Wyoming News Briefs

Gas prices edge slightly higher in Wyoming in the past week

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Average gasoline prices in Wyoming have risen 0.9 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.29 per gallon Monday, according to GasBuddy.com’s survey of 494 stations in Wyoming.

Prices in Wyoming are 4.1 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, and stand 62.6 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

According to GasBuddy price reports, the lowest price in the state Sunday was $2.79, while the highest was $4.29, a difference of $1.50 per gallon.

The national average price of gasoline has fallen 7.2 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.22 on Monday. The national average is down 22.5 cents per gallon from a month ago, and stands 58.8 cents per gallon lower than a year ago, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million weekly price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.

Devils Tower had more than 333K visitors this summer

GILLETTE (WNE) — Devils Tower has cooled off from its record-setting pace in the first five months of the year, but it still is putting up strong numbers, which is good for the surrounding communities.

According to a report released by the National Parks Service, in 2023, visitors to Devils Tower spent about $37.6 million in the neighboring communities and generated 492 jobs, creating $14.9 million in labor income and $48.9 million in economic output and adding $26.3 million in value.

In June, July and August, 333,031 people visited Devils Tower:

June: 108,892

July: 118,635

August: 105,504

Despite both the International Pathfinder Camporee and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally both taking place last month, the number of visitors actually dropped 1.2% compared to August 2023. Those 105,504 visitors spent 262,713 hours at the national monument.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Devils Tower had never gone three straight months with more than 100,000 visitors. But starting in 2021, it’s accomplished this feat for four straight summers now.

For the year, 416,821 people have come through the gates, close to 3% ahead of 2023.

Rodriguez-Williams to chair Wyoming Freedom Caucus

POWELL (WNE) — Coming off a dominant victory in last month’s primary election, state Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, has been tabbed as the next leader of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

The caucus, which has sought to move the Wyoming Legislature further to the right, announced Monday that Rodriguez-Williams had been unanimously chosen as its chairman for the next two years.

She takes over from Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette.

“Our members will continue to work hard to restore hope for Wyoming in the People's House and be strong voices for the issues that are most important to the people of Wyoming,” Rodriguez-Williams said.

She is moving into the chairman’s seat just as the caucus is poised to take on a much bigger role in the state House of Representatives.

In the past couple of legislative sessions, the Freedom Caucus and its allies generally lacked the votes to override more moderate Republicans and Democrats.

But in last month’s Republican primary, 32 of the 46 legislative candidates endorsed by the group won their races, and most, like Rodriguez-Williams, have no opponent for the general election. What the caucus called an “overwhelming electoral success” could clear the way for the group to control the House during the 68th Legislature.

In an interview immediately after the election, Rodriguez-Williams said Wyomingites will see a more conservative body.

“And I think that the people of Wyoming have spoken very loudly that that’s what they want,” she said. “They don’t want to be pushed around by the federal government. They don’t want special interest groups being a larger voice or a louder voice than themselves. And they want results.”

Local business owner wants to hold shooting competition on Campbell County's recently purchased land

GILLETTE (WNE) — Campbell County was unsuccessful in landing a state shooting complex, but there still may be use for the $10 million piece of land southeast of Cam-plex that the county had purchased.

Peter Angelos, CEO of Omega Precision Firearms in Gillette, and husband of Rep. Abby Angelos, R-Gillette, approached commissioners last week about the possibility of hosting a long-range shooting competition on a portion of the 5500-acre Spaeth Ranch.

Angelos said he’s not planning to organize a shooting competition here in the very near future, given the dry conditions and danger of fires.

He goes to many shooting competitions in the region, including one close by on private land by Moorcroft. While the events have great turnout, “we struggle with the availability of land close by,” said Angelos, adding that he’d like to see an event that doesn’t require competitors to drive an hour from their hotel room just to get to.

That’s why the Spaeth Ranch is appealing.

It would be a temporary use of the property, and event insurance would be purchased for the competition. Angelos said targets would be hung up at distances from 300 to 1200 yards, and everything could be taken down in a day. He added that he’d probably limit the event to 100 competitors.

Commissioners told Angelos to work with Public Works Director Matt Olsen to figure out where on the property he’d like to have this event.

Free flowing traffic returns to Togwotee as Fish Creek Fire burns to the south

JACKSON (WNE) — Free flowing traffic has returned to Highway 26/287 over Togwotee Pass where the Fish Creek Fire continues to put up smoke columns visible from Jackson.

While a pilot car system has ended, fire officials are asking the public to drive cautiously since numerous firefighters and fire vehicles continue to work along the road.

“We’d ask that people please slow down a bit,” said Cecile Stelter, a public information officer with the Northern Rockies Team 2. “Please do not stop and take pictures. Realize that there’s fire very close to the road.”

As smoke impacts people well beyond the fire’s footprint, now at 22,107 acres, Stelter recommends the public visit AirNow.gov for air quality alerts and predictions, plus tips on how to reduce health impacts from the smoke.

Although the lightning-caused fire is putting up hard-to-miss smoke columns in the afternoon, Stelter said Sunday evening that most of the heavy burning activity is in the Cottonwood Creek area along the fire’s southern edge.

“We want to assure people that fire activity is occurring well within the confinement lines that have been established,” she said. “What is happening down there is the fire is burning into some very receptive fuels, which is some beetle-killed, standing dead snags.”

Wyoming GOP passes resolution to censure Laramie County Clerk

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Saturday morning at its monthly meeting in Douglas, the Wyoming Republican Party’s Central Committee passed a resolution to censure Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee.

Previously, the state GOP’s Executive Committee issued a news release announcing a resolution that criticized Lee’s management of a voting machine test, which it believed to be noncompliant with state law.

The resolution came after the GOP launched a lawsuit against Lee, claiming she unlawfully handled the testing of the voting machines prior to the Aug. 20 primary election.

After the lawsuit was filed, Lee released a public statement claiming there were no errors with the voting test and that the lawsuit sought to disrupt the primary elections process.

The GOP’s issue was that the test ballots all had the same number of votes for each candidate. Per state statute, the test ballots must show a different number of votes on each ballot to demonstrate that the tabulator machines can count a different number of votes for each candidate.

The tabulators were retested and showed no error in counting the votes, Lee previously told the WTE.

Laramie County GOP Chairman Taft Love previously told the WTE the test had gone well, congratulating and thanking the clerk’s office and all who helped ensure a secure election season.

However, the GOP’s censure resolution passed Saturday states that Lee was “misrepresenting that her erroneous testing had no errors, resisting even the most common sense efforts to fix her statutory noncompliance, flatly ignoring multiple early attempts to help her rectify the situation with both the DS450 and DS200 tabulators, failing to perform the public preparation of the voting machines mandated by Wyo. Stat. section 22-10-108, and resisting accountability at every turn.”

The censure resolution is only a formal statement of disapproval. Members of the Wyoming GOP could not be reached for comment before publication Saturday.

Central Wyoming College builds in Jackson

LANDER (WNE) — Last week, ground was broken for Central Wyoming College’s new Jackson campus.

The groundbreaking was attended by town and county officials, elected representatives, engineers and contractors, CWC President Dr. Brad Tyndall, four members of the CWC Board of Trustees, CWC Jackson staff, a busload of CWC staff from Riverton and the public.

The event took place just west of Jackson Hole High School on the college owned two-acre site.

The groundbreaking is the culmination of decades-long work in Jackson to establish the first college-owned campus there.

For the past 47 years, many locations throughout Jackson and Teton County have been used for college classes and events, including the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts downtown where the college has offices, several classrooms and its Jackson nursing program.

Jackson Mayor Hailey Morton Levinson noted that residents of Teton County passed two separate special option taxes to support the purchase of the land and help fund the construction of the 20,000 square foot facility.

She said having a permanent site for the college will be “huge” for the town, as more Jackson residents will be able to take advantage of college programs.

Speakers included Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, who along with former Riverton Senator Eli Bebout, was instrumental in acquiring state and ARPA funds for the new campus.

Rawlins suffers six in-town water line breaks over Labor Day weekend

RAWLINS (WNE) — Over the Labor Day holiday, the City of Rawlins’ in-town water infrastructure experienced six breaks due to aging infrastructure and a slightly elevated pressure event.

Despite undergoing regular maintenance, a pressure-reducing valve failed. Although pressure remained within normal limits, due to Rawlins’ aging infrastructure, breaks occurred at weak points.

Due to the large number of breaks occurring simultaneously, staff from multiple divisions helped respond to repair the breaks as quickly as possible. The Utility Division, which regularly repairs water breaks, was joined by staff from the Water Treatment and Administration Divisions of Public Works, staff from the Administration Division of Community Development, and staff from the Parks Division of Parks & Recreation.

“As always, our staff remained on-site as long as allowed to fix the breaks and to restore water,” said Mira Miller, community relations/public information officer with the City of Rawlins. “Thank you to all the city staff who worked to restore water to residents. Many worked for over three days straight, only took breaks as required, and often worked until 1 a.m. or later and returned first thing in the morning.”

Miller also thanked affected residents for their patience, especially those who stopped by to thank and support the crews in their long hours of work.

Laramie County forms Opioid Settlement Task Force

CHEYENNE (WNE) — Laramie County commissioners on Wednesday announced the formation of an Opioid Settlement Task Force, with the goal of addressing the opioid crisis through identifying needs, resources, solutions and services to best serve county residents.

This task force consists of representatives from law enforcement, health care, mental health services and various community organizations to allocate the resources the county has received and will continue to receive from the national opioid settlement funds.

These funds are obtained from legal settlements with companies found to be, in part, responsible for the opioid crisis. They are being distributed to state and local governments across the country to support addiction treatment, prevention programs and other efforts.

County Commissioner Gunnar Malm, the commission’s representative on the task force, said Laramie County has accumulated around $1.4 million worth of these funds over the last year or so, but none of it has been allocated.

In meetings with community members and stakeholders on how to spend these funds, Malm said it was decided that forming a task force would limit duplication of services and make the most efficient and effective use of the funds.

In its first meeting, Malm said the task force identified three populations it will focus on to begin addressing the issue: those in the justice system, those seeking treatment who have not interacted with the justice system and those whose families face generational struggles with opioid addiction.

According to data from the Laramie County Coroner’s office, nearly 56% of all accidental deaths in Laramie County in 2023 were due to drug overdose. Of those 30 drug overdose cases, fentanyl and methamphetamine were found to be the two leading causes, at eight cases each.

Park County Commissioners agree to pursue joint powers board for shooting complex

POWELL (WNE) — The Park County commissioners have agreed to pursue a joint powers board to oversee the state shooting complex if it does indeed receive final approval to be built south of Cody.

At their Aug. 27 meeting, the commissioners unanimously voted to pursue a joint powers agreement between the county and City of Cody if the estimated $14.2 million complex is approved.

Chair Dossie Overfield said she still liked the idea of the local group who worked to get task force approval on a county complex finishing up the details of a board. The agreement will then be reviewed by both the city and county attorneys before being sent to the state for approval.

“That can be a two, three, four-month process when it gets to Cheyenne,” she said.

James Klessens, who has been leading the local shooting complex group, said the agreement should pass muster at the local and state level as it uses the language from the Park County Travel Council, another area joint powers board, when the council revised its agreement two years ago.

The basic layout of the board will be what was proposed by the group at its early August meeting. Of the members of the proposed board, six would be appointed by the county and three by the city, with most tied to representing an industry, like the travel and tourism and firearms sectors, and representatives of the local governments involved.

There will also be at large positions, which Klessens said would provide the flexibility for both Cody and the county to appoint whoever they wanted.

How to help those impacted by Wyoming wildfires

GREYBULL (WNE) — Four fires in northeast Wyoming have impacted residents of the area including burning up grazing land. Residents of Big Horn County have been asking how they can help.

In Buffalo MTR Feed Store has set up an account for those impacted to buy fencing supplies. The store is working with its supplier to buy in bulk and at a discounted rate.

The donations are run through Big Horn Equestrian Center, which is a non-profit. MTR Ranch Supply: 710 N. Main St, Buffalo, WY 82834. 307-684-9015. Big Horn Equestrian Center, 352 Bird Farm Road, Big Horn, WY 82801 307-673-0454.

The Wyoming Rancher Fire Relief Facebook page was set up to help with hay, hauling and fencing supplies. There is an auction on the page with items such as cowboy hats, fly fishing access for four people, quilts, art, veterinary acupuncture and jewelry. A bank account has been set up at Converse County Bank.

Donations may be made at http://www.wyrancherfirerelief. com or through VENMO@ Wyrancherfirerelief. Put “fire donation” in the memo.

Donations may also be made at First Northern Bank of Wyoming in Buffalo. Gordan Taylor is coordinating the fund. Donations may be sent to 141 S. Main Street, Buffalo, WY 82834, 307-684-2211.

Donna Nelson from Johnson County UW Extension is coordinating hay donations. She is matching donors with the producers that need hay.

Call Nelson at 307-6847522 to donate hay, trucks to haul, etc.

Lindsey Wood from Campbell County Cattlewomen is another contact for people to use if they want to help. The Cattlewomen is a 501c that is accepting donations for ranchers impacted by the fire with a local committee to address distribution.

Donations may be sent to Campbell County Cattlewomen at 8466 N. Hwy 14/16, Gillette, WY 82716/ Lindsey Wood 307-670-0171.