The Star Valley Independent is part of the Wyoming News Exchange. These stories courtesy of the WNE.
Man sentenced to 40 years in Glenrock crime spree
DOUGLAS (WNE) — The man who initially pleaded not guilty to nine felonies related to a Glenrock crime spree has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
As part of his plea deal, three of the original nine charges against Christopher Eads were dropped.
The crime spree began last June when police attempted to stop a vehicle occupied by Eads and his accomplice Santana Keener.
Authorities pursued the couple on Interstate 25, and during the ensuing chase, authorities say Eads shot at law enforcement vehicles. The couple drove their car off the highway at Glenrock and abandoned it. A lockdown was declared by Glenrock police, who told residents to stay inside and lock their doors.
For the next 30 minutes, a bevy of lights and sirens ignited the town as the two fugitives made their way back and forth across the valley and medics tended to a woman injured by the pair, 80-year-old Jeannette Byer.
Byer told police that a man went into her home through the back entrance, pushed her to the ground and attacked her before taking her car keys.
By then the vehicle that Eads had stolen from the woman had become stuck in a nearby drainage ditch.
Officers also found Keener who was hiding in a field approximately 400 yards away from the crashed vehicle.
Eads managed to flee the scene in a stolen K-9 unit police SUV. Eads raced back toward Casper. Not too long after, Eads crashed the K-9 unit in Casper, where a multi-hour standoff ensued.
Eads pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and methamphetamine, use and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, carjacking, aiding, abetting and assault on a federal officer.
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Basin Electric invests $350M to reduce regional haze
WHEATLAND (WNE) — Basin Electric Power Cooperative is investing $350 million at Laramie River Station in a project to reduce regional haze in accordance with an agreement Basin entered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “We want to be proactive,” David Cummings, Basin Electric environmental coordinator at Laramie River Station, said.
Basin Electric is building selective catalytic reduction and selective non-catalytic reduction emission control technologies into the plant, or SCR and SNCR. Myron Singleton, Laramie River Station plant superintendent, explained the SCR is essentially a catalytic converter for the power plant. He compared SNCR to the pollution control mechanism in diesel engines.
SCR and SNCR remove nitrous oxide compounds, which are the primary ingredients of smog and are byproducts from burning coal.
Singleton estimated SNCR will be operational by December, and SCR should be online by July 2019.
Cummings said those dates are compliance dates for the regional haze agreement that Basin Electric has entered with the EPA. Cummings explained SCR and SNCR remove the nitrous oxide compounds, or NOx, by turning the pollution back into nitrogen and oxygen, harmless air.
“It’s a pretty new innovation,” Curt Pearson, Basin Electric communications director, said.
Pearson said Laramie River Station controls mercury pollution, another byproduct of burning coal, with powder activated carbon. The mercury sticks to the carbon and then goes into the solid waste stream.
He said studies have shown mercury, once released into the atmosphere, can stay there for 100 years. The ensuing mercury deposits poison streams and other habitats.
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Vehicles filtered off of I-25 during high winds
CHEYENNE (WNE) – The Wyoming Department of Transportation and the Wyoming Highway Patrol on Monday tried out a new strategy for keeping the roads safe for travelers and vehicles susceptible to tipping over in the wind.
Troopers and some WYDOT staff helped filter out vehicles such as semitrailers without heavy loads, RVs and moving vans from southbound Interstate 25 after the highway between Cheyenne and the Colorado border saw three vehicles blow over and Colorado saw a couple more, according to WYDOT spokesman Matt Murphy.
With strong winds gusting at more than 60 mph in the mid-afternoon, WYDOT started asking all vehicles traveling southbound on I-25 to pull off between Exits 2 and 4 near the welcome center.
Passenger cars and heavy trucks without a risk of tipping over were able to continue. But light and high-profile vehicles, which are usually warned to stay off the highway during high wind events, were forced to park at the welcome center or go back to Cheyenne, Murphy said.
“One of the goals was to ensure that there weren’t any accidents or blow-overs, and there weren’t after the (sorting) took place,” Murphy said.
The sorting happened at the request of the Colorado Department of Transportation, which took a similar strategy of sorting northbound vehicles on I-25 at the same time Monday.
WYDOT issued a warning at about 3 p.m. Monday, intending to mark the beginning of the filtering. But the warning itself stated that I-25 would be closed southbound to all vehicles.
That wasn’t necessarily true, since most vehicles were allowed to continue southbound after pulling off for a brief time. Murphy said the department will consider updating alerts and fixing some of that language if it decides to continue to filter vehicles during especially windy days.
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Carbon fiber company wins Sheridan rezoning approval
SHERIDAN (WNE)— The Sheridan County commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday morning to approve the rezone of property north of Sheridan from agricultural to industrial. The move will allow for the construction of manufacturing and research facilities planned by Ramaco. Ramaco Wyoming Coal Co., LLC applied to rezone the approximately 114.23 acres in order to create manufacturing and research facilities on the property with the aim of creating carbon fiber products.
Commissioners Terry Cram and Mike Nickel voted against the action, citing concerns that it will be difficult to hold Ramaco accountable once the land is rezoned. While Tuesday’s county approval was a victory, Ramaco faces other ongoing challenges to its long-term plans.
The mine Ramaco hoped would supply coal for the research and manufacturing facilities has yet to earn a permit from the state. The application for the mine was denied by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality director in mid-October after the Environmental Quality Council ruled in September that Ramaco’s plans for the mine didn’t offer enough environmental protections.
Brook Mining Company, LLC, filed an appeal in First Judicial District Court in Cheyenne and the case remains in the courts. The approval by the county of the rezone, though, moves the company one step further in developing its plans.
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Contracts for Weatherby facility work approved
SHERIDAN (WNE) — The Sheridan Economic and Educational Development Authority ratified contracts for work on the Weatherby, Inc. project.
The group approved Sheridan’s Dick Anderson Construction to preside over the project as construction manager at risk. Each ratification of the contract allows funding for another subcontractor contributing to the project. In SEEDA’s meeting Monday, the joint powers board approved the contract of Arete Design for its architectural schematic designs and design developments. The $561,520 part of the project falls under grant-eligible expenditures.
A grant through the Wyoming Business Council, totaling $12,592,090, will help finance these contracts.
The metal work for the building went out to bid publicly two weeks ago and came back with the lowest bid totaling $2,137,699. Northern Wyoming Community College District director of facilities Kent Andersen said the bid was right on track with the budget estimate. The next set of bids for the building will include the interior electrical and mechanical work needed once the main structure is built and secured.
SEEDA is also seeking training grants for those applying for jobs with Weatherby through the Department of Workforce Services. They secured a pre-obligated $250,000 for job training.
Vacutech, which also resides in the business park near the North Sheridan Interchange, is in the process of preparing the deed for transfer for the expansion of the business. SEEDA’s legal counsel, Rex Arney, reviewed the contract between SEEDA and Vacutech.
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Man sentenced to 45-50 years in sex abuse plea
RIVERTON (WNE) — Chad Oleson of Riverton has been sentenced to 45-50 years imprisonment for first-degree sexual abuse of a minor. Oleson pleaded no-contest late last year to the incident that occurred in late 2016. He was charged in June of 2017.
An initial report made by the child’s mother stated Oleson fondled the girl’s genitals while also fondling his own. After being interrogated by police, Oleson admitted to having the girl fondle him, showing her pornography, and having her watch him urinate.
The defendant also reportedly alluded to the sexual acts and his fantasies on his Twitter account.
Deputy Fremont County attorney Tim Hancock recommended the maximum sentence of 50 years. He said the state agreed to the no-contest plea to avoid subjecting the child to a trial.
Hancock explained that a 50-year sentence would ensure Oleson would be unlikely to be able to commit such a crime again. Oleson’s legal counsel Mark White asked judge Norman Young to consider a 25-year sentence, which would put Oleson in his 50s at the time of his release from prison.
White also suggested the court look at the results of Oleson’s risk assessment that showed his low risk of violence. In addition, he noted that Oleson was a victim of sexual abuse when he was 12 years old.
