Them On Us November 21, 2007

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

By Jake Nichols

Gillette may be experiencing a gas boom, but they’re not immune to the “pain at the pump” felt by every county in Wyoming. From Uinta County to Sundance, Wyoming drivers spend more each month on gas than any other state in the United States, according to a survey released last week by the Oil Price Information Service, an independent research firm.

The Gillette Record-News added that 16 of Wyoming’s 23 counties ranked in the top 10 percent of the 3,079 counties included in the survey that asked drivers how much of their paycheck was poured into the gas tank.

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“You need to be able to drive from here to Evanston and know that you’re not going to die in some pit or die in some small hospital between here and there.”

Those were the words of Dr. Richard Fermelia, a trauma surgeon at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. The inspiration behind The Wyoming Trauma Program, formed in 1996, was a grim acknowledgement that trauma injuries are the No. 1 cause of death in Wyoming among people up to age 44. Wyoming is the only state that requires all hospitals to have a designated trauma center.

The problem, according to Cheyenne’s Tribune-Eagle, is that the program is currently woefully underfunded statewide. The current budget, shared between all 26 Wyoming hospitals, is $105,000.

“I think the bottom line is we have a good system now,” said State Department of Health Director Dr. Brent Sherard. “We’re just not very deep.”

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We ain’t too smart in Wyoming, neither.

Wyoming’s academic standards are among the lowest in the nation, according to the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, an education reform group based in Washington, D.C. Chester Finn, president of the foundation, spoke at the Wyoming Heritage Foundation’s education forum last week and said Wyoming students, by and large, are not so smart.
The Equality State received an F in English, mathematics, U.S. history, world history and science from the foundation in its 2006 report “The State of State Standards.” Thirty-nine percent of Wyoming eighth-graders are proficient in reading, and only 29 percent are proficient in math.

Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Jim McBride, however, said only about 70 percent of what Finn said during his presentation was accurate, and the 30 percent he got wrong was very significant. At least he got the percentages to add up to 100.

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Developers used to like to refer to Teton County, Idaho, as “the Quiet Side of the Tetons.” Now, as the construction dust chokes the air in the Driggs-Tetonia area, the new tagline is “Near Jackson, nowhere near the price.”

River Rim Ranches, just one of numerous gated communities sprouting up in Teton Valley, has sold all but six of its 62 gold chalet lots, according to its website, which also quotes the Robb Report: “Teton Valley, Idaho ... where the smart money is going.”
Advanced sales are so strong at the property, developers were already able to pay off their $15 million loan with San Francisco’s bigtime lender, California Mortgage and Reality, Inc. East Bay Business Times let us in on the scoop.

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An architect firm out of Wilkes-Barre, Penn., called Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, was patting itself on the back last Friday when it captured the Award of Excellence for its design of the Grand Teton National Park Discovery and Visitor Center in Jackson, Wyo. We read about it in the Times Leader of northeastern Pennsylvania.

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The Brisbane Times of Australia ranked Jackson Hole as sixth best in their “Ultimate Cool” best places to ski in the world. The travel section of the paper read, “The slopes of Jackson Hole in Wyoming are seriously steep. The big momma is Corbet’s Couloir, a chute that USA Today describes as America’s scariest ski slope. The mountain base of Teton Village is a bit dull. It has good accommodation but limited night-time options. It’s better to stay in Jackson Hole, which has a cowboy buzz.”

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Many Jacksonsites love spending the off-season in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. But when James Curzon gets down there he just can’t sit still.

Curzon entered himself in the Iron Rider portion of the 2007 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. The Iron Rider division accepts any redneck aboard a motorcycle or ATV who can finish the race within the 53-hour time limit. Backstretch Motorsports reported that of 25 entrants, only six made it, one of them being Jackson’s Curzon, who piloted his KTM XC510 to the finish in 52 hours and 38 minutes.
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Them On Us November 21, 2007 | Planet JH News Article: General News

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