Wyoming News Briefs

Cody schools spend $10K to train for concealed weapons

CODY (WNE) — The Cody School District spent just under $10,000 in the first full year of the CKA program that vets and trains certain staff who apply to carry concealed weapons in school buildings.

No information on the number of armed staff or where they are located is made public regarding the policy as part of an effort to safeguard teachers and schools.

The fiscal year 2018-19 budget concluded at the end of June and included a line for CKA program expenses at $9,838.50. The line in the budget was asked for by trustees, who otherwise required strict anonymity for the program.

There are a few different costs related to the program, one of the biggest being training. Last summer trustees approved Distributed Security and FASTER Colorado as the two companies to use depending on the number of applicants they had to train at any given time. 

In its initial proposal, Distributed Security said it would cost $2295 per attendee for 40 hours of training. FASTER Colorado came in slightly less per attendee, however if less than 10 teachers took the 24-hour training the company recommends sending them to either Colorado or Ohio for training, which would add transportation, lodging and food to the district’s cost.

Other variables like possible discounts for training could alter total costs.

The policy and regulations allow employees of the district to carry a concealable firearm on school property if they pass background checks, a psychological suitability exam and 24 hours of initial training, among other steps.

Trustees pick new Health Sciences dean

LARAMIE (WNE) — After a two-year search for a new dean for the College of Health Sciences, the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees decided to stick with David Jones.

Jones, a professor in communication disorders, served as interim dean since Joseph Steiner took retirement incentives in 2017 to leave his post amid budget cuts at UW.

Jones served as UW’s vice president for academic affairs from 2014-2016. A member of the UW faculty since 2001, he was the associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Health Sciences from 2007-2013.

Jones taught at the University of Iowa and Indiana University Medical Center at Indianapolis before joining the faculty at UW.

Since Steiner left the university, multiple searches for outside candidates failed to bring in a replacement. And meanwhile, Jones has steered the college through some major initiatives, like a partial privatization of UW’s Family Medicine Residency Clinics — work that was cooperatively done with a legislative task force.

While interim deans sometimes defer tackling big issues, Jones said he’d taken a different approach in the last two years.

“I can understand that’s sometimes the case for an interim, but I tried not to take that approach,” he said. “When you get into the second year as interim, you have to do more than just keep the ship afloat. You have to look at some of the big issues.”

Woman accused of stealing same car twice

GILLETTE (WNE) — A 21-year-old woman apparently likes red Ford Explorers: She is accused of stealing the same one twice in less than 24 hours.

A 35-year-old woman reported that her 1994 red Ford Explorer was missing from the Walmart parking lot at about 1 a.m. Sunday evening after she parked near the entrance of the Marketside door with the keys in it, Police Lt. Brent Wasson said. She was in the store for about 20 minutes.

Officers were then able to locate the vehicle at 1001 Douglas Highway parked under a tree with the hazard lights on. The vehicle keys, which were on a blue lanyard, were missing. Officers couldn’t find them in the area. 

The vehicle was then reported stolen again from 1001 Douglas Highway, Wasson said. The woman who owned the vehicle went to recover it and discovered it was gone. The Ford was then entered into the national crime information computer.

A few hours later, the vehicle was stopped by Sundance police on Interstate 90 for erratic driving and Shell was arrested. 

Candice Shell, 21, was arrested on suspicion of vehicle theft of a 1994 red Ford Explorer late Sunday evening. 

Two bears killed in Yellowstone

POWELL (WNE) — Staff in Yellowstone National Park have had busy summer responding to reports of bears in campgrounds, backcountry campsites and along roads. 

In a Thursday news release, park officials revealed three recent incidents involving black bears that became habituated to human food. That included a June incident where a backcountry camper was bitten. 

Two of the bears have been killed by park wildlife managers; they’ve been trying to capture the third. 

In June’s incident, a woman had been camping at a backcountry site along Little Cottonwood Creek, in the northern park of the park. That’s when a black bear bit into her tent and — although the tent and her thick sleeping bag kept the bear’s teeth from breaking her skin — bruised her thigh. 

Rangers set up a decoy tent at the campsite to determine if the bear would continue the behavior. While rangers were there, the bear returned and aggressively tore up the decoy tent, Yellowstone officials say. The bear was killed on-site on June 11.

Then in early July, at a backcountry campsite along the Lamar River Trail, campers left food unattended while packing up their gear. That allowed a black bear to eat approximately 10 pounds of human food. Campers who visited the same campsite the following evening had numerous encounters with the same bear. Their attempts to haze the bear away failed. Rangers moved multiple campers from the area and the bear was killed on July 10. 

Finally, since July 18, a black bear has caused property damage to tents and vehicles in a search for human food at the front-country Indian Creek Campground.

Crop insurance payout depends on cause of canal collapse

TORRINGTON (WNE) — The collapse of an irrigation tunnel along the Fort Laramie-Gering canal has threatened the livelihood of farmers in the Wyobraska area by cutting them off from a key irrigation resource, and red tape and small print might result in even bigger losses. 

During a stakeholders meeting at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research Center, Vanessa Reishus, from Farm Credit Services of America, told several hundred producers who rely on the ditch that their insurance relies on what caused the collapse. 

“The unfortunate issue with that is that you have to prove loss cause by natural occurrence,” she said. “We don’t know for sure what cause of loss was. I’m hoping they can say because of excess rains in spring, if that can be determined, that would be covered. If it’s not a covered loss, those acres are taken off policy and become uninsurable. That’s not a great thing, we don’t have an actual answer.” 

Gering-Fort Laramie Supervisor Rick Preston said the exact cause of the collapse is still being investigated, but engineers do have an idea of what could have caused it. He said that wooden beams were used to reinforce the tunnel during construction, and those beams have deteriorated in the 102 years since.

“They’re thinking the cause was the timber rotting and the water that worked into the area,” he said. “That created a void, and the void become big enough that the upper soils couldn’t carry themselves.”

Fatal fire ruled accidental

PINEDALE (WNE) — Following an investigation by the Wyoming State Fire Marshal, the house fire at 121 N. Ashley Ave. on July 10 that killed one man and left a woman injured was ruled accidental.

According to a press release from Sublette County Unified Fire, “The fire originated on the cook stove in the kitchen.” 

The release goes on to say, “The occupants had left the front door open as well as a bedroom window due to the warm night. Open windows and doors allow for increased air entrainment (air being drawn) into the structure. This entrainment caused the fire to grow rapidly from the kitchen, to the short hall between the bedroom and kitchen. An opening in the wall between the kitchen and living room allowed for the fire and hot fire gasses to enter into the living room.” 

James Tipton, 61, died in the fire. Tricia Gregory Gunderson, 57, was sent to the intensive care unit at an Idaho burn clinic. 

After the fire started and noxious smoke poured from the house, a neighbor heard Gunderson screaming for someone to get out. 

She was released from Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center on July 15. Dave Harley of the Wyoming State Fire Marshal’s Office assisted Sublette County investigators with the investigation. 

G&F wants to keep regional office in Jackson

JACKSON (WNE) — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s leadership prefers keeping its regional office and current operations in Jackson, rather than co-locating with the Pinedale office or moving elsewhere.

Teton County’s extraordinary cost of housing sparked talk this spring about redrawing the agency’s boundaries or investing in pricey Jackson Hole housing to put up employees who cannot afford a house of their own.

The department’s staff came back to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission with the recommendation to stay, and is exploring options such as working with the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust or executing a land trade, said John Kennedy, deputy director of internal operations.

“At the agency leadership level, we do feel it’s important for us to continue to be a strong part of the Jackson community for a variety of reasons,” Kennedy told the commission at a Rock Springs meeting last week.

The commission’s president, David Rael, agreed, calling such a presence “essential,” but he was interrupted by fellow commissioner Patrick Crank.

“It’s not essential,” said Crank, who is a Cheyenne attorney. “I don’t believe that spending a million dollars for an employee house in Jackson is consistent with our fiduciary obligation.

“I want to keep this on a short string,” he said. “If we can’t figure this out, we need to move.”

Some of the 16 full-time Game and Fish employees in Jackson arrived in the valley long enough ago to afford a mortgage, but younger members of the workforce have been priced out, even with a $1,489 monthly housing allowance. 

Woman appears in court on charges of arson, attempted murder

CHEYENNE (WNE) — A Cheyenne woman accused of lighting a house on fire and stabbing a pregnant woman had her preliminary hearing Friday afternoon in Laramie County Circuit Court.

Naomi Dolores Barnes, 20, is charged with attempt to commit first-degree arson, attempt to commit first-degree murder and child endangering.

In court, defense attorney Ross McKelvey said the attempted murder charge was a stretch because he doesn’t think Barnes premeditated stabbing the victim. The victim also threw the first punch at Barnes before a knife was ever drawn, he said.

Circuit Judge Denise Nau said she plans to bind the case over to Laramie County District Court, but needs time to assess the attempted murder charge. 

According to court documents, on July 16, officers were dispatched to a house fire that Barnes allegedly started. On the way to the fire, officers also received a call for an assault with a knife at Dirty Duds Laundromat involving Barnes and the victim.

When officers arrived on scene, Barnes admitted to starting the fire. She said earlier that day she got into an argument over the phone and via text with the victim, who was also her roommate. Barnes and the victim were living together before the victim told Barnes she could no longer stay at the residence because Barnes wasn’t paying rent.

Barnes told officers she started the fire because she thought it was unfair that she was getting kicked out of the residence with nowhere to go and she had a child. She said she wanted to make the victim homeless, too.

Vesicular Stomatitis reported in Wyoming

GILLETTE (WNE) — Two confirmed cases of Vesicular Stomatitis (VSV), a reportable animal disease, have been found in Platte County.

National Veterinary Services Laboratory reported the disease to the Wyoming state veterinarian after testing samples that were submitted Tuesday, according to a press release from the Wyoming Livestock Board.

The samples came from horses with oral lesions suggestive of VSV. Other potentially affected animals in Platte County are being investigated by Wyoming Livestock Board and USDA APHIS veterinarians.

The main symptoms of VSV are slobbering, blisters, sores and sloughing of skin in the mouth, on the tongue, on the muzzle, inside the ears and on the coronary band above the hooves. Lameness and weight loss may also occur.

VSV-infected horses have been found in 2019 in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. VSV can threaten other livestock species, including cattle, sheep, goats and pigs.

The disease is spread mainly through flies and midges. The virus also is spread through direct contact with infected livestock and indirectly through contact with contaminated equipment and tack.

Fly control, including eliminating fly breeding and hiding habitat, is the most important step in preventing the disease, according to the press release. Good sanitation and bio-security measures can help avoid exposure.

Wyoming’s most recent previous outbreaks of VSV were in 2005, 2006 and 2015. Nearly all of the affected livestock during those outbreak years were pastured along drainages or had recent history of exposure to low-lying, riparian areas.

Boeing drops out of competition to replace Minuteman III

CHEYENNE (WNE) — One of the two companies vying for the contract to replace the nation’s ground-based nuclear missiles has dropped out of the bidding process.

Boeing confirmed this week that it had withdrawn from bidding on the contract for the U.S. Air Force’s Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent program. The contract is to replace the Air Force’s Cold War-era Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Experts have estimated the project could be worth about $85 billion.

Boeing was in competition with Northrop Grumman, both of which received contracts through the Air Force in 2017 to develop designs for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program. Boeing’s contract was worth $349 million, and Northrop Grumman’s was worth $328 million.

Boeing’s departure from the project creates a situation where only one company will be bidding on a massive military contract to supply the nation with the ground-based portion of its nuclear triad system.

F.E. Warren Air Force Base is one of the three strategic nuclear missile bases in the U.S., along with Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. Warren is the home of the 90th Missile Wing, which operates and maintains the ICBM launch facilities in the region.

The missile wing, part of the 20th Air Force, operates 150 Minuteman III ICBMs as part of the nation’s nuclear triad.