EDITORIAL: Start of spring brings change and renewal

Posted 4/10/18

For baseball fans, spring means the start of another Major League Baseball season, and this year’s opening-day festivities featured a Park County angle. Cody filmmaker Preston Randolph’s award-winning documentary “The Summer of ’81” was …

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EDITORIAL: Start of spring brings change and renewal

Posted

Though recent weather may not reflect it, spring is here, bringing with it change in all forms and in all aspects of life. And as the weather continues to get warmer, those changes will become more apparent.

For baseball fans, spring means the start of another Major League Baseball season, and this year’s opening-day festivities featured a Park County angle. Cody filmmaker Preston Randolph’s award-winning documentary “The Summer of ’81” was featured prominently in the MLB Network’s opening-day promo, as did the documentary’s subject, Meeteetse resident Bob Taylor. Taylor’s unique voice provided the narration for the promo, and shots of the baseball field he built for his daughters on his land outside Meeteetse gave the spot a “Field of Dreams” quality and shined a national spotlight, however briefly, on our little corner of the state.

In Powell, spring ushers in the start of another season of construction projects. While the big project on the docket, the reconstruction of Absaroka Street, won’t begin until the end of the year, the planning stages will continue in earnest. Last year’s major project, the widening of Coulter Avenue, left some displaced trees in its wake, a problem that the Powell Parks and Recreation Department will be working to rectify soon. With the help of grants, city arborist Del Barton and his crew will be replacing trees on the south side of Coulter, adding to the beautification of that stretch of highway.

Spring sports are underway, and despite occasionally battling the elements, the Powell High School and Powell Middle School track and soccer teams have been practicing and competing for a couple of weeks; tennis and golf spring schedules begin this week. Out at Northwest College, the men’s and women’s soccer programs have been conducting spring practices and are preparing for a truncated season of exhibition games. The soccer programs have also been hosting a variety of instructional clinics for players and coaches alike that will likely continue into the summer.

Spring will also mark the end of one coaching era and the beginning of another, as PHS head football coach Chanler Buck will step down after four seasons to become athletic director/assistant principal at Powell Middle School. Buck had the unenviable task of replacing a legend in the Wyoming football community, and he eased the transition of a team and a town heartbroken at the untimely passing of coach Jim Stringer in the process. A new coach will take the reins of the program this summer, beginning a new era of Panther Pride.

This winter was a long one, and as yards and parks once dormant begin their journey back to life, the burst of colors brightens our days and our lives. Sunshine and warmer weather bring people outside to spruce up their yards and homes. Powell does a great job of sprucing up its main streets; a bright, pleasant appearance speaks to the vitality of a community and encourages people to want to live, shop and dine there.

We applaud those businesses that take good care of their storefronts. Please support these businesses with your patronage. Our support will keep them going and makes our community a better place to live all year long.

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