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LOVELL
What's Inside ...
Day of Good Will
Fair schedule
District 2 projects
Mustangs finish season
2
6
7
10
LOVELL, WYOMING • VOLUME 107 NUMBER 8 - THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012 • 75q
PATti CARPENTER
Loretta Tippetts and her daughter Shelly Lohof supported one another through
cancer diagnosis and treatments.
Big Horn County Relay for Life
A mother and daughter's struggle with cancer
BY PATTI CARPENTER
The sudden appearance of a lump on
her breast took Lovell resident Shelly Lo-
hof on a journey of healing and self-discov-
ery that inspired her to help her own moth-
er and others in the battle to end cancer.
"I found a lump that seemed to appear
overnight," said Lohof. "I think I would
have felt it before because of where it was.
I'm sure I would have felt it in the show-
er. It was like, all of a sudden, it was just
there one day. I made an appointment
with Billings Clinic on a Monday, they got
me in on a Wednesday, they did the biopsy
right away, and by Thursday I knew it was
cancer. By the following Tuesday, I had a
lumpectomy and then I got the call saying
that there were still some suspicious cells,
and I had the mastectomy."
Lohof was 45 years old at the time.
"It was like my whole world came to a
screeching stop and the carpet was ripped
out from underneath me and there was no
choice but to deal with this," said Lohof.
"At that moment I felt like, from here on, I
will never be the same."
Lohof said the question "what if?."
crosses her mind every day. What if it
comes back?
"One of the things I tell people who are
going through cancer and treatments is
that you have to accept that you can't con-
trol it," explained Lohof, "because I know I
can die of this cancer or I can live to be 95,
I can get hit by a car, or die in some oth-
er way. I can't control how I will die and
I can't let worrying about it consume me
today because I can't spend the life I have
today trying to control something I can't
control anyway."
Lohof said that her battle with cancer
helped her to realize the things that were
really important in her life.
"I don't stress about the stupid little
See 'RELAY FOR LIFE,' page 3
!
Residents cautioned to watch.
for rattlesnakes in town
BY PATTI CARPENTER
Law enforcement offi-
cials are urging residents
throughout Big Horn Coun-
ty to watch where they step
after a teen literally stum-
bled on a rattlesnake in
Lovell at around 10 p.m.,
on Monday. The large rat-
tlesnake was apparently
warming itself on a side-
walk located well within
city limits.
Rachelle Smith, 14,
was walking home on the
warm summer night when
she felt something move
under her foot. That "some-
thing" turned out to be a
rattlesnake.
"I didn't see it, I just felt
it move and then there was
a loud sound," said Smith.
"It scared me so much that
I ran as fast as I could to
the nearest house to call
my dad. I was shaking all
over and my face must have
been pure white."
The incident took place
on Kansas Street, between
Second and Third Streets,
near where an alley inter-
sects with the sidewalk.
"People • tell me that
I was lucky that I wasn't
wearing sandals," said
Smith, who fortunately
was wearing closed ath-
letic type shoes and long
pants at the time, which
may have protected her
somewhat. "It made a lot of
noise and tried to bite at me
right away. I jumped out of
the way and ran as fast as
I could. I didn't even look
back to see if it was coming
after me."
Smith's father was at
the scene almost imme-
diately and ran over the
snake with his truck to pre-
vent it from striking one of
the many children who had
now gathered at the scene
to see the snake.
A nearby resident no-
ticed the commotion out
on the street and, think-
ing there was a fight in
progress, called the Lovell
Police Department for as-
sistance. Within moments
Sergeant Noe Garcia was
at the scene expecting to
break up a teen scuffle only
to find a very large rattle-
snake stretched across the
road. The rattlesnake mea-
sured 28½ inches and had
eight buttons, and in Gar-
cia's words, was "pretty
much dead" by the time he
arrived.
"It's unusual to see one
right in town like this, but
I'm not surprised with the
hot dry weather to see one,"
said Garcia. "You see rat-
tlesnakes sunning them-
selves on the road like this
all the time out in the coun-
try, but no so much right in
town like this."
Lovell Police Chief Nick
Lewis cautioned that if one
snake made its way into
town, there may be others
in town as well and that
Smith, who had never seen
a live rattlesnake before,
was very lucky to somehow
escape a snakebite.
"Parents need to tell
their kids to stay away
from snakes if they see
one in town like this," said
Lewis. "Most kids who live
in town haven't seen a rat-
tlesnake before, and they
have no idea how danger-
ous they are."
This is not the first in-
cident this week where a
rattlesnake found its way
into a residential area in
the county. A resident of
Basin reported one under
his porch and called sher-
iffs deputies to help him
remove it.
Big Horn County Sher-
iff Ken Blackburn noted
that he found one on his
own property recently in
Cowley.
"They're out right now
probably looking for water
in this hot and dry weath-
er," said Blackburn. "Peo-
ple really need to keep
their eyes open for them.
They can turn up any-
where."
Residents are urged to
call 911 for assistance if
they see a rattlesnake in
town.
"If people call us, we'll
come out and help them,"
said Garcia. "It's better to
call us, if they're not used
to dealing with snakes,
than to risk getting bit."
Nicholls will be missed in Cowley
BY DAVID PECK
They gathered in the park
Monday night with food, hugs
and friendly conversation.
They stopped by all day Tues-
day to say a final goodbye.
If, as has often been said,
the post office is the focal point
of every small community, it
was never more evident than
during the last few days in
Cowley.
The community of Cowley
said goodbye to longtime post-
master Jack Nicholls, who re-
tired Tuesday after 33 years
with the U.S. Postal Service:
18 years in Lovell and 15 in
Cowley as postmaster.
"The Postal Service is do-
ing some restructuring and is
giving some of us an opportuni-
ty to take an early out, a little
incentive to leave early," said
Nicholls, 65. "I originally was
thinking next year."
Nicholls took the offer and
closed out his career as of July
31.
Nicholls was working on
his family farm south of Lovell
with his father, Wilmer, in 1979
when he spoke to Lovell post-
master Dwight Despain about
a job for his brother, Max. Max •
needed fulltime work, and the
position in Lovell was only part
time, but that was perfect for
Jack, who could still work on
the farm and also work at the
post office.
"Dwight talked me into it to
supplement my farming," Nich-
olls said. "It was a part-time
job, and it fit in well."
The Nicholls family farmed
more than 200 acres in the
area, Jack said, about 125
acres of their own and a num-
ber of other places, as well. He
sold the farm about 10 years
ago, he recalled.
Nicholls worked for post-
masters Despain and, later,
Nicholls said. Byron, Deaver
and Frannie are slated to be
reduced to four hours a day,
Cowley to six hours per day.
"What our understanding
is, this is so people can have
their post office and availabil-
ity of mail and their own zip
code," Nicholls said. "They'll do
this over the next two years, by
September of 2014."
Asked what he'll do now,
Nicholls replied, "Watch my
grandson play football. I've
seen him once in four years."
He was referring to grand-
son Kade, of Blanchard, Okla., a
suburb of Oklahoma City. Kade
is the son of Jared and Cherelle
Hessenthaler Nicholls, and will
be a senior this year.
DAVID PECK
Retiring Cowley Postmaster Jack Nicholls gets a hug from
Marguerite Strom during his farewell picnic at the Cowley
Town Park Monday evening.
Elaine Dobbs in Lovell for 18
years, then had a chance to be-
come a postmaster himself- in
Cowley. He jumped at the op-
portunity.
"The reason I like it is that
I'm the only one here," Nicholls
said. "I'm my own boss. People
ask, 'What's your perfect job?'
This is mine. I always hoped to
have the opportunity to come
up here, and it did happen."
Nicholls said he has ap-
preciated the help from Linda
Parker over the years.
"She was my relief, she's
so good," Nicholls said. "We've
followed the boys for years and
have been able to go places and
do things. It's been so good. She
deserves a lot of the credit for
what success we have had up
here."
RESTRUCTURING
In lieu of a recent decision
to not immediately close small
post offices across the country,
the Postal Service has, instead,
produced a plan to cut hours,
FULLER TAKES OVER
A familiar face will now
greet customers at the Cowley
Post Office, Cowley's own Deb-
ra Fuller, who will be the officer
in charge while the Postal Ser-
vice seeks a new postmaster.
Fuller has worked for the
Postal Service for 21 or 22
years, she said, starting out
as postmaster relief in Byron,
Cowley, Deaver and Frannie.
"I was the fill-in for the fill-
ins," she said, noting that if the
postmaster was going to be out
of town and the top relief work-
er was unavailable, the post of-
fice would call her.
She branched out in post-
master relief to Shell and
Ralston, worked as a fill-in car-
rier in Greybull and as a clerk
in Basin, then started working
as a carrier in Lovell in 1999,
then as a clerk. She moved to
Cody as a clerk in 2007, then
started working in various of-
rices as the officer in charge
including Meeteetse, Basin,
Byron and, most recently, Sto-
W, before taking the job in
Cowley.
Hyart Film Fest
just around the
corner
BY PATrl CARPENTER
"Expect variety, expect to see
something different at this year's Film
Fest," said Hyart Film Festival orga-
nizer Jason Zeller.
Zeller is pleased with the variety
of films the festival will showcase this
year, Aug. 9-11, at the historic Hyart
Theatre, in downtown Lovell. This will
be the third year for the festival, which
will present films carefully selected by
a committee from submissions in the
drama, comedy, action comedy, anima-
tion, music video, science fiction, hor-
ror and "mockumentar' genres. Zeller
describes the "mockumentary" genre
as a "spoof presented in a documentary
style format with a humorous twist."
Zeller noted that he received more
films from filmmakers incorporating
a "religious theme" this year than in
previous years. One such filmmaker
is Reed Simonsen, who will be show-
COURTESY PH()TO
Filmmaker
Reed Simonsen
will present
two films with a
religious theme
at this year's
Hyart Film
Festival, which
wil!be held
Aug. 9-11 at the
Hyart Theatre.
casing two
films, "Molly
Goes West" and
'TIost High" at
this yeas festi-
val.
Simonsen
has won numer-
ous awards for
both films in-
cluding the Ac-
colade Award
of Merit, the
Telly Award for
Outstanding
Student Film-
making, Global
Music Awards
and other short
film awards.
Simonsen
is a best selling
author, humani-
tarian, advocate
See 'FILM,' page 7
