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“I tried really hard, but still didn’t do everything I wanted to,” Wyoming state representative John Freeman said at last week’s Sweetwater County School District No. 2 board meeting. He described it as a rough legislative session. Green River’s representatives thought the money was going to be there for the upcoming biennium after last year’s recalibration, but then it wasn’t and was taken out. Freeman said the money was put back by the governor, and then lastly taken out again by the Joint...
A jury found a former Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Deputy not guilty on three out of the four felony perjury charges against him. After a four-day jury trial last week in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery, Sean Christopher Henry, 44, was cleared of three out of the four felony perjury charges against him. It took the jury about five hours to make a decision, after both the state and defense rested their cases. A sentencing hearing will take place after a pre-sentence i...
The American Red Cross of Wyoming is searching for more volunteers to serve the state, especially in Sweetwater County. Chris Allen, Volunteer Services Manager for American Red Cross of Wyoming, said the Red Cross has about 200-trained volunteers across Wyoming, however those numbers can change quickly. “The number of volunteers constantly fluctuates as volunteers take another job and move, retire, move out of the area, pass away or become less interested in disaster response,” Allen said. The...
A longtime Rock Springs resident has become the first democrat to start campaigning for Wyoming's lone U.S. House of Representatives seat. Ryan Greene kicked off his campaign at an event Saturday evening at the Freight Station in Rock Springs. "It's the best news I've heard in a long time," Frank Prevedel, one of Greene's supporters told an audience of more than 250 people. "We need somebody who knows this state." Greene is originally from Rock Springs and works for Greene's Energy Services, a...
Super Tuesday fever struck in Sweetwater County for the county’s GOP. Several dozen Republican party supporters gathered at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs to choose delegates for the upcoming county convention, which takes place March 12 at WWCC’s Green River Center. Those delegates will then vote for a representative to send to the Republican National Convention. In Wyoming, the GOP divide the 23 counties into 12 districts, with Sweetwater and Carbon Counties forming the loc...
With the decline in the oil and gas industry affecting budgets for both the state and county, many would assume local tax districts, like the Castle Rock Hospital District, would feel a similar sting. According to Todd Toolson, CFO for the hospital district, while the district will see a decrease in tax funding, it won’t be on par with other shortfalls. More than 80 percent of the district’s revenues come from trona, the value of which is stable in comparison to oil, natural gas and coal. Too...
A Rock Springs woman faces more than a dozen felony charges stemming from a Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office embezzlement investigation had her initial appearance in court on Friday. Janette Marie Klapel, 33, was arrested Thursday by county detectives. She is charged with 15 counts of felony-grade theft and forgery. As described in court documents, Klapel began employment with No Bull Construction as a bookkeeper in September, 2013, when her name was Janette Olds. She married Deputy Sheriff Mike Klapel of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Off...
A longtime Republican politician from Idaho has his sights set on Rep. Cynthia Lummis’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Lummis announced her decision to retire, which has sparked interest in the seat amongst the state’s Republicans and Democrats. Rex Rammell originally grew up in the Teton Valley in Idaho, a location his family has lived at since homesteading in the Valley during the 1880s. Rammell, now a resident of Gillette, initially campaigned for the U.S. Senate in Idaho as a Rep...
The residents of Granger are making use of the community building in their town. The building, originally the town’s school building, was the site of a major renovation project on the building’s main floor, which now houses the Sweetwater County Library System’s Granger branch. Granger Mayor Sandy Allen said the library has more space than it used to, saying the Town Council has had the opportunity to host its meetings in the community center. An open house is scheduled for Feb. 27 and takes...
After serving in an interim capacity for nearly a year, Brie Blasi can finally drop the word interim from her job title. Blasi was promoted to be the Sweetwater County Historical Museum’s executive director after a special meeting the museum’s board hosted last week. She took over the museum’s management after former executive director Ruth Lauritzen left the museum February, 2015. Blasi, who can trace her family heritage to Northern Italian immigrants who worked in the mines around Super...
Sculpture will commemorate 50 years years of business for the Community Fine Arts Center. The CFAC in Rock Springs is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The CFAC is a unique collaboration of the city of Rock Springs, the Sweetwater County School District No. 1, and is a department of the Sweetwater County Library System. Due to this cooperation, residents and visitors alike can enjoy a variety of cultural activities such as performances, concerts, and the permanent art collection owned by the school district. In addition, changing disp...
More than 40 people showed up to a Castle Rock Hospital District board meeting last night, a few of whom had concerns about the district's administration. The audience, which nearly filled the conference room the meeting was hosted in, was moved into Castle Rock Medical Center's lobby during an early executive session called to discuss legal and employee matters. An executive session is a legal means for boards and councils to discuss sensitive topics, which are limited by Wyoming Law. Both...
The Sublette County Sheriff was booked and released from the Sweetwater County Detention Center Tuesday afternoon. The sheriff, Stephen Haskell, faces five charges, three of which are felonies. The three felonies are fraud charges accusing Haskell of using county funds to pay personal debts, while the misdemeanors accuse him of unlawfully acting as an elected official before taking his oath of office Jan. 5, 2015. Haskell’s bond was set at $10,000 cash or surety and a court hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 11 at 1:30 p.m. at a circuit c...
County officials and residents have come out to defend the Sweetwater County Drug Court from proposed budget cuts. The state is considering a cut which could remove approximately $100,000 in funding from the drug court. Drug court is a service combining addiction treatment professionals, attorneys, judges and social service workers to help those with non-violent drug and alcohol offenses in their recovery and get their lives back together. Donna Lee Bobak, Sweetwater County Clerk of District...
Sweetwater County is in an economic downturn. That part is something almost everyone living in the county is aware of. With the downturn, Sweetwater County’s revenue will decrease due to a drop in oil, gas and coal valuations. According to Sweetwater County Treasurer Robb Slaughter, economic downturns are a fact of life for any county dependent on minerals as a source of revenue. In the past, economic downturns have traditionally impacted the county for one fiscal year. Slaughter, who has 30 y...
Rumors regarding the Rock Springs J.C. Penney store closing turned out to be true after the company announced the closure Tuesday. The store, located in the White Mountain Mall, has operated since March 29, 1978, will close in early April, according to J.C. Penney corporate spokesperson Carter English. The store joins six other J.C. Penney locations that will close. English said the closure is "a significant decrease from the number of closures reported in previous years." English said the...
As the Wyoming Legislature prepares to debate and pass a budget for the state, local governments are reminding legislators they need funding. For Sweetwater County, a proactive message through the Wyoming County Commissioners Association aims to dispel the idea local governments only want state funds to increase their employee numbers. “That’s not true with Sweetwater County,” Johnson said. In a letter to the commissioners’ association, county human resources director Garry McLean state the cou...
The Sweetwater County Commissioners had a busy 2015, debating issues involving Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County and a proposed justice center which will house both of the county’s circuit courts. The year started with a new face being added to the group. Republican candidate Randy “Doc” Wendling won election to the position last November, resulting in former Sweetwater County Sheriff Gary Bailiff being edged out of the five-member group. Incumbent commissioners, Democrat Reid West and R...
Anyone who fishes for burbot in southwest Wyoming can’t deny the excitement they feel when they land one of those huge, slimy, eel-like, invasive burbot. They’re invasive because someone or some group of people illegally introduced the fish into area waters at least 12 years or so ago and it has been a fisheries management challenge for Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologists ever since. Although there is no limit on burbot the department reminds anglers to properly dispose of all burbot they catch. “Piles of dead burbot have shown up recen...
Two Sweetwater County Commissioners allege the public is losing faith in Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County’s administration, an allegation hospital board members deny. During a discussion Tuesday afternoon between the commissioners and members of the hospital’s board of trustees, Commissioner Wally Johnson said county residents have told him they’ve lost confidence in the hospital’s administration, specifically saying that sentiment doesn’t extend to the board members themselves. Later, Co...
The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office issued an updated consumer alert on Wednesday warning residents of telephone scam artists calling and pretending to be with the IRS. “We’ve received a great many reports lately and the Joint Communications Center in Green River is being flooded with calls,” Det. Dick Blust, the sheriff’s office public information officer, said. “These callers are aggressive, even threatening, and they demand money. They can sound convincing when they call. They may know a lot about you, and they often alter the caller...
A new database of outstanding warrants on the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office website is already paying off for the office. Det. Dick Blust, the sheriff office’s public information officer, said people listed on the database have started contacting the sheriff’s office to clear their warrants. Many of the warrants listed in the database are for unpaid citations and can be cleared by simply paying the citation. Since the database was initiated last week, Blust said the office has received numerous calls from people wanting to clear warra...
A former Sweetwater County Museum employee convicted of stealing money from the museum was ordered to pay the money back or go to prison Tuesday morning. Cynthia J. McCullers, 51, of Green River, appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Nena James at a sentencing hearing after she pleaded guilty to felony theft at an earlier hearing. The felony larceny charge was dismissed as part of a plea agreement. At the hearing, McCullers was sentenced to between three and six years in the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk, which was suspended. She w...
Local law enforcement recently attended a drug and alcohol seminar focusing on drug-related crime. Facilitating the seminar was Ernie Johnson of the Governor’s Council on Impaired Driving. “Every county faces the same issue,” Johnson said. “I don’t think Green River is any worse.” Johnson said when there are crimes, more often than not, there is alcohol involved. The good news for Wyoming is 8 percent of state crimes are felonies, while the majority, 92 percent are misdemeanors, or minor crime...
The Sweetwater County School District No. 2 Board of Trustees voted to issue a request for proposal regarding virtual equipment simulators. The board initially heard a presentation about the simulators last month, when Special Services Director Alan Demaret said the simulators could be used to help students in the special services department obtain higher paying jobs. The simulators discussed at that time were a forklift simulator and a heavy equipment simulator that could be used to train for...
