The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
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After nine years, Moorcroft Public Works Director Cory Allison has resigned. Allison took over the department after the departure of Dan Blakeman in 2015. The department has subsequently worked under three mayors and a number of councilmen. Allison expresses frustration with the behavior of certain members of the current governing body, citing micro-management and disregard for certain town ordinances by a couple of council members. “They want everybody else to follow the rules…That’s the reason I quit; I was just tired of dealing with them...
After Triple T Services was hired by Moorcroft's council to maintain the town cemetery lawn, the fledging company presented their first bill at last week's meeting of said council. However, concern was expressed by Councilman Bob Stewart regarding the quality of the work this first month. "When we got the bill submitted for $1200, I went out there," said the councilman. "A lot of it needs to be weed-eaten and to me the workmanship was not completed to pay them the $1200. Councilman Petersen was...
The were 54 young men and boys caught doing good around Moorcroft last Wednesday morning! Camp organizer Matthew Melinkovich later reported how this situation came to pass. The local Church of Latter Day Saints invites boys between 11 and 18 from the Moorcroft, Gillette, Wright and Newcastle areas to their annual Young Men's Campout in the Black Hills and part of that experience includes serving others. "We do service throughout the year, but this is the big one," Melinkovich explains. Last...
Kathy Johnson has joined Clerk/Treasurer Jesse Connally and her immediate associate, Deputy Clerk Samantha Blakeman in the offices of Moorcroft's Town Hall and police department. Johnson grew up in Moorcroft and has family in town. "My grandmother [Emily Griffith] lives here and Ben Glenn is my uncle," she says. The mother of a seven-year0old daughter who attends Moorcroft's elementary school recently graduated from Gillette Community College with a business degree. "I thought it was the perfect...
Last week, Pine Haven hosted a public hearing to listen to and answer residents’ questions and concerns regarding the possible revision of the ordinance governing installing communication towers on private land. This may lead to permission for a 145-foot above-ground high communication tower to be installed on TJ and Mandy Gideon (TMG)’s Cedar Ridge RV Park property, immediately neighboring the town’s community center to the west. Pine Haven Mayor Karla Brandenburg opened the meeting with an assurance, “Tonight is information only about this pr...
Smoke billowed from the burning vehicle on the concrete drive of the truck bay as volunteer fire fighters drenched the deliberately set flames on Saturday morning. The training exercise began an hour earlier with six Moorcroft and four Pine Haven fire fighters joining together to learn how to properly use their own extraction tools to remove doors, rooves and windshields in their efforts to save victims within vehicles. Fire Chief Jeff Holberg later talked about their efforts to prepare the volu...
Nickiah (Nicki) Nelson has opened Tilted Crown Esthetics at 616 West Converse, in Moorcroft. She and husband Randy made Moorcroft their home in 2022, when they were both commuting to Cabilo Mine for work. Nelson, who has two grown children, decided to move from mining to the "girly world" of esthetics, "I decided I'm going to start something new in life... I came home and decided I was going to school at 43 years old," she says. Though the training was stressful, because "I didn't know the...
Last week, the West Texas Trail Museum (WTTM) welcomed Cheryl O'Brien as she presented an interesting look back at the prisoner of war (POW) camps in Wyoming during World War II, including the two main camps, Fort Warren and Fort Douglas, and the 17 smaller camps across the state. O'Brien wrote a book on the subject, published in 2019, called World War II POW Camps of Wyoming, and shared many of the pictures, facts and actual accounts revealed by surviving POWs, military personnel and locals of...
The owners of the planned commercial dog boarding facility were present at last Wednesday’s meeting of Moorcroft’s council to discuss the town’s previous decision to keep commercial license fees for dogs the same as hobby fees “for now” as the council seeks more information. As this enterprise has no precedent in town, the fees are still in negotiations. The hobby fee is $20 per intact dog for the first three and each subsequent animal is $50 with a maximum of five animals. Clerk/Treasurer Jesse Connally requested information from other municip...
At last week’s meeting of Pine Haven’s council, Fire Chief TJ Gideon spoke to the increasing volume of the slash pile due to the diligent work of town residents “cleaning up their yards and that’s great!” The problem emerging is the size of the pile and the time until the town can safely burn it. “It’s getting big so we most likely will not burn it until winter. It’s going to get too big and it’s getting to that point,” he said. Looking to avoid closing the highly utilized space down, the chief did not come to the assembly empty handed. “My r...
Pine Ridge resident Colton Harding was busy manning his concession stand just north of I-90 exit 168, Friday afternoon offering cookies, chips, pop and other goodies essential for car trips and has made almost enough for this year's trip to the international soccer games in Minnesota. Yes, this 11-year-old entrepreneur works hard with a purpose: he is a soccer player and pays his way, reimbursing his mom and dad for fuel, rooms, etc. to follow his passion. "It's very expensive, but I somehow...
The deteriorating condition of Pine Haven's Etched in Time Park was the center, again, of discussion at last week's council workshop. The park, under the auspices of the Pine Haven Beautification Committee, was established more than a decade ago with many volunteers sharing in the vision of a park with the names of individuals and families who have made a difference on faced brick and a water feature running beneath a small bridge before falling into a concrete pool. As time has moved on, the...
At the first at home game for the Moorcroft Baseball team, the Belle Fourche Broncs won with a score of 22-11. The game was held on the lower field due to the upper field not being quite finished yet, but the material has been laid by Public Works and the fencing that had previously been torn down is now reinstalled. According to local baseball organizer Courtney Reynolds, "The T-ball team played on the upper field... We're really hoping to have it ready for next week. We plan to work on the...
Pine Haven’s Harwood Park has been waiting for the facelift new playground equipment could give for a while and, with the help of 11 community volunteers, the improvements were off to a great start over the weekend. According to recreation board chair Missy Norton, “We had great weather... We are so grateful for the wonderful people that came and helped out, they were awesome.” The group enjoyed snacks and dinner at R Place Saturday night and fried chicken for everyone purchased from Parad...
Of the three bids received, the mowing of the Moorcroft Cemetery has been entrusted to Triple T Services this year. Company owner Tucker Allison was low bidder with a quote of $1200 per mowing/weed eating. Public Works Director Cory Allison states that the mowing schedule usually consists of one time in May, twice in June and once in August and September, when the season ends. This May, due to the timing of the bid opening, a crew of three men of the public works department mowed the acreage...
Long time Pine Haven residents LaDonna Rolfson and daughter Stephanie opened a new farmers market last weekend, calling it Old Sundance Market. The soon-to-be-seasonal show garden and facility sits in the pines, west of the Pine Ridge/Old Sundance intersection with signage leading the way along the drive. At this time, the mother/daughter team are creating the show garden on the lot with the large garden situated on Stephany’s farm nearby. As customers entered the Old Sundance Market on S...
A new face with a familiar last name smiles from the police clerk's window at Moorcroft's town hall. Samantha Blakeman was hired last week to take over the position held by Jesse Connally for the last 20 years and is looking forward to the challenge. The former Gillette resident and her husband moved to Moorcroft in 2021, when plans to travel on to Arizona fell through. The family has also grown to include their daughter, who is now seven. When the part time clerk position became available,...
Verizon LLC has requested permission from TJ Gideon, owner of Cedar Ridge RV Park, to install a communication tower on the lower lot near Pine Haven’s community center, saying that this site would be an ideal spot, with the capacity to cover the town and lake. However, according to municipal law, the town does not allow the installation of such implements on private or commercial property within town limits. Planning and Zoning chair Charlie Gulley recently told the governing body, “We discussed the fact that chapter seven – ordinance on commu...
Pine Haven’s fire department has hosted the Fireworks over the Lake fundraising event for decades and, with changing regulations at the state level, fire chief TJ Gideon has been diligently working to keep the occasion safe from closure. The chief assured the town council as well as the public that the department has been granted a three-year permit from the state for the display over Keyhole. “That’s a big accomplishment, it’s been a pain every year so now we’re good for three,” he said. This permit allows the Pine Haven Fire Department...
Cheryl Schneider will have worked as clerk/treasurer for Moorcroft for eight and a half years when she officially leaves on June 14. She started January 15, 2015 and has enjoyed the experience "very much". Accepting the role of Clerk/Treasurer was a bit outside of her know-how at first, though. "When I came here, I was really lost because it was nothing like I had experienced," the soon-to-be retired clerk says. "It's a lot of work, so many responsibilities as a clerk/treasurer, I had no idea."...
Early on Thursday morning, May 16, a black Dodge Ram 1500 was traveling south on Carr Road, south of the railroad tracks. The vehicle left the road as it approached Rush Creek, rolling at least one time over the three culverts on the east side of the lane before coming to rest on the driver's side in the ravine. The accident was reported by a passer-by going to work at approximately 4 a.m. and Moorcroft chief of police Bill Bryant responded by 4:30 a.m. to find the driver had abandoned the...
After 17 years of teaching English to youths in 11th and 12th grade, Debra Harrison retires from Moorcroft Secondary School. Harrison began her career in an entirely different field. "When I initially got my degree, it was a nonteaching English degree and I worked for the State of South Dakota doing grants through the highway safety office, a facilitator for grants and safety," she says. With the change of administration and the reorganization of the agency, she found her position, along with...
As the Moorcroft Interfaith Community (MIC) begins their planned food pantry facilities on the south side of the Moorcroft Town Center (MTC), the town's community garden boxes have been dismantled and removed. In December, 2023, the MIC approached Moorcroft's governing body about the possibility of purchasing this space to better facilitate food storage and distribution to people in need. With the approval of and purchase from the town, building commences with the clearing of the space....
Mike Mores, senior manager of the Wyoming division of government affairs for Charter Communications/Spectrum, met with the governing bodies of Moorcroft and Pine Haven last week to discuss contracting the installation of fiberoptics into the municipalities via town easements in order to increase broadband, internet phone service and other benefits for customers. Many people are familiar with Spectrum, a cable company with offices in Gillette and many other communities across the nation. They...
Katie Plum has been riding with Moorcroft Police Chief Bill Bryant for the last week, learning the area, alerts, rules and a plethora of other important facets of being a good cop as she makes the transition from a Great Falls, MT corrections officer to a Moorcroft, WY patrol officer. The 35-year-old mother of three recently moved south to be closer to her sister, who resides in Gillette, with a plan. "When I originally got here," Plum stated as she sat for a few minutes during her ride-along...
