Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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GILLETTE — State legislators have proposed a bill creating a program where students can be eligible for $5,000 a year if they’re not in the public school system. House Bill 19 would create education savings accounts using money from the state’s general fund. Rep. Ken Clouston, R-Gillette, is a member of the Joint Education Interim Committee, which is sponsoring the bill. He said the group listened to hours and hours of testimony about this bill. “I think it’s a good bill, because nobody got everything they wanted, there was give and take on bot...
Via Wyoming News Exchange GILLETTE - When Ralph Gilbert graduated from high school in 1968, he knew he "just wasn't college material." Three to four months after he got his high school diploma, he was fighting in Vietnam as a member of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division, also known as Tropic Lightning. Gilbert was an E-4, and he provided fire support for infantry and artillery. Fifty-five years later, Gilbert said it feels "like a lifetime ago, but it can also seem like yesterday." "It can f...
Via Wyoming News Exchange GILLETTE - While coal is still king in Campbell County, oil and gas are still the second and third largest contributors to the county's economy, as far as taxable value goes. Across the state, natural gas production has been on a steady decline since 2009, while oil production has been more up and down. According to a report put out by the Wyoming State Geological Survey this month, the state's oil production has not yet surpassed its 2019 high, while nationwide oil...
GILLETTE - The Gillette City Council remained split on a proposed malicious harms ordinance, but the group passed it on a third and final reading Tuesday night with a 4-3 vote. Amendments were made to the ordinance, with the biggest change being the addition of age as a protected class. The votes on the ordinance remained unchanged from the first two readings, with City Councilmen Jim West, Billy Montgomery and Nathan McLeland and Councilwoman Heidi Gross voting for the ordinance, and Mayor...
GILLETTE - The Campbell County Joint Powers Lodging Tax Board is continuing with its contract with Zartico, a company that compiles anonymized geolocation and credit card data. A group of county residents has raised concerns about invasion of privacy and constitutionality since early April, when the Campbell County Convention and Visitors Bureau told commissioners it would be using a geofencing technology to track spending and activity habits during the National High School Finals Rodeo. The...
GILLETTE – The Campbell County Convention and Visitors Bureau's plan to use a geofencing technology to track spending habits at the National High School Finals Rodeo this summer has rubbed some people the wrong way, with one person even calling for a commissioner to resign. In March, the visitors center told commissioners about its plans to put a virtual fence around Cam-plex and around Campbell County during the NHSFR to get a better idea of the economic impact the event has. At Tuesday's commi...
GILLETTE – March 20. For most, it’s not a date that lives in infamy. This year, it came and went without much fanfare. But Monday marked the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. In February of 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations Security Council that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons, and that he would use them against neighboring countries and his own people. Less than 18 months earlier, the U.S. had invaded Afghanistan as a result of the 9/11 att...
GILLETTE — The sounds of metal against metal rang out Saturday morning, with two-and-a-half pound horseshoes clanking against stakes in the dirt after traveling more than 25 feet in the air. Forty-two competitors took part in the Wyoming Horseshoe State Championship at Fireside Horseshoe Club behind Fireside Lounge Saturday and Sunday. The tournament, put on by the Wyoming Horseshoe Pitching Association, included nine people from Gillette, but it also brought in people from all over the state, from Riverton and Green River to Shoshoni and L...
GILLETTE — The Campbell County Public Library board meeting on Monday came to an unscheduled end after the board members abruptly voted to adjourn. The vote came about as a result of what some board members perceived to be disrespect from a resident who was appealing the library’s decision to keep a book in the teen section. For more than five months, residents have criticized the library for including books that deal with sex and LGBTQ+ issues in the teen and children’s sections. At the beginning of Monday’s meeting, the board adopted a proto...
GILLETTE — A year after its prices dropped below zero, oil seems to be on the rebound, but a lot of work remains to be done under the Biden administration. That was the message that three state officials had for people Wednesday morning at the Energy Exposition at the Cam-plex Wyoming Center. Tom Kropatsch, the deputy oil and gas supervisor for the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, said 2019 was a great year for Wyoming oil, with 101.8 million barrels produced, which was the highest figure since 1991. In 2020, despite the p...
GILLETTE – Gillette's potential as a site for a new nuclear power plant excites local officials. Wednesday morning, Gov. Mark Gordon announced that a nuclear power plant will be coming to Wyoming. The Natrium Reactor is a collaboration between Rocky Mountain Power, the U.S. Department of Energy and TerraPower, a green energy company founded by Bill Gates. The location has not been announced yet, but Mayor Louise Carter-King made the case for Gillette. “If there was ever a community that could take a project like this on, it is Gillette,” she s...
GILLETTE — The Campbell County Public Health officer compared people who have tested positive for COVID-19 yet break quarantine to “homegrown terrorists," a correlation that angered at least one county commissioner. During a public comment period at the commission's Tuesday meeting, Dr. Kirtikumar Patel expressed frustration over the recent surge in cases. On Sept. 23, there were 233 confirmed cases in Campbell County since the pandemic began. As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 362 confirmed cases. The increase is due to the loosening of restr...
GILLETTE — An oil and gas company’s proposal to trade land with the state has angered landowners in southern Campbell County. In July, EOG Resources asked the Campbell County Commissioners to support a proposed land swap between the oil and gas company and the state of Wyoming. There are eight sections of state land in southern Campbell County and northern Converse County measuring 5,120 acres. EOG proposed trading eight sections of land in Laramie County, southeast of Cheyenne, to the state in exchange for the land in Campbell and Con...
GILLETTE — So far during the coronavirus pandemic in Campbell County, eight of the 11 people who been confirmed positive for coronavirus have recovered. No one has been hospitalized because of COVID-19 yet. But the worst is yet to come, especially if the community lets down its guard, CCH officials say. There are several models that predict the spread of the novel coronavirus, and most of them project that Wyoming’s surge will start the last week of April and peak in the first or second week of May, said Dr. Nick Stamato, chief of medical sta...
GILLETTE — If all goes according to plan, the primary election in August 2020 could look a little different from past elections, not just for voters but also for people working behind the scenes. The Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office hopes to have new election equipment in place in time for the next Wyoming primary election. Campbell County Clerk Susan Saunders said the office is developing its own electronic poll book that allows voters to sign in electronically. It would replace the paper poll books that are now in use. With the e-poll boo...
GILLETTE — Wyoming has come a long way from its roots. But when it comes to gambling, some lawmakers believe the Cowboy State today isn’t much different from its wilder days. “On the surface, it really is the Wild West,” said state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower. “It’s do whatever you want until someone says no.” Driskill wants the state to get a handle on gaming across Wyoming before it gets out of control. In June, the Joint Committee on Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources, of which Driskill is co-chair, decided not t...
GILLETTE — Three out of four people who responded to a monthlong public survey from the Campbell County School District are in favor of arming certain school staff, but the discussion is far from over. Deputy Superintendent Kirby Eisenhauer presented the survey results to the school board at its meeting Wednesday night. Overall, 1,249 people responded to the survey in the month of June and 76%, or 945, said they support allowing select school staff to carry guns. There were 231, or 18.5%, against it, and about 6% said they need more i...
GILLETTE — Patrick Johnson and his father Buck were out on a lake fishing when they got the news that their employer, Blackjewel LLC, had filed for bankruptcy. Hours later, as they were sitting and talking, they got a call from a coworker saying the company’s employees had been sent home from the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines. Patrick had been working at Eagle Butte mine for a month, but Buck had spent 18 years at Belle Ayr. “It definitely put a damper on the camping trip for a little bit,” Patrick said. “But life goes on. You just got to mo...
GILLETTE — Duncan Davidson was at Sage Valley Junior High on that day in November when another student brought guns and ammunition to the school, allegedly with the intent to kill. “I was scared for my life,” he said. “That’s why I’m pro arming teachers.” He said this opinion is shared by many of his fellow students. “As someone who was there, I would have felt much safer and less fearful if I knew that someone was armed there besides the police, before the police got there.” Davidson was one of 26 people who spoke Monday night at the third and...
GILLETTE - A proposed bill would give local political parties the power to fill vacant seats in county elected offices. House Bill 121, sponsored by Scott Clem, R-Gillette, would amend state statute to essentially cut the commissioners out of the process of filling vacancies on the County Commission. The bill, which has been introduced, also has the support of six other legislators, including local Republicans Roy Edwards and Timothy Hallinan. Commissioner Mark Christensen said the statute is...
GILLETTE — A Gillette GOP official is catching flak for sharing an article on social media that compares gay rights activists to Nazis. She said she believes the situation has been “blown out of proportion” and that she is being attacked for her beliefs. “I just reposted an article,” said Vicki Kissack, chairwoman of the Campbell County Republican Party. “There was no ill intention or ill motive behind it. It was just thought-provoking to me.” On April 29, Kissack shared an article on her personal Facebook page titled “Face Facts: The LGBT...