GR residents seek appointment

By DAVID MARTIN

Publisher

Several county residents have applied to fill the vacancy created when Sweetwater County Commissioner Don Van Matre died in May.

According to posts from the Sweetwater GOP website, 16 people have filed. Those individuals are John Henning, Lester Mauch, Island Richards, Bill Taliaferro, Ted Barney, Sherry Bushman, Mary Thoman, Ralph Obray, Tim Savage, Gary Killpack, Terrance Andrews, Allan Jarnagin, John Kolb, Luz Rossy, Lauren Schoenfeld and R. Cody Bramwell. The deadline to apply was Tuesday at 9 p.m., with 10 of the 16 applicants filing Tuesday.

A Sweetwater GOP meeting at the Outlaw Inn in Rock Springs, scheduled to take place Saturday at 11 a.m., will finalize the three candidates who will be forwarded to the Sweetwater County Commissioners.

The Sweetwater GOP’s deadline is June 10 to finalize its selections. The commissioners will then have until June 30 to vote on Van Matre’s successor. If they are unable to make a decision, the issue is then sent to district court, where either Judge Nena James or Judge Richard Lavery will make the decision.

Of the 16, Barney, Obray, Thoman, Killpack, Bramwell, Andrews and Bushman are from Green River, with Jarnagin living in Jamestown.

Many of the Green River applicants have experience in public service positions, either through volunteer work, election to a board or council, or through their employment.

Barney was previously a city councilman, elected in 2014, and had run for a county commissioner position in 2016 as a Democrat, though he ultimately pulled out of that race. He also sought election to the Senate District 13 in 2018 as an independent, but was defeated by Republican Tom James in the general election. Bushman ran for election against Jim Zimmerman for a position on the Green River City Council, but was defeated by Zimmerman. Bushman has also been a volunteer for multiple boards and organizations in the city.

Killpack is a current member of the Green River City Council, while Thoman has been a longtime member of the Sweetwater County Conservation District’s board of trustees. Obray is the principal at Expedition Academy in Green River. Jarnagin made an unsuccessful run at a Sweetwater County Commissioner seat in 2018.

The county commissioners spoke about the replacement process during their meeting Tuesday morning. Commissioner Randy Wendling asked other commissioners if the process will involve set questions like a job interview.

“We didn’t do that before,” Chairman Wally Johnson said. “We can ask whatever we want.”

Wendling also asked if the commissioners should make a formal request for the application materials required by the Sweetwater GOP in its selection process to help the commissioners, which Johnson suggested they leave up to the applicants themselves.

Johnson said the commissioners failed the last time they were tasked with making this decision and would like to see the commissioners approve Van Matre’s replacement.

“If there’s a mistake to be made, I’d rather we make it than have it made for us,” Johnson said.