schools
to hold classes 175 days
per year and the state was
properly notified of both
the closure and the make-
up day.
Hocker also invit-
ed members of the school
board to attend a Wyo-
ming School Boards Assoc.
training session in Casper
in January. Several board
members expressed an in-
terest in attending.
The schedule for pub-
lic school board meetings
for the year 2014 was an-
nounced. The first meet-
ing will be held on Jan. 14,
2014. Subsequent meet-
ings will be held on the sec-
ond Tuesday of the month
throughout the year. All
school board meetings are
open to the public.
Early morning
fire burns shop
An early morning fire
claimed a shop on the edge
of Deaver Tuesday.
Deaver-Frannie Vol-
unteer Fire Dept. Assis-
tant Chief Nick Loftus said
firemen were called to 160
Lane 8 on the east edge of
Deaver at 7:31 a.m. to tack-
le a blaze in a shop owned
by Jim Fuller. The fire was
fully involved when fire-
men reached the shop, and
it was a total loss, Loftus
said.
Firemen had not estab-
lished a cause of the fire by
press time, he said.
Lost in the fire were
tools, an air compressor, a
small tractor and a propane
tank, which exploded, Lof-
tus noted. Fire and smoke
could be seen from a wide
area.
Fuller was able to save
some rabbits he had in the
shop.
The fire scene was
cleared at 9:46 a.m., Loftus
said. He added that he ap-
preciates the Lovell Volun-
teer Fire Dept. for assisting
at the scene.
"They are always a
huge help," Loftus said.
Alert reader
Jennifer
Gould sent
this photo of
a shop fire
in Deaver
early Tuesday
morning. The
fire consumed
a shop owned
by Jim Fuller
and was a
total loss.
COURTESY PHOTO
Fair Board reteives another extension
BY K&RLA POMEROY
The Wyoming Business
Council voted Dec. 5 to grant
another extension to the Big
Horn County Fair Board to
secure funding for a match
for the $500,000 grant.
WBC Board Member
Lee Lockhart of Worland
said the WBC had initial-
ly granted an extension to
Dec. 1.
"The board didn't meet
that. They said they had the
money pledged, but some
people wanted to wait to
donate until after the new
year," Lockhart said.
The WBC then voted to
give the board an extension
until Feb. 15. The coun-
cil has approved the grant
with contingencies, includ-
ing the requirement that
the board have the match
in hand before a grant con-
tract is finalized and money
from the grant can be spent.
At Monday's monthly
board meeting, Casey So-
renson reported that anoth-
er $33,250 had been collect-
ed and put into the building
fund for a total of $151,300.
He said they still have
$92,750 to collect, noting
what Lockhart had said,
that some donors want to
wait until after the first
of the year. He said some
"checks are in the mail," but
overall, "I think everyone's
good for it."
He said that while
that will meet the match
requirement, additional
funds still have to be raised
for the construction of the
indoor youth multi-purpose
facility.
Paintrock FFA Chap-
ter Advisor Jared Board-
man said his FFA kids have
been calling to seek dona-
tions and have collected
some that are not included
in Sorenson's total.
"They want to do more,"
he said, and should have
more time after the first of
the year.
Sorenson then moved
to name the indoor are-
na and multi-purpose fa-
cility after Big Horn Rural
Electric and Basin Electric.
He said the two companies
can decide if they want to
share the naming right or
how they want it to read.
He said Big Horn REA has
donated $55,000 and Ba-
sin Electric $25,000 with an
additional $15,000 pledged.
Andy Perkins said the
board had initially con-
sidered the naming rights
for anyone donating up to
$100,000 or more and this
is close.
The board approved the
motion unanimously.
It was noted that there
is a misconception that Ba-
sin Electric is the town of
Basin's electrical system
and it is not.
In other facility news,
chairman Felix Carriza-
les said a county resident
asked about Synergy's bid,
which states that it con-
tains 5 percent for contin-
gencies. Sorenson said that
is a good thing in that the
bid includes a portion for
unplanned contingencies.
Carrizales said he believes
the resident misunderstood
the language, thinking an
additional 5 percent could
be added to the bid.
He said the resident
also asked if the board
had asked for samples
of bids from Synergy's
subcontractors.
Boardman said general
contractors are responsible
for keeping subcontractors
within the budget the gen-
eral contractor bid.
Carrizales then asked
about the possibility of
making the kitchen area
into a restaurant for some-
one to own or lease. He said
he knows someone who is
potentially interested.
The board agreed that
the idea is worth investigat-
ing whether it's even feasi-
ble or not.
The board also appoint-
ed Carrizales as the board's
representative to provide
construction monitoring,
something required by the
WBC grant.
'/ou're not going to be
out there on your own," So-
renson said. "I'll still be
here. (County Clerk and
grants administrator Lori
Smallwood) will be helping
with a lot of the grant stuff.
