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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GILLETTE - The last several months have been a whirlwind for Crook County ranchers Shondah and Randall Otwell. They have been putting the finishing touches on their product, the water rippler, which they hope will make life easier for ranchers all across the country when it hits the market this fall. The water rippler solves a problem that has plagued the agricultural industry for generations. In the winter, water tanks freeze over and ranchers have to go out to each tank and break the ice...
GILLETTE — The Campbell County Recreation Center is one of the county’s busiest facilities, with hundreds of thousands of visits each year. But earlier in February, Rec Center staff members were faced with a situation they’d never dealt with before, and the Campbell County Attorney’s Office and human resources department are working on a solution. At the Parks and Recreation Board’s quarterly meeting with commissioners Monday, Commission Chair Del Shelstad said an adult at the Rec Center reported seeing a transgender woman in the women’s l...
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 production has surpassed...
GILLETTE — Inflation and staffing shortages have hit the Wyoming Department of Transportation hard, and nowhere else is feeling the crunch harder than in northeast Wyoming. WYDOT has 1,734 employees around the state, and there are 313 vacancies. In District 4, which is northeast Wyoming, WYDOT employs 170 people, and it has about 40 vacancies, the highest of any district, said WYDOT District 4 Engineer Scott Taylor during a presentation to Campbell County Commissioners last week. It’s down mechanics, resident engineers, maintainers and str...
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 board held a special meeting Wednesday to discuss t...
GILLETTE —Campbell County Commission Chairman Del Shelstad claimed that a fellow commissioner and a county resident are conspiring to take him down. “Cancel culture has infiltrated this board, and that’s sad,” he said. “I’ve seen it in the last four and five years.” Earlier this month, Commissioner Rusty Bell sent out an email with screenshots showing Shelstad and Commissioner Colleen Faber, along with two library board members, as members of the Wyoming MassResistance Facebook group. Shelstad claimed he received threatening text messages from...
GILLETTE — Wyoming’s economy continued to rebound in the third quarter of 2021, but its growth has slowed down. And thanks to the highest prices of oil and natural gas seen in several years, the mining industry had a relatively good quarter. On the whole, Wyoming recorded about 6,800 or 2.4% more payroll jobs in the third quarter of 2021 compared to 2020. Leisure and hospitality led this growth with 4,300 more jobs, an 11.9% increase, during that time. Even with that growth, Wyoming trailed behind the nation as a whole, which saw job growth of...
GILLETTE — Since May, the historic horse racing machines at the Gillette locations of Wyoming Horse Racing and Wyoming Downs have been shut down, but they could soon be up and running again after a judge’s decision earlier this month. District Judge F. Scott Peasley granted their motion to stay, or delay the enactment of, a resolution that Campbell County Commissioners had passed in April that gives the live horse racing operator control over off-track betting and simulcasting in the county. Since 307 Horse Racing has an exclusive fiv...
GILLETTE — A new requirement by the Wyoming Division of State Parks and Historic Sites has upset many campers around the state. Moorcroft resident Jordan Webb describes herself as a “super avid camper.” She and her family camp all summer long, mainly at Keyhole State Park. For Webb, camping is a way to enjoy life and nature away from technology. But this summer, she won’t be camping at a state park to protest a new requirement that all campsites must be reserved in advance. She’s written an online petition that has more than 30,000 signature...
GILLETTE — It was a cold December morning, and Cody Nehl stood in a lot off of Little Powder River Road, waiting for a customer. A large pile of stoker coal was stored in the back of a truck, ready to be sold. After a few minutes, another truck pulled up and drove onto a scale. Nehl powered up a conveyor belt, which transported the coal and dumped it into the bed of the truck. The coal would be used to heat someone’s house and shop north of town. That day, Nehl, operations manager for GMHR LLC in Gillette, completed his first sale of sto...
he Wyoming State Historical Society’s Awards Committee has announced that their Clara M. and Henry E. Jensen Outstanding Wyoming Teacher Award has been given to Moorcroft High School teacher Andrea Wood. Wood was nominated for this award by West Texas Trail Museum director Cynthia Clonch, “[for] her dedication, expertise, direction and leadership for an English historical project for her sophomore class. Andrea escorted all her students to the West Texas Trail Museum and the Crook County Mus...
GILLETTE — For the last five years, Bill Fortner and Frank Latta have tried to convince Wyoming that “hemp” isn’t a bad four-letter word. Latta, the director of the Wyoming chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said hemp “is the best possibility for diversity” for the state. “We were trying to get the powers that be interested, to have a little vision that there might be something different to look at other than energy,” he said. “That’s been a very hard sell.” But recent legislation at the fe...
