Wyoming News Briefs

Wyoming unemployment call center sometimes strained as claim levels remain high

CHEYENNE (WNE) – Despite Wyoming’s unemployment rate ticking down slightly in recent months, ongoing steep demand for assistance has kept the phone lines busy – and sometimes unreachable – at the state’s Department of Workforce Services.

“We’re getting a lot of calls,” DWS Communications Manager Ty Stockton said Friday. “Quite a few of those are people wanting to make a claim over the phone, and those do take some time. …But quite a few are people who have an issue or a question about something that came up, or they got denied and want to figure out what they did wrong.”

Since the pandemic arrived in mid-March, the department has been the first line of state response for Wyomingites left without work, processing thousands of claims in the initial weeks of the pandemic.

Wyoming’s unemployment rate sat at 7.6% in June, more than double its rate from the same time last year and down from a mid-pandemic high of 9.2% in April.

In May, DWS announced a partnership with TTEC, a global customer service company, to expand its capacity to handle the influx of callers. When the automated responders are unable to help, callers are deferred to the state’s unemployment experts.

Though the number of initial claims being made has dipped in recent weeks, more than 15,000 continued claims have been filed each week since mid-April. By comparison, about 2000 continued claims were being filed with DWS at the same time last year.

Bear activity up at Curt Gowdy State Park

LARAMIE (WNE) — Black bear activity has increased this summer at Curt Gowdy State Park, located about 30 miles east of Laramie, and park visitors are urged to practice bear-safe habits while camping, hiking and biking.

According to park superintendent Patrick Harrington, the park sits on the edge of bear habitat in the Laramie Range, and visits from black bears are not unheard of. However, more bears than usual have been spotted at the park or in nearby neighborhoods this year.

Cheyenne game warden Spencer Carstens said as many as six bears have been spotted in the area on trail cameras this year and an adult male has been relocated.

Harrington said hikers and bikers may encounter a black bear while on the trail, especially in the vicinity of the Aspen Grove Trailhead on the west side of the park or near water. Trail users should keep dogs on a leash, make noise as they travel and pack out all their trash.

Campers, meanwhile, should practice bear-safe habits such as keeping a clean camp and storing food, garbage, pet food, cooking equipment and other attractants inside a vehicle, hard-sided camper or bear box.

All of southeast Wyoming is black bear country, from Laramie Peak to the Pole Mountain area, Curt Gowdy State Park, the Snowy Range, the Sierra Madres and North Park.

Harrington said open garbage cans have been removed from the park, while Dumpsters now have straps across them to prohibit bears from opening them.

“We’ve been managing [the bears] by removing that food reward, and it seems like bears are moving out of the park,” he said.

For more information about camping and hiking in bear country, go to wgfd.wyo.gov/Wildlife-in-Wyoming.

BLM says ‘go’ on Moneta Divide; state water ruling yet to be made

RIVERTON (WNE) — Oil and gas companies hoping to drill in the Moneta Divide have earned the general blessing of the Bureau of Land Management – but the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality still will have to sign off on the quality discharged water. 

The federal entity announced Friday that is has approved the development of up to 4,250 oil and gas wells for the region stretching between Shoshoni and Casper in parts of both Fremont and Natrona Counties – more than 300,000 acres of mostly public lands. 

The BLM called it an effort toward “responsible domestic energy production in Wyoming,” in a Friday statement. 

Fremont County Commission Chairman Travis Becker agreed. “This is very exciting,” he told The Ranger. “This is one more step in ensuring America’s energy independence.” 

Local governments and state programs rely on royalties from minerals projects like the ones previously operating under old permits in the Moneta Divide region. 

If drillers Aethon Energy and Burlington Resources or others proceed, the activity could generate about $182 million a year in federal royalties, $87.5 million in Wyoming severance taxes, and $106 million a year in county and ad valorem taxes, according to previous reports. 

Expansion would be a significant employer as well, both through drilling and production of wells and in monitoring and testing afterward. Job estimates have been in the hundreds for development of the field. 

Becker, who has watched Fremont County government lose roughly $5 million to the COVID-19 economic crisis and minerals decline, hoped the project could move forward. 

Suspected drunken driver runs five miles after abandoning truck in ditch

GILLETTE (WNE) — A suspected drunken driver ran from the scene of an accident after crashing his blue Ford F-150 pickup truck into a ditch early Thursday evening.

Police received a call from a 67-year-old man on the 600 block of Miller Avenue who said that his 21-year-old neighbor came to his house about 6 p.m. smelling of alcohol and saying he’d been in a crash but didn’t remember specifics. He told officers the 21-year-old mentioned something about an altercation, driving his truck into a ditch about five miles out of town and then running the whole way to the neighbor, said Police Lt. Brent Wasson.

When officers arrived, the 21-year-old was incoherent and taken to the hospital. Police contacted the Sheriff’s Office who then located the vehicle on M and M Circle, Wasson said.

Deputies found the truck, undamaged, with its front tires stuck in a ditch. Deputies talked to the suspected driver in the hospital, where he said he drank two beers and had a shot before driving to M and M circle to drop off a trailer, Undersheriff Quentin Reynolds said.

He claims not to remember what happened after dropping off the trailer, but he wound up in the ditch. He tried to drive out but failed and then ran about five miles to his neighbor on Miller Avenue and asked for an ambulance.

At the hospital, his blood was drawn for blood-alcohol content testing and he was ticketed for not having insurance, exhibition of speed and expired registration. It is unclear what his injuries were, Reynolds said.