State Briefs

Outbreak at Shepherd of the Valley largest of its kind in Wyoming

CASPER (WNE) – Fourteen residents of Casper’s Shepherd of the Valley nursing home have died from COVID-19, the most deaths reported at any such facility in Wyoming since the pandemic emerged. 

Casper-Natrona County Health Department spokesperson Hailey Bloom said the deaths at the facility began in early October. 

An administrator for Shepherd of the Valley did not respond to a call Friday, nor did they respond to a call last week regarding the outbreak. It’s unclear how many active COVID-19 cases are present in the facility, but last week it had the second-largest outbreak in the state.

State health department spokesperson Kim Deti said via email she would not be able to provide updated numbers from the week. 

“This is largely due to case volume and unavailability of some key staff,” Deti said. 

Long-term care facilities are among the most dangerous places for a virus outbreak to occur, health officials have repeatedly said. Residents at such facilities are older and often have pre-existing conditions that put them at an increased risk of complications and death from infection. 

The number of long-term care facilities with unresolved COVID-19 cases has more than doubled since the beginning of October, when seven such locations had ongoing virus situations and 12 facilities had reported any cases since March. 

Last week, 16 facilities had unresolved outbreaks and a total of 20 had reported cases since March, according to state data.

Spectrum donates $2000, tablets to support agricultural education

CHEYENNE (WNE) – Some Wyoming classrooms will now have access to a total of 200 tablets to help further the instruction of agriculture in the age of COVID-19.

Spectrum, the internet and cable company, awarded Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom $2000 and 20 tablets, which are valued at a total of $4000. 

Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom is a nonprofit organization that started in 1986.

Several years ago, the organization developed an agriculture-centered curriculum that can be infused into standard classes.

“We want to make sure our students not only understand agriculture, but also energy and minerals, and outdoor skills,” Jessie Dafoe, executive director of Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom, said before accepting the donations from Spectrum Friday afternoon at a socially distanced ceremony at Frontier Park.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools across the state last March, the nonprofit had to find new ways to reach teachers.

Dafoe’s team started putting together virtual lessons called “the family learning series” that could be done at home and applied to different age groups of students. They also developed virtual workshops for teachers over the summer.

As fall rolled around, Dafoe realized they wouldn’t be able to go into schools due to COVID-19 regulations, so they again had to pivot the delivery of their program.

“That’s where Spectrum came in,” Dafoe said. “They were so gracious to donate these tablets and some funding to encourage teachers to actually use this.”

One of the organization’s goals is to involve at least 120 classrooms in the program by the end of this school year. Long-term, it wants to involve 800 – or half of the state’s second through fifth grade classrooms – in the program.

Granger mayor arrested for felony theft

ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) – Granger Mayor Bradly McCollum was arrested by Sweetwater County sheriff deputies Thursday afternoon on a warrant for alleged felony theft and wrongful appropriation of public property. 

McCollum, 55, who was elected mayor in 2018, is alleged to have used one of the town’s bank cards for at least four separate personal purchases totaling over $1300 during a six-month period in late 2019. 

According to court documents, these purchases included tires for a personally-owned vehicle, fuel and replacement parts for a furnace at McCollum’s rental property in New York state. 

The months-long investigation by sheriff’s detectives included several search warrants examining McCollum’s personal banking records and cross-referencing them with the town’s official financial statements, according to a press release. 

In Wyoming, theft in excess of $1000 is a felony punishable by a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Wrongful appropriation of public property is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum one-year sentence and $1,000 fine.

McCollum remains in custody at the Sweetwater County Detention Center awaiting his initial appearance in court.

Children deemed victims in Lander meth house

RIVERTON (WNE) — A Lander woman was charged with child endangering after drugs and drug paraphernalia were discovered throughout the home where her four children live. 

Some of the drug supplies, reportedly, were thrown during a dispute between other people in the home.

Tiffany Briann Truax, 32, could face five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines for the felony charge. 

She was charged Sept. 25. The case was transferred to Fremont County District Court for felony-level prosecution in October. 

Lander Police Department officer Trevor Budd went to a home on Adams Street, in Lander, to help with a domestic violence investigation between Rachel Hillger and Barden Duck, on Sept. 23. 

Budd spoke with Hillger, who said she’s been dating Duck for a few months. They were arguing that day about Duck’s drug involvement and his attempts to “peep” on another woman. 

Hillger said Duck threw a bowl of cereal and an end table at her, and the table hit her right ankle. Budd noted where skin had been scraped away from Hillger’s right ankle. When Budd talked with Duck, the man said Hillger threw “a spoon with dope in it” at him. He then told the officer there was a “kit” containing methamphetamine, dirty needles and baggies, in a zippered case in the bathroom. 

Duck consented to a search of the area. Before the search, Budd went outside to talk with Hillger again, and Tiffany Truax, who was also there. 

“I observed her movements to be accelerated and jerky,” said Budd of Truax. “Her pupils were also substantially smaller than her [12-year-old] daughter’s, who was standing in the same lighting.”

 Hillger and Truax both consented to a search of the home.