Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
2008, the year in review
 |
| Johnson County firefighters Jason Penwell (left) and Harv Zegstroo record the damage to a Freightliner truck that lost its brakes en route to Chicago and plowed into a truck ramp on Highway 16 Wednesday, Aug. 27. |
Rec board gave $312K in grants (Jan. 3)
The recreation board, formed a year ago by the Johnson County School District to help fund local recreation projects, distributed more grant money in January.
The rec board was originally allocated a half mill to assess in property taxes, but board members lobbied the Johnson County School District trustees in July to increase that to a full mill, so that they could put money away toward a reserve. Some school trustees were hesitant to allow this increase because it would further increase the tax burden, given the huge jump in valuation.
Last chance for Main Street Web survey
(Jan. 10)
Opinions on the state of Buffalo’s Main Street business district were sought through a Web survey. The Main Street Business District Downtown Buffalo Community Development Study accepted
on-line comments.
The study aimed to examine the downtown’s demographic/economic information, physical condition of infrastructure, complete a market analysis for the area, plot the community’s long-range vision for downtown, develop the master plan, and finally, lay out a phased timetable to take action in our downtown area.
Local GOP favors Thompson, Huckabee, McCain (Jan. 10)
The Republican Party in Johnson County chose Bob Snowden to be its alternate delegate to the national convention.
Statewide, most of the 12 delegates to national GOP convention appointed this weekend declared support for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, promising him eight delegates, while former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee received three and U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, one.
However, when the Johnson County Republicans took a straw poll among the 35 members and visitors attending Saturday, the results showed fairly even support for Thompson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Arizona Sen. John McCain — Thompson got eight votes while Huckabee and McCain got seven each. Romney got five votes, while former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas got two votes each and Hunter, none.
While Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency nationwide, Johnson County voters preferred McCain by a margin of 3,334 to 908 in the general election. The state also went to McCain 158,515-78,033, according to CNN. Two counties, Albany and Teton, went to Obama.
Officials don’t like price tag of Bypass jail (Feb. 7)
Plans for a new jail didn’t get any cheaper.
During a Feb. 4 work session held by the Criminal Justice Center Joint Powers Board, officials decided to go back to the drawing board and get some hard numbers before any more plans were made on building a new jail on the Bypass Road property.
Local snowpack above average (Feb. 12)
As residents of Johnson County dug out of a weekend snowstorm, Wyoming state climatologist Steve Gray was watching snow accumulations in the higher elevations.
According to Gray, as much as 13 inches of snow fell in the higher elevations the past week putting the Powder River Basin at 115 percent of normal precipitation year-to-date and 101 percent of normal snow water equivalent.
Residents protest Kumor Road gravel pit (March 6)
There are about 30 homes within 1 mile of a proposed gravel pit and concrete batch plant off Kumor Road, east of Buffalo off Highway 16, and residents there are concerned about impacts on air quality and traffic.
In response to their worries aired at a meeting of the Johnson County Commissioners Tuesday, March 4, the commissioners decided to send a letter to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Quality Division requesting the state hold a public hearing in Johnson County on the matter.
Fourth, fifth grades moving to old school (March 13)
In order to deal with crowding problems at Meadowlark Elementary and Clear Creek Middle Schools, school officials announced they would move the fourth and fifth grades into the old Clear Creek School on Fort Street in the fall.
There were 164 students in those two grades combined. At their Monday, March 10, meeting, the Johnson County School District’s board of trustees voted 8-0 to adopt the recommendations of a months-long facilities analysis that involved input from administrators, teachers and parents.
County Dems second in state for attendance (March 13)
The 102 registered Democrats filling the Buffalo Senior Center’s main room on March 8 laughed and applauded. They had reason to be happy, as the number of people who were registered as Democrats in Johnson County went up 8 percent, from 358 in February to 386 in March. Financial support also increased. Two hundred contributions to Democrat Barack Obama and 95 for Republican John McCain were recorded by the Federal Elections Commission for the 828-- zip code prefix, which includes Acme, Arvada, Banner, Big Horn, Buffalo, Clearmont, Dayton, Leiter, Parkman, Ranchester, Saddlestring (Buffalo), Sheridan, Story, Wolf and Wyarno.
Kaycee, listed in the 826-- zip code prefix, was an area in which McCain received $72,001 in donations and Obama received $28,001 in donations, according to the FEC.
Diary records thoughts of fort commander’s wife (March 27)
“I sit here in my warm, comfortable, safe study, things around me that I love, and I look at the journal that I kept, kept of the days I spent at Fort Phil Kearny.”
Linda Ross of Buffalo reads these words, then pauses.
“Do I dare open it?” she asks.
She does dare, and it is not actually her diary, because she is portraying Margaret Carrington before a small audience at Buffalo’s Bureau of Land Management office on March 19.
Margaret Carrington was wife of Col. Henry B. Carrington, the officer who in 1866 established Fort Phil Kearny on the Bozeman Trail, about 15 miles north of the office where Ross read from the diary. The program was presented by the Wyoming Humanities Council in recognition of Women’s History Month.
Anderson takes helm of CC Elementary School (April 3)
The part-time administrator and instruction facilitator at Meadowlark Elementary School would be put in charge of the approximately 160 fourth- and fifth-grade students who will move into the old Clear Creek School next fall.
Superintendent Rod Kessler confirmed that Craig Anderson would be the principal at the new school.
Owners no-show at Kumor pit hearing (April 24)
There were about 35 people present Monday night, April 21, at the Johnson County Fire Hall for a public hearing on a proposed Kumor Road gravel pit.
None of them, however, attended representing the applicants, Touchstone Materials LLC of Idaho.
The hearing was held by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Quality Division as a formal session to gather comment on Touchstone’s plan for a 57-acre gravel pit off Kumor Road, a couple of miles east of Buffalo.
Airport runway renovations: one bid only for $2.2M (May 1)
Bids for the contract to renovate runways and aprons at the Johnson County Airport were opened at a meeting with the Johnson County Commissioners.
They received one bid from Mountain Construction for $2,202,197.95. The engineer’s estimate for the project was $2,086,282.
Class of 2008 celebrates (May 22)
Members of the Class of 2008 at Buffalo High School marked their day of graduation on May 18. Valedictorian Katie Hall compared the Class of 2008’s journey through school to “the Game of Life: Student Edition.” Salutatorian Jacob Peters gave a moving speech about goals and the disappointment that can accompany even the greatest accomplishments.
U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, likened the students’ diplomas to “a license to invent.”
He said the graduates have the basic tools to do anything, and will have challenges to their learning all their lives. “Those of you graduating now will probably have 14 different careers,” Enzi said. “And here’s the really tough part — 10 of them haven’t been invented yet.”
Goodbye, Bob (June 5)
Bob Edwards was a familiar face to many in Buffalo who saw him out taking part in numerous community activities, such as putting up Christmas lights or, most recently, quietly working the controls of a crane while lowering the new bronze bison statue into place at Buffalo High School.
When Edwards died Tuesday night, May 27, at the age of 67, he left many who would always remember that face as being synonymous with kindness and service.
Saving Grace (June 12)
In the family’s living room, Grace Albright bounces happily in her infant chair, her blond hair falling around her face as she jabbers with her big sister Alyssa. Grace reaches for her sister’s face, and Alyssa obliges with a kiss on the cheek. In this way, Grace seems like any other 9-month-old infant: playful and curious about the world around her. The only hint that Grace isn’t a typical baby is the clear, plastic tube running from a small hole in her chest to a backpack on the floor that contains a intravenous pump and liquid supplements — Grace’s only source of hydration and nutrition since her birth.
The IV pump, which aims to give complete nutrition directly into the bloodstream, and a catheter are functioning as Grace’s digestive system as she awaits a four-organ transplant. That’s because Grace was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder, Megacystis Microcolon Intestinal Hypoperistalsis syndrome, which has rendered her digestive tract completely nonfunctional and left Grace in need of a donor stomach, small intestine, pancreas and liver.
When the Albrights get the phone call informing them that the organs Grace needs have been donated, they will have eight hours to get to Stanford Medical Center for the transplant. Thankfully, they will not have to go far to get on an airplane — the transplant coordinator has informed the Albrights that they will fly out of Buffalo to California for the transplant. At presstime, the Albrights were still waiting to hear.
Voice of the Bison silenced (June 19)
Steve Lawrence died Wednesday, June 11, and five days later a crowd filled half the gym at the high school to say good-bye to the man known for more than 38 years of announcing sports games and interviewing people on “Community Speaks.”
In the Aug. 30, 2007, issue of the Bulletin, Lawrence said the one thing that has amazed him over the years is the way the entire community supports the Bison. Parents and other family members, he said, are expected to follow the teams, but he has noticed that members of the community follow the Bison because they are fans of the teams, and he feels good to think that he is involved in some small way.
“It feels pretty special to think that they are not into the team because they have family members on the team, but because they follow the Bison. And that they haven’t gotten frustrated with me and turned it off,” he said.
Johnson County valuation soars (June 26)
Johnson County’s total valuation is officially $948.6 million, up by 36 percent, according to county assessor Dottie Elsom.
“We lack 51 million of being a billion,” Elsom said. “Maybe next year.”
Final figures from the state arrived at Elsom’s office, reflecting a $252.5 million increase since the county’s $696 million valuation one year ago. The state’s assessment of Johnson County’s natural gas accounts for the majority of the jump, with an increase of $221.4 million from last year, up to $707.9 million.
“The natural gas figure this year is more than the entire county valuation last year,” Elsom said. “Isn’t that amazing?”
City looks at increasing garbage fees (July 17)
The Buffalo City Council at their regular meeting in mid-July voted to increase garbage rates within the city. The ordinance was passed unanimously on first reading. The city’s rate increase was due to the Johnson County Landfill raising their rates, according to Mayor Mike Johnson.
On the recycling front, the city contracted the Community Resource Council with a 2007-2008 budget of $56,400 for administrative oversight of the local recycling center. This budget did not include transportation costs, vehicle maintenance or other operational costs outside of administration.
The Johnson County/City of Buffalo Recycling Center, founded in 1984, had recycled 290.59 tons of materials by mid-July.
By the end of 2008, however, the resource council would decline to renew its administrative contract, forcing the city and county to turn to the Johnson County Solid Waste District to run the recycling center for a one-year trial period.
County approves $21.3M budget (July 17)
Salary increases accounted for the majority of a 9 percent rise in the county budget for the coming fiscal year, according to Johnson County Clerk Linda Barnhart. During a public budget hearing on July 14, county commissioners adopted a $21.3 million budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year, about $1.8 million over the previous year. This was the largest budget passed in the history of Johnson County.
It was not, however, the largest increase seen from one year to the next, even in recent history. Between fiscal year 2006-07 and 2007-08, the county budget leapt 32 percent from $14 million to $19.5 million.
County buys state land for building expansion (July 17)
Johnson County Commissioners have announced their intent to purchase state-owned land as part of an ongoing endeavor to expand county facilities.
During a regular commission meeting Monday, July 14, Chairman Gerald Fink said the Wyoming Department of Transportation sent a letter requesting confirmation of the county’s interest in a piece of WyDOT property located just west of the criminal justice center in Buffalo. Since 2007, the county has had its eye on this property as a possible site for expansion to the current criminal justice center.
Any actual agreement the commissioners enter with WyDOT would need to be contingent upon funding for the new justice center project, Civil Deputy Attorney Barry Crago advised, but agreed that a confirmation of interest would be an appropriate step for the county to take.
Even after a tax measure to fund a justice center failed in the Nov. 4 election, commissioners still remained committed to purchasing the WyDOT property.
Attorney General: Commissioners wrongly dismantled scenic preserve trust (July 24)
Nearly six years after the Johnson County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to terminate the conservation easement on the Meadowood Ranch, the state of Wyoming filed suit against the commission and ranch owners Fred and Linda Dowd.
The suit stemmed from an August 2002 county commission decision to terminate the conservation easement on the 1,000-acre Meadowood Ranch. In doing so, the board reversed an easement that was established by commissioners in 1993 to permanently protect the ranch from development or subdivision.
In the complaint from the Attorney General, the state alleged, “the board, either by mistake or because of a misunderstanding regarding its potential liability for mineral development, breached the terms of the conservation easement.”
The state seeks a reversal of the commission’s decision, which would in effect reinstate the conservation easement. As of December of 2008, no court date had been scheduled.
Runaway RV crashes into office building (July 24)
A 1997 Chevrolet RV with a Jeep utility vehicle in tow crashed through the Rimrock Pipeline office building at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, July 18.
The driver, James D. Stark, 73, of Hot Springs, Ark., was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, Saralee G. Stark, 68, survived but required care at the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper. Through interviews with Saralee and other eyewitnesses, officers were able to confirm that the Starks were traveling eastbound on Highway 16 in their 35-foot motor home. While coming down Powder River pass, which has a downgrade of approximately 7 percent, the Starks pulled over in the Mosier Gulch Recreation Area on account of over-heating brakes but upon resuming their trip, lost their brakes and careened into downtown Buffalo.
The RV ran through the ‘T’ intersection of Fort and Main crashing into the adjacent row of office buildings. The Wyoming Highway Patrol estimated the RV was going 50 mph at the time of the crash.
Council gives nod to new jail tax (Aug. 7)
With no discussion, the Buffalo City Council gave unanimous approval to a resolution, supporting a proposal to raise local sales taxes by 1 percent to fund a new joint city-county jail, the criminal justice center.
Johnson County Commission Chairman Gerald Fink said, “We wanted to be here at the meeting to answer any questions about the resolution to put this on the ballot. We have had a lot of dialogue with members of the council over the past several weeks.”
The jail tax would fail on Nov. 4, and at a city-county meeting after the vote, officials would admit they didn’t know what to do next.
Johnson County Fair & Rodeo kicks off (Aug. 7)
At the Johnson County Fairgrounds, the sounds of bellowing steers mixed happily with children’s squeals and parents’ admonishments to get the animal pens cleaned and bedded.
Near the hog barns, four young boys scampered up a mountain of sawdust and then tumbled down, again and again.
Inside the exhibit halls, quilts and photographs cover the walls while flowers, jars full of every imaginable fruit or jelly, and plates of cookies, cakes and breads lined the tables.
The Johnson County Fair & Rodeo got underway with a fashion review and style show, a sampling of a full slate of events.
State approves jail grant for county (Aug. 14)
Though Johnson County’s application for a $5 million state grant to help pay for a new detention facility was not among those initially recommended for approval at the State Loan and Investment Board meeting, by the end of the meeting, the SLIB approved a $2 million grant for Johnson County.
The grant, however, was contingent upon voter approval of a 1 percent specific-purpose tax proposed to fund a new jail plus fees and interest charged by George K. Baum and Associates, the investment-banking firm hired to finance the project up front. Ultimately, that tax measure would fail in the Nov. 4 election.
Johnson County Rec District stirs up controversy (Aug. 21)
In its second year, the Johnson County Recreation District granted $353,083 for local recreation activities, but critics wondered why more than a third of the money ended up paying for school projects.
Of the total allocation, $120,800, more than one-third, was allocated for projects at Johnson County schools.
The district is funded by a half-mill levy assessed by the Johnson County School Board of trustees. The levy generated about $474,000 for the rec district. In July, rec board president Jack Tarter indicated the group had received requests in excess of $681,000. Total civic requests amounted to $370,469 while school requests totaled $311,520.
Renegade driver leads police on chase through Kaycee (Aug. 21)
With law enforcement in pursuit, a semi tractor and trailer rumbled up Interstate 25 and through the town of Kaycee before officers managed to block the vehicle on a freeway offramp.
The semi tractor and trailer was stolen outside of Gillette in Campbell County, according to Natrona County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Sellers.
Police arrested David Dykes, 38, of Casper for possession of stolen property, eluding, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident.
Driver saved by runaway truck ramp (Sept. 4)
For semi truck driver Djordjo Jovanovic, his first time driving in the mountains nearly ended in disaster on Wednesday, Aug. 27, when the Chicago resident lost his brakes on Highway 16 and he had to use a state-of-the-art runaway truck ramp to stop.
The ramp, a chute laced with bands of steel tape that stretch across the ramp like cords of a slingshot, stopped the truck within 250 feet, the Wyoming Department of Transportation estimated.
Council allows in-city archery hunting (Sept. 18)
A new city ordinance was passed that governs archery hunting in certain parts of the city to control rampant deer populations.
In its third and final vote on Tuesday, Sept. 16, the Buffalo City Council approved the ordinance to set up local permits for in-city archery hunting.
The greenbelt area — a parcel of city land along the Clear Creek Trail — and the Buffalo Golf Club were the two areas that the city opened to archery hunting with a city permit. The areas amount to a combined 350 acres.
Mortgage meltdown trickles down to county (Sept. 25)
Financial experts said Johnson County was not immune to the effects of the financial crisis topping the national news.
Locally, rising cost-of-living expenses, housing shortages and difficulty acquiring credit all were linked to the aftermath of rampant sub-prime mortgage lending across the United States.
“A lot of the problems we have are caused by poor lending practices,” said Buffalo real estate agent Craig Wetterlund. “I definitely put a lot of the blame on the lenders, not so much locally as some of the bigger companies and their greed.”
Semi truck driver dies in Highway 16 crash (Oct. 2)
A driver of an E.F. Trucking Inc. semi truck and flatbed trailer died Tuesday night, Sept. 23, when he lost his brakes and plunged about 184 feet off Highway 16 into a ravine.
Edward D. Flowers, 50, of Kankakee, Ill., died when he lost control of his truck and crashed about 5.5 miles west of Buffalo. It was the second fatal accident on this stretch of Highway 16 in 2008. In July, the driver of a recreational vehicle died when he lost his brakes coming down the mountain and slammed into a business at the T intersection of Fort Street (Highway 16) and Main Street.
Investigators said Flowers apparently lost his brakes less than a half mile east of a runaway truck ramp, the last one on this steep stretch of Highway 16 which drops into Buffalo from the Big Horn Mountains.
Governor urges tougher rules for Fortification Creek (Oct. 9)
Gov. Dave Freudenthal called for the federal government to put more teeth in a pending plan to manage energy development in the Fortification Creek area.
In an Oct. 6 letter to Thomas Bills, project manager with the Bureau of Land Management, Freudenthal said a draft resource management plan amendment and environmental assessment for the Fortification Creek Planning Area needed to include phased development and stringent follow-through to protect elk, other wildlife and ground water.
The Fortification Creek federal study was opened up to public comment on Aug. 7. The comment period ended Tuesday, Oct. 7. The plan aims to govern coal-bed methane gas production and habitat management for 230 elk on 100,655 acres in Johnson, Campbell and Sheridan counties.
Students lay groundwork for next Habitat house (Oct. 16)
On Thursday, Oct. 2, 14 students in Clark Chesbro’s construction technology class at Buffalo High School laid footings for the city’s fifth Habitat for Humanity house. It was one of the first steps toward providing a home for another needy resident. While the students were getting their hands dirty learning home building, they were helping the community.
“We’re so lucky to have the high school students doing the majority of the work,” said Colleen Payne, volunteer coordinator for Habitat’s Buffalo chapter.
Seney’s Drug and Soda Fountain fails to stay afloat (Oct. 23)
After more than 80 years of business, Seney’s on Main Street locked its doors with little fanfare or hoopla.
“It was literally a decision we made standing in the middle of the store,” said Kevin Seney, the store’s owner. He said he and manager Amee Standish came in early one morning and decided there was nothing more they could do to attract customers.
“We just kind of ran out of juice,” he admitted.
According to Seney, the Main Street icon, which was famous for its giant “Seney weenie” mascot, struggled to find its footing after Seney’s father retired. His departure left a vacancy in the pharmacist position that was never filled.
Voters turn out in force (Nov. 6)
A 1 percent specific-purpose tax to fund the construction of a new $23 million Johnson County Justice Center failed by 120 votes in a Nov. 4 general election marked by high turnout.
Patty Reid defeated Randy Dyess for a seat on the Buffalo City Council.
In a race for two, four-year seats on the city council, former mayor Bruce Hepp and incumbent Skip Hancock won election.
While Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency nationwide, Johnson County voters preferred Republican John McCain by a margin of 3,334 to 908. The state also went to McCain 158,515-78,033, according to CNN. Two counties, Albany and Teton, went to Obama.
Johnson County helped Republican Cynthia Lummis defeat Democrat Gary Trauner in a hotly contested race for Wyoming’s U.S. House of Representatives seat, which was vacated by retiring Barbara Cubin. County voters preferred Lummis 2,782-1,281. Statewide, Lummis won 126,015 to 101,036, according to CNN.
Wyoming’s U.S. senators John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, both Republicans, handily won re-election with about three-quarters of the vote in their favor in their respective races statewide. In Johnson County, they won by about 85 percent of the vote. With a raft of newly registered voters, turnout in the county hit 99.75 percent.
Historic bridge links up trail system (Nov. 20)
A 140-ton crane usually reserved for moving oil rigs did the heavy lifting to install a historic bridge on the banks of Clear Creek.
The bridge weighed more than 39,000 pounds, too heavy for two other cranes brought to the site, according to city planner Colin Betzler. On Monday, Nov. 17, a 2008 Demag Terez crane, equipped to lift up to 120,000 pounds, handled the task. Workers with High Country Crane Service of Casper hoisted the single-span, steel pony truss bridge onto a flatbed trailer, which transported it the few feet from the edge of Upper Clear Creek Road to the banks of Clear Creek. Then, the crane swung the former railroad bridge onto abutments on the creek banks.
The bridge, which will be opened in 2009 for pedestrian use, connects a residential area to the Clear Creek Trail System. Three Way Inc. donated time and labor to install the bridge; a host of other organizations supported the effort as well.
Boys & Girls Club loses major grant (Nov. 20)
The old Clear Creek Middle School, home of the Boys & Girls Club, could become considerably quieter if coordinators can’t replace $100,000 in federal funding.
“We probably have enough money coming in until summer, and then depending on how our fundraising goes between now and May, we may have to cut programs in the summer,” said Toni Cervenka, chief professional officer of the Boys & Girls Club of the Big Horns.
“In the past, there’s a grant called the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, which is through the Department of Education. It has been very, very helpful over the past five years,” Cervenka explained.
The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program uses free and reduced meals enrollment as a standard for awarding funds. As enrollments dipped, Johnson County failed to meet the standard, and the grant was denied.
Crossed up with Cross Three (Nov. 27)
A long-contested subdivision plan was once again placed in the hands of the courts.
Since contractor Joe Jarvis Jr. first proposed his development in 2005, the Cross Three subdivision was a hot potato, tossed back and forth among the planning and zoning commission, county commissioners and district court. At the heart of the dispute was a conflict between Jarvis and a number of property owners in the vicinity of the intended development, a site about 10 miles south of Buffalo off Old Highway 87.
One of these neighbors appealed the Johnson County Board of Commissioners’ Oct. 21 decision to approve Cross Three for development. In a letter dated Nov. 5, attorney Kendal Hoopes advised the board that his client, Betty Kauffman, has filed a petition with the Clerk of the District Court.
“It’s back in the court’s hands,” said Deputy Civil Attorney Barry Crago at the Nov. 7 county commissioners’ meeting. “That’s a good thing. We’ll get an answer on some of these questions we’ve been wondering about.”
Highway job hung up on right-of-ways (Dec. 4)
Landowners along Hart Street are balking at selling property to the state, forcing the Wyoming Department of Transportation to push back its date of hiring a contractor for the $15 million road widening and reconstruction job, WyDOT officials reported.
“There is a handful that we have contacted that have refused to sign the agreement,” reported WyDOT resident engineer Ron Williams. “There are also others we have contacted who said, ‘No problem.’”
WyDOT plans to reconstruct U.S. Highway 16 East, or East Hart Street, from Main Street to Interstate 90 beginning next spring. The project was scheduled to be put out for bid in January, but it’s been delayed, the agency announced. The delay is due to WyDOT’s difficulty with acquiring all of the necessary right-of-way, the agency reported.
County board will hear ‘complicated’ tax protest (Dec. 11)
Property owners in the new Sand Creek Ranch Conservation Community north of Buffalo talked the Johnson County Board of Equalization out of referring their property tax protest to the state level.
Sand Creek owners are disputing the average $168,000-per-acre value assessed to each of the 99 home lots on the ranch. They claim the assessment is based on the average purchase price of Sand Creek property, rather than what is typically considered reasonable for undeveloped farmstead acreage.
Lagging economy affects local post office (Dec. 11)
The flow of people in and out of the front doors of the Buffalo Post Office on an early December morning is steady, but doesn’t exactly amount to a holiday flood.
According to Ann Schutt, postmaster in Buffalo, her office is handling around 300 packages a day. However, she noted that these numbers were down across the board from normal holiday traffic.
“Right now we’re down about 20 percent, year to date,” said Schutt. She noted that the recent downturn in the national economy was the primary suspect in the holiday slump.
“We genuinely believe it’s economic,” Schutt said.
Record cold, blowing snow descend (Dec. 18)
From a day-before high of 38 degrees, the high temperature in Buffalo on Sunday, Dec. 14, was a teeth-chattering 12 degrees below zero.
This dramatic swing in temperatures was followed by a new record low. On Monday, Dec. 15, a low of 20 below zero at the Buffalo Airport eclipsed the old record of 16 below, set in 1926.
A strong Pacific storm system followed by an Arctic cold front descended on Johnson County, cutting off highway travel and chasing people indoors. A multi-vehicle pileup on Interstate 90 was blamed on the blizzard conditions. At the height of the storm, Highway 16 westbound was the only highway open out of Buffalo, according to the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
The recreation board, formed a year ago by the Johnson County School District to help fund local recreation projects, distributed more grant money in January.
The rec board was originally allocated a half mill to assess in property taxes, but board members lobbied the Johnson County School District trustees in July to increase that to a full mill, so that they could put money away toward a reserve. Some school trustees were hesitant to allow this increase because it would further increase the tax burden, given the huge jump in valuation.
Last chance for Main Street Web survey
(Jan. 10)
Opinions on the state of Buffalo’s Main Street business district were sought through a Web survey. The Main Street Business District Downtown Buffalo Community Development Study accepted
on-line comments.
The study aimed to examine the downtown’s demographic/economic information, physical condition of infrastructure, complete a market analysis for the area, plot the community’s long-range vision for downtown, develop the master plan, and finally, lay out a phased timetable to take action in our downtown area.
Local GOP favors Thompson, Huckabee, McCain (Jan. 10)
The Republican Party in Johnson County chose Bob Snowden to be its alternate delegate to the national convention.
Statewide, most of the 12 delegates to national GOP convention appointed this weekend declared support for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, promising him eight delegates, while former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee received three and U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, one.
However, when the Johnson County Republicans took a straw poll among the 35 members and visitors attending Saturday, the results showed fairly even support for Thompson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Arizona Sen. John McCain — Thompson got eight votes while Huckabee and McCain got seven each. Romney got five votes, while former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas got two votes each and Hunter, none.
While Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency nationwide, Johnson County voters preferred McCain by a margin of 3,334 to 908 in the general election. The state also went to McCain 158,515-78,033, according to CNN. Two counties, Albany and Teton, went to Obama.
Officials don’t like price tag of Bypass jail (Feb. 7)
Plans for a new jail didn’t get any cheaper.
During a Feb. 4 work session held by the Criminal Justice Center Joint Powers Board, officials decided to go back to the drawing board and get some hard numbers before any more plans were made on building a new jail on the Bypass Road property.
Local snowpack above average (Feb. 12)
As residents of Johnson County dug out of a weekend snowstorm, Wyoming state climatologist Steve Gray was watching snow accumulations in the higher elevations.
According to Gray, as much as 13 inches of snow fell in the higher elevations the past week putting the Powder River Basin at 115 percent of normal precipitation year-to-date and 101 percent of normal snow water equivalent.
Residents protest Kumor Road gravel pit (March 6)
There are about 30 homes within 1 mile of a proposed gravel pit and concrete batch plant off Kumor Road, east of Buffalo off Highway 16, and residents there are concerned about impacts on air quality and traffic.
In response to their worries aired at a meeting of the Johnson County Commissioners Tuesday, March 4, the commissioners decided to send a letter to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Quality Division requesting the state hold a public hearing in Johnson County on the matter.
Fourth, fifth grades moving to old school (March 13)
In order to deal with crowding problems at Meadowlark Elementary and Clear Creek Middle Schools, school officials announced they would move the fourth and fifth grades into the old Clear Creek School on Fort Street in the fall.
There were 164 students in those two grades combined. At their Monday, March 10, meeting, the Johnson County School District’s board of trustees voted 8-0 to adopt the recommendations of a months-long facilities analysis that involved input from administrators, teachers and parents.
County Dems second in state for attendance (March 13)
The 102 registered Democrats filling the Buffalo Senior Center’s main room on March 8 laughed and applauded. They had reason to be happy, as the number of people who were registered as Democrats in Johnson County went up 8 percent, from 358 in February to 386 in March. Financial support also increased. Two hundred contributions to Democrat Barack Obama and 95 for Republican John McCain were recorded by the Federal Elections Commission for the 828-- zip code prefix, which includes Acme, Arvada, Banner, Big Horn, Buffalo, Clearmont, Dayton, Leiter, Parkman, Ranchester, Saddlestring (Buffalo), Sheridan, Story, Wolf and Wyarno.
Kaycee, listed in the 826-- zip code prefix, was an area in which McCain received $72,001 in donations and Obama received $28,001 in donations, according to the FEC.
Diary records thoughts of fort commander’s wife (March 27)
“I sit here in my warm, comfortable, safe study, things around me that I love, and I look at the journal that I kept, kept of the days I spent at Fort Phil Kearny.”
Linda Ross of Buffalo reads these words, then pauses.
“Do I dare open it?” she asks.
She does dare, and it is not actually her diary, because she is portraying Margaret Carrington before a small audience at Buffalo’s Bureau of Land Management office on March 19.
Margaret Carrington was wife of Col. Henry B. Carrington, the officer who in 1866 established Fort Phil Kearny on the Bozeman Trail, about 15 miles north of the office where Ross read from the diary. The program was presented by the Wyoming Humanities Council in recognition of Women’s History Month.
Anderson takes helm of CC Elementary School (April 3)
The part-time administrator and instruction facilitator at Meadowlark Elementary School would be put in charge of the approximately 160 fourth- and fifth-grade students who will move into the old Clear Creek School next fall.
Superintendent Rod Kessler confirmed that Craig Anderson would be the principal at the new school.
Owners no-show at Kumor pit hearing (April 24)
There were about 35 people present Monday night, April 21, at the Johnson County Fire Hall for a public hearing on a proposed Kumor Road gravel pit.
None of them, however, attended representing the applicants, Touchstone Materials LLC of Idaho.
The hearing was held by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s Air Quality Division as a formal session to gather comment on Touchstone’s plan for a 57-acre gravel pit off Kumor Road, a couple of miles east of Buffalo.
Airport runway renovations: one bid only for $2.2M (May 1)
Bids for the contract to renovate runways and aprons at the Johnson County Airport were opened at a meeting with the Johnson County Commissioners.
They received one bid from Mountain Construction for $2,202,197.95. The engineer’s estimate for the project was $2,086,282.
Class of 2008 celebrates (May 22)
Members of the Class of 2008 at Buffalo High School marked their day of graduation on May 18. Valedictorian Katie Hall compared the Class of 2008’s journey through school to “the Game of Life: Student Edition.” Salutatorian Jacob Peters gave a moving speech about goals and the disappointment that can accompany even the greatest accomplishments.
U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, likened the students’ diplomas to “a license to invent.”
He said the graduates have the basic tools to do anything, and will have challenges to their learning all their lives. “Those of you graduating now will probably have 14 different careers,” Enzi said. “And here’s the really tough part — 10 of them haven’t been invented yet.”
Goodbye, Bob (June 5)
Bob Edwards was a familiar face to many in Buffalo who saw him out taking part in numerous community activities, such as putting up Christmas lights or, most recently, quietly working the controls of a crane while lowering the new bronze bison statue into place at Buffalo High School.
When Edwards died Tuesday night, May 27, at the age of 67, he left many who would always remember that face as being synonymous with kindness and service.
Saving Grace (June 12)
In the family’s living room, Grace Albright bounces happily in her infant chair, her blond hair falling around her face as she jabbers with her big sister Alyssa. Grace reaches for her sister’s face, and Alyssa obliges with a kiss on the cheek. In this way, Grace seems like any other 9-month-old infant: playful and curious about the world around her. The only hint that Grace isn’t a typical baby is the clear, plastic tube running from a small hole in her chest to a backpack on the floor that contains a intravenous pump and liquid supplements — Grace’s only source of hydration and nutrition since her birth.
The IV pump, which aims to give complete nutrition directly into the bloodstream, and a catheter are functioning as Grace’s digestive system as she awaits a four-organ transplant. That’s because Grace was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder, Megacystis Microcolon Intestinal Hypoperistalsis syndrome, which has rendered her digestive tract completely nonfunctional and left Grace in need of a donor stomach, small intestine, pancreas and liver.
When the Albrights get the phone call informing them that the organs Grace needs have been donated, they will have eight hours to get to Stanford Medical Center for the transplant. Thankfully, they will not have to go far to get on an airplane — the transplant coordinator has informed the Albrights that they will fly out of Buffalo to California for the transplant. At presstime, the Albrights were still waiting to hear.
Voice of the Bison silenced (June 19)
Steve Lawrence died Wednesday, June 11, and five days later a crowd filled half the gym at the high school to say good-bye to the man known for more than 38 years of announcing sports games and interviewing people on “Community Speaks.”
In the Aug. 30, 2007, issue of the Bulletin, Lawrence said the one thing that has amazed him over the years is the way the entire community supports the Bison. Parents and other family members, he said, are expected to follow the teams, but he has noticed that members of the community follow the Bison because they are fans of the teams, and he feels good to think that he is involved in some small way.
“It feels pretty special to think that they are not into the team because they have family members on the team, but because they follow the Bison. And that they haven’t gotten frustrated with me and turned it off,” he said.
Johnson County valuation soars (June 26)
Johnson County’s total valuation is officially $948.6 million, up by 36 percent, according to county assessor Dottie Elsom.
“We lack 51 million of being a billion,” Elsom said. “Maybe next year.”
Final figures from the state arrived at Elsom’s office, reflecting a $252.5 million increase since the county’s $696 million valuation one year ago. The state’s assessment of Johnson County’s natural gas accounts for the majority of the jump, with an increase of $221.4 million from last year, up to $707.9 million.
“The natural gas figure this year is more than the entire county valuation last year,” Elsom said. “Isn’t that amazing?”
City looks at increasing garbage fees (July 17)
The Buffalo City Council at their regular meeting in mid-July voted to increase garbage rates within the city. The ordinance was passed unanimously on first reading. The city’s rate increase was due to the Johnson County Landfill raising their rates, according to Mayor Mike Johnson.
On the recycling front, the city contracted the Community Resource Council with a 2007-2008 budget of $56,400 for administrative oversight of the local recycling center. This budget did not include transportation costs, vehicle maintenance or other operational costs outside of administration.
The Johnson County/City of Buffalo Recycling Center, founded in 1984, had recycled 290.59 tons of materials by mid-July.
By the end of 2008, however, the resource council would decline to renew its administrative contract, forcing the city and county to turn to the Johnson County Solid Waste District to run the recycling center for a one-year trial period.
County approves $21.3M budget (July 17)
Salary increases accounted for the majority of a 9 percent rise in the county budget for the coming fiscal year, according to Johnson County Clerk Linda Barnhart. During a public budget hearing on July 14, county commissioners adopted a $21.3 million budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year, about $1.8 million over the previous year. This was the largest budget passed in the history of Johnson County.
It was not, however, the largest increase seen from one year to the next, even in recent history. Between fiscal year 2006-07 and 2007-08, the county budget leapt 32 percent from $14 million to $19.5 million.
County buys state land for building expansion (July 17)
Johnson County Commissioners have announced their intent to purchase state-owned land as part of an ongoing endeavor to expand county facilities.
During a regular commission meeting Monday, July 14, Chairman Gerald Fink said the Wyoming Department of Transportation sent a letter requesting confirmation of the county’s interest in a piece of WyDOT property located just west of the criminal justice center in Buffalo. Since 2007, the county has had its eye on this property as a possible site for expansion to the current criminal justice center.
Any actual agreement the commissioners enter with WyDOT would need to be contingent upon funding for the new justice center project, Civil Deputy Attorney Barry Crago advised, but agreed that a confirmation of interest would be an appropriate step for the county to take.
Even after a tax measure to fund a justice center failed in the Nov. 4 election, commissioners still remained committed to purchasing the WyDOT property.
Attorney General: Commissioners wrongly dismantled scenic preserve trust (July 24)
Nearly six years after the Johnson County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to terminate the conservation easement on the Meadowood Ranch, the state of Wyoming filed suit against the commission and ranch owners Fred and Linda Dowd.
The suit stemmed from an August 2002 county commission decision to terminate the conservation easement on the 1,000-acre Meadowood Ranch. In doing so, the board reversed an easement that was established by commissioners in 1993 to permanently protect the ranch from development or subdivision.
In the complaint from the Attorney General, the state alleged, “the board, either by mistake or because of a misunderstanding regarding its potential liability for mineral development, breached the terms of the conservation easement.”
The state seeks a reversal of the commission’s decision, which would in effect reinstate the conservation easement. As of December of 2008, no court date had been scheduled.
Runaway RV crashes into office building (July 24)
A 1997 Chevrolet RV with a Jeep utility vehicle in tow crashed through the Rimrock Pipeline office building at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, July 18.
The driver, James D. Stark, 73, of Hot Springs, Ark., was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, Saralee G. Stark, 68, survived but required care at the Wyoming Medical Center in Casper. Through interviews with Saralee and other eyewitnesses, officers were able to confirm that the Starks were traveling eastbound on Highway 16 in their 35-foot motor home. While coming down Powder River pass, which has a downgrade of approximately 7 percent, the Starks pulled over in the Mosier Gulch Recreation Area on account of over-heating brakes but upon resuming their trip, lost their brakes and careened into downtown Buffalo.
The RV ran through the ‘T’ intersection of Fort and Main crashing into the adjacent row of office buildings. The Wyoming Highway Patrol estimated the RV was going 50 mph at the time of the crash.
Council gives nod to new jail tax (Aug. 7)
With no discussion, the Buffalo City Council gave unanimous approval to a resolution, supporting a proposal to raise local sales taxes by 1 percent to fund a new joint city-county jail, the criminal justice center.
Johnson County Commission Chairman Gerald Fink said, “We wanted to be here at the meeting to answer any questions about the resolution to put this on the ballot. We have had a lot of dialogue with members of the council over the past several weeks.”
The jail tax would fail on Nov. 4, and at a city-county meeting after the vote, officials would admit they didn’t know what to do next.
Johnson County Fair & Rodeo kicks off (Aug. 7)
At the Johnson County Fairgrounds, the sounds of bellowing steers mixed happily with children’s squeals and parents’ admonishments to get the animal pens cleaned and bedded.
Near the hog barns, four young boys scampered up a mountain of sawdust and then tumbled down, again and again.
Inside the exhibit halls, quilts and photographs cover the walls while flowers, jars full of every imaginable fruit or jelly, and plates of cookies, cakes and breads lined the tables.
The Johnson County Fair & Rodeo got underway with a fashion review and style show, a sampling of a full slate of events.
State approves jail grant for county (Aug. 14)
Though Johnson County’s application for a $5 million state grant to help pay for a new detention facility was not among those initially recommended for approval at the State Loan and Investment Board meeting, by the end of the meeting, the SLIB approved a $2 million grant for Johnson County.
The grant, however, was contingent upon voter approval of a 1 percent specific-purpose tax proposed to fund a new jail plus fees and interest charged by George K. Baum and Associates, the investment-banking firm hired to finance the project up front. Ultimately, that tax measure would fail in the Nov. 4 election.
Johnson County Rec District stirs up controversy (Aug. 21)
In its second year, the Johnson County Recreation District granted $353,083 for local recreation activities, but critics wondered why more than a third of the money ended up paying for school projects.
Of the total allocation, $120,800, more than one-third, was allocated for projects at Johnson County schools.
The district is funded by a half-mill levy assessed by the Johnson County School Board of trustees. The levy generated about $474,000 for the rec district. In July, rec board president Jack Tarter indicated the group had received requests in excess of $681,000. Total civic requests amounted to $370,469 while school requests totaled $311,520.
Renegade driver leads police on chase through Kaycee (Aug. 21)
With law enforcement in pursuit, a semi tractor and trailer rumbled up Interstate 25 and through the town of Kaycee before officers managed to block the vehicle on a freeway offramp.
The semi tractor and trailer was stolen outside of Gillette in Campbell County, according to Natrona County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Sellers.
Police arrested David Dykes, 38, of Casper for possession of stolen property, eluding, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident.
Driver saved by runaway truck ramp (Sept. 4)
For semi truck driver Djordjo Jovanovic, his first time driving in the mountains nearly ended in disaster on Wednesday, Aug. 27, when the Chicago resident lost his brakes on Highway 16 and he had to use a state-of-the-art runaway truck ramp to stop.
The ramp, a chute laced with bands of steel tape that stretch across the ramp like cords of a slingshot, stopped the truck within 250 feet, the Wyoming Department of Transportation estimated.
Council allows in-city archery hunting (Sept. 18)
A new city ordinance was passed that governs archery hunting in certain parts of the city to control rampant deer populations.
In its third and final vote on Tuesday, Sept. 16, the Buffalo City Council approved the ordinance to set up local permits for in-city archery hunting.
The greenbelt area — a parcel of city land along the Clear Creek Trail — and the Buffalo Golf Club were the two areas that the city opened to archery hunting with a city permit. The areas amount to a combined 350 acres.
Mortgage meltdown trickles down to county (Sept. 25)
Financial experts said Johnson County was not immune to the effects of the financial crisis topping the national news.
Locally, rising cost-of-living expenses, housing shortages and difficulty acquiring credit all were linked to the aftermath of rampant sub-prime mortgage lending across the United States.
“A lot of the problems we have are caused by poor lending practices,” said Buffalo real estate agent Craig Wetterlund. “I definitely put a lot of the blame on the lenders, not so much locally as some of the bigger companies and their greed.”
Semi truck driver dies in Highway 16 crash (Oct. 2)
A driver of an E.F. Trucking Inc. semi truck and flatbed trailer died Tuesday night, Sept. 23, when he lost his brakes and plunged about 184 feet off Highway 16 into a ravine.
Edward D. Flowers, 50, of Kankakee, Ill., died when he lost control of his truck and crashed about 5.5 miles west of Buffalo. It was the second fatal accident on this stretch of Highway 16 in 2008. In July, the driver of a recreational vehicle died when he lost his brakes coming down the mountain and slammed into a business at the T intersection of Fort Street (Highway 16) and Main Street.
Investigators said Flowers apparently lost his brakes less than a half mile east of a runaway truck ramp, the last one on this steep stretch of Highway 16 which drops into Buffalo from the Big Horn Mountains.
Governor urges tougher rules for Fortification Creek (Oct. 9)
Gov. Dave Freudenthal called for the federal government to put more teeth in a pending plan to manage energy development in the Fortification Creek area.
In an Oct. 6 letter to Thomas Bills, project manager with the Bureau of Land Management, Freudenthal said a draft resource management plan amendment and environmental assessment for the Fortification Creek Planning Area needed to include phased development and stringent follow-through to protect elk, other wildlife and ground water.
The Fortification Creek federal study was opened up to public comment on Aug. 7. The comment period ended Tuesday, Oct. 7. The plan aims to govern coal-bed methane gas production and habitat management for 230 elk on 100,655 acres in Johnson, Campbell and Sheridan counties.
Students lay groundwork for next Habitat house (Oct. 16)
On Thursday, Oct. 2, 14 students in Clark Chesbro’s construction technology class at Buffalo High School laid footings for the city’s fifth Habitat for Humanity house. It was one of the first steps toward providing a home for another needy resident. While the students were getting their hands dirty learning home building, they were helping the community.
“We’re so lucky to have the high school students doing the majority of the work,” said Colleen Payne, volunteer coordinator for Habitat’s Buffalo chapter.
Seney’s Drug and Soda Fountain fails to stay afloat (Oct. 23)
After more than 80 years of business, Seney’s on Main Street locked its doors with little fanfare or hoopla.
“It was literally a decision we made standing in the middle of the store,” said Kevin Seney, the store’s owner. He said he and manager Amee Standish came in early one morning and decided there was nothing more they could do to attract customers.
“We just kind of ran out of juice,” he admitted.
According to Seney, the Main Street icon, which was famous for its giant “Seney weenie” mascot, struggled to find its footing after Seney’s father retired. His departure left a vacancy in the pharmacist position that was never filled.
Voters turn out in force (Nov. 6)
A 1 percent specific-purpose tax to fund the construction of a new $23 million Johnson County Justice Center failed by 120 votes in a Nov. 4 general election marked by high turnout.
Patty Reid defeated Randy Dyess for a seat on the Buffalo City Council.
In a race for two, four-year seats on the city council, former mayor Bruce Hepp and incumbent Skip Hancock won election.
While Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency nationwide, Johnson County voters preferred Republican John McCain by a margin of 3,334 to 908. The state also went to McCain 158,515-78,033, according to CNN. Two counties, Albany and Teton, went to Obama.
Johnson County helped Republican Cynthia Lummis defeat Democrat Gary Trauner in a hotly contested race for Wyoming’s U.S. House of Representatives seat, which was vacated by retiring Barbara Cubin. County voters preferred Lummis 2,782-1,281. Statewide, Lummis won 126,015 to 101,036, according to CNN.
Wyoming’s U.S. senators John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, both Republicans, handily won re-election with about three-quarters of the vote in their favor in their respective races statewide. In Johnson County, they won by about 85 percent of the vote. With a raft of newly registered voters, turnout in the county hit 99.75 percent.
Historic bridge links up trail system (Nov. 20)
A 140-ton crane usually reserved for moving oil rigs did the heavy lifting to install a historic bridge on the banks of Clear Creek.
The bridge weighed more than 39,000 pounds, too heavy for two other cranes brought to the site, according to city planner Colin Betzler. On Monday, Nov. 17, a 2008 Demag Terez crane, equipped to lift up to 120,000 pounds, handled the task. Workers with High Country Crane Service of Casper hoisted the single-span, steel pony truss bridge onto a flatbed trailer, which transported it the few feet from the edge of Upper Clear Creek Road to the banks of Clear Creek. Then, the crane swung the former railroad bridge onto abutments on the creek banks.
The bridge, which will be opened in 2009 for pedestrian use, connects a residential area to the Clear Creek Trail System. Three Way Inc. donated time and labor to install the bridge; a host of other organizations supported the effort as well.
Boys & Girls Club loses major grant (Nov. 20)
The old Clear Creek Middle School, home of the Boys & Girls Club, could become considerably quieter if coordinators can’t replace $100,000 in federal funding.
“We probably have enough money coming in until summer, and then depending on how our fundraising goes between now and May, we may have to cut programs in the summer,” said Toni Cervenka, chief professional officer of the Boys & Girls Club of the Big Horns.
“In the past, there’s a grant called the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, which is through the Department of Education. It has been very, very helpful over the past five years,” Cervenka explained.
The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program uses free and reduced meals enrollment as a standard for awarding funds. As enrollments dipped, Johnson County failed to meet the standard, and the grant was denied.
Crossed up with Cross Three (Nov. 27)
A long-contested subdivision plan was once again placed in the hands of the courts.
Since contractor Joe Jarvis Jr. first proposed his development in 2005, the Cross Three subdivision was a hot potato, tossed back and forth among the planning and zoning commission, county commissioners and district court. At the heart of the dispute was a conflict between Jarvis and a number of property owners in the vicinity of the intended development, a site about 10 miles south of Buffalo off Old Highway 87.
One of these neighbors appealed the Johnson County Board of Commissioners’ Oct. 21 decision to approve Cross Three for development. In a letter dated Nov. 5, attorney Kendal Hoopes advised the board that his client, Betty Kauffman, has filed a petition with the Clerk of the District Court.
“It’s back in the court’s hands,” said Deputy Civil Attorney Barry Crago at the Nov. 7 county commissioners’ meeting. “That’s a good thing. We’ll get an answer on some of these questions we’ve been wondering about.”
Highway job hung up on right-of-ways (Dec. 4)
Landowners along Hart Street are balking at selling property to the state, forcing the Wyoming Department of Transportation to push back its date of hiring a contractor for the $15 million road widening and reconstruction job, WyDOT officials reported.
“There is a handful that we have contacted that have refused to sign the agreement,” reported WyDOT resident engineer Ron Williams. “There are also others we have contacted who said, ‘No problem.’”
WyDOT plans to reconstruct U.S. Highway 16 East, or East Hart Street, from Main Street to Interstate 90 beginning next spring. The project was scheduled to be put out for bid in January, but it’s been delayed, the agency announced. The delay is due to WyDOT’s difficulty with acquiring all of the necessary right-of-way, the agency reported.
County board will hear ‘complicated’ tax protest (Dec. 11)
Property owners in the new Sand Creek Ranch Conservation Community north of Buffalo talked the Johnson County Board of Equalization out of referring their property tax protest to the state level.
Sand Creek owners are disputing the average $168,000-per-acre value assessed to each of the 99 home lots on the ranch. They claim the assessment is based on the average purchase price of Sand Creek property, rather than what is typically considered reasonable for undeveloped farmstead acreage.
Lagging economy affects local post office (Dec. 11)
The flow of people in and out of the front doors of the Buffalo Post Office on an early December morning is steady, but doesn’t exactly amount to a holiday flood.
According to Ann Schutt, postmaster in Buffalo, her office is handling around 300 packages a day. However, she noted that these numbers were down across the board from normal holiday traffic.
“Right now we’re down about 20 percent, year to date,” said Schutt. She noted that the recent downturn in the national economy was the primary suspect in the holiday slump.
“We genuinely believe it’s economic,” Schutt said.
Record cold, blowing snow descend (Dec. 18)
From a day-before high of 38 degrees, the high temperature in Buffalo on Sunday, Dec. 14, was a teeth-chattering 12 degrees below zero.
This dramatic swing in temperatures was followed by a new record low. On Monday, Dec. 15, a low of 20 below zero at the Buffalo Airport eclipsed the old record of 16 below, set in 1926.
A strong Pacific storm system followed by an Arctic cold front descended on Johnson County, cutting off highway travel and chasing people indoors. A multi-vehicle pileup on Interstate 90 was blamed on the blizzard conditions. At the height of the storm, Highway 16 westbound was the only highway open out of Buffalo, according to the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
 |
 |
|
| Top 10 stories of 2008 | Dunfee resigns as chamber director |
Article Rating
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of buffalobulletin.com.
