$ 00 GLENROCK SINCE 1922 1 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2018 NDEPENDENT Volume 97 Number 08 IGLENROCK’S OFFICIAL NEWS SOURCE IN PRINT AND ON THE WEB Four-day week on the horizon How the Glenrock school budget cuts will affect you By Melissa Peterson teachers alone. would be in need of daycare [email protected] With this proposed plan, on Fridays. The board was sur- the community of Glenrock prised though when they sent After Glenrock School Dis- reacted with both positivity and out a survey and 70 percent of trict was informed in the fall of concern. One concern the board parents said they did not need 2017 that a $500,000 budget cut was bracing for was what will the extra childcare; with 76 was coming their way, they be- students do on Fridays if they’re percent supporting the proposed gan to formulate a plan to keep not in class. The board began four-day week. the schools open. To prepare for discussions with the Boys & “It sounds scary at first, but the expected cut, the Cost Sav- Girls Club to have access to the I don’t think it’s going to be a ings Task Force was formed in gym and pool as a place where problem,” Vice Chairman Casey November of 2017. students can have structured Tillard said. “We cut as much as we could activities. In regard to not be- When it comes to moving the last year without affecting the ing in class, the community seventh and eighth graders from kids,”GSD Schoolboard Chair- was concerned with the juvenile the middle to the high school, woman Vicki Widiker said. crime rate escalating. The board the board and teachers see it as At the first meeting, members reassured them that they have a way to combine their efforts of the community, students and talked to the Glenrock Police and utilize what they have; as teachers were invited to an open Department, and they might moving them together will cre- forum where they bounced ideas need to keep an extra eye out ate a general focus and allow back and forth in an effort to for any suspicious activity. The the teachers to instruct multiple create a plan. As a result, taking school board does not see this grades. Most teachers in GSD away Friday classes by cutting as a problem though. are certified to teach from kin- back to a four-day school week “Chief (Tim) Hurd has re- dergarten to 12th grade. became the top idea, along ally prided himself on juvenile We’re scared to death.________________ with moving the seventh and crime going down in the last few GSD School Board Vice Chairman Casey Tillard, eighth-grade classes into the years,” District Superintendent Please see UTS, C about the expected $500k budget cut next year high school. Cutting back on Coley Shadrick said. page A-5 Fridays alone would save the The next main concern they ‘ ’ district $40,000 in just substitute anticipated was families who EIS meeting shows oil New major wind project announced east of Glenrock along WYO 59 Rocky Mountain Power has which would be built, owned and • Add approximately $120 jobs coming near you selected four new wind projects operated by PacifiCorp. million in tax revenue from – including one in Converse • A 250 MW wind project in construction; County – to fulfill plans to sig- Carbon County, which would • Bring significant post-con- By Ethan Brogan out carrying a tattered map. nificantly expand the amount of be built, owned and operated by struction annual tax revenues [email protected] Sterling Moore stood with commissioners and wind energy serving customers PacifiCorp. starting at approximately $11 BLM following the meeting, holding the map by 2020. “The new wind projects are million in 2021 and growing to The first meeting to discuss an oil and gas En- detailing the amount of active wells around her The four projects will ex- part of the company’s Energy $14 million annually by 2024 vironmental Impact Statement solidified rumors cattle ranch. pand Rocky Mountain Power’s Vision 2020 initiative, which The cost of the four new of the vast amount of commodities nestled in “We are already at the point where we are so owned and contracted wind will significantly expand the wind projects is estimated at Converse County. saturated we are having to run below capacity of power by about 60 percent and company’s Wyoming wind fleet approximately $1.5 billion, The proposed Environmental Impact Statement our livestock,” Moore said. “It could potentially add enough new wind energy to and benefit the state and lo- which is significantly less on a is still in a drafting stage, but has accounted for be disastrous for us.” power approximately 450,000 cal economies,” said Cindy A. per-megawatt basis than when approximately 5,000 oil and natural gas wells on Moore’s mother, Frankie Addington, stressed average homes, the company Crane, Rocky Mountain Power the new wind and transmission 1,500 pads with projections to generate between concerns of fracking negatively impacting the said Tuesday. President and CEO. “The proj- plan was first announced last $18-$28 billion during a 10 year period. Another water supply for their cattle. The bids were selected fol- ect also includes a 140-mile April, the company said in a aspect is the prospective 8,000 jobs predicted to “You’re putting yourself at risk,” Addington lowing a request for proposal segment of the Gateway West news release issued Tuesday hit Converse County. said. (RFP) issued in September high-voltage transmission line morning. The per-megawatt The Bureau of Land Management spearheaded More information on the EIS will be available at 2017. The RFP establishes a in Wyoming to connect the new reduction in project costs help the discussion in Douglas Tuesday, with Converse a public meeting tonight, Feb. 22, at the Glenrock competitive bidding process for wind energy to Rocky Mountain make the Energy Vision 2020 County Commissioner Jim Willox acting as the Town Hall. the company to select the most Power’s grid.” initiative lower cost compared representative for the county. The EIS is still in its drafting stage and has cost-effective new wind projects. The additional wind gen- to other resource alternatives, “It is really going to end on the pace of develop- entered public comment period until March 12. The four selected projects are: eration and associated transmis- such as energy market purchas- ment and what comes out in the analysis,” BLM Comments can be sent in to blm_wy_casper_wy- • A 400 MW wind project in sion line were identified in the es, to meet forecasted customer Public Affairs Officer Brady Owens said Tuesday. [email protected] Converse County, which would company’s 2017 Integrated Re- energy use. “We really don’t quite know at this point how it is be built by NextEra Energy source Plan as part of a broader The $1.5 billion worth of going to shake out.” Resources, LLC, with half of approach to cost-effectively wind energy projects is part of Willox has been working on the draft for the the project owned by PacifiCorp meet customers’ energy needs the $3.5 billion investment the EIS and sees it as a huge economic opportunity and half of the project owned during the next 20 years. Com- company is making on energy for the county. and delivered by NextEra under pleting the wind projects by production and transmission “It is an exciting time for Converse County,” a Power Purchase Agreement. 2020 will allow the company to from now until 2020. Willox said. “The oil and gas development that The company did not say ex- use federal production tax cred- Pending approval from state this project represents is going to bring a lot of actly where the project would its to provide net cost savings to commissions, acquisition of economic activity to our county.” be located. customers throughout the life of rights of way and receipt of Willox mentioned the importance of 5,000 wells • A 161 MW wind project the projects. permits, construction of the new as still part of the EIS draft, stressing that nothing in Uinta County, which would The projects are also ex- wind and transmission projects is is set in stone. be built by Invenergy, LLC, pected to: expected to begin in 2019. “It is a planning document so we can understand and owned and operated by • Create between 1,100 Visit the following link for the impacts to the community, to the environment, PacifiCorp. and 1,600 construction jobs in more information about Energy to the social economics,” Willox said. • A 500 MW wind project in Wyoming and more than 200 Vision 2020: https://www.rocky- In the room of more than 40 residents, two stuck Carbon and Albany counties, full-time positions; mountainpower.net/ev2020 Thur Fri Sat Sun Mon MOTORCOACH BUS DRIVERS MOTORCOACH BUS DRIVERSMOTORCOACH GILLETTE, DOUGLASThinking BUS DRIVERS &of CASPER Changing GILLETTE, DOUGLAS LOCATIONS Jobs? & CASPER Need LOCATIONS Extra Money? 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