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Citing a need to have more resources at its disposal, the Sweetwater Economic Development Coalition wants to increase contributions from the county and the two cities. Currently the organization annually receives $30,000 from the both the Green River and Rock Springs Councils and the Sweetwater County Commissioners. The group is asking for an increase to $70,000 annually. Eric Bingham, the county’s land use director, said the organization receives $90,000 a year, but has $95,000 in expenses, w...
Plans to continue developing and improving the Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway now include hopes of developing two new scenic turnout points. These plans were presented to the Board of County Commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting. Funding to develop the turnouts could be provided through a Wyoming Department of Transportation grant program. The goal is to have two new scenic turnouts along the part of the Flaming Gorge Byway that travels through Southwest Wyoming. Jenissa Meredith, the executive d...
Residents will receive their 2022 Notice of Value statements from the Sweetwater County Assessor’s Office. According to Sweetwater County Assessor Dave Divis, residents signed to receive their statements by email should expect them “very shortly.” Home values are calculated using a formula involving the replacement cost new, subtracting depreciation, adding the land value and trending for sales. Cost data is provided by the Wyoming Department of Revenue. In a press release sent by Divis, he notes the cost tables saw a significant incre...
An Arkansas man faces charges of theft and exploiting a vulnerable adult following an incident where he is alleged to have taken money from a woman trying to pay her rent. Mark Quincy Matlock, 49, of Cabot, Arkansas, is charged with misdemeanor theft and felony-level exploitation of a vulnerable adult and is being held at the Sweetwater County Detention Center on a $25,000 cash or surety bond. According to court documents, Matlock was the previous manager of the Regency of Wyoming trailer park o...
While much of Jim Bridger's history comes directly from Wyoming, an antique gun shop in Arizona may hold more information about the mountain man's influential past. David Jonas and his wife Patty have been dealers in antique and collectible firearms since 2005. They started their store, Old World Guns LLC in Camp Verde, Arizona, as a retirement business, although Jonas said it's been more work than a typical retirement business. The shop specializes in old and unusual firearms, and Jonas enjoys...
Wyoming claims several famous outlaws with wild stories, but none as strange as disturbing as the story of "Big Nose" George Parrott. The remarkable nature of his story has less to do with his life, however, and more to do with his death and what followed. During his life, Parrott was a relatively common Wyoming outlaw. He was arrested for horse theft but acquitted. He was also believed to have kept headquarters in the Hole-in-the-Wall country west of present-day Kaycee with a number of other...
Recent appointments to the Sweetwater County Combined Communications Joint Powers Board have revealed both a distrust of who appointees from Rock Springs represent and flaws in the county’s board application process. At the start of the month, the Sweetwater County Commissioners deliberated on two board appointments for the Sweetwater County Combined Communications Joint Powers Board, which oversees emergency dispatch services throughout the county. Up for reappointment were Rock Springs Fire Ch...
Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County will end its COVID-19 Drive-thru Swab Station services on Saturday, March 26. It will no longer offer no-cost testing. Sweetwater Memorial’s drive-thru is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday under the awning at 1200 College Drive through March 26. After that, COVID-19 specimen collection can be arranged at curative.com. The hospital has operated the site since March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, said Mary Fischer, MHSC Medical Laboratory Director. Since then, the hospital has t...
The Wyoming Department of Transportation and contract crews will be initiating work on several projects this spring around Sweetwater County. Bridge rehabilitation on WYO 530, Uinta Drive in Green River WYDOT and contract crews from Reiman Corp. will be working on the northbound bridge over the Green River on Uinta Drive in Green River, which started March 22. Traffic will be diverted to the southbound bridge, with one traveling lane in each direction. Travelers are advised to be aware of possible delays. The lane closures are tentatively...
By HANNAH ROMERO Staff Writer The Sweetwater County Fire Department will soon be a thing of the past after the Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve a plan which will close the county fire department and contract its services out to existing fire agencies in the county. “In no way is county fire (protection) going to be eliminated, reduced — if anything it will be enhanced,” Commissioner Mary Thoman said. At the last commission meeting March 1, the commissioners discussed the findin...
County employees will find themselves earning a bit more later this year after the Sweetwater County Commissioners committed to providing a 6% cost of living adjustment. The adjustment will amount to an additional $1.4 million earmarked for employee salaries during the next budget year. The group is concerned about the impacts of high inflation on employees and the fact that they haven’t seen a significant cost of living allocation in several years. Commissioner Randy Wendling said employee s...
To the graduating class of 2022, applications are now being accepted for the Sweetwater County Commissioners Scholarship. The Board of County Commissioners will select three local students to receive a $1,000 scholarship during their May 17 meeting. Applicants can use the money to attend the University of Wyoming or any Wyoming Community College. All forms and letters of recommendation must be received no later than April 29. The application can be found on the county website: www.sweetwatercountywy.gov, under the tabs Departments, Board of...
Almost exactly two years after the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, many places, including Wyoming, are seeing COVID case numbers decrease and transitioning out of precautions and procedures put in place at the beginning of the pandemic. The latest development for Wyoming is the end of the state’s COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration, which will officially end March 14. “As we see our case numbers and hospitalizations receding, it is...
The Sweetwater County Fire Committee presented its findings on fire service to the Board of County Commissioners this week and recommended closing the Sweetwater County Fire Department and contracting with existing fire agencies to cover fire protection services currently performed by the county fire department. During the meeting, County Fire Warden Mike Bournazian gave a presentation on the history of the Sweetwater County Fire Department and an overview of the work the department does....
JACKSON — In a world of rapid sharing online, the Wyoming Legislature is considering a bill that may protect those charged with a crime from the harsh court of public opinion. State lawmakers heard testimony Monday on a proposed law that would prohibit the release of mug shots unless the person was convicted. The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Chad Banks, a Democrat from Sweetwater County. “This bill is not meant to disparage law enforcement or their efforts in any way,” Banks said when introducing the bill. “Citizens in my county are really...
Sweetwater BOCES is excited to announce it will host the annual Wyoming State Spelling Bee on March 19, located on the Western Wyoming Community College campus. This event has been held virtually the last two years due to COVID19. Each year, 70-80 students from across the state participate in the competition. To be eligible to compete, the speller must not have reached their 15th birthday on or before August 31, 2021 and the speller must not have passed beyond the eighth grade on or before... Full story
Positions within Sweetwater County government are being restaffed, with some positions being eliminated or changed, following staff members leaving as part of the county’s voluntary separation program. Positions in the Accounting Department, Titles Department and the County Assessor’s Office were approved to be restaffed during Tuesday’s County Commission meeting, all of which were connected to changes resulting from the voluntary separation program. The program is for people who want to retir...
A bill sponsored by two Sweetwater County legislators would limit how photos of people arrested for an alleged crime are released. The bill, known as House Bill 51, is sponsored by Rep. Chad Banks (D-Rock Springs), with Rep. Andi LeBeau (D-Lander) and Sen. John Kolb (R-Rock Springs) co-sponsoring it. The bill would prohibit both the Wyoming Department of Corrections and the county jails from releasing photos taken of people arrested for an alleged crime until a conviction for that crime is...
ROCK SPRINGS - To Lenore Perry's eye, the Holiday Inn ballroom Saturday night was packed with red dresses, scarlet shirts and a lot of Harriet Hageman supporters. Perry, an attorney, has the same profession as Hageman, who also attended the adult-prom themed "Conservatives in Crimson" gala. Hageman's appeal as a candidate to replace sitting U.S. House Rep. Liz Cheney stems not from their dealings in the courtroom, she said, but rather from getting to know her as a fellow Republican in the... Full story
A combined effort from two fire fighting agencies and more than two dozen firefighters was needed to quell a house fire that ignited near Green River Tuesday morning, resulting in a 34-year-old woman being severely injured from burns. A house fire at 1600 Highway 374 was reported at 4:29 a.m. Tuesday morning, west of Green River. A release from the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office states a driver saw the fire from Highway 374 and helped rescue the occupants before the first fire engine...
After last year’s proposed 1% general purpose tax was voted down in a special election, Sweetwater County’s Board of County Commissioners wants to handle things differently when it comes to this year’s proposed specific purpose tax initiative. In order to do this, the commissioners voted to retain professional services to help present the tax initiative to the public. “In the last tax initiative, the public didn’t feel like they were heard beforehand,” Commissioner Lauren Schoenfeld said during Tuesday’s meeting. She said working with another...
With COVID-19 rapid tests in short supply, Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County has made changes to the types of tests it can offer. MHSC will no longer provide rapid tests – those offering results in about 45 minutes – for those who need a test to travel, nor for those who have scheduled an out-of-town surgery. With the hospital’s current resources in the Emergency Room, at Sweetwater Walk-In Clinic and at the COVID-19 Drive-thru Swab Station, MHSC soon will be unable to do same-day tests, Kim White, Emergency Department Director and MHSC...
“Sweetwater County is so important to what may or may not happen in the state of Wyoming,” Randall Luthi, the Chief Energy Policy Advisor to Governor Gordon, said during Tuesday’s County Commission meeting. Luthi was invited by Commissioner Mary Thoman to speak to the commission and give an update on the state of Jim Bridger Power Plant after Governor Mark Gordon recently ordered a postponement to the partial shutdown. Luthi is from Freedom, Wyoming and served in the Wyoming House of Repre...
CASPER — On unit 2 of the Jim Bridger power plant, Wyoming isn’t taking no for an answer. State leaders and operating utility Rocky Mountain Power have doubled down on their commitment to resolving a dispute over pollution controls, and keeping the unit open past its impending April compliance deadline, after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced this past week that it would propose disapproving the state’s alternative plan. The rejection wasn’t exactly surprising, according to Randall Luthi, Gov. Mark Gordon’s chief energy ad...
Slavery still exists and is a widespread problem, not only through the world but in Wyoming. Human trafficking, often referred to as modern slavery, involves exploiting adults or children and forcing them to perform acts of labor or commercial sex to make a profit for traffickers. While many people and organizations work to raise awareness of human trafficking all through the year, extra attention is given to the topic in January, which has been recognized nationally and locally as Human...
