2023 Year in Review

January
5 As far as cold snaps that plummet beyond -40 degrees go, the four-day stretch between Dec. 20 and Dec. 23 was about as conveniently timed as a rancher could ask for. That doesn’t mean that holding livestock in the weather was without real difficulties and cost, but long-term damage should be negligible, according to local ranchers.
For departing Wyoming state senator RJ Kost, R-Powell, his four years as a legislator has given him a passion for making a difference for others, one he does not see stopping now that he has been voted out of office.
Looking back on the last four years as mayor of Byron, six years in total, Pam Hopkinson believes the town of Byron is heading in a positive direction, with many projects completed and others in the works.
As of Dec. 19, the Lovell pool has been closed to the public, but the facility opening again will be as simple as the weather cooperating.
Nearly two weeks after water from a burst pipe flooded the lobby of the Hyart Theatre, theater officials hoping for a reopening are in a wait-and-see mode as an asbestos study must be conducted before work to repair damage can begin.
12 Gwynff Bodtke, a junior at Rocky Mountain High School, has been selected for the High School Honors Performance series at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Bodtke will perform flute in February with the honors performance symphony orchestra.
A new crash detection feature on Apple products cost the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Department and Big Horn County Search and Rescue approximately 96 man hours in the last week on false alarms. According to Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn, dispatch received two alerts last week, one from the Hunt Mountain area and one from the Crystal Creek turnoff at Burgess Junction, of snowmobilers crashing up in the Big Horn Mountains. In both cases once emergency personnel caught up to the snowmobiler in question, they not only found them in a state of good health and no distress, they found that the snowmobiler hadn’t crashed at all.
19 When Dalton Banks, R-Cowley, was sworn in as a lawmaker for the State of Wyoming, he had tears in his eyes. The 27-year-old lawmaker is one of 29 new representatives to join the Wyoming House and is one of three newly-elected Wyoming lawmakers still in their 20s.  Banks said he does not take the privilege and honor of being one of those 29 for granted.
The Rocky Mountain/Burlington Cross Country team has won the state title two years in a row, but on Thursday, Jan. 12, the championship team saw a shakeup as Burlington declared its independence. The School District No. 1 Board of Trustees voted unanimously to split the schools, approving a motion that creates a separate Burlington and Rocky Mountain team.
After a 30-year career in education that included time as a high school science teacher, athletic director, WHSAA board member and most significantly a long 16-year tenure as the principal for the Rocky Mountain Middle/High School, Tim Winland announced his decision to retire on Jan. 3.
26 One does not need to suffer grievous injury to experience the remodeled and expanded North Big Horn Hospital emergency department. They just need to show up this Saturday morning. NBHH will be holding an open house for the recently completed department this Saturday from 8 to 10 a.m.
The Lovell Chronicle was judged one of the top small weekly newspapers in Wyoming for 2022, receiving three major awards and numerous individual honors at the 124th annual Wyoming Press Association Winter Convention at the Little America Hotel in Cheyenne January 19-21.
February
2 The longtime head coach of the Rocky Mountain High School cross country team, John Bernhisel, resigned his coaching position recently, saying he was frustrated by communication ahead of a decision by the Big Horn County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees to create a separate team at Burlington High School.
9 The Western Sugar seasonal campaign has wrapped up, ending a year for the company where everything seemed to just click into place. It’s been, in the best kind of way, normal and uneventful, according to factory manager Shannon Ellis.
A fire high atop a crystallizer adjacent to the sugar bins at the Western Sugar Company factory in Lovell caused little damage but kept firemen busy for about an hour Tuesday night.
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel for fans of Lovell’s historic Hyart Theatre, which has been closed since a Christmas Eve Day water leak damaged the Hyart’s lobby. A crew from Safetech, Inc. of Billings arrived Monday to begin the process of removing asbestos-containing textured ceiling material from the lobby, which had been identified by Northern Industrial Hygiene of Billings after samples were sent to the company for analysis on January 4.
16 The North Big Horn Landfill, 2.5 miles southeast of Cowley, is approaching its end as a full-service landfill. “The facility will cease disposal of solid waste,” a recently published public notice states. The landfill will be converted into a transfer station, according to Gary Grant, the head of Big Horn County’s solid waste district.
A male gray wolf, originally collared in the area of Dillon, Montana, was killed by the USDA Wildlife Services after the wolf predated on two goats and a lamb on two north Big Horn County ranches.
Betsy Sammons has been hired as the principal for Rocky Mountain Middle/High School, replacing outgoing principal Tim Winland in the next school year.
23 With plans for the Lovell Police Department to move out of the Annex fast-developing, the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Department sees opportunity to create a third dispatch center in the county, giving the county the ability to provide emergency services with even more reliability.
One more week. That was the message Tuesday evening from Hyart Theatre general manager Wendy Roth following a meeting of the Hyart Redevelopment Board. Lovell’s historic movie palace is close to re-opening following the removal of asbestos, initial repairs, deep cleaning and the moving of furniture, equipment and supplies.
The 2021-2022 graduation data for the state of Wyoming have Burlington High School and Rocky Mountain High School both hovering around a 90 percent rate for the most recent school year, according to numbers announced in Big Horn County School District No. 1’s regular meeting February 9.
March
2 It’s finally here, the re-opening of the Hyart Theatre – the popcorn machine serviced and ready and many repairs completed – after 10 weeks being closed after a water leak damaged the lobby of the historic building on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24.
Head coach Eric Honeyman had a bone to pick with his team before they entered the regional championship game against reliable nemesis Wyoming Indian. His team wasn’t smiling enough. Honeyman’s concerns were unfounded after the Lady Grizz took down the Lady Chiefs 46-34 and, for the second year in a row, claimed the regional title. In the game, and especially after, there was plenty of smiling to be had.
9 In honor of community sports reporter Sam Smith, the Lovell Chronicle is asking for readers to send in their favorite memory of Sam for a tribute page to be printed next week. Sam died Wednesday, March 1, after being injured in a car crash west of Casper on February 26.
Representative Dalton Banks said he’s leaving his first session as a lawmaker in the Wyoming Legislature encouraged by much of the legislation passed in the past few weeks.
16 The Lovell cheerleaders are the top squad in the state. Competing last week in Casper, the Lovell cheerleading team topped the 2A Game Day competition in a field of eight competing schools.
Former State Rep. Elaine Harvey of Lovell has been appointed by Gov. Mark Gordon to the Wyoming Business Council Board of Directors to fulfill the unexpired term of John Coyne of Greybull, who has been named a Class A director for the 10th District of the Federal Reserve System.
The board of trustees of School District No. 1 held a wide-ranging discussion during their regular meeting on March 9 on the district’s use of Standards Referenced Grading after a survey given to teachers, students and parents in the district came back with starkly mixed results.
23 Lovell Elementary School has seen a significant decrease this year in students not reading at grade level, principal Scott O’Tremba reported during Big Horn County School District No. 2’s monthly board meeting held March 13. The new statistics come from the Independent Reading Leveling Assessment (IRLA) test, last taken in January, which measures student reading level.
With the Town of Lovell recently denied a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act funding to remodel town hall, the town is regrouping in regard to the project, town administrator Jed Nebel reported at the March 14 town council meeting. Nebel said the town has some options to move forward with the project, including money through the State Loan and Investment Board in the form of a low interest capital construction loan at a rate of 2.5 percent over 20 years.
30 The North Big Horn Hospital District Board of Trustees has voted to end the assisted living program in the New Horizons Care Center and transition those beds into the care center. The move will allow for 12 new beds within the care center.
Eric Honeyman has been hired as the principal for Rocky Mountain Elementary School, replacing Betsy Sammons, who will be moving to Rocky Mountain Middle/High School next year. Honeyman has been teaching at Rocky Mountain Elementary for 15 years and is currently serving as a kindergarten teacher in the building.
“It’s not just another herd of horses.” That’s the core message from Nancy Cerroni and the board of directors of the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center to the public and the federal Bureau of Land Management regarding management documents for the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range currently out for public review.
April
6 Lovell High School was subject to a hoax phone call that falsely reported an active shooting in the school Monday as similar hoax calls targeted districts around the state.
Lovell town officials are launching an effort to clean out the Hunt Canal, stating that the canal presents significant safety concerns if it remains in the state that it is.
13 The recent spate of warmer weather has allowed work to continue on the Constitution Park project in Lovell, with the splash pad and new playground equipment likely ready to go by May.
The Lovell Volunteer Fire Department again found themselves with their hands full this week, as multiple out of control weed fires required their response.
20 A newly released report places North Big Horn Hospital among the very best rural hospitals in the nation but also raises concerns regarding the cost for services at the facility.
Most Big Horn County School District No. 1 staff will see a 3 percent raise in the upcoming school year, with the board approving a new salary schedule during last Thursday’s regular board meeting. Business Manager Richard Parker said the move was made possible by increased state funding coming to the district after the most recent legislative session.
27 Community members young and old will fan out across Lovell and the immediate area Friday morning to participate in the inaugural Lovell Day of Service. Held in conjunction with Global Youth Service Day, the Day of Service is designed to get more members of the community involved, organizer Darece Grant said.
The board of trustees for the North Big Horn Hospital District is hoping patients see one primary improvement from a change of billing systems at the hospital – a bill patients can actually read. Pat McConnell of Billings Clinic reported during the April 18 regular meeting that the transition between the old billing system and the new was proceeding with relative ease.
May
4 Volunteers from across the community lent a hand in the Lovell Day of Service Friday, with more than 170 volunteers attending to projects across town.
A preliminary count of more than $8,000 was raised during the North Big Horn Hospital Foundation’s Evening with Friends Saturday night event, where Chicago comedic mentalist Jym Elders left the whole room in a tizzy.
11 Honored at the May 5 Chamber of Commerce Banquet were Citizen of the Year Linda Martin, Farmer/ranchers of the Year Charles and Amy Hessenthaler and Friends of the Chamber the late Loretta Bischoff and Marybeth Richardson. Key note speaker JR Vezain gave an inspirational talk.
A trio of senior boys have received top academic honors at Rocky Mountain High School for the Class of 2023. Collin Haslem is the valedictorian for the senior class and has also received the University of Wyoming Trustees Scholarship. Jackson Hanusa is the salutatorian and has received both the Daniels Scholarship and the UW Trustees scholarship. Carsyn Weber has also received the Daniels Scholarship.
As the Lovell Pool draws closer to its last days, town and school officials don’t have any easy answers for how to deal with the deteriorating facility.
18 Lovell school librarian Gwen Walker was honored Monday by Gov. Mark Gordon with the Recognizing Inspirational School Employees award.
It’s a love of learning that has propelled three Lovell seniors to the top of their class. Jordan Allen is the valedictorian for the Lovell Senior class. Rurik Olsen in the salutatorian. Garrett Lillard has been voted on by his class to be this year’s honor student.
25 Big Horn County School Districts No. 1 and No. 2 are both finalizing a new concussion policy that will cement a more proactive approach toward head trauma and student safety within local school buildings. The policy
varies extensively from what both districts had before, as the policy applies to all students, not just athletes, and establishes protocol for how to handle brain injuries in the classroom and not just the gym, track and football field.
After a meeting between the Fire Protection District No. 1 Board of Directors and the Lovell Town Council recently, the Town of Lovell and fire board have agreed to continue their dispatching agreement for another year, Lovell Town Administrator Jed Nebel announced at the May 9 town council meeting.
June
1 Amee Newman and Preston Nichols have been recognized as the Lovell High School senior athletes of the year.
Limited changes to dispersed camping regulations by the United States Forest Service for this summer may lead to larger changes down the road if a decrease in camping violations isn’t seen, according to Forest Service officials.
8 After nearly a year of discussions within the district, Big Horn County School District No. 2 has announced they will be offering preschool classes in the 2023-2024 school year.
A quartet of local players is in Casper this week for the
50th annual Wyoming Shrine Bowl all-star football game, which will be held this Saturday. Lovell High School
graduates Connor Strom and Ben and Preston Nichols were selected for the
North squad, along with Rocky Mountain graduate Nate Minemyer.
15 The Wyoming coaching fraternity lost one of its most esteemed members this week with the passing of former Byron and Rocky Mountain High School basketball coach Bob Doerr.
In a 5-1 vote, the school board of Big Horn County School District No. 2 approved the creation of Esports, or competitive video gaming, for the next school year during their June 12 regular meeting.
With the passing of Charles Hessenthaler on June 11, north Big Horn County has lost both a celebrated local farmer and a former state lawmaker.
22 As the unseasonably rainy weather continues in Big Horn County flooding will continue to be a considerable concern, but unlike southern Big Horn County communities such as Manderson, the north end of the county has so far gotten off light.
It came in with little fanfare, and it left just as uneventfully. After 35 years as Constitution Park, the name of Lovell’s most-used park in the southeast part of town was renamed Armory Park by the Lovell Town Council last week.
Law enforcement from throughout Big Horn County received rifle-rated body armor last week after a successful community fundraising effort.
29 A wall of raging, muddy water swept down the Crooked Creek drainage north and northeast of Lovell Friday afternoon, washing out roads, damaging property, knocking out power to the
Horseshoe Bend area, eroding the streambed and stranding residents, visitors and even a group responding firemen.
No cats or dogs have fallen from the skies onto Big Horn County, but the popular idiom would have been as appropriate as it’s ever been during the deluge of rainfall the county  received this June. June’s output, as of Tuesday, isn’t record breaking but it’s close according to Meteorologist Brett McDonald, with the county receiving anywhere from twice the amount it typically receives in June to four times the average amount, according to information collected by the National Weather Service in Riverton.
July
6 A new looming structure has been erected in Lovell with a new dispatch tower being installed just outside of 142 E. Third Street. According to Lovell Police Chief Dan Laffin, the development places the Lovell dispatch center only two months away from completion.
It might still be a very good harvest year for north Big Horn County. June saw a chart-topping amount of rain fall on Big Horn County, with multiple areas seeing four times their June average this year and the driest parts of the county still seeing twice their average amount, according to the National Weather Service in Riverton.
13 Big Horn County School District No. 2 has approved changes to their substance abuse policy, adding penalties if a student is found to be dishonest during questioning. Known informally as the party rule, the extracurricular substance abuse policy establishes consequences for when a student partakes in an illicit substance outside of school grounds.
Big Horn County residents who did not take a close look at their property assessment notices when they arrived in their mailboxes a few months ago are likely in for a big surprise when they get their property tax bills in September. On average, each residential property in the county increased by about 17% this year, according to Gina Anderson, who serves as the county assessor.
20 A project to develop a conservation guide for Big Horn County has reached roughly 80 percent of its fundraising goal, a representative of the project told the Lovell Area Chamber of Commerce Monday.
Big Horn County School District No. 2’s preschool program got a boost this week as their application for the John P. Ellbogen Foundation Graduate: All Students Successful Grant was accepted this week.
The Big Horn County Little League Majors Division All-Stars brought home some hardware from the Wyoming District 1 Tournament in Riverton last weekend, sweeping the competition and going undefeated in both pool play and single-elimination bracket games to win the championship and advance to the state tournament in Rock Springs.
27 Plans are continuing to replace a leaking roof in the New Horizons Care Center.
In 1995, Fruita, Colorado, was essentially bankrupt. After their agriculture industry fell through due to irrigation problems and an oil refinery
open and closed in the town, Troy Rarick said the town was on its knees. Today, Fruita brings in $42 million a year from mountain biking. It’s a recipe he has since recreated in Hurricane, Utah, Melrose, Australia, and Todos Santos, Mexico. On Wednesday, July 19, Rarick
spoke at the Lovell Community Center with a simple message. That formula could work for Lovell, too.
The Lovell Mustangs have heated up at the right time, winning three games at the Wyoming Class A District Tournament in Cowley last week to punch their ticket to the State A Tournament in Sheridan this week.
August
3 A cornerstone to the financial success of North Big Horn Hospital this year is the growth of the New Horizons Care Center to 70 residents by the end of this fiscal year. Currently standing at 55 residents as of last week, increasing the census of the care center is not so much an issue of demand, but rather an issue of staffing.
10 A local man with deep ties to the agricultural industry and a longtime record of service has stepped forward to help veterans in the form of a pack trip into the Big Horn Mountains through the Semper Fi Fund. Brett Crosby has planned the trip for three veterans and their spouses August 16-19, during which he said they will “enjoy quality time in the mountains, learn to pack horses and work together.”
Lynn Richardson was a long-time volunteer at the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area who passed away while helping a neighbor last year. Bighorn Canyon and his friends have been working on a way to honor his service to the surrounding communities and the National Recreation Area. That work has led them to the “Lynn Richardson, Art that Inspires” event on August 11-12, which combines his love for the Lockhart Ranch and his love for the arts.
17 At the end of the summer, Lovell schools have a new HVAC system without air-conditioning units and a brand new locker room without any lockers. As the school year quickly approaches, Big Horn County School District No. 2 has found itself on the short end of various supply line issues, leaving many of the projects they hoped to be completed unfinished.
Big Horn County School District No. 2 Food Service Director Rosanna Rusch has been selected by the Wyoming School Nutrition Association as the Food Service Director of the Year.
School psychologist for Lovell schools Brandon Weiss has been recognized as one of the very best at his job in the state, receiving the School Psychologist of the Year award from the Wyoming School Psychology Association.
24 A strain of lethal pneumonia has re-emerged in Devil Canyon Bighorn Sheep, after at least 45 sheep were killed in the first outbreak.
The Board of Trustees for the North Big Horn Hospital District has opted to move forward with their participation in an EMS regionalization grant, which may lead the way toward the district consolidating their EMS services with Powell.
31 New Rocky Mountain Elementary School Principal Eric Honeyman has entered the school year with a core mission. He wants the students he oversees to fall in love with school again this fall.
The New Horizons Care Center is accepting residents again, as the North Big Horn Hospital District has begun to find staffing to fill its ranks. In an earlier budget meeting this year, the hospital stated that growing the New Horizons Care Center to 70 residents was crucial to the organization having a successful financial year. That calls for a net growth of four residents per quarter.
It’s a special year for the annual Friends of the Foundation Golf Tournament – the 20th year of the annual hospital district fundraising event held at the Foster Gulch Golf Course near Lovell.
September
7 A special event celebrating the Pryor Mountain wild mustangs and giving the public a chance to meet one of the special Spanish horses will take place this Saturday, Sept. 9, at the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center just east of Lovell.
Betsy Sammons feels at home in her new position as the principal of Rocky Mountain Middle/High School.
14 Due to ongoing issues with the Lovell pool, middle school swimming has been removed from student activities this year, Big Horn County School District No. 2 Superintendent Doug Hazen announced on Monday during the district’s regular school board meeting.
The Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center renewed calls for interest and s
upport in advocating for the area’s wild horses Saturday morning. Called A Morning with Mustangs, the event started with a presentation from director Nancy Cerroni, highlighting a successful rescue attempt of a mustang performed by the center and the Bureau of Land Management, before moving onto a presentation by the co-founder of the Wyoming Mustang Institute, Chad Hanson.
Vicki Croft has received one of the most prestigious awards in Wyoming healthcare. What led to her success was a simple desire – to help people as people have helped her. Croft was awarded the Daniel J. Lex Award for Lifetime Service in Long-Term Care in Cheyenne earlier this month.
21 For 24 years, Powell attorney Sandra Kitchen traveled to Lovell at least once a month for Lovell Town Council meetings. Reflecting on those many years during a gathering in her honor last Friday at Lovell Town Hall, Kitchen, the longtime Lovell Town Attorney, spoke of the impression the community made on her over the years.
When Helen Doerr Regnier moved to Utah a few years ago to live with her daughter Linda, she left her heart in her beloved hometown of Lovell. A couple of years ago, an idea formed in Regnier’s mind to honor the town she loves with something permanent, and she commissioned a bronze statue of a bighorn sheep ram that now adorns the Lovell Downtown Mural Park at Main and Nevada.
28 Enrollment in Big Horn School District No. 2 has fallen for the third consecutive year despite strong middle school numbers and still solid numbers at the high school level.
As early harvest season for area beets commences, all signs are looking up for a successful campaign season. It’s been about as good beet weather as Wyoming can provide, according to local Western Sugar Agriculturalist Mark Bjornestad. After heavy rainfall in June kicked off crops to a fast start, the crop found a not too harsh July and August, and September has been ideal.
October
5 Community members are crying foul on the U.S. Forest Service closure of a storage area that has been used by recreational users in the Big Horn Mountains for nearly half a century, stating that their portrayal of the area is inaccurate, and its closure is wrongheaded.
Few athletes can say they are world champions. Fewer still can boast having two family members with world titles. The latter rare feat was performed by the father-daughter duo of Devin and Charlotte Bair, who brought home multiple medals, including golds, from the International Federation of Armwrestling World Championships held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last week, September 27-30, as members of Team USA.
12 Bighorn National Forest Supervisor Andrew Johnson has revealed several long-term actions being considered for dispersed camping in the year ahead, aiming to make dispersed camping more accessible to the public while preserving the natural resources of the mountain.
Two Northwest College basketball players have been arrested in connection to three separate break-ins at the old Byron High School. The break-ins resulted in vandalism and significant amounts of damage, according to the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office.
After more than 30 years of service to the North Big Horn Senior Citizens Center in Lovell, longtime secretary Kim Gifford was named director of the Center in June and with her experience was able to hit the ground running.
19 North Big Horn Hospital became the eighth hospital in the state to be certified as a pediatric receiving facility, the end of an arduous process to prepare the hospital to be able to better tackle the treatment of young patients.
The Lovell Town Council voted at a special meeting Tuesday to proceed with an agreement with Flatirons Bank of Boulder, Colorado, to set up an arrangement for the town to be a vehicle for settlement funds in lawsuit cases.
The Lovell-Kane Area Museum has some additional room to display exhibits thanks to the addition of a building that is, in itself, historic. The museum recently completed the renovation of the historic Kane railroad warehouse, which had been moved to the museum site on Oregon Avenue in Lovell.
26 The North Big Horn Hospital District remains flummoxed by construction costs as the price for multiple projects continue to rise beyond what the district was prepared to pay. The most significant example is also the most urgent. The district only received one bid to fix the leaking care center roof of the patio of the second floor. The bid, from Groathouse Construction, has a significant pricetag of $502,000.
One of the most extraordinary technological developments in recent months is having an outsized impact on education, as artificial intelligence has suddenly become an everyday part of educational life. While elements of the technology are truly worrisome, the new technology also allows for increased innovation and opportunity.
A few months ago, Lovell High School senior Ireeann Anderson felt moved to do something for her community. A project was born: painting the historic caboose at Caboose Park south of the Lovell High School campus on Great Western Avenue.
November
2 The traveling public is discovering the Lovell area, befitting the Lovell Area Chamber of Commerce tourism slogan “Discover Lovell,” chamber manager Linda Morrison said this week.
Big Horn County School District No. 1’s  brick and mortar schools saw a modest decrease in enrollment this year, but an increase in student population in Wyoming Connections Academy and the lack of a larger trend have school officials not showing a large amount of concern.
9 The Wyoming Supreme Court says a judge was right to throw out a lawsuit that challenged the 2014 sale of a Big Horn Basin telecommunications company.
It’s turning out to be a great beet season, with sugar content slightly above projections in the late harvest.
Erin Mullins began this week as the lead reporter for the Lovell Chronicle.
North Big Horn Hospital has been recognized among the very best rural hospitals in the United States, winning the Performance Leadership Award for Excellence for the second year in a row.
16 Lovell High School civics and history teacher Caleb Sanders spoke with pride about America’s veterans, while also reminding his audience that the best way to honor veterans is through uplifting, rather than negative, speech.
In less than a year, Erika Cook overcame a car crash, won a fourth state title and signed a generous offer to play golf for the University of Wyoming.
23 When Victor Cordes took the position of postmaster at the Lovell post office 13½ years ago, he began to forge a legacy of what a smalltown post office should look like, a post office dedicated to serving the community. Cordes will retire from the U.S. Postal Service at the end of November, wrapping up a 33-year career, counting five years in the U.S Navy.
Wyoming Senators wrote a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) expressing concern over proposed legislation requiring minimum staffing requirements in nursing homes. The new legislation requires a registered nurse (RN) to be on staff 24/7 at nursing homes as well as requiring RNs and nurse aides (NA) to work a certain number of hours per day relative to the number of patients.
30 The documentary film series “My Wild Land,” which features the Bischoff Ranch near Lovell, was the first-place winner for 2023 conservation media awards by Two Percent for Conservation in the film and photo category.
An outbreak of American Foulbrood (AFB), a devastating honeybee brood disease that weakens and kills honeybee colonies, has been confirmed in a hive in Lincoln County, according to the Wyoming Department of Agriculture (WDA). Ben Zeller, co-owner at Zeller and Sons Honey Co., says he is not worried that AFB will threaten his colonies.
December
7 The purchase of surgical robotics was approved at a special board meeting of the North Big Horn Hospital District Board of Trustees. On November 30, those in attendance voted unanimously to approve the purchase of the robotics. North Big Horn Hospital surgeon Dr. Michael Hill said the robotics will lead to improved patient outcomes.
Seven talented young men and women from Lovell and Rocky Mountain high schools have been selected for the Wyoming All-State Band, Choir and Orchestra honors event to be held January 14-16 at Casper Natrona High School; Damian Wagner, Jay Mayes, Jarrett Allen, Jacob Bischoff, Sharlotte Hanusa, Gwynff Bodtke and Katie Badget.
14 North Big Horn Hospital District is performing better than 94 percent of rural hospitals,
 according to a recent study by Chartis, a private company
that is the industry standard for assessing hospitals.
Lovell High School senior Carissa Lindsay will take her track and field career to the next level as she has signed a letter of intent to compete for the University of Providence in Great Falls, Montana.
21 The Lovell Police Department helped to deliver presents, joy and good spirits to Lovell families Sunday. In the Blue Santa program, part of the large Share a Stocking program that brings gifts and clothes to families in the community who are in need, police officers drive around town with Santa and drop off gifts and groceries to those in need.
Lovell Police Chief Dan Laffin publicly announced his retirement on Tuesday.
Retired combat veteran and Lovell resident Nicolle Laffin was appointed to the Wyoming Veteran Commission this summer. She is a commissioner for the 5th Judicial District, which serves Big Horn, Hot Springs, Park and Washakie counties.