Lincoln County Commissioner Mel Shumway stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Monday, April 27 for the monthly commissioner’s report. Commissioner Shumway discussed TerraPower’s Kemmerer Unit 1 and the workforce impacts, timber harvests and the revision plan with the Bridger-Teton National Forest, the return of a proposal for a solar farm south of Cokeville and the vote to increase salaries for elected officials in Lincoln County.

(0:00) Heading into this hour’s guest interview segment and joining me live in studio for the monthly (0:05) report from the Lincoln County Commission. That’s Commissioner Mel Shumway today. Commissioner, (0:09) good morning.

How are you today? I’m doing good, dude. Good morning. I appreciate your time and (0:13) stepping in about every other month or so to give us a report.

And it seems like it comes around (0:20) faster than that, but that’s just a testament to how fast time flies. So that is true. That is true.

(0:25) Well, a lot happening in Lincoln County, as always. Let’s talk, of course, last week, (0:30) TerraPower officially started the power plant portion of Natrium and started the excavation (0:36) work and things are going to start really ramping up there with the temporary construction workers. (0:42) Right.

They had a little presentation and meeting and the construction process on the nuclear (0:48) construction began less than two months ago. They received their official approval from the Nuclear (0:53) Regulatory Commission in early March with now that the emphasis is on the energy island. And (0:59) so with this milestone, TerraPower is mobilizing a workforce of roughly 1,600 workers to begin (1:06) plant construction.

It’s bringing the first Natrium reactor online and the energy storage (1:13) system one step closer to fruition. It’s going to be exciting. So I always get the question, (1:19) how many people really will work at TerraPower? Once the construction is complete and they’re (1:25) rolling, they anticipate around 250 full-time employees.

So a good chunk of a workforce out (1:32) there. They are starting training for the nuclear technicians, as that takes quite a few years to (1:39) get them trained up and to satisfy the different requirements. As I go by there from time to time, (1:47) I like to drive by it in my course of other duties.

I drive by it. Lots of activity. That (1:53) big test and field building is going up seven stories high.

They was delayed a little bit with (2:00) horrendous winds we’ve had the last week or so. So as I came by that Saturday, I was doing some work (2:06) and sheetings going on that building. That’s a big building.

We’ve seen big buildings, but I’ve (2:12) not seen one that big. So that’s a big building. As my dad would say, that sure would hold a lot (2:17) of hay.

It would. It absolutely would. I had the chance to be on the site last week as they started (2:25) the excavation work.

And yeah, you stand next to that thing and it’s even taller in person than it (2:30) is from the highway. They anticipate that there’ll be a hundred and what was it? 160 feet down to put (2:37) the reactor down into the ground. So as tall as we’re seeing going up, it’s even going to be (2:43) deeper into the ground.

Absolutely. Housing has been a question that’s come up, especially with (2:48) the temporary construction workforce. What’s the latest you’ve heard as far as housing these (2:53) roughly 1600 temporary construction workers? There’s rumor of man camps, but I think we (3:00) actually might have got a inquire about one.

There’s a couple of developments in the camera (3:07) area going along. You see the one does you just leave camera going south. They’ve already got a (3:12) road plowed in, pushed in, and they was black topping that Saturday when I came by.

So that’s (3:17) going to be residential lots and some commercial frontage. So things are moving pretty fast out (3:23) there. It just seems like it’s taken a while to get them off of dead center and going, but (3:29) I think once they’ve been approved, as the weather turns and warms up, I think we’ll (3:34) see a lot more activity.

So yeah, construction, housing, temporary workforce, it’s a huge concern (3:41) for camera, but we’re trying to work closely with the city of camera and Diamondville, (3:47) find solutions where we can work together where we can. It’s been kind of a it’s a process. (3:54) Commissioner Mel Shumway in studio this morning from Lincoln County.

Commissioner, there’s been (3:59) an increase in logging in the Bridger Teton of the southern end of the county and sounds like (4:03) some ongoing conversations to try and increase that in the north side as well, right? There is, (4:08) yes. And we’re working, trying to work close with the state forestry, which are what a fantastic (4:14) group, Kelly Norris and her group. We’re getting the good neighbor authority.

We’re trying to get (4:19) a state forester that would be actually positioned in camera that could help coordinate some of these (4:25) timber sales for the Bridger for for the Grays River District and the camera district as well. (4:31) Our collaborative is still moving forward. We’ve got a lot of projects lined up, you know, a couple (4:38) million worth of board feet that’s hopefully going to be slated for timber sales in the next (4:42) next 18 to 24 months to come off the Bridge of Forests because as we’ve realized this (4:49) winter with our lack of moisture and what we experienced last year with a fire on Willow Creek, (4:56) we need to be very cognizant of our forests and because they just interface with our community so (5:01) much.

We want to make sure they’re managed. We want to make sure there’s value in the (5:06) in the resources that we can extract before they are lost. (5:10) Commissioner, speaking of the forest, I know that the commission’s watched very closely the (5:14) ongoing forest service revision plan, which is still in the works.

What’s the latest there that (5:18) the commission’s seen? Okay, they still have their ongoing monthly updates with the cooperating (5:24) agents agencies, which Lincoln County is part of. The current Bridger forest, Bridger Teton (5:31) forest plan is now over 30 years old, so it’s time to renew it and update it. They’re currently (5:37) between the need for change review and the proposed action, and they’re hoping to have (5:42) something ready to be mailed out to the public by fall of 2028.

This is a several-year project. (5:49) I didn’t realize how in-depth it was, but there’s a lot of moving parts on a forest revision, (5:55) so this draft, they have a draft assessment that they’ve released and some supplemental (6:02) assessment information, and they’ve been looking at the potential species of conservation concern (6:09) since July, and it’s been in a 45-day comment. It went through its 45-day comment last year.

(6:18) There is a timeline on it, and if you’re interested, you can go to the Bridger Teton (6:23) forest website and just search for Bridger Teton forest and pull that up. Make sure you get on (6:30) the Bridger Teton forest, not some other, but you could look under the topics tab and look for (6:35) planning, and you can see where that revision information is, and if you want to get down a (6:42) rabbit hole on forest revision work, you can spend hours looking at that, but I would encourage the (6:47) public to look at that, go to the Bridger Teton website, find that planning documents, and open up. (6:54) You can see the timeline.

You can see the draft assessments. They’re not ready for public comment (6:59) yet, because that’s what our cooperating agents are doing, and we are heavily involved with them (7:04) through Lincoln County and our coalition of local governments. We try to stay front and center with (7:10) them to make sure the concerns of Lincoln County is heard and addressed.

(7:15) Commissioner Mel Shumway on the weekday wake up this morning. Commissioner, for a, well, not (7:20) handful of years ago, there was talk of a solar farm in Cokeville that kind of went away, but I (7:24) understand there’s been an official application submitted to Planning and Zoning for that to (7:30) move forward now. Yes, my understanding that Lincoln Solar has applied for a permit to the (7:35) Planning and Zoning, so once it comes out of there, the commission will get eyes on it.

As of yet, I’ve (7:40) seen that, but it is the Cokeville Solar Project, and that permit was granted in March 8th of 2022 (7:49) from the Wyoming Industrial Siding Council, and they granted the permit for the project, (7:55) and one of the conditions stated that the permittee shall commence construction within (8:01) three years following the date of that award permit. Well, things kind of got bogged down (8:05) on their end. Inflation hit, cost escalated.

They put, went back to that council and asked for an (8:12) extension and was granted that, and so as we move forward to 2026, now we see that the permit process (8:18) is starting to go. So it was, it’s going to be located on the unincorporated Lincoln County (8:25) as you go on that state line road on the backside of of Cokeville towards the Randolph Junction. (8:33) It’ll be along that road.

It’s the Cokeville State Line County Road 207, (8:38) and it’s primarily within Lincoln County. It’s about 500 plus acres. (8:45) It’ll be on private land, so they do estimate though that reoccurring revenues, and this is (8:52) out of their report, includes an annual property tax payment of $970,000 per year started in 2028, (8:58) so it’ll be a nice little, some pocket change for Lincoln County to have back into their budget.

So (9:06) not seeing anything formal on that yet, but that is still moving forward. (9:10) When it does get to the commission’s desk, you mentioned the tax revenue, of course, but what (9:15) other aspects of a proposal like this does the commission consider when you take a look at these? (9:23) Workforce, impact to county roads. This is not going to hit the industrial siding (9:27) number.

It’s going to be a less of a value project, so we won’t have that industrial (9:32) siding to go through, but we want to make sure that the roads are, the commuter traffic, (9:38) the work traffic, and the local traffic are going to be safe. There’s just a few safety concerns (9:44) that we need to be aware of. We’ll work closely with BLM and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over (9:51) any species concerns and habitat concerns, but ultimately it is on private land, and it’s a (9:58) private partnership with an energy company and the solar company, so.

(10:02) All right, Commissioner Mel Shumway, Lincoln County Commission. At the most recent commission (10:07) meeting last week, every two years the commission looks at salaries for those, and this year it came (10:16) up again in the last commission meeting for the five elected officials in the county. Tell us (10:22) how things went with that conversation.

Yeah, under state statute, there’s two state statutes, (10:27) 18-3107 and 74-210B, if you want to look them up. We fall under those state statutes of the (10:34) commission, and salaries fall to the commission under those statutes and the elected officials (10:43) in their election cycles, so it’s every four years that that elected official will have a (10:49) salary adjustment or the opportunity for salary adjustment, so it only happens once every four (10:54) years. We’ve met individually with county officials.

They brought numbers and ideas (11:02) and justifications for compensation to us. We listened. We kind of, I mean, I won’t say we (11:08) negotiated.

It was a back and forth. It was a good dialogue with the elected officials, (11:14) and by that I mean treasurer, assessor, clerk, sheriff, county attorney, (11:22) and coroner is included in that, so numbers, ideas was brought forth, and we kind of honored (11:30) their requests. They work hard.

We have great employees and great elected officials in our (11:35) county. I come out of the business world years ago, and it’s always easier to keep employees (11:42) than it is to find new employees, and sometimes it’s cheaper to keep an old employee than to go (11:49) find the new employee, so we want to make sure that the people are happy in their jobs. Our (11:56) elected officials do a wonderful job.

Our county’s growing. We’ve seen changes. One thing of note, (12:02) the county attorney being such a heavy workload for them, the state does kick in, and there is (12:09) up to a 70 percent reimbursement back from the state for the county attorney’s office salaries, (12:15) so it may seem a little high and sticker shock, but he carries a big load for the state and a lot (12:21) of the state work requires, so the state does kick back and help cover counties for some of that (12:28) compensation, so it happens once every four years, and now I understand the two of the (12:37) commission seats were included in this, right, because when those seats are up for on the year (12:42) that they’re up for election, which is not the seat you’re currently in, but the other two, (12:45) correct, and that was also included in this, yes, vote, yep, yep, salaries for commissioners are (12:51) also included into that, yes, all right.

Commissioner Mel Shumway this morning on the (12:55) anything else happening in Lincoln County you’d like to mention today? No, no, it’s great to see (13:00) some recent moisture. Love to see it. I hope we get blessed with abundant and adequate moisture (13:06) throughout the year.

As we wind down our school year, it’s really fun to watch the school and the (13:13) seniors and the athletes, the NFL draft. We saw a lot of Wyoming Cowboys go into the NFL. That’s (13:20) exciting.

I want to congratulate two outstanding high school wrestlers, Tell Perry and Kaylee (13:25) Juhlander for their recent recognition for their state awards, and also congratulations to the (13:31) Star Valley Skills USA teams that brought back, what, seven state champions and six silver medals, (13:40) so that Skills USA, what a fun program and what a great program to get kids off into a career if (13:47) they want. So my hat’s off to the Skills USA in both schools. Absolutely.

That’s Lincoln County (13:54) Commissioner Mel Shumway in studio this morning on the Weekday Wake-Up Commissioner. Thank you (13:57) so much. Appreciate your time.

Thank you.