Sheriff Shane Johnson spoke with SVI this week and commented several topics including the Willow Creek Fire and also the LOTOJA bike race. While extremely different in nature, he noted that communication with other entities before and during these events is a key for communities in Lincoln County.

“Sometimes there are conversations about taking over forest service land to the states and in the case of something like the Willow Creek Fire, those types of incidents are beyond our capabilities to handle locally, he said. “You need the forest service and well-trained fire fighters and the equipment and the knowhow that they bring.”

Johnson stated that working with these agencies has already been long established.

“Our local dispatch and agencies work with forest service agencies so when something like that happens, we are able to call and they get on top of it and rally resources,” he continued. “

Local agencies work with forest service agencies. That fire grew quickly but the coordination from that point up to now has been really good. Jay Hokanson, our manager, has supplied resources and helped with that command center. When it came time for evacuations we coordinated with that and communication has been really good.”

He also pointed out that the Saturday evening of August 23, with fire pressing up against U.S. 89 that those relationships are leaned on.

“It was pretty frightening for a lot of people for a while,” he said. “We also used the Search & Rescue in those situations where we need a big group of people who are trained in a lot of different things. They were used in the beginning with traffic control and things that needed to be done. They are really good and helping out and trained to work together. “

Johnson also encouraged residents to sign up for the CodeRED notification system through the county at lincolncountywy.gov.

“When we send out notifications using [CodeRED}, it’s because we feel it’s something that people need to know about,” he added. “It’s worked really well for us in the past and it worked really well with the fire situation.”

This past weekend, the Logan to Jackson or LOTOJA bike race came through the valley. It is the longest single-day race of it’s kind in the country. Johnson also feels that communication with the race organizers and their willingness to help with various challenges helped the race go through the valley relatively smoothly.

“There’s  lots of traffic and we appreciate people’s patience with their driving and being aware and safe,” he stated. “I understand it can be frustrating if you’re trying to get somewhere on that day but we had some good results and good relationships with these people coming through. They are very proactive. There was the potential for issues with the construction in the Narrows and we had a deputy there for five hours that day which was paid for by the LOTOJA group. Everybody followed the light and had no issues.”