July 4, 2019
www.thermopir.com PAGE 7
Long wait
A line of cars sits west of town as drivers wait for the pilot car to lead them through
the area being chip sealed on Highway 120. The stretch of road being sealed is 32
miles and the work is expected to be done by mid-July.
Rotary president passes the gavel
On June 24, the Rotary Club
of Thermopolis hosted a Pass
the Gavel party. The parties
are held when the current presi-
dent passes along the gavel to
the president-elect. At a bar-
becue at Wedg and Kathy Tay-
lor’s, President Phillip Scheel
passed the gavel to President-
Elect Brad Basse. Family and
friends of members are invited
and there were about 30 people
in attendance.
The club will also be “brand-
ing the turtles” in late July for
their annual Turbo Turtle Trek
fundraiser which takes place at
the Big Spring outlet in the State
Park on Saturday, Aug. 17.
Raffle tickets sell for $10 each
and the list of prizes is impres-
sive, starting with a $1,000 first
place prize. People can contact
any Rotarian to purchase tick-
ets. The Turtle Trek is the club’s
major fundraiser and the money
raised goes to awarding college
scholarships to our graduating
seniors.
The Rotary Club of Thermop-
olis was founded in the late-
FFA students attend leadership camp
Eight FFA students joined
their advisor Britton VanHeule
at FFA Leadership Camp in mid-
June at the Fremont County
Youth Camp near Sinks Canyon.
One of the attendees, Spencer
Axtell, said one of the things he
enjoyed was making new friends.
“These are people we’re going to
be talking with for a long time,”
he said. “I would definitely rec-
ommend this to anyone in FFA.
I’d like to see more people at-
tend.”
The group agreed it was a
collective experience as a team
along with 135 other attendees.
“It built leadership skills,”
said Riley Shaffer. “I know that’s
obvious, but it really did.”
Fire danger rises with tempatures
After a very wet spring, most
of Wyoming was looking good as
far as fire danger, a multitude of
counties in the low range with
just a couple sitting in the mid
range.
However, since the last sev-
eral days of high temperatures
and very low humidity along with
fairly breezy conditions, we can’t
say that anymore.
Hot Springs County is cur-
rently in the mid range for fire
danger according to the Wildland
Request for Bids for Team Sports
Photography Services are currently
accepted for 2019-2020 School Year.
Deadline is July 15, 2019.
Please submit bids to the HS Office,
Attention: Brandon Deromedi A.D.
1950’s. Mitch Homi and Wedg
Taylor were among the original
members, and they are both ac-
tive to this day. Homi is secre-
tary and Taylor is the “Sergeant
at Arms.” The club has 30 mem-
bers at this time and they meet
weekly on Tuesdays at noon.
They feature speakers on dif-
ferent relevant topics at each
meeting, along with network-
ing and camaraderie.
Rotary International, found-
ed in 1905, is a global network
of 1.2 million neighbors, friends,
leaders, and problem-solvers
who see a world where people
unite and take action to cre-
ate lasting change – across the
globe, in our communities, and
in ourselves. Women were al-
lowed to join around 1989. Sha-
ron Skiver and Belenda Willson,
currently members of the Ther-
mopolis Club, started in differ-
ent clubs way back when and
have both been active members
of the Thermopolis club since
moving here.
Service Above Self is the over-
riding motto for the 35,000 clubs
Remington Ferree comment-
ed on developing his speaking
skills. “We had workshops on
public speaking skills from a
leadership standpoint,” he said.
“We practiced interview skills,
interviewed other kids there,
and we came up with the ques-
tions we were going to ask them.”
The speaking skills were
something the team appreciat-
ed, talking about presentation
of the Creed, extemporaneous
speaking and writing their own
prepared speeches.
Tatum Vialpando was most
excited about learning the dif-
ferences between the different
chapters. “It was neat to see how
they do things. It gave us lots of
Fire Assessment System (WY-
FAS). We are looking at very lit-
tle chance of any rain for at least
several more days, which could
raise our fire awareness again.
With the high temperatures
and the wind drying out the
grasses, we should take extra
care with fireworks this week.
Although the winds are pre-
dicted to be no more than about
20 m.p.h. according to the Na-
tional Weather Service in Ri-
verton, those low winds would
photos by Mark Dykes
worldwide. Thermopolis Rotary
focuses on four avenues of ser-
vice: club service, community
service, vocational service, and
international services. Projects
across these four areas have in-
cluded and continue to include:
clean water and sanitation —
supporting members going to
Africa to educate, train, and help
install clean water facilities;
ending polio — donating money
to the Rotary International end-
ing polio initiative; supporting
education — awarding college
scholarships to graduating se-
niors; and growing local econo-
mies — partnering with and/
or financially support local ini-
tiatives. Our Club is also com-
mitted to sending young people
from the community to the Ro-
tary Young Leadership Institute
during the summer.
If you are interested in at-
tending a meeting or if you
would like to speak at one of
our meetings about your service
work or project, please contact
Suzanne Samelson gatherer@
panix.com or 307-864-3001.
ideas to come home and try as
well as share with our chapter.”
The students felt like the
camp really opened up some new
opportunities, not just for them-
selves, but for their chapter, too.
Amazingly, they were actu-
ally all very glad to get a break
from technology while they were
there, too. Cell service was spot-
ty at best in the area and they
enjoyed being disconnected for
a while.
Chapter members who at-
tended the camp included Spen-
cer Axtell, Riley Shaffer, Rem-
ington Ferree, Tatum Vialpando,
Audrey Axtell, Rebekah John-
son, Ally Taylor and Hallie Mar-
tinez.
also create little to no dispersal
of smoke should a fire start in
the county, which could prove a
problem for folks with asthma or
other breathing issues.
DAMAGED ROOF
OR GUTTERS?
Contact Wade Lippincott with
Atlas Roofing for a free consultation.
921-0405
Hospital board receives assesment
by Mark Dykes
During their June 25 meet-
ing, the Hot Springs County
Memorial Hospital Board of
Trustees reviewed and ap-
proved the 2019 Community
Health Needs Assessment, pre-
sented by Miranda Nelson, a so-
cial worker with the hospital.
Nelson noted the assessment
involved a lot of collaboration
with the community and the
Hot Springs County Commu-
nity Prevention Coalition.
The assessment is required
every three years, and the last
was done in 2016. The full as-
sessment will be available via
the hospital’s website. Informa-
tion from the report is gathered
through community surveys,
which were distributed to staff
at the hospital and Red Rock
Family Practice, Community
Home Health, the Hot Springs
County Senior Center, Messi-
ah’s Mall food pantry, the min-
isterial association and various
community members. Of the
371 distributed, 207 surveys
were returned.
Among the questions were
people’s opinion of their health.
Regarding mental health, 54
percent said theirs was excel-
lent, 34 percent said it was good
and 12 percent said it was poor.
For physical health, 28 percent
responded it was excellent, 50
percent said it was good and 22
percent reported it was poor.
In terms of housing, 97.75
percent of respondents stated
they have housing, 1.69 per-
cent do not and 0.56 percent
are listed as “other.” Fifty-five
percent of the respondents have
homes with one or two people,
14 percent have three, 13 per-
cent have four, eight percent
have five, five percent have six
and five percent have seven.
As for caring for others, 72.7
percent responded they do not
provide care for grandchildren,
children, older adults or those
with special needs. Looking at
specific groups, just over nine
percent are responsible for tak-
ing care of parents; 6.8 percent
have grandchildren living with
them; 4.6 percent provide care
for someone with a disability;
4.5 percent are caretakers for
someone with special needs;
and one percent are caregivers
for someone with chronic men-
tal illness.
Among the high number of
responses for what can help, 66
said access to healthy food. Nel-
son said that was interesting to
see, and some of the comments
were that unhealthy food seems
less expensive than fruits and
vegetables.
Fifty-one said access to spe-
cialty medical care and mental
health care would help, though
Nelson noted the hospital has
numerous specialists that come
to town educating people on
what’s available would help.
She further added education
could help in regard to the 37
who responded that there need-
ed to be more times available
for doctor appointments. Nel-
son said this education would
go to helping people understand
that there is a whole team out-
side people’s primary doctors
that can help meet their needs.
Looking at what services
people or their families were
unable to get in the past year,
dental and vision care both
ranked the highest at around 10
percent. Nelson explained the
majority of participants were
on Medicare or Medicaid, and
noted such services cover some
things but not everything.
As for insurance, 45 percent
have private, 25 are on Medi-
care, about 15 percent are on
Medicare and Medicaid, five
percent are on Medicaid and
less than five percent are on
VA insurance. More than 10
percent do not have insurance.
One of the questions on the
survey was reasons why the
respondents don’t use health-
care services available in Hot
Springs County. There were
231 responses, 126 of whom
said they receive services in
the county. For those who don’t,
37 said it was because of high
insurance co-pays, 22 have no
insurance coverage, 17 said it
was because of quality of care,
11 said doctor appointments are
not available at a time they can
go, eight said their doctor rec-
ommended they go outside the
county for care, six said they
were not comfortable with local
doctors, three said they don’t
have transportation and one
said insurance required care
outside the county.
It was noted that since the
question had people choose all
responses that apply, so respon-
dents could choose more than
one answer.
As for at risk behaviors for
youth and teens under age 18,
the highest responses were 14
percent for alcohol, 11.6 per-
cent of overweight or obesity,
11.6 percent for illegal drug
use, 10.3 percent for tobacco
use or vaping and 10.04 per-
cent for unsupervised parties.
For adults over 18, the high
responses were 17.8 percent
of alcohol use, 12.8 percent
for tobacco use or vaping, 12.1
percent for poor eating habits,
12.1 percent for illegal drugs
use and 10.2 percent for over-
weight or obesity.
People were also asked what
they would like to see the hos-
pital and community partners
focus on in the next three years.
Among the high responses,
twelve percent would like them
to help people who have chronic
diseases such as heart failure
and diabetes to stay healthy.
Another 12 percent want them
to help support caregivers,
and 11.6 percent want them
to help people lose weight and
eat healthy.
Nelson noted some of the
people she interviewed missed
having the health fair this year,
as they felt it provided a good
educational opportunity.
As the result of the assess-
ment, the priorities in the
coming years will be behavior-
al health, poverty and opioid
abuse. A plan will be written
with partner agencies specify-
ing their roles. That plan will
be submitted to the board and
approved by Sept. 30. Over the
next three years, assessment
data will continue to be tracked
and reported back to the hos-
pital. The assessment will be
available via the hospital web
site, hscmh.org.
Also during the meeting,
the board approved renewing a
$1.2 million line of credit with
Central Bank and Trust and
amendments to the fiscal year
2019 budget. Chief Financial
Officer explained that the board
is required to ensure the bud-
get is not exceeded by actual
expenses for the fiscal year and
RoundTop Real Estate
Offering services for all your real estate needs
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Make this
Fourth of July
memorable by
counting your
blessings and truly
appreciating your
freedom.
presented an amended budget.
Gross patient revenue was
amended to reflect gross reve-
nue of $37 million compared to
$32 million. This, she said, is
driven by an increase inpatient
days and there being about 40
additional admissions and 244
patient days, so there was a lon-
ger length of stay per patient.
There was also a seven percent
increase for outpatient visits.
This includes the pain manage-
ment clinic wound care.
There is also an increase in
deductions from revenue going
from $11 million to $14 mil-
lion. Larson said this is driv-
en by Medicare being a cost
reimbursement, so there is a
16 percent increase in hospital
revenue with no proportional
increase in expenses. Therefore
there is a significant payback
this year.
There is an increase in pri-
or year settlements, Larson
pointed out, with additional
funds from Medicaid — about
$127,000.
Larson further reported the
hospital had an overall increase
in net patient revenue of $2
million. Other operating reve-
nue, she said, was reduced by
$282,000. Total operating reve-
nue will increase about to about
$1.8 million. Operating expens-
es are projected to increase by
about $1,028,000 Larson said
there was significant savings
with regard to fringe benefits,
as they did well with respect
to claims and group health in-
surance, so there wasn’t the 15
percent increase in premiums
as originally projected.
There was an increase of
about $740,000 and about
$278,000 in physician fees. Pur-
chased services will increase
about $63,000, and the supply
budget will increase by about
$151,000. There will be a de-
crease of about $46,000 in utili-
ties due to the hospital’s discon-
nect with Gottsche. Overall,
Larson, noted, the net operat-
ing income is at about $482,000,
where there was originally a net
loss of about $290,000.
As for non-operating rev-
enue, Larson said there was
a shortfall in the investment
income of about $42,000. As
for tax subsidies, which is the
mill levy, the hospital received
about $55,000 more than was
budgeted. Interest expense was
down by about $9,800. Other
non-operating revenue, which
includes special purpose taxes,
grants and bond fees, will in-
crease by about $129,000.
In a nutshell, Larson said,
net income looks to by $1.8 mil-
lion, compared to the originally
budgeted $928,000.
The Code of Conduct was also
approved. Patti Jeunnehomme
said this is a code that employ-
ees, physicians and contractors
will abide by while providing
services.
Hospital CEO Margie Moli-
tor reported work on the ren-
ovation and expansion of the
hospital continues on sched-
ule, and that the hospital re-
ceived $342,650 from the SLIB
Board, though $1.5 million was
requested. The money will go to
re-roofing at the hospital.
Mark Manig Broker
Kerri Manig Associate Broker
Chalice Weichman Agent
www.roundtoprealestate.net
roundtoprealestate@rtconnect.net
307-864-2252