March 5, 2015 I The Lovell Chronicle I 7
DRAMA IN THE HOUSE continued from page I
unknown at press time.
"We're working hard to
try to get the most money to
the most troubled hospitals
in the state, and yet still give
each hospital something,"
explained Harvey. "Every
hospital across the state is
dealing with uncompensat-
ed care. There are some crit-
ical access hospitals that are
essentially living from pay
period to pay period, so those
are the ones we are trying to
get the most amount of mon-
ey to. Our hospital (NBHH)
doesn't require a full trans-
fusion like some of the other
hospitals but a big Band-Aid
might help."
Harvey said the biggest
news of the week is the sup-
plemental budget bill.
"When we got here, we
were about $300 million be-
hind," she explained. "We
were able to stop some funds
that were going into a perma-
nent account, which made
the deficit more like $225
million. That was due to the
decrease in the oil and natu-
ral gas prices. We were able
to take the flow of revenue
that was going into the state
reserve account and bring it
back into the general fund."
Harvey said it was
"quite a balancing act,"
where money was diverted
to take care of immediate
needs. The bill passed the
House and the Senate and
was on the Governor's desk
at the beginning of the week.
"The Governor has three
days to sign it and he has the
power to do line item ve-
toes," said Harvey. "We will
be here long enough to over-
ride any of the vetoes if we
need to."
Senate File 29, a bill of-
fering exemptions to drivers
of farm equipment, certain
types of trucks and motor-
homes, made its way into
the House for consideration
and passed. The Governor is
expected to sign the bill this
week.
"The bill helps out farm-
ers especially because, for
example, if the wife drives
the beet truck during the
harvest season she won't
have to get a CDL," ex-
plained Harvey. "It also
applies to certain types of
motorhomes."
A somewhat diluted ver-
sion of a bill that would al-
low concealed carry of fire-
arms in public buildings,
including schools, passed
the Senate, amended to al-
low local school districts to
make their own policies re-
garding carrying on campus
was on its way to the floor
of the House. At press time
the bill was under consider-
ation in the House on third
reading.
"Some people who feel
we should be able to car-
ry guns wherever we want
are pretty upset about it be-
cause they feel it is infring-
ing on their second amend-
ment rights," explained
Harvey. "The Senate posi-
tion is for local control on lo-
cal campuses. Their position
is that schools can decide for
themselves what they want
on their campuses."
Harvey said she antici-
pated that the House would
not concur with the Senate
on the issue.
A bill that would allow
terminally ill patients to try
drugs that are not yet ap-
proved by the FDA made its
way to the House this week.
It passed through House
committee on Monday and
was to be considered some-
time during the week. Har-
vey said she was for the bill,
mainly because she felt peo-
ple in that position should be
able to take that risk if they
felt it was a good option.
Several weeks of long
hours and late nights are
about to conclude for law-
makers as the current leg-
islative session draws to a
close. Harvey said she would
most likely be packing her
bags and returning home to
Lovell this weekend.
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MORE CONSTRUCTION continued from page I
handicap access ramps last
summer, Dickson noted, "I
thought I'll never have a bet-
ter opportunity than right
now, but I figured it would
be three to five years before
we could do the storm drain
under the sidewalks. I didn't
know where I could come up
with the money."
The town received ap-
proval from WyDOT to stub
in the eventual storm sewer
on Jersey and Main, and the
project was agreed to and
funded by SLIB. The stub
was installed.
THE FUNDING IDEA
In December Dickson
and DOWL's Dayton Alsak-
er of Sheridan were talking
with SLIB grants and loans
manager Beth Blackwell in
Cheyenne about the town's
sewer lagoon lift station
project.
"As we got ready to
leave, Dayton said we're go-
ing to relinquish approxi-
mately $1 million back to
SLIB that was not spent on
the Main Street Project due
to great bids, great contrac-
tors and great engineering,"
Dickson said. "We were ap-
proximately $1 million un-
der budget. Dayton said,
how about if we use some
of that money for the storm
drain?"
Dickson said Blackwell
agreed to look at the idea
and if it fit the original pur-
pose of the grant, the scope
of the project, she would con-
sider it.
"She said send me a let-
ter with your request and
tell me how it ties in with the
original scope of the project,"
Dickson said. "We went back
to the grant application, and
it said the project dealt with
health and safety issues be-
cause of the deteriorating
infrastructure. We felt like
with the drainage problems,
problems with mosquitoes
created by pooling water
and flooding issues, it would
fit the scope."
Dickson delivered the
UNCOMPENSATED CARE continued from page i
problems facing small
hospitals.
If the bill passes, it will
undergo the concurrence
process with the Senate
version of the bill, which
had a $5 million appropri-
ation for uncompensated
charity care.
"We'll try to get some of
that money back," he said.
He said the legislature
is putting millions of dol-
lars into the University of
Wyoming, so he asked, why
not hospitals? Some have
suggested that the issue
become an interim study,
but he called that approach
"kicking the can down the
road" for a problem that is
only getting worse.
"Some hospitals are in
a dangerous situation, and
the legislature is not rec-
ognizing that or doing any-
thing about it," Peterson
said.
GUN FREE ZONES
Another issue facing
the Senate during the past
week has been the bill to
repeal most of the gun free
zones act (HB 114), which
has now been amended in
the Senate to allow guns
in schools, the Legislature
and governmental meet-
ings if approved by a local
governing body like a school
board.
Peterson has been wary
of repealing the gun free
zones act but likes the idea
of local control.
"It's now a bill I could
support," he said.
He said some have ar-
gued that having gun free
zones puts a target on
schools or other institutions
because mass shooters will
look for such places where
there is less of a possibility
they would be confronted.
"I somewhat agree with
that," Peterson said, noting
that his 250 to 300 emails
on the subject are split
about 50-50 for and against
the amended bill.
He noted that a school
like Burlington might be
45 minutes from an offi-
cer of.the law, so the school
board might want to allow
and train a staff member to
be able to respond in case
of an emergency, as long as
the responding law enforce-
ment officer knows who
letter to Blackwell in Janu-
ary, and she said she would
take it to her boss, SLIB Di-
rector Bridget Hill. About
• a month later, Dickson had
yet to hear a decision, but
the potential project came
up during another conversa-
tion with Blackwell in Chey-
enne. She said she had just
been working on the project
and would run it by Hill. On
Feb. 17, SLIB notified the
Town of Lovell that SLIB
had allocated $300,000 for
the storm sewer project.
The work is tentatively
scheduled to begin on Mon-
day, March 23, Dickson
said, noting, want to get
ahead of the spring rains.
"This is a miracle," Dick-
son said. "I was figuring this
project would be four to five
years out because I didn't
have any way to pay for it."
The storm sewer pipe
can't be any larger than 15
inches, Dickson said, be-
cause of other utility lines at
the site that can't be moved,
would be wielding the weap-
on so as to not cause addi-
tional confusion.
"Is it a school safety bill
or a gun rights bill?" Pe-
terson asked. "We're try-
ing to find a common sense
solution.
HB 114 passed on sec-
ond reading Tuesday.
A resolution calling for
Wyoming to participate in
calling for a constitution-
al convention to require
the federal government to
adopt a balanced budget
was defeated by the Senate
22-7 Tuesday after wording
in the resolution (HJ 4) be-
came too watered down, Pe-
terson said.
He said some legislators
have feared that a constitu-
tional convention wouldn't
be "one state, one vote" as
proposed and that large
states would prey on small-
er states, so the language
was weakened.
"I tried to get it back to
an application instead of
language like 'intending
or 'thinking about it'," Pe-
terson said. "It was just a
statement and not an ap-
plication. Why send a reso-
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so the new drain won't be
able to handle all of the wa-
ter. Some will still go east on
Washakie. But it will allevi-
ate standing water.
"There will still be high
water, but I don't think it
will overtop the curb," Dick-
son said. "We're putting it
into the system sooner (at
Jersey and Main)."
With Wilson Brothers
installing the pipe and Rei-
man Construction handling
the concrete, the project
should take about six weeks
to complete, Dickson said.
Reiman will also be in
town this spring replac-
ing cracked concrete pan-
els, sealing street joints and
striping on Main Street.
When the company can start
is anybody's guess, Dickson
said.
' /ou need (consistent)
40-degree weather," he said.
There will be lane clo-
sures but no detours during
this final phase of the Main
Street Project, Dickson said.
lution that says nothing? It
became a vague statement,
so the sponsors urged us to
vote 'no' the way the resolu-
tion stood.
"It was embarrassing to
send a resolution that says
nothing. I hated to see it go,
but it's better to say nothing
than something as stupid
as this. The effort (for a bal-
anced budget convention) is
growing, but Wyoming has
decided to sit on the side-
lines and take a wait-and-
see approach."
LOCALGOVERNMENT
Peterson did have some
good news for local govern-
ment. The supplemental
budget passed this week,
if agreed to by the Gover-
nor, allocates $10 million
in additional funding for
cities, towns and counties.
Peterson said Big Horn
County would see $71,390
in additional revenue,
Lovell $28,859, Greybull
$22,586, Frannie $19,688,
Deaver $20,177, Cowley
$26,010, Byron $25,251,
Basin $15,713, Burlington
$21,552 and Manderson
$19,394.
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