6 I The Lovell Chronicle I November 18, 2010 www.LovellChronicle.com
Proactive stance
BY DAVID PECK
Taking his usual proac-
tive approach, Lovell Chief
of Police suggested a pair
of ordinances to the Lovell
Town Council last week re-
garding vicious dogs and
synthetic marijuana, com-
monly known as spice.
Meeting with the coun-
cil at the council's regu-
lar November meeting on
Tuesday, Nov. 9, Lewis said
he wants to do something
before someone gets hurt in
the case of both ordinances.
"As chief it's my obliga-
tion that, if something glar-
ing needs to be fixed...we've
had the same ordinance
for the last 10 years, and it
doesn't let us do something
preemptive," Lewis said.
"There has to be a dog bite
or something bad happen.
We're getting more and
more complaints."
He noted that the town
considered breed-related
ordinances in the past, but
he said with mixed breeds
such ordinances are diffi-
cult to enforce. Instead, the
ordinance he is asking the
council to examine allows
the police department to act
if an animal is acting dan-
gerously.
The ordinance would
make it unlawful for any
person in charge of a dan-
gerous or vicious dog to al-
low the animal to run loose
on the person's property in
a manner endangering any
person lawfully entering
the property or allow the
animal to be unrestrained
on any public street, side-
walk, park or schoolyard or
other private property.
No animal sick with or
liable to communicate ra-
bies would be allowed in
the town limits unless un-
der the care of a veterinar-
ian. If such an animal is vi-
cious and cannot be safely
impounded, the ordinance
would allow an officer to
"humanely euthanize" the
dog. An officer would be
able to impound an ani-
mal after a citation is writ-
ten and before the case has
gone to court.
A dog would not be con-
sidered dangerous or vi-
cious if a person threatened
or injured by a dog was in
the process of committing
a crime on the property or
was provoking, tormenting
or physically abusing the
animal.
Any animal determined
to be vicious "will" be euth-
anized under the proposed
ordinance. Any animal de-
termined to be dangerous
"may" be euthanized.
"The draft we have here
is a good starting point,"
Lewis said. "My recommen-
dation is to start the process
with this ordinance. I want
to know what your feelings
are. I want to make sure a
kid selling Girl Scout cook-
ies doesn't get attacked by
a dog on a leash. Right now
we can do absolutely noth-
ing. I want to protect a post-
al worker or a young kid
selling Girl Scout cookies.
"I want to put a dog
owner on notice - in court -
so if a dog shows that ten-
dency again the owner can
be cited."
During discussion, Jer-
ry Warman said he knows
of three or four dogs in his
neighborhood that "would
take you if they could" and
wondered if the town could
use video evidence.
"That's the point," Lew-
is said. "Right now we could
have a feature length movie
on a dog and our ordinance
doesn't allow us to do any-
thing...I want to preempt
that bite."
SPICE ORDINANCE
Lewis also presented
a proposed ordinance ban-
ning synthetic marijuana,
commonly known as spice
and sold as incense under
a variety of names such as
Black Mamba, K-2 and oth-
ers. The product is sold as
incense but is marketed
to kids, Lewis said, is ex-
tremely expensive and is
sold from behind the coun-
ter at convenience stores.
"Incense went out with
bell bottoms and black
lights," Lewis said. "Every-
one knows this is marketed
toward kids. A lot of people
have taken ill. They expe-
rience paranoia and feel
panicky. There have been
a lot of ER visits because of
this."
Lewis said the Wyoming
Legislature is considering
legislation to ban spice, but
there's no guarantee a new
law would be passed dur-
ing the next session and he
would like to see the council
act now.
The council took both
the vicious dog and spice
ordinances under advise-
ment.
Lewis also informed the
council that the volunteer-
based visual observation
agreement under which
~aid "volunteers" provide
supervision for involuntary
holds and hospitalizations
for persons who threaten to
harm themselves will con-
tinue despite the reluctance
of the current county attor-
ney, Georgia Antley Hunt.
(See related story.)
TOWN AUDIT
James Seckman, CPA,
reported on his annual
audit of the town's finan-
cial condition and practic-
es Tuesday and said the
town's financial statements
"present fairly, in all ma-
terial respects, the respec-
tive financial position of the
governmental activities,
the business type activities,
and each major fund of the
Town of Lovell, Wyoming,
as of June 30, 2010."
Seckman took the coun-
cil through the audit report
page by page and said that
while cash flows have in-
creased, they are not suf-
ficient to retire the town's
debt on projects, early, as
many towns have done.
He said it would be better
to gradually increase util-
ity rates 1 or 2 percent at
a time rather than waiting
a few years and then pass-
ing on a 10 or 20 percent in-
crease.
Asked if the town is in
good financial shape, Seek-
man replied, "The Town has
a lot of debt right now and it
should be a priority to build
up more reserves and retire
bonds sooner than later.
The town runs lean. It has
fairly adequate reserves for
the number of projects the
town has undertaken."
Seckman said it would
be "dangerous" to use gen-
eral fund money to retire
debt given the current sta-
tus of state funding for local
governments.
In other action last
week:
IrFrank Page of DOWL/
HKM Engineering re-
ported that Mother Na-
ture held off on the cold
weather and gave the
area a great fall so all of
the paving on the South-
west/Transmission Line
Project has been com-
pleted. He said a couple
of concern areas have
been taken care of and
substantial completion
should be reached by the
end of the month.
As for the upcoming
South project, Page said
work is continuing obtain-
ing easements, and plan-
ning is about 85 to 90 per-
cent complete. He said the
project is on schedule and
going forward.
Page also reported that
paving on the Safe Routes
to School project is also
complete and work was be-
ing finished on signs and
pavement markings.
ur In her monthly report,
Sue Taylor of Lovell Inc.
said a request for pro-
posais for design servic-
es on the Lovell incuba-
tor building remodeling
project has gone out and
that November 30 is the
due date for proposals.
She said Lovell Inc. is
seeking assistance from
Town of LoveU Admin-
istrative Assistant Scott
Campbell to help coordi-
nate the project.
Taylor reported on a
number of regional efforts
including a possible Big
Horn County Arts and Her-
itage Council, a regional
Heritage Corridor through
the National Park Service
and a four-state Wild West
regional effort.
IrCampbell reported on
the town's work with the
Wyoming DEQ on a veg-
etative waste manage-
ment plan and said he is
still looking into a pos-
sible land swap west of
town. Another possibility
is constructing a priva-
cy wall around land the
town owns on the corner
of Montana and Third
to be used for collecting
leaves and limbs. The
council asked Campbell
to prepare a cost analysis
for both ideas.
The council voted to re-
ject a bid for the remain-
ing lots in the Lovell Clay
Subdivision. 5J Con-
tracting had submitted
a bid of $48,001 for the
lots, which have been ap-
praised at $106,500.
The council discussed but
took no action on a debt
owed to the town from
Lovell Concrete and Ma-
terials from a Commu-
nity Development Block
Grant loan issued sever-
al years ago.
,~ Campbell brought an en-
ergy lease program to
the attention of the coun-
cil, saying the town could
borrow money at no in-
terest for energy efficien-
cy upgrades at town hall.
Qualifying upgrades in-
clude windows, insula-
tion and a water heater.
~" Campbell discussed
snow removal operations
with the council, saying
the town must priori-
tize snow removal efforts
due to limited resourc-
es in the event of a ma-
jor storm. He said Main
Street is the top priority,
followed by the school ar-
eas and the Nevada and
Shoshone hills. He said
he would like input from
the council and then
plans to inform the pub-
lic about the priorities.
Campbell discussed plans
to upgrade Constitution
Park, saying that he has
been working with the
town crew on planning
and conceptual develop-
ment. He said he is look-
ing into grants, including
the possibility of a feder-
al Land and Water Con-
servation grant or a Dan-
iels Fund grant.
He said the town could
match a grant with budget-
ed money in the amount of
$35,000 from the economic
development fund, $7,500
from special projects, $7,500
from the park maintenance
projects fund and $620 from
the skate park donations
fund. Another $20,000 or so
could be matched with in-
kind labor and materials,
he said, meaning the town
could probably come up with
up to $70,000 in matching
money toward around a
$140,000 park project.
The council gave Camp-
bell the go-ahead to move
forward with the project.
The council moved the
regular December meeting
of the council up one day to
Monday, Dec. 13, because
the Lovell Elementary
School K-3 Christmas pro-
gram is scheduled for Dec.
14.
Early Deadline
Please submit all advertising (diq)lay,
classoSed and legal), photos and letters to
editor before noon on Monday, Nov. 22
for the Thursday, Nov. 25 edilion of
The Love//Chronicle.
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Dori Noyes County Clerk Says Thank You! I
First of all, a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to eveyone that supported me.-- [
Next, I would like to THANK EVERYONE who requested a campaign sign and those who let I
me place a campaign sign on their property! I
SPECIAL THANKS to all the election judges (over 100) who put in 15 hours of work to make [
this election possible! And also to Rich Fink and John Hyde for being on call and who delivered [
the voting machines from the North end on election night! [
Another THANK YOU goes to the Byron Bar for their generosity in feeding (at no cost to the judges) the [
election judges in Byron on Election Day! I
AND YET ANOTHER THANK YOU' to the canvassing board who assisted with the recounts, verified the I
accuracy of Big Horn Counties election and attended two days certifying the election !1.._._.` ,. I
THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH! ¢ ~[~) ~j~7~ Pd f0rb OoriNo ,s]
• • Y Yl
O¢1ober, 20|0
MarKay McIntosh
, Mclntosh is Lovell High
School Student of the Month for
October. MarKay was nominated by
her civics teacher, Mr. Joshua Sand-
ers. MarKay was named student of
the month for several reasons par-
ticularly her good study habits, going
and beyond what is expected
her teachers. She has been
involved in volleyball, UW-MSIP
and National Honor Society, and
the senior class president. She
plans to go into nursing and eventu-
ally seek a degree as a pediatrician.
MarKay said her favorite thing about
LHS is math and homecoming
week because everyone shows their
spirit and competes in a healthy way.
MarKay is the daughter of Keith and
Jelli McIntosh.
Promoting Excellence In Education:
e
V 284 E. Main, Lovell, WY 82431 • 307-548-2751
