Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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State Senator Wyatt Agar has announced he will not be running for a second term for the District 20 Senate seat in the 2020 election. Agar cited increased responsibilities of family, ranching, and the family business as contributing factors to his decision. “During my time serving I have been extremely introspective and judicious regarding which bills I signed on to sponsor. It has been my intent for my name to be associated with state changes that were meaningful, beneficial and aligned with the values of the people,” Agar added in his wri...
Although the Wyoming Democratic Party has announced there will be no in-person caucus for the 2020 Presidential Preference Caucus, Chairman Joe Barbuto encourages voters in the caucus to vote by mail. Caucus voters may still vote via ballot pick up and drop off on March 28 and April 4. The committee is still working with public health officials to assess local conditions to ensure voters’ health and safety. In Hot Springs County the pick up and drop off location is at Common Ground. Every registered Democrat in Wyoming will receive an o...
The Hot Springs County Republican Precinct Caucus will be held Saturday, March 14 at 9 a.m. at Big Horn Federal in the meeting room. Registered Republicans in HSC are invited to attend. Forty-eight delegates to the County Convention will be chosen, 12 for Precinct 1 and 2 and 18 for Precinct 3, 6 for Precinct 4 as well as addressing Republican Platform and By-Law Issues. The regular monthly Republican meeting will be Monday, March 16 at the county annex at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact Josh Brown at 921-9152....
Casper Star-Tribune Via Wyoming News Exchange CASPER — Hours into the start of the 2020 legislative session, the Wyoming House killed a bill Monday that would’ve set the stage for Medicaid expansion. The bill fell at the earliest hurdle in the House, with nearly two thirds of the body voting against it as part of the chamber’s consent list. It’s a swift end for the measure, which would’ve given Gov. Mark Gordon the ability to study expansion and move it forward, albeit under the eye of the Legislature. Jen Simon of the Wyoming Women’s A...
The Thermopolis Independent Record will be running a series of articles on Thermopolis and Hot Springs County elected officials who took office in January of 2019. Second in the series we spoke to Hot Springs County Sheriff Jerimie Kraushaar After one year of services as sheriff, Kraushaar sat down and shared his reflections with the Independent Record. Kraushaar started his career in law enforcement in 2004 as a patrol deputy with the Sheriff’s office. He then worked his way up in the d...
The Thermopolis Independent Record will be running a series of articles on Thermopolis and Hot Springs County elected officials who took office in January of 2019. First in the series, Thermopolis Police Chief Julie Mathews reflected on her first year as one with challenges and a time for continuing the education and training of her force. Prior to her role as Chief, she worked in Communications, Animal Control and Street Patrol in Thermopolis. She started her career in law enforcement in 1999...
District 28 Representative John Winter hasn’t taken the summer off from the Wyoming Legislature, in fact, he’s been attending various interim committee meetings across the state. On June 10 and 11 at Sheridan College, Winter met with the Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources committee. One topic on the agenda was Wildlife and Livestock Predator Damage involving the Game and Fish Department. Winter said funding for the various priorities for wildlife and livestock were of prime concern during the meeting. In addition, they dis...
The 65th Wyoming Legislature has come to a close with an additional day and a rather long night for legislators, finishing up at 2 a.m. on Feb. 28. SF0049 is on its way to the governor’s desk. Relating to private school structures, the bill would exempt private schools from zoning conditions in both towns and counties. A controversial bill, it narrowly passed the house, 33-26 and then cleared the senate on a 25-3 vote. “I voted against this bill,” Representative John Winter said, “beca...
Senator Wyatt Agar spoke Tuesday morning on the defeat of House Bill 66, which would, essentially, implement a statewide lodging tax. Though the bill passed out of the House with a 44-16 vote, it met its end in the Senate at 19-7. Under the bill, a five percent statewide tax would have been implemented on lodging, with three percent going to the Wyoming Office of Tourism and the remaining two going to the locality where it was generated. Agar, who was excused from the vote, said he felt the...
Wednesday marked the final day of this session of the Wyoming State Legislature. Representative John Winter reported on a few of the bills the house has looked at this past week as senate files moved to the house. SF0041, the County Fair Endowment bill passed the house on third reading, allowing counties to establish an endowment fund that will let them accept various grants and other monies to place in a special account to not only pay for fair expenses but construction and repairs as well as...
Senator Wyatt Agar has been keeping busy the past couple weeks with budget negotiations, but reported Tuesday afternoon that it has been finalized and both chambers voted for it. Agar noted the House added about $9 million over what the Joint Appropriations Committee — of which he is a member — had proposed, with the Senate cutting about $20 million from the committee’s recommendation, though following further negotiations both chambers wound up with about the same amount the joint commi...
Another busy week in the Wyoming State Legislature saw a lot of movement of bills out of committees and even some being forwarded to the Governor. One of the most important bills was Wyoming support for delisting the grizzly bear, a joint resolution between the two houses requesting a swift delisting of the grizzly under the Endangered Species Act. “I sponsored this joint resolution, along with co-sponsores Representatives Salazar, Sommers and Senator Agar,” Representative John Winter said, “re...
This past week in the Wyoming Legislature has seen the transition of bills from one house to the other as Senate Files begin hitting the floor in the House. One house bill, HB0169, has moved on to the senate for approval. The Life Time Fishing Licenses for permanently disabled persons was passed on all three readings in the house before moving to the senate. A bill that would require the reporting of any gunshot wounds or stab wounds failed in the house on its third reading. Representative John...
Tuesday morning, Senator Wyatt Agar reported House Bill 295 “never made it out of committee and the steam behind the subject seems to have dissipated,” meaning the bill was, in essence, killed for the current session. The bill was introduced last week as another attack on the Wyoming Pioneer Home, which had previously survived two legislative attempts to privatize the facility, and this late session bill took a different tactic with attempting to eliminate its annual state subsidy. The bill was...
Things are starting to move right along in Cheyenne with the legislature going through myriad bills and each session getting longer. The priority this past week was the supplementary budget process where each amendment is individually reviewed, debated and then voted upon. The budget bill, HB0001 was approved and received in the Senate. HB0295, which would remove state funding from the Pioneer Home, popped up unexpectedly last week on the last day bills could be introduced. The bill did not...
A Go Fund Me page has been set up online to help save the Thermopolis Golf Course (TGC) from closing. According to the page, there have been rumors the course will be closing, however, the golf course board is committed to keeping it alive. “In an effort to save money, the TGC Board will operate the golf course without a club professional, and we will hire a greens-keeper and summer help,” the page says. Infrastructure repairs and maintenance on water pumps, irrigation systems and a failing und...
After two failed attempts at relieving the State of Wyoming of the burden of the Wyoming Pioneer Home through privatization, the legislature is now making and end run at the facility by proposing to eliminate its annual state subsidy. A bill was referred to the Appropriations Committee on Tuesday morning, HB0295, sponsored by Republican Representative Donald Burkhart of Carbon County that would eliminate the state subsidy of $1.4 million per year to the Pioneer Home. They would continue to...
Senator Wyatt Agar reported Tuesday morning that he was busy working on the second reading of the budget bill on the floor. Agar noted both chambers did first reading of the mirror budget bill yesterday in which no amendments are allowed, but in this second reading is when changes can be seen within the chamber. “I have spent the morning looking at what the Senate body wants to do with the budget,” Agar stated. “In our body you will see the budget return to the basic Governor’s recommendations,...
Another week is in the books with the 2019 State of Wyoming Legislature in Cheyenne. Several bills have moved quickly through the process, including Senate File 93, which references Grizzly Bear hunts in the state, sponsored by Wyatt Agar and co-sponsored by John Winter. “Wyatt (Agar) did an excellent job in presenting this bill to the committee,” Winter said. “I testified in the Senate Committee from the standpoint of an outfitter and as to the importance of the bill to outfitters and the resid...
Senator Wyatt Agar reported that the budget debate had reached something of a standstill last week and was picked up again Tuesday. The issues, Agar explained, stem from the House wanting $75 million for capital construction projects in Laramie and Cheyenne. The Senate voted against it, instead proposing $200 million be set aside in a separate account to impact the upcoming $250 million structural deficit in education. Naturally, Agar said, the Senate’s proposal was voted down so both the H...
Representative John Winter checked in from Cheyenne this week after taking action on several bills, including the grizzly delisting resolution, shed antler legislation, regulation of hunting methods, lodging tax and Board of Outfitter and Guides civil penalties. All of the aforementioned bills passed the House on third reading and will now head to the Senate for consideration. One of the bills making the rounds this past week was HB0066, a statewide lodging tax bill. The bill calls for a 5...
Last week, Senator Wyatt Agar reported an 11-1 vote effectively killed a bill related to the Wyoming Pioneer Home. Specifically, the legislation sought to have the the department of health conduct a study and develop recommendations on the financial benefits cost savings and programmatic impacts of transferring state ownership of the Pioneer Home and Wyoming Retirement Center to another health care provider. Ager also reported that within the Appropriations Committee they are having hearings...
The 2019 session of the Wyoming State Legislature is well underway, and our Representative John Winter is in full swing. "This new role is very interesting, to say the least," Winter said, "and I am still on a learning curve. The bills are just starting to come out of committee for voting, so last week was just the beginning." Winter is a member of the Travel, Recreation and Wildlife (TRW) Committee as well as the Agricultural Committee in the house, so he will be voting on the various bills...
by Mark Dykes and Cindy Glasson The 65th Legislature for the State of Wyoming will convene on Tuesday, Jan. 8, and our Senior Legislator, Wyatt Agar, noted his move to the Appropriations Committee is a big one as it is the first time, to anyone’s recollection, a first term senator from the majority party has been placed on the committee. He further added it would be an interesting move, as senators typically wait two to three years to get on Appropriations, and he considers it a huge honor. Agar will focus on responsible use of tax dollars i...
The 65th Legislature for the State of Wyoming will convene next month and our legislators for Hot Springs County, Wyatt Agar and John Winter, have received their committee assignments for the 2019-2020 session. Agar is now our Senior Legislator and he has been assigned to the Appropriations Committee, a good spot for him since that is the committee making financial decisions, including the fate of the Wyoming Pioneer Home. Winter is our Junior Legislator and he has been assigned to a number of committees for his first year. Those committees...
