By Nick Reynolds

Casper Star-Tribune

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CASPER — A former national committeeman for the Wyoming Democratic Party says he was forced to resign from party leadership last month after unspecified accusations of harassment were levied against him.

Jon Gardzelewski, a lecturer in the school of Civil And Architectural Engineering at the University of Wyoming, stepped down from his role as committeeman after being accused of non-sexual harassment by fellow Democrats. Elected to the post in 2016, Gardzelewski was one of four members of the state party to represent Wyoming on the national stage, and has attended events with the Democratic National Committee on the party’s behalf.

Wyoming Democratic Party Chairman Joe Barbuto, in a statement, said that Lucas Fralick, of Gillette, will replace Gardzelewski in the role. The term ends 2020.

One of the more progressive members of the Wyoming party, Gardzelewski was quoted in a piece in Politico by liberal pundit Bill Scher decrying the involvement of corporate money in deciding elections.

“This last election cycle, there was a fire lit under the voters of the American people [who] supported a message to get money out of politics,” he said in 2017. We’re going to need them… We need the votes a lot more than we need a little bit of corporate money.”

Reached by phone Thursday afternoon, Gardzelewski said he was “forced” to resign over information he insisted was false. Saying someone has been trying to “make this a story for months,” he claimed a similar story was peddled to a Wyoming media outlet in December, but did not move forward. He added that when confronted by the party, they declined to explain to him the nature of the allegations, which he said prevented him from challenging them.

“They intentionally refused to [give me information], to protect the other person from retaliation,” he said. “To me that’s an unjust process. They intentionally did not give me a chance to defend myself. I asked from day one for an investigation. I’ve been attacked by somebody.”

“I don’t think the story is going to come out well for anyone,” he added.

In a letter of resignation to the state party on Aug. 25, Gardzelewski denied all allegations of any harassment, saying instead he himself was a victim of harassment and that the party was undergoing an “unjust and clearly prejudiced process” to remove him.

According to documents and internal emails provided by Gardzelewski to the Star-Tribune, his resignation comes after nine months of internal strife within the party and numerous allegations against him that were previously not made public. In numerous letters to the party drafted over the past year, Gardzelewski also outlines a philosophical divide between him and former members of the party over his support of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. In November, a social media post made by a female member of the committee highlighted what was characterized as “maltreatment” from an unnamed male colleague within the progressive caucus of the party, Gardzelewski wrote.

He brought the post to party leadership saying he “felt targeted” and said, while he had used informal language in professional conversations like, for instance, the phrase “WTF,” he would provide full transcripts of texts and emails to party leadership for inspection. Several weeks later, two additional members of the party called for his resignation on similar grounds.

Several months later, a new set of allegations accusing him of “Derelict of Duty” for missing meetings relating to personal issues, and “Harassment of Central Committee Members” were made. In a letter contesting these claims sent to party leadership, Gardzelewski wrote he did not understand the allegations levied against them because, with no names or specifics, he could not provide the context needed to answer to them.

“A person accused has a right to defend themselves against accusation,” he wrote. “A person accused has have a right to understand what they have been accused of. I do not know what I have been accused of, and cannot reasonably defend myself.”

He also added that, in meetings, he found “on several occasions that vocalizing a difference of opinion can be met with the harsh accusations such as ‘abuse’ and ‘sexism,’” adding that he found efforts to mediate the issue were “met with fierce retaliation.”

allegations levied against them because, with no names or specifics, he could not provide the context needed to answer to them.

“A person accused has a right to defend themselves against accusation,” he wrote. “A person accused has have a right to understand what they have been accused of. I do not know what I have been accused of, and cannot reasonably defend myself.”

He also added that, in meetings, he found “on several occasions that vocalizing a difference of opinion can be met with the harsh accusations such as ‘abuse’ and ‘sexism,’” adding that he found efforts to mediate the issue were “met with fierce retaliation.”

By Patrick Filbin

Gillette News Record

Via Wyoming News Exchange

GILLETTE — Miranda Miller’s home is slowly crumbling.

She started to notice it a few months ago when she first saw a large crack in her living room ceiling.

“My house is being pulled apart,” she said.

There are nails in her hallways that are being pressed out of the drywall and are visible through the paint due to strain.

Her whole hand fits between where her concrete patio ends and backyard lawn begins, which she believes is a sign that the backyard lawn is sinking and separating from the foundation.

There is a large, 3-foot high crack in the wall of her garage that wasn’t there a year ago.

She also has sanded off the tops of the doors in her house so they will shut properly. Now those same doors won’t line up with their metal latches because the house has moved significantly in the last month.

Miller said she and her family were not warned by anyone about these issues.

“I want someone to take responsibility,” she said. “I want someone to take my house back that should have never been built.”

Miller lives on Goldenrod Avenue in the Iron Horse Subdivision, a part of Gillette that is no stranger to foundation issues, lawsuits and foreclosures.

The city of Gillette has been keeping a close eye on nine homes in the subdivision that either need to be repaired or torn down.

Some, like those at 3405 and 3407 Goldenrod Ave., need to be demolished.

Others on Lonigan Circle can be saved. Two homes in the subdivision were bought recently and work is being done to lift the foundations to make them livable again.

There also are several houses in the subdivision — which has more than 100 homes — that show no sign of structural issues.

In 2015, a group of homeowners in the Iron Horse subdivision banded together to file a lawsuit against builders, developers, engineers and a number of other companies that they blame for building a subdivision where they shouldn’t have.

In the lawsuit, the homeowners asserted that those companies or individuals were responsible for issues involving cracking, sinking and settling of their houses and the street.

The businesses involved included MRJ Development, JMB Homes, Brent Thumma, P.E. and Centennial Collaborative.

The civil complaint requested at least $50,000 for each of seven homes damaged. The homeowners all bought the houses between 2010 and 2014.

The houses seemed sound when they bought them, but shortly after moving in, the group of neighbors started experiencing problems, according to the complaint.

The complaint said the foundations were not designed with drain tiles and sump pumps to protect them from moisture. The properties are located in areas without suitable storm drainage and structures to prevent storm-water runoff from unsold and unfinished lots on the street.

The complaint also said the houses were not built to account for natural conditions, including slopes, soils, drainage springs and seeps. It alleged that soil was not properly compacted under and adjacent to the street and sidewalks, under the foundation for the houses and in utility trenches.

All of those who filed suit had experienced significant shifting in the floors, walls, ceilings and foundations of their houses. That caused damage to living areas, crawl spaces, garages, driveways, yards and fences, resulting in health and safety risks to the families living in the homes, according to the complaint.

The complaint came after the group of homeowners and others from the Iron Horse Subdivision petitioned the city of Gillette to add additional drainage in the area, which was partially prompted by flooding in the street earlier that summer. The effort was unsuccessful, but the city was not named in the lawsuit.

Later that year, the city agreed to fix the pavement on Goldenrod Avenue to hopefully stop the flooding issues at the intersection. The city ended up spending about $325,000 on concrete improvements.

Attorney RT Cox, who represented the homeowners along with Ryan McGrath, said the group settled with all of the defendants for an undisclosed amount.

Three years later, Miller is experiencing similar issues.

She tried to sell her home when the 2015 lawsuit was in progress and when her husband was scheduled for a transfer with the railroad, but the career move never happened.

The Iron Horse subdivision is about a mile west of Highway 14-16 along Echeta Road and near Overlook Park.

Mike Cole, the city of Gillette’s utilities director, said most of the homes in the subdivision were built from 2008 to 2011.

The subdivision went through “a fairly strenuous review” by independent engineers and eventually was approved by the city, he said.

Those tests consisted of engineering studies, soil tests, geotechnical surveying and a number of other reviews that were eventually signed off by either one or multiple companies that were mentioned in the lawsuit.

City Administrator Patrick Davidson, who was not working with the city at the time, said it’s not the city’s responsibility to do “spot checks” or secondary tests when a subdivision is being built.

“We don’t second guess on the plans that come before us from private engineers,” Davidson said.

Because the engineering studies had the approval of the private engineer, they were approved by the city.

All of those reports should have been made available to homeowners if the home was bought new or through a real estate agent if it was bought later, Cole said.

“That area was put under a high degree of scrutiny,” Cole said.

Cox believes a lot of the fault can be put on the city for the issues in the subdivision.

To build a subdivision in the city of Gillette, there are certain requirements that need to be met. One is that the slope of a street can only be so steep.

Before the subdivision was built, Goldenrod had about a 6-7 percent grade, Cox said.

The topography of the subdivision slopes down to the southeast toward Goldenrod Avenue and Lonigan Circle.

To get around that, soil was taken from the top of the hill and put at the bottom of the hill to soften the slope, Cox said.

After the homeowners settled with the defendants, Cox helped hire a private engineering firm to conduct a study on the subdivision to find out what went wrong.

According to the report — done by a company called Strata — it was determined that developers had cut about 13 feet of soil near Kilkenny Circle (at the top of the hill) and about 6-8 feet of “fill soil” was placed along Goldenrod Avenue and the lots on the south side of the street.

That means there was soil on the bottom of the hill that was not “native” to the area, as Cox put it.

When the homes were built, they were built on softer soil that had just been moved and when it rained over time, that soil shrunk and shifted like wet sand, according to the report.

Cox believes all of that should have been reviewed by the city’s engineering department at the time.

“Approving that grading plan was nuts,” Cox said. “The engineering study, the grading plan, it was all rubber-stamped by the city just because it had an engineer’s stamp on it.”

Cox also said the city could have avoided recent issues by installing a new drainage system. At the time, residents in the area petitioned the City Council to add more drains to prevent future flooding.

Cox said he collected 62 signatures from homeowners and presented it to city officials.

“They refused to do anything,” Cox said, adding that many of the officials he met with no longer work for the city.

The problem, Cox said, is there are only three storm drains on Goldenrod Avenue and eight on Lonigan Circle. None of them are on the bottom of the hill where heavy rainfall comes down the steep hill of Kilkenny.

Instead of adding more storm drains, the city opted to spend about $325,000 on street improvements.

Ken Rogers, the city’s chief building inspector, told the Gillette City Council recently that flooding is still an issue.

Davidson said more street repairs to Goldenrod Avenue are scheduled for budget year 2021.

Miller wants someone to be accountable.

“I think the city shouldn’t have let them build here,” she said. “They should have done more research.”

At this point, Cole said, there isn’t much the city can do for homeowners.

Davidson has met with Miller about the issues she is having. He said the city is keeping a close watch on flooding and has made it clear to the streets division to monitor the area before winter.

The two homes on Goldenrod Avenue that are falling into each other will soon be demolished. Two different banks own the homes and one already has pulled a demolition permit.

Miller has also reached out to her two City Council representatives, Dan Barks and Shawn Neary, but there’s only so much an elected official can do.

Miller wants someone to take the blame for the houses that can still be saved.

“This is a flood area,” Miller said. “These houses should have never been built.”

“I really think the city let those folks down,” Cox said.

For Miller, her choices are also limited at this point, and she doesn’t put all the blame on the city or on the contractors.

“It looks like (the city) is moving quickly to get a plan for the streets, but that doesn’t help my house,” she said. “I could understand if this was a sinkhole affecting two homes, but this is an entire neighborhood. This isn’t Mother Nature. This is someone’s fault.”

She’s thought about selling her house for what it is, taking a loss, moving on and building her credit back up.

Even that is a daunting task.

By Ramsey Scott

Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — Counties across the state are still waiting on millions of dollars in unpaid mineral production taxes, causing a cascade of underfunded governmental services.

A study by the Powder River Basin Resource Council that included 13 counties across the state found there’s more than $55 million in unpaid ad valorem taxes over the past 10 years. 

Laramie County was still owed $116,882.43, Sweetwater County was owed $910,792.09 and Carbon County had $10,386,688.94 in delinquent tax payments. Only Campbell County, missing $32,740,475.11, was owed more money than Sweetwater.

Hesid Brandow, a community organizer and the author of the study, said the causes for the delinquency are varied. Energy companies go bankrupt and tax payments go unfulfilled, energy-producing properties are sold and the tax debt doesn’t transfer, or banks that have loaned money to a bankrupt energy company get first right to any money during a bankruptcy. 

“Every treasurer I contacted felt like this is a dire situation,” Brandow said. “No one is happy with this, and everyone wants a solution.”

Brandow said the $55 million doesn’t take into account unpaid tax bills that have been outstanding for so long that counties have just written them off as lost.

Many of the problems center around when counties are paid their taxes verses when the state is paid. While state severance taxes are paid by energy companies on a monthly basis, counties typically have to wait an average of 18 months from the time the minerals are extracted for their payments. That time lag allows for all the issues that cause delinquent payments to manifest, Brandow said. 

But no matter the reason for the lack of payment, Brandow said the result is the same – counties being faced with significant budget challenges due to money that was budgeted but couldn’t be collected.

“It has had a big impact on us,” said Patricia Bentsen, Carbon County treasurer. “It’s a lot of money that’s not being collected.” 

Bentsen said the more than $10 million Carbon County never received meant cuts had to be made to schools and other services. And she doesn’t see any way for the county to ever resolve the outstanding debts. 

“We had a lot of it due to (company) bankruptcy. It’s affected our smaller outlying communities and greatly affected our school districts,” Bentsen said. “We can’t give money out we have not received.”

Changing when counties collect ad valorem taxes is one solution that is being considered by the Joint Revenue Interim Committee, which is set to discuss options on Sept. 21. Along with changing the timeline for payments, lawmakers will also discuss ideas like attaching tax debts to the property and changing the priority counties have in the bankruptcy process. 

Rep. Mike Madden, R-Buffalo, is chairman of the House Revenue Committee and said the interim committee would be going over every option thoroughly, including the ramifications for any change in the current policy. 

Madden said each solution could lead to other challenges. If county tax payments are synchronized with the state severance tax payments, during that first  year of the change, energy companies would be paying two years worth of tax bills in a single year. If counties are given priority over lenders when a company goes bankrupt, the investment made by banks and other lenders will be negatively affected. 

“I hope we can come up with some idea of a compromise that is palatable to the industry, as well as acceptable to the state. Anytime there’s compromise, both sides have to give a little bit,” Madden sad. 

While the unpaid taxes are significant hits to the counties, Madden also said they represent only a small percentage when compared to the amount the state and counties collect overall. The issue becomes more pronounced, though, when the energy market changes, like it did for the coal industry in 2016, and companies close up shop with outstanding tax debt.

By Heather Richards

Casper Star-Tribune

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CASPER — Wyoming’s largest power provider will not have to publish the cost of running its coal plants, despite environmental groups and state regulators pressing for that data to be made public, a judge in Washington decided Friday.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission had tried to force PacifiCorp – the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power – to release the economics of its coal fleet. The company has maintained that the data is confidential and could compromise its place in the open market for electricity.

The decision was a blow to groups like the Sierra Club, which has lobbied for that coal data in Oregon. The organization supports a transition to green energy, which includes shuttering the coal-fired power plants that currently provide about 30 percent of the country’s electricity mix.

Their central argument has been that coal is becoming increasingly more expensive to burn in comparison to wind and solar.

“While it’s unfortunate that the public won’t get a chance to see PacifiCorp’s analysis of the cost of their coal plants, state regulators who oversee the utility’s spending decisions already have,” said Sierra Club’s managing attorney, Gloria Smith, in a statement.

“There is growing evidence that PacifiCorp’s aging coal plants are more expensive to run than building cheaper, cleaner options like wind and solar, and that continued use of coal will mean higher electricity bills for the utility’s customers.”

The green pressure on PacifiCorp could have a significant impact on Wyoming. Four of the company’s plants are in the state and Wyoming coal feeds PacifiCorp plants.

Wyoming coal is cheap, particularly when the power plants are located nearby. But though the large surface mines of the Powder River Basin can be excavated at low cost, competition from renewable power has shifted the numbers. Coal is no longer the cheapest source of new generation, and construction of new coal plants has stalled in recent years.

As regional markets gain popularity and electricity is bought and sold rapidly according to what costs the least, coal may remain unpopular, experts note.

Sierra Club recently commissioned a study that compared the cost of the company’s coal plants, like Wyoming’s Jim Bridger plant, to open market electricity and renewables. Wyoming’s plants did not fare well. PacifiCorp has maintained that those plants serve a crucial purpose on their systems and that the Sierra Club study took too narrow a view of the economics of coal.

Still, as West Coast states make good on their promise to shed coal power from their grids, Wyoming may pay the price of coal.

PacifiCorp vice president Jeff Larsen testified before the Wyoming Joint Corporations Committee in May that Oregon would soon pay off its share of the coal fleet and both Washington and California could do the same. That means the weight of keeping those coal units burning into the future will fall to other places served by the company, such as Wyoming.

“What is Wyoming’s view of coal risk, (of) keeping coal plants viable and operational?” he asked. “I think that’s an issue that many [state] regulators are struggling with because they have an obligation to look at least cost.”

Of course, it’s not only cost to Wyoming electricity users that concerned lawmakers. They’re also worried about jobs in coal towns like Kemmerer and Glenrock.

By Daniel Bendtsen

Laramie Boomerang

Via Wyoming News Exchange

LARAMIE — The University of Wyoming hosted during the weekend the state’s first WyoHackathon, which was billed by blockchain entrepreneurs as a “thank-you” to the state for the five blockchain-related bills the Wyoming Legislature passed in March to spur a new software sector in the state.

During the weekend, several blockchain companies pledged various commitments to the state.

Robert MacInnis, founder of blockchain company ActiveAether, announced that he and the bulk of his New York-based company would be relocating to Jackson. MacInnis also said the company would donate $20,000 worth of computing power to UW’s computer science department.

In a surprise announcement that even took WyoHackathon’s organizer off-guard, Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne said his company plans to open a development office in the state.

Caitlin Long, co-founder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, organized the event after the passage of legislation that deregulated the state’s blockchain industry.

A 22-year veteran of Wall Street and president of blockchain startup Symbiont, Long expects the event to attract greater interest in the state from the roughly 300 software developers who competed in WyoHackathon.

“I think we just witnessed the birth of a software technology hub in southeast Wyoming,” she told the Laramie Boomerang.

Hackathons are sprint-like programming contests that often lead to software ideas that make it to mass markets. Some of Facebook’s most notable features got their start at hackathons.

UW’s inaugural Hackathon focused on blockchain technology, the emerging ledger technology that’s being embraced in banking and other industries.

Joseph Lubin, the billionaire co-founder of Ethereum, said there’s “no reason that the next Google can’t be built” in Laramie.

“The mechanisms we’re building will allow capital to flow very quickly to anywhere in the world,” he said.

With more than $100,000 worth of prizes, the event attracted software developers from around the world — including Shoshoni high schoolers and a senior Google engineer — to compete at UW’s Memorial Fieldhouse.

Coders worked throughout the night, occasionally napping on cots, to develop software that was ultimately judged Sunday afternoon by blockchain entrepreneurs.

Three gubernatorial candidates — Republican Mark Gordon, Democrat Mary Throne and Libertarian Lawrence Struempf — convened at WyoHackathon on Sunday to help judge the “Best for Wyoming Challenge,” which asked developers to create blockchain software that would benefit Wyomingites.

Gordon said the event is “hopefully the start of a great parade of Hackathons and new technology.”

As the event neared its end Sunday, the three candidates made their pitches to the roughly 300 developers in attendance on why Wyoming is best suited to become the next tech hub.

“We react quickly. When we hear an idea that we think we has merit … we can move very quickly to get the framework in place to get these technologies moving,” Throne said. “What really warms my heart is seeing all these students from the University of Wyoming. It really gives me hope for Wyoming that we will be able to retain some of this bright young talent in Wyoming.”

The 2018 legislation regarding blockchain technology rolled back the hard-line stance taken against crytocurrencies by Wyoming Money Transmitters Act.

The legislation moved Wyoming to the front of facilitating blockchain companies by providing them with a framework for companies to work within — like the bill that made Wyoming the first government to provide a definition for “utility tokens.”

Rep. Tyler Lindholm, R-Sundance, helped shepherd the five blockchain bills through the Legislature. He emceed the Hackathon and said Sunday he expects Tennessee to follow in Wyoming’s footsteps by considering the same five bills in 2019 that Wyoming’s already passed.

But that doesn’t mean Wyoming can’t stay ahead of the curve.

“(Tennessee’s) going to run our five bills from last year. That’s great. I’ve got eight more for this year,” Lindholm said.

Bills he’s planning to introduce in 2019 include a measure to allow state banks to accept both fiat and cryptocurrencies without needing insurance and oversight by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Wyoming’s emerging blockchain eminence is helped by the caution taken by federal regulators and other states.

Lindholm noted it was unusually bold for the Wyoming House to unanimously pass blockchain legislation that federal regulators had urged caution toward.

“We took their comments regarding (initial coin offerings) and we completely rejected them,” he said. “That’s a big deal for a group of people whose average age is 62. And why did we do that? Because Wyoming’s hungry.”

Lindholm told the software developers he hopes to “create a regulatory environment that matches your speed” and to get “the next Bill Gates into Wyoming.”

“Not only do we want to see you make it big, but we want to make it big with you,” he said.

Delaware was set to emerge as a major blockchain player under the former Gov. Jack Markell, who announced the Delaware Blockchain Initiative in 2016. After the election of Gov. John Carney later that year, the work to foster blockchain businesses in Delaware stagnated.

Long said the support of blockchain technology by Wyoming’s three gubernatorial candidates Sunday was an important signal to the industry that the 2018 blockchain legislation wasn’t just a “flash in the pan.”

“It matters that there’s a commitment to continuing blockchain in Wyoming,” she said.

Alanna Gombert, who served as a judge for WyoHackathon, became involved the lobbying effort for the 2018 legislation shortly after similar bills were killed in the Delaware General Assembly.

At the time, it was apparent Wyoming was the most likely to pass blockchain legislation and Gombert said she was impressed by how open state legislators were to the idea.

“On a federal level, they don’t care. They’re just looking for donations half the time,” she said. “Wyoming’s very different. They’re genuinely interested and they work across party lines.”

Gombert is the chief revenue officer for MetaX, a blockchain company that works on digital advertising.

Even though Wyoming’s blockchain laws are just six months old, Gombert said she’s already seen the benefits the legislation has had.

“It’s already happening,” she said. “I spend a lot more time in Wyoming that I ever would have before.”

And while the blockchain efforts will pay dividends for the state economy, it will also be a template for the rest of the U.S., she said.

“For the time in the U.S., there’s a definition of utility tokens on the books,” she said. “Wyoming for us is a precedent and that’s so important.”

By Ramsey Scott

Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE – The method Wyoming uses to figure the number of students a classroom can handle is causing some serious consternation among school district officials across the state.

During a Monday meeting of the Legislature’s Select Committee on School Facilities in Casper, officials from several school districts, including Laramie County School District 1, urged lawmakers to rethink the change to the state’s formula for gauging capacity.

That change allows up to 25 students in one classroom. It also combines the entire square footage of certain class spaces in a district to determine overall capacity, as opposed to looking at it on a school-by-school basis.

The old formula, which was changed by the School Facilities Commission in 2017, allowed 16 students in a room for kindergarten through third grade and 25 students in remaining grades. Those allowances are different than the state’s funding model, which assumes 16 students in elementary classrooms and 21 students in junior high and high school classrooms.

State education officials presented the committee with the new formula, showing that there’s underutilized space in classrooms across the state due to the 16/25 cap. The state figures that a school needs 50 square feet of space in a room per student. That means if an elementary school has a room that’s 1,800 square feet, it can actually hold 36 students.

A big push for the change is trying to find ways to trim Wyoming’s education budget, given the fiscal pinch the state finds itself in. But school districts large and small attended the meeting to dispute the idea that the new capacity formula accurately represents the realities on the ground. Just because a classroom is bigger doesn’t mean schools should cram students into every space available, they argued.

Edward Goetz, business manager for Albany County School District 1, said according to the new formula, the Laramie-based district could handle almost 300 more kindergarten through fifth-grade students.

“Based on my 20 years of experience, it’s completely unrealistic,” Goetz said. “Our community would be unhappy if we tried to push those numbers.”

One major point of contention for school districts was combining square footage across the entire district. Dave Bartlett, assistant superintendent of support operations for LCSD1, said the new formula doesn’t allow for things like population growth in one section of a city like Cheyenne and population decline in another.

While the district might have space across town, to take advantage of it, students would have to be taken out of their neighborhood schools and bussed away from home. Bartlett said the result could be that a parent with four elementary aged children would see their kids go to four separate schools.

Mary Jo Lewis, business services coordinator with Park County School District 1 in Powell, said while classrooms might be able to handle more students under the new formula, it wasn’t taking into account shared spaces like cafeterias and libraries. Those were built with the old models in mind, and just because a formula says nine more students can fit in a room doesn’t mean they can fit elsewhere on campus.

“As you grow capacity, those central areas can’t stand it,” Lewis said.

School representatives said they wanted the chance to have a more robust discussion about the changes and how they would affect the ability of schools to provide a quality education for their students.

The Legislature could overturn the rules, but no action was taken during Monday’s meeting to start that process. The Joint Education Interim Com-mittee is set to meet Sept. 27-28 in Casper, and several of the school district representatives said they and others would attend and hoped to continue the discussions.

In other action

The committee gave initial approval to a bill that would increase the state’s contribution to building maintenance, but nixed one that would have sent district money back into state education coffers.

The maintenance bill, if eventually approved by the Legislature next year, would increase the multiplier the state uses to calculate maintenance budgets for districts from 2 percent to 2.5 percent. That could mean about $50 million more every two fiscal years going from the state to school districts.

Even if the bill passes, though, it doesn’t mean the state statute would guarantee the money had to be budgeted. The way it is written, it would allow the state to budget a different amount if savings had to be made.

“We owe it to our colleagues to bring it forward and continue the conversation at the very least,” said Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, vice chairman of the select committee.

While committee members gave the maintenance bill the go ahead, the committee didn’t move forward the idea of making districts that sell school property send the money they make back to the state’s school capital construction budget.

By Mark Davis

Powell Tribune

Via Wyoming News Exchange

POWELL — A source of funding for outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat projects that’s brought more than $132 million to local Wyoming communities could dry up by the end of the month. 

The problem seems to be that Congress continually dips into the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Although $900 million is currently earmarked for the fund, Congress rarely appropriates the full amount available. The average appropriation has been a little more than one-third of the amount available. 

Permanently reauthorizing the fund would fix the issue, but the temptation to take from the little-known fund is too great a temptation, said Landon Blanchard, spokesperson for the Wyoming Wildlife Federation. 

“The fund gets cut each time,” Blanchard said. “They keep punting the ball downfield rather than solving the issue.” 

Congress created the LWCF in 1964. Since then, money collected from taxes on offshore drilling has helped to fund projects across the country. Projects funded over the past 63 years include several in Powell — Little League ball parks and improvements to the Powell Golf Club and Homesteader Park — totaling more than $688,000. 

Other Big Horn Basin municipalities have received millions in total assistance as well. Much of the funds were received in the late 1960s andearly 70s; the City of Powell hasn’t received any of the matching funds for about 15 years, said Kaela Nelson, finance director for the city. The last funds obtained were in 2002; $54,821 for improvements to the golf course. The improvement project was finished in 2007. 

“In Wyoming, we don’t have the ability to raise the [property] tax levy. It would be very difficult to do any extra projects without the funds,” Nelson said. 

Many of the projects funded in Powell are decades old and some of those facilities are in need of updates, Nelson said. The city would have a hard enough time coming up with matching funds for outdoor recreation projects — let alone the full amount, she said. 

Recently, Congress has been re-appropriating the Land and Water Conservation Funds, intended for outdoor recreation and wildlife, for defense spending, Blanchard said. 

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, RWyo., wants to see the funding returned to its original intended uses.

“The Land and Water Conservation Fund needs to be reformed to achieve its original intent to preserve, develop, and ensure access to public recreational areas,” Cheney’s press secretary, Maddy Weast, said Monday. 

National parks and forests within the state’s borders have received an additional $88 million during the life of the fund for projects. That includes purchases to bring cohesion to the landscape, reduce maintenance costs, complete wildlife corridors and prevent non-compatible development near park borders. The funds have helped Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. More than $9 million is slated to go toward Wyoming’s national park properties next year if the fund is authorized. 

While the funds are popular for politicians on both sides of the aisle as they cut ribbons and attend celebrations for projects, some conservative organizations are lobbying against the fund. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., is the LWCF’s main opponent. The Heritage Foundation sees the fund as a way for the federal government to amass more land that holds back economic development and leads to mismanagement of land, according to a recent piece by foundation staffers Nicolas Loris and Katie Tubb. 

“Acquiring more land typically means more funds are necessary to maintain them,” the authors contend. The National Park Service alone has a backlog of deferred maintenance of almost $12 billion. 

The LWCF specifies that not less than 40 percent of the annual appropriation be made available for acquiring land, waters or interests in land or water for the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management. 

Cheney is concerned with growing the federal property portfolio as well. 

“In recent years, LWCF funds have been managed and used by Washington, D.C., bureaucrats to expand the size of the federal estate,” Weast said. “Congresswoman Cheney plans to work with her Republican colleagues on the House Natural Resources Committee to ensure the reauthorization of the LWCF includes reforms to ensure these federal dollars are used for their intended purpose.” 

The Heritage Foundation goes one step further and also opposes using funds to finance local outdoor recreation projects, like swimming pools and Little League baseball fields. 

“Townships and municipalities have a number of financing mechanisms at their disposal to pay for outdoor recreation. A municipal tax increase or private donations, for instance, could fund a new swimming pool,” Loris and Tubb contend. 

The Heritage Foundation came into prominence during the Reagan administration and has seen a recent surge of political clout during the Trump administration. Based off an analysis of the current budget, the foundation says the current administration has embraced nearly two-thirds of the 334 policy recommendations contained in its “Mandate for Leadership.” 

To combat the influential organization’s stance on the LWCF as well as Congress’s continual shuffling of funds, conservation organizations like the Wyoming Wildlife Federation are pushing for a permanent authorization of the fund. Blanchard admits the likelihood of a permanent solution is slim. Yet he is confident another temporary solution is imminent. 

“Any talk of raising local taxes is met with pushback. The beauty of this [law] is it gets funds to communities they otherwise wouldn’t receive,” Blanchard said. “The diversity of the projects funded touches everybody.” 

Wyoming is one of the top outdoor recreation spots in the nation, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. Active outdoor recreation in the state generates $5.6 billion in consumer spending, supports 50,000 jobs generating $1.6 billion in wages and salaries, and produces $514 million annually in state and local tax revenue. The U.S. Census reports 762,000 people hunt, fish or enjoy wildlife viewing in the state each year.

By Nick Reynolds

Casper Star-Tribune

Via Wyoming News Exchange

CASPER — Allegations Republican candidate for governor Mark Gordon won his primary because of Democrats voting in the GOP contest are statistically unfounded, new voter registration numbers from the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office show.

In the weeks after the election, some Republicans in Wyoming have claimed Gordon, who defeated runner-up Foster Friess by more than 9,000 votes, was pushed over the finish line by Democrats who switched parties to prevent more hard-line candidates from winning. Anecdotes of county boards of elections running out of Republican ballots sparked speculation that a massive campaign to influence the vote must have taken place.

On Monday afternoon, University of Wyoming pollster Brian Harnisch tweeted out a quick overview of voter registration numbers both pre- and post-election, offering a better idea of how many Democrats actually might have switched over.

The answer? Not that many, by his count.

At least, not enough to affect the outcome.

“Sure doesn’t look like ‘Democrats meddled’ in the Wyoming Republican primary,” he tweeted. “Instead – A few Democrats, more independents, and even more Republicans wanted a say in who governor will (or won’t) be. #wyvote”

According to the numbers, between Aug. 21 and Sept. 1, Wyoming’s Republican Party added 8,200 new voters. The Democrats, meanwhile, lost just 1,800 voters during that time, while nearly 2,400 unaffiliated voters chose to register for a party. Though it’s unclear which party they registered with, it’s clear that currently registered voters who either switched parties or chose to participate in the Republican primary were far outweighed by new or returning voters who may simply have chosen to participate in the state’s most competitive race.

However, even if jaded liberals turned out to the polls in force, it still wouldn’t have made much difference: In all, just 3,700 new voters were added to the rolls in the final two weeks of August.

There are several caveats to consider: Some counties, particularly smaller counties, may not verify their rates of crossover in time. A comparison of voter registration numbers between September 2016 and October 2016, for instance, shows an increase of 4,000 new voters, though Democratic registration actually increased by 1,000 in that time. In the lead-up to the general election that year, registration totals for both parties continued to grow, however Republican registration increased at a significantly higher clip.

There is also the possibility that some voters who “crossed over” from the Democrats to the Republicans several years ago simply never switched back. In 2010, for example, there were 65,000 Democrats and 159,000 Republicans registered in Wyoming on Aug. 17, with an additional 36,000 voters unaffiliated. Two months later, there were 2,000 fewer Democrats, 2,000 fewer unaffiliated voters and 11,000 new Republicans, with a net gain of 7,000 new voters.

The practice of crossover voting reform in Wyoming has been a contentious subject since Gordon won the GOP primary for governor. After his defeat, Friess suggested a change to the law to eliminate the practice of crossover voting in Wyoming.

Through a spokeswoman, Gordon declined comment on the new data. Friess stressed the need for Republicans to rally behind Gordon as he faces Democrat Mary Throne in the general election.

In a 1,600 word article published by American Thinker late last week that has been shared widely on social media, conservative writer Karin McQuillan – who profiled Republican candidate Harriet Hageman in a glowing piece earlier this year – decried the practice, describing this year’s outcome, in the headline, as the result of a “Democrat Election Scam.”

The article went on to blame a small group called “Switch for Wyoming,” which encouraged some voters to cross over, and claimed Gordon’s victory was a plot by liberals to embarrass Donald Trump – who endorsed Friess the morning of the election.

“In a state where he beat Hillary Clinton by 46 percent, President Trump has just been cheated of an ally among the governors, and Wyoming’s voters have been cheated of a true conservative candidate,” she wrote. “Gordon’s win was also used by President Trump’s opponents in the media to embarrass him, because on Election Day, the president tweeted his support for the conservative frontrunner, Foster Friess.”

Crossover voting looks to be a concern of the GOP as well: Last week on its Facebook page, the state Republican party shared a political cartoon commenting on the topic in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle newspaper, stating above it “We agree with the Tribune Eagle; this needs fixing! At our last convention, Republicans resolved to do exactly that!”

By Andrew Brosig

Torrington Telegram

Via Wyoming News Exchange

TORRINGTON — Several incidences of West Nile Virus have been confirmed across the state, though later than is typical this year. 

A Monday press release from the Wyoming Livestock Board reported one human case, in Fremont County, as well as seven confirmed diagnosis of the virus found in horses in Park, Fremont, Goshen, Sheridan and Campbell counties. 

In addition, a golden eagle, a crow and a hawk have all been diagnosed with the virus, and mosquito breeding pools have been confirmed in Fremont, Hot Springs, Goshen and Natrona counties, according to the release. In addition to the WLB, reports were made to the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory and theWyoming Department of Health. 

Jenna Meeks, assistant supervisor for the Goshen County Weed and Pest Department in Torrington, confirmed the positive mosquito pool tests in virtually all areas of the county on Monday. She could not confirm an equine diagnosis in Goshen County, based on the latest Department of Health reports she had. 

The first positive test for the virus in a mosquito pool in Goshen County was the week of Aug. 13, Meeks said. 

“Goshen County really has prime habitat (for any of several species of culex mosquitoes, the primary vector for the virus),” she said. “Due to our irrigation methods, and there’s a decent amount of standing water at Table Mountain, Hot Springs, areas like that.” 

The culex mosquito prefers standing water to lay its eggs, Meeks said. Depending on weather conditions, the eggs can hatch, go through larval stages and pupate to emerge as an adult mosquito in anywhere from seven to about 30 days, she said. 

Positive tests have been confirmed in mosquito pools from Fort Laramie, to Huntley to Hawk Springs and in areas between in Goshen County, Meeks said. 

“We encourage everyone, everywhere to take precautions,” she said. 

Precautions include avoiding exposure from dusk to dawn when the insects are feeding and using proper insect repellants. Also, horse owners should vaccinate their animals in the spring and seek medical attention for both humans and animals if the disease is suspected. 

The local Weed and Pest Dept. has been fogging to eliminate mosquitoes in densely-populated areas outside the Torrington city limits two days per week, Meeks said. In addition, the department contracted for an aerial application of insecticide last week during the peak week for positive tests, she said. 

Finding the first positive tests in mid-August is unusual in this area, and across the state, Meeks said. Typically, the first positive tests happen in late June and early July. While she can’t rule it out, it is unlikely the cooler, wetter weather earlier this spring and summer impacted the mosquito’s growth cycle, Meeks said.

By Angus M. Thuermer Jr., WyoFile.com

As elk hunting season begins sportsmen and -women will find — or seek to find — more than 104,800 elk in the state, a figure 31 percent above Wyoming Game and Fish Department objectives.

The figures — presented to the agency’s civilian commissioners earlier this year — are based on exhaustive January 2018 field surveys and mathematical estimates. Since then elk have calved, sending numbers even higher.

Wildlife managers consider habitat, hunting opportunity, elk damage to private property and other factors in setting the statewide objective of 80,000. The figures presented to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission in April put the 2017 post-hunt population 25,800 animals above objective.

Hunters killed 24,535 wapiti last season according to Game and Fish. The agency expects hunters to harvest 25,302 this hunting season as it works to bring herds closer to objective.

But opportunities and hunters’ experiences in the field may vary significantly from region to region.

Elk hunting is expected to be good across wide parts of the state, Game and Fish employees wrote in a season forecast delivered to commissioners in April. Though success is frequently weather-dependent and many hunters count on snow to both drive elk from the high country and facilitate tracking, elk numbers should not be the limiting factor

Wyoming counts elk across 35 herds and Game and Fish reports 80 percent of those herds are at or above their objective populations. Managers consider a herd to be at objective if its population is within 20 percent of — above or below — the target number.

The agency has changed how it establishes objectives, however, making comparisons of recent years difficult, Game and Fish Deputy Chief of Wildlife Doug Brimeyer said in a telephone interview.

After the 2017 hunting season Game and Fish counted 16 herds at objective — within 20 percent of the target. It found 12 herds above objective, five herds below objective and two herds for which there was not enough information.

Around Cody, wapiti abound. “Elk populations in the southern Bighorn Basin continue to do well,” the forecast reads. “The North Bighorn elk herd remains healthy and productive, and there should be a good opportunity to harvest an elk again in 2018.”

Around Lander, “like much of Wyoming, elk populations are doing well,” the spring report reads. The same holds near Laramie with populations above objectives and high calf numbers despite a harsh winter. A low harvest in the Pinedale area last year left herds there at or above objective levels, the report says.

Six elk herds in the Green River area “are currently above the agreed upon post-season population objectives, some significantly so,” the report reads. Around Casper “elk numbers remain at or above objective levels in all herds.”

In one of the state’s premiere elk regions — Teton County — the picture is more complex.

The resurgence of predators in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks and the prevalence of private-land safe zones have helped upset the advantages once enjoyed by hunters. An increasing portion of the Jackson Elk Herd has abandoned familiar long-distance migration routes and spends time in areas shunned by grizzlies and wolves or where those predators have been removed or discouraged — areas that are often difficult to access or off-limits to most hunters.

Today “suburban elk” or “Snake River elk” that live on private ranches and subdivisions and nearby federal land where no hunting is allowed are out-reproducing their wilderness counterparts. “Elk that summer in southern Grand Teton National Park and near residential and agricultural areas close to Jackson have about double the calf recruitment as the long-distance migratory elk in backcountry areas,” Game and Fish’s April elk season forecast report says.

The result is an elk herd with decent population figures relative to objectives, but decreased hunting opportunity.

To remedy the “chronic” situation of elk damaging private agricultural and residential property, elk hunting on private land in the valley bottom of Jackson Hole began Aug. 15. That’s an early season opener compared to many national forest backcountry areas that generally open to rifle hunting in late September or October.

Game and fish used to issue 1,800 licenses to hunt elk in northern Jackson Hole, Brimeyer told commissioners in March, many of them allowing the shooting of female elk. But that portion of the Jackson Elk Herd is being outbred by suburban counterparts to the point that Game and Fish has issued no licenses to shoot antlerless elk north of the Gros Ventre River and south of Yellowstone National Park, areas which are almost exclusively public land, he said.

Wolves have also confounded Wyoming’s artificial feedground program and pushed elk off natural wintering areas in the Gros Ventre River drainage, Brimeyer told the commission. Game and Fish routinely saw 3,500 elk winter in the drainage each year, Brimeyer said. Last year, albeit a low-snow year in which the National Elk Refuge did not even feed elk, feeders in the Gros Ventre forked out hay to only 86 elk.

In his 2016 book, “Feeding Big Game in Western Wyoming,” former Wyoming Game and Fish employee Ron Dean documents feeding of 2,000 elk in the Gros Ventre area as early as 1936. From then through 2005, feeders at the Alkali, Patrol Cabin and Fish Creek feedgrounds fed an average of 1,994 elk a winter in the drainage.

But wolves unsettled things there starting in 1999, pushing elk from one feedground to another. Before wolves began keying in on the three Gros Ventre feedgrounds, each had some 600 to 700 wintering elk. When wolves arrived in numbers, feeders instead saw up to 2,000 elk congregate at one site while the others were largely abandoned.

When wolves were protected by the Endangered Species Act — most recently in 2017 — their numbers increased. Brimeyer said one pack grew to more than 20 members before pack dynamics took over and it broke up.

Game and Fish spent considerable money enhancing native winter range habitat in the area only to see elk abandon that natural forage under pressure from wolves, Brimeyer said.

Some Gros Ventre elk are known to have shifted drainages and moved to the Dubois area or the Upper Green River. Most moved down drainage to the National Elk Refuge.

In total, however, the Jackson Elk Herd, which includes the Gros Ventre elk, is very near the population objective of 11,000 according to the Game and Fish report.

ros Ventre elk are faithful to their summer ranges, Brimeyer believes, so many may return there for hunting season. But hunting opportunities and licenses have been diminished nevertheless. “It’s a fairly emotional thing,” Brimeyer told the commission. One outfitter agreed.

Elk in the area are in a “crisis stage,” Brian Taylor, a third-generation rancher and operator of Gros Ventre Wilderness Outfitters, told commissioners in March. “What’s happened is a catastrophe.”

It will be difficult for sport hunters alone to trim wolf numbers, he said. He and his wife spent more than 30 days trying to hunt wolves. They finally shot two.

Game and Fish is allowing wolf hunters to hold up to two wolf licenses this year with the aim of killing 15 wolves in the Gros Ventre and Upper Green River hunting areas. For elk and elk hunters, however, Game and Fish’s task of balancing private and public land, predators and hunters, remains a changing puzzle.

“Managing for these widely varying population segments has always been and will continue to be a challenge in the Jackson Herd,” the reports to the commission say.

Statewide, abundance of elk and a rarity of hunters gives Wyoming hunters remarkable opportunities. Wyoming saw 56,505 hunters pursue elk last season, which made for a success rate of 43.4 percent, a figure considered high for big game.

Sportsmen and -women spent 441,933 days in the field hunting elk last year, amounting to about 18 days for every elk taken.

The numbers can be crunched in a different way to show that the average elk hunter spent about eight days in the field in 2017, whether successful or unsuccessful.

The statistics show that Wyoming may be the best place to hunt elk in the West, according to comparisons made by a sportsman on the website Backcountry Chronicles. Over the five years ending in 2016, Colorado hunters bagged an average of 43,631 elk a year, the most among seven states analyzed.

Backcountry Chronicles calculations involved states that issue what he calls “over-the-counter” elk licenses; Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and Colorado. The unnamed author excluded Arizona, California and Nevada from the analysis.

Wyoming was second in the number of elk bagged, averaging 25,768 over the period, the website said. But the Equality State had the fewest hunters among the states analyzed, averaging 58,100 a year, compared to Colorado’s 219,465, which was the most.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.