Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

We’re glad to see more Wyoming lawmakers support improving mental healthcare access. This includes one of our own legislators, Senate President Ogden Driskill of Crook County.

We know what happens when people can’t access mental health treatment, because of our son’s experience. We want to prevent others from going through our experience.

At Gov. Mark Gordon’s mental health summit in Casper, Driskill encouraged residents to “lean on” lawmakers and tell them what changes are needed to solve the mental health crisis.

“From the legislative standpoint, all we can do is [provide] policy and money,” Senator Driskill said. “Tell us what you want from policy and help us spend money to get us to a better place.”

We want them to enact a policy that’s worked in many states: Medicaid expansion.

Thousands of Wyomingites have no way to access mental health services because they don’t have insurance. People like our son, who suffers from severe mental illness, would have far more access to care with Medicaid expansion.

He has been hospitalized at least seven times for mental health reasons. He is homeless and diagnosed with both schizoaffective and bipolar disorders, and experiences psychosis and mood shifts. He is not an incapable person or a lost cause. He simply needs help.

Within the last year he has been in several psych wards, one in Gillette. Although staff agreed he needed inpatient care, he was released after ten days, in part because he was uninsured.

Despite two college degrees, he has not been able to work steadily for the past six years. He spent three months in a Rapid City jail on an aggravated assault charge that was eventually dismissed.

He needs medical treatment that the criminal justice system, especially in rural Wyoming, cannot provide.

Because Wyoming has refused to expand Medicaid, tens of thousands of residents have no health coverage and no affordable way to get insurance.

We are thankful that Senator Driskill is asking residents to suggest answers to our state’s mental health crisis. We hope he listens to what we have to say.

Linda Rogers, Randy Leinen

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Dear Editor,

This letter is to bring my rural customers up to date on the ongoing septic tank disposal problem in Crook County.

Currently, the City of Sundance will accept sewage for an added fee from those residents living within the city limits that are not connected to the city sewer system.

Those residents that have enough acreage for their sewage to be land applied on their property, must first contact Tim Lyons at the Growth & Development office in the county court house for a permit. Once your permitting process has been completed, your sewage can be disposed of.

Keep in mind Wyoming DEQ is not allowing the land application of your sewage from November 1 to May 1. For all other residents with smaller acreages, I have two options available. As I’ve previously stated, the nearest lagoon that will accept outside sewage is located in Gillette.

Due to the distance I would have to travel, the added fuel costs and my time, as well as Gillette’s disposal fees, I do not feel this is a viable alternative since it would essentially double the cost of pumping a 1000 gallon tank for each of my customers.

I am also currently working with a local engineer on the permitting process to comply with Wyoming DEQ requirements to be able to land apply domestic sewage on my own property for those with smaller acreages. It appears that this process will take at least another month to be properly permitted, so in the meantime, unfortunately I am unable to pump septic tanks for those residents.

We really feel that this is a county problem, and that our County Commissioners need to get

involved to come up with an affordable solution of the sewage disposal for both the current and future residents of Crook County.

Sincerely,

James R. Geis

Geis Honeywagon