A Presbyterian church once stood at what is now 112 Summit Ave. While the church’s time in Newcastle was fairly short, the history of the property itself is quite detailed. The exact date of the church’s official opening after construction is not necessarily recorded in the local papers at the time, yet historian Leonard Cash inferred that the church opened to the public in 1891.

On March 6, 1891, a local news source reported that the Ladies Aid Society planned to hold a social evening at Mrs. L. Wilcox’s section house. The paper noted that “refreshments will be serviced, and the ‘magic jug’ will be one of the features of the entertainment. All are invited.” Cash suspects the magic jug was a place to collect money, but no explanation was provided in the article.

“The section house I remember is where Black Hills Energy had their office here in town,” said Cash. “It was a big house — two stories — the bottom part they had the kitchen and the dining room, and the upstairs was like a dormitory. Then they had an old root cellar where they stored all of their fruits and vegetables, stuff like that, right next to it.”

With the hopes of reaching youth and giving something back to the community, the Church on the Hill hosted its first vacation bible school last week. According to organizer Mary Romine, the Church on the Hill is “fairly young” and as their involvement in the community grows, it’s important to give back to the local children and the rest of the community.

One way to give back came in the form of the “shipwrecked” vacation bible school. Romine reported that while the attendance varied every evening, the church still engaged about 70 kids in activities ranging from music to arts and crafts.

Amanda Bench, who was actively involved in the vacation bible school, said that the theme was aimed at teaching the children that “Jesus saves us when we are shipwrecked or lost.”

By Mark Davis

Powell Tribune

Via Wyoming News Exchange

POWELL — In continued efforts to support alpine lake fishing, state officials take to the sky each summer in a unique restocking program.

For decades, the alpine lake stocking program has used helicopters to deliver tens of thousands of trout to picturesque lakes — many only accessible by foot or horseback — across Wyoming. The Bighorn and Beartooth mountain ranges are stocked on alternating years. On even years, it’s the Bighorns’ turn.

The alpine stocking window is small. Many of the lakes have a short period of time they can be stocked due to ice and snow cover. Late July and early August are ideal: It’s late enough to avoid ice and too early to interfere with hunting seasons.

“There’s a lot of anglers that go backpacking here and the fish grow really well in these lakes. It’s a unique opportunity for fishing,” said Kris Holmes, statewide spawning coordinator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. “You’re at one with nature, enjoying the wide open spaces without a lot of people around. And it’s always fun to catch a fish.”

Interest in alpine lake fishing is growing, partially due to the fast growth rate of fish, which provides anglers with a chance to catch trophy fish at many of the lakes, Holmes said. The number of anglers heading to the Bighorn Mountains lakes is high — partially due to the lack of grizzlies to consider when striking out into the wilderness, said Sam Hochhalter, Cody region fisheries supervisor for the Game and Fish.

“The Bighorns are user-friendly mountains. We don’t have any big toothy critters that are overly intimidating,” he said. “People just want to have the peace of mind knowing there’s no grizzly bears around. It makes for a little more of a relaxing trip.”

While many of the hikes aren’t easy, there are more than 60 fishable lakes in the Bighorns.

“Most of the trailheads here you’re starting at close to 9,000 feet,” Hochhalter said. “You’re going to cover some ground, but you’re only going to gain about 1,000 feet of elevation, so it’s not an overly exhausting hike.”

There are another 30 lakes in the Beartooth Mountain Range that are stocked and nearly 300 lakes in the Wind River Range.

Rules in designated wilderness areas typically prevent altering the natural landscape, but stocking programs have been grandfathered in. That allows the state to keep fish in many lakes where trout are unable to sustain populations by natural reproduction; many of the lakes lack suitable spawning habitat for trout.

Only about 70 lakes per year are stocked, a small percentage of natural alpine lakes in the state. Many of the lakes not currently stocked were stocked decades ago and still have thriving trout populations, Hochhalter said.

In late July, Hochhalter and several fish culturalists and aquatic habitat personnel hiked into the Bighorns to do a fish survey. They hike 10-14 miles to get into the backcountry, then go about 6 miles per day to travel between lakes. With a heavy load of fish survey equipment — including rafts, gill nets and a week’s worth of provisions — they rent llamas for the multi-day trips.

“It’s nice to have pack animals to carry the bulk of the equipment and a week’s worth of food,” Hochhalter said. “Once you commit to going into that country, it’s nice to stay for an extended period to maximize how much work you can get done.”

Stocking programs used to be done in a similar manner, but in the time it would take to stock one lake by hiking, a helicopter can do 70 lakes with less impact to the environment and less stress on the fish.

Most of the high altitude lakes in the state are only accessible by foot or horseback. But some allow travel by all-terrain vehicles. Lily Lake, 15 miles north of U.S. Highway 16 on Forest Service Road 24 is a combination of the best case scenario for a quick hike; it’s ATV-accessible and teaming with fish.

The hike to Lily Lake in the shadow of Elk Peak, is a mere 30-45 minutes, including time for wildlife viewing. Moose browse the meadows, songbirds fill the forest and squirrels chastise visitors for invading their peaceful homes high in the pines. Those willing to trek are also rewarded with awe-inspiring views of peaks unavailable from the highway.

While no backcountry trip in Wyoming is without adventure, Lily Lake is uniquely accessible to families with children and mature anglers unable to do long trips.

Generally speaking, destination lakes further out receive less pressure and have better fishing. But all of the lakes are teaming with trout that rarely see artificial bait. The stocking program in the Bighorns airdrop includes golden, tiger and Yellowstone cutthroat trout and splake.

The stocked fish aren’t eating size. Using a helicopter for stocking requires a delicate balancing act of size versus numbers, said Jared Smith, senior fish culturalist at Ten Sleep hatchery.

“It’s a balancing act. Any smaller [than about 3 inches and] survival is compromised and any bigger you can’t get enough on the helicopter,” Smith said.

The helicopters carry a custom-made tank with eight chambers, each carrying the fish for a specific lake. The pilot is given maps and a set of toggle switches. Once over a lake, the pilot hits the switch and drops the fish from about 10 feet. Oxygen is fed to the tanks to keep the fish healthy in flight, ice keeps them at a desired temperature and the water in each tank breaks their fall.

The helicopters are subcontracted through Sky Aviation, which also does wildlife surveys for the Game and Fish. It takes about 45 minutes to stock several lakes, with the helicopter interrupting the peace at each lake for about one minute every few years, depending on the particular lake.

The hikes are popular with visitors and Wyoming residents, Hochhalter said.

“People congregate here. You go to the West Tensleep trailhead on any given weekend in July or August and you’re going to find 50-60 vehicles there. There’s a lot of plates from the Midwest and a lot of plates from Wyoming, too,” he said.

Alpine lakes are a case of beauty over brawn. Not catching a fish at an isolated alpine lake is still filled with more soul-mending peace and inspiring views than those easily accessed by car.

“The payoff is enjoying wide open spaces with nobody around. And there’s nothing better than the taste of fresh fish while you’re hiking,” Holmes said.

By Kylie Mohr

Jackson Hole News&Guide

Via Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — A child’s curiosity coupled with wilderness is powerful.

At Teton Science Schools’ forest kindergarten summer program, a bird book, spatula, rope and a few other key ingredients kept children happy and learning without the need for screens.

“They don’t ask for technology; it’s not even really talked about,” said Jane Strader, a prekindergarten teacher. “I try to keep the materials as natural as possible. They seem to be fine without all that stuff, and I think it’s a beautiful thing. It’s awesome to see what they can come up with and create using their imaginations without using technology to spur ideas. They’ve got it all in them already.”

Teton Science Schools experimented this summer with the idea of forest kindergartens, which are geared toward preschoolers ages 4 to 6 but called “kindergarten” because of the terminology of where they originated. Jane Strader and co-teacher Christina Macy led a pair of three-week sessions, one in Wyoming and one in Victor, Idaho. Each day was as long as a traditional school day and focused on outdoor play, hands-on experiential learning and children guiding their own discoveries.

Forest kindergartens, and the idea of youngsters spending more time outside, are exploding in popularity.A 2005 book by Richard Louv, “Last Child in the Woods,” coined the term “nature deficit disorder.” Documentaries like “School’s Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten” explore schooling that’s radically different from the test-centric, screen-centric American philosophy.

It isn’t all hype. A 2003 doctoral dissertation by Peter Hafner in Germany showed that graduates of German forest kindergartens had a “clear advantage” over graduates of regular kindergartens, outpacing their peers in cognitive and physical abilities, as well as in creativity and social development.

Another study on children in England and Wales found that forest kindergartens improved confidence, social skills, communication, motivation, physical skills, knowledge and understanding.

Forest schools are sweeping the U.K., and they are popping up in New Zealand, Japan, Israel and other countries. But since the programs are relatively new in the U.S., long-term results are unknown. A map on the American Forest Kindergarten Association’s website shows that most states have a handful of programs.

Strader stumbled into teaching at a forest kindergarten when she lived in Germany during college. The “total happenstance,” she said, was pivotal. She’s since worked with influential leaders in the field of nature-based early education, like Ellen Doris and David Sobel at Antioch University.

“I was just totally amazed that education could look like that at such an early age and how formative it was for those children going into their school careers, how it prepared them socially and emotionally and connected them to the world around them and each other,” Strader said. “Since then I’ve continued to pursue education with the goal of starting my own. It’s wild. Life comes at you when you least expect it.”

Imagination at work

At R Park on Aug. 1, the students enjoyed the natural habitat. Some played with sticks in the water, imagining pontoon and sea planes taking off, or “caught” fish with a rope. Mia Scharnhorst, 6, made a boat of two crossed sticks and tied a rope to it to drag it along the water. Her classmate Jed Bowerstock, 5, did something similar. The children were in their own worlds, creating fanciful additions with every passing moment.

Some made a “river” in the gravel, using a spatula to dig in the dirt and working together to cause the water to run downstream.

“Look at it!” Cassius Musser, 4, said. “We made a mini-Snake River.”

“We just play,” Charlotte Ahlum, 4, said.

Earlier this week, she said, she got soaking wet in the pond.

And that’s OK. After the session in Victor, parents told Strader that the kids were “pretty chewed up by the bugs” and “super tired.” While the bugs might be able to be mitigated, dealing with the second is less of a priority.

“There might be a magical face painted on it [forest kindergarten], and it’s true, extremely magical moments happen throughout the day,” Strader said. “But it’s not always pretty. They still get in fights, I still have to redirect, they’re not always listening. It’s real, it’s raw, it’s right there. There’s nothing fake about it.”

A few feet away, Charlotte’s classmate Flynn Jackson, 6, shouted ecstatically.

“I caught a thing! I caught a thing!” he said.

The thing, or things, were grasshoppers that Flynn wanted to make an improvised bug catcher for.

“I bet it’s going to bite me,” Flynn said. “I’m going to make a natural habitat for them with some grass.”

But what kind of grass? Flynn and his classmates looked up species of native plants in a guidebook. They learned that pineapple weed could make tea and that ticks sometimes hang out in sagebrush.

Parents, Strader said, like it when their kids come home with knowledge like this. The session at Snowdrift Farms in Victor focused on plants.

“The kids all came home knowing the names of all these different wildflowers,” Strader said. “The parents were pretty psyched on it.”

Down time

Children in the forest kindergarten program needed a change of pace as the morning progressed. That’s all part of Strader and Macy’s plan and structure, which starts with free play, moves to “sit spots” at a “base camp” that stays the same all session, then back to play before lunch, with time allotted for naps and stories.

“I create rules with them in the beginning of the session,” Strader said. “Since it’s their rules, it helps keep them accountable.”

She softly sang a song about mountains, something she remembered from camp as a child, with hand gestures to reiterate the lyrics. Then, she instructed the children to go to their sit spots, quiet places they picked out in the beginning of the session, to draw things they found special and bring them back to share in a group meeting.

“They can just breathe and observe,” Strader said. “They say some beautiful things. I’m amazed at their ability and their excitement to be there.”

Students returned to the circle with observations of plants, bugs and some mythical creature sightings. Strader and Macy jotted it all down, taking notes of what the kids said and did so they could ask better questions later and facilitate educational play.

“It’s a lot less about what I want them to learn and a lot more about what they know and what they love and how I can draw them out to see it,” Strader said.

And with that, quiet reflection time was over. Children jumped up, excited to spend more time playing. Isaac Kinney, 5, and his buddy, Felix Fleck, 5, headed to a tipi they built from sticks while other boys and girls headed toward a zip line strung between two trees.

Potential expansion

At the Teton Valley Community School in Victor, teachers already try to have weekly days in the woods.

“We’ve worked really hard these past three years to get our kids into the woods as often as possible,” Strader said. “The magic and learning that happens in the woods is beyond the environment you could ever create in the classroom.”

Another benefit of time spent in the forest, she said, is a shift in the teacher-student dynamic.

“I find that it evens the playing field,” Strader said. “I am no longer necessarily a teacher; I feel like I’m more of a guide and a resource. They’re problem solving, they’re asking their own questions, they’re laughing and playing in the most simple, free-form of ways. Kids come home tired and dirty and happy and asking questions.”

True forest kindergartens are year-round — rain, shine or snowstorm. Would that work in the Tetons, where Old Man Winter comes and stays with a vengeance?

Strader thinks so. The forest kindergarten programs this summer were a trial run, minus the extreme weather.

“Winter would look different,” she said. “My main crux right now is property and where to run the program. If it were to run in the winter it would definitely need some sort of indoor structure where kids can take their gloves off and eat lunch and dry their clothes.”

A yurt would be “pretty ideal,” Strader said. She’s going to spend this fall visiting other model programs and how they work in freezing temperatures.

“I think it’s definitely possible,” Strader said.

There’s a market for outdoor-based educational opportunities in Jackson. While parents certainly take their children outside, like the informal parent-led woods days with young children in Kelly, there aren’t official forest kindergarten programs in the area. The closest is Roots For School, a forest preschool in McCall, Idaho, or the Honeybee Nature School in Ogden, Utah.

“There’s certainly a huge parent buy-in and interest in this community,” Strader said. “I feel like now, more than ever, is a time to get one going.”

By Austin Huguelet

Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE – A new poll released Wednesday showed Jackson financier Foster Friess and State Treasurer Mark Gordon in a virtual dead heat for the GOP gubernatorial nomination with less than a week to go before primary day.

The survey of 1,775 likely GOP primary voters between Saturday and Tuesday came from the right-leaning Trafalgar Group, a Georgia firm known for accurately predicting Donald Trump would win states expected to go for Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

The results were as follows: Friess, 21 percent; Gordon, 20 percent; Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman, 16.2 percent; Cheyenne businessman Sam Galeotos, 9.5 percent; Laramie doctor Taylor Haynes, 5.7 percent, and Sheridan businessman Bill Dahlin, 2.2 percent.

Taken at face value, the poll shows a surge in support for Friess, who took just 6.6 percent of mock votes in a mid-June poll by the University of Wyoming. 

Hageman, who has gone after Gordon and Galeotos in critical ads recently, also appears on the rise, gaining 5.5 points.  

Longtime frontrunner Gordon looks in danger of stalling, gaining only one point over the June results.

But the poll is no final word on the race: The gap between Friess and Gordon was within the survey’s margin of error, and roughly 20 percent of respondents were still undecided. 

The 5.5 percent of respondents who said they voted early also complicate things: 36 percent of them “leaned” toward Gordon and 24 percent “leaned” toward Friess, potentially narrowing the gap between the men to a half a percentage point.

Brian Harnisch, a senior research scientist at UW’s Survey and Analysis Center, also urged residents to take Wednesday’s survey with a grain of salt, citing a low response rate and failure to use some industry best practices.

“This is not a very robust poll,” he said.

Harnisch allowed the Friess campaign could take the swing as a sign its advertising blitz and grueling meet-and-greet schedule are working, though.

But Jim King, a UW political science professor, said he saw typical tightening of a competitive race close to the finish line.

“The previous poll was done before the campaign had really heated up and got a lot of attention,” he said. “People have learned a lot more since then.”

He added, “Basically you’ve got a three-way race going on with any of the top candidates in a position to win.”

Friess took the results as Harnisch predicted, trumpeting them in the Daily Caller – in which he was an early investor – as evidence he was resonating as an everyman ready to fight for the “little guy.” 

Hageman was also pleased, saying the results showed her campaign was “right where we want to be heading into election day.”

But Gordon spokeswoman Kristin Walker implied Friess, the top fundraiser in the race, bought the poll, saying it was “certainly not consistent with any data we’ve seen or that has been publicly released so far.”

The Friess campaign and the Trafalgar Group denied the allegation; Friess will have to file campaign expenditures within 10 days of the primary.

By Clair McFarland

Riverton Ranger

Via Wyoming News Exchange

RIVERTON — While many of us could write a mountain of thank you cards at the end of our lives, most of us do not have the wholesome anticipation of death that would move us to do so.

But Tom Woodyard of Riverton, who died of natural causes in October of 2016, did have that wholesome anticipation, as well as a mountain of gratitude.

He made that clear through his will, which reads “I, Thomas H. Woodyard, a.k.a. Thomas Henry Woodyard, a single man, never having been married, having no children, and having no living parent, of the City of Riverton, County of Fremont, State of Wyoming, being of sound mind and memory but becoming more frail in physical health and mindful of the uncertainties of life, hereby make, publish and declare this to be my last Will and Testament.”

The document which follows is an 18-page, handwritten will, which – to the astonishment and relief of the co-executors of Woodyard’s estate – was easily verified by the Fremont County District Court to be a valid will, despite being “free of lawyers’ fingerprints.”

More remarkably, however, is that this document is what co-executor Craig Cooper calls “a totally charitable will.” The entirety of Woodyard’s estate, after covering his burial and any medical costs that might precede his death, was to go to charities.

And it all did.

The will was completed in 2011 and tucked into a safety deposit box at a bank in town. After he died in 2016, Woodyard’s niece, Judy Reiners, would find a document in his home instructing her to contact Cooper and seek out the will.

Cooper remembers that week. It took the help of a locksmith specialist from Casper to open the boxes, but “sure enough, in one of the safety deposit boxes, was the will,” Cooper said.

What Cooper and Reiners would find in the will were instructions for distributing an estate worth more than $2 million – to 83 different entities.

Woodyard’s niece, and his friend, both especially cherished by him, would spend the next 21 months completing the list of instructions as co-executors of his will.

“Thank goodness for the specificity of the will,” said Cooper, who found that there was no room for any dispute of the bequests and that the document was “extremely well thought out.”

Many local organizations who had given a home to Woodyard’s passions – his faith, horseback riding, camping, teaching, history, reading, genealogy, agriculture, and, most notably, the care of others – found themselves as beneficiaries of his bountiful estate.

The local library. Boy Scouts, troop 44. Help for Health Hospice, the Methodist Church, the Fremont County Genealogical Society, the Wind River Flywheelers, the Senior Center Meals on Wheels, the Christian Food Storehouse, the American Legion Post.

All these and many more received generous provision toward their workings and goals.

Woodyard created various scholarship programs and provided research funds for a vast but specific list of diseases and ailments.

“He also bequeathed well over $1 million to churches, historic sites, libraries, colleges, hospices, cemeteries, home health organizations, and an arboretum in his (original) home county in Illinois,” Cooper said.

Besides arranging his will to show gratitude and encouragement to these entities, Woodyard also arranged donations toward memorials for friends who had departed before him, including fellow Riverton schoolteachers Lillian Kinne and Warren Kellogg.

“What a wonderful legacy,” Christian Food Storehouse operator Cinde Pfisterer said.

Pfisterer received Woodyard’s bequest to the Christian Food Storehouse just before Thanksgiving of 2017, when the storehouse was working to honor its tradition of delivering 150 free Thanksgiving dinners to families in the community.

Because of Woodyard’s gift, Pfisterer said that she “was able to add more food,” and that she will be able to apply the gift toward Thanksgiving dinners “not just this year, but for years to come.”

“Thank you, to a man who had a heart for people,” she said.

Tom Woodyard was raised in Charleston, Illinois, but moved to Riverton soon after serving in the Army and becoming a school teacher.

He taught at the old Jefferson Elementary School from 1958 to 1961 and at Jackson Elementary from 1962 until his retirement.

The Woodyard estate, which was a product of family inheritance, careful living, and thorough planning, has been distributed fully to every entity that held personal or moral significance to Tom Woodyard and – as of July 10 – has been closed out by the court.

For the first time this year, my family has been able to grow quite the successful garden, if I do say so myself. From our very first monster zucchini, nearly the height of our coffee maker, to the multiple ripe tomatoes we pick daily, the fruit of our labors have been enjoyable.

Even more than the simple food benefit seen at my house, which is quite significant considering the amount of zucchini we purchase weekly, the gardening project has brought our family together and promoted outdoor activity.

Nothing has been more exciting this summer for my 7-year-old and 3-year-old than getting up early to water the plants and feed our pig, thanks to my wonderful husband. Picking the products of our hard work proves to be even more exciting than watering the plants.

Cade and I have made it a point to include our children in our gardening since the beginning. From helping to plant the seeds in our bay window really early this spring to get an early start to transferring the much larger plants into the ground throughout the last month, the kids have been right by our side.

The benefits coming away from the garden are not only financial – I mean we really are saving at least $20 a week on zucchini alone – but also come in the form of increased family time, lots of fun in the sun and the knowledge we all are learning about the process it takes to grow food on our own.

Demonstrating that hard work can pay off, not only in your heart and mind but also physically, is something I have strived to teach my children since day one and the garden has really added one more learning tool to our household. Really, you only have ample amounts of food produced by your plants if you work hard to water and care for the plants and make sure they are receiving everything they need to be fruitful. 

The true testament of that hard work is the fruit of your labors: the zucchini eaten for dinner or becoming a delicious zucchini blueberry cake, the tomatoes on top of your salad or becoming a magnificent salsa, and the sugar snap peas that taste even better fresh right off the plant.

But for my family, these items have come with so much more than just the fresh produce we get to enjoy, they have come with a lesson, much-needed family time and fun in the sun (even though I do not believe hours outside moving plants in the 90-degree heat is fun … at all).

The Newcastle City Council, Weston County Commissioners and Weston County Sheriff will hold a special meeting to discuss the proposed dissolution of the Newcastle Police Department. The meeting will be held in the Newcastle City Council chambers on Thursday, August 23 at 5:00 p.m.

“The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the proposed dissolution of the Newcastle Police Department. No other items will be considered or discussed at this meeting,” City Clerk/Treasurer Greg James said in the official notice announcing the special meeting.

He noted that the meeting was determined to be a special meeting after “careful consideration and consultation” with City Attorney Jim Peck and Mayor Deb Piana. James added that official minutes will be kept during the meeting and published.

By Sarah Pridgeon

Sundance Times

Via Wyoming News Exchange

SUNDANCE — A Crook County woman has been charged on two counts of aggravated homicide by vehicle following a crash last week that was initially attributed to driver inattention.

According to court reports, Leslie Raber was arrested on August 4 at around 3:25 p.m. by a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper. Around 90 minutes before the arrest, the trooper was patrolling on U.S. 212 when he was informed of an injury crash near milepost 19, near the Montana state line.

While en route, the trooper was informed that the crash may have resulted in a fatality. At 2:17 p.m., he arrived on scene to find a green trike motorcycle upside down with heavy front end damage and a white SUV with heavy passenger side damage.

The trooper reports that this indicated a possible “t-bone” type of collision. A short distance to the southeast was a deceased female subject, identified by Highway Patrol as Nancy Robinson, a 54-year-old resident of Bloomfield, Indiana.

According to court reports, roadway evidence suggested that the SUV had been making a left hand turn and the motorcycle had been traveling eastbound prior to the crash. The violent forces of the collision allegedly resulted in the SUV being rotated 180 degrees, coming to rest facing a northerly direction.

The trooper states in his report that he made contact with the driver of the SUV, identified as Raber, and asked what had happened. Raber allegedly stated she was waiting for several motorcycles to pass her location when she saw that they had their blinkers on and appeared to be slowing down and pulling to the side of the road.

According to reports, Raber stated she had pulled into the oncoming lane of travel in an attempt to complete her turn.

The trooper assessed the scene and victim and notes in his report that, while standing to the south of the vehicle, he could smell a strong odor of alcohol but could not immediately locate the source. He then observed multiple cans of beer along the roadway to the south of the vehicle.

During an interview, the trooper allegedly smelled a faint odor of alcoholic beverage from Raber’s person and asked how much alcohol she had consumed that day. Raber allegedly responded she had consumed “a few beers” at around 1:30 p.m. before heading out to go prairie dog hunting.

According to reports, a portable breathalyzer test returned a result of .27 blood alcohol content. The trooper reports that he explained to Raber that this is almost three times the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle.

Raber was placed under arrest and transported to Crook County hospital, where she voluntarily submitted to second blood test.

Raber has been charged with two counts of aggravated homicide by vehicle, carrying maximum penalties of 20 years’ imprisonment, a $10,000 fine or both.

By Heather Richards

Casper Star-Tribune

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CASPER —Sen. John Barrasso is not pleased with Washington state. 

Although that is not an unusual position to hold in Wyoming — which is engaged in a legal dispute with the coastal state over coal — what the senator plans to do about his frustration could narrow a unique power that allows states to veto the federal government. 

Barrasso has proposed changes to the Clean Water Act that he argues will close loopholes that are ripe for abuse. The provision up for revision, section 401, grants states the authority to certify projects that could affect their waterways. The flip side of that authority is states can refuse to greenlight a project or require conditions for certification — even if the federal government has approved it. 

Many times in Wyoming, certification is a fairly straightforward process. But large fossil fuel projects have been blocked in other parts of the country through the use of the Clean Water Act. Of particular irritation in Wyoming is the ongoing battle over a coal export terminal that’s been blocked by the state of Washington. 

Barrasso’s bill has not come up for a vote. But environmental groups are riled up that a cornerstone environmental law could be snipped away by Congress and are criticizing Wyoming for not standing up for states’ rights. Others, like Barrasso, say this is about abuses of the law like those that happened in Washington state. 

“The concern is what other states … might try for the politics of the moment,” Barrasso said in an interview Wednesday.

The Clean Water Act is not the only bedrock environmental law that Barrasso is examining right now. Early this summer the senator announced a draft bill to make significant changes to the Endangered Species Act. 

Barrasso is chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and he’s utilizing that platform to advance Wyoming values. 

“It’s a great opportunity to put Wyoming in a position to direct the issues that so impact our economy as well as protect our environment,” he said. 

Wyoming’s governor has backed Barrasso’s effort to change the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Matt Mead has, to some extent, been the catalyst for ESA changes — putting the law on the docket for the Western Governors Association to consider and recently traveling to Washington to testify in favor of giving states greater authority managing threatened and potentially threatened species. 

On the Clean Water Act, however, Mead has not rallied to the senator’s defense. 

The governor said in an email that he does not hold a position for or against the bill, but believes that “it does not appear to erode Wyoming’s ability to protect its water.” 

It’s the same opinion that Todd Parfitt, director of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, took in a short note to Barrasso on Monday. Staff had reviewed the bill, as requested by Barrasso, and did not believe the changes infringed on state authority. 

“It does recognize the states’ role in protecting water quality under the principles of cooperative federalism,” the director wrote.

The Western Governors Association has taken a slightly different view than Wyoming leaders. So have the Conference of Western Attorneys General, the Western Interstate Energy Board and the Western States Water Council, among others. The groups sent a joint letter Aug. 9 to congressional leaders warning against changes to section 401 of the Clean Water Act. 

“A vital component of the CWA’s system of cooperative federalism is state authority to certify and condition federal permits of discharges into waters of the United States,” the letter states. “Curtailing or reducing state authority or the vital role of states in maintaining water quality within their boundaries would inflict serious harm to the division of state and federal authorities.” 

Sam Kalen, co-director of the Center for Law and Energy Resources in the Rockies at the University of Wyoming, is an expert on the Clean Water Act. Kalen said Barrasso’s proposals appear to limit state authority and change the rare veto and conditioning power that states now hold. 

“It’s a kind of significant program in a lot of respects,” he said of the state certification provision. “If you know the history of 401, this program has got a longer lineage than the Clean Water Act.”

Environmental groups have noted that support for Barrasso’s bill conflicts with the typical anti-federal regulation stance of conservative leaders. 

Amy Mall, a senior advocate for the Natural Resource Defense Council, said Barrasso’s bill is a bald attempt to undermine environmental regulations. 

“The senators pushing for this bill often argue ‘against’ federal regulation and in favor of states’ rights, when doing so would weaken environmental protections, yet now they argue for a bill to undermine state’s rights,” she wrote in a recent blog post for the organization. 

It’s true that Barrasso has a record of going after environmental regulations that he argues overstep federal authority or harm Wyoming’s economic interests. The senator has praised the Trump administration for moves like removing a moratorium on new coal leases and the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency for taking steps to undo the Clean Power Plan. He has also supported undoing a methane waste rule from the Bureau of Land Management that forces oil and gas firms to use equipment and manpower to identify leaks, but that industry says is too onerous. 

Barrasso said it’s difficult to amend foundational environmental laws without provoking a strong reaction. 

“Anytime you talk about those pieces of legislation (Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act), there are a group of extremists who don’t want them touched at all,” he said. “That’s not practical. That’s not reasonable.” 

The senator also has his supporters. 

CJ Stewart, board director of the National Tribal Energy Association, said the Clean Water Act has been used as a cudgel against the Crow tribe. The tribe would also benefit from potential exports to Asia. Montana, where the Crow Reservation lies, has had more success at exporting coal than Wyoming. 

“Imagine having a trillion dollars in mineral wealth under your feet and yet your people are starving and destitute before you,” he said in a committee hearing on Barrasso’s bill Thursday. “Water quality certification should mean certification of water quality. Not what the Sierra Club wants.”

Wyoming is usually fast friends with groups or other states that oppose federal oversight, challenging Washington on issues like federal land management or environmental regulations.

But this time, the issue threatens something key to Wyoming’s outlook: coal exports. 

Wyoming does not export coal to Asian markets, but has long wanted to. Millennium Bulk Terminals’ proposed coal port on Washington’s Columbia River could make that opportunity more feasible, some argue. 

However, last year the Washington Department of Ecology denied a section 401 permit for the terminal, kicking off a period of reviews, appeals and lawsuits. On Wednesday the company, Millennium Bulk Terminals, lost a state board appeal that sought to overturn the state’s denial of the Clean Water Act certification. The coal port fight is still going on in the courts, with Wyoming weighing in on the case. 

For Barrasso, Washington’s approach violates the Clean Water Act because it drifts beyond the limits of the law’s intent. 

Kalen, of UW, said the certification actually has been used this way before. Though it can cause some uncertainty for lawyers, the scope of the 401 certification is broad. And that approach has been held up by the courts, since a 1994 case that also involved Washington state. 

In the early 1980s, a utility tried to build a hydropower plant on the Dosewallips River, but the state’s Department of Ecology put a condition on its 401 certification. The dam had to control its flows in order to protect salmon. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sided with the state. The proposed dam was never built.

Barrasso’s proposal doesn’t appear to offer a remedy to Wyoming’s coal port problem. Unless the bill is rewritten, it’s not retroactive and the coal port terminal is already in the courts, Kalen said. 

Still, other states’ politics can affect Wyoming, and it’s not absurd to see Clean Water Act changes as largely harmless to Wyoming: the controversial water projects don’t usually happen in the arid state. 

These changes could be a buffer down the road, however, if states like California or Washington can adopt strict environmental positions that impact Wyoming, he said. 

Kalen said the heart of the Clean Water Act debate is the federal-state relationship. The model that environmental groups approve has the federal government create a floor. States can be stricter in their environmental approach, but no less stringent, than federal standards, he said.

NGOs are likely to push back on Barrasso’s changes, because the 401 certification is a lever that states can pull to protect the environment. But, ultimately Congress has the right to change the law if lawmakers choose, he said. 

Kalen believes there may be room for clarification on the certification aspect of the law. In practice, it is often difficult for lawyers to know where that boundary of state authority lies, he said. 

“They are trying to fix some of the issues,” he said of the proposed changes. “But they are doing it with a very broad brush.”

By Jonathan Gallardo

Gillette News Record

Via Wyoming News Exchange

GILLETTE — When it comes to providing Wyoming with water, regional systems are the way to go, now and in the future, said state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower.

The Wyoming Water Development Commission and the Select Water Committee were in Gillette on Wednesday for the first day of a three-day joint workshop. They discussed the design and construction of a new well and a storage tank in Pine Haven. The project’s total budget is about $3.7 million, and when complete, the well will be able to pump 350 gallons a minute.

Meanwhile, Driskill said one of Gillette’s wells on the Madison Pipeline costs about $5 million to build and can pump 1,400 gallons per minute.

“It’s a model for the state,” he said of the Gillette Regional Water Supply Project. “Why aren’t we looking at making other people be a part of the system?”

“Gillette is phenomenally efficient” with its wells, he said, adding that as stewards of the taxpayers’ money, legislators should look at funding more regional water systems. He said it would make sense to develop more of them and link towns and their wells up to the same transmission line instead of having individual wells scattered around the state.

“Why should we keep spending huge amounts of money for less amounts of water?” he asked, comparing it to using six small trucks to make a delivery instead of one big truck.

Driskill said this isn’t something that can be done in the near future, but it’s a long-term solution. For now, he doesn’t know if the city of Gillette would be OK with more tie-ins to its regional system.

“One thing everybody’s got misconstrued with me is I’m opposed to the project,” Driskill said. “I absolutely am not. What I’m opposed to is them (the city) not willing to allow more partners to join in.”

By Nick Reynolds

Casper Star-Tribune

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CASPER — On Thursday, a new attack ad against GOP governor candidates Mark Gordon and Sam Galeotos hit the airwaves.

Sourced to a group called the Sensible Solutions Coalition, the group has no listing with the state of Wyoming nor with the Federal Elections Commission. Yet, despite laws in place meant to track this type of electioneering, no information was publicly available to find out who the ads were meant to help or who the group’s financial backers were, nor was there any way to divine some sort of strategic motivation behind the ads.

In tracking the origin of attack ads in Wyoming, you don’t have far to go before the trail you’re following goes cold. Searching for the Sensible Solutions Coalition on the Wyoming campaign finance website yields no results, as new political action committees — or PACs — are not required to announce their presence. You won’t find any information on the group filed with the secretary of state either, as groups incorporated outside of the state are exempt from oversight in the final month of an election.

If you do find out anything about a group, typically through a filing with the Federal Elections Commission or a state with tighter campaign finance laws, you’ll often notice very quickly that the group you are researching shares a treasurer with numerous other PACs under their purview, oftentimes with an address that leads you to a UPS store in another state.

Investigating the PACs in this year’s statewide race, you find similar stories — and numerous loopholes exploited — that allow campaigns to potentially operate in the shadows, with no means for private citizens or the media to track the interests behind them.

Sensible Solutions Coalition, whose only other operations took place in the final days of the 2016 election in New Hampshire, were not recorded with their secretary of state’s office, simply because registration with the state board of elections is not mandatory there. That PAC listed a P.O. box in Manchester, New Hampshire, as its address on various mailers and, with no records with the state to follow, it was impossible to find out who was behind the organization or the group’s motivations in attempting to affect the vote.

With their presence essentially hidden in New Hampshire, the group could conceivably proceed with its activities unabated in other states, assuming the laws are favorable there. Wyoming, it turns out, is one of those states that allows out-of-state groups to easily interlope in its elections.

Earlier this month, another group, Protecting Our Constitution, appeared in Wyoming, distributing mailers disparaging Galeotos and Gordon. While PACs in Wyoming are required to register with the state, this one – based in Colorado – was not, despite actively engaging in the state’s gubernatorial race. Why? Because the organization is a federal committee, and is registered with the Federal Elections Committee.

Though its mailers list a Wyoming address — at 30 N. Gould St. in Sheridan — a building that sits empty, acts as a mail-forwarding address for numerous LLCs, all incorporated anonymously through the same third-party agent, including an India-based computer consulting firm and an agricultural products seller, to name a few. The PAC also has no actual, physical presence in the state — necessary for registration — and the duration of its remote activities in-state is not in excess of 30 days, which would also require the PAC to register as a Wyoming PAC.

In short, the PAC has no legal requirement to register in Wyoming, despite actively participating in its elections.

Though Protecting Our Constitution is a registered PAC with the FEC, and is therefore subject to federal reporting requirements, it will be impossible for Wyoming voters to know who donated money to the PAC before a winner of the GOP primary is decided Tuesday. The first reports for PACs are not due until October, and the 24-hour notices of expenditures by those PACs are only required for federal races. Furthermore, the PAC only has to disclose whether it is supporting a candidate in its electioneering, or if it is opposing a candidate.

The answer to that, with targeted ads against Gordon and Galeotos, is already clear.

Wyoming has a reputation of lacking transparency, particularly around campaign finances. According to a 2015 investigation by the Center For Public Integrity, an investigative journalism outlet based in Washington, D.C., the state ranked 48th and 40th in political finance and electoral oversight transparency, respectively, and has some of the nation’s least restrictive laws on spending. Though there are contribution limits in place to individual candidates, PACs can spend unlimited amounts of funding on electioneering communications within the state.

Though that spending can be tracked in the week leading up to the election, if the PAC is registered in the state – albeit, 10 days after the election is over – PACs out of state do not have to disclose their spending with the Wyoming board of elections.

Conceivably, they would have to report their expenses to their home states. But with no registration requirement in New Hampshire, it is impossible to track the activities of the Sensible Solutions Coalition if no paper trail has been established. In the case of Protecting Our Constitution, its status as a federal PAC leaves it outside of the jurisdiction of Wyoming and Colorado, where campaign finance laws are highly restrictive.

In short, the lack of concrete laws around campaign finance in Wyoming leave the out-of-state PACs subject to little, if any, oversight in their activities here.

By Patrick Filbin

Gillette News Record

Via Wyoming News Exchange

GILLETTE — A handful of landowners in Crook County will be able to use water from the city of Gillette’s Madison Pipeline project after an agreement was hashed out Friday.

A resolution was passed by the Wyoming Water Development Commission and supported by the Select Water Committee that will allow five to six landowners to use existing water taps to tie into the Gillette Regional Water Supply project.

The two state boards were meeting in Gillette and helped solve an ongoing dispute between the city of Gillette and the landowners, represented by state Sen. Odgen Driskill.

To use Madison water, the Crook County landowners will have to pay for the build-out of a pipeline to connect their taps to the Madison.

The solution comes after nearly a year of complaints, discussions and disputes between a handful of Crook County landowners and the city of Gillette before and after Driskill came up with an amendment to the 2018 Omnibus Water Bill, which was approved by the Legislature. That amendment prompted the city to refuse $4.2 million for the continuation of the Regional Extension Project.

However, even though a tentative solution is on the table, there are still some disagreements when it comes to what landowners in Crook County will get as a part of the deal.

What was agreed to

Harry LaBonde Jr., director of the Wyoming Water Development Office, clarified some key aspects of the dispute during the Select Water Committee and Water Development Commission joint meeting Friday morning.

A strong point of contention for the city about Driskill’s amendment was that if the city allowed Madison water to be used for livestock, it would have to send back or forfeit all of the state money that it has already spent on the $217 million project.

That is not the case.

LaBonde and State Engineer Rick Deuell said livestock water use is allowed under the city of Gillette’s water rights.

At Friday’s meeting, Deuell clarified that under “municipal use,” Gillette’s water rights allow a number of municipal uses of water that can include livestock, as long as the municipality agrees to it.

“There is not a water rights issue with regard to providing water to folks in Crook County,” LaBonde said.

LaBonde said he will write a letter to the city outlining that if it allows some Crook County residents to use water for livestock — at the same rate, quantity levels and all other rules that Gillette residents are subject to — Gillette does not need to pay the state back any of the money used to build the project.

That letter, along with a letter from the State Engineer’s Office clarifying the water rights issue, “should clear the way for the city to enter into water rights service agreements with those landowners along the pipeline in Crook County,” LaBonde said.

While all sides agreed Friday, nothing can happen immediately.

Gillette City Administrator Patrick Davidson said those Crook County residents can’t have access to Madison water until they agree that Gillette can discharge pump-tested water from wells 11 and 12.

“Assuming that the landowners allow the discharge of water from 11 and 12 on their property, the city will provide — on a temporary basis — water to those affected ranchers for purposes of domestic and livestock use,” Davidson said.

He added that a time period has not been discussed for how long those landowners will have access to Madison water.

After Friday’s meeting, Driskill seemed relieved that there finally is a resolution within reach.

“This is 100 percent, to the letter, what the initial request was a year ago,” he said, referring to an original plan he had proposed that would provide a certain number of emergency taps for landowners before his “punitive” 2018 amendment was passed.

“If we would have done this a year ago, there would have been no amendment (and would have) avoided this all,” he said.

Mayor Louise Carter-King said no water lines could be put in place until wells 11 and 12 are ready to pump.

She said she felt Friday’s meeting went OK for the city, but wondered why so many Select Water Committee members were talking about emergency water situations while it doesn’t seem to her the landowners are in emergency situations.

Still, she was adamant about the solution being a temporary one until Crook County could put together its own water district.

Carter-King added that the agreement shouldn’t create headaches for the city or set a bad precedent because she doesn’t believe it’s a permanent solution.

“I was glad we were able to come to some kind of solution and all be in the same room for a change,” Carter-King said.

It’s still unclear who in Crook County will need water right away.

Mike Cole, the city’s utilities director, said there are 11 inactive water taps in Crook County. There also are five active taps that use Madison water and pay for it.

Cole estimated that one landowner “needs the water tomorrow,” two others will likely need water by the end of the year and that two or three will need water in the near future.

Crook County landowner Ivan Cranston said he spent about $100,000 to drill new water wells after his went dry about a year ago. He suspects work on the Regional Water Supply project caused his well to dry up although that hasn’t been proven.

Minnie Williams is another landowner who had her wells recently go dry.

Two other landowners who spoke at Friday’s meeting were Joey Kanode and Matt Wood. Most of Kanode’s issues are with reclamation efforts by contractors hired by the city. The same is true of Wood, who is Driskill’s son-in-law.

It is not known yet if Kanode or Wood would be among the handful of landowners to take advantage of the new deal.

A conference call is scheduled for this week to finalize plans and put the agreement into writing. The call is expected to include the city of Gillette, some of the affected landowners and a representative from each the Select Water Committee and the Wyoming Water Development Commission.

The agreement is expected to lay out an immediate solution for the landowners and a longer-term solution for the water discharge issue.

“The problem now is landowner approval for discharge,” Driskill said. “They’ve got a problem with that. I’m going to try to help (the city) with that, but they have to be nice to me.”

Preliminary reports have found that the wells are adequately sealed and not behind the problems those landowners have experienced, Cole said prior to Friday’s meeting.

He added that the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has given the city permission to proceed with wells 11 and 12 and that they should be up and running by the end of September.

“The reality is, regardless of whatever agreements or discussion points we have today, it sets that road map moving forward,” Davidson said. “It doesn’t instantaneously give water (to the landowners). We need consent to discharge water to get M11 and M12 online. That’s the real linchpin in trying to make this project work.”

By Chrissy Suttles

Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — A proposed wind energy project to power northern Colorado communities would be operated on public and private Laramie County land.

The Roundhouse Renewable Energy Project would deliver up to 150 megawatts of energy to more than 70,000 households in Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Estes Park, Colorado, annually.

A total of 75 turbines, managed by Utah-based Enyo Renewable Energy, would be built on 30,000 acres of land just north of the Wyoming-Colorado border, southwest of Cheyenne. The power would then be sold to Platte River Power Authority, a Colorado-based energy company.

It would become one of northern Colorado’s largest sources of wind power, tripling what Platte River now uses, according to project documents.

In addition to turbines, an above-ground, 80- to 100-foot transmission line would carry power from the wind farm to Rawhide Energy Station near Wellington, Colorado.

The project is expected to establish 250 temporary construction jobs and 10 full-time jobs but, because project representatives were not available for comment, it is unclear how many of those jobs will benefit Wyoming’s economy. After completion, ranchers would resume using the property for grazing.

Total project costs have not yet been identified, but the U.S. Department of Energy estimates commercial-scale turbines can cost up to $4 million after installation.

To move forward, the company must present the project to a number of planning departments in Fort Collins for recommendation and approval by the Fort Collins City Council, as well as the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s industrial siting council.

Rob Godby, director of the Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy at the University of Wyoming, said it’s not atypical for companies outside of Wyoming to utilize its wind potential.

“Wyoming has actually built its energy infrastructure to export most of the electricity produced here,” he said. “The wind resource here is really good; the wind blows more often and more steadily than many other places in the country, and that’s why we have always touted it as a development tool.”

Another reason Colorado communities may use Wyoming’s energy is its diverse weather patterns. Wyoming sees wind flow generally different than that of the western plains, where many of Colorado’s existing farms are built.

“There is a benefit to diversifying your sources of wind,” Godby said. “It turns out Wyoming wind sources are complementary to Colorado winds. They tend to peak at different times of the day and fill in some of those gaps.”

Godby said much of the wind energy developed in Wyoming is outsourced to other states, and that the economic benefit is not sacrificed.

“Most of our wind generation in the state has been built to export, just like most of our coal generation has been built to export,” he said. “Whether we are selling it to Wyomingites or Coloradans, we don’t really care. There is economic benefit in terms of additional income, additional jobs and additional tax revenues.”

Wyoming’s economy has long been dependent on fossil fuel taxes, and the state introduced a tax on power-generated wind resources in 2012 – $1 per megawatt-hour.

Milton Fatosh, an economist in Los Angeles, has studied Wyoming’s wind energy tax after the proposed Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project, a 1,000-turbine wind farm in Carbon County to power California communities, made headlines.

The state’s tax has brought in about $4 million in annual revenue since.

“With what I know about Wyoming’s wind tax and the size of this Colorado plan, the state would see some positive economic impact,” he said. “In Wyoming, where diversification is desperately needed in the energy sector, it would help financially through tax collections from the state, and other companies may look to build down the road as well, which is an additional benefit.”

If approved, the project would be completed by 2020.

By Colin Tiernan

Douglas Budget

Via Wyoming News Exchange

DOUGLAS — Hunters fear the loss of prime hunting grounds. Residents worry about the safety implications on Boxelder Road and the sheer eyesore it will cause.

Dave Banzhaf doesn’t want to live next to it.

“I’m not interested in having a hard rock gravel pit right on my property line,” Banzhaf said. “If they put a gravel pit in there I probably couldn’t give my property away.”

Banzhaf’s house is located in the middle of the Duncan Ranch, south of town. He says that when he bought the house his understanding had been that the ranch would be preserved for agricultural and recreational purposes. The Duncan Ranch is state land, and adjoined by county property.

The Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments has leased the land to Knife River, a construction company based in Casper, for sand and gravel exploration. According to Banzhaf, exploration for the project began a little over a year ago. While Knife River still has to receive a host of permits from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, the Wyoming Department of Transportation and Converse County, it appears likely the company will receive them if the project is greenlighted by Knife.

Assistant Director of Wyoming State Lands and Investments Jason Crowder described the project as “likely to reach production.”

Petition Begins

With the memory of the Hackalo Quarry – a gravel pit that scarred a large swath of the mountainside south of I-25 several years ago – still fresh in his mind, avid hunter Chris Lamb has led a petition against this gravel pit. According to Lamb, the petition already has more than 600 signatures.

“We’re well on our way,” Lamb said.

Banzhaf mentioned that the majority of the signees live along Boxelder Road, but individuals from Rolling Hills and Casper have also signed.

Lamb said that he has only spoken to one person who supported the development of the pit.

“Everyone else who I’ve talked to or spoken to about it thinks it’s a horrible idea,” he said.

Lamb explained that the public land that makes up the Duncan Ranch is “phenomenal” hunting ground and important mule deer wintering habitat. He fears that the size of the project will destroy that habitat. The largest of the three proposed pits is 547 acres.

“It’s state land that we’re going to lose,” Lamb said. “The general public and non-landowners, we’re losing access to land every year by the thousands of acres . . . We’re just losing opportunity for any recreational use, not only hunting, but anything.”

For Lamb, the gravel pit makes it harder for those who don’t live on hunting grounds to get into the field.

“It’s not fair for the non-ranching community, for the guys like me who don’t own a ranch that are depending on Wyoming state land, BLM, National Forest, to be able to go out and hunt and fish,” he said. “I mean we’re losing it fast.”

The Office of State Lands and Investment’s job is to generate income on state land, while maintaining other uses like recreation, Assistant Director Jason Crowder explained, but he doesn’t feel that the pit will take away an excessive amount of public access lands. In fact, he believes that public access has increased over the years.

“While it (hunting) may not be able to happen on that specific acre that’s being produced, we’re not closing down the whole ranch to recreation,” he said. “Not only that, we’re not contemplating that Knife River will be developing the whole ranch at once, it’s likely that they’ll be doing maybe up to five acres at a time.”

Safety Concerns

Residents also worry that the heavy loads necessitated by the gravel pit will make the road dangerous for two reasons: Firstly, Boxelder Road is a school bus route. Secondly, it’s ill-equipped to handle large vehicles.

Banzhaf doesn’t feel the road will work for the trucks.

“The first three miles of (Boxelder Road) are so narrow, it forces you off the pavement,” Banzhaf said. “It’s too narrow . . . That’s going to be a real safety hazard in our opinion.”

Lamb concurs.

“The road is already crap,” Lamb said. “It’s not in good shape at all.”

The Converse County commissioners agreed that a bridge on Boxelder is too narrow and will have to be rebuilt if the project proceeds.

Banzhaf insists the road would still be unsafe.

TO: Wyoming Media Outlets and Reporters

FROM: Will Dinneen, Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office

RE: Election Results on Primary Election Night & A Candidate Withdrawal

Members of the Wyoming Media:

Tomorrow is Primary Election Day. Already, 32,147 ballots have been cast throughout Wyoming through mailed and in-person absentee voting. Roughly 90% of those absentee ballots sent by Wyoming’s county clerks have been returned.

Before I briefly provide an explanation of how election numbers are gathered, processed, and reported by Wyoming’s county clerks and the Secretary of State’s Office, I wanted to bring to your attention a candidate withdrawal that has occurred. At 2:53 p.m today (Monday, August 20th), Charlie Hardy withdrew his application for the Republican Party nomination for U.S. Senate.  W.S. 22-5-401(e) reads in part: “…if a candidate withdraws after the ballots are finalized and approved for printing by a county clerk…the county clerk shall…post a notice at each polling place announcing that the named candidate is not the party’s nominee for the office designated.”

As Mr. Hardy was a candidate in a statewide race and because Mr. Hardy’s withdrawal from the U.S. Senate race occurred less than 24 hours before polls open tomorrow, I wanted to provide you with notification of his withdrawal.       

Now, to the matter of primary election results. After the polls close at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow, election judges at every polling place or vote center begin to securely relay unofficial election results to their respective county clerk. Once 100% of a county’s precincts have reported results to their county clerk, those same results are then securely relayed to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Election Division. 

Election results received from counties will be posted on the Secretary of State’s website as “Unofficial Results” alongside official election results from past Wyoming elections at: http://soswy.state.wy.us/Elections/Docs/2018/2018PrimaryResults.aspx

The best way to obtain unofficial precinct-level results on election night may be through a county’s website. A list of Wyoming’s 23 county clerks and their respective websites may be found here: https://soswy.state.wy.us/Elections/Docs/WYCountyClerks.pdf.

Election results are unofficial until the State Canvassing Board meets to certify the results of the primary election on Wednesday, August 29th – eight days after the 2018 Primary Election.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any further questions you may have concerning the posting of election results or with other questions about the election process. 

Thank you,   

—

Will Dinneen

Public Information and Communications Officer

Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office

(307) 777-5365

E-Mail to and from me, in connection with the transaction

of public business, is subject to the Wyoming Public Records

Act and may be disclosed to third parties.

By Seth Klamann

Casper Star-Tribune

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CASPER — Wyoming experienced a 33 percent drop in overdose deaths between January 2017 and the beginning of this year, state and federal reports found, the highest drop in the nation.

But health officials are hesitant to say Wyoming has solved its drug problem.

“We don’t want to attribute it to a trend because we don’t know it’s going to continue,” state Department of Health spokeswoman Kim Deti said. “We’ve had those ups and downs before.”

Wyoming had 91 such deaths by the start of 2017, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, compared to 60 as of January 2018. That tracks close to what the Health Department recorded — 94 and 60 — during a similar time period.

Three of Wyoming’s neighbors saw similar drops over the 12-month period. Montana experienced a 6.7 decline, South Dakota an 8 percent drop, and Utah just under 1 percent.

But Nebraska had a 33 percent jump between January 2017 and 2018, the highest in the country. Colorado had a 7.5 percent increase, and Idaho inched up by 0.4 percent.

A spokeswoman for the CDC said the report is a rolling total updated each month, corresponding to a previous 12-month period. So this report stretched from January 2017 to January ‘18. July’s CDC report examined December 2016 to December 2017, and so on.

But Deti said the numbers basically tracked her department’s year-end totals.

The figures represent all overdoses, not just a specific class of drugs, like opioids. But prescription drugs represent the largest share. In 2017, there were 40 deaths related to medications, compared to 11 for illicit drugs, eight for a combination of drugs, and one unspecified. In 2016, 53 of the 94 overdoses were from prescription drugs.

That unspecified number is important, Deti said, because it shows coroners are gaining the ability to correctly test for specific kinds of drug overdoses. In some previous years, the number of unspecified deaths was as high as 55 percent.

The CDC report also says Wyoming’s reported deaths are underreported because of incomplete data.

Deti said she wasn’t sure where that came from; she said Wyoming has been working hard to ensure specific reporting. Health officials have previously said coroners here can be inconsistent — because of a lack of testing, for instance — in death certificates and causes of death.

Why exactly Wyoming has experienced this drop — particularly when Nebraska, for instance, has seen significant jumps — is unclear, Deti said. One explanation is increased awareness of drugs like opioids. Another is Wyoming’s low population, which can swing statistics like this significantly from year to year. That population has also been declining in recent years, in the wake of Wyoming’s economic downturn.

“We can’t tell you for sure why deaths went down,” she said. “We just can’t.”

Another explanation is the increase availability of narcan and Naloxone, opioid antagonists that can stop overdoses. But Deti again cautioned against using that metric alone — the antagonists’ use doesn’t necessarily mean the patient had an overdose.

Wide swings in Wyoming’s overdose totals are common, though none as drastic as this. There were 95 in 2015, and 107 in 2014. In 2004, there were 39, and 2005 had 49 such deaths. But the data roughly corresponds with the spike in opioid deaths across the country.

Deti cautioned against applying what’s happening here to what’s happening elsewhere, particularly in places where overdoses are particularly bad.

“There are some parallels to what’s going on nationally,” she said. “But what’s not going on, what’s not paralleled are areas getting hit the worst.”

By Sheila McGuire

Uinta County Herald

Via Wyoming News Exchange

EVANSTON — WyoSayNo, the statewide group that has organized to fight the proposal for an ICE detention center in Uinta County, wrapped up a series of protest events that have been held throughout the summer with a stop in Evanston on Sunday, Aug. 19. 

Approximately 100 people stopped by the Fiesta de Familias at Hamblin Park throughout the evening to offer their support for immigrant families and others opposed to the proposal. U.S. Senate candidate Gary Trauner and House of Representatives candidate Travis Helm returned to Evanston for the fiesta as well. 

A pair of documentary filmmakers from New York were also present, having been commissioned by Netflix to create a documentary on immigration policy and detention centers. 

The two largely remained in the background filming for a portion of the evening but did ask anyone who did not want to be filmed to raise their hand so they could be avoided. 

The pair spoke with several attendees to set up meetings later in the week and will be at the work session meeting with the Uinta County Commissioners this week. 

Fiestas have also been held in Laramie, Cheyenne, Gillette, Riverton, Jackson, Cody, Powell and in Utah throughout the summer. 

Event organizers said the purpose is to show unified statewide opposition to the detention center and to support those in Uinta County who oppose the proposal. 

Kortney Clark, working with Uinta County Say No, opened the fiesta by listing six reasons local people are opposed to the proposal. She said Evanston is about community and family and residents do not support a facility that would take families and people out of the community.

Clark said Management and Training Corporation (MTC, the private company behind the proposal) is “a Utah-based business that Utah will not do business with,” and asked why Uinta County would want a facility that Utah has declined. 

She also said that, regardless of how MTC labels the facility, “this is a prison” where people are locked up for a civil offense. She listed issues with MTC in particular, stating there have been multiple court cases and lawsuits against the company for human rights abuses, including rape, and asked again why Uinta County would want to welcome such a company. 

Clark addressed the proposed location of the detention center next to the Bear River State Park, where visitors and locals stop to view wildlife and recreate. 

“As a friend of mine asked,” she said, “who will ever stop to see the elk and the bison next to a prison?” 

Finally, she said Evanston is a community where everyone celebrates the spirit of community at cultural events such as Cinco de Mayo and Chinese New Year, the Celtic Festival and the Bluegrass Festival. 

She said, “We even celebrate beer with Brew Fest,” before saying an ICE detention center is not what the community is about. 

Following Clark’s remarks, Sabrina King, with the Wyoming ACLU and WyoSayNo, spoke and said the opposition campaign had started as “15 people in a cold room” and has grown to include hundreds of people around the state. 

She said she believes the campaign has garnered enough support that it is “inevitable that we will win.” 

King said there are numerous people in the local community who oppose the facility and WyoSayNo aims to show people that the rest of Wyoming is with those locals who “know it’s not good for the community.” 

She said the opposition to the proposed detention center is part of a broader national campaign to end civil ICE detention entirely because people are being locked up for something that is not a criminal offense adding that historically, “we don’t put people in jail for wanting to move.”

Antonio Serrano, WyoSayNo and ACLU organizer and founder of Juntos Wyoming, an immigrant family advocacy group, said he was born and raised in Wyoming and loves the state. Serrano got personal and said his father came to the U.S. when he was 14 years old and “crossed that desert looking for a better life.” 

Serrano said he had made two visits to an ICE detention center in Eloy, Arizona, and had the opportunity to hear the stories of detainees at that facility. Serrano said he heard of lack of mental health services resulting in suicide and a case of a pregnant woman losing her baby due to lack of healthcare. 

He said he returned this year and his feelings were different because he’s now afraid such a facility could end up in his home state. 

“I heard a lot of sad stories and I’ve seen a lot of tears,” he said. “We need people in Evanston to speak up and stop this, and we’ll be right here with you for support.” 

Following Serrano’s comments, Evanston resident Alfredo Parra stepped up and asked to speak. Parra said he wanted to tell the local Latino community to show up and speak out, even if they’re afraid. 

“Even if you’re scared, be here,” he said, adding that it’s important for Latinos to “show the community how valuable Latinos are” to multiple local businesses and organizations. 

In addition to the public comments, the fiesta featured food and music, along with piñatas and activities for kids. 

Attendees were also asked to paint their hands to leave handprints on banners reading, “Evanston Dice No,” and “Wyoming Dice No,” Spanish for “Evanston Says No” and “Wyoming Says No,” respectively, as a sign of support for the campaign. 

Handprint-covered banners were on display from the other communities in which fiestas were held over the summer. 

At the end of the evening, Serrano said he was very pleased with the turnout, especially with the number of Latinos in attendance because he believes many are afraid to speak out. He said the WyoSayNo campaign will continue with the “next steps,” but declined to elaborate on what those steps will entail. 

He did say, “It’s an honor to do what I do and help immigrant families, but we need Latinos in Evanston and Uinta County to stand with me. I’ll be right here with you, but we need you. Be brave, even when it’s hard.”

By The Riverton Ranger

Via Wyoming News Exchange

RIVERTON — Fremont County officials are discussing plans to sever their relationship with Bank of the West after the company announced plans to stop investing in oil and gas companies. 

On Friday, Aug. 10, Fremont County Treasurer Scott Harnsberger sent out an e-mail to Fremont County Commissioners Clarence Thomas, Jennifer McCarty, Larry Allen, Ray Price and Travis Becker informing them that the bank recently had publicized plans to no longer invest in companies whose main activity is exploring, producing, distributing, marketing or trading oil and gas from shale and/or tar sands.  

The bank also has decided to stop financing coal mines or coal-fired power plants that are not actively involved in the “energy transition,” wrote Harnsberger. 

“This concerns me,” Harnsberger wrote in the e-mail. “I have been in contact with Bank of the West to let them know that Fremont County benefits tremendously from these industries … that support the economy and (are a) major contributor to Wyoming’s tax base.” 

If the bank remains steadfast in its decision, Harnsberger said he would find a different bank for Fremont County to use “that will provide support for those industries.” 

“Although the timing is not the best, I have reached out to a couple of local banks to begin looking at moving our funds,” Harnsberger wrote. 

He noted that he has been “very satisfied” with the county’s relationship with Bank of the West in the past. 

“I have been in contact with BOW Wyoming representatives, who are working to help me better understand their position,” he said. 

Becker responded the same day indicating that he shares Harnsberger’s concerns. Becker said he asked Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese “what it will take to find another bank that will support the county.” 

“I understand this is not a local decision and may not reflect the local branches, but we certainly should do business with those who want our business,” he wrote, adding, “Scott, I support and applaud your efforts.” 

Price also thanked Harnsberger in an e-mail response Aug. 10, agreeing with Becker that “we need to take our business elsewhere.” 

Later the same day McCarty wrote, “We should find another bank ASAP.” 

Allen had the same opinion. 

“We should find a banking institution that supports Fremont County and the people who reside here,” he wrote. 

Wyoming Treasurer Mark Gordon also plans to terminate the state’s relationship with the bank, according to published reports.

May 23, 1942–June 30, 2018

Judy Burleson Choate of Longtown, Okla., passed away peacefully at her home on June 3, 2018. She attended school in Newcastle and graduated in 1960, later moving to Oklahoma. 

She is survived by her husband, Dean, two daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

Judy was preceded in death by her son, Robbie; her parents, Newell and Lois Burleson; and her brothers, Bill and Kenneth of Newcastle.