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County employees will find themselves earning a bit more later this year after the Sweetwater County Commissioners committed to providing a 6% cost of living adjustment. The adjustment will amount to an additional $1.4 million earmarked for employee salaries during the next budget year. The group is concerned about the impacts of high inflation on employees and the fact that they haven’t seen a significant cost of living allocation in several years. Commissioner Randy Wendling said employee s...
To the graduating class of 2022, applications are now being accepted for the Sweetwater County Commissioners Scholarship. The Board of County Commissioners will select three local students to receive a $1,000 scholarship during their May 17 meeting. Applicants can use the money to attend the University of Wyoming or any Wyoming Community College. All forms and letters of recommendation must be received no later than April 29. The application can be found on the county website: www.sweetwatercountywy.gov, under the tabs Departments, Board of...
Almost exactly two years after the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, many places, including Wyoming, are seeing COVID case numbers decrease and transitioning out of precautions and procedures put in place at the beginning of the pandemic. The latest development for Wyoming is the end of the state’s COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration, which will officially end March 14. “As we see our case numbers and hospitalizations receding, it is...
The Sweetwater County Fire Committee presented its findings on fire service to the Board of County Commissioners this week and recommended closing the Sweetwater County Fire Department and contracting with existing fire agencies to cover fire protection services currently performed by the county fire department. During the meeting, County Fire Warden Mike Bournazian gave a presentation on the history of the Sweetwater County Fire Department and an overview of the work the department does....
JACKSON — In a world of rapid sharing online, the Wyoming Legislature is considering a bill that may protect those charged with a crime from the harsh court of public opinion. State lawmakers heard testimony Monday on a proposed law that would prohibit the release of mug shots unless the person was convicted. The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Chad Banks, a Democrat from Sweetwater County. “This bill is not meant to disparage law enforcement or their efforts in any way,” Banks said when introducing the bill. “Citizens in my county are really...
Sweetwater BOCES is excited to announce it will host the annual Wyoming State Spelling Bee on March 19, located on the Western Wyoming Community College campus. This event has been held virtually the last two years due to COVID19. Each year, 70-80 students from across the state participate in the competition. To be eligible to compete, the speller must not have reached their 15th birthday on or before August 31, 2021 and the speller must not have passed beyond the eighth grade on or before...
Positions within Sweetwater County government are being restaffed, with some positions being eliminated or changed, following staff members leaving as part of the county’s voluntary separation program. Positions in the Accounting Department, Titles Department and the County Assessor’s Office were approved to be restaffed during Tuesday’s County Commission meeting, all of which were connected to changes resulting from the voluntary separation program. The program is for people who want to retir...
A bill sponsored by two Sweetwater County legislators would limit how photos of people arrested for an alleged crime are released. The bill, known as House Bill 51, is sponsored by Rep. Chad Banks (D-Rock Springs), with Rep. Andi LeBeau (D-Lander) and Sen. John Kolb (R-Rock Springs) co-sponsoring it. The bill would prohibit both the Wyoming Department of Corrections and the county jails from releasing photos taken of people arrested for an alleged crime until a conviction for that crime is...
ROCK SPRINGS - To Lenore Perry's eye, the Holiday Inn ballroom Saturday night was packed with red dresses, scarlet shirts and a lot of Harriet Hageman supporters. Perry, an attorney, has the same profession as Hageman, who also attended the adult-prom themed "Conservatives in Crimson" gala. Hageman's appeal as a candidate to replace sitting U.S. House Rep. Liz Cheney stems not from their dealings in the courtroom, she said, but rather from getting to know her as a fellow Republican in the...
A combined effort from two fire fighting agencies and more than two dozen firefighters was needed to quell a house fire that ignited near Green River Tuesday morning, resulting in a 34-year-old woman being severely injured from burns. A house fire at 1600 Highway 374 was reported at 4:29 a.m. Tuesday morning, west of Green River. A release from the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office states a driver saw the fire from Highway 374 and helped rescue the occupants before the first fire engine...
After last year’s proposed 1% general purpose tax was voted down in a special election, Sweetwater County’s Board of County Commissioners wants to handle things differently when it comes to this year’s proposed specific purpose tax initiative. In order to do this, the commissioners voted to retain professional services to help present the tax initiative to the public. “In the last tax initiative, the public didn’t feel like they were heard beforehand,” Commissioner Lauren Schoenfeld said during Tuesday’s meeting. She said working with another...
With COVID-19 rapid tests in short supply, Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County has made changes to the types of tests it can offer. MHSC will no longer provide rapid tests – those offering results in about 45 minutes – for those who need a test to travel, nor for those who have scheduled an out-of-town surgery. With the hospital’s current resources in the Emergency Room, at Sweetwater Walk-In Clinic and at the COVID-19 Drive-thru Swab Station, MHSC soon will be unable to do same-day tests, Kim White, Emergency Department Director and MHSC...
“Sweetwater County is so important to what may or may not happen in the state of Wyoming,” Randall Luthi, the Chief Energy Policy Advisor to Governor Gordon, said during Tuesday’s County Commission meeting. Luthi was invited by Commissioner Mary Thoman to speak to the commission and give an update on the state of Jim Bridger Power Plant after Governor Mark Gordon recently ordered a postponement to the partial shutdown. Luthi is from Freedom, Wyoming and served in the Wyoming House of Repre...
CASPER — On unit 2 of the Jim Bridger power plant, Wyoming isn’t taking no for an answer. State leaders and operating utility Rocky Mountain Power have doubled down on their commitment to resolving a dispute over pollution controls, and keeping the unit open past its impending April compliance deadline, after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced this past week that it would propose disapproving the state’s alternative plan. The rejection wasn’t exactly surprising, according to Randall Luthi, Gov. Mark Gordon’s chief energy ad...
Slavery still exists and is a widespread problem, not only through the world but in Wyoming. Human trafficking, often referred to as modern slavery, involves exploiting adults or children and forcing them to perform acts of labor or commercial sex to make a profit for traffickers. While many people and organizations work to raise awareness of human trafficking all through the year, extra attention is given to the topic in January, which has been recognized nationally and locally as Human...
PacifiCorp continues to operate unit 2 at the Jim Bridger coal-fired power plant despite running afoul of a federal regional haze permit — an infraction some believed would force a Jan. 1 shutdown. Gov. Mark Gordon, who recently attempted to intervene in the regulatory noncompliance, warned in late December the Environmental Protection Agency might force the unit to shut down on Jan. 1. “In several short days, PacifiCorp will be forced to shut down Unit 2, lay off employees, and buy power to make up for the lost generation,” Gordon wrote in a...
A threat made against the Sweetwater County Attorney's Office and the Sweetwater County Commissioners resulted in the county courthouse being locked down Tuesday morning. The building was locked down at about 9:35 a.m. after an individual called the county's dispatch center and issued a threat against the courthouse. According to Sweetwater County Commissioner Randy Wendling, the threat revolved around a claim the caller made about their plans to gun down employees in the Sweetwater County...
While many people hoped the COVID-19 pandemic would improve throughout 2021 and life would get back to normal, the fight against the novel coronavirus and its variants continued throughout the year, with an ongoing back-and-forth of progress and setbacks. In the past year, the Wyoming Department of Health reported almost 54,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state and over 1,100 related deaths. The first COVID-19 vaccine doses in Wyoming were administered in Dec. 2020. By the beginning of...
This year, the Board of County Commissioners had new faces join county leaders and worked through ongoing discussions about the future of the county — especially in regard to ambulance service and the proposed Natrium plant being built in Wyoming. New faces Mary Thoman began her first term as a county commissioner in January after being elected in November 2020. Thoman replaced longtime Commissioner Wally Johnson. In June, Sweetwater County Treasurer Robb Slaughter announced his decision to resi...
Gov. Mark Gordon issued an emergency suspension order Monday seeking to temporarily block the Environmental Protection Agency from potentially shutting down one of four coal-burning units at the Jim Bridger power plant for falling out of compliance with regional haze parameters. Jim Bridger owner and operator PacifiCorp — which operates as Rocky Mountain Power in Wyoming — has until Jan. 1 to install “selective catalytic reduction” controls to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions at unit 2, and until the end of 2022 to install the controls at unit...
As the Board of County Commissioners continues to look for ways to save revenue and make county services more efficient, Commissioners Roy Lloyd and Mary Thoman have turned their attention to the Sweetwater County Fire Department, questioning if it can be reevaluated to ensure it is functioning as efficiently as possible. Fire Warden Mike Bournazian spoke at this week’s commissioner meeting, defending the need for the fire department and his work to continually make it more efficient over the p...
The Denver Division of the FBI is warning residents of both Colorado and Wyoming of a phone scam being conducted where the caller identifies themselves as a law enforcement official and asks for money or gift cards to clear supposed warrants and fines. According to a press release sent by the FBI, more than 300 women in Larimer County had been scammed through the scheme from 2016-2021 while more than 100 women in the Denver area had been scammed from 2017-2021. “The FBI warns citizens that if they receive a phone call from someone claiming t...
YWCA of Sweetwater County’s Festival of Trees 2021 kicked off a festive start to the new year and helped raise over $20,000 to help support YWCA clients. The Festival of Trees is held each December to raise funds for all the services that YWCA offers to the community. This year the event was back in person after the 2020 event had to go fully online due to pandemic restrictions. While supporters still decorated trees and donated baskets it was not the same as the big live auction event. This year’s event was back with all the fun and fes...
Castle Rock Ambulance Service and Sweetwater Medics are continuing discussions about consolidating ambulance services and looking into the possibility of Castle Rock eventually taking over service for both Green River and Rock Springs. The discussions started during last week’s Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting, when the group approved their contract with Sweetwater Medics and approved an additional $235,000, which Sweetwater Medics Director Ron Gatti said was necessary to continue s...
After a warm and dry November, southwest Wyoming may start to see more “Christmasy” weather with colder temperatures and more chances for precipitation this month. Thursday and Friday are expected to bring the first major snow we’ve seen this winter, with the exception of the storm Oct. 12. Since then, Southwest Wyoming hasn’t seen any meaningful snowfall until now. The National Weather Service issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook on Tuesday, warning of probable snow in the mountains that night,...
