Photo: Zoe N. McDonald

Situated right off of Reynolds and 15th Street, Laramie High School has been used for everything except school since the wildfires started.

Numerous lines of tents across the grass amount to somewhere around a few hundred temporary homes for the firefighters coming from places like Colorado, New Mexico and Oregon. The parking, once empty for the summer is now filled with row after of row fire trucks, personal vehicles and buses, all of which belong to the fire departments.

Forest fires are no stranger to Wyoming, but because of a dry spring with little snow, the normally cool summers in southeastern Wyoming have become arid and dry. The month of June saw temperatures climb into the high 90s before the month was halfway through. With hot climates and dry forests, fires started midway through the month of June.

The Squirrel Creek fire, as of July 6, reached a maximum of 11,142 burned acres, and was at 55 percent containment, according to an Albany County press release July 6. Firefighters were pulling outrageous shifts to stifle the flames as much as they could and prep the unburned land to make sure the fire would not spread as easily.

Fire activity continues to diminish due to weather conditions and access to establishing fire lines, according to the release. The fire is 98 percent contained at 10,921 acres. Crews are mopping up to 100-feet into the interior of the containment lines. The number of personnel on the fire is now at 361.

Finally, the county had some relief from the disastrous fire. Heavy rains and tireless work from the fire crews have paid off greatly. At one point it seemed as if the fire was going to take a turn for the worst and engulf most of the county’s forests.

The local citizens know this too. Red Solo cups in a chain link fence on the Laramie High School campus read “Thank You” and signs on another fence spread their thanks for the men and women have done to preserve some of Wyoming’s forests. These tokens of appreciation are just some of the things Laramie citizens have done to play a part and show gratitude.

On July 4, the City of Laramie had an engagement at Washington Park called “Freedom Has a Birthday.” This festival was to celebrate America’s 236th birthday, but the Red Cross had a booth collecting funds to help with the fire relief, for the evacuated families, and the men and women working day and night containing the flames.

Will Burger

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Seeing a need for students to be able to make payments in a feasible manner, President Obama sped up this legislation to start in late 2012, rather than wait an additional two years to begin the new regulations.  For many students, this lifts some of the pressure they have for themselves on paying back their federal student loans.

Another enactment to the improvements deals with the Federal Application for Student Aid website.  According to the White House press release on June Sixth, the new application process, “Will create a streamlined online application process for Income Based Repayment (IBR), that allows student loan borrowers with federally held loans to import their IRS tax return income data directly into the IBR application.”

In prior years, a student wishing to apply for Federal Application for Student Aid would have to “fill in the blanks” when listing their income earned for the year, as well as their parent’s income.  For the student, this means they will no longer have to guess, and potentially make an error on their application, but rather upload the actual government paperwork showing the income of their parents and themselves.

Any sort of debt help for students with loans is a major turning point from times of before.  According to the National Student Loan Data System, students were looking at an interest rate of 6.8 percent starting in 2006 on their federal loans. However, since then they have seen a steady decline in the interest rate. Beginning in July 2011 and ending in June 2012 the rate declined to 3.4 percent. It should be noted though, that graduate and professional students will still see a steady 6.8 percent interest rate on unsubsidized loans.

UW students eligible for FAFSA, just as any other college student receiving federal aid, will benefit from this legislation.

According to the Office of Student Financial Aid, only 42 percent of students at UW are receiving some form of financial aid, compared to the 65.6 percent nationally receiving any form of aid. Though the average UW student is in less debt than the national average, this still helps.

For the Director of the Office of Student Financial Aid, Joanna Carter, this is a step in the right direction.

“I am always pleased to see students get a break on the cost of financing their education,”  Carter said.

With this new legislation being enacted, students should be able to look ahead to their future after college as more comfortable and relaxed as they pay off their education.

Will Burger

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