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PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID GILLETTE, WY PERMIT NO. 5105
The Campbell 00 $1. County Observer
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Volume 4 • Issue 7
This Week’s Highlights
Haynes Launches Gubernatorial Bid
February 14 - 21, 2014
www.campbellcountyobserver.net
• Apps Wanted for Trustee Vacancy ................... Page 3 • Cole Sports......................... Page 8 • Bold Republic: Dear Gov…......................... Page 11 • Gov Mead’s Town Meeting .................... Page 13 • The Dinner Bell ............... Page 20
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June 17 - 24, 2011
“If it doesn’t have to do with Campbell County, we don’t care!” Submitted by James Chilton - wyomingnews.com
nother Republican has entered Wyoming’s 2014 gubernatorial primary race. Dr. Taylor H. Haynes announced his campaign late Thursday, pledging to fight for the Wyoming and U.S. constitutions and to correct what he said are a state and nation headed in the wrong direction. Born in Shreveport, La., and raised on a produce farm, Haynes, 68, has an extensive and varied background in business, agriculture and medicine. A board-certified surgeon in adult and pediatric urology, Haynes originally moved to Cheyenne in 1984 to practice medicine. Now retired from the field, he and his wife, Beth, own Mountain Benefits Management Company, a third-party administrator of health benefits with locations in Cheyenne and Worland. Haynes also raises organic grassfed beef cattle on a ranch in Albany County, where he lives. He previously served as the president of the Laramie County Stock Growers Association, president of the Pole Mountain Grazing Association and vice president of Wyoming Stock Growers Association. He also served on the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees for 12 years. Haynes ran a truncated write-in campaign for governor in 2010, in which he received more than 14,000 votes. Since then, he said, he’s been gauging his support across the state and decided that Wyomingites were craving an alternative candidate. “You push a market and pull a market, and I am being pulled by demand statewide,” Haynes said in an inter-
view Friday. “That’s been the message coming to me from around the state. It’s about knowing the constitution and having some success in business, especially at the senior executive level.” Haynes said he has longstanding concerns about the direction the Legislature and governor’s office have been going during the last few years. He is especially critical of the passage of Senate File 104, the bill that stripped State Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill of most of her duties. Haynes said it was clear to him from the outset that SF 104 would be found unconstitutional, which it was on Jan. 28. “It was a pretty easy call if you’re looking at the Constitution; very easy call to make,” he said. But more than that, Haynes said he’s running because he believes Wyoming needs an executive willing to fight against what he sees as federal meddling in business that the state should be responsible for. He’s strongly against implementation of Common Core standards for education, arguing that the Common Core provides “cookie cutter” standards that “filter everybody into a single pathway.” He’s also in favor of looser regulation of business, particularly the natural resources sector that forms such a large part of Wyoming’s economy. “In Wyoming, we’re losing our natural resource base; it’s being cut off artificially,” he said. “The coal industry, we’ve lost over 1,700 jobs in the last 12 months; and the EPA, with the anti-haze movement and some of what
they’ve done across our country, have cost us jobs in coal. We have more coal than China, so that is a gift from God to sustain the people to live here and to share with our neighbors.” But while energy is a key concern for the state, Haynes said onerous regulations go far beyond that sector. He mentioned meeting a rancher on the campaign trail who managed a small gravel pit, selling the gravel to help pave driveways or create ornamental gardens in neighboring communities. “He was shut down by the EPA and (state Department of Environmental Quality) because he didn’t have a Porta Potty on the grounds,” Haynes said. “It’s those types of things I want to correct. I want to streamline our regulations so that the private sector can create jobs, and I want to do that in short order so we can avoid a state income tax.” Haynes is expected to face off in the August primary against Mead and Hill, though Mead hasn’t formally announced his re-election bid. He is expected to announce his intentions after the legislative session that begins Monday.
Nathan Phillips of Gillette, WY Named to Springfield College Dean’s List Springfield College has named Nathan Phillips of Gillette, WY (82718) to the dean’s list for academic excellence for the fall 2013 term. Phillips is studying Athletic Training. Founded in 1885, Springfield College is known worldwide as the Birthplace of Basketball® and for the guiding principles of its humanics philosophy-educating students in spirit, mind, and body for leadership in service to others. With its foundation of academic excellence and rich
athletic heritage, Springfield College prepares students with real-world leadership skills for careers that transform lives and communities. The college offers a range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs in fields of health sciences, human and social services, sport management and movement studies, education, business, and the arts and sciences. It also offers doctoral programs in physical education, physical therapy, and counseling psychology. The col-
lege is ranked in the 2014 edition of “Best Colleges” in the top tier of “Best Regional Universities -- North Region” by U.S.News Media Group, and is designated as a premier Leadership Development Center by the YMCA of the USA. More than 5,000 traditional, nontraditional and international students study at its main campus in Springfield, Mass. and at its School of Human Services campuses across the country.
State Board Approves Business Ready Grant Projects The Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) approved $20.5 million in Business Ready Community project requests this morning at its meeting in Cheyenne. At its January 23, meeting the Wyoming Business Council Board of Directors recommended the SLIB approve the following: • Laramie County: An $8 million grant and a $5 million loan from the Governor’s Business Ready Community Large Business Infrastructure Fund for the purchase and renovation of an existing 67,096-square-foot facility, and construction of a new 108,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for the recruitment of Magpul Industries. • Cheyenne: A $5 million Business Committed loan for 20,200 feet of rail infrastructure in the Swan Ranch Industrial Park. This project will facilitate the expansion of Searing Industries in Wyoming, and also provide the necessary connecting rail between the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) and Union Pa-
cific Railroad (UPRR) mainlines. In the interim, the Attorney General ruled that language in the 2012 budget footnote that created the Large Infrastructure Fund only allows for grants and not loans. With this information, the SLIB approved the following today: • Laramie County: A $13 million grant with contingencies that include a revenue recapture plan to provide at least $6,095,780 of recaptured funds back to the Wyoming Business Council for state economic development projects. • Cheyenne: A $2 million grant from the Governor’s Large Infrastructure Fund and a $3 million loan from the regular budget of the Business Ready Community Program. This also includes a revenue recapture plan to provide at least $2,351,987 of recaptured funds back to the Wyoming Business Council for state economic development projects. The SLIB also approved a $2.5 million loan to install infrastructure in the Platte River Commons Opportunity
Area located on the old Amoco Refinery property in Casper. At its December 2013 meeting, the Business Council Board of Directors recommended the SLIB approve a $3 million BRC grant and a $2 million BRC loan to the Amoco Reuse Agreement Joint Powers Board for the project. The Wyoming Business Council administers the Business Ready Community program, which provides the financing for publicly owned infrastructure that serves the needs of businesses and promotes economic development within Wyoming communities. The Business Council Board of Directors is required by statute to forward all BRC recommendations to the SLIB for final approval. The SLIB is made up of the five statewide elected officials: Gov. Matt Mead, Secretary of State Max Maxfield, State Treasurer Mark Gordon, State Auditor Cynthia Cloud, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill.