LOVELL
What's Inside ...
A surprise prom guest _ Page 2
Spring concerts begin _ Page 6
School calendar
changes Page 12
FCCLA students
bring home gold Page 13
LOVELL, WYOMING • VOLUME 106, NUMBER 44 • THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2012 • 75q
Citizens
weigh in on
'hot topics'
at public
meeting
BY DAVID PECK
A meeting last week to gauge
public opinion on various local
projects drew a modest number
of interested citizens who were
not hesitant to state their opin-
ion on the matters at hand.
Between 40 and 50 citizens
went to the Lovell Community
Center to share their thoughts
on a number of topics including
the future of the Main Street me-
dian strip, the sixth-cent sales
tax proposal, the location of a Ve-
rizon Wireless communications
tower, proposed entryway en-
hancements and what to do with
the Mustang Days Rose Parade
during Main Street construction.
People were able to move
from station to station Thurs-
day during the open house style
meeting.
The hot topic Thursday ap-
peared to be the median strip,
and according to a simple tally
of comment sheets passed out at
the meeting, 22 of 26 people who
expressed an opinion on the top-
ic "voted" in favor of permanent-
ly removing the median strip.
Three others wrote that they
wanted to keep the median strip,
and one person suggested a mod-
ified median.
The median strip is to be
removed during a future Main
Street overlay project that will
include the installation of new
water and sewer mains, a proj-
ect tentatively slated for 2014.
Because the sewer main lies di-
rectly under the current me-
dian strip, the median is to be
removed in the project, but the
Wyoming Dept. of Transporta-
tion is asking people for com-
ments during the planning pro-
cess under way and a decision
from the Town of Lovell about
whether WyDOT should plan for
the median to be rebuilt as part
of the project, which would be an
additional cost.
Most of those who favor per-
manently removing the median
strip said a median-free street
would be far easier to keep clean
during the winter.
One citizen wrote, "The me-
dian strip is a hazard in winter.
The streets need to be cleaned
See 'MEDIAN STRIP,' page 8
Keegan Weinand examines one of the
chocolate eggs he collected at the
Easter Egg hunt in hetd in Cowley.
Kane Ferguson of Byron was thrilled
to win the special football basket at the
Easter egg hunt in Byron on Saturday.
PATTI CARPENTER PHOTOS
Daisey Weinand of Cowley
attended her first Easter
Egg hunt in Cowley on
Saturday.
Little Alynna Monterde of Lovell seemed baffled
by the colorful objects she found in the snow at
the Easter egg hunt in Byron.
Dist. 2
works with
State on
remodel
project
BY PATTI CARPENTER
The North Big Horn Coun-
ty District No. 2 school board fo-
cused its attention for two hours
on a full agenda Tuesday night,
which included items relating to
the upcoming facility remodel,
next year's school calendar, stu-
dent testing and proposals re-
garding the number of hours stu-
dents should sit in the classroom.
The meeting was overflowing
with students lined up to receive
special recognition for their recent
accomplishments. Lovell High
School Principal Scott O'Tremba
and Student Body President Le-
anne Winterholler accepted a cer-
tificate on behalf of the staff and
students of the school for having
the highest graduation rate in
the state of Wyoming.
"This is a total team effort by
the community, students, teach-
ers and board members," said Big
Horn County School District No.
2 Supt. Dan Coe. "Graduation is
certainly that culminating event
where everything we worked on
as a school system comes to frui-
tion."
The Wyoming Football Foun-
dation recognized Eli Moody and
Mark Grant as scholar/athletes.
Jacob Asay was selected to at-
tend the American Legion Boys
State conference. Shay Kite, Kas-
sidy Hetland and Holly Wilker-
son were selected to represent the
school at the American Legion
Girls State conference. Journ-
ee Burton, Mesa Matthews and
Tessa Watson were recognized
for winning medals at the recent
FCCLA State convention. Mariah
Harford and Katie Hoover were
acknowledged for receiving the
High School Summer Institute
award. District math contest win-
ners JD Mickelson, Dylan Hult-
gren, Alex Sawaya and Bran-
don Wolvington were recognized.
McKayan May was named stu-
dent of the month.
Maintenance Director Ron
Massine demonstrated the com-
puter technology he has been us-
ing in his energy management
duties for the past two years. Be-
fore the technology was imple-
mented, Massine had to physi-
cally walk through each of the
three schools every morning to
See 'SCHOOL,' page 7
BLM wild horse gather expected this summer
BY PATTI CARPENTER
The Bureau of Land Manage-
ment has released its final En-
vironmental Assessment (EA)
for a 2012 non-helicopter gather
of wild horses within the Pryor
Mountain Wild Horse Range. The
report analyzes the effects of a
non-helicopter gather to remove
excess wild horses within the wild
horse range. The BLM field office
received about 1,000 individual
comment letters and 63 unique
comments on the preliminary EA,
and considered those in making
the final decision to remove the
excess number of horses from the
herd.
Methods used to remove the
horses will include bait trapping,
water trapping, herding or a com-
bination of these techniques. Only
horses under 3 years old will be
targeted for removal. Consider-
ation will be given to genetic fac-
tors that could impact the overall
well being of the herd. None of the
horses gathered will be intention-
ally harmed or sold to slaughter.
The gather is expected to begin
sometime after June and will take
place over a period of time in a va-
riety of locations within the wild
horse range.
"Obviously, there are a lot of
feelings that emerge about such
an action. Gathers are always dif-
ficult. This especially holds true
here, in the Pryors, when we get
to know individual horses as well
as friends," wrote wild horse ad-
vocate Matt Dillon on his blog the
day the report was released.
Dillon is the former director
of the Pryor Mountain Wild Mus-
tang Center in Lovell. The group
monitors the humane treatment
of the horses and maintains a me-
ticulous record of their gene pool.
Some evidence indicates that this
particular herd maintains a fairly
pure bloodline that dates back to
the horses of early Spanish con-
quistadors. Dillon and other wild
horse aficionados support the
preservation of this bloodline.
According to a recent Bureau
of Land Management census, 150
adult horses and 17 of their foals
currently live on the Pryor Moun-
tain Wild Horse Range. Based on
previous research conducted by
the BLM, this is at least 30 horses
more than ideal number or AML
(Appropriate Management Level)
to support both a healthy range
and a healthy herd, which ac-
cording to BLM studies is 90-120
adult horses, excluding the foals.
According to information released
by the BLM up to 50 horses may
be removed in the upcoming gath-
er in an effort to maintain an opti-
mal herd size.
"I think it is important for
management decisions to be based
on science," said Dillon. "The cur-
rent AML is based on a scientific
method of determining the carry-
ing capacity of the range, and so it
is difficult to argue with it. Obvi-
ously, we'd like to see more hors-
es out there. I think we will see
an increase in AML in the future
that reflects all of the work being
done on the range."
According to information re-
leased by the BLM, the proposed
gather is necessary to achieve a
thriving natural ecological bal-
ance and maintain multiple use
relationships, including a vari-
ety of resources and uses, such as
wildlife, wilderness values, rec-
reation, cultural values, as well
as wild horses on the range over
the next several years. Vegetation
See 'HORSE GATHER,' page 8
One of the wild horses from the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse
Range grazing near the entrance to the range last winter. Wild
horse advocates have named this young stallion Jesse James.
He is the little brother of Kapitan, one of the stallions who was
killed tragically on the highway last summer.
