Lovell Chronicle October 15, 2015: Page 6

October 15, 2015 Lovell Chronicle
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6 l The Lovell Chronicle October 15, 2015 Parent group h BY PATTI CARPENTER A group of ardent sup- porters of the Lovell High School chapter of the FFA kicked up their heels on Tuesday evening at a pot- luck barbecue dinner held at the ranch of Max and Mary Ann Bischoff. Mary Ann is president of the “Parents and Friends of the Lovell Blue Jack- ets,” a group that raises funds to assist and support the chapter’s FFA stu- dents. Other board mem- bers include Janna Stevens, vice president, Cindy Allred, treasurer, and Jody Lynne Bassett, secretary. In 2015, the group do- nated money used to pur- chase grow lights for the chapter’s greenhouse. It also donated funds to sup- port the chapter’s partici- pation in the livestock sale at the Big Horn County Fair and funded scholar- ships for graduating FFA students. The group re- cently donated $4,500 to the state champion horse- manship team from Lovell, taking them one step clos- er to competing at the Na- tional FFA Convention. ' The chapter’s “green— hand” ofﬁcer team was named at the event. Ka- trina Twitchell is presi- osts FFA students and family at barbecue Fal COURTESY PHOTO FFA parent Cindy Allred grills up some burgers at a Parents and Friends of the Lovell Bluejackets family barbecue held at the Bischoff family ranch near Lovell on Tuesday night. dent, Jack Steed vice pres- ident, Zachary Abraham treasurer, Tylee Bassett sentinel and Freedom Rule reporter. Byron squabbles lead to special council meeting October 20 BY BOB RODRIGUEZ Several intense clash- es on topics including Byron Mayor Heidi Brightly ﬁring the former Recreation De- partment staff and advisory committee amid accusations of “wrongful terminations and discrimination” result- ed in setting a special meet- ing of the Town Council on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 7 pm. in the Town Hall. With a full house of some 40 attendees on Tues- day night, Oct. 13, the 90-minute meeting was marked by strong disagree— ment pitting councilors Alan Bair, Sydney Hessenthal- er, Walter Roman and Gary Petrich against the may- or. Of particular concern for some audience members and Brightly and the council is the proposal to amend Or— dinance 5.05.030 regarding authority on nominations, appointment and removal of department heads, commit- tee members and the like. At issue is the conten- tion by Brightly and some citizens that the revision is designed to limit mayoral power in favor of the coun- cil. Considerable discussion arose in connection with the second of three readings and the vote for approval or rejection. The third read- ing is one of the reasons for the special meeting, which was sought in a motion by Bair, who urged that it come “within 10 days” of the Oct. 13 gathering. He also moved for amending the ordinance “as modiﬁed” that night. Typographical errors and Bair’s concern that the ver- sion presented did not rep- resent what was stated last month were noted. Both mo- tions were approved 4-0 with the mayor voting “no.” Prior to the voting, Gary Gruell read a statement which basically said that “The proposal minimizes the duly (authorized) authority of the mayor and affords the Town Council unprecedent- ed power to eliminate the ef— fectiveness of the mayor and frankly brings to mind Why even have an ofﬁce of may- or.” Gruell said that he is a spokesman “for the consid- erable amount of citizens of Byron who object or question the proposed change” to the ordinance. He said that 27 municipalities were contact- ed for opinion on the change and that comments includ- ed that it is “insane and ir- responsible.” He added, “One spokesman within Big Horn County remarked, ‘It sounds like someone on the Town Council has a vendet— ta against the mayor’.” Bair countered that the revision is needed simply because Brightly has not worked well with the council, taking various actions with- out consulting the members. He stated that the revision is from the state statute, but agreement was reached that a further review is needed. Petrich said that he “generally agrees” with Gru- ell’s comments, but that there have been too many 4-1 votes. “She (the mayor) overrides decisions and does what she wants,” Petrich said. “We’ve accomplished nothing (because) we make decisions and she changes them. We can’t trust her and can’t believe her. We should change the town name to Heidi Brightly because she wants it all her way.” Copies of the proposed revision are available at the Town Hall. “We want to give the people a chance to read, study and comment on this thing,” Bair said. Yet another controversy on the 13th revolved around Brightly’s move to stiﬂe by veto a motion last month that “all correspondence” be- tween councilmen and Joey Darrah, the town attorney, and between him, the mayor and town clerk be in written form. The intent, said Bair, is “to be transparent.” Dar- rah would provide copies of such correspondence and his response to all parties. The mayor protested that the move is not necessary and that it would involve a num- ber of complications. “My veto stands,” she said about her Sept. 8 action, and in re- ply to Bair’s demand that she cite the authority to veto a motion, she said that she could look it up, but did not have it readily available. Regarding Brightly’s ob- servations, Bair addressed her, saying in part, “The is- sue is the way this is being done (currently); you have totally left us in the dark” regarding her contacts with Darrah. Bair also expressed dismay about the result- ing billing, stating, “We just passed another $1,400 attor— ney fee; we don’t know what they are (for) until we get the bill.” At one point during his comments, the may- or admonished him, saying, “Tone, tone.” He respond- ed, “I’m only speaking loud enough for all to hear.” Near the end of the meet- ing, a statement touching on the Rec and the mayor’s ter- minating the former organi- zation and setting up a new one with her appointees was read by Summer Lofgran, a Rec instructor, seeking a for- mal hearing “after review- ing the town’s personnel policy.” She continued that, “We believe the actions tak-’ en against us do not coincide with policy. We maintain that Mayor Brightly has un- fairly retaliated against us as employees, verbally dis- criminated against us and used her position to publicly shame us. We are conﬁdent that there is adequate proof to show wrongful termina- tion, as well as discrimina- tion.” An announcement as to whether a hearing will be set is to be given on Oct. 20. County establishing permanent addresses BY TAMMY THORNBERRY Big Horn County Land Planner Joy Hill told the county commissioners last week that work is continu- ing on establishing perma- nent addresses for rural homes and other residences in the county. She said problems have arisen when police, school districts, sheriff’s ofﬁce, am- bulance and ﬁre department personnel have attempted to ﬁnd locations where in- cidents are occurring. How- ever, the current addressing system doesn’t seem to be accurate. Commissioner John Hyde said he has received comments, including some complaints, from residents concerning the address changes. Hill reported that ev- ery effort is made to inform the citizens of the coun— ty that their physical ad- dresses may be changing or corrected. However, Hyde com— mended Hill on all the hard work she and her employees had done and continues to do on the project. It is expected to continue at least through this winter, she said. In other business: 0 A contract for cleaning services at the Lovell Annex building is being reviewed by the county attorney’s of- ﬁce. It has not been ﬁnalized at this time. 0 Discussion was held concerning charges for an ofﬁce to house probation and parole ofﬁcials which would include telephone and inter- net charges. County Clerk Lori Smallwood said the current repayment plan is working just ﬁne for the Cir- cuit Court and Drug Court ofﬁces. She added that it would continue to be a good plan unless one of the ofﬁc- es suddenly incurred an ex- orbitant amount of long dis- tance charges. Commission Chairman Jerry Ewen said he felt the current repay- ment plan was working ﬁne. 0 Smallwood reported a couple of items had been sent to the county attorney’s ofﬁce that she had not heard back on yet — one being the lease on the fairgrounds building and another con- cerning Public Health. BY DAVID PECK Open burning and the fall cleanup period for the town of Lovell are both un- der way this week thanks to action taken by the Lovell Town Council. Open burning~ began last week and runs through Sunday, Nov. 29. Burning can be done weekends only from 7 am. to 4 pm. with a two—hour burndown period from 4 to 6 pm. Residents living west of Shoshone Ave. can burn on odd cal- endar days the those living east of Shoshone can burn on even days. In order to burn, a res— ident must contact the dis- patcher at the Lovell Po- lice Dept. at 548-2215 prior to burning to obtain permission. During Tuesday night’s regular town council meet- ing the council also ap- proved the fall cleanup pe- riod, which runs from Oct. 15 through Saturday, Nov. 7. During the cleanup pe- riod the Town of Lovell will pay dump fees for the North Big Horn County Landﬁll on a coupon basis. A resident must stop by the ﬁhnov lain nv leI‘ load to obtain the coupon, and the town will pay the coun- ty for each load. A new cou- pon must be obtained for l cleanup begins in Lovell each load. No commercial or construction debris will be allowed. N 0 tires will be allowed. RECYCLING FEE As agreed upon during a public meeting on Aug. 4, the council passed on ﬁrst reading Tuesday a small increase in utility rates to support the recycling pro- gram in the community. The fee is in reaction to a decision by the National Park Service that the agen- cy will no longer be able to take the lead on the pro- gram as of the end of the year. The matter was dis- cussed in length at the Aug. 4 forum during a presenta- tion by the Lovell Recycling Committee. Ordinance 935, passed on ﬁrst reading Tuesday, establishes a monthly fee of $1.50 for private residenc- es and $3 for businesses to support recycling. “We discussed it at the public meeting and the ma- jority of the public was in support of it,” Mayor Angel Montanez noted. “We as a council are moving forward with recycling.” The council mously approved council— man Brian Dickson’s mo- tion to pass the ordinance on ﬁrst reading. unani The Haunt returns to Byron BY BOB RODRIGUEZ A night of fright is lurking at The Haunt, a Halloween-oriented haunt- ed house in Byron set for three Fridays and Satur- days: Oct. 16—17, 23-24 and 30-31 with doors opening at 8 pm. Designed for those 12 and older, “The haunted house has returned with new ideas and different scenes that will haunt your thoughts and bring your worst nightmares to life,” said Brock Meier, event co- ordinator. He’s being as- sisted by Jacob Gruell, Josh Gruell and A.J. Jones. The Haunt will be staged in the former Rocky Moun- tain High School building on Main Street. Tickets will be avail- able at the door. Addition- ally, VIP tickets that in- clude entry in a rafﬂe for a Motorola speaker can be obtained from participating Big Horn Basin businesses displaying posters. Overall, some 29 businesses, indi- viduals and organizations are supporting the presen- tation as co-sponsors. Meier noted that he and his partners are mem- bers of the original Haunt presented in 2012 and 2013. “We took off a year to come up with new and scarier situations,” he said, adding that a preview was conducted for a group rep- resentative of Wide-rang- ing age groups and that they found the 10-min- ute walk-through frighten- ing and worth the price of admission. Commissioner seeks to expand usage of airport for activities BY TAMMY THORNBERRY Big Horn County Com- missioner John Hyde asked Manager Carl Mey- er about the possible use of airport property during the Oct. 6 meeting of the coun- ty commission. Hyde said the areas have been used for other activities in the past such as car races and questioned whether it is still possible to allow them. Meyer re- sponded that the Federal Aviation Administration has granted exceptions for certain events as long as one runway remains open. Meyer added that the air- ports at the north (Cow- ley) and south (Greybull) ends of the county cannot be totally closed for such reasons. Weeds around hangars and other buildings were another topic of discussion. According to FAA regula- tions, Meyer said, weeds must be destroyed around light poles and signs at air- ports. Commission Chair- man Jerry Ewen comment- ed that the currently used “brush hogs” have been known to throw rocks and cause damage. And the weeds also create a ﬁre hazard. Commissioner Fe- lix Carrizales said now is the time to spray herbi- cide on the weeds as mil- lions of seeds are set to spread. Meyer replied that the practice is already per- formed in the spring and fall. Carrizales also offered to donate use of his equip- ment two or three times a year to mow the weeds. Meyer said the Wy- oming Department of Transportation did a very detailed report on the smoothness of the south airport runway and it passed inspection. He also said WYDOT ofﬁ- cials have been traveling around the state ensuring grant money is being spent appropriately. The PVHC Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Clinic is your community health partner for orthopedic and sports medicine care. Secialties: \/ Orthopedic Surgery v Sports Medicine (I Knee 81 Shoulder Reconstruction \/ Arthroscopy William I. 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