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What's Inside ...
Firemen snuff
attic blaze Page 2
Trucker survives
rollover Page 5
'New look'
Lovell prom Page 11
Arbor Day in Lovell __ Page 15
LOVELL, WYOMING • VOLUME 106, NUMBER 47 • THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012 • 75¢
Folks attending the
North Big Horn Hospital
Foundation's Evening
With Friends fundraiser
at the Lovell Community
Center Saturday night
enjoyed magician Shawn
Preston of Denver. At the
left, Preston has Jesse
Piper choose a number
out of the phone book at
random while (below, l-r)
Dominique Allred, Betsy
Piper, Peggy Stringer
and Devan Fink (she's the
dash) magically reveal
the same number from
envelopes they were
given.
DAVD PECK PHOTOS
Labor department dumps
proposed child labor rules
BY PATTI CARPENTER
The U.S. Department of La-
bor (DOL) formally withdrew its
controversial proposed restric-
tions on youth working on farms
and ranches last Thursday fol-
lowing months of fierce opposition
from farmers, agricultural groups
like the FFA and 4-H and pres-
sure from elected officials from
agriculturally based states.
The proposed rules would
have prohibited youth under the
age of 18 from working with cer-
tain animals, including perform-
ing chores such as herding on
horseback, rounding up chick-
ens for slaughter, vaccinating,
hoof trimming and other com-
mon practices. The rules would
have prohibited youth from han-
dling most animals more than six
months old, which those in op-
position felt would have severely
limited youth participation in 4-H
and FFA activities.
The rules would have also
prohibited youth from operating
most farm machinery, includ-
ing tractors and any other equip-
ment over 20 PTO horsepower
and would have prohibited youth
from completing tasks at eleva-
tions over six feet high, like work-
ing in barns and from working at
stockyards and grain bins. Some
critics of the rules claim, the lan-
guage of the proposed rules was
so strict that it would have even
banned youth from operating a
battery powered screwdriver or a
pressurized garden hose.
Following a barrage of let-
ters, the DOL yielded somewhat
a few months ago, by stating that
it would bend the rules a bit to ex-
empt children under the age of 16
from child farm labor rules in cas-
es where a parent is either part
owner, member of a partnership,
or an officer with substantial
ownership interest in the farm.
The original proposal exempted
children only in cases where the
farm was "wholly owned" by the
child's parents.
Although the expanded ex-
emptions helped family farms,
they didn't do much for educa-
tional programs like the FFA and
4-H, where children who may not
necessarily come from a farm or
ranch family are afforded the op-
portunity to have a true "hands-
on" agricultural learning experi-
ence through supervised projects
like raising animals for market or
learning to operate farm equip-
ment. Consequently, the pressure
to withdraw the rules continued
to mount. As the chorus of pro-
tests from the ag community grew
louder, elected officials began po-
litical maneuvers that took aim at
the DOt until it finally dropped
the proposed rules altogether.
"This proposal was a clear in-
trusion on the family farm by the
government," said U.S. Rep. Cyn-
thia Lummis of Wyoming. "I'd
like to thank the families across
the country that took the time to
voice their opposition to this pro-
posed government intrusion and
firmly drew a line in the sand.
This is truly a victory for the fam-
ily farm and the dedicated, time-
tested student organizations like
4-H and FFA that were target-
ed by this proposal. I will see to
it that this proposal or anfihing
like it moving forward, does not
receive one dime from the taxpay-
er."
Lummis, who grew up on a
ranch in Wyoming, is a member
of the House Appropriations Com-
mittee and has been an outspoken
opponent of the measure since it
was first introduced. In a political
maneuver designed to block the
proposal, she and Rep. Denny Re-
hberg of Montana worked togeth-
er to literally cut off funding for it
in the Department of Labor's an-
nual appropriations bill.
See 'CHILD LABOR,' page 7
PATti CARPENTER
Lovell High School Students Kristin Cerroni and Amanda Allred
demonstrated how to saddle horses for a group of elementary
school students at a recent FFA event held in Cowley. Had the
proposed child farm labor rules gone into effect, the two girls
would have not been allowed to work with animals this large.
Lovell council chooses
four sixth-cent projects
BY DAVID PECK
The Lovell Town Council
Tuesday night selected four proj-
ects to be funded should voters in
November pass an optional sixth-
cent sales tax for Big Horn Coun-
ty municipalities.
Meeting in special session
ahead of a planned meeting of
the nine Big Horn County mayors
Thursday night in Dearer, the
council voted not only to present
two projects already discussed
but to add two more.
All of the projects present-
ed by town councils throughout
the county will be presented in a
proclamation that will go before
the county commissioners this
summer, and if they approve, to
voters at the General Election in
November.
The Town of Lovell initial-
ly considered three projects for
sixth-cent funding: a building for
the fledgling Lovell-Kane Muse-
um, improvements to the Lovell
Rodeo Grounds and an addition
to the Pryor Mountain Wild Mus-
tang Center. Projects must be on
town-owned land, and that led to
the elimination of the wild mus-
tang center from consideration.
With the museum building
remaining at an estimated $1.1
million including design work
and a new restroom/concession
stand building among improve-
ments at the rodeo grounds es-
timated to cost $110,000, Mayor
Bruce Morrison then offered up
a new cart barn for the Foster
Gulch Golf Course, estimated to
cost $40,000.
Then as the council discussed
the projects, Councilman Scott
Allred asked if street paving
could be included in the projects,
noting that there are portions of
several streets in town that re-
main unpaved.
"It's a prime opportunity to
do it all," Allred said.
Town Clerk/Treasurer Valer-
ie Beal noted that the town has
a recent estimate for simple pav-
ing, without curb and gutter, from
compiling a list of possible proj-
ects for county consensus money
from the State of Wyoming. She
said the estimate for engineer-
ing and paving was$186,375 and
said areas that could be paved
included Big Horn from First
See 'PROJECTS,' page 7
Coe named Wyoming
Superintendent of the Year
BY PATTI
" .......... Big H0rn
trict No. 2 Supt. Dan Coe was
named the 2013 Wyoming Su-
perintendent of the Year by the
Wyoming Association of School
Administrators (WASA). Coe has
been superintendent of the dis-
trict since 2005. Prior to taking
on the role of superintendent of
the district, Coe was principal of
the middle school in Lovell.
"This is a most prestigious
award for any superintendent,"
said WASA Executive Director
Dan Stephan in a letter to Big
Horn County School District No.
2 Board Chairwoman Judy Rich-
ards.
Coe will have the honor of
representing Wyoming at the
2013 American Association of
School Administrators (AASA)
National Conference on Educa-
tion, which will be held in Los An-
geles this year. Coe will be one of
50 state winners who attend the
conference and will be recognized
on stage during the opening cer-
PATTI CARPENTER
Big Horn County School
District No. 2 Supt. Dan Coe
was named the 2013 Wyoming
Superintendent of the Year
by the Wyoming Association
of School Administrators
(WASA) last week.
See 'COE,' page 7
Deaver could unveil Ridgeline
Energy plan in two weeks
BY BOB RODRIGUEZ
Indications are that in ap-
proximately two weeks a signifi-
cant development involving the
Town of Deaver and use of the
former Deaver school by Ridge-
line Energy Services Inc. in con-
nection with manufacturing part
or all of a water storage system
used by the oil and gas production
industries could be announced.
Trustees of Big Horn County
School District One voted 5-0 on
Thursday, April 26, to extend the
lease of the Deaver school facili-
ties an additional two weeks for
the town, as the original lease
was to expire on April 30. The
vote during the five-minute-long
telephone conference came dur-
ing a special meeting resulting
in board Chairman Dave Monk
being authorized to extend the
lease, said Superintendent Shon
Hocker. Trustees Brett Crosby
and Joan Zier were absent.
Ridgeline, which has been
working with the Town of Deaver
since around mid-2011, is exam-
ining whether it wants to uti-
lize the former school site, which
could result in new employment
and a lift to the area economy.
Unconfirmed implications are
that at least part of a water stor-
age system could be built by the
company in Deaver.
Noted Hocker, "On or before
Monday, May 14, the Town of
Deaver will decide if it wants to
acquire the old school facilities
from the school district. If they
decide to acquire the facility, they
will enter into a long-term agree-
ment with Ridgeline Energy. In
two weeks the Town of Deaver
may have some very exciting
news."
Although not officially un-
veiled yet, the forthcoming an-
nouncement appears to be in re-
lation to Ridgeline's identifying
"the need for a simple and cost-
effective solution to water stor-
age issues in the fracing cycle
and for produced water. Market
research confirms an established
and growing need for storage sys-
tems in the oil and gas production
sector. Our team has engineered
the Zero Impact storage system to
meet the needs of our customers,
including easy transportation
and assembly of the units." That
information is from the firm's
website.
It continues in part that, '%Ve
have designed an enclosed stor-
age unit to help our clients deal
with evaporation issues which
they have expressed can be (of)
significant concern. The Zero Im-
See RIDGELINE, page 7
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