Wyoming News Briefs

Campbell County finally succeeds in getting federal grant for industrial park

GILLETTE (WNE) — If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

And again.

And again.

After numerous failed attempts at getting funding for an industrial park, Campbell County was finally successful this week, when it was awarded a $2.8 million federal grant to help build an industrial park east of Cam-plex.

The grant is from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Association, specifically from a program designed to help coal communities.

Public Works Director Matt Olsen said that although the Pronghorn Industrial Park is still a couple of years away from becoming a reality, it’s great to know the county has this federal funding.

“We’re going to be able to see this vision that previous boards had,” he said.

The county bought the 247-acre piece of land in 2014 with the long-term goal of building an industrial park on part of that property.

While a lot of work has yet to be done, the county cleared a huge hurdle in getting this federal grant, said Commissioner Rusty Bell.

And when the park is complete, “it’ll set the table for that area out there to be available for somebody to come in,” he said.

Phil Christopherson, executive director of Energy Capital Economic Development, said the park will help attract new businesses to town, as well as offer local businesses that are growing a place to expand.

Former Young at Heart executive director arrested for allegedly embezzling $2 million

ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — The former executive director of the Young at Heart Community Center in Rock Springs was arrested last week for the suspected embezzlement of more than $2 million from the center’s daycare facility, the Young at Heart Early Learning Center.

In late June of this year, Rachelle Morris suddenly tendered her resignation from the Sweetwater County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees, citing “personal reasons.”

Days later, she was terminated for cause from Young at Heart.

The following week, Young at Heart filed a formal complaint in the Third District Court against Morris, initiating separate civil and criminal investigations.

According to a criminal investigation conducted by Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office detectives, during her tenure as Young at Heart’s executive director (2016 to present), Morris stole nearly $2.3 million in daycare tuition fees and federal COVID-related grant funds.

She allegedly deposited the embezzled money into a personal bank account registered to a fake shell corporation and used it to pay for home improvements, luxury cars, jewelry and international vacations.

Lead investigator on the case, Detective Sergeant Michelle Hall said, “This is a complicated case that required a painstaking, line-item analysis of years of detailed financial data.”

Sheriff’s deputies and detectives arrested Morris without incident, and as of press time, she remains held without bond at the Sweetwater County Detention Center facing multiple counts of felony theft, attempted theft and forgery.

If convicted, Morris could face up to 50 years in state prison.

Sexually transmitted infection rates rise in Teton County

JACKSON (WNE) — As Wyoming experienced a concerning jump in the rates of sexually transmitted infections last year, so did Teton County.

Chlamydia — the most commonly diagnosed sexually transmitted infection — increased by 22% in Teton County, which brought case numbers up to 82 from 2020 to 2021.

Statewide, chlamydia rates jumped nearly 24% the same year, while gonorrhea and syphilis infections increased by 34% and 36%, respectively, statewide.

Teton County, meanwhile, had no positive tests for HIV or syphilis in 2020, but in 2021, roughly one person tested positive for each.

“Whether you’ve had one partner or 50 partners, our thought process is everyone who is sexually active should get tested,” said Chelsey Peters, a Teton County sexual health nurse coordinator. “A lot of infections, especially chlamydia and gonorrhea, can be totally asymptomatic.”

State and local health officials caution that neglecting such infections can cause long-term pelvic or abdominal pain, an increased risk of getting HIV, infertility, pregnancy complications, stillbirth and infant death.

Despite those concerns, such testing decreased in Wyoming in both 2020 and 2021, compared to previous years. Health Department officials worry there may be more undiagnosed and untreated STIs in the state than reports reflect.

The Wyoming Health Department, in partnership with the CDC, offers comprehensive STI information, free safe-sex resources, testing options and treatment at KnoWyo.org.

“Almost half of all people who are sexually active are going to get an STI at some point in their life,” said Rose Linville, sexual health outreach coordinator at the Teton County Health Department. “Testing is the only way to make sure you don’t have anything.”

Retesting is just as important, since some infections and diseases take time to become detectable.

State GOP will decide secretary nominees

CASPER (WNE) — The Wyoming Republican Party has begun the process of finding an interim secretary of state.

The state GOP announced Friday that it will hold a central committee meeting on Sept. 24 to nominate three possible replacements for Ed Buchanan, who left office this week for a judgeship.

The meeting is open to the public and will take place at 1 p.m. at Pavillion’s Wind River Recreation Center.

Buchanan did not run for reelection and recently vacated his seat to take a position as a district judge in Goshen County.

The secretary of state is Wyoming’s No. 2 elected official. The office oversees elections as well as business registrations, among other things.

The central committee — which is made up of three Republican leaders from each Wyoming county — will choose three candidates at the Sept. 24 meeting. Gov. Mark Gordon will then appoint one of them to fill out the roughly three months remaining on Buchanan’s term.

Gordon is statutorily required to make a pick within five days.

The state GOP used the same procedure after Jillian Balow left her post as superintendent of public instruction in January. That process spurred a lawsuit led by former Speaker of the Wyoming House Tom Lubnau.

He and others alleged the appointment violated the state and U.S. constitutions because it defied the “one man-one vote” principle. That’s because each county had the same number of votes (three), despite drastically different populations in some cases.

The lawsuit failed, and Lubnau said he does not plan to bring a suit over the coming secretary nomination process.

Buchanan’s replacement will be required to oversee the November general election after only a couple weeks in the job.

This is not your everyday pursuit: man arrested after high-speed chase in stolen truck

GILLETTE (WNE) — An 18-year-old man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after driving a stolen truck and leading deputies on a 30-mile high-speed chase on Highway 59.

At about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, the Gillette Police Department pulled over a truck that was reported stolen out of Jonesboro, Texas.

The truck, a gray Dodge dually pulling a gooseneck trailer that had a Ford pickup on it, was in the parking lot of the Campbell County Recreation Center. A passenger got out of the truck, and the driver, Cohan Foster, drove off and led deputies on a high-speed chase.

“This is not your everyday pursuit,” Sheriff Scott Matheny said.

Foster got onto Highway 59 and started driving south, reaching speeds of 97 mph.

Deputies used road spikes to stop Foster on Highway 59 near Breene Road, about nine miles north of Wright, Matheny said.

In the truck, deputies found a 9mm handgun, which also was reported stolen.

Foster had extraditable warrants out of Texas. He was arrested for eluding and fleeing officers, possession of stolen property, misdemeanor theft and reckless driving.

Matheny said it’s not known whether the Ford pickup that was on the trailer also was stolen, but that it had not been reported as stolen.

August visitation in Yellowstone lower than 2021, 2019

JACKSON (WNE) — Far fewer visitors traveled through Yellowstone National Park in August than a year earlier, the busiest August on record, and 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic upended typical travel patterns.

Grand Teton National Park statistics for August were not yet available. Public Affairs Officer Valerie Gohlke told the Jackson Hole Daily the park was working on finalizing them.

In a Wednesday press release, Yellowstone Public Affairs Officer Morgan Warthin said the park hosted 582,211 recreational visits in August, down 37% from August 2021 and 29% from August 2019.

The lower visitation comes after Yellowstone experienced historic flooding in early June that led officials to close the park and evacuate visitors. The east, south and west entrances through West Yellowstone, Montana, Jackson and Cody, Wyoming, respectively, reopened shortly after.

Yellowstone’s August visitation report comes after a similarly slow report in July, when America’s first national park recorded 596,562 recreational visits. That was a 45% decrease from July 2021, the busiest July on record, and a 36% decrease from July 2019.

Grand Teton National Park officials reported smaller declines for July.

Vehicle counts on Highway 89 near the Gros Ventre Junction were similar to 2019, with a 12% decrease at the Moran entry station and a 5% decrease at the Moose entry station compared with 2019.

Grand Teton, however, reported a 31% decrease in vehicles entering from Yellowstone compared with 2019.

Gillette man sentenced to 35 years for producing child pornography

GILLETTE (WNE) — A Gillette man has been sentenced to 35 years in prison on four counts of production of child pornography.

Dustin Anthony Hiebert, 25, was sentenced Sept. 12 by U.S. District Judge Nancy D. Freudenthal to 17.5 years in prison for each of the four convictions. The first two counts run concurrent to each other and consecutive to counts three and four, which also run concurrent to each other, according to court documents.

He was given 10 years of supervised release after his prison time and ordered to pay $4,348 in restitution.

The court recommended he serve his time in a facility as close as possible to his family in Colorado.

He received standard sex offender conditions and is not to have direct or indirect contact with the victim, who was 4 years old at the time of the offenses, according to court documents.

In January, Hiebert was indicted by a federal grand jury on the four counts of producing child pornography related to incidents that occurred in October 2021.

The incidents involved sexual acts and exploitation of a 4-year-old that were recorded on video and in still photographs recorded and distributed with a cellphone, according to court documents.

Hiebert had been charged in Gillette with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and four counts of sexual exploitation of children. Those charges were dismissed because Hiebert had been charged federally with crimes based on the same event and circumstances.

Deputy County Attorney Greg Steward said in court documents at the time that Hiebert’s prosecution would be more appropriately handled under federal jurisdiction.