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PacifiCorp continues to operate unit 2 at the Jim Bridger coal-fired power plant despite running afoul of a federal regional haze permit — an infraction some believed would force a Jan. 1 shutdown. Gov. Mark Gordon, who recently attempted to intervene in the regulatory noncompliance, warned in late December the Environmental Protection Agency might force the unit to shut down on Jan. 1. “In several short days, PacifiCorp will be forced to shut down Unit 2, lay off employees, and buy power to make up for the lost generation,” Gordon wrote in a...
A threat made against the Sweetwater County Attorney's Office and the Sweetwater County Commissioners resulted in the county courthouse being locked down Tuesday morning. The building was locked down at about 9:35 a.m. after an individual called the county's dispatch center and issued a threat against the courthouse. According to Sweetwater County Commissioner Randy Wendling, the threat revolved around a claim the caller made about their plans to gun down employees in the Sweetwater County...
While many people hoped the COVID-19 pandemic would improve throughout 2021 and life would get back to normal, the fight against the novel coronavirus and its variants continued throughout the year, with an ongoing back-and-forth of progress and setbacks. In the past year, the Wyoming Department of Health reported almost 54,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state and over 1,100 related deaths. The first COVID-19 vaccine doses in Wyoming were administered in Dec. 2020. By the beginning of...
This year, the Board of County Commissioners had new faces join county leaders and worked through ongoing discussions about the future of the county — especially in regard to ambulance service and the proposed Natrium plant being built in Wyoming. New faces Mary Thoman began her first term as a county commissioner in January after being elected in November 2020. Thoman replaced longtime Commissioner Wally Johnson. In June, Sweetwater County Treasurer Robb Slaughter announced his decision to resi...
Gov. Mark Gordon issued an emergency suspension order Monday seeking to temporarily block the Environmental Protection Agency from potentially shutting down one of four coal-burning units at the Jim Bridger power plant for falling out of compliance with regional haze parameters. Jim Bridger owner and operator PacifiCorp — which operates as Rocky Mountain Power in Wyoming — has until Jan. 1 to install “selective catalytic reduction” controls to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions at unit 2, and until the end of 2022 to install the controls at unit...
As the Board of County Commissioners continues to look for ways to save revenue and make county services more efficient, Commissioners Roy Lloyd and Mary Thoman have turned their attention to the Sweetwater County Fire Department, questioning if it can be reevaluated to ensure it is functioning as efficiently as possible. Fire Warden Mike Bournazian spoke at this week’s commissioner meeting, defending the need for the fire department and his work to continually make it more efficient over the p...
The Denver Division of the FBI is warning residents of both Colorado and Wyoming of a phone scam being conducted where the caller identifies themselves as a law enforcement official and asks for money or gift cards to clear supposed warrants and fines. According to a press release sent by the FBI, more than 300 women in Larimer County had been scammed through the scheme from 2016-2021 while more than 100 women in the Denver area had been scammed from 2017-2021. “The FBI warns citizens that if they receive a phone call from someone claiming t...
YWCA of Sweetwater County’s Festival of Trees 2021 kicked off a festive start to the new year and helped raise over $20,000 to help support YWCA clients. The Festival of Trees is held each December to raise funds for all the services that YWCA offers to the community. This year the event was back in person after the 2020 event had to go fully online due to pandemic restrictions. While supporters still decorated trees and donated baskets it was not the same as the big live auction event. This year’s event was back with all the fun and fes...
Castle Rock Ambulance Service and Sweetwater Medics are continuing discussions about consolidating ambulance services and looking into the possibility of Castle Rock eventually taking over service for both Green River and Rock Springs. The discussions started during last week’s Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting, when the group approved their contract with Sweetwater Medics and approved an additional $235,000, which Sweetwater Medics Director Ron Gatti said was necessary to continue s...
After a warm and dry November, southwest Wyoming may start to see more “Christmasy” weather with colder temperatures and more chances for precipitation this month. Thursday and Friday are expected to bring the first major snow we’ve seen this winter, with the exception of the storm Oct. 12. Since then, Southwest Wyoming hasn’t seen any meaningful snowfall until now. The National Weather Service issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook on Tuesday, warning of probable snow in the mountains that night,...
“I’m getting frustrated that we don’t make hard decisions as a board,” Commissioner Mary Thoman said during Tuesday’s meeting. “We have got to start looking down the road and not kicking the can down the road. We’ve got to look at the big picture.” The question of finding solutions for big picture problems in the county, and the need for short-term solutions in the meantime, came up several times during this week’s Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting, particularly in regards to ambula...
Buyers continue to show their interest in purchasing parcels of land in the Red Desert, despite the area being devoid of utilities or means to access properties. Jim Zimmerman, the code enforcement specialist for Sweetwater County’s Land Use Department, said he continues to receive a steady stream of calls from people looking at land listings online, as well as people who purchased land. The calls have gotten so common that Zimmerman’s first question to callers is the same. “I ask, did you a...
CHEYENNE — Unit 2 of the Jim Bridger Power Plant is six weeks from violating federal air quality regulations, putting the plant at risk of premature retirement, Gov. Mark Gordon revealed Monday. In a strongly worded letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Gordon warned that Wyoming would sue the agency over disputed pollution control measures at Bridger units 1 and 2 if the state’s alternative solution, which regulators submitted to the EPA in May 2020, is not approved within the next 60 days. “I hope you will take advantage of th...
Kemmerer will be the site of the Natrium nuclear reactor demonstration project. The town was named Tuesday in a statement issued by TerraPower, the company behind the Natrium plant design. Along with the Sweetwater County location, other potential sites considered included facilities near Glenrock and Gillette. The news comes as a bittersweet development for leaders in Sweetwater County. Although Wyoming will benefit from the project, Sweetwater County’s benefits will likely be somewhat muted in comparison to Lincoln County. Commissioner Roy L...
Sweetwater Medics will receive $235,000 from the county to help the ambulance service get through the end of the year. Sweetwater Medics Director Ron Gatti asked the Board of County Commissioners to provide the additional funds during Tuesday’s meeting. After discussion, all five commissioners voted to approve the funds. Gatti explained that Sweetwater Medics has seen cost centers shifting and revenues decreasing, particularly since Castle Rock Medical Center took over ground transportation a...
Southwest Wyoming Off-Road Trails (SWOT) has a vision: “connecting the communities of Southwest Wyoming with a series of off-road motorized trails.” SWOT was started by Mark Tesoro of Evanston, who visited Sweetwater County last week to present SWOT’s goals and begin making connections in the community. “SWOT is an economic development project for southwest Wyoming,” Tesoro explained to the commissioners. The project’s goal is to use existing trails and county roads to create a network of...
Dealing with the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as a high number of emergency room visitations has put Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County at a “crisis level” as it struggles to cope with a nursing shortage. The hospital has seen a slowed number of COVID-19 inpatients in the last week. Deb Sutton, the public information officer at the hospital, said MHSC has had between 15 and 18 inpatients throughout November, which has included between four and eight COVID-19 pat...
A number of signs supporting Tuesday’s general purpose tax caused concern at the Sweetwater County Clerk’s Office as some residents believed the signs to violate Wyoming’s electioneering laws. The signs started appearing in Rock Springs and Green River late last week, reading “Created to Support Public Safety & Economic Development,” then urging residents to vote Nov. 2. “I have had people calling me all day,” Sweetwater County Clerk Cindy Lane said Friday. The issue callers have had with the...
Sweetwater County voters have spoken and they do not want a 1% sales tax. Tuesday's special election resulted in a massive loss for tax, with unofficial tallies showing 5,359 against and 1,300 for the tax, out of 6,662 total ballots received. "I think voters spoke clearly that this general purpose tax proposal is something they're not willing to support," Sweetwater County Commission Chairman Randy Wendling said. Wendling said the commissioners gave residents a chance to have their voices heard...
Monoclonal antibody therapy for COVID-19 positive outpatients is being provided by Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. The therapy is provided for COVID-19 positive outpatients on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Treatment is by provider referral and appointment only. Once a primary care provider refers a patient for treatment, MHSC’s scheduling department will call the patient to schedule an appointment. Patients will need to stay at the outpatient clinic for approximately 2.5 hours for treatment and post-treatment observation. The i...
Sweetwater County will receive funds to provide a new bomb squad trailer and help with emergency management. During Tuesday’s meeting, the county commissioners approved grant agreement documents that will provide funds for new bomb squad equipment for the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office. Sweetwater County was awarded $62,199 in federal homeland security grant funding from the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security. “The purpose of this funding is to improve the sheriff’s office bomb squad’s...
Wyoming’s oil and gas industry continues to show signs of recovery from the 2020 pandemic shockwave that drove the price of oil below $0 per barrel, spurred layoffs and stalled production. At least 18 rotary rigs were active in the state during the second week of October compared to one rig during the same week in 2020, according to Enverus, which tracks rig data on a weekly basis. Wyoming saw a rig count of zero for the first time in its history in June 2020, then again in August 2020. Most of the drilling activity is targeting oil in the s...
Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office deputies, along with officers from the Rock Springs Police Department, learned of an inmate who had escaped custody from a private inmate transport vehicle while passing through Rock Springs Tuesday night. The fugitive was identified as John L. Ortega, 29, originally of Rock Springs. Ortega was in transport from a detention facility in California for court proceedings on other charges he faces in Cheyenne when, during a rest stop in the 3000 block of College Drive in Rock Springs, he somehow managed to slip h...
The story of Gabby Petito — a young woman who went missing in Wyoming and was found murdered — has gained national attention over the past few months. But for some, it has also drawn attention to the fact that not every woman who goes missing in Wyoming gets the same attention — particularly not indigenous women. For Lynette Grey Bull, this problem has been apparent, and one she has been fighting for years. Grey Bull is Northern Arapaho and Hunkpapa Lakota, and the founder of Not Our Native Daug...
