The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
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Moorcroft’s council amended a number of job requirements for department heads at last week’s meeting, with differing reactions. Police Beginning with the police chief’s position, Bill Bryant will be required to be available for backup and administrative calls and will also be obliged to provide the governing body with a written schedule for his officers as well as himself once a month for perusal and approval. Councilman Dale Petersen lead this discussion with the example, “I would like to be able to sit down and say, ‘you know what, you’re pu...
New council member Tom Roberts and wife Emily have lived in Pine Haven for a few years and is in the process of selling his business, Pluggin' Along, in Gillette to fully retire. Roberts, who had always been active in his Gillette community as chair of the YES House and working diligently on committee, joined the cemetery board in town and took the reigns as chair/sexton after the death of Bruce Lang. Mayor Karla Brandenburg recognized him for his tireless efforts to complete projects at the cemetery that he and Lang had discussed. "When the...
After a year of avoiding the unpopular issue of individual meters for the apartment building on North Little Horn Avenue, the council has chosen to remove the six meters that had been set in place to eventually be plumbed into the building waterline, adding to the existing six to cover each unit. Currently, the town is unable to shut off an individual apartment as each meter serves two. The meters have not, as yet, been activated and have sat within the pits for almost a year. Because this work...
Lucas Lang, KO Construction's general foreman working on the C-Bar Estates after Swagger abandoned the site, describes the efforts KO are undertaking to correct previous work and put the project back on track. After C-Bar failed the pressure test on the waterlines recently, Lang hired Hot Iron Construction to work in tandem with the KO crew in replacing and repairing the lines throughout the site. Lang said that when his crew arrived onsite several months ago, the water and sewer lines were in...
Moorcroft’s Public Works Director Cory Allison, addressed an issue with the town owned garbage receptacles at last week’s meeting of the town council. “We’re running out of garbage cans,” Allison reported the dilemma. The town has purchased 60 extra dumpsters from Western Sanitation to subsidize for the time being, but the problem is more extensive than first appearance shows. The receptacles the town owns are old and broken, so, “We’ve been replacing them when we can.” But to replace the whole town, “you’re talking about $25,000-$30,000”. A...
At approximately 11 a.m. Saturday, February 3, a male visiting from Colorado fell through the ice on the north shore of Keyhole Reservoir. District Lieutenant Brad Purcell, who was in charge of the situation, explained that while the ice in the center of the lake is still resting at a depth of approximately 14 inches, the ice along the shoreline is much less safe due to the warmth radiating from rocks into the water. Apparently, unaware of this danger, Kannon Parks, who enjoys ice fishing in the...
Pine Haven is experiencing issues with the water lines feeding the in-development C-Bar Estates. Recently, the lines were reported to the town as safe to be tested and opened and Mayor Karla Brandenburg advised Public Works Director Sean Glasser to open the pipe that would not dump into the main water line. Duaine Fawcett of Water Guy LLC, who is Pine Haven’s licensed water system authority was then contacted and visited the site a couple days later to test water quality, pressure, etc. The mayor reported to her fellow council members at F...
Pine Haven Volunteer Fire Chief TJ Gideon discussed an addition to the town's rescue vehicles at Friday's council workshop. The department received an anonymous donation of $20,000 after the tragic accident a year ago that felled the community. These funds came with a codicil: "They said their only wish is they want this money to be used for something that will keep us safe and for rescue type stuff," the chief told those present. He explained that, in the winter, the volunteer fire fighters...
Pine Haven's fifth annual Carl Mirich Memorial Texas Hold'em Poker Tournament entertained 56 players this year with hosts Karla Brandenburg and husband Charlie Gulley and other volunteers adding two more tables to the floor in the Memorial room of the Community Center; 37 sat in on the game last year. Brandenburg, who is very happy with the event, said of the night, "Great turnout!" Above the 56 main players, another 30 guests attended a "wild game of Right-Left-Center in the front room and...
The Moorcroft Town Center (MTC) was the subject of discussion at a recent workshop between the council, HDR Engineering’s Heath Turbiville and Jeff Holberg. Holberg, who is the chief of the Moorcroft Volunteer Fire Department as well as building inspector for the municipality, has been given the responsibility of general contractor over the modifications to the area of the MTC building into which Town Hall is to be relocated. This talk was to provide him with an overall site plan and detailed thoughts for each room. After a walk through, Mayor...
On January 4, The Tin Cup opened their doors for the first time. Jamie Timberman and husband Jobee bought the building formerly known as Hopper's Bar with the intent to create a comfortable hometown sandwich and coffee spot. "Kind of a bright spot in town, a place where somebody can come in and have a meeting, the kids can come have study groups," according to Jamie. "I've lived in Moorcroft about 25 years," Jamie introduces herself and her family. "So kind of local, we raised our family here....
At a workshop last week, HDR Engineering's Heath Turbiville shared a computer-generated (CG) depiction of a potential design modification to the splash pad at Noonan Park upon which Moorcroft's council is currently focusing its attention. During a recent compaction test, Advanced Geo-Tech Solutions found the ground at Noonan Park to be unstable. The crew drilled approximately 16 feet to measure the potential density of the soil before planning the installation of pipes and concrete. With this...
Among several other contributions to Moorcroft's West Texas Trails Museum (WTTM) made by former rodeo bronc rider and rancher Fritz Rehbein, including the handsome speckled bull that hangs on the wall, is a complete rodeo buckle collection. Rehbein has been adding Hesston belt buckles to the collection for many years, donating the 2023 work of art last week. "It belongs here," he says. As WTTM director Cindy Mosteller began modifying the position of existing buckles to make room for the newest...
Moorcroft High School (MHS) senior Rebekah Anderson has been accepted to Dickinson College on a wrestling scholarship. Anderson is the second MHS female wrestler to receive a scholarship for this sport since girls wrestling was sanctioned in Wyoming in 2020. Charmayne DeLong took her dreams to Indiana Tech, according to long-time Wolves wrestling team writer Marci Allison. "I started wrestling in second grade," Anderson explains how she was introduced to the sport, "My brother had wrestled the y...
Considering the kennel laws within town limits, Moorcroft Police Chief Bill Bryant has begun condensing and clarifying the applicable ordinance for the council’s further attention. Tuesday morning, the chief took a moment to speak to the reason for his attention in this matter. “We’ve got the kennel that’s potentially coming in plus looking ahead if anybody else wanted to try later we might as well have something in place now. If they have a lot of dogs, obviously it just gives us a tool so if we do have that problem, we at least have something...
With the success of the third annual Just Slayin Outdoors Ice Fest fishing tournament, organizer Doug DeBoer Jr envisions a strong future for the sport and the community. This was the first year entrance to this competition involved a fee, but DeBoer's reasoning is not to make a profit, but to encourage growth and interest in the annual tournament. "The last two years, it's been a free event – no entry fees. You just pretty much show up and fish," DeBoer explains. "This year, we decided to m...
Pine Haven's Grande Vista Sanitary Sewer Extension Project is anticipated to be complete by the summer of 2025. To ensure compliance with municipal ordinance, the owners of the seven lots along the southeast end of Grande Vista Drive must connect to Pine Haven's water and sewer lines. At a recent public hearing in preparation for the project's local improvement district, the council met with property owners to go over associated costs and concerns about this endeavor. Mayor Karla Brandenburg urg...
Zoning for Crook County By Crook County residents have vigorously opposed rural zoning in the past but, with the influx of several subdivisions in recent years and no legal avenue to control developers, some appear to have changed their view. Throughout January, hired consultant for planning and zoning, Jayna Watson, has been addressing ranchers and other county citizens who are and will be most impacted by the slow flood of new neighbors as well as this possible change in how officials may...
Crook County Sheriff Jeff Hodge attended last week's meeting of the Pine Haven Council to address questions and concerns previously shared with Deputy Cody Lenz regarding the possibility of contracting with the sheriff's department ordinance enforcement and the rather more pressing issue of discharging firearms in town. Lernz was able to answer in part but, after discussing the matter with his superior, the sheriff wanted to speak to the council and answer in more depth. The first topic was the...
Moorcroft is moving forward with the next phase of the bike/walking path through town as the council examines the anticipated route along North Big Horn Avenue, from Crook Street to Goshen east to Belle Fourche Avenue and south to reconnect with Crook. The aim is to encourage people to use and enjoy the wider and safer pathway to traverse town throughout the year. There are challenges, though, with several areas of significant elevation and steps built into the walkway on both the east and west...
The Pine Haven Town Council recently discussed the possible advantage to hydro-seeding Harwood Baseball field. The site was hydro-seeded in its infancy, but the cost is significant. According to Councilman Rob Norton, he and Public Works Director Sean Glasser had discussed this issue and Norton offered their suggestions, "I don't know that we need to hydroseed, we might just over seed, spray it with fertilizer, kill the weeds off and see if it can regenerate." He noted that the director had...
Among the four main subjects following the town into 2024 is the final closure of Moorcroft's landfill and progress was recently the subject of discussion at a workshop ending 2023. At this time, the dead animal, burn trench and the C&D pit are the only active waste points available to the public. HDR Engineering's Heath Turbiville had previously ascertained from the council their interest in retaining the construction dump site with the closure of the rest of the landfill. "We've been thinking...
Moorcroft’s splashpad has been an anticipated addition to the town’s summertime recreation for several years, waiting on grant possibilities as the town works diligently on the more pressing issues of outdated and failing infrastructure. Now, with the Powder River Water Project II moving forward, so too is the Splash Park Project. Since the beginning, the plan has been to have the feature installed in Noonan Park, the town’s oldest square. Unfortunately, after testing the planned site, Advanced Geo-Tech Solutions found the ground to be unsta...
Residents of the Glen Vista subdivision on Vista Grande Drive, who have never been connected to municipal sewer, are specifically invited to a public hearing on January 9, at 7 p.m. At the hearing, the council will discuss the Vista Grande Sanitary Sewer Extension Local Improvement District in which they will be participating to pay their portion, equaling $381,652. Mayor Karla Brandenburg explains, “We’ve got a[n ARPA] grant to connect them to our sewer system so we have to form a sewer district and the residents will be paying the fee on tha...
Mayor Karla Brandenburg invited her fellow council to step forward to honor guest Linda Lang at last week's meeting of the governing body for the philanthropist's donation of more than 20 trees to be planted around the circumference of the cemetery. "They were all brought in by a truck and quite a few town people went up there and helped put them in," she said. As Lang stood with her neighbors, the mayor presented a carved tree created by Councilwoman Suzette Edwards, "out of pine from Pine...
