Wyoming News Briefs

Black bear killed after raiding picnic sites, trash cans

JACKSON (WNE) — One Jackson Hole bear is dead and another two have been hauled to more remote locales after raiding visitors’ picnics and residents’ trash cans.

The subadult female black bear that lost her life regularly trolled developed parts of Jenny and String lakes, an area that has seen regular summertime conflict in recent years despite efforts to educate visitors not to feed the bears.

“We did intend to relocate it,” Grand Teton National Park spokeswoman Denise Germann said. “But we were unable to trap it.”

In the meantime, the behavior persisted, she said. The habituated animal received human “food rewards” on at least four occasions since June, and that’s just what was reported and confirmed.

By the time park rangers had the food-motivated bruin in a live trap Friday, the sow was considered too far gone to have a shot at changing the human food-habituated behavior.

“It was approaching people,” Germann said, “and it went onto the top of a picnic table with people around it.”

In the meantime, a similar situation was playing out around Moose-Wilson Road.

Another sow, this time an animal that had been previously tagged and radio-collared, had exhibited several instances of habituated behavior, including putting its paws on an occupied vehicle, and also of having been fed.

Biologists deemed this bear to have a better chance at breaking the habit, and after being captured the black bear sow was relocated to John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway.

Former court clerk makes first appearance on theft charges

TORRINGTON (WNE) – Former Goshen County District Court Clerk Kathi Rickard appeared in court for the first time Wednesday to begin the process of answering to six felony theft charges relating to her time as an elected official.

Rickard stands accused of stealing a large sum of money while serving in her elected position as court clerk – enough that the county was forced to pay $120,217.65 just to keep the affected accounts current. 

During the hearing, Judge Randall Arp – in what could be his final bench appearance before retiring – listed six offenses between January 2016 and December 2018 where investigators from the Division of Criminal Investigation believe she stole amounts of money from WyUser accounts and a Quickbooks account that she was responsible for maintaining. 

The amount ranged from $6,100 to more than $58,000. Each of Rickard’s six felony theft charges carries a potential penalty of ten years in prison, a fine of $10,000, or both. Goshen County is also seeking restitution for the funds. 

Cole Sherard, attorney for the defense, and prosecutor Spencer Allred of Lincoln County, both told Arp they felt it would be appropriate for Rickard to be released on her own recognizance. 

Rickard has numerous health issues, including several life-threatening conditions related to a heart issue, and Sherard told the court that her issues might be more than the Goshen County Detention Center could handle. 

Energy companies eyeing Goshen County for oil and gas wells

TORRINGTON – Several energy companies are eyeing oil well locations in Goshen County, and while it’s too early to say that Goshen County will be the next location for an energy boom, local officials are optimistic about the trend. 

Goshen County Engineer Bob Taylor told the Goshen County Commission on June 18 that two companies have come close to completing the lengthy permitting process for drilling in Goshen County, while several others have begun the process. 

MCM Operations and Ossidiana Energy, both from Oklahoma, are working with the county to build oil and gas wells in southern Goshen County. The wells will likely be hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, wells. 

According to Taylor, MCM is ready to get to work at a location a few miles north of Yoder.

 “They have been working with us for about four months,” Taylor told the commission. “Their plans were initially to start by now. 

“We met with them a week ago and they think they’re going to get started here next week or two. We are going through the process of permitting. We provided the documents for them like the construction permit, access to the county roads, and we also go through a commercial addressing permit. We also have a road use agreement document that they go over with us and agreed to.” 

Taylor told the commission MCM has agreed to perform substantial upgrades to the county roads it intends to use during its operations.

Pyrotechnics group wants to set off biggest bang

GILLETTE (WNE) — The Pyrotechnics Guild International wants to end its annual convention with a bang so big it sets a world record when it meets in Gillette Aug. 10-16.

To do that, however, would require a temporary road closure. Cam-plex General Manager Jeff Esposito said PGI is asking for the state Department of Transportation to shut down Highway 51 from Garner Lake Road to American Road from 10 to 10:45 p.m. Aug. 16.

“If we move it in any other direction, the safety radius would be inside of where houses are,” he said of the planned record display. “As bad as it is to close a highway, this is the best spot and really their only choice to do this.”

He said PGI is a little behind the curve in making the request, but he’d like to accommodate his customer.

Esposito said he isn’t sure what kind of world record PGI is looking to set.

County clerk and fireworks enthusiast Susan Saunders asked what kind of fireworks it would involve.

“Does this involve pretty lights or is it just noise?” she asked.

“Pretty much a big boom,” Esposito said.

“A big boom, no lights?” she asked. “There’ll be a flash, but it’s not a really pretty one.”

Since the section that PGI hopes to shut down is in both the city and county jurisdictions, the Gillette City Council and commissioners would have to support the special event application.

The commissioners voted to support it at their regular meeting Tuesday afternoon.

New approach to state investments saving millions in fees

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Earlier this year, the Wyoming Legislature passed several major reforms to increase the amount of money from major state financial pools invested in the stock market, as well as how hands-on the state was with its investment strategy.

Those reforms have already saved Wyoming millions and helped to attract talent that might not have come to the Equality State.

Patrick Fleming, Wyoming’s chief investment officer, said during a June meeting of the Select Committee on Capital Financing and Investments that Wyoming was on track to save about $24 million in fees it would have paid to outside investment managers.

By focusing on bringing more of the state’s investment management in-house, Wyoming is seeing significant savings, while still maintaining its funds performance, Fleming said.

Currently, the state is budgeting about $6 million for the biennium for the internal investment team, which has expanded significantly to handle the extra work.

As those savings materialize, State Treasurer Curt Meier and the Treasurer’s Office would like to see some of that put back into modernizing the investment office. The state’s still operating with an antiquated system that could potentially create mistakes as trades are conducted quickly.

Those systems could cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but would completely modernize the investment portion of the Treasurer’s Office, Meier said.

As the investment team has added more high-level staff, Meier said the ability to offer incentive pay for high-performing investors has drawn significant talent into the state. Meier said the newest member of the team has spent decades in New York as part of high-performing investment firms.

Woman drowns in Shoshone River

CODY (WNE) — A Pahaska Teepee employee from New Hampshire died of an apparent drowning in the North Fork of the Shoshone River. Susan C. Hartley, 56, of Chichester, NH, was found Wednesday afternoon by fellow employees from the resort. She was in the Shoshone River approximately one-half mile downstream from Pahaska.

Hartley was last seen at the resort on Tuesday at 3 p.m. When she didn’t report for work at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, fellow employees began searching for her. They eventually found her backpack and walking stick underneath the US 14-16-20 West bridge that crosses the Shoshone River just east of Pahaska. Because of the circumstances, the Park County Sheriff’s Office was notified and at 11 a.m., the decision was made to activate Search and Rescue.

SAR immediately deployed ground search units as well as a canine team. However, before they could reach the scene, workers from Pahaska discovered Hartley’s body in the river directly across from the Pahaska Trailhead. SAR then deployed their swift water team in order to recover her body. The Shoshone River was swollen and moving rapidly from the spring runoff.

The SAR swift water team entered the river at the 3-Mile Campground at 1:15 p.m. and floated to Hartley’s location. They then evacuated her body downstream and turned it over to County Coroner Tim Power. Although the exact cause of death is pending an autopsy, there were no apparent signs of foul play and Power has preliminarily ruled Hartley drowned.