Oil City Speaks! ‘MANY people in this town would gladly accept you’ - Oil City News

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CASPER, Wyo. — Happy hot afternoon and welcome to the latest edition of Oil City Speaks! Summer is getting into full swing and lots has been happening in Casper and the Cowboy State — everything from the first Art Walk of the season to an announcement that Wyoming will be home to the nation’s first “Natrium” nuclear reactor.

It is great to see people like Cynthia expressing support for people in Casper’s LGBTQ community, especially knowing that there are definitely still pockets of bigotry alive in Wyoming, the country and world.

While we rarely ban people from commenting on our stories, we have had to ban two people this week for hateful language they used in response to this story.

As a reminder, these are the Oil City News comment guidelines: We welcome comments expressing all points of views on our posts–positive and negative–but reserve the right to remove posts that contain inappropriate language, links to items for sale, hate speech, personal attacks, threats, or are off-topic.

We’re not here to tell anyone what to think in the privacy of their own thoughts, but hate speech is lame, uncreative and just plain yucky. Fortunately, we rarely have to deal with explicitly hateful language and we appreciate people like Cynthia who make it clear bigoted voices don’t speak for the community overall. Also worth noting, before we noticed the hateful language, some commenters called out those individuals. For all you lovers out there with love in your heart — thank you!

“In my K-12 education, I had teachers such as Leah Merchant, Marilyn Stafford, and Becky Underwood who inspired me to become a math and computer science teacher,” Byer told NCSD.

It is great to see a trail of excellence stretching across generations and wonderful that people like Christine and Kim take notice!

Here’s another heart-warming comment that came in response to a story about the Trails Center gearing up to host a “Blacksmithing and Pioneer Camp” this weekend:

It is encouraging for us when a story elicits someone’s interest and it warmed our hearts that Theresa was willing to share something about her family’s history that resonates with the Saturday and Sunday camps at the Trails Center.

There are some interesting presentations that are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday’s “Blacksmithing and Pioneer Camp” at the Trails Center. Perhaps people attending will have the opportunity to share stories like the one that Theresa did with each other. If you are going, have fun!

Let’s look at one more heart-warming comment before we turn our attention elsewhere:

Suyong’s comment came in response to our photo gallery of the first Art Walk of the 2021 season. The featured photo of that gallery shows Kelly holding her grandson’s skateboard after they rode downtown together for the Thursday evening festivities.

Downtown was vibrant last night, which hopefully is something which itself warms your heart. It’s great to see people like Kelly out in style and people like Suyong taking notice!

Caleb’s thought-provoking comment encouraged us to do a little research. It turns out the the United States Army’s Nuclear Power Program built eight compact nuclear reactors beginning in the late 1950s, according to Idaho National Laboratory data cited by VirginiaPlaces.org.

The first was a “stationary” compact nuclear reactor located in Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Caleb appears to be correct that the first “portable” compact reactor built in one of the 50 states was in Wyoming at Sundance Air Force Station. That reactor powered a radar station.

“The portable medium-power plant (PM-1), which was used for powering a radar station on a lonely Wyoming mountaintop, was transported in 27 packages, each weighing about 30,000 pounds,” a U.S. Atomic Energy Commission report titled “Power Reactors in Small Packages” states. “Each package had to be squeezed into a cargo transport plane. Package dimensions were limited to 8 feet 8 inches by 8 feet 8 inches by 30 feet.”

That reactor powered the radar station from 1961-1968.

VirginiaPlaces.org shares the following table of the eight compact nuclear reactors built between 1957-1967 (“S” stands for stationary and “P” stands for portable):

Apparently, people named Jake are all supportive of the new nuclear plant being built in Wyoming. Bad jokes aside, we found this exchange between the two Jakes and Dan interesting in a number of ways.

The first Jake shares a hot take that people expressing concern about waste from a nuclear plant might not be as concerned about environmental damage caused by fossil fuel extraction and burning. But Dan’s comment is thought-provoking because it serves as a reminder that people don’t always fit into easily recognized boxes of belief.

The other Jake provides a thought-provoking comment that Wyoming getting a nuclear plant could indicate a new direction for Wyoming’s future. There have certainly been a variety of perspectives on the issue. Some people are excited and see promise in the nuclear plant helping Wyoming begin to diversify the economy. Others have concerns about waste or the risk that comes along with nuclear. Others are skeptical about TerraPower, one of the corporations behind the project. Some are skeptical the project will actually materialize.

We’re just starting to learn about this project and will work to provide more information related to it as we sink our teeth into it. Governor Mark Gordon said the nuclear plant could be a “game-changer” for the state. What do you think? Is this a move in the right direction for Wyoming? What concerns does it raise for you? If you’ve got questions you’d like us to look into, feel free to let us know as reader comments are often helpful in focusing the kinds of questions and research that go into our stories.

The Casper City Council’s resolution is just one step toward Natrona County holding a special election in November to ask voters to consider supporting a temporary sixth cent tax to raise funding for the following projects:

As Jaime points out, the proposed sixth cent tax would go away once the funding for the two projects has been raised. It is also thought-provoking to try to calculate how much money an individual would pay toward the funding. The extra penny sales and use tax would only be imposed on purchases made within Natrona County, so your contribution toward the proposed tax depends on how much you spend here.

Jaime’s math works like this. Someone making $15 per hour who works 40 hours per week would make $600 in a week. If they spent all $600 in Natrona County, the 1% additional sales tax under the proposed “sixth cent” tax would cost them $6 per week.

The tax would be imposed on a quarterly basis until the $4.2 million is raised. That could take as little as one quarter of the year and likely two quarters at the most, depending on how robust sales are in the county, according to Casper City Clerk Fleur Tremel.

Following Jaime’s math, a person who spends $600 a week in Natrona County would contribute $72 per quarter ($6 per week) toward the special purpose tax. If the special purpose tax lasted two quarters and someone spent $600 each week for six months, their contribution would be $144.

Do you have an idea of what the math would look like for you? Would that be a factor in how you would vote on the proposed sixth cent? Or do you think about things differently? Do you think the proposed projects are important? Do you like the idea of funding them through the special purpose tax? Or do you think funding should be found elsewhere? Are you concerned that spending in other areas has been unwise? What are your thoughts?

Sticking with the topic of the proposed “sixth cent” tax in Natrona, let’s look at a head scratching comment:

Some people seem to think that the “fifth cent” sales and use tax has somehow been made permanent. While Natrona County has had the optional “fifth cent” tax in place since 1974, that is because voters have voted in favor of it every four years.

That makes it a little bit of a head-scratcher when people say that the fifth cent was “supposed to” go away. If voters overall wanted it to go away, they could have voted it out any time it came up for renewal, but so far, that has not been the outcome of the elections.

Of course, people can be against a thing even if the majority are in favor of it. Perhaps LeeAnn is simply expressing a view that voters should not have supported renewal of the “fifth cent” tax. In any case, we’re just trying to clarify that the fifth penny has never been made permanent in Natrona, though there is a way counties could make it semi-permanent, but that would also require voter approval.

As for the so-called “sixth-cent” tax, it is a special purpose tax which cannot be made permanent for any reason under Wyoming’s current laws.

Nathan’s comment is thought-provoking because he is thinking a little outside of the box in relation to the Casper MPO and Casper City Council’s discussion on Tuesday.

Converting one-ways to two-ways might be one way the city can think about changing traffic patterns downtown, but maybe there are some others.

Some people say Casper should go ahead and convert the one-ways to two-ways without awaiting the findings of a study of the issue. What do you think? Do you prefer to first gather some data before making decisions? Or do you think sometimes it is better to throw some caution to the wind and trust your gut?

Colling shot and killed Laramie resident Robert Ramirez in 2018. Colling had been hired by former Albany County Sheriff Dave O’Malley in 2012 after he had previously been involved in two fatal shootings and faced allegations of brutality during his time with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, as explained in an article titled “How Violent Cops Stay in Law Enforcement” published in The New Yorker on May 21.

O’Malley announced plans to retire from his position as sheriff less than a week before Ramirez’s mother filed a lawsuit against Albany County, as WyoFile reported in Sept. 2020.

Without focusing too much on one specific instance, what do you think about Russ’s perspective? Do you trust that the justice system in Wyoming has enough checks in place against instances of potential police misconduct? Or do you think there are structural issues that need to be addressed?

Wyoming Deputy Attorney General Jenny Craig has filed a motion with the Wyoming Supreme Court petitioning that Special Agent Jon Briggs’ name be redacted from a Wyoming State Bar Board of Professional Responsibility report and recommendation of public censure, which accompanied the Supreme Court’s May 19 order to publicly censure Cheyenne-based attorney and former Laramie County Assistant District Attorney David E. Singleton.

Singleton was censured for failing to correct Briggs’ alleged false testimony during a preliminary hearing in a case against hemp farmers in Laramie County.

The AG’s petition says that Briggs was not provided notice by the Wyoming State Bar’s Board of Professional Responsibility of the allegations against him and was not given the chance to defend himself.

Have you been following this story? Do you think the nature of the alleged false testimony is clear-cut? Or do you think the AG’s office may be making a point that needs to be considered in order to provide fairness to all parties?

How important do you think it is that people be able to trust in law enforcement and the justice system? Do you think it is important for the public to think about specific incidents where checks on possible law enforcement overreach are supposed to kick into action? Do you think specific instances of possible misconduct overshadow an otherwise credible, trustworthy system or do you think such cases suggest a pattern and fundamental problem with the integrity of the structures we have in place? There are probably no easy answers in this area, so we’ll leave you with that overly-wordy question to ponder.

That’s all from Oil City Speaks for now! Disagree with anything we said? Great! Feel free to get involved with discussion about what’s happening in our community by commenting on stories posted to Oil City’s Facebook page. Have a great day!

Why are we putting together this Oil City Speaks story?

Oil City News is all about offering coverage of the people, places and events that shape the community we love. We strive to provide informative stories for our readers and value dialogue about the Casper area community and the Cowboy State.

What makes for a valuable online discussion? It is no secret that readers are sometimes wary about the “dreaded” comments section (on stories posted to Oil City’s Facebook page). While comments may seem frustrating at times, they can also allow people to voice their perspectives, add more information for readers to consider or give people a way to celebrate their community together.

That’s why we’re bringing you Oil City Speaks, a selection of noteworthy reader comments from our local coverage. We care that you care about your community and we want to take the time to recognize comments that stand out to us. We’ll also offer some fact-checking on comments.

We’re not here to police your comments or your views. Comment Guideline: We welcome comments expressing all points of views on our posts–positive and negative–but reserve the right to remove posts that contain inappropriate language, links to items for sale, hate speech, personal attacks, threats, or are off-topic.