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The Lovell Chronicle I January 15, 2015
CHRONICLE
Better system
could avoid
confusing
entanglement
So now what? The Lovell Town Council voted Tuesday
night to advertise for a new chief after Mayor Angel Mon-
tanez confirmed that he wasn't reappointing Chief Nick
Lewis.
In the meantime, Chief Lewis remains on duty.
Under the Lovell system, one person, the mayor, has
the right to make major personnel decisions involving the
law enforcement (chief of police), finances (clerk-treasur-
er), administration and court system (municipal judge) of
the town govemment, and key people are not protected
from being dismissed unless the governing body is will-
ing to go to the mat and oppose an appointment. Is this a
good system?
This has been a confusing mess from the beginning.
Nineteen hours after taking his oath of office, the new
mayor fired the chief. Then four days later he rescinded
that termination but announced that he would not reap-
point him.
Councilmen will tell you that they have received over-
whelming support for Chief Lewis during the past two
weeks, but on Tuesday they voted 3-2 to advertise for his
replacement.
Does any of this make sense?
So now a new chief will be advertised for and appoint-
ed, and the town council will have to decide whether they
are willing to take an adversarial position against the new
mayor or go along to get along. This is not a healthy sit-
uation for the mayor or the council, although great pains
were taken Tuesday to show unity on the town governing
body. In the meantime a man could lose a job he loves
and our community lose a veteran chief at a time when
good police officers are hard to find.
Why would anyone take a job under this system?
It would behoove the town council to seriously study a
better way. State law puts the appointive system in place
for municipalities under 4,000 in population, but towns
have the right to enact a "charter ordinance" to remove
themselves from the state statue and build in more pro-
tection for their top officials.
This happened in Greybull several years ago when the
council voted to change the previous appointive system
so that it takes a majority vote of the council to remove
the chief of police, clerk or town administrator from office,
and the termination must be for cause, Greybull Town At-
torney Scott McColloch said.
It makes sense. If there truly is a reason to get rid of
an official, surely three of the five elected officials would
agree.
Now that the emotions of the situation are simmer-
ing down, we urge the council to carefully examine a way
to enact a better system for Town of Lovell department
heads and key officials.
We applaud the members of the public who weighed
in on the issue at Tuesday's council meeting. People were
polite and well-spoken, and Mayor Montanez did an excel-
lent job managing the session.
What the mayor and town council must decide over the
next few weeks is - emotions aside - what is in the best
interests of the people of Lovell.
- David Peck
Letters to the editor
Citizens must support the lake level
Dear friends and citizens of
Lovell,
I am sure some of you may-
be are tired of hearing about Big
Horn Lake issues, but I feel urged
to try every avenue I can to alert
you to the possibility of our lake
reverting back to the bad old days
when there wasn't enough water
to fill it and we had nothing but
mud flats at Horseshoe Bend and
points south of there.
The time for public comment
will end on Jan. 16, so time is
not on our side. If good people do
nothing, and comments from our
end of the lake are not received by
the Bureau of Reclamation by this
date, I feel that the downstream
fisheries people who are lobbying
the B. of R. hard for more water
will win. This does not bode well
for our end of the lake or the city
of Lovell, both of which are near
and dear to my heart.
Some of the things we need to
tell the B. of R. is we want them
to maintain a lake level of 3,640
feet by July and lake levels of
3,640 feet to 3,635 feet until No-
vember to support recreation and
our national wild waterfowl fly-
way. A minimum of 3,620 feet in
the winter and up to a lake lev-
el of 3,630 feet by Memorial Day.
These numbers are supported by
Wyoming Game & Fish and the
National Park Service. We also
have a sedimentation issue on the
south end of our lake due to the
silt coming down the two major
feeder rivers to our lake. By some
estimates, the silt is building by a
foot per year. Without leadership
by the B. of R. in this matter and
some fixes being put in place, it's
only a matter of time before the
south end of the lake is silted in.
The website for public com-
ment is www.usbr.gov/gp/mtao/
yellowt ail/ope/-ating_criteria.
html.
For the past five or six years
the B. of R. has been doing a pret-
ty good job of water management
for the entire lake system. Let's
let them hear from us and keep
those management practices in
place.
Please be specific in your com-
ments. Don't just say we want a
full lake. They are a typical gov-
ernment agency and full of bu-
reaucrats. They like specifics.
Thank you, good people of
Lovell. Your time will not be
wasted.
Steve Keil
J Friends of Bighorn Lake
We must maintain Big Horn Lake water levels
Dear Editor,
Prior to the construction of
the Yellowtail Dam downstream
Montana fishing interests had to
contend with nature in regard
to very high water levels in the
spring due to melting snow, often
at flood stages, and very low wa-
ter levels in the late summer due
to drought-like conditions.
Now with water flow be-
ing regulated from the dam by
the Bureau of Reclamation the
Montana fisheries want an opti-
mum flow of water to meet their
needs for supporting their stated
52 million dollar economic fish-
ing industry seemingly not car-
ing about the economic needs of
the neighboring state of Wyoming
upstream.
The Declaration of Indepen-
dence states all men are created
equal, so along with that, all men
have equal rights such as deter-
mining the outflow from the dam
and the water levels in Bighorn
Lake as nearly every drop of wa-
ter entering the lake originates in
the state of Wyoming.
Low water levels in the spring
prevent the launching of water-
craft at Horseshoe Bend, causing
economic losses not only for the
Town of Lovell, but the entire Big
Horn Basin from Cody to Thermo-
polis and all towns in between not
to mention the state of Wyoming
in the form of loss of sales taxes,
loss of gasoline taxes and loss of
out of state fishing licenses.
While the economic input
to our local economy from the
spring boat launchings at Horse-
shoe Bend might not be in the $52
million range, any additional in-
crease into the local economy is
always welcomed.
It is time for our local state
representative and our local
state senator, as well as all state
senators and representatives,
to get on board with our county
commissioners and the board of
Friends of Bighorn Lake to pre-
serve our rights to maintain wa-
ter levels in Bighorn Lake, that
will allow boat launching in ear-
ly spring.
Jim Szlemko
Editorial was not fair to new mayor
Dear Editor, cause right is right and wrong
I found last week's Editor's is wrong was decimated by you
Note to be so poorly written and citing "the community" as a
biased that it was comical, source for a possible reason to
It seemed more like some- Lewis being fired.
thing from the rumor mill The same can be said for
than something you would ex- Nick Lewis bringing up .that
pect coming from the editor of others had heard Mr. Mon-
a newspaper. The claim that tanez's father-in-law saying the
your friendship with Nick Lew- Mayor wasn't going to fire Lew-
is didn't weigh into the fact be- is. The hypocrisy of question-
ing the Mayor's professional-
ism and then including this in a
newspaper does nothing for the
wedge you described or your own
credibility.
If I were in the Mayor's posi-
tion I wouldn't be too keen on do-
ing an interview any time soon.
Keep the gossip at the coffee shop
and the news in the newspaper.
Kelton A. Wagner
Lovell Police Department is run with integrity
Dear Editor,
I'm not one to write a letter to
the editor of a newspaper, but I
could not sit on the sidelines after
reading the Lovell Chronicle arti-
cle regarding the termination Of
Chief of Police Nick Lewis.
A law enforcement officer
in the course of their duties will
always get criticism and com-
plaints. These concerns should
be reviewed with a hearing based
on a standard protocol or policy
to make a determination on the
merits of the complaint. To have
a position like the Chief of Police
work at the pleasure of the may-
or seems archaic. Given what I
have read in the Lovell Chronicle
and the Billings Gazette it seems
that Mayor Montanez sees his po-
sition as that of a dictator, no dis-
cussion, no hearing, most of all no
merit for the termination.
I worked with Lewis in a law
enforcement capacity from 1978
through my retirement irl 2007
and I resided and raised my fam-
ily in Lovell. I was a law enforce-
ment officer for the U. S. For-
est Service and the Bureau of
Land Management in the Big
Horn Basin. I worked with Lew-
is while he was employed as dep-
uty, police officer, Justice of the
Peace and Chief of Peace. I was
always impressed with the integ-
rity and professionalism of Lewis
and his ability to work with cit-
izens or other agencies. To have
someone with the ability, knowl-
edge and skills that Lewis has is
a blessing for the town of Lovell.
Lewis has transformed the
department from an under-
trained, understaffed and ill-
equipped police department into
a modern well-trained enforce-
ment agency to serve the com-
munity. I hope the town pays
close attention to what happens
when there are no checks, bal-
ances or discussion as to what
your town officials do. It will not
be to your benefit.
Daniel "Boone" Vuletich
Cody
Let's move in a positive direction
Dear Editor,
I would like to express appreciation for those
who shared their opinions in last week's Chronicle
regarding the mayor and chief of police.
If all can work together for the common good,
each of us will benefit. When lives and careers are
needlessly poisoned in the process, everyone loses.
My hope is for all to work together in a fair and
equitable way to resolve the issue and move ahead
in a positive direction. Hopefully, we are capable of
that.
A shot in the foot can be overcome.
Brent Tirrell
Postmaster: Send address changes to:
The Lovell Chronicle, USPS 321-060
234 E. Main, Lovell, Wyoming 82431
(307) 548-2217
Published every Thursday
Periodical postage paid at Lovell, Wyoming
Editor and Publisher: David Peck
Reporter: Patti Carpenter
Staff: Pat Parmer, Dorothy
Nelson, Marwyn Layne, Teressa
Ennis, John Lafko, Ana Baird,
Leonora Barton.
www. LovellChronicle.com
Lost traditions and change
Dear Editor,
As we begin 2015, a New
Year here in Lovell and Big Horn
County, we are seeing many
changes. More changes than
we have seen in many years. Is
change good?
In 2008, change was promot-
ed as the way to go and it wasn't
really the best change. Bankrupt-
cy of America, etc. We also had
a change in politically correct. A
way to make 'speaking your mind'
as a bad thing. There is good and
bad in everything. We did learn
that being PC can be good in that
we recognize all religious cele-
brations during December. Un-
fortunately, it tried to suppress
the wishing of 'Merry Christmas'
to Happy Holidays, but Merry
Christmas is making a come back
because it has been found to not
be a bad thing.
One of the changes that I dis-
like is the loss of traditions. Such
as vchen you step on someone's
foot, you apologized. Now, it seems
like apologizing is not required of
some people. Another lost tradi-
tion is the saying of thank you.
We are seeing changes in
the guard in our local and coun-
ty government. It drives me crazy
when I hear all the - as we used
to say - wash women talking aka
gossip. I once went to a meeting
where the group was pretty much
run by one man for 33 years. They
bragged how he had only missed
two, meetings in those 33 years.
So, I asked, "Then why is your
group dead?" and not long after,
they folded. Yes, the man is to be
thanked for those many years of
service, but sometimes a change
is needed to survive and grow in
a good way.
As an American, yes, Amer-
ican, not German American, Irish
American or anyone who is Asian
American, African American or
Mexican American, because being
an American first makes us stron-
ger. It would be nice to hear - I am
an American of German or Irish
descent, etc.
So it is, I would like to take
this time to say thank you to all
those who have served us for
these past many years. It doesn't
matter if you or I liked them or
not, I respect them for stepping
up. I hope with our new leader-
ship, everyone, and I mean ev-
eryone, will do their best to sup-
port our new leaders to help
make us a stronger community.
Step up and support them with
new ideas. Thank you to those
who served before and let's all
quit being wash women and be
Americans first.
Gary Noth
Lovell
