• City of Sheridan acquired 38.5 acres from the Wrench Ranch to be used as the Sheridan High-Tech Business Park.  This dedicated land enabled a Business Ready Grant, from the Wyoming Business Council for over $2.5 million to install water and sewer infrastructure within the park.  The park is “shovel ready” for development.

• FS identified and proposed a business relocation opportunity to a light-manufacturing firm (VacuTech, LLC).  This relocation is the anchor business for the high tech business park. Vacutech, LLC  is  relocating into the new Sheridan High-Tech Business Park.  Construction started in November of 2010.  And the first business relocation in Wyoming in 13 years.

• The High-Tech Business Incubator, located at Double Eagle Drive, is open and serving four early stage technology businesses.  Three new jobs have been created since the Incubator opening in late October for these operations.  The Sheridan High-Tech Business Incubator was purchased by Sheridan County using State of Wyoming grant funds.  Grant matching fund requirements were met by a private developer.  The total investment in this project from the state and private sector was over $1 million.

• One company, Ptolemy Data Systems, was housed in the FS office prior to the building of the Incubator.  By the time the incubator was completed, PDS has grown to 7 employees and is one of our prime  subcontractors for the Wyoming Telemedicine Project.

• FS was engaged by the State of Wyoming to manage the Wyoming Telepsychiatry Pilot Project to introduce, evaluate and implement video conferencing capabilities throughout hospitals and mental health clinics in the State.  This project involves three Wyoming technology businesses – Apollo Telemedicine, Handel IT and Ptolemy Data Systems and is addressing a very key issue with Title 25 IH patients throughout the state.   At this time the WTPP team has conducted site evaluations at 5 hospitals and 3 mental health clinics.  This project will continue for 24 months.   The outcome of this project is to reduce exporting medical care dollars to neighboring states and keep the patients locally by improving access at the point of care.

•  Forward Sheridan is committed to communicating our actions and intentions with our investors and the community through media releases and news articles, open houses, and e-newsletters and updates.  FS routinely has work sessions with investors and interested parties.

Sheridan College has kicked off its 61st fall semester.  For the fifth year in a row, we enrolled more students than the previous fall semester.  Sheridan County has a long standing tradition of supporting local higher education.  That is just one of the many reasons I feel fortunate to be serving you in my new position as President of this exceptional college.  The purpose of my letter is to explain the value of  a community college education, provide insight about our students, and share a brief look into the future of Sheridan College.

Community Colleges are a Great Investment

Nearly half of the total undergraduate students in the nation are studying at a community college.  In addition to providing critical training to enter the workforce with a certificate or associate’s degree, community colleges also provide students supportive environments for freshman and sophomore level studies on their way to a career or a bachelor’s or graduate degree from any university – often at a much lower cost.

SC Benefits the Student

• Sheridan College’s tuition is very low -  tuition, fees and books cost approximately $3,000 to enroll here full-time for two semesters.
• As much as $12,000 can be saved by attending SC for two years before transferring to a four-year college or university.
• The American Association of Community Colleges estimates that an associate degree will increase a graduate’s earnings by an average of $7,200 annually.  That is a good rate of return for a students investment in his or her education.

SC Benefits the Community

• As the tenth largest employer in the county, employing almost 200 full-time and 80 part-time, Sheridan College is proud to contribute $12.6 million per year to the local economy in the form of wages, salaries, and benefits.
• We spent a total of $17 million in Sheridan County just last year.  Our 2010-11 operating budget is funded 21% by tuition and fees, 68% from the state, and 11% from our local taxes.  We are thankful for the support from our county and state.

About our SC Students

• SC provides educational opportunities for about $1,800 students each semester.
• We are serving more students than ever with a 30% enrollment growth over the past five years.
• 87% of our students are from Wyoming.
• 60% are from Sheridan County.
• Wyoming’s 23 counties and seven nearby states are home to 96% of students.  A recent look Sheridan College graduates show that 58% remain in Wyoming after graduation.
• According to a 2009 Rockefeller Institute Study, Wyoming is number one in the nation for the number of certificates and associate degrees awarded per 100 high school graduates.

Sheridan College helps Wyoming youth stay in Wyoming and recruits other young adults to Wyoming to pursue and education and to help build our economy.

Sheridan College’s Future is bright

We are financially stable, our enrollment is strong, and our academic programs are excellent.  Thanks to private donors, philanthropic support through the Sheridan College Foundation continues to support programs, scholarships, and facilities.  As we look into the future, we must be proactive in our planning and in our actions.  Sheridan College is planning for an enrollment of at least 2,500 students.  We are committed to introducing innovation in health, natural and agriculture science and technical education to meet workforce needs and generate economic growth.  We are grateful for our community friends and partners and will continue to build on those relationships throughout our service area.

I look forward to great things in the future and hope you will join us.  If you have questions or want to learn more please call us at (307) 674-6446, visit us on the web at www.sheridan.edu, or just come by our main campus or Main Street campus for a visit, and to talk with one of our helpful staff.  We are here for you, and my door is always open.

Sincerely,

Paul R. Young, Ph. D.

President, Northern Wyoming Community College District

SG Securities estimates that demand for grain alone will rise by 50% to 100%

 over the next 40 years.We’ve already seen trouble. There were food riots in some countries two
years ago. Wheat, coffee and sugar prices have rocketed this summer.
Canaries in the coal mine? “We expect to see a resource war around
2020,” says Ms. Payne.
They’re not making any more land. Indeed, they’re taking some of it
away. A lot is being appropriated for cities, factories and shopping malls.
We are losing yet more to soil erosion, salinization, overexploitation and
desertification. Climate change is having an effect. Charmion McBride,
head of agriculture for Insight Investment, says the amount of arable
land per person on the planet has halved in about 40 years.
Emmanuel Jayet, head of agricultural commodities research at SG
Securities, says there are still 450 million additional hectares that the
world could farm. Yet most of them are in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin
America, where infrastructure—and political stability—have sometimes
left something to be desired.
The picture is similar when it comes to food from the seas. The world’s
wild fisheries are overfished, perhaps terminally so. There is a big push
to expand fish farms. That is one solution, but hardly a sufficient one.
Meanwhile, investor interest in land, and in agriculture generally, is
decidedly low. This week’s World Agriculture Investment Conference
attracted much fewer than 100 people. One attendee I spoke to said this
was an improvement: A few years ago no one was interested at all.
It’s seen as an asset class that is simultaneously dangerously unusual
and absolutely tedious. Several people in finance, when I explained
where I was going, affected a sudden attack of narcolepsy.
Some institutions are starting to take an interest, but the numbers
involved are comparatively small—$200 million here, $50 million there.
The Chinese, notably, are active around the world, buying land and
investing in projects. That may be a harbinger of something.
If overall investor interest is low, the asset class nonetheless has a
pedigree. Scarlett O’Hara’s father was on to something: Land has proven
a decent investment over long periods.
Shonda Warner, chief executive of Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners, a
farmland investment fund with about $60 million in assets, calculates
that U.S. farmland has produced an average return of 11.6% a year
since 1951. That includes income and capital gains. U.S. stocks—as
measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 index—have produced 11.8%.
And land has produced those gains with half the volatility of the stock
market.
Famously, land has also proven a terrific hedge against inflation. It has
boomed when prices skyrocketed—such as during the two world wars,
and the 1970s. There is a serious risk that we will see a surge in inflation
down the road: You could argue the governments need it. No wonder
investors have been bidding up the prices of other inflation hedges, such
as gold and inflation-protected bonds. Why not land?
Typically, investment assets in the U.S. are more expensive than their
counterparts overseas. But not when it comes to land. Insight
Investment’s Ms. McBride says U.S. farmland is well down the global
table in price per hectare. Average prices are about $5,000 per hectare.
In Europe they can sometimes go as high as $24,000. U.S. prices are
closer to those of lesser-developed countries. One reason? We have so
much of it. Among big countries, America, unusually, also has far more
arable land than it needs to feed its own population.
Investors have been bidding up some prices, but mainly in certain areas
of the Midwest, such as Iowa. Chess Ag’s Ms. Warner says the best
deals are elsewhere—in places such as Texas, Mississippi, Idaho and
the Dakotas.
Institutions and even rich individuals with, say, half a million dollars to
invest now have their pick of specialized funds investing in farmland and
agricultural projects here and overseas. What ordinary investors could
really use is a good real-estate Investment trust that invests in farmland.
A few are in the works: Stay tuned.
Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com

Click on www.capitolchristmastree2010.com to learn more about the 2010 Capital Christmas Tree.

Cross Country Skiing in the Big Horn Mountains is great this year.  The ski trails are beautifully maintained by volunteers of the Black Mountain Nordic Ski Club.  The trail grooming expenses are paid for by donations and dues collected by members.  If you are interested in joining the club the dues are $15 for a single membership and $20 for a family membership.  Simply click here to sign up today.

Several local merchants Big Horn Mountain Sports and the Rendezvous Trading Company sell and rent ski gear as well as show shoes.  Skiing is a very economical way to recreate in our beautiful mountains.  Click here if you are interested in learning more about the sport.

See you at the warming hut!

Energizing Sheridan!

The North Main Revitalization Initiative in Sheridan is about people taking ownership in their community.   Over the summer, residents and business owners in the North Main area have hosted a series of block parties, North Main Business Open House events, and other neighborhood gatherings to engage North Main residents, business and property owners in a widespread community discussion.

The goals of these discussions were to build community involvement, identify barriers to the revitalization of North Main, and identify resources and partnerships necessary to encourage residential and commercial investment in the area.

This Initiative is building on a number of great efforts already taking place on North Main such as the renovation of the Trails End Restaurant & Motel, grand opening of Bella/Kennon Aircraft Covers and numerous small business start-ups such as Breckenridge Market.

On August 21^st the North Main Summit brought together almost 600 comments from over 160 participants from the 12 previous North Main events. Coming out of the Summit, five community work groups were formed focused around the following themes: Where We Live, Where We Shop & Eat, How We Travel, Where We Play & Kids, and North Main Look & Feel. These groups are meeting over the month of September to develop action plans to help revitalize the North Main part of Sheridan.

These action plans will be delivered as a “Report to the Community” and presented to the City Council by the North Main Steering Committee, which is made up by members from each work group. This Committee, with help from the City and others, will work to put these plans into action starting with completing the short-term projects by early next year.

There are a number of resources to help with this effort. To start, the Mayor will ask the City Council to allocate seed monies for the community’s short-term projects. In addition, the City will offer its staff, expertise and leadership to the work groups. The WYDOT North Main repaving project includes over $500,000 for enhancements such as benches and landscaping for North Main Street and this money will help with aspects of the long-term action plans.

For more information on the North Main Revitalization Initiative and to follow the work groups’ progress, please visit www.sheridanwyo.us and click below the North Main Revitalization Initiative logo.

Who is Bob Davies?

As a highly successful former Cal State Fullerton football coach, Bob Davies is a highly sought after keynote speaker and human potential trainer. Bob Davies possesses a powerful presentation style. If you want to experience immediate results,  learn how you can take immediate action and take it to your world, you are invited to this special EVENT. If you are interested in learning more about attending this life-changing seminar, please leave a comment and let us know of your interest in attending this once-in-lifetime event. Just leave a comment below, call CENTURY 21 BHJ at (307) 672-5838 or email us at yourfriends@century21bhj.com.

The EVENT is to be held at:

Sheridan College (Northern Wyoming Community College)
Address: 3059 Coffeen Avenue
Griffith Building C-TEL (Center for Technology Enhanced Learning)
Sheridan, WY 82801

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Bruce

Going Beyond the Typical Real Estate Application

Going green in the Sheridan real estate market is most often thought of in terms of building “green” structures and yes – that’s true. Sure we encourage Sheridan home builders to implement these green building concepts and use materials that embrace going green. Ones that easily come to mind include:

• Use recycled building materials whenever possible
• Use low-flow toilets
• Integrate landscapes that are hardy and depend less on fertilizers and water
• Use rain barrels to capture rainwater runoff for toilets, watering plants and gardens
• Integrate into the home architectural designs that maximize energy conservation
• Be sure to use our local recycling program for glass bottles, plastics and newspaper

Green Living is a Lifestyle and it’s Our Future!

Going green is more than the mere purchase of a Honda scooter, it’s all about an attitude. Going green is a lifestyle, and it’s the future of this office. Here at CENTURY 21 BHJ Realty, we encourage our agents to reduce their dependence on paper, and to use less of the natural resources we take for granted.

Trading Horse Power for Putter Power

Normally around here one might settle for a horse, but we thought a motor might come in handy. A big thanks to everyone at Valley Motor Honda for making the purchase fun.

If You See Our Agents Tooling Around Sheridan on the BHJ Green Machine

Be sure to say howdy. Because scooters are pretty rare sights, it’s for sure you’ll see us tooling around town. Just don’t expect our agents to drive buyers around town to preview homes on the BHJ Green Machine. What would we say to “our horse”?

Helping you keep it green,

Bruce

The city of Sheridan has much to offer. Main Street is lined with beautiful shops that are run by lovely people. Whenever you enter one you are greeted with a “Hello, how are you?” Just perpendicular to Main Street, statues are abundant on Grinnell Plaza in front of City Hall. Some are owned by the city and others are just out on loan. Kendrick Park, a big part of our small town, has the most lush green grass and towering trees around. On the other side of the park you find a pool and you can even get ice cream in the summer. Overlooking this beautiful park is the buffalo pen, where there are even a few elk.

The summer is a busy time in Sheridan. Fourth of July gives the several firework vendors around town plenty of business. And being such a small town we are close to wide open fields where we can shoot them off. About six miles south of town in Big Horn is the Equestrian Center where, if you don’t like to, or can’t, shoot off fireworks yourself, you can go to watch them professionally done. Starting in the second week of July is the rodeo. For three nights a full-length rodeo takes place at the fairgrounds, only a few minutes drive from downtown. Behind the towering arena stands in the carnival. In addition to different rides and thrills, the carnival offers cotton candy and other treats.

Even the fall and winter are hosts to many activities. The Sheridan High School football teams are great to go watch on a Friday night. There are high school orchestras and bands as well as many other sporting events. Halloween is a wonder event here. There are nice quiet neighborhoods for the children to go trick or treating. It’s even okay to go if you’re less of a child and more of a teenager, most people don’t mind. Once winter has fallen upon us, the ice rink opens and ski and snowboard areas are a short drive away. The mountains are just a few minutes south of Sheridan and great if you like to go snowshoeing or snowmobiling. Even in winter, you can find something to entertain yourself.

Sheridan is a wonderful place to live. Wyoming is general has a staggeringly high number of people under the age of 25, more then many other states. Sheridan reflects this greatly as you will see at the local movie theatre and skate park. There is always something here to do, and the people are welcoming. We’ve got culture that many places aren’t as exposed to.

We Have a Winner!

Rather than clutter this outstanding piece with an introduction, we chose to let Carissa Goodman’s eloquent words convey her first place $100 cash prize entry for the Sheridan High Creative Writing Contest. We congratulate Carissa on her fine efforts in her winning entry “Why Living in Sheridan is Great”. The team at CENTURY 21 BHJ Realty, Inc wishes to thank every Sheridan High student who participated in this contest. Special thanks go to Sheridan High School Principal Ms. Dirlene Wheeler and English teacher, Ms. Rita Geary for their important role in this creative blog writing event.

Show Your Support For These Fine Students!

We encourage you to show your support for these wonderful entries by submitting a comment. It’s very easy. Simply click on the “Be the first to comment on this post” at the top of this page and submit your comments.

Until my next post,

Bruce Garber
Century 21 BHJ Reality, Inc.

Your Sheridan Real Estate Resource