Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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TEN SLEEP – Several state agencies were activated Friday morning, after numerous motorist reports of a large creature venturing across Highway 16 near Crazy Woman Canyon, in the Big Horn Mountains. At approximately 8:47 a.m., two vehicles and one motorcycle stopped at the Pony Express gas station in Ten Sleep, requesting law enforcement and reporting that at least one of the vehicles had been attacked by a large, upright creature, throwing basketball-sized rocks at passing cars. Stephen Gartenson of Gillette was on his way to see family in W...
TEN SLEEP — The Town of Ten Sleep Town Council met for their regular monthly meeting on Jan. 7 to hear department reports and afterward, Mayor Jack Haggerty discussed his tenure, and reported that he will retire from the position this year, not running for re-election. “I’m pretty much done,” said Haggerty. “I’ve been on the council since 2003, and served a term and a half as mayor, and accomplished quite a lot in that time, but it’s time to hand it over to a new mayor.” During Haggerty’s time as mayor, the town has faced the destruction and r...
TEN SLEEP – The Ten Sleep Town Council met for their regular monthly meeting on Dec. 3, and passed the modified version of a previously-introduced ordinance to allow fireworks to be discharged in town limits, during major federal holidays. Originally introduced in September, Ordinance 219 would have amended section 4-5-3 of the Town of Ten Sleep Town code pertaining to fireworks. The original draft of the ordinance states: “No fireworks shall be in any way fired or discharged at any time within the town, with the exception of the following date...
TEN SLEEP – The Ten Sleep Town Council met for their regular monthly meeting on Nov. 5, and effectively tabled a previously-introduced ordinance to allow fireworks to be discharged in town limits, during major federal holidays. Originally introduced in September, Ordinance 219 amends section 4-5-3 of the Town of Ten Sleep Town code pertaining to fireworks. Ordinance 219 states: “No fireworks shall be in any way fired or discharged at any time within the town, with the exception of the following dates and holidays. — New Year’s Eve beginni...
WORLAND – Due to half a dozen grass fires across the county in the last week, Worland Fire District Chief Chris Kocher reminds residents to review the county fire regulations, currently posted on the county website. “The big issue is everything is dormant right now, so all the fuels [grass, brush] will burn readily,” said Kocher. “Don’t take it for granted that it won’t burn because of the recent snowmelt.” While residents are anxious to get out in the warmer weather and burn trash of lawn materials, or start weed mitigation, Kocher wants...
TEN SLEEP – Three supposed Bigfoot sightings prompted a series of calls to the Wyoming Office of Mountain Investigations over the weekend, as reported by WOMI Director Walker Smith to the Northern Wyoming News. First, on Saturday, Dr. Narayan Khandekorrn with the Aboriginal Art Center of Boston, was leading a group of post-graduate students on a survey of Lakota bark art locations near Lost Twin Lakes, when their rental vehicle was attacked. "The humanoid appeared to be rather capacious, as w...
WORLAND – The Washakie County Fair Board met for their monthly meeting on Monday, in advance of the 2019 Fair, to discuss the possibility of adding a demolition derby to Saturday night events, and set final pricing for events. Joe Maul of Worland proposed acting as contractor for a 25-car derby, to be held on Saturday night, closing out the week’s activities. The fair board acknowledged that before they could commit to a derby, the board would have to advertise for bids, and approve the bid by April 5. During the conversation, the board agreed...
WORLAND – On March 6, Governor Mark Gordon signed into law House Bill 0171, which removes hemp and hemp products from regulation by the Wyoming Controlled Substances Act, and authorizes hemp production and processing through the state Department of Agriculture. The law will also allow merchants to sell Cannabidiol (CBD) oils, and hemp-based products including cosmetics and lotions. As defined by the bill, “Industrial hemp means all parts and varieties of the plant cannabis sativa, containing no more than three-tenths of one percent of (0....
BASIN - A Ten Sleep man held on $500,000 cash bond in Basin on three felony counts after a shooting incident on Feb. 3 at the HiWay Bar and Café in Manderson has been held over for a jury trial in Fifth Judicial District Court. Michael Duane Verry, 70, was arrested in Billings, Mont., on Feb. 21, following his release from a Billings hospital. He is currently charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder, one count of attempted second-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault and battery. According to an earlier interview...
CHEYENNE – Two bills that passed the Wyoming State Legislature are headed to the governor’s desk for approval, both of which would expand victims services and extend the time a victim would be eligible for benefits in the case of violent crimes. House Bill 45 extends the amount of time victims of crime can claim expenses for mental health treatment from 24 months to 36 months. Bob Vines, witness and victims coordinator with the Washakie County Attorney’s Office, sees the move as a good one, since some cases can drag on beyond two years in th...
CHEYENNE- State Representative Mike Greear (R-Worland) gave some rare insight into legislation moving through the Wyoming House of Representatives this legislative session, specifically the state of the state’s budget and issues involving the death penalty and abortion. “We’ll come out with a balanced budget, like Wyoming always does, but there’s been some division,” said Greear on Monday. “Overall we’re still doing a good job of keeping the state running.” The House and Senate both passed budget bills last Thursday, although the House budge...
TEN SLEEP – At Tuesday’s February meeting of the Ten Sleep Town Council, the town agreed to be fiscal sponsors for two local endeavors, the town garden, and the annual Nowoodstock music festival. Traditionally, Nowoodstock organizer Pat O’Brien applies for a grant through the Wyoming Arts Council to help fund the talent for the event, and once again, Ten Sleep agreed to sponsor the grant. The annual music festival, held every August in Ten Sleep, celebrates 19 years this August, with a large crowd of music lovers from around the world congr...
WORLAND – The Washakie County Commission met in their chambers Monday for the first of two February meetings, awarding funds for a new county internet server, and receiving department reports. The new server, at a cost of $17,638, will replace the county’s main server and will be offline for a minimum of one day, later this year, for data transfer. TEN SLEEP SEWAGE County Maintenance supervisor Tom Schmeltzer expressed concern, if Worland is to take excess sewage from ten Sleep during a project to fix the Ten Sleep lagoon. According to Sch...
CHEYENNE – Two bills making their way through the state legislature would effectively change the way the state receives payments from the Wyoming Lottery Commission, which has paid out approximately $7.9 million to the state as of April 2018, since 2014. As a whole, the lottery commission has reported total operating revenues of $26.2 million. House Bill 281, sponsored by the House Appropriations Committee, would require the Wyoming Lottery Commission to make a quarterly transfer of 2.5 percent of gross earned proceeds to the school Foundation...
WORLAND – After a 35-day shutdown shuttered many government agencies, the reopening of those agencies on Monday, after a continuing resolution was reached in the House and Senate last week, restarting many federal programs in Wyoming. Sarah Beckwith, spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office in Worland, reported that the agency had experience no major problems during the shutdown, and on Monday, the agency was prioritizing workloads and concentrating on re-establishing services. “Right now we are dedicated to acc...
WASHINGTON, DC – Wyoming U.S. Representative Liz Cheney announced on Monday, a plan to reintroduce legislation to codify the name of Devils Tower National Monument. The move would follow several previous attempts to set the name in stone. In 2014, a proposal was submitted to the Unites States Board on Geographic Names on behalf of the Lakota tribe to change the name of the monument to “Bear Lodge”, in accordance with Native American tradition. Prior to 1901, the unique feature was referred to as “Bear Lodge” or Mato Teepee” on contemporary maps...
WORLAND – The Washakie County Fair Board voted to accept a plan to offer six nights of music during the 2019 fair, and has agreed to work with the Worland-Ten Sleep Chamber of Commerce to expand activities and increase participation in the annual fair parade. During a special meeting last March, the Washakie County Fair Board, after hearing from Montana-based music promoter and musician Daniel Kosel, unanimously approved a proposal to pay $10,400 for four nights of music, totaling 20 hours, during the 2018 county fair. This year, during the f...
CHEYENNE- A bill introduced in the Wyoming House of Representatives on Friday would try, yet again, to raise taxes on cigarettes and snuff in Wyoming, by proposing a 166 percent excise tax increase on tobacco products. House Bill 0218 would increase the excise tax on cigarettes and snuff to $1.60 per pack or can (currently 60 cents per pack and can) and result in an estimated revenue increase to the state’s general fund of $22.7 million per year. Local governments would see an increase in revenue by an estimated $4 million per year. The s...
CHEYENNE – A resolution introduced in the Wyoming Legislature this session seeks to release grizzly bear protections in the state of Wyoming, with a second and third bill creating a hunting period for state agencies and a fund to compensate victims of attack by the animals. (A hunting guide was killed and three others injured during grizzly attacks in Wyoming in 2018.) House Bill 0135, introduced by District 27 Representative Mike Greear (R-Worland), seeks to create a fund for grizzly attack compensation program, funded by optional fund donatio...
WORLAND – Representatives from Shopko verified to the Northern Wyoming Daily News on Thursday that the Worland retailer will stay open, and pharmacy operations will continue, in light of the company filing for bankruptcy on Wednesday, and announced that the Powell Shopko will be closing its pharmacy. It was announced in December that the Greybull and Thermopolis stores will be closing altogether, Greybull in March, and Thermopolis in April. “We will remain open in Worland and committed to serving our customers with the same high-quality goo...
WORLAND – Washakie County Commissioners Chairman Fred Frandson, Aaron Anderson and Terry Wolf will forego the final county commission meeting on Jan. 22 to make preparations to attend the 2019 Wyoming County Commissioners Association Legislative Conference in Cheyenne, starting Jan 23. The three-day, annual event gives county commissioners from across the state the opportunity to review legislation and vote to recommend, with a 70 percent majority vote. “Legislators look at the [commissioners] recommendations when they decide to vote,” said...
WORLAND – With the nationwide government shutdown entering week four, the Bureau of Land Management offices in Worland remain shuttered since Dec. 22, with none of the usual notices of services from the public information office, and all employees furloughed until further notice. While local and state BLM representatives are unable to comment, and media requests to the Department of the Interior have gone unanswered, the agency has instead directed all inquires to a government contingency fact sheet on the BLM website (which advises it will n...
WORLAND – The Worland Middle School will host a Parent Night on Monday at 7 p.m., to give Worland Police Department Chief Gabe Elliott and Captain Zach Newton a venue to inform and educate parents of the drug trends in the area, and popular tobacco products being found among local youth. “The idea for the presentation came from meeting of the Washakie Prevention Coalition, when it was realized most people don’t know what ‘juuling’ is,” said Chief Elliott. While vaping, which burns tobacco-infused liquids, is popular with teens, juuling has...
WORLAND – The Washakie County United State Department of Agriculture Service Office, located in Worland and home to the Farm Service Agency, Rural Development, Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Washakie County Conservation District, remains closed due to a now 20-day government shutdown, although two of the agencies will remain open until Jan 19. While USDA and FSA employees have been furloughed during the shutdown, NRCS has funding through Jan. 19 and employees remain in their o...
WORLAND – Despite a court filing on Monday that claims Shopko is scheduled to file for bankruptcy on Jan. 15, and a previously disclosed 39 stores closing across the nation, the Worland branch of the retailer remains open, with prescription services being filled. “We still have not received any notice that we are closing, and we’re still filling prescriptions,” sad Worland Shopko pharmacist David Ahlstrom on Wednesday. As listed in December by the corporation, the Greybull Shopko is closing...