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BY DAVID PECK
A spectacular truck fire at
the foot of the Big Horn. Moun—
tains Saturday morning that sent
thick, black smoke high into the
sky and featured leaping flames
fortunately resulted in no inju—
ries, though the fire did hold up
traffic on US. 14A for some time.
According to Wyoming
Highway Patrol trooper Ran—
dy Davis, a semi tractor—trail—
er driven by Yorry Flerimond of
TruCk fire fills the sky
Delaware was descendin . .
14A when the brakes on the trail-
er overheated. causing the fire.
“He doesn’t think his brakes
were overheating, but I feel like
they were,” Davis said. “He heard
a ‘pop, pop.’ It probably got so
hot that it overinflated the tires
and caused the fire. The tires got
hot and popped. I’m just surmis—
ing (on the tires), but I do believe
the fire was caused by overheat—
ed brakes.”
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LOVELL
LOVELL, WYOMING 0 VOLUME 115, NUMBER 50 - SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 0 $1
DAVID PECK
Lovell volunteer fireman Michael Jameson drags a fire hose uphill to assist
Seth Mayes (center) and Lynn Hitz as they battle the
Saturday morning truck fire 20 miles east of Lovell on US 14A.
with smoke Saturday
The truck was hauling a load '
consisting of rolls of plastic en
route to CETCO. and when the
fire began, the burning plastic
sent the black plume of smoke
Skyward. The call initially came
in as a cattle trailer on fire, but
fortunately that was not the case,
Davis. said. '
Lovell Volunteer Fire Dept.
Assistant Chief Bob Mangus
said the call came, in at 11:11 a.m.,
and the first unit arrived at
11:23. Twelve firemen were on
scene. Firemen cleared the scene
at 12:33.
Davis said the driver did
manage to detach the semi from
the trailer.
“He stopped and lowered
his trailer stand, his jack, and
pulled the truck forward 50 or 60
yards,” Davis said. “The fire start-
ed in the way back of the trailer.”
SEE 'I'RUCK FIRE’ page 7
North Big Horn Hospital District approves $15 minimum wage
, BY RYAN FITZMAURICE ‘
The North Big Horn Hospital
Board of Trustees approved a $15
an hour minimum wage for all of
its workers on Tuesday, Sept. 21.
The change will impact 77
emplo ees within the dietary,
house eeping, EMS, activities,
business office, clinic, lab, care
center, cardiac and rehab depart-
ments of the hospital. The lowest
wage earned before the change
was $11.70 an hour.
Hospital CEO Eric Connell
presented the change, stating
that an $11.70 starting wage was
quickly becoming uncompetitive
inua fast-changing market.
kooky to enjoy
‘Hollywood
Homecoming
: ' BY DAVID PECK
‘7 Rocky Mountain High
School will celebrate a “Hol—
lywood Homecoming” next
week, with each ClaSS partic-
ipating in a Variety of activi-
ties based-on a particular film
genre.“ :
"According to student
Council advisor Vicki Arnold,
seniors will celebrate under .
theigenre Horror, juniors Ac-
tion, sophomOres Mystery
and freshmen Sci-fi.
" Arnold said there will be
’ no movie night again this year
andno Navajo taco dinner,
but plenty of other activities
remain.
i‘ 1, .The various dressrup days
are named after movies. Mon-
day :is “Ferris Bueller’s Day
fo’.’ with students coming
sieg‘fRMHsHomecoMINc’ page 8
The Lovell Chronicie, 234 E. Main, Lovell, WY 82431 - Contact us at:
307—548—221 7 - www.lovellchronicle.com
“In a historical context, we
said we may not be able to pay
the most, but this is a good place
to work,” Connell said. “There’s
nothing wrong with that. It may
have been effective, but does the
moment we are in right now sup-
port that?”
Connell offered an anecdote
to the board where the Maverik
attempted to draw one of their
employees away with a $13.50
an hour offer. Many businesses
in the area now offer more than
$11.70, Connell reported. '
According to numbers pre—
sented to the board, the change-
would cost the district $128,291
Homecoming wee
BY DAVID PECK
It’s been a spirited home-
coming week so far at Lovell
High School, with plenty of stu—
dent participation and a variety
of activities culminating with the
football game against Big Piney
this Friday, Oct. 1.
Lovell’s 2021 homecom-
ing theme is “Home Away From
Homecoming,” and myriad activi—
ties have already been held.
A week of various daily
themes began Monday with ‘Mer—
ica Monday continued with (ex-
tra) Terrestrial Tuesday. The Na-
tional Honor Society sponsored
water balloon volleyball Monday
during flex period and an “alien
drop” egg drop from the top of
the bleachers during flex.
A popular, well—attended
powder puff football game was
played Tuesday night, with sever—
al girls showing excellent speed.
Wednesday was Worldwide
Wednesday, with each grade
per year.
“It’s not just a single year in—
vestment,” Connell Said. “It’s a
multimillion_ investment in our
people over the years.” ‘-
Connell" also «warned the
board that raising the wa e of its
lowest paid staff would 1i ely re-
sult in wage increases for higher
paid employees in time.
“If you are making $15.50 and
you’ve been working here for 15
years and suddenly everybody
gets $15, that may feel a little un-
fair,” Connell said. “It’s some—
thing that needs awareness, and
it’s also an acknowledgment that
we’re going to need to address
that somewhere in the future.”
Most of the board spoke in I
support of the proposal.
“When we i
rst went over our
budget, we said, ‘If we were do-
ing well, we would invest in our
people,’ board chair Dave Winter—
holler said. “The question is how
much and is it sustainable? Right
now, it’s doable.”
Winterholler later stated that
the hospital’s $11.70 wage was too
low.
“I hope nobody on the board
feels good about our starting
wage,” Winterholler said.
SEE WAGE INCREASE’ page 7
k conti'uesat Lovell th Schoo
Both districts
lead state in
WY-TOPP scores
BY RYAN FI'IZMAURICE
Both Big Horn Coun—
ty School District No. 1 and Big
Horn County School District No.
2 led the state in most areas of
WY—TOPP testing according to
data from the spring of 2021.
“This speaks very high—
ly of our teachers and their in—
struction,” Lovell Superinten-
dent Doug Hazen said, “and
what they are able to do in tough
circumstances.”
Lovell Elementary was
largely equal with the state in
English language arts testing,
with fourth grade scoring three
percent above the state average
with 52 percent proficient while
grade three scored two points
below the state average, with 48
percent proficient.
In Lovell Middle School, all
classes scored above the state,
grade six scoring 11 percent
higher than the state with 69
percent proficient, grade seven
scoring seven percent above the
state with 60 percent proficient
and grade eight scoring 13 per—
cent above the state with 74 per—
cent proficient.
The high school had simi-
lar results in English language
arts, with both grades 9 and 10
scoring nine percent above the
state average with 61 percent
proficient.
In math, grade three scored
nine percent above the state av-
erage at 59 percent proficient,
grade 4 scored eight percent
above the state average with 58
percent proficient and grade 5
scored six percent above the
state average with six percent
proficient. \
Lovell Middle School scored
very high scores in math, with
grade six scoring 32 percent
above the state average at 80
percent proficient, grade seven
scoring 15 percent above state
average at 62 percent proficient
and grade 8 scoring 25 percent
above the state at 75 percent
proficient.
. “The middle school was im—
pessive," Hazen remarked.
In the high school, the trend
continued with grade nine and
grade 10 both scoring 11 per—
cent above the state, grade nine
scoring at 53 percent proficient
and grade 10 scoring at 56 per—
cent proficient.
In science, grade eight
scored 26 percent above the
state average at 72 percent pro-
ficient, and grade 10 scored eight
percent above the state average
at 56 percent.
In District No. 1, all schools
scored above the state average
in all but five instances. Rocky
SEE ‘WY-TOPP SCORES’ page 7
DAVID PECK
Juniors TJ Scheeler (left) and Ben Nichols heave a water balloon Monday
afternoon during a homecoming
SEEp‘LHS HOMECOMING’ page water balloon volleyball match sponsored by
the LHS National Honor Society organization.
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