Weather impacts Friday sports calendar

April most certainly is not going out like a lamb around the Big Horn Basin and the local sports calendar has been impacted as a result. Both the Wyoming Track Classic and the regular-season track meet in Thermopolis have been postponed. Both are now slated for Monday, May 3.

The non-conference boys' soccer game between Powell and Lander, which would have been the Panther boys' home opener for 2010, has similarly been pushed back on the calendar. The two teams will now meet May 4 in Powell. The girls' Powell-Lander soccer game will still be played today (Friday) in Lander as originally scheduled.

Two more added to Wyoming Track Classic

The Powell Panthers added two more events to their schedule for Friday's Wyoming Track Classic in Casper. Drew MaGill can now add the 200 meters to his Friday schedule that already included the triple jump and the long jump. MaGill now joins teammate Kyle Sullivan as a three-event invitee to the 2010 Classic.

Also getting a late invitation to the Classic was the Panthers' Desiree Murray, who will line up for the girls' 400-meter race. The news of Murray's inclusion must have come as a welcome relief for the Panthers' middle-distance specialist. Murray began the week as the first-alternate in three different events for this year's Classic.

Weather permitting, the Wyoming Track Classic will get started at 4 p.m. on Friday at Kelly Walsh High School in Casper.

Hospital tax flashback: 26 years ago

In the run-up to Tuesday's decision to put a proposed $14.2 million capital facilities tax for West Park Hospital improvements on the primary ballot, there has been much discussion about the relationship between West Park in Cody and the Powell Valley Hospital here. On Tuesday, commissioners and West Park officials discussed the issue of competition at some length. A February letter from the Powell Hospital board of trustees declining to endorse West Park's project also spurred discussion.

I thought that a trip to the Tribune archives might be interesting, looking at what was said when the Powell Hospital was looking to build a new facility.

Story: "Hospital Faces no Opposition by Competitors"

Article Date: Nov. 13, 1983

The Situation: The Powell Hospital was seeking the state's approval to go forward with plans to build a new hospital and an expanded nursing home. The state had been considering plans to make Cody the de facto hospital for the Powell area, with most births -- except emergencies -- being handled at West Park. Powell would largely be an outpatient facility. The hospital had to get the OK from the state certificate of need board in order to seek a bond and grow its operations. Some state officials had favored a set-up where some care -- such as baby delivery -- might have been provided only in Cody instead of Powell.

Tax dollars up for discussion: An $8.5 million bond on a $9 million project

Worth noting: Up for discussion was a general bond issue, which is paid for only by the members of the tax district. In other words, folks from other hospital districts would not pay a dime of the Powell Hospital's bond costs.

Snippet from Scott Hagel's piece:

The hospital's application to the certificate of need board includes letters of support from West Park Hospital in Cody, North Big Horn Hospital in Lovell, Hot Springs Memorial in Thermopolis and Washakie Memorial Hospital in Worland.

Powell Hospital administrator Dee Cozzens acknowledged the letters are "just a formality," but the other hospitals have no reason to oppose the project because it isn't designed to create additional competition for them.

Plans for the new hospital don't call for any new services to be added or existing services to be expanded, he pointed out. "We just need a new facility to put our hospital in," he said.

Other hospital administrators around the basin qualify their support by saying their letters are intended to give Powell's taxpayers the right to choose for themselves whether they need a new hospital and expanded nursing home.

Tom Dunlap, Cody's West Park Hospital administrator, explained his letter by saying, "We normally leave it up to other local taxpayers to determine their medical needs."

He confirmed the letter was just a formality. "We think those issues are local issues and should be decided by local taxpayers."

Asked whether he foresees any competition problems between the West Park and Powell hospitals should Powell build a new facility, he said, "I guess we don't use the word competition in our vocabulary."

...

[However,] If the certificate of need application represented serious competition for the other hospitals in the basin, Cozzens believes, they would oppose it.

I found this one kind of interesting...

John Fraufschi, administrator of Worland's Washakie Memorial Hospital, said, "Cody's been eating Powell's lunch for a long time," and he would like to see the Powell Hospital "get the show on the road over there."

He didn't know how much his letter of support will mean as the Powell Hospital seeks state approval for the project, but "all hospitals like a little support whether it means much in dollars and cents or not."

Result: After some 500 people showed up at a State Certificate of Need Review Board hearing in Powell on Nov. 18, the board reversed the recommendation of its staff, and allowed the Powell Hospital district to ask its voters for the $8.5 million bond for the new hospital and expanded nursing home. At a Dec. 6, 1983 special election, district voters overwhelmingly passed the bond issue -- with more than 87 percent voting in favor.

Editor's Note: The image at top right is an added bonus -- an advertisement the Powell Hospital ran in the Nov. 25, 1983 Tribune, pitching the bond measure to voters after the state board certified the need for the facility.

William Ayers: UW's Slippery Slope

Editor's Note: If you're interested in reading some of the documents from Ayers' suit against the University, here are some links to PDF copies: -Ayers' complaint, -Motion for preliminary injunction, -Brief in support of motion for preliminary injunction, -UW's response to the injunction request, -Affidavits supporting UW's response: A, B, C, D, E, -Ayers' reply

The University of Wyoming's decision to ban William Ayers from speaking on campus has spurred discussions about free speech and academic freedom. Last week, Ayers and a UW student sued the university, claiming the ban violates the First Amendment right to free speech. Ayers, a former 1960s radical, is a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

In a WyoFile guest column, Ayers says he sees the cancellation as an indicator of the crisis in American higher education.

He writes:

"Anyway, there is something much greater at stake here than some small speech I might have delivered to 75 students. As campuses contract and constrain, the main victims become truth, honesty, integrity, curiosity, imagination … freedom itself. When college campuses fall silent, other victims include the high school history teacher on the west side of Chicago or in Laramie or Cheyenne, the English literature teacher in Detroit, or the math teacher in an Oakland middle school. They — and countless others — immediately get the message: be careful what you say; stay close to the official story; stick to the authorized text; keep quiet with your head covered. Oh, freedom."

What do you think? Did the university make the right decision? Or should Ayers have been allowed to speak at the University of Wyoming?

For Powell, a shuttle glance

UPDATE 8:15 a.m., Tuesday: Early risers looking skyward today got a chance to check out the space shuttle Discovery as it approached a successful 7:08 a.m. landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida.

The shuttle was a small shining dot over Powell, visible to the naked eye, but appearing smaller than the usual passing plane (it was, after all, still 44 miles miles away at its closest point), and moving a heck of a lot faster (doing speeds more than 20 times the speed of sound).

Here's a not-so-compelling photo I took of the distant, hurtling shuttle:

About four minutes after it passed Powell, the sonic booms from the shuttle crossing the sound barrier were clearly audible. There was first a bang that sounded like a far-off gun shot or firework, followed by rumbling that sounded a bit like rolling thunder. It was enough to get some dogs barking in town, I'm told.

It was a special experience for Powell to have the shuttle pass almost directly overhead, because, as noted below, it's likely the last time in the foreseeable future that a shuttle will cross the U.S. You should also thank Florida's rainy weather for the overhead visit: had NASA been able to land Discovery on either of the two opportunities on Monday - or the first chance on Tuesday - it would have been much tougher to get a look at a the shuttle.

Monday night's earlier post follows:

Depending on the weather at the Kennedy Space Center, folks in Powell could get either a small glimpse of a far-off shuttle just above the horizon or a pretty impressive overhead sight. Or they could see nothing at all.

While rainy and cloudy conditions scrapped today's planned landing, the forecast for tomorrow is looking pretty good. If it stays that way, the shuttle would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere for a 5:34 a.m. landing. For Powellites, the shuttle would potentially be visible between 5:11 and 5:15 a.m. - with it being some 366 miles away at its closest point.

However, the streaking object would peak at only about four degrees above the northeast horizon. That's likely too low to be seen from your house. Instead, you'd probably need to get up on Polecat Bench or Coal Miner's Hill to be able to see it, a reliable source told the Trib. For the record, that's not going to be enough to get this Tribune writer out of bed that early.

Here's the cooler news: if for some reason Discovery is unable to make its first entry opportunity tomorrow -- early morning rain, etc. -- the flight path would change for the second landing opportunity. And that path would take the shuttle pretty close to Powell's airspace. The glowing shuttle would be visible from 6:46 to 6:50 a.m., peaking at 73.5 degrees on the horizon. It would be "just" 44 miles away at its closest point. A sonic boom would follow. (I don't know if there would be a boom if the first opportunity is taken).

To make a long post short, space geeks, pray for some crappy weather in Florida -- but only until the first landing opportunity has passed. Because if it lasts, the shuttle will instead land in Edward Air Force Base in California. And they'll be no chance of catching a glimpse of the shuttle then.

This is an extremely limited time offer. There are only three more shuttle launches remaining for the canceled shuttle program -- and none of those missions are expected to cross the U.S. as they come in for landing.

Buyers giddy-up to mustang bid

On Saturday, 21 of 25 wild horses were adopted at the Northwest College Ag Pavilion.

Most of the equines were from the McCullough Peaks, but a few hailed from other herds.

I had a swell time chatting with a few friends (Me? friends?), but more importantly, most were bought so they won’t wind up at a Bureau of Land Management wild horse holding facility.

Don’t fret. The four forlorn equines who got the brush-off will be available for adoption by visiting the Mantle Ranch near Wheatland.

You can check them out at http://www.mantleswildhorses.com.

You can check out my story and a couple nice photos by Carla Wensky in tomorrow’s (April 13) Trib.

Nick Mantle is the guy astride the paint and in the background is Scott Fleur, the auctioneer. I would identify each and everyone of the people standing around the corral or in the stands, but I’m plum tuckered out.

Adios, buckeroos.

Outage hits KPOW

A power outage at 12:30 p.m. Sunday put KPOW’s transmitter down, but not down for the count.

“It ended up frying something, said KPOW co-owner Scott Mangold on Monday afternoon.

Mangold said they had found the source of the problem.

“I think we got it isolated,” he said.

At around 3:30 p.m., Mangold said they were working to get it back up and anticipated the transmitter would be online and broadcasting soon.

“Any time now,” he said.

UPDATE 4/7: Mangold says a backup transmitter is scheduled to be installed this (Wednesday) afternoon.

(Reporting by Gib Mathers)