Markdavispowelltribune

TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2017

107TH YEAR/ISSUE 43

MUNICIPAL COURT JUDGE JIM ALLISON STEPS DOWN FROM THE BENCH THIS WEEK

After serving four decades, local judge calls it a career

BY DON COGGER Tribune Staff Writer

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there in 1994. Netting for lake trout started in 1995, but only in a discovery effort.

Now, the Native Fish Conservation Program team not only works extremely hard to remove the damaging species, but they’re working smart.

Dr. Todd Koel (pronounced Cool)

owell Mayor John Wetzel recently described the long service of Municipal Court Judge Jim Allison and Municipal Court Clerk Joy Ness this way: “If your dog was at large or your driving habits suspect in the last few decades, you have met this team.”

He wasn’t kidding: Since 1981, the Honorable Judge Allison has been a fixture in municipal court, as well as at his law practice located in downtown Powell. But after a career in law spanning four decades, Allison has decided to call it a career, as has Ness.

Their final day is Wednesday.

A Powell native, Allison graduated from Powell High School in 1966. He began his collegiate career at North‘I’ve practiced law west College before movfor 42 years, and ing on to the University of I’ll be 70 years Wyoming. After old at the end of graduating law August. It was as school, Allison worked a year good a time as as an associate any to stop.’ for a local firm before hanging Judge Jim Allison out his shingle on April 1, 1976.

Other than a brief stint on Clark Street, “I’ve been in this office since then,” Allison said, indicating his office on North Bent.

Allison served as an alternate justice of the peace from 1980-1988 and as justice of the peace from 1988 until 1994, when the county court system was put into place.

While his 36-year run as municipal court judge will end this week, he’s slowly been closing down his private practice since last summer, when his secretary of 15 years, Carolee Neal, moved away from the area.

“I’ve practiced law for 42 years, and I’ll be 70 years old at the end of August,” Allison said, adding, “It was as good a time as any to stop.”

Allison said he’ll miss practicing law — especially bankruptcy law, his primary focus for about the last 10 years.

“I grew to love practicing bankruptcy law a lot,” he said. “I handled a lot of domestic relations cases before that, and bankruptcy is much easier and more challenging than domestic cases. Divorces have become very messy.”

Through his bankruptcy work, Allison

See Trout, Page 8

See Judge, Page 3

Phil Doepke throws a lake trout into a container after measuring, checking the sex of the fish and looking for tags while Pat Bigelow (left) and Ben Brogie assist.

Lake trout were illegally stocked into Yellowstone Lake in the mid-’90s and crews have been working to remove the fish since. Lake trout eat the native cutthroat trout and, if left unchecked, the cutthroats would have disappeared from the lake.

IN FIGHT TO ERADICATE

LAKE TROUT Yellowstone Park team ,

getting more efficient

massive pool of lake trout, a nonnative fish that threatens the entire ecosystem.

The park’s fishing season opened rom the banks of Yellowstone Lake, visitors snap selfies and Saturday, with those in the know landscapes in one of the most catching the sport-fishing-prized spebeautiful areas in the park, taking in cies from boats and shore.

“Catch them, kill them and eat the snow-covered peaks and wildlifethem,” said Dan Wenk, viewing thrill.

Yellowstone National Yet few realize Park superintendent. they’re helping to pro‘They’re a And if those fishing tect native species of wonderful fish, get lucky and the right Yellowstone cutthroat spot is found, they can but they just trout and fluvial Arctic grayling when they buy don’t belong here.’ take home as much as they can carry — it’s a fishing license — asillegal to return lake Phil Doepke sisting an effort that trout to the lake. That Cutthroat trout has spanned more than means no limits on size conservation two decades to rid the

BY MARK DAVIS Tribune Staff Writer

F

Powell Valley Healthcare submits bid to keep VA clinic The VA has 90 days to make a decision on the bid, Gilmore said.

Terry Odom, interim chief or 18 years, the Basin Community Based Out- executive officer for Powell patient Clinic — known Valley Healthcare, said all locally as the VA clinic — has submitted bids have identibeen located inside Powell fying information removed Valley Clinic and run by Pow- — or are “blinded” — and will be reviewed ell Valley Healthby a committee care. in Oklahoma City.

PVHC leaders ‘If we win the Once a decision is would like to keep made and the bid bid, we will it there for another is awarded, the five years, so they be hiring 1.5 contract will be efsubmitted a bid telemedicine fective Sept. 1. earlier this month Gilmore said the for a new VA clinic clerks. We VA has changed contract. would be some of its conThe clinic last went up for a five- happy to do it.’ tract requirements since 2009. year bid through “They’re getting Mike Gilmore the U.S. Departa little bit more PVHC ment of Veterans specific on what Affairs in spring 2009, when the contract was they want,” he said. “I think, as awarded again to Powell Val- the VA tries to improve their services to the veterans, ... ley Healthcare.

Since its expiration in 2014, there are things they feel are PVHC has continued to oper- important to provide care for ate the clinic through a series veterans.”

Those changes include addof short-term (mostly threemonth) contract extensions ing a dedicated phone line and a separate waiting room for offered by Veterans Affairs.

“We’ve been waiting to hear VA patients, and a dedicated when we would bid on the new nursing staff to take care of VA contract,” said Mike Gilmore, patients only.

Odom said Drs. Mike PVHC vice president for outpatient services. “It finally Bohlman, Kelly Christensen, came out the first of April and Sarah Durney and Valerie was due May 5, and we subSee Clinic, Page 2 mitted it on time.”

BY ILENE OLSON Tribune News Editor

F

Lake trout with tags are kept in a container after being removed from Yellowstone Lake. The tags help scientists track the nonnative species.

Tribune photos by Mark Davis

or numbers.

“They’re a wonderful fish, but they just don’t belong here,” said Phil Doepke, who has been part of the cutthroat trout conservation effort for 14 seasons.

Doepke is part of a team of scientists that has been working hard to remove the unwanted fish from the lake since the species was discovered

BLM hoping to buy mountain FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD PURCHASE SHEEP MOUNTAIN PROPERTY, GROUPS SAY

BY CJ BAKER Tribune Editor

I

t’s not often that you find Park County commissioners urging the federal government to buy up private land.

But there’s an apparent

overwhelming consensus that roughly 1,800 acres of land on top of Sheep Mountain west of Cody should be put in the hands of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The toughest obstacle may be getting federal officials in

Delissa Minnick, the Bureau of Land Management’s Cody Field Office manager, and Park County Commission Chairman Lee Livingston look out over Sheep Mountain during a May 4 trip. More than 1,800 acres of the mountain are currently owned by The Nature Conservancy; there appears to be a broad consensus that the BLM should acquire the land, which provides key winter range for wildlife and is surrounded by other public lands. Photo courtesy Kim Liebhauser, Bureau of Land Management

LOTTA NUMBER - 2182 12/20/2017

LAST WEEK’S LOTTA NUMBER BELONGED TO HELEN RAMIREZ OF POWELL WHO WON $20.

Washington, D.C., to acquire the Sheep Mountain property amid limited budgets.

More than a dozen organizations, agencies and individuals — ranging from the Greater Yellowstone Coalition to the Park County Commission — have written letters supporting the local BLM’s efforts to convince their leaders to make the land a priority.

“To have that in private ownership would be devastating. It really would,” County Commissioner Joe Tilden said last month.

Technically, the land is privately owned today, being held

by The Nature Conservancy.

But the nonprofit organization acquired the land with the intent of eventually transferring it to the federal government.

“We were afraid somebody was going to buy it and then shut off all access, and we just thought that would be a loss to the community,” said Katherine Thompson, The Nature Conservancy’s northwest Wyoming program director.

Located west of the Buffalo Bill Reservoir — and landlocked by roughly 17,000 acres of other public lands — Sheep Mountain provides crucial winter range for many animals.

Bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer and other species all call See Mountain, Page 2

PAGE 8 • POWELL TRIBUNE TUESDAY, MAY 30, 2017

At left, captain Ben Brogie pulls in a lake trout caught in a net from the deck of the Cutthroat boat. At right, an American white pelican, with a bill horn showing, hangs out around the Freedom, the park service’s largest boat. American white pelicans grow a bill horn that falls off after breeding season; several species of birds hang around the boats, hoping for a free meal as crews remove lake trout from Yellowstone Lake.

Trout: Yellowstone crews have removed some 2.6 million pounds of lake trout over the past two decades Continued from Page 1 has been leading the team for 17 years.

He and his crew have been creating more efficient ways to remove lake trout every season. Currently, they’re surgically implanting transmitters in individual lake trout and releasing them to study their patterns.

The implanted fish, called Judas fish, are making efforts easier.

“The Judas fish lead us to their friends, and then we kill them,” Koel said.

The team recently started using small aircraft to search the lake for the tagged Judas fish. A plane can cover the entire lake, which is approximately 22 miles long, in a couple hours. Travel by boat is far less efficient.

“I’m hopeful we can shift completely

to flights to find fish soon,” Koel said. on the boat are extremely competiThe team is still using nets; there are tive.

35 to 40 miles of nets in the lake every “I believe I’ve taken out more lake day, from ice-out in the spring until trout than anyone else,” Doepke said. the lake freezes He has served as a boat capover again in the tain for 14 seasons. Doepke fall. But even the did his master’s thesis on ‘Models predict netting effort is Yellowstone cutthroat trout. becoming more ef- the collapse of the But Dr. Pat Bigelow disficient, thanks to population within putes the claim. the big brains on is my 20th season,” another 10 years.’ she“This the boats and in said, wearing a fishing the lab. The use cap that looked to have at Dr. Todd Koel of nets occasionally least two decades of fish gut Native Fish leads to mortality of stains on the bill and staring Conservation Program cutthroats, but the down Doepke with a comratio of caught lakpetitive smile. ers to cutthroats is very high thanks to The team has removed 2.6 million studies in net size, depth and patterns pounds of lake trout since 1996 — inused as they are deployed. cluding more than 366,000 pounds last Doepke and other team members year alone. And that doesn’t include

the fish that were never able to grow: Research has led to more efficient ways of attacking the eggs at spawn sites.

“Lake trout are in decline, but it doesn’t happen overnight,” Koel said.

As the team of scientists becomes a more efficient fish-killing machine, there is an end in sight.

“Models predict the collapse of the population within another 10 years,” Koel said.

Doepke encourages fishermen to get to the lake and help soon.

“We’re working hard, but it’s still a great place to come fishing,” he said.

Boat captain Ben Brogie points out some great areas for shore fishermen to try their luck. He cited the north part of the West Thumb as the best place to cast a line right now, but

also suggests Angler’s, Sand and Gull points for catching lakers.

“Use a spoon with yellow and orange spots — something that looks like a small cutthroat,” Brogie suggests.

A park fishing permit is required for anyone putting a line in the water, but a Wyoming license is not necessary to fish on the lake. A three-day license is $18, a seven-day license is $25 and an annual permit is $40. Live bait is forbidden in the lake, and all cutthroat trout must be returned to the water unharmed.

More than 50,000 visitors buy permits each year. While lake trout fishing is great right now, anglers had better hurry before Dr. Koel and his gang of scientists work themselves out of a job.

The crew of the Cutthroat, including Ben Brogie, Pat Bigelow and Phil Doepke, troll nets for lake trout, a nonnative species that eats the native cutthroat trout, in Yellowstone Lake. Tribune photos by Mark Davis

A Yellowstone park fisheries biologist works from the deck of the Freedom, a WWII vintage vessel turned into a fishing boat, to rid the lake of a large log that could damage boats.

Phil Doepke (right), Pat Bigelow and Ben Brogie work to remove lake trout from their nets on the deck of the Cutthroat. Crews have been netting lake trout since their discovery in Yellowstone Lake in 1994 and hope to have the population collasped within the next decade.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017

107TH YEAR/ISSUE 79

Powell schools

SANDHILL SUNSET

MEETING OR EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

BY TESSA BAKER Tribune Features Editor

I

Greater sandhill cranes take off at sunset Sunday after feeding in farm fields south of Powell. Their loud rattling calls can be heard in the city as flocks stage around the area before migrating south for the winter. According to the Audubon Society, sandhill cranes have expanded their numbers and nesting range over the past two decades — including in the mountain meadows, valley pastures and middle- to low-altitude wetlands of Wyoming. Most populations are now stable or increasing, the Audubon Society says. For more photos, see Page 13. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

FIGHTING

See Schools, Page 3

New PVHC logo refreshes and adds depth

THE INVADERS YELLOWSTONE CUTTHROAT TROUT CONSERVATION TEAM EXPECTS RECORD YEAR IN EFFORT TO KILL LAKE TROUT October effort. Crews made up of both Park Service employees and subcontractors man the he cutthroat trout con- nets six days a week in an atservation team at Yel- tempt to crash the lake trout lowstone National Park population. The trout, which feed on the naexpects to break tive cutthroat a record this trout, were introyear, ridding Yel‘I’m a big fan of duced in the lake lowstone Lake of more than 360,000 lake trout; they’re in the late ’80s or lake trout. The a wonderful fish. early ’90s. DNA show the high mark was These are just in results lake trout were set last year, with the wrong place.’ brought from 358,000 removed Lake Michigan. from the lake.

Phil Doepke Comparing “They’re on a Crew member numbers, about record pace,” said 12,000 lake trout Jonathan Shafer, Yellowstone public affairs of- were removed from the lake in 2002. At the time, program dificer.

There are 35 to 40 miles rector Todd Koel thought they of nets in the lake every day were doing pretty good. But, during the mid-May to mid- unknown to Koel, lake trout

n nearly every subject and grade, Powell students scored above the state average in this year’s standardized tests.

The Wyoming Department of Education considers those test results in its performance ratings for K-12 schools.

“This is where you can really be proud of your district, because they’re shining,” R.J. Kost, curriculum coordinator for Park County School District No. 1, said during a school board meeting last month.

Westside Elementary School is exceeding expectations under the state’s school performance ratings. Parkside and Southside elementary schools are both meeting expectations, and were very close to receiving an “exceeding” rating, Kost said.

Both Powell High School and Powell Middle School also are meeting expectations.

The alternative high school accountability model is in its final pilot year, so the state data does not include school performance ratings for alternative high schools, such as Shoshone Learning Center.

Kost said the Powell school district showed “great growth by all of our different buildings, great growth by the kids.”

“We’re where we need to be

BY ILENE OLSON Tribune Staff Writer

P

iment and ground lake trout to kill the eggs on spawning beds, giving the team what may prove to be the deciding advantage.

“We keep ramping up the effort,” Koel said while checking on the several boat crews

owell Valley Healthcare has modernized its logo and given it more depth with a new design, according to a spokesman for the organization.

Jim Cannon, PVHC director of public relations, said the new logo was chosen from several options by a committee of physicians, department leaders and staff members.

The lines in the Heart Mountain graphic are thicker, and the heart inside it and the text are a darker maroon color.

The redesigned logo no longer has a gray line simulating an EKG reading beside the graphic or the finer print underneath it.

“We’re starting a new era,” Mike Gilmore, PVHC vice

See Trout, Page 8

See Logo, Page 2

MARK DAVIS Tribune Staff Writer

T

Taylor Preul and Megan Davenport check a lake trout near a spawning site in Yellowstone Lake last week.

The sites are found by inserting transmitters into the fish and following them, using telemetry, before setting nets. A female lake trout lays about 5,000 eggs per year. Tribune photo by Mark Davis populations were growing exponentially. Six years later, the crew realized what they were up against.

“In 2008, I was told to double my efforts and expect to be doing it for a long time,” Koel said.

Koel expects his crew to con-

tinue netting lake trout through mid October — when inclement weather forces the crews off the lake and into the lab until the spring thaw. At the same time, the team is concentrating much of their efforts on embryo suppression during the lake trout spawn. The team uses both sed-

Longtime Little League umpire braces for his toughest battle

BY DON COGGER Tribune Sports/News Editor

F

or most of his adult life, Calvin Sanders has been a champion of youth athletics in the Big Horn Basin, as a coach and as a longtime umpire for Little League Baseball.

But after years of watching young athletes battle on the field of play, Sanders now faces a battle of his own. The umpirein-chief of the northwest region was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer; he is scheduled to begin treatment next week.

“He knows there’s no cure for it, but he’s ready to fight it,” said Sanders’ sister, Melanie Sanders-Smith. “He’s going

at it as aggressively as he can. Prayer on the Mound, a special He wants to extend his life event to honor Sanders and as much as he can. It is pos- what he’s meant to the community. The event sible to live with is scheduled for it. It can’t be cured, but there ‘He knows there’s no Saturday at LeField, beare cases, and cure for it, but he’s gion ginning at 6 p.m. they’re rare, of ready to fight it.’

“Calvin has people who can dedicated his treat it like a chronic illness. Melanie Sanders-Smith adult life to LitSister tle League and He knows the Legion as an odds are against him, but he wants to be that ex- umpire,” said Shelly Schultz, president of Powell Little ception.”

To show their support, friends League. “He’s done it all as and family have organized a volunteer. ... He’s given so

RALLY FOR CALVIN SANDERS SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY

LOTTA NUMBER - 5778 08/24/2018

much.”

Schultz pointed to a recent minor league tournament Powell hosted as an example of Sanders’ commitment to baseball, as well as the kids who play it.

“The way he sat up there and talked to those ‘young men,’ as he called them, and the boys eyes are all on him,” she explained. “Everything he said was heard. He respects the boys, and he absolutely gets their respect back.”

“He brings a sense of authority that nobody else does,” said Angie Spann of North Big Horn Little League. “He comes in, he’s very professional, he talks See Sanders, Page 3

Longtime Little League umpire Calvin Sanders will be honored Saturday at a Prayer on the Mound event at Legion Field. Players, coaches and the community are encouraged to attend and wear rally caps in support of Sanders, who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Courtesy photo

LAST WEEK’S LOTTA NUMBER BELONGED TO JUDY RHOADS OF CODY WHO MISSED $20.

PAGE 8 • POWELL TRIBUNE THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2017

Skiing: Owners hope to make mountain slope more friendly for intermediate skiers ‘It’s warm, the sun is shining and the days are longer. It’s awesome.’

Nathan Danforth Skier

Continued from Page 1 year without income. The entire enterprise is a huge risk.

“I’d be a guru if I could predict the weather,” co-owner Kurt Hallock said, adding, “But the crowds this year have been very encouraging.”

Hallock, originally from Red Lodge, Montana, used to sell sandwiches at the site when it first opened in 1964. He then became a certified ski instructor who taught skiing in Red Lodge, Sun Valley, Idaho, and Portillo, Chile, before heading

back to school to become a lawyer in California. He returns regularly to ski the area and attend to business.

“It’s a great spot to ski. We’re attempting to make it more user friendly for intermediate skiers,” Hallock said.

They can’t open unless there’s snow.

And if there is snow, they can’t open until the Beartooth Highway (U.S. 212) is cleared. And the summit is just a mile from the Montana border, so getting the road cleared involves two state agencies that have different motivations, according to Modroo.

Modroo is used to risks. He has spent most of his adult life as a pro skier, ranked in the top 20 in the World Freeskiing Tour several times (including a sixth-place finish) and finishing in the top five of the U.S. Freeskiing Tour three times. At the same time, he became a geophysicist specializing in precious metals — a job almost as cyclical as big snow.

“When it all goes bad, I might end up being a tour guide for the summer,” Modroo said.

But he still ends up in the same place when it snows.

Cowboy Boots &

Country Roots

JULY 25 - JULY 29 POWELL, WYOMING

Are You Ready?

Entry forms

are due July 5

A skier makes the leap on a run down the slopes at the Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area. The ski area was first opened in the mid 1960s and is still maintained for summer skiing when enough snow is present. It currently has about a 30-inch base, but will close in early July, depending on attendance. Tribune photos by Mark Davis

• Kitchen Arts • Crafted Arts • Needle Arts • Visual Arts • Products of Farm • 4-H & FFA • Horse • Livestock Horticulture and Floriculture may enter items up to day of judging.

A skier does his last run (above) as the sun sets behind the Beartooth Mountains at the Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area. The ski area is rated for advanced and intermediate skiers only. It has between 600 and 1,000 vertical feet of steep downhill skiing as well as a snowboard jump park at the base of the peak. The Beartooth Basin Summer Ski Area temporary ticket office (right) is located in a camper trailer in the parking lot. The ski area is 23 miles west of Red Lodge, Montana, just inside the Wyoming state line.

Mitchell: Will stay in Powell and work for statewide association of superintendents Continued from Page 1 the Wyoming Association of School Administrators.

Mitchell started as superintendent in Powell in 2007. At the time, the new Powell High School was taking shape.

Construction continued in coming years as a new Southside Elementary School, Westside Elementary School and three phases of Powell Middle School were completed.

“All of the schools are just absolutely awesome,” Mitchell said. He noted that an accreditation team highlighted that Powell’s school facilities are designed for kids instead of adults.

“We’re very proud of that,” he said.

Over the past decade, the district did major upgrades to other buildings, including Parkside Elementary School, Clark Elementary School, the Shoshone Learning Center, the School Administration Building, the bus barn and the Support Services Building (part of the old PHS).

“The district looks different, it certainly does,” Mitchell said.

“We’ve had great staff members working on those projects — I’m not taking credit for any of that, but it happened under my watch.”

Powell built its new schools at a time when Wyoming enjoyed budget surpluses instead of shortfalls.

“We’re extremely fortunate ‘We’re going to get better every that the state had the money at day.’ That attitude is still here,” that time to pay for our build- he said.

Jay Curtis, who takes over ings,” Mitchell said, adding that Powell had the capacity and as the Powell superintendent vision to be out in the forefront next week, believes in the same vision and will continue that, and get its facilities built.

Mitchell said.

Beyond buildCurtis has served ings, Mitchell has as superintenseen other chang- ‘Powell is known dent of Meeteees within the disacross the area tse Schools since trict.

2010.

“I think the cli- for having one “I’m confident mate has changed of the strongest in his abilities, over the years,” because I’ve seen he said, adding educational him grow as a that the culture is leadership teams superintendent,” student-centered Mitchell said. and the climate is in the state of Mitchell said positive.

Wyoming.’ his leadership “The decisions that we make, Kevin Mitchell style and beliefs have served him the money that School superintendent well in Powell for we spend, number one goes to our students, and 10 years, “but it’s time for a new then second, the support of our eye, it’s time for a new leadership style. It’s time for looking at employees,” Mitchell said.

Over the past decade, new that vision again in the district.” head principals started at every Mitchell said a highlight of school except Powell Middle his time in Powell has been School, where Jason Sleep is the working with “tremendous” principal; new assistant princi- school board members who pals also were hired at PHS and have a sincere interest in being the middle school. involved and work together as “Powell is known across the a team. area for having one of the stron“They have led me in a way gest educational leadership that allows me to lead the disteams in the state of Wyoming,” trict without any interference Mitchell said. whatsoever,” he said. “CerHe said the Powell district is tainly we have an issue come in good hands. up every now and then that we “One of our other mantras is, have to work through. On a day-

to-day basis, I trust the board and they trust me.”

He said the vision starts at the top, and if the board is focused on students and staff, “that allows the rest of us to do that.”

Mitchell also said the district has managed its money well over the years.

“I’ve been fortunate that we’ve had funding,” Mitchell said. “In my tenure here, we’ve had certainly adequate funding to do what we needed to do.”

Part of Mitchell’s new job with Wyoming Association of School Administrators (WASA) will be to attend legislative committee meetings on education. He has been a voice for northwest Wyoming, and will now take on a statewide role, communicating legislative updates to superintendents across the state.

“That’s going to be key in the next year, because not every superintendent can go to those meetings,” Mitchell said.

Wyoming has lost some longtime superintendents recently, Mitchell said, and he’ll bring a historical perspective and years of experience to help other districts.

“My job is to support every school district in the state through their superintendent,” he said.

As Wyoming lawmakers grapple with K-12 funding shortfalls of roughly $380 mil-

lion a year and debate how to deliver education, Mitchell encouraged the community to get involved. He said it’s important for residents to research the issues and understand what students’ needs are.

As the WASA executive director, one of his goals is to visit every school district once a year. Mitchell will be based in Powell. His wife, Jo, teaches music at Westside and is in her 19th year. The couple’s children, Tess and Pax, both graduated from PHS. Mitchell said he appreciates his family’s support, saying Jo “has stood by me through thick and thin, and so have Tess and Pax.” “It’s not easy being a superintendent’s child, and other superintendent’s children will tell you the same,” he said.

“They’ve certainly supported their father.”

Last month, the Powell school board honored Mitchell, thanking him for his dedication and service.

Chairman Borcher recalled a meeting of Wyoming School Boards Association Board of Trustees this spring. A seasoned board member calmly interrupted the discussion and said, “Excuse me, I would like to use a quote from Kevin Mitchell and remind us why we’re here: Let’s focus on what’s best for kids.”

Pig Mud Wrestling Entry deadline July 10, 5pm

Park County Arenacross Entry deadline July 28 One hour prior to event (5pm)

Demo Derby Entry deadline July 9 One hour prior to event (5pm)

All entry forms are available at

www.parkcountyfair.com For additional information, call the fair office at

307-754-5421

Ticket Window Opens July 7

THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2017

107TH YEAR/ISSUE 50

GT AERONAUTICS MAKES PITCH TO POWELL AIRPORT

MIXING COLORS

CEO RULLMAN ADDRESSES UNMANNED AIRCRAFT WITH LOCAL PILOTS, AIRPORT BOARD dispel any preconceived notions about the aerial vehicles.

“Most people’s perception owell Municipal Airport when they hear ‘unmanned leaders are mulling how aircraft,’ or ‘remotely-piloted they can safely become aircraft system’ or especially if they hear the one of the first word ‘drone,’ airports in the they think of country to al- ‘I’ve talked with a kid and his low planes and little quad-copunmanned aerial quite a few pilots, ter,” Rullman vehicles to op- and they’re more said. “That is erate simultanecomfortable after not what we do. ously. ... What we’re Tom Rullman, that meeting.’ doing is building the owner and Debbie Weckler fixed-wing proCEO of GT AeroAirport operator fessional aircraft nautics — an unwith the intent of manned aircraft manufacturer based in Cody, approval of the Federal Aviaspoke at length at Friday’s air- tion Administration. That’s an port Board of Directors meeting entirely different thing than about his desire to help make flooding the toy market with a that happen. A number of local bunch of drones, flying them pilots attended the meeting, and it was Rullman’s intention to See UAVs, Page 3

BY DON COGGER Tribune Staff Writer

P

From left, Ben Smith, Matthew Watson, Chase Severeide and Chase Smith learn about colors at Northwest College’s Science Camp, which took place at the NWC Children’s Learning and Care Center last week. Here, they experiment with transparencies of different colors, placing them on a light table to see what colors result when the colored shapes are stacked on top of each other. Tribune photo by Ilene Olson

County balks at funding grizzly fence at landfill

BY CJ BAKER Tribune Editor

P

ark County commissioners say they will not help build a grizzly beardeterring fence around the county’s Cody landfill unless environmental groups match their contribution, dollar-fordollar. That “challenge” from the commission appeared to be dead on arrival.

CUTEST CANINE Samantha and Tyrell Gullickson hold their dog, Miss Molly Mae, the winner of the Reader’s Choice Award in the Tribune’s fourth annual Cutest Pet Contest with 183 votes on Facebook. For the results of the contest, see the Tribune Tails edition in today’s paper.

Tribune photo by Toby Bonner

Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials want to install an electric fence around the landfill south of Cody to keep out grizzlies. Five bears have been captured there since 2010, and Game and Fish staffers know at least one additional bear eluded capture at the landfill last fall.

“As you know, it’s pretty dangerous when bears get human food rewards,” Game and Fish

Bear Wise Coordinator Dusty Lasseter told commissioners on Tuesday, adding, “This is pretty much the only landfill in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem that is in currently occupied grizzly bear habitat.

Everyone else has a transfer station.”

Lasseter’s presentation noted that county officials plan to turn See Fence, Page 2

A motorcyclist crashed on U.S. Highway 14-A Tuesday morning, and the cause of the accident remains under investigation. The highway was closed to traffic for about 30 to 45 minutes. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

MOTORCYCLE CRASH INJURES DRIVER, CLOSES POWELL-CODY HIGHWAY EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS SOUGHT FOR INVESTIGATION

BY TESSA BAKER Tribune Features Editor

A

motorcycle crash closed U.S. Highway 14-A for more than 30 minutes on Tuesday morning. While traffic was stopped, a helicopter landed on the highway between Powell and Cody and evacuated the in-

jured motorcyclist.

The wreck occurred just before 8:30 a.m., and the highway was closed for about 30 to 45 minutes, Trooper Rodney Miears said Wednesday.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol is still investigating exactly what happened. The motorcycle, driven by Michael Newton of Cody,

crashed near Road 19.

When asked whether the wreck involved another vehicle, Miears said that remains unclear.

“As to how he got onto the asphalt, that is still under investigation,” Miears said.

The trooper said he welcomes tips from people who were in the area and witnessed the crash.

See Wreck, Page 3

DEAVER AT DUSK A fisherman throws a lure from a small rocky island at Deaver Reservoir, near Deaver, at around sunset. The facility, built in 1918, is a good fishing spot, especially in winter and early Spring. For more about local summertime fishing spots, see Page 7.

Tribune photo by Mark Davis

INSIDE ♦ BIGHORN TRAIL RUN: PAGE 9 ♦ ‘OUTSTANDING COOKIE ENTREPRENEURS’: PAGE 13

WYOMING

THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 2017 POWELL TRIBUNE • PAGE 7

American Pickers to film in Wyoming

RAMMING SPEED

Got some unique antiques? You might make an upcoming episode of American Pickers.

The documentary series, which explores the world of antique ‘picking’ on the cable channel History, is planning to film throughout Wyoming in July.

The show follows Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, a pair of skilled pickers who hunt for America’s most valuable antiques.

“They are always excited to find sizeable, unique collections and learn the interesting stories behind them,” said a news release from show producers. They describe Wolfe and

Fritz as being “on a mission to recycle and rescue forgotten relics.”

“The pair hopes to give historically significant objects a new lease on life, while learning a thing or two about America’s past along the way,” said the release.

If you or someone you know has a large, private collection that the American Pickers can spend the better part of the day looking through, producers ask that you send your name, phone number, location and description of the collection with photos to: americanpickers@cineflix.com or call 855-OLD-RUST.

Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe, with American Pickers, will be in Wyoming next month. Courtesy photo

Significant rise in salmonella cases, connected to baby chicks, in Wyoming

A bighorn ram sprints through some late season snow near Sylvan Pass in Yellowstone National Park while feeding along the road just west of the East Gate. At last count, 10 to 13 interbreeding bands of bighorn sheep occupy the steep terrain in the upper Yellowstone River drainage, including habitat that extends more than 20 miles north of the park, according to Yellowstone officials. In 2015, more than 325 bighorns were counted in the Yellowstone ecosystem, more than 160 were inside the park. An adult male can weigh more than 300 pounds, including 40 pounds of horns. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

The Wyoming Department of Health has identified a significant increase in salmonella cases so far this year, linked to contact with baby poultry.

Six cases — in Fremont, Natrona, Goshen, Laramie and Converse counties — have been reported so far in 2017. That’s equal to the number of cases reported over the last three years combined.

The Wyoming cases are each connected to larger, multi-state outbreaks identified by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Salmonella is a bacteria found in animals, including baby poultry, that can cause diarrhea, fever, stomach cramps and other severe symptoms in humans.

“Some people who are raising poultry may be unaware of the risk of salmonella infection,” said Tiffany Lupcho, a WDH epidemiologist. “Baby chicks can carry harmful germs on their bodies and in their droppings even if they appear healthy and clean.”

While anyone can become ill from salmo-

nella, young children, the elderly, pregnant women, and those with a weakened immune system are at an increased risk of developing severe symptoms.

Recommended steps to reduce health risks associated with live birds include: • Don’t let live poultry inside the house, in bathrooms or in areas where food or drink is prepared, served or stored.

• Don’t eat or drink around live poultry or hold them closely to the face.

• After touching live poultry, fresh eggs or anything in the area where they are found, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water.

If soap and water aren’t available, use hand sanitizer.

• Children younger than 5 years of age, elderly persons or people with weak immune systems shouldn’t handle or touch chicks or other live poultry.

• Clean equipment or materials used in caring for live poultry outside the house, such as cages or feed or water containers.

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MONDAY, JULY 3, 2017

107TH YEAR/ISSUE 53

Cody library cafe continuing to lose money

BY CJ BAKER Tribune Editor

P

ark County Commissioner Joe Tilden posed a question to county library leaders last month: “What’s more important to you, buying new books or keeping the Bistro open?”

Tilden was referring to the Cody library’s Biblio Bistro. The county-owned and -operated cafe sells sandwiches, soups, coffee, smoothies and other foods

SINCE OPENING IN 2008, LOSSES AT COUNTYOWNED BIBLIO BISTRO HAVE TOPPED $320,000 and beverages while serving as a public meeting place.

It’s also heavily subsidized.

Preliminary budget documents show that, from last July through May, the Bistro lost nearly $46,300. The figures mean the restaurant brought in an average of about $200 per day in sales — only cover-

ing about half of its expenses.

In the next fiscal year, which started Saturday, library officials project the Biblio Bistro will again run in the red and cost the county $49,556. The losses will continue to be absorbed as part of the Park County Library System’s overall budget.

“I’m just pointing out that, if you have

deficiencies in other areas, there’s some money there that could be had,” Tilden said of the Bistro during a June 20 discussion of the budget, adding, “It’s a wonderful thing, but it’s an amenity.”

“But then so is a library, in a sense,” responded Park County Library System Director Frances Clymer. “It’s a public service; it’s a public utility that serves people from every walk of life — man, See Bistro, Page 3

E M E RG E N C Y T R A I N I N G

Author Craig Johnson and two stars from the TV show based on his ‘Longmire’ novels will serve as grand marshals of Tuesday’s Cody Stampede Parade. Photo courtesy Chet Carlson

‘Longmire’ rides in Cody CRAIG JOHNSON REFLECTS ON TV SHOW, FUTURE OF BELOVED SHERIFF

BY DON COGGER Tribune Staff Writer

I

t was on a recent trip abroad when Craig Johnson — author of the popular “Longmire” series of books and the television series it spawned — realized first-hand just how far-reaching his fictional Wyoming sheriff’s popularity had become.

“I remember getting into a taxicab in Prague in the Czech Republic, and I had ‘What’s fun my cowboy hat on,” Johnson recalled. about this is, “The taxicab driver Park County turned around and at me and and Cody and looked said, ‘Longmire!’

Meeteetse and and I was like, Powell have ‘Whaaat?’”

Turns out the taxi always been driver, having no some of my idea who Johnson was a fan of the favorite areas was, show, associating to tour.’ Johnson’s appearance with his ficCraig Johnson tional counterpart.

Author “He told me he watches the show, and I was like, ‘That’s great, I write the books.’ And he goes, ‘Whaaat?’”

“Hollywood is very pervasive,” Johnson continued. “It gets out there and into places where maybe the books can’t quite so readily get into.”

A bit of Hollywood will come to Park County on Tuesday, as Johnson and a pair of actors from the television series will be See ‘Longmire,’ Page 2

Groups challenge U.S. plan to lift grizzly protections

BY KEITH RIDLER Associated Press

A

t least three different legal challenges were launched Friday against the U.S. government’s decision to lift protections for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone National Park area that have been in place for more than 40 years.

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society, and WildEarth Guardians are among those challenging the plan to lift restrictions this summer.

“The rule removing federal protections for America’s beloved Yellowstone grizzly bears is a political decision that is deeply flawed,” said Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The federal government announced last month its plan to lift grizzly bear protections and made it official Friday by filing its decision in the Federal Register. That prompted the various groups to send 60day notices of their intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a required step in the legal process.

Some of the groups say the decision is wrong because it only involves Yellowstone See Grizzlies, Page 3

Powell firefighters, including Nate Mainwaring and Dustin Dicks, train on carrying a patient under the watchful eye of Reach flight nurse Rachel Severinsen during an emergency training situation at Powell High School on June 26. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

Army platoon gathers for 50th reunion of their fiercest battle

BY DON COGGER Tribune Staff Writer

S

ituated near Ap Bac Village in the Long An Province of Vietnam, the soldiers of Alpha Company, 4th Battalion, 47th Infantry were slogging through a couple hundred yards of open rice paddies when they stumbled into chaos. It was the day after Father’s Day, June 19, 1967.

“Alpha Company walked into a batallion-sized ambush,” said Powell resident and Army veteran Jim Heller. “In the first 10 minutes, 95 percent of them were killed. That is a huge, huge loss.”

Lieutenant Heller and his fellow soldiers in Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, were the closest to Alpha Company’s position and scrambled to provide support. Nicknamed the “Tornados” — in honor of platoon Sergeant Johnny “Tornado” Jones — the men knew every minute counted.

“We were fortunate in that we were attacking a known position,” Heller said. “We knew they were there. Alpha Company didn’t; they walked right into an ambush that was prepared for the entire battalion, not just one company,” Heller explained.

Whereas a company might be made up of 80-250 soldiers, an Army battalion can consist of between 300 to 1,200 soldiers.

“We spent a lot of time evacuating the wounded, going out into rice paddies and getting shot doing that,” Heller said.

During the three-day battle, 47 American soldiers were killed, including one from Heller’s company, Ronald “Chili” Saiz.

“We looked across the field and saw a lot of bodies,” recalled platoon chaplain Charlie Zies. “A jet came in to drop a bomb. The bomb dropped, but the pilot had been blown up in the blast. Then a helicopter came in to pick up the wounded; the second he-

MEMBERS OF 4/47 9TH INFANTRY DIVISION REMEMBER, REFLECT ON LIFE, THOSE LOST

licopter came in and was shot down.”

Zies was carrying ammunition for Saiz, an assistant machine gunner, and followed him to a clump of palm trees.

“As Chili went through the other end of the tree line, he was shot,” Zies recalled. “He fell and I said, ‘Crawl back to me.’ He said, ‘Charlie, Char-

lie, hold my hand.’ I held his hand, his body started quivering and then he died. I yelled for a medic and one ran across the field.”

Nearly every member of Heller’s platoon was wounded in the battle, including Heller himself.

“When I got hit, I had just gotten back to the chopper with some of

the wounded,” he said. “There was a huge explosion, an artillery round probably, and I woke up back here in the states about three weeks later.”

The scar on his face, a wound that required more than 500 field stitches, is Heller’s legacy; a reminder of the men lost and wounded and the reverberation of war.

“It’s what happens, unfortunately,” Heller said. “You play a dangerous See Platoon, Page 2

Chaplain Charlie Zies, 1st Platoon Bravo Company, 4/47 9th Infantry Division, delivers a short service to the surviving members of his platoon, the ‘Tornados,’ at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Cody. The men were in Park County earlier this month to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Ap Bac. Tribune photo by Don Cogger

LOTTA NUMBER - 2073 06/18/2018

LAST WEEK’S LOTTA NUMBER BELONGED TO BARBARA SEAGO OF POWELL WHO WON $20.

THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017

107TH YEAR/ISSUE 44

LONESTAR TO HEADLINE COUNTY FAIR

‘It was a life-changing event for all of us.’

Katherine Thompson, The Nature Conservancy

Ranch rodeo added to entertainment lineup (Thursday).

“We’ve had a huge response so far [to Lonestar] — just he veteran country mu- calls of when tickets are going sicians of Lonestar will to come on sale and people bring their talents to wanting to reserve several Powell next month to headline box seats together,” Barrett said recently. “I think it will the 2017 Park County Fair.

Lonestar — a chart-topping be a good concert with a good band with roughly 25 years turnout.”

The fair was able to book of experience under their boots — will put on a Wednes- Lonestar for $25,000; Barrett said that was day, July 26 “a really good performance at The fair the fairgrounds’ ‘I think it will be a deal.” received a disgrandstands. count because Among the good concert with the band was performers that a good turnout.’ already planfell within the county governTeecee Barrett ning to travel this ment’s budget, Events coordinator through part of the counLonestar quicktry anyway. ly rose to the top of the fair board members’ list (Lonestar’s touring schedule indicates they’ll be between during the planning process.

“The main reason we chose performances at a music festhem was because they were tival in Bishop, California, and a pretty traditional country at the North Dakota State Fair band that has a well-known in Minot.)

The traditional crowd pleasname that we thought would fit the fair well,” explained ers — pig wrestling and the Park County Events Coordina- demolition derby — will bookend the fair’s grandstand tor Teecee Barrett.

Tickets for Lonestar’s show entertainment on Tuesday, ($34 for box seats/$28 for July 25, and Saturday, July 29, general seating) and all of respectively. the fair’s other grandstand See Fair, Page 3 events go on sale at noon today

BY CJ BAKER Tribune Editor

T

Powell population increases slightly RURAL PARK COUNTY GROWING THE FASTEST

BY CJ BAKER Tribune Editor

W

hile Wyoming’s population as a whole dropped a little last year, the city of Powell grew a bit.

New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau say that — between July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016 — Powell added 41 more people. That increase, of 0.6 percent, puts the city’s estimated population at 6,407.

Powell was among Wyoming’s faster-growing cities over the course of the year. In fact, only four cities — Cheyenne, Laramie, Cody and Jackson — added more people than Powell did in that time period.

(Cody grew by 0.8 percent, or 79 people, according to the estimates released last week.)

Powell currently ranks as Wyoming’s 16th largest city, sandwiched between Douglas (population 6,541) and Worland (5,316).

Cody sits at No. 11, with an estimated population of 9,836 as of last July; it trails Jackson by about 700 residents.

The Census Bureau pegged Meeteetse’s population at 327 and Frannie’s at 161. Both of

those towns were figured to have stayed about flat from the prior year’s estimates.

Park County’s most significant growth came from more people living out of town. Park County is estimated to have added about 300 residents between the summers of 2015 and 2016; a majority of that increase came from 174 more people living in the rural parts of the county, where the Census Bureau figures the population rose by 1.4 percent.

Elsewhere in the state, Cheyenne bolstered its status as Wyoming’s largest city.

It added more than 600 residents to grow to a population of roughly 64,000 people.

Casper, meanwhile, lost almost 1,000 residents to fall further behind in the No. 2 position, to 59,324.

Wyoming’s population as a whole (585,500) dropped by roughly 0.2 percent between July 2015 and 2016, losing roughly 1,000 people. Wenlin Liu, the chief economist for the State of Wyoming’s Economic Analysis Division, blamed the downturn in the energy industry for the drop. It was the first time since 1990 that Wyoming’s population declined.

Katherine Thompson, her husband Tommy and their two daughters, Lucy, 10, and Sydney, 5, release a male long-billed curlew after it was captured, fitted with a solar-powered satellite transmitter and checked for health for a research project on the species by Jay Carlisle, research director of the Intermountain Bird Observatory at Boise State University. The long-billed curlew will be tracked by the research team at BSU, following it from its breeding grounds near Heart Mountain in Park County to its wintering grounds in central Mexico. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

Satellites tracking three Park County curlews

BY MARK DAVIS Tribune Staff Writer

H

idden in the hardscrabble margins near Heart Mountain and on Polecat Bench is a special bird: the longbilled curlew. And one man has dedicated his life to unlocking the secrets of this threatened species.

Jay Carlisle, research director of the Intermountain Bird Observatory at Boise State University and associate research faculty member of the Biological Sciences Department at BSU, leads a team of 10 scientists studying the bird from its wintering grounds in Mexico to its important breeding grounds in the grasslands of the midwest and western states in the U.S.

Carlisle has learned much course, that’s after the bird is about the intricacies of the cur- in the net. Just finding a pair of long-billed curlew lews’ mannerisms. with a full clutch For nine years, he yet to hatch takes has followed the ‘If we can hours — skill that graceful, aggresunderstand took years of resively protective search by Carlisle birds in the field. what’s driving to hone.

And now he stalks the decline, we When it doesn’t their every move can answer biggo well, it’s painwith the help of satellite tracking picture questions ful and nervewracking. technology. for grassland Distances in the But first he has flats near Powell to catch the birds. environments.’ are hard to deterWhen the trapmine. And longping goes well, Jay Carlisle billed curlews are a curlew can be Intermountain Bird great at playing caught, tested, Observatory hide and seek. documented, fitCarlisle directs ted for a satellite transmitter and back on the nest two crew members carrying a in a little more than an hour. Of 60-foot long mist net through the

LAST-DAY LAUGHS

local lawyer will have some big shoes to fill in the coming weeks, as Bret Allred of Basin Law Group LLC has been chosen to replace Jim Allison as the City of Powell’s Municipal Court judge.

Allred, of Powell, was BRET ALLRED announced as the City Council’s choice to replace Allison at the council meeting on May 15. After reviewing letters of interest from four qualified candidates, Mayor John Wetzel recommended Allred to the council, which voted unanimously to offer him a contract.

“We had four really solid candidates,” Wetzel said.

“Each had different strengths and weaknesses. But through the interview process, Bret seemed to be the most available, eligible and ready to go. ...

He’s highly-qualified, and I think he’ll do a good job.”

A self-proclaimed “Navy brat,” Allred went to law school at the University of Wyoming, graduating in 2004. After passing the bar that same year, he practiced in Gillette for a year before being relocated to Powell.

“The job I had taken out of law school was based in Gillette,” Allred said. “They wanted to expand into Powell, and I took the job over there knowing I’d only be there for a year, so I came here.”

Allred and J. Phillip Bott founded Basin Law Group, LLC in 2012, specializing in bankruptcy, business and estate planning, and family law.

Married and a father of four, Allred said he can’t imagine a better place to work and raise a family than Powell.

Bret Allred chosen to replace Judge Jim Allison

RURAL PARK COUNTY -----------12,764 +174 CODY -------------------------- 9,836 +79 POWELL ------------- 6,407 +41 MEETEETSE---------327 +3 *Frannie’s population includes both the Big Horn and Park County portions of the town.

Local lawyer to serve as municipal court judge

A

ALL OF PARK COUNTY -------------- 29,353 +297

Tribune graphic by Steve Johnston

See Curlew, Page 8

BY DON COGGER Tribune Staff Writer

POPULATION ESTIMATES

FRANNIE----------161

cactus and sage brush, looking for a lost bird. The giant mist net used to capture the birds grabs everything it touches. Crew members are forced to hold the support poles for the net above their heads while looking for the exact spot the curlew hides.

“I thought the brown patch I was looking at was our bird,” Carlisle says.

It wasn’t.

The female watches the eggs by day — never leaving the nest.

At sunset, there is a quick swap when the male arrives and the female leaves. Missing the swap from hundreds of yards away is easy. Losing the exact spot while waiting for the parent to settle in is easy — especially as heat-

Southside Elementary School fifth-grader Meaghan McKeen laughs as she participates in a ‘big clothes’ relay on the last day of school on Friday. Pictured in the background are (from left) Ayla Bruski, Lachelle Lee and Maya Landwehr. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

INSIDE ♦ PIONEERS CONTINUE TO PROGRESS: PAGE 9 ♦ TEACHER HONORED: PAGE 14

See Judge, Page 3

COMMUNITY

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2017 POWELL TRIBUNE • PAGE 13

At left, Zack Larson, of Thermopolis, drives his way to victory in the final event. Above, Kalib Chouinard, 17, got a good start in the finals and finished ahead of his older brother, RJ Chouinard, who also made the finals. Tribune photos by Mark Davis

YOUNG DRIVERS SCORE IN DERBY was fired up about the sport.

“I took some hard shots, but I’m ready to go again,” he said.

Zack Larson, of Thermopolis, he ’76 Cadillac Kalib Chouinard, 17, drove Saturday also started his career while still night wasn’t the first car he in high school. He entered the has wrecked. He started earlier hard-hitting sport at age 16 — folthan most. At age 2, he climbed lowing in his father, Tony Larin his father’s car and promptly son’s, footsteps. Zack Larson won drove it through the neighbor’s the main event and the $3,000 prize money after fence and into his making the finals mother’s minivan. accidentally.

“He wanted to ‘I took some hard “My throttle follow his father,” stuck open and said Michelle Ch- shots, but I’m I spun around to ouinard, Kalib’s ready to go again.’ make the final hit,” mother.

They couldn’t Kalib Chouinard Larson said.

Larson has a get too mad. The whole family is into wrecking growing list of wins in the past cars and Kalib, the youngest, five years including truck-class was sure to follow. Standing in wins in Thermopolis (2014) and the mud on the edge of the track, Worland (2015) and a handful of Michelle Chouinard was nervous top three finishes — including watching her son suit up for the third in the Powell derby earlier first heat of the Smashtoberfest this year.

The welder for Tommerup limited weld class derby.

“I’m more worried this time Machine Shop will have a tough than any of the others. That’s my time reviving his ’68 Imperial for another run at the money. baby out there,” she said.

“The frame is an inch off the The Powell High School junior proved he was no child on Satur- ground in the front and the trunk day night, first winning his heat in is above the roof in the back,” the derby’s top class and then tak- Larson said.

The prize money helps buy ing fourth in the finals, finishing cars and parts, but he’s still in the in the money.

Even better than the money, hole overall, Larson said.

“It’s not about the money anyhe also beat his older brother, RJ Chouinard. After the finals, Kalib ways,” Larson said.

BY MARK DAVIS Tribune Staff Writer

T

Ron Chouinard, of Powell, works on his son Kalib Chouinard’s car before the final event. Kalib took fourth place in the finals.

LIMITED WELD CLASS: Zack Larson .............. First Colton Pederson ... Second Luke Mead............... Third Kalib Chouinard ..... Fourth Rob Pedigo ............... Fifth

TRUCK CLASS: Mark Senn ................ First Brad Becerra ..........Second Josh Senn................ Third

1980S AND NEWER CLASS: Colton Pederson ....... First Tres Pederson .......Second Justin Howe............. Third

Above left, Kalib Chouinard, a Powell High School junior, makes a hit in reverse during the finals. Above right, Andrew Higgins of Billings climbs out of his car after the first heat of the limited weld class. He was one of several Montana participants in the derby.

At left, the truck class gets underway at the Park County Fairgrounds in front of a late arriving crowd during Saturday’s Smashtoberfest.

Above, Don Adams, official for the event, disqualifies a competitor in the finals for a hit on a driver’s door.

ORDER PRINTS AT: POWELLTRIBUNE.MYCAPTURE.COM

TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2017 POWELL TRIBUNE • PAGE 9

PHS volleyball wins Riverton Invitational LADY PANTHERS A PERFECT 7-0 AT SEASON-OPENING TOURNAMENT

BY BREANNE THIEL Tribune Sports Writer

T

Powell High School senior Brook Sweet (No. 1) and junior Jazlyn Haney (No. 11) attempt to block a spike from a Big Piney opponent during Saturday’s game at the Riverton Invitational. In the background is senior Jordan Walsh (left) and junior Hartly Thorington (right). Photo courtesy Craig Blumenshine, Riverton Ranger

he Lady Panthers volleyball team opened its season in fine fashion over the weekend, winning the Riverton Invitational with a 7-0 record — including a pair of wins over the host Lady Wolverines.

“This was a great way to start the season,” said head coach Randi Bonander.

The two-day tournament started Friday, with PHS squaring off against Thermopolis. The Lady Panthers made short work of the Lady Bobcats, winning 21-11 and 21-10.

Next up for the Lady Panthers was Shoshoni, with Powell winning 21-15 and 21-14.

Powell then went on to face Kemmerer, winning 21-19 and 21-14.

Those three wins earned Powell the right to play host Riverton Friday evening.

The game went to three sets, with the Lady Panthers winning the best two out of three, 21-20, 10-21 and 15-6.

“All the varsity girls were contributing at the same time in different ways,” Bonander said.

With a 4-0 record heading into Saturday, Powell played Wind River at 11 a.m., winning 25-18 and 25-10.

Next up for the Lady Panthers was Big Piney. Powell won both games 2119.

With a 6-0 record for the tournament, the Lady Panthers were slated once again to play the hometown Riverton team for the championship.

This second matchup between the Lady Panthers and Lady Wolverines went to three games, with Powell win-

ning the first game 21-16. Riverton bounced back to even it up with a 21-9 win. The Lady Panthers won the final game 11-8 to secure the championship and finish with a perfect 7-0 record.

“The high point of the weekend was defeating Riverton twice, because they have such a wide variety of talent,” Bonander said.

For the tournament, Aubrie Stenerson led the team in ace serves, with a total of eight, and kill hits, with a total of 26.

Natalie Birdsley had 11 digs and six ace serves. Rachel Bonander had 25 kills and Hartly Thorington had 20.

Of the tournament, coach Bonander said that “every team challenged us to work on something different which is only making us stronger and more See PHS VB, Page 11

PENALTIES COST THE PANTHERS IN OPENER VISITING DOUGLAS OUTLASTS PHS 20-6

BY BREANNE THIEL Tribune Sports Writer

P

lagued by penalties and earlyseason rust, the Powell Panthers fell Friday night to the visiting Douglas Bearcats 20-6 to open the season — in a game that was closer than the final score would indicate.

Powell, Douglas, Evanston and Riverton were the only 3A football teams to have seven games scheduled for the season, rather than eight, so the results from their weekends will count toward their overall records.

“I thought it was a good football game with a lot of the things you would expect zero week, from both teams,” said head coach Chanler Buck. “With that being said, you know turnovers, not being able to execute on defense and offense at times, but we saw some flashes of some really good things.”

Douglas scored its first touchdown with 7:53 remaining in the first quarter.

Powell’s defense then settled in, holding the Bearcats from scoring again for the rest of the half.

The Panthers wasted no time getting on the board in the second half, as Josh Wolfe returned the kickoff for a 76yard touchdown to tie the game at 6-6.

For the extra point and a chance to take the lead, Powell faked the point after attempt but was unable to capitalize. Douglas took a 13-6 lead during the third quarter.

“I told these kids this thing looked like it got out of hand a little bit there for three minutes in the fourth,” Buck said. “Other than that it came down to See PHS FB, Page 12

See W. soccer, Page 11

Powell’s Ethan Asher (11) puts a hard hit on Douglas’ Brady Brooks after a first down reception with 10:47 left in the third quarter.

Tribune photo by Mark Davis

Lady Panthers qualify five swimmers STRONG SHOWING FOR SWIM TEAM AT BRUCE GRESLY PENTATHLON

BY BREANNE THIEL Tribune Sports Writer

O

Caitlyn Miner dives off the board in Lander on Saturday during the Bruce Gresly Pentathlon. Miner placed third in diving with a score of 141.45 and sixth overall in the swimming events. Tribune photo by Brian O’Neill

n Saturday, the Lady Panthers swim team competed in their first meet of the season at the Bruce Gresly Pentathlon in Lander, with five swimmers qualifying for state across 12 events.

“We did pretty good. A lot of our freshmen did really good for their first meet,” said diving coach Heather Christensen. “We had ... a lot of people that were close to qualifying, so I think we’ll get quite a few qualifiers this year.”

At the pentathlon, the PHS swimmers each competed in five events: 100-yard butterfly, 100 backstroke, 50 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 freestyle. There was no team scoring, just individuals, with the top 10 individuals getting an award in swimming and diving.

Caitlyn Miner placed sixth overall and qualified for the 3A state meet in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:07.24, in the 100 backstroke in 1:13.04, the 100 breaststroke in 1:16.10 and the 100 freestyle in 1:01.08.

JuliaKay O’Neill took second in diving, placed 11th overall and qualified in four events.

Those qualifying events include the 100 butterfly, with a time of 1:13.89, the 100 backstroke in 1:09.22, the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:20.98 and in diving with a score of 145.10.

Both Kendyl Bohlman and Ashlyn Aguirre qualified in the 100 butterfly with times of 1:17.13 and 1:16.08, respectively.

Rylie Kannard qualified in both the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke posting times of 1:14.39 and 1:11.22, respectively.

With everyone competing in five events, Christensen said, “it just gives a really good idea of where they are at too, where they need some more work.”

Next up for the swimmers is a meet in Cody on Friday at 2 p.m. On Saturday, they will be in Riverton.

See PHS swim, Page 11

See M. soccer, Page 11

Jesse Brown prepares to hit the ball to Cody opponent Cooper Thompson during the tennis match in Cody on Thursday. Brown won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

Tribune photo by Breanne Thiel

PHS tennis teams strong in Cody, Riverton SEASON NOW AT MIDWAY POINT

BY BREANNE THIEL Tribune Sports Writer

W

ith only three weeks remaining in the Powell High School tennis regular season, both the boys and girls teams competed in three matches this last week — against Cody on Thursday and Riverton and Rawlins on Saturday.

Of the three, Riverton was the only conference match; because Cody and Powell play each other twice each season, only one of the matches counts

toward conference standings. The site of the conference match alternates every year, with Powell hosting this year’s match on Sept. 7.

PHS BOYS 5, CODY 0; CODY GIRLS 4, PHS 1 The Panther tennis teams split with Cody Thursday, with the boys team earning a clean sweep 5-0. On the girls’ side, No. 1 singles Hattie Pimentel was the sole victor.

“I think the boys met those expectations that I had anticipated,” said PHS head coach Joe Asay. “They are a stronger team than Cody.”

See PHS tennis, Page 10

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 POWELL TRIBUNE • PAGE 7

BEETS, TOPS & LIVESTOCK

Gracie, a 12-year-old Scottish Highland cow, browses in a field after a passing storm. Gracie was a 4-H project that paid off for Powell resident Hannah Hogan a decade ago when she raised the rare breed to help pay for her college expenses. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

Rare breed 4-H project turns into family fun where the earliest importation of the Highlands to the states on record was made by SF Biddle. annah Hogan was looking Those historic cattle were unfor a way to raise money loaded at Moorcroft and trailed for college. Then she found to the Powder River in the 1890s, the association reports. Few Gracie.

In doing research into raising herds of the rare breed still exist cattle for a Park County 4-H proj- in Wyoming.

Hogan is celebrating a decade ect, Hogan wanted a breed that would be smaller — the perfect with Gracie. Her choice was size to fit in a freezer. But mostly, popular with the family and the she wanted cattle that were easy sale of steers more than paid for college. to handle.

“I ended up making money,” “We weren’t cattle people,” said Hogan, who Hogan said. graduated from She came across Northwest College a rare breed, the with a degree in Scottish Highland. ‘It’s lean meat photographic comHighlands have a and they can be munications. Now long history with humans. Archeo- fattened on grass.’ the whole family is involved and logical evidence Hannah Hogan Gracie has used dates them back to Highland cattle owner her graces to find a the sixth century forever home with — they are gentle beasts accustomed to humans Hogan’s Highlands.

“It would be smarter to sell her and do not stress easily. Easy to halter or bucket train, early now, but we’ve decided to keep Scots would keep the family cows her,” Hogan said. All the family inside their homes during the members have a favorite in the herd, but never the steers, she winter.

Females’ horns are upswept said.

While Hogan now makes her and larger than males. Males’ living with a camera, the herd is horns are more forward pointing.

Due to a double hair coat, High- currently at nine and provides the lands don’t need a heavy layer of family with tasty table fare and backfat for insulation. This allows extra income.

“It’s lean meat and they can be the animal to marble naturally on low input forage while producing fattened on grass,” she said.

Hogan’s 4-H project turned lean, low fat, high quality cuts of beef, according to the American out to be a winner. Her advice to those starting 4-H projects: Highland Cattle Association.

When Hogan decided the breed Do your research. Find the best would become her project, she breed for you, she said.

“Although, I’m biased,” she unwittingly helped bring the hearty souls back to Wyoming, said. “I think they’re pretty fun.”

New Look, Same Site!

116 North Bent Street Powell, Wyoming 82435

BY MARK DAVIS Tribune Staff Writer

H

Planning a controlled burn?

Call the Park County Dispatch Center

754-8700

Celebrating Over 100 years of sweet success Hoping for a safe harvest for our farmers.

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Business: 307-272-8704 Cell: 307-272-8705 Hannah Hogan shows Gracie in the 2008 Park County Fair. Hogan’s Highlands now has a small herd of the beautiful, gentle cattle.

I don’t know if I’ve got Alzheimer’s or sometimers. All I know is I don’t know if I’ve found a chunk of rope or lost my horse.

Tribune file photo by Ilene Olson

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THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017

107TH YEAR/ISSUE 44

LONESTAR TO HEADLINE COUNTY FAIR

‘It was a life-changing event for all of us.’

Katherine Thompson, The Nature Conservancy

Ranch rodeo added to entertainment lineup (Thursday).

“We’ve had a huge response so far [to Lonestar] — just he veteran country mu- calls of when tickets are going sicians of Lonestar will to come on sale and people bring their talents to wanting to reserve several Powell next month to headline box seats together,” Barrett said recently. “I think it will the 2017 Park County Fair.

Lonestar — a chart-topping be a good concert with a good band with roughly 25 years turnout.”

The fair was able to book of experience under their boots — will put on a Wednes- Lonestar for $25,000; Barrett said that was day, July 26 “a really good performance at The fair the fairgrounds’ ‘I think it will be a deal.” received a disgrandstands. count because Among the good concert with the band was performers that a good turnout.’ already planfell within the county governTeecee Barrett ning to travel this ment’s budget, Events coordinator through part of the counLonestar quicktry anyway. ly rose to the top of the fair board members’ list (Lonestar’s touring schedule indicates they’ll be between during the planning process.

“The main reason we chose performances at a music festhem was because they were tival in Bishop, California, and a pretty traditional country at the North Dakota State Fair band that has a well-known in Minot.)

The traditional crowd pleasname that we thought would fit the fair well,” explained ers — pig wrestling and the Park County Events Coordina- demolition derby — will bookend the fair’s grandstand tor Teecee Barrett.

Tickets for Lonestar’s show entertainment on Tuesday, ($34 for box seats/$28 for July 25, and Saturday, July 29, general seating) and all of respectively. the fair’s other grandstand See Fair, Page 3 events go on sale at noon today

BY CJ BAKER Tribune Editor

T

Powell population increases slightly RURAL PARK COUNTY GROWING THE FASTEST

BY CJ BAKER Tribune Editor

W

hile Wyoming’s population as a whole dropped a little last year, the city of Powell grew a bit.

New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau say that — between July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016 — Powell added 41 more people. That increase, of 0.6 percent, puts the city’s estimated population at 6,407.

Powell was among Wyoming’s faster-growing cities over the course of the year. In fact, only four cities — Cheyenne, Laramie, Cody and Jackson — added more people than Powell did in that time period.

(Cody grew by 0.8 percent, or 79 people, according to the estimates released last week.)

Powell currently ranks as Wyoming’s 16th largest city, sandwiched between Douglas (population 6,541) and Worland (5,316).

Cody sits at No. 11, with an estimated population of 9,836 as of last July; it trails Jackson by about 700 residents.

The Census Bureau pegged Meeteetse’s population at 327 and Frannie’s at 161. Both of

those towns were figured to have stayed about flat from the prior year’s estimates.

Park County’s most significant growth came from more people living out of town. Park County is estimated to have added about 300 residents between the summers of 2015 and 2016; a majority of that increase came from 174 more people living in the rural parts of the county, where the Census Bureau figures the population rose by 1.4 percent.

Elsewhere in the state, Cheyenne bolstered its status as Wyoming’s largest city.

It added more than 600 residents to grow to a population of roughly 64,000 people.

Casper, meanwhile, lost almost 1,000 residents to fall further behind in the No. 2 position, to 59,324.

Wyoming’s population as a whole (585,500) dropped by roughly 0.2 percent between July 2015 and 2016, losing roughly 1,000 people. Wenlin Liu, the chief economist for the State of Wyoming’s Economic Analysis Division, blamed the downturn in the energy industry for the drop. It was the first time since 1990 that Wyoming’s population declined.

Katherine Thompson, her husband Tommy and their two daughters, Lucy, 10, and Sydney, 5, release a male long-billed curlew after it was captured, fitted with a solar-powered satellite transmitter and checked for health for a research project on the species by Jay Carlisle, research director of the Intermountain Bird Observatory at Boise State University. The long-billed curlew will be tracked by the research team at BSU, following it from its breeding grounds near Heart Mountain in Park County to its wintering grounds in central Mexico. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

Satellites tracking three Park County curlews

BY MARK DAVIS Tribune Staff Writer

H

idden in the hardscrabble margins near Heart Mountain and on Polecat Bench is a special bird: the longbilled curlew. And one man has dedicated his life to unlocking the secrets of this threatened species.

Jay Carlisle, research director of the Intermountain Bird Observatory at Boise State University and associate research faculty member of the Biological Sciences Department at BSU, leads a team of 10 scientists studying the bird from its wintering grounds in Mexico to its important breeding grounds in the grasslands of the midwest and western states in the U.S.

Carlisle has learned much course, that’s after the bird is about the intricacies of the cur- in the net. Just finding a pair of long-billed curlew lews’ mannerisms. with a full clutch For nine years, he yet to hatch takes has followed the ‘If we can hours — skill that graceful, aggresunderstand took years of resively protective search by Carlisle birds in the field. what’s driving to hone.

And now he stalks the decline, we When it doesn’t their every move can answer biggo well, it’s painwith the help of satellite tracking picture questions ful and nervewracking. technology. for grassland Distances in the But first he has flats near Powell to catch the birds. environments.’ are hard to deterWhen the trapmine. And longping goes well, Jay Carlisle billed curlews are a curlew can be Intermountain Bird great at playing caught, tested, Observatory hide and seek. documented, fitCarlisle directs ted for a satellite transmitter and back on the nest two crew members carrying a in a little more than an hour. Of 60-foot long mist net through the

LAST-DAY LAUGHS

local lawyer will have some big shoes to fill in the coming weeks, as Bret Allred of Basin Law Group LLC has been chosen to replace Jim Allison as the City of Powell’s Municipal Court judge.

Allred, of Powell, was BRET ALLRED announced as the City Council’s choice to replace Allison at the council meeting on May 15. After reviewing letters of interest from four qualified candidates, Mayor John Wetzel recommended Allred to the council, which voted unanimously to offer him a contract.

“We had four really solid candidates,” Wetzel said.

“Each had different strengths and weaknesses. But through the interview process, Bret seemed to be the most available, eligible and ready to go. ...

He’s highly-qualified, and I think he’ll do a good job.”

A self-proclaimed “Navy brat,” Allred went to law school at the University of Wyoming, graduating in 2004. After passing the bar that same year, he practiced in Gillette for a year before being relocated to Powell.

“The job I had taken out of law school was based in Gillette,” Allred said. “They wanted to expand into Powell, and I took the job over there knowing I’d only be there for a year, so I came here.”

Allred and J. Phillip Bott founded Basin Law Group, LLC in 2012, specializing in bankruptcy, business and estate planning, and family law.

Married and a father of four, Allred said he can’t imagine a better place to work and raise a family than Powell.

Bret Allred chosen to replace Judge Jim Allison

RURAL PARK COUNTY -----------12,764 +174 CODY -------------------------- 9,836 +79 POWELL ------------- 6,407 +41 MEETEETSE---------327 +3 *Frannie’s population includes both the Big Horn and Park County portions of the town.

Local lawyer to serve as municipal court judge

A

ALL OF PARK COUNTY -------------- 29,353 +297

Tribune graphic by Steve Johnston

See Curlew, Page 8

BY DON COGGER Tribune Staff Writer

POPULATION ESTIMATES

FRANNIE----------161

cactus and sage brush, looking for a lost bird. The giant mist net used to capture the birds grabs everything it touches. Crew members are forced to hold the support poles for the net above their heads while looking for the exact spot the curlew hides.

“I thought the brown patch I was looking at was our bird,” Carlisle says.

It wasn’t.

The female watches the eggs by day — never leaving the nest.

At sunset, there is a quick swap when the male arrives and the female leaves. Missing the swap from hundreds of yards away is easy. Losing the exact spot while waiting for the parent to settle in is easy — especially as heat-

Southside Elementary School fifth-grader Meaghan McKeen laughs as she participates in a ‘big clothes’ relay on the last day of school on Friday. Pictured in the background are (from left) Ayla Bruski, Lachelle Lee and Maya Landwehr. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

INSIDE ♦ PIONEERS CONTINUE TO PROGRESS: PAGE 9 ♦ TEACHER HONORED: PAGE 14

See Judge, Page 3

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 POWELL TRIBUNE • PAGE 9

HOMECOMING HEARTACHE ers loss to Evanston

SPECIAL TEAMS TURNOVERS COSTLY IN PANTHERS LOSS TO EVANSTON

BY BREANNE THIEL Tribune Sports Writer

T

urnovers at inopportune moments once again factored heavily into a Panther football game, as Powell’s Homecoming celebration was dampened with a 14-7 loss to Evanston.

“We had two turnovers on special teams that were big, that gave them [Evanston] some momentum, and then the one turnover in the red zone was an easy score for them,” said Powell High School head coach Chanler Buck. However, the coach said he also “saw a lot of good” in his team’s performance on Friday night.

The special teams turnovers both came on kickoffs recovered by the Red Devils. Each occurred after the ball had touched a Panther player, whether by hitting a leg or bouncing off the back of a

forward-running blocker.

“When a team can score from nine yards in on our account, that’s very unfortunate,” Buck said. “And then the other one was just a big play — a simple mistake and a big play.”

The first touchdown occurred in the first quarter on a 79-yard run by Evanston’s Tyus Cornia with 2:50 remaining. The second touchdown came with 2:21 remaining in the second quarter, when Evanston recovered a fumble on the Panthers 8-yard line.

Despite the loss, Buck said he was very pleased with his team’s effort.

“The effort and the ability to come out and get an 80-yard drive for a score — those are some very good things that we hadn’t seen yet this year,” Buck said.

That long scoring drive for a See PHS FB, Page 11

Panther lineman Randal Watson takes a breath before the next play during the second half of Powell’s 14-7 loss to the Evanston Red Devils Friday night. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

Powell swims to second at Worland Invitational

Panther tennis finishes fifth at state meet

LADY PANTHERS JUST 47 POINTS BEHIND LANDER FOR TOP SPOT

LADY PANTHERS PLACE 11TH

BY BREANNE THIEL Tribune Sports Writer

T

he Lady Panther swim team competed in the Worland Invitational Saturday and swam to a secondplace finish, just 47 points behind the defending state champion Lander team.

“We were pleased to take

‘We went down expecting a difficult game.

We were bracing ourselves for just about anything.’

second place and to be within shouting distance of defending state champion Lander,” said Powell High School head coach Bob Smartt. “The 16-place scoring system used in the meet definitely favored large teams that have a lot of depth, such as Lander and Powell.”

The strong performance followed a Tuesday, Sept. 19, win over Cody at a home dual.

WORLAND INVITE Sixteen athletes scored individual points for the Panthers in Worland and nine swimmers posted state qualifying times

or scores. Powell finished with 371.5 points, trailing only the 418.5 points put up by Lander.

Caitlyn Miner qualified for state in the 200 freestyle with her third place finish of 2:13.98.

Katrina Twitchell qualified with sixth place finishes in both the 200 freestyle (2:22.25) and the 100 freestyle (1:04.19).

Aspen Aguirre qualified in the 50 freestyle with a time of 28.13 for third place and with her fifth place finish in the 100 freestyle with a time of 1:03.65, while both Ashlyn Aguirre and See PHS swim, Page 10

See Trapper rodeo, Page 12

Head coach

Powell High School junior Jazlyn Haney goes up for a block during the game against Cody on Thursday night. Tribune photo by Mark Davis

PHS volleyball falls to Worland, Cody

BY BREANNE THIEL Tribune Sports Writer

A

mid a busy Homecoming week, the Lady Panthers dropped a five-set match with Worland on Tuesday, Sept.

19, then fell in four sets in Cody in Thursday’s first conference match-up of the season.

“This week was a battle in many ways for the team, including Homecoming festivities, sickness and two weeknight games,” said head coach Randi Bonander.

“Factoring all of this in, I feel like we had a lot of small wins,

and now can take the next step in moving forward to attain the big wins.”

Those small wins included showing “mental toughness to keep a rally going and not let a ball drop; seeing the court and tipping a ball to the open area; serving at the toughest positions to serve receive and utilizing all of our hitting options, front and back row and not giving up on or after a block,” coach Bonander said. “Some of these come with the cohesion of playing with the same players so that you build the trust you need to be successful on the court, others just come with time and practice, but it’s best when there is a combination of both.”

See PHS VB, Page 11

C

ompeting at the state tennis tournament last week, the Powell High School boys played their way to fifth while the girls finished 11th. The duo of Dylan Preator and Aiden Jacobsen took second in the No. 2 doubles position — earning All-State honors — while Rhett Pimentel finished fourth in the No. 2 singles position.

State tennis was held Thursday through Saturday in Gillette on courts in four different locations, with all of Wyoming’s 17 tennis programs in the mix.

PHS head coach Joe Asay said that one of the highlights was that every member of his squad advanced to Friday’s competition — each winning at least one match.

PANTHERS It was the Panthers’ third straight year taking fifth place.

The team earned 23 points — only one point behind Cheyenne Central. Laramie won the tourney with 45 points.

Stan Rodrigues

LADY PANTHERS PLAY WELL IN TWO TOUGH MATCHUPS

BY BREANNE THIEL Tribune Sports Writer

Powell High School sophomore Ashlyn Aguirre swims to a 1:28.21 finish in the 100 breastsroke during the home dual against Cody on Tuesday, Sept. 19. Tribune photo by Breanne Thiel

NO. 2 DOUBLES The No. 2 doubles team of Preator and Aiden Jacobsen entered the tournament as the North Region’s fifth seed before battling to a runner-up finish.

The sophomores won their first game against opponents from See PHS tennis, Page 11

Panther cross country teams continue to improve MERRITT RACES TO FIRST IN BOTH LOVELL AND WORLAND

BY BREANNE THIEL Tribune Sports Writer

P

owell High School’s long distance runners posted fast finishes at both the Rocky Mountain Invitational in Lovell on Monday, Sept. 18 and in Worland on Friday. Alan Merritt had a strong showing for the Panthers, winning both races, while Kayla Kolpitcke took third and fifth place for

the Lady Panthers in Lovell and Worland, respectively.

PANTHERS At Lovell’s Rocky Mountain Invitaitonal, the Panthers finished second with 22 points — only two points behind Cody.

“That’s pretty impressive for that young bunch of kids,” said PHS head coach Cliff Boos.

Alan Merritt won the race with a time of 16:45, one full

minute and 49 seconds from his time last year on the same course. Since cross country races are held on varying courses, the best way to gauge improvement is to look at times posted on the same course versus from race to race.

Freshman Tyler Pfeifer was second on the team with a fourth place finish in 17:28 and fellow freshman Joey Hernandez was seventh overall with a

time of 18:14.

Jayden Yates was 10th overall with a time of 18:20, improving on last year’s time by 1:05.

Colin Queen cut 11 seconds for a time of 18:45 and a 12th place finish overall.

Coming in 16th was Eyob Robirds with a time of 19:26.

Jesse Erickson completed the race with a time of 19:48 for 19th; right behind, in 20th place, was Lane Franks with a See PHS XC, Page 10

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2017

107TH YEAR/ISSUE 69

MAN CHARGED WITH WIFE’S MURDER 64-year-old’s bond set at $700,000

BY CJ BAKER Tribune Editor

D

DAVID WILLIAMSON

avid Williamson is alleged to have shot his wife Shirley early Saturday morning south of Powell, then called his son.

“You don’t have to worry about either one of us anymore,” Williamson reportedly told his son before hanging up.

The 64-year-old then called authorities with a similarly brief message, saying his wife was

dead and to send police.

“I’m the one that killed her.

That’s all you need to know,” David Williamson reportedly told a Park County Sheriff’s Office investigator who responded to the Lane 11 home.

According to court documents filed Monday, Williamson later told the investigator that his 65-year-old wife’s mental state had been deteriorating and that, early Saturday morning, she tried shooting him with an unloaded gun and yelled for him

to kill her.

David Williamson is alleged to have then fatally shot her in the head with his own gun.

“He told me that she was in a better place now,” Sheriff’s Investigator Phil Johnson wrote of a Sunday follow-up interview with David Williamson. “He said it was instant for her, meaning her death.”

The Park County Attorney’s Office has charged Williamson with second-degree murder — alleging he killed Shirley Williamson “purposely and See Murder, Page 3

Deputies with the Park County Sheriff’s Office wait on the porch of David and Shirley Williamson’s Lane 11 home Saturday evening while a team from the Wyoming State Crime Lab processes the scene. Tribune photo by CJ Baker

Powell wild game bird farm is the leading candidate to be certified to breed sage grouse in captivity

A wing and a prayer to tour the game bird farm. But those tours have ended in an effort to protect the birds. The t all started as a family project tours were a student favorite, but 22 years ago. But then the tiny as children traveled through the enterprise grew larger than dozens of pens, incubation and they dared dream. Now a rural rearing facilities, they carried the Powell business, Diamond Wings possibility of disease on the botUpland Game Birds, LLC, has a toms of their shoes.

Biosecurity concerns were seat at the table in a national debate about sage grouse and has a tight before there was a chance to raise the imperiled species. chance to make history.

“It just kind of snowballed,” Now, Diamond Wings is planning Karl Bear, manager of the game a brand new complex specifically to join the controversial efforts to bird rearing facility, said.

This year, the state’s largest breed the famous bird of the sagegame bird operation plans to brush sea. But first, they must get raise 40,000 pheasant and chukar. certified.

The Wyoming Game and Fish When the company was first getting off the ground with 700 birds, Commission on Wednesday voted Bear was the director of admis- unanimously to pass regulations sions for Northwest College. Now, detailing the certification process after the business was purchased that would allow up to five private by former state Senator Diemer game bird farms to collect wild sage grouse eggs True in 2016, Bear and raise the birds continues to operate the sophisti- ‘I’m keenly aware in an attempt to breed cated incubation, I may be drilling successfully the species for rehatchery and reara dry hole. It’s lease in the wild. ing complex with Some measure more than 10 acres experimental.’ success by whether of flight pens under the captively bred net — and they Diemer True sage grouse can hope to be the Diamond Wings breed in the wild. first in the U.S. to Upland Game Birds Secretary of the rear greater sage Interior Ryan Zinke grouse for release seems to be counting on captive in the wild.

When the Wyoming Legisla- breeding efforts to be successful.

His Secretarial Order 3353 ture passed House Bill 271, a law that allows private game farms to started a 60-day review that reraise the Cowboy State’s iconic sulted in tinkering with a multisage grouse, Diamond Wings be- state Obama-era collaboration came the leading candidate to be that had convinced the U.S. Fish certified to take part in what has and Wildlife Service to keep the species from being listed for probeen called a great experiment.

There was a time that school tection by the Endangered Spechildren in Powell were welcome cies Act. Zinke’s order hopes to

BY MARK DAVIS Tribune Staff Writer

I

A ring-necked pheasant raised at Diamond Wings Upland Game Birds, LLC., at sunset prior to being sold for the fall season. use population targets rather than habitat conservation.

Yet during the commission meeting in Casper, Diemer True attempted to set the record straight.

“I don’t think it’s reasonable to think that raising a captive population would be a material augmentation to wild populations.

What we’re trying to do is have one additional arrow in the quiver that would help avoid having the listing of the bird as endangered,” True said. “This is supplemental to efforts on habitat.”

As there has been since the Wyoming Legislature took up HB 271, there were many protests heard at the commission meeting — most concerned that any change from a habitat-based conservation plan to population targets would be harmful to sage grouse and the hundreds of species that live in sagebrush ecosystems.

The same voices were heard loud and clear when Zinke See Grouse, Page 8

BENT STREET TRAPPER

Karl Bear, manager of Diamond Wings Upland Game Birds in Powell, walks through a 300-foot flight pen for chukars while wearing protective coverings for his shoes. Everybody entering the facility has to chemically wash their shoes and each time they move to a new pen they have to change the rubber coverings. Biosecurity is an important part of the operation. Tribune photos by Mark Davis

Schools undergo security upgrades “It has a ton of cameras,” Wilder said of the middle school.

The district’s next newest owell schools are getting building, Westside Elementary new security upgrades in an School, also had some cameras.

Though Southside Elementary effort to keep kids safe.

Schools will be equipped with School and Powell High School cameras, secure entrances and aren’t much older, the state electronic sign-in systems for wasn’t funding security cameras for new schools when they were visitors.

“The district takes the secu- built, Wilder said.

“It’s also good for rity of students seriforensic evidence if ously,” said Todd someone tries to Wilder, coordinator ‘Expect to be break in,” Wilder of support services said. for the school dis- on camera when In the past, the trict. you approach district has dealt If schools are in a the schools.’ with break-ins at heightened security Parkside Elemenstate — due to an anTodd Wilder tary School and the gry family member Support services old high school. or another potenNow, every Powtial threat — school leaders can monitor cameras to ell school and the administration see which door they’re coming to, building will have security cameras.

Wilder said.

Over the summer, hardware Initially, “we’re focusing on having cameras that will show and cables were completed for whoever is approaching our en- all cameras in the Park County trance doors,” he said. “That’s School District No. 1’s plan, and the first cameras were installed at our high priority.”

All school buildings had cam- entrances.

“Expect to be on camera eras installed, except the new Powell Middle School, which was when you approach the schools,” Wilder said. already equipped with a system.

BY TESSA BAKER Tribune Features Editor

P

The Trapper mascot dances with NWC basketball players Domenica Gnomes (left) and Julynne Silva, (center) while NWC president Stefani Hicswa holds the ball during NWC’s Paint the Town Red event on Bent Street Friday evening. For more on the event, see Page 14. Tribune photo by Carla Wensky

LOTTA NUMBER - 1760 06/30/2018

LAST WEEK’S LOTTA NUMBER BELONGED TO GERRY PATTERSON OF CODY WHO MISSED $20.

As funding allows, more cameras will be added to monitor playgrounds and other areas throughout school buildings.

The cost for the cameras, equipment and installation at six school buildings is rougly $145,000.

To pay for all of the school security upgrades — a combined total of roughly $537,665 — the school district is using its major maintenance money as well as funding the state designated for security projects.

Funding for future major maintenance projects is uncertain as the state of Wyoming deals with budget shortfalls following the downturn in the energy industry.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the Legislature,” Wilder said. “With the way funding is now, I don’t have high hopes that we’ll get more security funding, so we’ll probably look at our major maintenance budget and see what we can do.”

VISITOR SIGN-IN SYSTEM In coming weeks, schools will adopt new electronic sign-in systems for visitors.

See Security, Page 2