By Sarah Hale on Feb 26, 2013 in Lincoln County, News Construction of the Lincoln County Justice Center continues to move forward. The $17 million project is set to be completed in 2013. Despite the cold and snow the project has made significant headway, said Griffin Johnson, project principal. As of the end of January the project is 35 percent finished. The skeleton of the building is nearly complete. Portions of the building are getting close to being closed in, meaning heat can then be introduced. Thats a good thing this time of year. According to Griffin, several benchmarks on the project have been achieved thus far. They include: completing the rough grading; creating a new site access from Highway 30A; installing footings and foundation; the erection of the precast panels; and completing underground rough- ins for plumbing and electrical. Other progress on the project includes steel erection, roof deck and membrane installation, rooftop mechanical-unit and skylight installation, and the erection of block walls, Griffin said. Overall, pending the actual duration of winter, the project is on track to be completed before the end of 2013. When the project is finished, the structure will be approximately 50,000 square feet. The … Continue reading →

The Lincoln County School District Number Two Board of Trustees is considering pros and cons of adopting an electronic curriculum at the high school level. Shannon Harris, district curriculum director, presented information about switching over to electronic curriculum during the Feb. 14 meeting of the school board. According to Harris, there are three critical concerns with moving forward with an electronic curriculum at the secondary level. This first one is bandwidth, she said. We do not currently have the bandwidth to move forward with this kind of curriculum. Until we get that resolved, we cannot move forward. According to Harris, the state is moving forward with some solutions to the bandwidth dilemma. If the state fails to get the necessary bandwidth in place, the school district is ready and willing to move forward with expanding bandwidth, she said. Initiative fatigue among staff members was listed as the second critical concern. We expect a lot from our teachers and school staff, said Harris. This curriculum change will raise that expectation further. In surveying classroom teachers at the high school level, 39.1 percent said they are using web based curriculum or electronic media in the classroom daily. Another 28.3 percent use such … Continue reading →

By News Release on Feb 26, 2013 in News, Outdoors, Wyoming The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is wrapping up a successful wolf capturing and collaring effort conducted intermittently over the last six weeks in northwest Wyoming. The Game and Fish will capture and collar wolves in the Wolf Trophy Game Management Area annually to monitor population size and distribution in Wyoming, said Large Carnivore Section supervisor Mark Bruscino. Recent capture operations have been successful and since December, we have radio collared 16 wolves in the Jackson, Meeteetse, and Cody areas. We now have at least one radio-collared wolf in most major packs in Wyoming, Bruscino added. Information collected from radio-collared wolves is helpful in documenting the population status of a recovered wolf population and will help ensure the species remains biologically recovered and under state management authority in the future, Bruscino said. Radio collars allow biologists to more readily locate wolf packs, count adults and pups, and more accurately estimate the number and location of wolf packs and breeding pairs in Wyoming. Although the final population estimate has not been prepared, we are confident that Wyoming will have a sufficient number of wolves within the Wolf Trophy Game Management … Continue reading →