Election: county supports funding measures

Election night’s unofficial results saw voters strongly support the county’s senior service district with a continuation of the one mill levy it uses to fund the programs offered to senior citizens.

By a narrower margin, voters approved a new iteration of the Specific Sales and Use Tax, which has been used by every municipality and the county over the last 16 years to address infrastructure needs such as roads, sewer and water, projects for which it’s often difficult to find other sources of funding.

On the school board, Heith Waddell successfully retained the Sundance seat he was appointed to when a previous trustee resigned, beating out challenger Dave Jagemann.

Shane Wolf beat Brian Neiman to take the Hulett seat.

Crook County Medical Services District also saw a contested seat. Mark Erickson successfully defended against challenger Brent Fowler.

Four candidates competed for three seats on the Crook County Museum District’s board of trustees. Neal Gray, Pam Thompson and Melanie Wilmer topped the vote and will serve on the board.

A couple of seats will be filled via write-in votes, which had yet to be calculated at time of going to press. These include one seat each on the natural resource district and senior services district boards.

Wyoming was swinging heavily towards President Donald Trump as election night came to a close, although the national vote had yet to be confirmed at time of going to press.

Republican candidates once again showed strongly, with races called early in the evening for Cynthia Lummis as Wyoming’s new – and first female – U.S. Senator and Liz Cheney to retain her seat as U.S. Representative.

Three of the county’s judges were up for a retention vote at this election, and all three were approved for another six-year term. This included Circuit Court Judge Matthew F.G. Castano and District Court Judges Thomas W. Rumpke and Thomas R. Perry.

Chip Neiman ran unopposed to become Crook County’s state representative.