Enterprise The Idaho
Caribou County's Newspaper Since 2024
Caribou County, Idaho
March 7, 2024 | Vol. 1 No. 5
Leaders are Readers at Thirkill Elementary As Principal Rod Worthington welcomes visitors to his school, he takes great pride in introducing them to some of the programs and values that have made Thirkill Elementary in Soda Springs a “lighthouse school” for leadership and academic success. Principal Worthington is clearly proud of his school’s accomplishments, and enjoys talking about the programs that have made it a success story. “This year’s theme is ‘Don’t just look at the stars, be a star—Stars shine brighter’,” he says, pointing to a mural in the entryway bearing the message and a scene painted by local artist Diane Olsen. “When you walk in, what we first want you to do is feel the positivity. What you’ve done is walk into a leadership school.” Worthington explains that the theme chosen for the year is then applied to the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” developed by Stephen R. Covey in his bestselling book of the same title. For those unfamiliar, the steps are: Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, Put First Things First, Think Win-Win, Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood, Synergize, and Sharpen the Saw. Each of these steps helps students to foster creative, independent thinking, as well as cultivate the skills that allow them to thrive in group and organizational settings. Schools that have qualified to participate in the program are called “Leader in Me Schools.” Thirkill has been so successful at the program, that it is now a “lighthouse school” in the Leader in Me system, which took an intense audit and evaluation by the national organization. As the year draws closer to its end,
NEWS IN BRIEF Super Tuesday this week
Bobby Scovil of the Modern Woodmen of America presents the “Hometown Heroes” award to Thirkill’s faculty and staff.
students have just finished “Synergize” and are now engaged in Habit 7, “Sharpen the Saw.” Each student has a list of activities to choose from, and must complete five of them in order to pass off the habit checklist. The list includes such activities as “Plan and hold a family night,” “Try giving up video games for a week and list the activities you do instead,” “Track the number of steps you take each day,” “Share a family meal. Take a family selfie and record the date of the meal,” and so on. The activities allow for students to choose from a range of actions that might be appealing to them, or allow them to challenge themselves. For instance, “Go to a cultural event together, such as a play, concert, dance recital, or choir performance. Encourage one another to develop talents in one of those areas.” An examination of the list of possible activities also illustrates the fact that the program is designed not only for the student’s growth, but also to
strengthen the student’s relationships with their family and classmates. “We not only serve the students in our school, but also the families at home and in our community,” Worthington says. One of the underlying premises of the program is that success is something that happens most effectively within a supportive environment, rather than in isolation. When students are given clear roles within the learning situation, they achieve a level of self-confidence that follows them throughout the other aspects of their lives. “Everything is based on the seven habits—it’s the base curriculum within our school. And then we start out with our mission statement, which is LEADERS,” he explains. The acronym stands for Learn, Encourage, Achieve, Dream, Excel, Respect, and Serve. The mission statement remains constant, while the theme LEADERS ARE READERS On Page 2
Behind the scenes at the Grace Wastewater Treatment Plant
Keeping any city going takes a lot of effort from a lot of people. In Grace, the city crew is a fairly small one, which means that each of them have to wear a number of hats. While Riley Crookston is officially the city’s Superintendent, and Jake Wright is officially the Wastewater Treatment Plant operator, they, along with Shane Hamilton and Matt Loertsher are responsible for a wide range of city needs, including monitoring all areas of the water and sewer system, trash collection, street repairs, city maintenance, lawn mowing, and even looking out for city code violations, as well as many others. Due to the limited staff, each of them share the work on the range of projects throughout the year, and have to schedule their time efficiently to meet the constant demands of the city of around a thousand people. Without the immediate benefit of a lot of people, then, another path forward is with a lot of innovation and creative problem-solving. The wastewater treatment plant is a good example of that kind of thinking. As the plant has grown, the need to monitor and regulate its output has also become more critical. The wastewater plant processes all of the wastewater for the city. The process of wastewater treatment is circuitous, in the literal sense. Wasterwater enters the facility through the city’s sewer system, and then follows a winding path through a number of connected facilities before it (or the liquid parts of it, anyway) are returned to the river after the contam-
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The presidential nominating contest is (as everyone has been saying now every week for months) expected to be clinched Tuesday, when 16 states will be voting in caucuses and primaries. There are very few states in which President Joe Biden faces any substantial headwinds for the Democratic nomination, and on the other side former President Trump faces only Nikki Haley in terms of other candidates still running and receiving significant votes. If trends that have been obvious to this point continue, a rematch of 2020 is almost certainly in the cards.
Credit card late fees to be capped at $8
The Biden administration announced that federal regulators are finalizing rules which would cap most credit card late fees at $8 in an attempt to eliminate “junk fees” for consumers. The caps will affect large credit card companies with at least 1 million accounts on their records. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, those companies are responsible for up to 95% of the total credit card debt held by Americans. The cap will go into effect soon, and should reduce the annual cost to consumers by an average of $220 a year.
Idaho Falls woman arrested for fentanyl after giving birth
According to Eastidahonews. com, an Idaho Falls woman was arrested after her newborn was tested for opiates and found to have fentanyl in its system. The woman, who had been living in a camping trailer outside of town and using the illegal drug. She apparently had taken the drug on her way into delivery. Such an offense is punishable by jail time, and she was sentenced to 3 to 7 years for the offense, given as a suspended sentence requiring 100 hours of community service a week, mandatory family treatment counseling, and restitution.
Illegal intestines seized by authorities
Wastewater Treatment Facility Operator Jake Wright and City Superintendent Riley Crookston stand inside the main building of the facility.
inants are removed. The multi-million dollar facility was supported in part by government grants, with some of the costs provided by the city, who passed a bond to provide it. Because of the nature of the plant, the cost is paid for by utility fees. The full sequence of events takes several weeks from introduction to completion, and must be monitored every step of the way. As part of his morning routine, Jake Wright must test the water and log the results at the end of the circuit in order to determine whether it can be released. Measurements of this water are sent to various regulatory officials, and must be within certain parameters in order to avoid fines or a
potential shut-down of the facility in the case of measurements that exceed accepted values. As he stands among the beakers, machines, containers of water and chemicals, Jake Wright explains, “This is my home. I pretty much live over here.” Around the room are any number of tests and experiments currently underway. “When I was in college, I took a class in microbiology. I flunked the class part, because I didn’t think I wanted to spend all my time with microorgansims. But I did really well in the lab, and that’s a good thing because my job is now BEHIND THE SCENES On Page 11
INSIDE Thirkill named a "Hometown Hero"............. Pg. 2 Business Spotlight: Baked Fresh................ Pg. 3 Obituaries...................................................... Pg. 4
Looking Back..............................................Pg. 7 Legislative Updates............................... Pg. 10 Sports..........................................................Pg. 12
The Associated Press reported, in an unusual filing, that six people had been arrested in New York on charges of importing illegal goose and duck intestines from China. As if that weren’t odd enough, the contraband organ meat was sometimes hidden under packaged rattlesnakes, or mislabeled as pet grooming items on customs forms. Authorities report that 1,966 cartons of the intestines were shipped from China to the Port of Long Beach, where they passed through customs. They were discovered to be illegal intestines when they landed at JFK Airport in New York by an air carrier cargo service. Other than…what? the main question to come out of the incident is…wait a minute, you can mail rattlesnakes to people?