"F
12 I The Lovell Chronicle I April 30, 2015
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Stopping by the Georgia-Pacific display
during the Lovell Earth Day festivities
on April 18 at Constitution Park and
visiting with G-P representative
Brooke Fink were (l-r) Casey, Sarah'
and Emma McNiven, Isabella Gallagher
and Celecia Gallagher. At the right,
Ben Zeller cruises along in the Earth
Day Fun Run.
DAVID PECK PHOTOS
Grow Big Horn County talks strategy with county
BY BARBARA ANNE GREENE
Grow Big Horn Coun-
ty Director Sue Taylor met
with the Big Horn County
Commissioners April 7 to re-
view the economic develop-
ment organization's request
for guidance on projects and
priorities moving forward.
Taylor said there was
nothing pressing but want-
ed to remind the commis-
sioners that they had not re-
turned the survey she asked
them to fill out in February
and was due back by March
24. Taylor said it was hard
to work on the action plan
without knowing what the
commissioners would like
from them.
Taylor asked the ques-
tions on the survey to the
commissioners to get their
input. The first question
was: "What do you feel are
your top three projects for
this upcoming fiscal year?"
The answers did not have to
be in order of importance.
Commissioner Jerry
Ewen's response: Tourism
and Recreation Develop-
ment, Business Directory.
Commissioner John
Hyde: Courthouse securi-
ty, Natural Resource Plan,
grant writing.
Ewen discussed how im-
portant the travel dollars
are to the economy, especial-
ly with the drop in oil and
gas prices. His comment on
the business directory was
that he wasn't sure how it
would work with businesses
coming and going. He added
that the chambers, the coun-
ty and the Big Horn Moun-
tain Country Coalition do
have web sites and that peo-
ple are turning to the Inter-
net to find what they need.
Hyde expressed that the
Natural Resource Plan was
going to have a huge eco-
nomic impact on the county
and that it would impact in-
dustry, recreation and qual-
ity of life. Ewen added that
the new travel management
plan for the BLM in the Big
Horn Basin would also have
an impact.
He said that he would
take courthouse security off
the table as far as economic
development since that was
a project that had to be done
in house.
"I'm looking at grant
writing. As poor as a coun-
ty as we are, with the needs
that we have as far as the
county goes, t wish we had
a little better access to grant
writing skills."
Taylor said that grant
writing was an area that she
is capable of doing. It just
depends on how many she is
asked to do at one time.
"One of the things that
we prefer doing as an or-
ganization is we like writ-
ing them," she said. "That's
great, that's fine, that's
good. When it comes to the
financial management we
would prefer Lori (Small-
wood) handle it."
Commissioner Felix
Carrizales asked who wrote
the North Big Horn Coun-
ty Hospital District grant.
Taylor said she thinks Janet
Koritnik. He followed up by
asking if most people like to
write their own grants. Tay-
lor answered that it is all
over the place.
"We've been asked for
some input from time to
time," Taylor said. "Linda
Harp was working on one for
Cowley. She sat down in the
office and we went through
it. I made a few suggestions.
So that worked well. When
it comes to private non-prof-
its the direction is one of
where to look and how to get
started."
She said that she had
worked on some for the
Town of Lovell for quite
some time and one for Byron
that didn't get submitted for
a couple of different reasons.
"I fully intend and my
board fully intends for me
to be more involved with the
government bodies in writ-
ing the grants," she said.
"Of those four proj-
ects that are mentioned, if
you had to put a priority on
which was most important
would you say that the Nat-
ural Resource Plan would be
the most important?" Tay-
lor asked. Ewen said, "Yes,
along with the travel man-
agement plan. Travel, tour-
ism and recreation would
rank very high. We have to
have access to public lands."
Hyde said he would put
grant writing as a priority.
The second question put
to the commissioners was,
"How can our organization
be more helpful to the com-
missioners?" Carrizales said
that the chambers do a lot
without a lot a funding and
wanted to know if Taylor
could work with the cham-
bers. Taylor said she was
waiting to hear back from
the chambers on a survey
that was sent out to them
"to find out what they think
they are best at and what
they would like to do and
how we can complement
what is going on. So that
really is what we are form-
ing our basis of roles and
responsibilities. We want
to be very clearly defined
so we are not stepping on
anybody's toes and we don't
have any gaps."
Question three was,
"What would be your mea-
sure of success for our orga-
nization? Determine if you
have received a return on
your investment."
Hyde said tangible re-
sults. Ewen said going back
and looking at questions
one and two and seeing how
they did.
"Sometimes with eco-
nomic development it is not
a week to week, month to
month success story," Tay-
lor said. "Sometimes it is a
long-term investment sim-
ilar to a retirement fund.
You know it is building
the momentum. And if and
when we choose to look at
that quarter cent sales tax
everything we have done
up to when it is on the bal-
lot will help us to determine
if we have been successful.
And if you are going to ask
for us to write some grants
for you, the success of those
grants is going to be anoth-
er way to determine success,
I guess."
Carrizales asked what
she wanted from the com-
missioners and what was
the financial relationship.
Taylor answered none in the
commissioners
current fiscal year, although
Ewen did point out that
the county did help with a
match for the strategic plan.
Taylor added, "That is why
we are asking for some July
1. One other time, five or six
years ago, there was a one-
time, $10,000 amount paid
to the organization."
"Where is Grow Big
Horn County getting their
funding?" Carrizales asked.
"Since we started,
roughly 90 percent has come
from the Town of Lovell,"
Taylor said. "Ten percent
has been private donations.
This fiscal year that we are
in we also received monetary
contributions from the town
of Greybull and Burlington."
Taylor said this has
been a transition year as she
has been weekly in Greybull
and doing legwork for oth-
er communities, mostly on
Lovell's dime. Carrizales
asked if Taylor knew what
was going on in Basin. She
indicated she did not.
"I have not been actively
working in Basin," she said.
"We have made an offer with
them in the past to have UW
write a business plan for a
restaurant. Since our fund-
ing did not come from them
we did not actively pursue
that."
Ewen asked if Taylor
was going to initiate some
efforts toward the quarter
cent economic development
sales tax. She answered, "If
we are funded, yes. It is re-
ally what it comes down to. I
think all the elected officials
throughout the county can
see that we can't make that
happen without continuing
effort. At each of the for-
mal request meetings with
the councils, we have talked
about it."
Taylor also discussed
a shop local campaign that
would focus on businesses
giving a 9 percent discount
to local shoppers one day
a week and a proposal the
mayor of Greybull has about
adopting the principals of
the Main Street Program.
"We are still undecided
on how that is going to pro-
ceed in Greybull," she said.
NEUROLOGY
Allen Gee, M.D.
May 1
1-307-578-1985
PODIATRY
Big Horn Foot Clinic
May 6 & 21
1-888-950-9191
MIDWIFE
f i f
rth B+g orn osp tal +str+ct
1115 Lane 12, Lovell, WY- 548-5200 www.nbhh.eom
CARDIOLOGY
K. Scott-Tillery, M.D. Please use the clinician's
May5 phone number as listed to
1-406-238-2000
GENERALSOR6Ei 'Y schedule an appointment.
Charlie Welch, M.D.
May 12 ANYTIME DAY OR NIGHT the North Big
Horn Hospital and New Horizons Care
ORTHOPEDICS Center provide services to persons utilizing
Sharae Bischoff, APRN
May 13
1-307-754-7770
DERMATOLOGY
Jared Lund, M.D.
June
1-800-332-7156
Jared Lee, M.D.
May 26
1-307-578-1955
FOOT CLINIC
307-548-5226
for appointment and information
the facilities without discrimination based on race,
color, national origin, age, sex, religion or handicap.
www.nbhh.com
Harvey explains
BY PATrl CARPENTER
Medicaid expansion
failed in both the House
and the Senate, leaving
hospital administrators
across the state wondering
how continued write-offs
for bad debt and charity
care will affect their orga-
nizations in the future.
Representative Elaine
Harvey made an attempt
to answer that question
during an unscheduled
visit to the Board of Di-
rectors of North Big Horn
Hospital at their regularly
scheduled meeting held on
April 21.
Harvey said though
many hospital administra-
tors contacted her during
the session expressing
their desire for Medicaid
expansion in the state, the
"numbers just didn't add
up."
She said the reason it
failed was because it did
not include "cost controls."
She said many legislators
wanted to see an enroll-
ment period requirement,
a health savings account
component and/or a work
requirement as a means of
L . II;.--a J 1~ ~t- {he
federal government would
not allow those provisions.
"The sentiment in gen-
eral was that we weren't
incentivizing people to
better themselves," said
Harvey.
She explained that
when expansion began to
fail in the Senate, alter-
native ideas were present-
ed to help hospitals cover
some of their costs for char-
ity care. One idea present-
ed by Sen. Ray Peterson of
Cowley did pass, provid-
ing much needed funding
to small hospitals through-
out the state. NBHH re-
ceived about $200,000 of
that funding.
Harvey noted that
five small hospitals in the
state having less than 100
days worth of cash on hand
and one hospital having
less than 19 days cash on
hand benefited from some
additional funding made
options to NBHH
available through a hospi-
tal endowment fund. Since
NBHH was in a better fi-
nancial position than those
hospitals, it did not benefit
from that fund.
Harvey explained that
this was always intend-
ed to be a one-time fix and
that many other ideas are
currently in the works that
may provide more long-
term relief.
"This didn't cover the
more than $1 million you
have in uncompensated
charity care," she said. "We
know that, but we hope it
will help keep you alive."
She said one of the
benefits of the Medicaid ex-
pansion discussion in the
legislature is that it drew a
lot of interest in the finan-
cial diff~culties hospitals
are facing throughout the
state.
"It's the first time we
had senators get truly se-
rious about the true effects
of ACA (Affordable Care
Act) and what it's going to
do to hospitals and what
it's going to do to patients
and what it's going to do to
uninsured people and em-
ployers who cannot afford
to buy insurance for their
employees."
She noted that the
spotlight was on hospitals
during the session and out
of that session came two
committees that will take
a deep look at hospitals in
the coming months.
She said some of the
ideas being discussed in-
clude a i mill levy state-
wide, having mandato-
ry mill levies in certain
districts and using sales
tax dollars to support
hospitals.
"In the end, whether
we have Medicaid expan-
sion or not, our hospitals
are the last door that many
people have," she said. "We
do not want to close that
door."
She said extensive
study is already in progress
to come up with a solution
to the problem that works
in the State of Wyoming.
Cafe presents
NOnTalCoh lic drinkI
specials, Cable TV,
Pool, Darts,
Touchtone music
::coming soon
'Environment, Food Available
Karaoke EveryThursday 5 PM - 9 PM
by Kitty's Party Productions
Tues: -Thurs. 10 AM - 8 PM Fri.-Sat. 10 AM - 9 PM
Sun. 8 AM - 2 PM
3t E. Main St Cowley WY 307-548-2990
Now through May3h Open burning allowed in Town of Lovell. See
rules in the advertisement in this week's paper.
CLUB and BOARD MEETINGS
BHC School District No. 1 Board, 2nd
Tuesday, board room, 7 p.m.
BHC School District No. 2 Board (Lovell),
2nd Monday, board room, 7 p.m.
BHC Treasurer at County Annex, 1st and
3rd Thursday each month, 9 a.m. - l
p.m.
Big Horn Basin chapter of Gold Prospec-
tors Association of America, Skyline
Cafe in Powell, 2nd Tuesday, 7 p.m
754-5921.
Big Horn County 4-H Leader's Council,
lstMonday, Extension Office on Hwy.
310, 6:30 p.m.
Big Horn County Weed and Pest monthly
board meeting, 2nd Tuesday, 12:30 p.m
W&P office at 4782 Hwy. 310, Greybull.
Byron Lions Club, 548-7543.
Cancer Support Group, 3rd Thursday, 7
p.m NHCC multi-purpose room.
Community Garden Club, 2nd Thursday,
Big Horn Federal, 7 p.m.
Cowley Riding Club, 3rd Monday, 7 p.m
307-664-2235.
Lovell Area Chamber of Commerce gen-
eral membership meeting, 3rd Monday,
noon, place tba.
Lovell Bulldog Booster Club, 3rd
Wednesday, Big Horn Federal Hospital-
ity Room, 7 pm.
Friends of the Library, 2nd Wednesday,
Lovell Library, 5:00 p.m. Contact Linda
Mangus, 548-2031
Lovell Library Family History Time, ev-
ery Monday, 1-4 p.m.
Loveli Library Story Time, every Tuesday,
10:30 a.m.
FDIC Insured
Lovell Riders, lnc. meeting, 1st Friday, 7'
p.m call 548-9918 for location.
Lovell Town Council, 2nd Tuesday, Town
Hall, 7 p.m.
Lovell Woman's Club, 2nd Wednesday,
Big Horn Federal Hospitality Room, 1
p.m. Contact Deanna Wagner, 548-7793.
North Big Horn County Health Coalition,
3rd Tuesday, noon, rotating locations,
548-6410.
North Big Horn Hospital Hometown
Healthy Living, 1st Tuesday, 7-10 a.m
at NBH H.
Ostomy Support Group meeting, 2nd
Tuesday, 6 - 8 p.m North Fork room,
West Park Hospital in Cody.
Pindroppers Quilt Club, check Mayes
Fabric for details.
TOPS @ WYI69, every Thursday, St.
John's Episcopal Church basement in
Powell, 6 p.m. 664-2394
TOPS Wyo 318, every Tuesday, 5:30 p.m
New Horizons Care Center
Tri-Mountain View Masonic Lodge, 2nd
Thursday, dinner 6:30 p.m lodge meet-
ing 7:30 p.m.
WyDOT Driver Licensing Facility open in
Lovell every Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Call the LoveU Chronicle at 548-2217 to
list your club here.
Big Hom~
Federal l (
Greybull, Powell, Thermopolis, Cody, Worland, Lovell
