www.LovellChronicle.com
July 7, 2011 I The Lovell Chronicle I 3
Flood damage assessed, roads closed as county deals with high water
BY KARLA POMEROY
The worst of flooding from
rain and runoff is likely behind
residents of Big Horn County.
Emergency Management Co-
ordinator John Hyde provided a
report on the flooding around the
county at Tuesday's commission
meeting. The majority of flood-
ing occurred in the Hyattville and
Shell areas, with Porcupine Creek
the only creek creating problems
in the north end. Hyde said a
road to the Moss Ranch had been
washed out.
Flooding in the south is much
different, he said. The Medicine
Lodge Archaeological Site suffered
the worst damage, Hyde said.
He said there were two main
events or crests in Shell, Medi-
cine Lodge and Paintrock creeks
that created the flooding. The first
occurred on June 24-25 that was
preceded by some severe thun-
derstorms. He said a bridge was
washed out at the Herren place
east of Greybull, the road was
damaged into the archaeological
site and there was flooding in the
town of Hyattville.
He said two inmate teams --
the Wranglers from Riverton Hon-
or Farm and the Smokebusters
from the Wyoming Honor Conser-
vation Camp and the Wyoming
Boot Camp in Newcastle -- as-
sisted in flood mitigation efforts,
along with the Wyoming Office of
Homeland Security and National
Guard units.
On Wednesday, June 29, the
Federal Emergency Management
Agency sent a representative to
tour the county and assess dam-
ages so that the governor can
have Wyoming declared a nation-
al disaster area to qualify for re-
lief. The assessment is only for
damages on public lands and pub-
lic property. He said the threshold
to meet for the state was $1 mil-
lion. The county then also needs
to meet a threshold of $38,000.
Initial assessments on that
day had the county with $263,800
in damages and all total for the
state at $4.3 million, both above
the threshold. Hyde said having
the state and county declared di-
He said he has no way of know-
ing the damage to private resi-
dences at this point.
Hyde also praised the resi-
dents of the communities hardest
hit by the flooding, adding that
Hyattville and Shell were appre-
ciative of the sand and sandbags
and residents helped each other
out. He said the Wyoming Depart-
ment of Transportation provided
sand whenever needed, no matter
the time of day or night. The Wyo-
ming Office of Homeland Security
director and deputy director were
in constant contact with Hyde or
other county officials.
Big Horn County Road and Bridge built a dike to put the Greybull River back in its banks so it
wouldn't flood a county road or the Michaels property.
saster areas means the county
can get reimbursed at a level of
75 percent for repairing damages
back to the original state.
He said there would also be
funds available for mitigating cer-
tain areas, such as Beaver Creek
where it appears the county in-
stalled a culvert too small and
funds could be used to install a
larger culvert.
Assessment would have been
double or triple had the team come
on Thursday, Hyde said, with the
creeks cresting again Wednesday
night and causing more damage.
The road up to the upper por-
tion of the Medicine Lodge Ar-
chaeological Site was complete-
ly washed out, Hyde said. The
sandbag dikes put in earlier in
the week were completely washed
out.
He said state teams came to
assist with cleanup and there
may be a chance the site could
still open this summer. The low-
er campground is still open to ac-
commodate group reservations.
Hyde said that there were
strong, hot winds that preceded
the high runoff on Wednesday
night. Fears of another crest over
the Fourth of July weekend never
materialized. Hyde said it was be-
cause there was no other preced-
ing event such as thunderstorm or
hot wind, but rather just hot tem-
peratures.
He said Hyattville also flood-
ed again with the two-inch square
ditch cut through the middle of
the highway becoming a six-inch
square ditch due to the water.
Lane 39 (Douglas Lane) was
completely under water, is severe-
ly damaged and impassable, Hyde
said.
The Greybull River also went
out of its banks, flooding fields and
some homes along Highway 16-20
and on Road 5 south of Burlington.
He said the river on Road 5 took off
in a new direction, creating a new
channel that was headed to a coun-
ty road and culvert. The county
Road and Bridge Dept. came and
constructed a dike to keep the riv-
er in its original channel and save
the road and culvert. The dike also
helped alleviate flooding at Calvin
Michaels property.
Headgates and some private
bridges and roads were also dam-
aged including the Kedesh bridge
at the Kedesh Ranch near Shell
where the National Guard helped
fill about 1,500 sandbags.
He said the Nowood River
flood areas on either side of High-
way 20 near Manderson, but for-
tunately never did go over the dike
in town after the Smokebusters
filled about 1,600 sandbags.
"That said," Hyde said after
describing the damage around
the county, "I think it's behind us
now."
The rivers fed from the res-
ervoirs are down, with reservoirs
cutting releases to help Big Horn
Lake, which was 10 feet shy of the
flood stage as of Tuesday. Boysen
is five feet below active stage and
12 feet below flood stage. Buffalo
Bill is 83 percent full and 13 feet
below flood stage.
UNWELCOME WELCOME
Hyde said there was only one
issue that arose. He said when he
learned the Smokebusters were
coming he tasked Deputy Brant
Godfrey for finding them housing
and he arranged for them to stay
at the fairgrounds. He said a town
representative was upset at not
being notified about the group and
the fact that the group came from
the boot camp.
"They got an unwelcome wel-
come in Basin, but we've tried to
put that behind us. Mayor (Amy)
Kania was out of town when the
incident happened but was able to
talk to the team (ofSmokebusters)
and resolve a lot of the issues," he
said.
He said there were allegations
that the sheriffs office lied or tried
to cover up where the team was
from. "That's not true. The failure
to notify the town rests on me. The
Basin Police Department was no-
tiffed."
Hyde said if the town officials
had a problem they should have
contacted the sheriffs office or
Hyde and not gone to the Smoke-
busters first.
"There was no culpability or
lying by the sheriffs office," Hyde
said.
Commissioner Keith Grant
said, "These are reputable teams.
We've discussed using them for
Firewise mitigation."
Hyde added that there were
no violent or sexual offenders in
the group.
New Brandin' Iron Restaurant set to open
' ....... IBIFOAVllD' PECK
A transition is in the works at Lange's
Kitchen in Lovell, and the community will
soon have a full-service restaurant that
will be open evenings.
Partners Craig Trumbull and Bonnie
Nation announced their plans for the new
Brandin' Iron Restaurant this week, pur-
chasing the building at 483 Shoshone Ave.
from Sharon Lange in a deal scheduled to
close on July 15.
"She's been incredible during the tran-
sition and to work with," Trumbull said of
Lange, "enabling us to keep a lot of the
employees and allowing us to meet and
talk to them so we're not having to start
from square one."
Trumbull is a Lovell native, the son of
Rollin Trumbull, now of Ralston, and Bev-
erly Trumbull, now Beverly McDarment of
Lovell.
"My family and I moved back here
three years ago, and in the process I asked
myself, 'Why did we every leave the com-
munity?'," Trumbull said. As for Nation,
she said she is very happy to be in her
newly adopted hometown.
"With all of our experience we could
have gone somewhere else," Trumbull
said, "but we wanted to be here. We didn't
want to leave. We wanted to build some-
thing. We anticipate hiring nine to 15 new
employees."
When the Rose Bowl was opened by
the Doerr family in 1954, Trumbull said,
it was the hub of Lovell. All trav-
eling sports teams stopped
there, and it was the
number one restaurant
in Lovell.
"It's been that
way for more than
50 years and we
want to continue
that and improve
on it," he said.
Trumbull has
some 30 years of
experience in the
hospitality busi-
ness, owning restau-
rants and bars and
working in hotels, he
said, for companies like
Sheraton and Marriott. He
said he's worked for compa-
nies large and small.
"I started at Hansel and Gretel's (in
Powell) when I was 14 and worked there
through high school," he said, noting that
his career has taken him to California,
Texas, Louisiana, Arizona and Colorado.
He has worked the last two years man-
aging the Wyoming High Country resort
in the Big Horn Mountains.
As for Nation, she's originally from
Lander and worked for the State of Wy-
oming for 27 years at the Life Resource
Center in Lander, then in Rock Springs
for five years for a non-profit community
setting for people with devel-
opmental disabilities.
She married John
Nation of Lovell nine
years ago and' moved
to Lovell full-time
around six years
ago, she said. She
continued consult-
ing for the Rock
Springs center, driv-
ing back and forth a
lot, then later worked
for Trumbull at Wyo-
ming High Country, as
well as at the Diamond
J Bar.
Nation may not have a
lot of restaurant experience,
she said, but she does bring to
the new business lots of experience
training, managing and supervising em-
ployees.
"Her experience working with employ-
ees is phenomenal from creating training
manuals to developing the kind of atti-
tudes we want to carry over to our dining
rooms," Trumbull said.
THE RESTAURANT
Trumbull said the Brandin' Iron will
slowly ramp up to speed once he and Na-
tion assume control on July 15, running
regular Lange's Kitchen hours at first and
working with the familiar menu, then in a
week to twdweeks developing a new menu
and, onc nw employees are trained, ex-
tending hours to evenings.
"It will be a slow process to build up
the inventory and train staff," he said.
"We're both adamant about training em-
ployees so we're ready to serve customers.
We're doing it slowly. Customer service is
our whole philosophy."
The eventual goals is to be open from
6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, Trumbull said, but
that is subject to change.
"We need to figure out what the com-
munity wants," he said. "We want to find
the best fit for the community in terms of
hours, meals, beverages, etc., and let the
community create what it needs."
Trumbull said he and Nation will do
some remodeling and make some chang-
es in the building, from bigger restrooms
to aesthetic changes, putting money back
into the facility and the community. He
said the restaurant will maintain sepa-
rate smoking and non-smoking rooms.
The menu will include steaks and sea-
food and the "best burgers around- one-
third pound burgers."
"We'll do everything we can locally,"
he said, noting that he and Nation have
already been working with Kevin Ben-
nett at Red Apple to select the best cuts of
meat, adding, "Kevin's been handpicking
them for me."
He said he sampled products last
Thursday at a test kitchen in Billings.
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