Karyn Black, Cindy Vetos, Laurie McKee, Jolene Bartlett and Renee Hunzie have made the once-a-month drive to Valley Fabric Shop for several years for the Saturday Sampler class. This year, they decided to work together to complete a quilt and donate it to the Turning Point as a fundraiser. Each woman completed a couple of blocks and then Jolene assembled the blocks together and Renee quilted it. This beautiful nativity quilt will be on display at the Live Nativity event. The quilt will be raffled on a Facebook raffle.

The Wyoming Department of Corrections’ transfer of 240 inmates to a private Mississippi prison due to a staffing shortage is a temporary fix to an ongoing problem, WDOC Director Dan Shannon says. “We don’t have an inmate housing issue,” Shannon told WyoFile. “We have a staffing problem.”

In a victory for transportation safety and wildlife, the Wyoming Department of Transportation will receive a $24.3 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to complete a wildlife crossing project south of Kemmerer. The grant will be used for the Kemmerer Wildlife Crossing Project on U.S. Highway 189 in southwest Wyoming. The project will consist of five underpasses, one overpass and fencing improvements along a 30-mile stretch between Evanston and Kemmerer.

KEMMERER — Kemmerer resident and founder of Cowboy Slots Brantley Popp officially announced the Cowboy Slots gambling zone at the Shoshone Rose Casino in Lander, to open on Friday, Dec. 15. After reaching nearly 200,000 subscribers, millions of views on YouTube, and Popp’s features on the website’s caricature, he is getting used to being seen. He said his Cowboy Slots YouTube channel educates people on how to gamble smarter and, although the startup is based in Kemmerer, it has reached people across the globe.

The Turning Point Annual Hall of Trees held at the Eagles Club in Kemmerer raised funds for The Turning Point on Thursday, Dec. 7. Businesses and individual community members sponsored trees that were raffled. Funds will help local domestic violence victims. (GAZETTE PHOTO/Rose Capellen)

TerraPower and Uranium Energy Corp announced recently a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with objectives of reestablishing domestic supply chains of uranium fuel. This MOU will allow TerraPower and UEC to explore the potential supply of uranium for TerraPower’s first-of-kind Natrium™ reactor1 and energy storage system.

KEMMERER — Phrases such as “balanced multiple use” and “access” were used repeatedly during the town hall meeting in Kemmerer on Monday, Nov. 27, at the South Lincoln Event Center, where the topic of the controversial 3.7 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land was discussed following a presentation from Rep. Scott Heiner (HD-18).

KEMMERER — Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray spoke about voting integrity at a town hall meeting in Kemmerer on Monday, Nov. 27, at the South Lincoln Event Center. He’d visited Kemmerer schools earlier in the day. Gray took the opportunity at the town hall meeting to share his opinion on election integrity and bills he hopes move through the legislature.

KEMMERER — The first item of business at last week’s Kemmerer City Council meeting was to take action on the proposed amendment to City Ordinance 22-25 Section 19-9 and City Ordinance 2023-883 Section 18-19. Discussion came during the city’s regular meeting on Monday, Nov. 27.

Winter is the time of year to throw on a cozy oversized sweater, grab a bowl of homemade soup, and enjoy the comforts of home. We all love the aroma of fresh-baked bread from the oven or mom’s famous mac and cheese. Winter weather is the perfect excuse to embrace all that is gooey, cheesy and warm.

LARAMIE — The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees’ three-day meeting from Nov. 15-17 featured discussions of ongoing construction projects across campus, budget matters, and notably notices of intent to offer new degree programs, minors, and certificates that will be further discussed early next year.

Rotund, plump, hefty — go ahead and pick the fat synonym and it’ll likely aptly describe Grizzly 566, the second-heaviest grizzly bear ever documented in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The 19-year-old male was well known to biologists in Yellowstone National Park, where the big bear resides. As a 3-year-old in 2007, he weighed in at 232 pounds. During a 2010 handling, the boar had plumped up to 393 pounds. His weight stayed in that range, registering at 381 pounds when caught and immobilized at age 9 in 2013.

Will open next summer

EVANSTON — It was a packed house at the Beeman-Cashin building in Evanston as Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials discussed the Flaming Gorge fishery on Wednesday, Nov. 15. Green River Fisheries Biologist John Walrath shared a brief history of the reservoir, covering past and present data, to provide anglers with an understanding of the current status of the sport fisheries. The presentation included possible management options moving forward as high numbers of small lake trout remain a concern for fisheries managers.

Factors that led to the recent demise of a “small modular reactor” energy project in Utah do not directly apply to TerraPower’s nuclear energy project in Wyoming, the company says. Timing delays, forecasted cost overruns and a growing lack of faith in the effort foiled the NuScale Power Corporation’s plans. In contrast to the Utah project’s inferior design — “just an adaptation of the same technology that has been running nuclear power plants in the United States for the past, you know, five, six decades” — and the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems’s failed commercialization plan, TerraPower’s Natrium project in Kemmerer has a solid design and the company is on track to deliver on its promises, Jeff Navin, the company’s director of external affairs, said.

KEMMERER — Reid Rasner brought his “We The People” campaign to a townhall meeting at the Kemmerer Senior Center on Oct. 20. Rasner aims to unseat Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who has served in that position since 2007. Rasner introduced himself as a fourth-generation Wyomingite who grew up in Casper, saying, “I am looking forward to meeting people of Wyoming and listening to the challenges we are all facing together.”

KEMMERER — Brian Muir wears multiple hats as the city administrator for Kemmerer, and one of those is raising funds for town projects. Sometimes that requires calls to the State Loan and Investment Board or applications for grant funding. Currently, Muir is hoping to raise money through a sixth-penny tax, but first it must get on next year’s ballot. The tax would allow towns in Lincoln County to cooperate with each other, using funding raised from a voluntary sales tax for specific projects.

OPAL — The Town Hall building in Opal saw a busier than usual morning last week on Wednesday, Nov. 8. Judge J. Michael Lamp conducted the bench trial for the Town of Opal v. Ellie Bienz and Tracie Clayton. Witnesses were called to testify, and a ruling was made after more than three hours of proceedings.

The Best Western Fossil Country Inn and Suites in Kemmerer was presented with the brand’s highest honor once again. The local hotel was given the M.K. Guertin Award at the Best Western Hotels and Resorts’ 2023 North American Convention. The prestigious M.K. Guertin Award is held in high regard — hotels that receive this award best represent the vision of Best Western’s founder and demonstrate exceptional levels of quality, guest satisfaction and dedication to the brand. (COURTESY PHOTO)

KEMMERER — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission presented to a packed room at the event center in Kemmerer during a meeting last week. The purpose of the event, held Tuesday, Nov. 7, was to inform the community of the upcoming application from TerraPower, which is expected to be turned in by March of 2024.