Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
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WORLAND – Washakie County Commissioners heard a security request from the Office of the County Assessor on Tuesday, along with reviewing regular department business during their first December meeting at the county courthouse. As reported by County Assessor Kathy Treanor, the Assessor’s Office has had several instances of being approached by “aggressive” taxpayers and customers, to the point that the office staff have reported feeling threatened. After consulting with Sheriff Steve Rakness, Treanor was advised to request upgraded securit...
TEN SLEEP – The Ten Sleep Town Council will meet tonight, to conduct regular department business, and give a final status of a United States Department of Agriculture-funded sewer project that refurbished the town’s aging system. The project, originally estimated to cost $1.2 million and paid for in part by a loan and grant from the United States Department of Agriculture was finished in November, offering upgrades the original, circa 1930s, sewer lines located in the northern section of town, resurface Fir Street, and provide upgrades to the t...
WORLAND –The Washakie County Commission will review regular business and hear about a proposed headquarters move for the Washakie Development Association at their regular meeting on Tuesday. According to LeAnn Baker with the WDA, the offices will move to their previous location at the Cloverfield Building at the Lighthouse complex. The WDA is currently occupying offices at the Washakie Development building, but future plans could include selling the building. Also on Tuesday, the commission will hear from County Assessor Kathy Treanor r...
Powell passes ordinance banning use while driving WORLAND – On Nov. 20, the City of Powell took a broad step to add to the state’s already established driving-while-texting law, by adding an ordinance forbidding cell phone use while driving in city limits. Specifically, the ordinance states that “Within the city of Powell, Wyoming, no person shall use a cellular telephone, for any purpose, while operating a motor vehicle unless the cellular telephone is specifically designed to allow hands-free operation and is used in a hands-free manne...
WORLAND – Thanks to a bill passed by the Wyoming State Senate in March, pharmacists across the state are able to prescribe an opiate antagonist (Naloxone, known commonly as Narcan) to counteract the effects of an individual opiate overdose. According to the Centers for Disease Control, over 64,000 people died from opiate-related overdoses in 2016, and while national pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS have made Narcan more readily available to combat overdoses, the availability of the drug i...
THERMOPOLIS — The state’s Joint Transportation, Highways, and Military Affairs Interim Committee reviewed a draft bill on Monday that would provide the state a permanent veterans care facility, and an outline for appropriations to pay for the construction and placement of the facility. The committee is wrapping up two days of meetings in Thermopolis today. As noted by Draft Bill 18LS-0151, the purpose of the facility would be to provide a skilled nursing center for community living, care and treatment of individuals who due to age, wounds or...
THERMOPOLIS –American Indian activist, artists, and aerospace engineer Rodney C. Skenandore was laid to rest in Montana earlier this month, after falling ill and dying in the Harz Mountains of Northern Germany in August, where he lived with his wife Gudrun. The 78-year-old native artist, a great-grandson of Shenandoah and born on the Crow Agency in Montana on June 9, 1939, was a survivor of Vietnam, 10 children and 11 heart attacks, Skenandore had logged a uniquely American collection of e...
WORLAND – “As soon as the weather turns nicer, we’ll have a real grand opening with a car show and giveaways,” said O’Reilly Auto Parts Manager Mike Oliver. “Probably next year sometime.” With the opening of O’Reilly in Worland on Oct. 7, the corporation now has 17 retail outlets in the state, serving a wide variety of auto parts and accessories. Oliver, with the company for more than six years and previously in the Thermopolis location, is quick to point out that none of the locations are franchises, but all corporate-owned and operated. T...
WORLAND – Big Horn Federal Savings Bank in Worland, 1006 Big Horn Avenue, has moved into a temporary facility while the former bank building is in the first stages of being removed and replaced with a new, upgraded and larger building. “We’re happy to announce that there will be no service interruption to our customers,” said Branch Manager Tad DeBolt, noting that drive-up service, walk-in business and night drop deposits will continue at the temporary building, while construction is scheduled to be completed by November 2018, by Hughes Truss o...
WORLAND – Wildland fire mitigation will be a topic of discussion at the regular county commission on Tuesday, when Fire Warden Chris Kocher will present a Request for Proposal for the Firewise grant obtained by the county earlier this year. A federal program to aid county fire wardens with wildland fire mitigation, the grant also provides educational resources for homeowners in other than urban areas, easily threatened by wildland fires. Sealed proposals for vendors to coordinate the Firewise program will be accepted by the Worland Fire D...
TEN SLEEP –Ground has been broken on an expansion to the Ten Sleep Library. The 20x80 addition, which is to include meeting space, an after-school area, and expanded services for library patrons, is scheduled to be completed by January. On Oct. 17, the county commission voted to award the project contract to Fox General Construction, even though the bid was $38,000 over the initial, forecasted budget. With a total project cost of $185,558, the expansion is being financed by a Wyoming Business C...
WORLAND — Washakie County’s Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (WPLI) working group met on Monday and hosted representatives from Hot Springs and Big Horn counties to work further on recommendations due to the state next year. The WPLI is currently studying best use for Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) in the county, with recommendations to be submitted to the state next year. The working group meeting, held at the Washakie County Fairgrounds, featured discussions on the Honeycombs, water resources in the WSAs and designations for sage grouse are...
WORLAND – With no clear profit or loss statement, and no electronic accounting record, the Washakie County Fair Board addressed budget concerns on Monday, during the November meeting for the planning group. With Chairman Jeff Lapp absent and former Board Treasurer Christy Swing having resigned following the fair, board members David Doyle, Jim Butterfield and Myron Casdorph discussed problems with the budget reporting and the need for a full-time bookkeeper. “Without knowing how much we made, we can’t plan for the repairs we need to do [to t...
WORLAND — Washakie County’s Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (WPLI) working group will meet on Monday and host representatives from Hot Springs and Big Horn counties to work further on recommendations due to the state next year. The WPLI is currently studying best use for Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) in the county, with recommendations to be submitted to the state next year. The working group meeting, held at the Washakie County Fairgrounds, will feature discussions of the Honeycombs, water resources in the WSAs and designations for Sage Gro...
TEN SLEEP – Established just outside of Ten Sleep in 2013, the Ten Sleep Brewing Company, looking toward rapid expansion, is considering a move inside the town limits of Ten Sleep, which would require a change to current wastewater considerations for the town, while at the same time bring needed revenue. On Tuesday, representatives for the brewery met with the Town Council to discuss the possibility, and review the state’s concerns regarding where the brewery would dispose of thousands of gallons of wastewater during the brewing process. “We...
WORLAND – Washakie County Commissioners held a public budget hearing Tuesday to amend the annual budget to include a $259,000 Firewise grant, obtained by the county. A federal program to aid county fire wardens with wildland fire mitigation, the grant also provides educational resources for homeowners in other than urban areas, easily threatened by wildland fires. County Commissioner Aaron Anderson explains that the grant enables the county save money on the front end, when faced with the possibility of a heavy fire danger to homes off the g...
BASIN – Former Basin Town Treasurer and Clerk Danielle Chapman was arrested Monday on two counts of taking unauthorized control or transfer of property that did not belong to her, and one count of violation of official duties, in the case of more than $98,000 of missing funds from both the Town of Basin and the Basin Area Chamber of Commerce. In a warrant issued on Nov. 6 by the Fifth Judicial District, Big Horn County, Chapman is named in the alleged unauthorized transfer of $20,410.78 from the Basin Chamber of Commerce between April 18, 2...
WORLAND – A 4.2 earthquake south of Ten Sleep and 39 miles east of Thermopolis on Friday at 5:11 p.m. almost immediately spawned rumors and speculation on social media, as residents reported feeling the quake and recorded the effects. “We had several reports of people feeling it down here, but no real reports of damage,” said Hot Springs County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Gordon. As residents traded reports of the earthquake, the Casper Planet (a satirical Facebook page) reported that “A 4.2 earthquake just struck Thermopolis thirty m...
WORLAND – Wildland fire mitigation will be a topic of discussion at the regular county commission meeting on Tuesday, when a public hearing will be held to lay out the parameters of a 2017 Firewise grant, obtained by the county. A federal program to aid county fire wardens with wildland fire mitigation, the grant also provides educational resources for homeowners in other than urban areas, easily threatened by wildland fires. “We got the first Firewise grant in 2012, and it expired in September of this year,” explained Washakie County Fire Ward...
WORLAND – Johnathan O. Helms, 35 of Worland, was arraigned in the Fifth Judicial District Court in Worland on Wednesday on two counts of sexual intrusion on a victim who is 15 years old, a crime which could bring up to 40 years total if convicted. Helms was arrested and booked into the Washakie County Jail in July, but due to the age of the victim, the case files were closed until arraignment this week. According to affidavits supplied by the court, the incidents allegedly occurred in June and July of this year, when Helms was the guest of t...
WORLAND – After a change of plea agreement on Wednesday, Fifth Judicial District Court Judge Robert Skar sentenced Trae Huerta, 18, of Worland, to five years supervised probation for the crime of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, while Huerta acted as a lookout for a botched drug robbery that ended with the victim being shot by an accomplice of Huerta’s. In March, Angel L. Ramos of Worland, previously of Las Vegas, Nevada, pleaded guilty to three charges including aggravated burglary, and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. The...
WORLAND – Award-winning gospel musician and songwriter Ron Hughes will visit Worland on Saturday, bringing his 40-year experience on the stage to present a show unique to the area. “Wyoming doesn’t have a big gospel thing” said Hughes, who has won three awards from the County Gospel Music Guild, including Artist of the Year for 2004. “Down in the south, we have had a whole bunch of Top 10 gospel songs on gospel radio, but you don’t get much of that up here.” Starting out as a teenager in rock and roll bands, and progressing into country music...
THERMOPOLIS – Newell Sessions’ buddy, Gabby, had left the trunk out in Sessions’ shed, and hadn’t come back to claim it for six years. When Sessions finally got around to opening the old military box in 1992, what he found inside would spawn a Wyoming murder mystery that lasted until this year, and finally peaked on the eve of Halloween. A BULLET TO THE BRAIN According to a release from the Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Office, sometime back around 1960, an Iowa man shot and killed his brother, firing a .25 caliber handgun into the other’s h...
Washakie County’s Wyoming Public Lands Initiative (WPLI) working group met on Monday to hear suggestions from the Wilderness Society, and examine evidence taken from summer field trips to the county’s three wilderness study areas. The WPLI is currently studying best use for Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) in the county, with recommendations to be submitted to the state next year. “We reviewed a presentation to recap all of our members of things on the ground, found during recent tours of the WSA,” said County Commissioner Aaron Anderson. The pre...
WORLAND - A jury was seated Monday in the case of State of Wyoming versus Joshua D. Vidlock, of Worland, for one count of felony stalking, by breaking the bonds of an Order of Protection. The Honorable District Court Judge Robert E. Skar is presiding. The defendant, represented by attorney Collin Hopkins of Riverton, stands accused of illegal contact with his ex-wife, Charlene Sherman of Worland, after an order of protection was filed with the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court on Feb. 15, 2017. The charges in this case were filed on March 15, 2017,...