Sorted by date Results 1 - 24 of 24
A Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office deputy was injured Saturday after an incident with a wanted suspect who allegedly attempted to flee the scene of a traffic stop. According to the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, the deputy and a trainee attempted a traffic stop on Springs Drive in Rock Springs at 1:46 a.m. on Tommy Gene Vensor, 33, of Rock Springs for alleged failure to maintain a proper lane of travel and suspicion of driving while impaired. After identifying the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle, deputies learned an arrest war...
A fire Saturday afternoon resulted in the Green River Fire Department sending two trucks and 28 firefighters to combat the blaze. According to a media release from the city, firefighters were dispatched to 1210 Midwest Drive after a fire broke out from a wood-burning stove placed in the residence’s garage. According to Larry Erdmann, assistant fire chief, the fire appeared to have started while two people in the home were busy winterizing it. Erdmann said the stove was never used and wasn’t properly installed. The house fire started at the stov...
The Thanksgiving holiday has resulted in more people flying commercially from the Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport, but the recent increase in COVID-19 infections has hampered that growth. Airport Director Devon Brubaker said the Thanksgiving week will be the airport’s biggest week since March, with 120 bookings for the week compared to 94 the last week of October. While the number of bookings is a welcome sight for the airport’s commercial operations, Brubaker admits the growth is weaker tha...
While discussions about Green River joining Solid Waste District No. 1 continue to occur at City Hall, there may be another route for the city to get involved in a solid waste district. Chris Meats, finance director for the city and a member of solid waste district no. 1’s board, said Green River was involved in discussions to form a Sweetwater County Solid Waste District No. 3 during the 1980s. He said the district never came to a vote and a mill levy, a portion of property taxes reserved f...
The Green River City Council received an update from Wyoming Waste Services at the Tuesday night Council meeting and the Council was informed that residents are doing a much better job with proper recycling. Now that Wyoming Waste has contracted with a MRF (material recovery facility) that provides analysis on the recycling waste being sent out. Site Manger Michelle Foote told the council that Wyoming Waste is sending recyclables to a MRF facility in Salt Lake City and that the company is “very pleased with Green River citizens in their e...
Joseph L. Hyatt, 72 passed away on November 9th, 2020 at the University of Utah Hospital. Joe was born in War, West Virginia on February 27, 1948. He moved to Wyoming in 1978 where he resided in Green River and the Bridger Valley where he worked as an Underground Miner, he loved Wyoming. Joe served in the 1st Calvary Division of the US Army and fought in Vietnam from 1966-1968. He was instrumental in setting up outreach programs for veterans in Southwest Wyoming and developed several long lastin...
Clyde Dean Hanks, of McKinnon, WY, passed away at his home on November 17, 2020 after suffering a brief illness. Clyde was born September 20, 1953 in Rock Springs, WY to Earl and Velma Hanks. He grew up on the family ranch in McKinnon, WY. He graduated with honors from Green River High School. Starting after high school, Clyde began his early career as a pipefitter. He progressed to be a journeyman pipefitter and a supervisor with the Mountain West for many years. He then returned to the family...
Rudy Gunter passed away November 20, surrounded by his loving family after a long, courageous battle with ALS complicated by the COVID-19 virus. He was born June 13, 1940 in Kemmerer Wyoming, the sixth child of Rudolph Gunter and Domenica Mecca. He graduated from Kemmerer High School in 1958 and then attended the University of Wyoming, where he graduated in 1962. Rudy's teaching career began in 1963 at Green River High School in Green River Wyoming, where he taught industrial arts. His basketbal...
Helen Mecca, 95, passed away Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at Sage View Care Center in Rock Springs, Wyoming. She was a life-long resident of Wyoming. Helen was born September 17, 1925 in Superior, Wyoming; the daughter of Mike Kufas and Sophia Angelovich. She attended schools in Superior and was a 1943 graduate of Superior High School. Helen married Pasco Mecca on September 7, 1946 in Kemmerer, Wyoming, and he preceded her in death on January 2, 2009 in Rock Springs. Mrs. Mecca was a member of H...
Edna Roy, 75, passed away Thursday, November 18, 2020 at Deer Trail Assisted Living in Rock Springs, Wyoming. She was a resident of Rock Springs for 60 years and former resident of Missouri. Edna was born March 1, 1945 in Rock Springs; the daughter of Avery "Buck" Brown and Lolita "Lets" Overy. She attended schools in Rock Springs and was a 1963 graduate of Rock Springs High School. Edna married James N. Roy on September 27, 1966 in Evanston, Wyoming, and he preceded her in death on October 14,...
Robert "Bob" Speck, 71, passed away Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a resident of Rock Springs for 47 years and former resident of Colorado. Mr. Speck was born May 25, 1949 in Collbran, Colorado; the son of Earl C. Speck and Joyce Jensen. He attended schools in Rifle, Colorado and was a 1967 graduate of Rifle High School. Mr. Speck married Amy Kessner on September 17, 1983 in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Robert served in the United States Army...
With everything the year has thrown at us, it might feel difficult to be thankful during the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow. Yet, despite the ongoing pandemic and constant political turmoil as the nation shifts towards a new presidential administration, several things come to mind. The residents of Green River live in the best town in Wyoming. We have the opportunity to enjoy an ample amount of dedicated park land, trees and the river itself. The city’s parks and recreation department received a major award this year for excellence in parks a...
Dear Editor, I have lived in Wyoming for over 40 years and have seen many things that have interfered with our civil liberties. Mask mandating takes the cake! It is NOT my responsibility to “take care” of MY fellow neighbors, peers or coworkers’ health. I do not choose their doctors or pay their health costs. It is unconstitutional to “make” people wear masks. BREATHING through your nose and mouth is a RIGHT, unlike driving which is a privilege! It is not a form of PPE either! People working in the trona patch are MADE to wear masks while the...
Dear Editor, She didn’t try to escape from my arms, maybe because she felt safe with me. I could feel her heart beating right next to mine when I carried her from Norbest Turkey Processing Plant (slaughterhouse) to a farm sanctuary. The most beautiful 25 pounds I ever carried! Like most people, I had never seen a live turkey. I always thought turkeys were meant for Thanksgiving Day, but one cold winter evening in 2018 in Moroni, Utah changed my perspective about Thanksgiving turkeys forever. As a part of a mass rescue action I had the p...
With the celebration of one of our most important holidays fast approaching, and the recent explosion of a second wave of COVID-19 cases, I feel it is very important as your mayor to express my thoughts regarding the various issues involved. During a recent meeting, several of our local doctors and their various support staff from Memorial Hospital, Castle Rock Medical Center, and county health expressed their tremendous concern for the huge spike in new COVID-19 cases in our community, and discussed how it was overwhelming our health care...
As the largest employers in Southwest Wyoming we are growing increasingly alarmed with the steep increase in community spread positive COVID-19 cases. Since October 28th , the Sweetwater County positivity rate has spiked from less than 5% to over 31%, with cases doubling in less than 10 days. We fully support all efforts to ensure the health and safety of everyone in the community, including the use of masks and physical distancing measures in public situations. These efforts align with many of the steps we have taken at our businesses and...
The Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in finding the family of a man found dead near Flaming Gorge Reservoir. On November 15, sheriff's deputies were dispatched to a camp site near the Anvil Draw area of the reservoir after someone found a man dead in his camper. The body was identified as that of 79-year-old Ronnie Baze Sumner. Investigators said the body had likely been there for months, and that the death does not appear suspicious. However, through the course of investigation, sheriff's detectives have...
The Wyoming State Museum’s traveling exhibit, Suffrage Wyoming, will be on display at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs from December 1st through May 31st, 2021. The exhibit is available for public view whenever the College is open. The exhibit traces the history and impact of women’s suffrage in Wyoming from 1869 to the present day. As Wyoming celebrates its 150th anniversary of universal suffrage in 2019, and the 100th anniversary of national women’s suffrage in 2020, this exhibit examines both the major successes and long...
It wasn’t until 1955 when hunters could harvest the historic wild turkey in Wyoming. Hunters’ interest has continued to gain momentum since. With both fall and spring seasons to chase gobblers, hunters’ stealthy pursuits provide excellent food for their families and mementos of feathers, beards and spurs to commemorate the hunt long after. It all started in 1935, when the Wyoming Game and Fish Department swapped sage grouse with New Mexico for 15 Merriam’s turkeys – nine hens and six toms. The imports were released on the George Waln Ranch on...
Through the years, the Wyoming-UNLV football series has been one of the closest and most thrilling series in the Mountain West Conference, including the highest scoring game in league history, four overtime battles and 14 of 24 previous meetings being decided by eight points or less. This Friday at 2 p.m., M.T., will be the 25th meeting in the series and the first to be played in Las Vegas' new Allegiant Stadium. The game will be broadcast on radio over the Cowboy Sports Network, beginning with...
Gov. Mark Gordon last week sent proposed budget cuts to the Wyoming Legislature that slash public services and weaken the already thin safety net supporting Wyoming’s most vulnerable. In a press release accompanying his budget proposal, Gordon said his government took a “strategic” path to reducing programs instead of recommending indiscriminate percentage cuts. The goal is to manage the state’s fiscal crash with the least impact to citizens, the governor said. But given the scale of the savings budget writers must find, cushioning the public...
JACKSON - Bear biologist Mike Boyce was staked out on a road in south of Wilson for much of Tuesday keeping tabs on five grizzly bears that were napping, playing and feeding on a deer carcass. "They devoured it in just a matter of a couple hours," Boyce said from the scene. For three weeks and running this has been what the Wyoming Game and Fish Department employee's workdays look like: keeping tabs on grizzly 399 and her four cubs, spreading the word of their whereabouts and trying to keep...
CASPER — There’s a new organization in town, and it’s been making the rounds in the Wyoming Legislature’s interim committee meetings. Meet Powering Up Wyoming. The group describes itself as a grassroots organization promoting the use of an “all of the above energy strategy” to prepare the state for an uncertain economic future. The team lobbies for some relative newcomers to the energy landscape here: wind and solar energy, as well as storage technology. Last week, the organization announced it had formed an inaugural advisory board of director...
