September 5, 2013 I The Lovell Chronicle I 3
DAVID PECK
The cardboard trailer, left, and the multi-bin trailer stationed at the Red Apple
parking lot are filling rapidly each week, thanks to the success of the Lovell
recycling program, but more help is needed to transport the material to Powell.
BY DAVID PECK
A local recycling advocate told the Lovell
Town Council last Monday night that the
Lovell recycling program is close to becom-
ing a victim of its own success.
After giving a brief history of the pro-
gram during the Aug. 26 meeting, Chris-
ty Fleming, the Chief of Interpretation at
the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation
Area, said citizens are now placing about
600 pounds a week of cardboard in the card-
board trailer and some 1,060 pounds per
week in the multi-bin trailer, both of which
are located at the Red Apple parking lot.
That means the community is recycling
86,320 pounds or more than 40 tons of ma-
terial per year. The trailers are hauled to
the Powell recycling center by volunteers
from Bighorn Canyon NRA, the U.S. Forest
Service, the Town of Lovell and American
Colloid.
"It's a good problem, but it's a prob-
lem," Fleming said. "There is such a need
for recycling cardboard, and the trailer is
not big enough to take business cardboard.
And if the trailer is full, people pile (mate-
rial) on top (rather than waiting until the
trailer is empty). Our people are spending
a half hour to an hour cleaning up before
they can take it to the recycling center."
Making a rough estimation, Flem-
ing figures it costs volunteers and agen-
cies (and AMCOL) about $7,000 total per
year to take the material to Powell, and
the return is minimal, monetarily. She
said about $259 in recycling revenue was
donated to the Lovell Volunteer Fire Dept.
Christmas basket program from a year and
a half time span.
But she said the program brings people
together and keeps nearly 90,000 pounds of
waste material out of the North Big Horn
County Landfill e ach year.
But with federal sequestration hitting
the National Park Service, Fleming said
she is unsure whether the Bighorn Can-
yon NRA staff can continue to shoulder the
load (making the trip to Powell currently
six times per month), especially as the pro-
gram grows.
Fleming said the Bighorn Canyon bud-
get was reduced 5 percent for the current
fiscal year, and the staff is being asked to
cut another 8 percent for next year. She
said recent park superintendents have
been supportive of recycling in the commu-
nity, including acting supt. Cassity Brom-
ley, but future superintendents may see
the effort "as a benefit that the Town of
Lovell should be doing."
"If there's an 8 percent cut, we will have
fewer people to haul the trailer," Fleming
said. "Do we haul the trailer or take care of
the lawn at Horseshoe Bend? Or work the
front desk at the visitor center?
"We are totally willing to work on a
solution. None of us wants to see this go
away."
Fleming also noted that the recycling
center in Powell is struggling financially
and would be damaged if material from Big
Horn County were to stop coming over.
She noted that, at one time, there was a
discussion about the town using an old gar-
bage truck to compact material, especially
cardboard, which could then be more eas-
ily transported to Powell. If a truck were
available, more business material could be
hauled, she said.
Now, she said, cardboard almost has to
be hauled three times a week, asking, "Is
there a better way to transport it? Because
the two little trailers are overwhelmed."
Seeking ideas, Fleming wondered if
more volunteers could be recruited and
whether certain businesses could help.
"We're at a critical mass," she said. "Ei-
ther we don't do it anymore or we come up
with a plan. We're at the end of the bridge.
Either we jump off of it or we continue to
build it."
A bailer for cardboard has also been
mentioned in the past, Fleming said, but
she said such a device is too expensive to
ever pay for itself unless a grant can be ob-
tained for the purchase. A garbage truck
would work almost as well, she said.
Most people are very good about what
they take to the recycling trailers. A tire
was left recently, as was an old waterbed,
but she said the latter item may have been
an honest mistake.
In the short term, Fleming said, the
Park Service could simply use more vol-
unteers to haul the recycling trailers to
Powell until long-term solutions can be de-
vised. She said people can sign up as vol-
unteers for the Park Service and would be
covered by the agency's insurance while
hauling the trailers.
"I would love eight volunteers to take
the trailer once a month," she said. "There
is a lot more cardboard in the community
that is not being recycled."
LOVELL TOPS FAMILIES LIST continued from page one
followed by Sheridan, Af-
ton, Powell, Lander, Buffa-
lo, Worland, Cody and New-
castle. Only places with a
population of greater than
2,000 were considered in
the analysis.
According to a chart pre-
sented in the press release,
Lovell was given a score of
9 out of 10 by GreatSchools,
has a median home value
of $119,600, has monthly
owner costs of $998, has a
median household income
of $49,013, showed income
growth of 59.4 percent since
1999 and earned an overall
rating from NerdWallet of
73.9.
Lovell's GreatSchools
score tied Sheridan and Af-
ton at 9, and while the me-
dian home value was sec-
ond lowest (only Newcastle
is lower) among the top 10
towns, the monthly owner
costs are also second low-
est at $998 with only Wor-
land lower at $962 per
month.
Median household in-
come was in the middle
of the pack - higher than
Sheridan, Worland and
Cody but lower than Glen-
rock, Buffalo, Newscastle,
Afton, Lander and Powell.
Lovell's income growth
rate of 59.4 percent since
1999 was lower than Glen-
rock, Buffalo, Newcastle
and Powell but higher than
Lander, Sheridan, Afton,
Worland and Cody.
COMMITTEE MEETS IN LOVELL continued from page one
The next topic of dis-
cussion was problems as-
sociated with the imple-
mentation of the Affordable
Care Act (ACA), including
an update of the impact of
the act on Medicaid and
other Wyoming Dept. of
Health programs.
The committee heard a
report regarding the prog-
ress the state has made in
terms of creating a com-
puter database to stream-
line operations. The state
has put close to $10 mil-
lion, partially funded by
a grant, into software and
hardware to update com-
puter systems to determine
whether patients quali-
fy for Medicaid under the
current system. The idea is
to interface with the feder-
al system, with the goal of
eventually determining eli-
gibility for other programs
that are connected with
ACA. Those developing the
system testified that they
hope it will eventually cross
check information regard-
ing eligibility. Unfortunate-
ly, the IRS has fallen be-
hind in implementing their
system and the ability to
cross check against tax re-
cords will not be available
for a while.
The committee also re-
ceived an update on the
Medicaid fraud detection
unit, which was said to be
functioning well. The fraud
unit will also benefit from
the new computer system.
The committee looked
at draft legislation for a
plan similar to the "Arkan-
sas Plan," which is a pre-
mium assistance program
that allows the state to use
a market-based approach
to fund health care for the
poor within the state, as
opposed to accepting a fed-
eral Medicaid expansion
carte blanche. It would al-
low states to use federal
Medicaid funds to purchase
private insurance for low-
income people on a state or
federal exchange.
Harvey said there were
a number of benefits to this
type of program. One big
benefit is the fact that pa-
tients would find it easier
to find a provider because
many providers do not ac-
cept Medicaid patients be-
cause of the low reimburse-
ment rates. It would be
better for the provider, as
well, because the provider
would be paid at a higher
rate than they would re-
ceive through Medicaid. It
also teaches patients how
to be cost effective in their
use of emergency room ser-
vices because their insur-
ance policy would have
certain rules for using ex-
pensive services like an
emergency room.
The committee also
called for the "Ask-a-Nurse"
program to be beefed up as
a means of educating Med-
icaid and other patients on
the effective and efficient
use of medical resources.
A draft of legislation
was presented for members
to review that will be fur-
ther refined at a another
meeting to be held in No-
vember before it is voted
on at the next legislative
session. The draft was not
made public.
Issues involving the
public health nursing pro-
gram were also discussed,
including the status of ne-
gotiation with counties, the
memorandum of under-
standing process, the hir-
ing, training and supervi-
sion of supervising nurses
and delivery alternatives
that do not include county
participation.
The committee looked
at ways to cut costs to
bring the program budget
in line after the recent loss
of federal funds through
mineral royalties. The loss
of funding affects a portion
of salaries, costs associat-
ed with facilities and sup-
port staff for the operation.
It also discussed control
issues that counties have
over the programs, which
are funded in part by the
state and in part by the
county.
"A lot of counties are
unhappy that they have no
control over wages yet they
have to: pay 35 percent, of
those wages," said Harvey.
"Many are concerned that
they are liable for the op-
eration but have no control
over how it functions." (See
related story.)
An update regarding
ways to retain and recruit
medical professionals to the
state was also discussed,
including programs that
have been reduced that al-
low loan repayment, benefit
programs offered and bud-
getary trends. The report
indicated that changes to
the program have reduced
the state's ability to recruit
medical professionals.
The committee also
looked at Medicaid waiv-
er redesign and discussed
the possibility of redesign-
ing the program to allow
for two levels of assistance,
a comprehensive level and
a support level that have
differing caps on spending,
depending on individual
needs.
A review of a study
of one of the most expen-
sive health programs in
the state, the Life Resource
Center, included a discus-
sion of how to reduce the
costs of the program, which
currently costs as much as
$320,000 per person per
year. That costs includes
250 employees that serve
85 people in the facility.
The committee is looking
at ways to reduce expens-
es and the possibility of dis-
persing some or all of the
clients to other facilities.
The committee heard
testimony from the pub-
lic on numerous topics that
were discussed over the
two days. Harvey said she
was pleased to see so many
come forward to express
their opinion and offer their
ideas for the committee to
review.
The hearing was basi-
cally a work session and
much of the discussion will
continue in another session
that will take place in No-
vember before draft legisla-
tion is refined and voted on
in the next legislative ses-
sion, which will take place
the beginning of next year.
DIST. 2 EXCEEDS AVERAGE continued from page one
of test than PAWS in that
it measures progress over
the course of the school year
with students taking the
test at the beginning of the
school year and then taking
the same test at the end of
the year.
"Although we didn't
meet our district goals in
PAWS in all areas, improv-
ing those areas will become
part of the school improve-
ment plan," said Curricu-
lum Director Nancy Cerro-
ni. "That's how we set our
goals, that's how we use
the data. What we do with
PAWS is we use it as an in-
dicator but we also keep in
mind that it is a single test.
What's important is to look
at all of the tests and learn
from that data."
Cerroni said she thinks
changes to the test, incor-
porating the old standards
and the new common core
standards, may have affect-
ed the scores. She said the
reading portion, in particu-
lar, was much longer than
on previous tests and that it
will take time for students to
adjust to it.
"We're still in the early
stages of implementing the
common core, so you have to
honor that learning curve,"
said Cerroni. "I think the
changes in the test impacted
reading the most because of
the length of the test. Also,
the rigor of the test has gone
up with the common core.
Concepts are being brought
down in grade levels, while
at the same time the rigor
has gone up. Essentially it
raises the achievement bar
and in the long run it will be
good."
Cerroni noted that
statewide the scores were
lower due to the field testing
of common core concepts in-
cluded in the test.
"There wasn't a lot of dif-
ference in reading between
our third graders for exam-
ple and the state, so that
causes me not to have a huge
red flag in that area, espe-
cially since the same kids
tested so well in MAP," she
said. "The point is that you
never look at a single test in
isolation."
Cerr'oni said the district
looks at all of the informa-
tion and that helps both ad-
ministrators and teachers
to help individual students.
The different tests help the
teacher look at the student's
progress through a vari-
ety of lenses over a period of
time.
"To me the essence of
why we assess (test stu-
dents) is to give us a good
comprehensive picture
of student achievement
through time," said Cerro-
ni. "If a student is down in a
certain area, it is a call to ac-
tion for us to provide an in-
tervention in that area. As-
sessment is always about
improvement on two levels:
at a systems level as a school
or district and at the individ-
ual student level."
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