Wyoming News Briefs

Study finds Teton Co. courthouse can’t withstand earthquake

JACKSON (WNE) — A recent study determined that the Teton County courthouse is not earthquake sound and no amount of renovations can save it. The building, built in 1968, will need to be completely torn down.

The unsafe building puts the Teton County Sheriff’s office, located on the bottom floor, at risk. That office also is home to the county’s 911 emergency dispatch center.

The issue of remodeling the courthouse has been in conversation before, but thus far hasn’t gained traction. A Specific Purpose Excise Tax, or SPET, initiative for $2 million to plan and design a new building was shot down by voters in 2019.

“It’s easy to imagine we’re getting along fine without it, because we don’t see it as a direct thing related to health and welfare,” County Commissioner Mark Newcomb said. “But I think the public hasn’t fully digested the fact that the whole building could collapse and it would collapse on our 911 dispatch center and sheriff’s office.”

A Tier Two seismic study was completed three months ago on the building, according to Paul Cote, the Facilities Maintenance Manager for Teton County.

The study was prompted by concerns over courthouse security, space issues and whether it’s seismically sound. The findings were dire on each.

“We delivered the information [from the survey] to the commissioners a few months ago and it was a lot to deliver to them,” Cote said.

The Teton County Courthouse hasn’t had any major renovations since 1997. Previous 2019 estimates found building a new courthouse could cost $60 million.

Gillette airport traffic up 44% from 2021

GILLETTE (WNE) — Through the first five months of the year, traffic at the Northeast Wyoming Regional Airport is comfortably ahead of the pace set in 2021.

So far this year, 20,152 passengers came through the airport, according to numbers released by the airport.

It’s an average monthly mark of 4030, which is 44% ahead of 2021, which had 14,026 people in the first five months, or 2805 passengers per month. Last year, the numbers through the first quarter were very low due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with things not picking up until May.

This past May, there were 4196 passengers, which is up 12% from the 3,747 in May 2021. Each month this year so far has had more than 3500 passengers. In 2021, the airport didn’t reach that monthly mark until May.

Every month in 2022 has had a substantial increase over its 2021 counterpart. January 2022 was 40% more than January 2021. February showed the highest growth, with numbers 79% ahead of last February.

If things at the airport follow historic trends, the numbers should continue to increase this summer.

June, July and August have been the busiest months at the airport historically. Even in 2021, those three months all were above 5000 passengers.

Man who tried to run over probation officer sentenced

GILLETTE (WNE) — A Gillette man was sentenced to prison on charges related to trying to run over his probation officer last year, along with multiple drug charges.

Kenneth Myles Powers, 56, was sentenced May 12 to nine to 18 years in prison on charges of probation revocation, two counts of possession with intent to deliver and felony interference with a peace officer, according to court documents.

Both Powers and his roommate, Kenneth Heagy, were arrested in September after police were tipped off to the possibility of drug distribution from the home they lived together in on Laramie Street.

Two tips were made to the Crime Stoppers line indicating that Powers and Heagy had large amounts of drugs and guns in their home. 

Powers’ parole officer had gotten a similar tip and she called Powers in for a meeting regarding those claims. Although Powers initially denied the allegations, he eventually admitted that there was a gun or guns in a safe in Heagy’s room, according to the affidavit.

When the parole officer told Powers the police planned to search his vehicle and home, he stood up and told her that he needed to use the restroom. He refused to sit down after being told to several times.

“Powers walked out of the office and outside. He then began running towards his vehicle, still refusing probation’s orders,” according to the affidavit.

He got in his vehicle and drove quickly towards the parole officer, who was in the parking lot and continued to tell him to stop. She was able to jump out of the way in time.

Landslide near Dayton not safety concern, WYDOT says

SHERIDAN (WNE) — A spot being monitored for a potential landslide on U.S. Highway 14 east of Steamboat Point does not pose safety concerns for motorists, according to the Wyoming Department of Transportation.

“We’re not concerned about safety,” WYDOT Senior Public Relations Specialist Laura Dalles said. “It’s something we have been watching for a number of years. Right now, [workers] are up there putting in a potential temporary additional lane, so in the event that the shoulder does slide off, we have a way to divert traffic.”

Maintenance crews have been working in the right of way just east of Steamboat Point on the highway above Dayton since May 26. 

This work is a preventative measure in the event the roadway gives way to a landslide. WYDOT District 4 maintenance staff and geologists have been watching at mile marker 69.8 for some time.

According to WYDOT geologist James Dahill, landslides are not unique to the stretch of U.S. 14 and happen in other areas of Wyoming. WYDOT began monitoring the site several years ago just below the highway and knew it would move progressively up the terrain toward the highway.

Dahill said the challenge with the Little Tongue River landslide is that US 14 crosses the slide at the waistline, or midpoint, of the slide. This means there is just as much slide-prone material above the road as there is below the roadway. Because of the nature of this geological structure, each year’s melting snowpack and yearly erosion results in the weak shale becoming saturated over time.

Legislature’s only Independent rep to retire

Saying “it’s time to pass the torch” to a fresh face in the Wyoming Legislature, District 22 State Rep. Jim Roscoe said he will not run for re-election when his term ends at the beginning of 2023.

Roscoe, an independent, will have served eight years in total when his current term expires, though he took a break between 2013 and his return to the Legislature in 2019.

“I just got back from a trip to Norway for a month skiing with my son and it was so much fun, I thought, ‘I can’t spend another winter in Cheyenne’,” Roscoe, 72, said with a laugh. “But no, I just feel like some young people, you know, some other people, it’s time for them to take their turn and there are people willing to do it. And so I just thought it was just time to pass the torch.”

Specifically, Roscoe said he is throwing his support behind Bob Strobel, a Jackson businessman and techie who started the “See Jackson Hole” tourism website, among numerous other business ventures.

Roscoe listed a number of achievements from his time in the Legislature as points of pride, including championing the law to ban texting and driving.

Conservation groups ask for end to elk feedgrounds

PINEDALE (WNE) — Six conservation groups submitted a 16-page recommendation to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department on Wednesday, requesting the state begin phasing out 22 state-run feedgrounds where elk are artificially fed each winter.

This request was made to “prioritize the health of the Greater Yellowstone region’s wild ungulate herds.”

The Sierra Club, Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Yellowstone to Uintas Connection, Gallatin Wildlife Association and Western Watersheds Project were all designated stakeholders and issued the recommendation.

Kaycee Prevedel of Sierra Club Wyoming said Wyoming is the only state in the western U.S. that continues widespread artificial feeding of elk while neighboring states, like Colorado, manage more elk on considerably less public land.

“Wyoming could do the same,” Prevedel said. “At the very least, it is incumbent on Wyoming wildlife managers to investigate how our neighboring intermountain states manage to have robust wild elk numbers without resorting to artificial feeding.”

Erik Molvar of Western Watersheds Project specifically listed the risk of chronic wasting disease, which has steadily progressed across Wyoming in recent years. Conservationists worry artificial feeding in areas near confirmed CWD cases could lead to an epidemic of the fatal neurological disease.

“The faster the State of Wyoming can shut down the feedgrounds, the lower the risk of ‘superspreader’ events that infect the entire Yellowstone herd,” Molvar said. “When CWD reaches critical mass on the feedgrounds, these migratory herds will spread infectious prions far and wide.”

Wright man pleads guilty in $8700 copper theft

GILLETTE (WNE) — A Wright man who was involved in a dozen copper thefts in southern Campbell County last year has pleaded guilty to four crimes.

Earlier this month, James Cody, 27, pleaded guilty to theft, destruction of property, conspiracy to commit theft and conspiracy to commit destruction of property.

Cody and Hunter Allguer were arrested for a dozen copper thefts that took place from June through November 2021. They both were charged with a number of theft charges in the stealing spree that led to more than $80,000 in damage and more than $8700 in stolen copper wire.

The first copper theft was reported on June 25, 2021, when a supervisor with Powder River Energy reported a theft about 3 miles south of Wright. About 85 feet of copper wire was stolen from three-meter poles, two of which had been cut down by a reciprocating saw. The cost to replace the stolen wire was $206, while the total damage was $10,786, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

The most damage was done on Aug. 11, when a theft was reported on Matheson Road. There were several transformer electrical stations that had been shut down but contained “a significant amount of copper wire,” according to court documents. Three transformers were destroyed and about 500 feet of copper wire was stolen. The total damage was $30,622, and the cost to replace the stolen wire was $4841.

Sheridan mental health care provider merges with VOA

SHERIDAN (WNE) — Sheridan mental health care provider Northern Wyoming Mental Health Care Center will merge with Volunteers of America Northern Rockies, with official consolidation of the two facilities taking place Sept. 1, VOANR Senior Director Dave Shumway announced in a press release Thursday. 

NWYMHC has become one of Northeast Wyoming’s top behavioral health care providers in its 60 years of operation, Shumway said. The center operates facilities in Sheridan, Johnson, Weston and Crook counties and offers individual and family mental health care, outpatient substance use treatment and other forms of support for folks in need of behavioral health support. 

A regional affiliate of the faith-based, nationwide nonprofit Volunteers of America, Inc., VOANR serves more than 15,000 people each year throughout Wyoming, Montana and western South Dakota, with an annual budget of more than $40 million and more than 350 staff in the region, Shumway said. The organization arrived in Sheridan in 1985. Today, the organization offers services to help people rebuild their lives with programs providing services for veterans, homeless people, adults involved in the legal system and youth, among other programs.

At the time of official consolidation this fall, existing NWYMHC staff will become VOANR employees, Shumway said, but VOANR will be responsible for all hiring for NWYMHC beginning this week. 

Shumway said the merger will allow NWYMHC and VOANR to continue to operate under their shared and synergetic missions.