State Briefs

Sweetwater commissioners suspend part of uranium company loan payment

ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — Sweetwater County commissioners agreed to sign documents last week suspending principal payments for a struggling Sweetwater County uranium mine.

Roger Smith, president and chief financial officer of Ur-Energy, came before commissioners to explain difficulties facing the U.S. uranium industry that have affected the Lost Creek mine and to ask them to sign documents that would allow the company to make interest only payments for 18 months on a loan balance of $12.4 million. The original loan was for $34 million in 2013 to develop the Lost Creek facility.

Uranium imports have hit the industry hard, according to Smith. Ur-Energy joined with another U.S.-based uranium company, Energy Fuels, in petitioning the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to investigate the effect of uranium imports on national security and consider limiting uranium imports.

On July 12, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) found that imports of uranium are a threat to U.S. national security. Trump established the U.S. Nuclear Fuel Working Group to further study U.S. nuclear fuel production, including uranium mining, as the next phase of this investigation.

In August, Ur-Energy announced a reduction in force, primarily affecting employees at its Lost Creek facility. As a result of the White House decision to not take action at this time, the company said it was compelled to respond and initiate significant cost saving measures that included a reduction in force affecting 10 employees.

Vaccine shortage postpones flu clinics

CODY (WNE) — Due to a temporary shortage of influenza vaccines from its supplier, Park County Public Health has postponed a couple of community flu clinics.

“We’re not getting vaccine when we thought we would,” said Bill Crampton, public health nurse, last Friday.

Over the past three years Park County Public Health has returned leftover flu vaccines.

Referencing the 2018-2019 season, Crampton said the county used all but 100 of 2000 doses on hand.

“This year it looks like we’re going to run out,” he said.

Sanofi Pasteur, a French drugmaker, is spreading out shipments of the three vaccines public health stocks much farther apart than usual, he said. The next shipment is expected to arrive on Friday.

“At the same time…this may be a worse than normal flu season,” Crampton said. “Suddenly we’re running up against a wall because shipping is not meeting demand, so we’re running low.”

Some community clinics such as one Oct. 9 at the Cody Auditorium have already been completed.

An Oct. 11 clinic in Clark has been rescheduled to the next week and Crampton has asked Powell volunteer firemen to go to public health’s Powell office individually.

There’s not enough vaccine this fall to vaccinate the firefighters as a group, he said.

“Nobody will get cut off,” Crampton said. “We’re just rescheduling things to meet the demand we’ve already had scheduled.”

Teen to stand trial in high school fire

GILLETTE (WNE) — A 17-year-old boy accused of setting fire to a high school bathroom was bound over to District Court last week.

At Derek Paul’s preliminary hearing on Oct. 10, Circuit Judge Wendy M. Bartlett ruled there was enough evidence for him to stand trial for first-degree arson. She also kept his bond at $25,000, cash only.

Paul is alleged to have started a fire in the handicap stall of a second-floor bathroom in Thunder Basin High School the afternoon of Sept. 30.

School staff said Paul had thrown a temper tantrum earlier that day when he was sent to lunch detention for his failing grades, Gillette Police Detective Julianne Witham said.

He was a student who was “angry with the school,” so he decided to start a fire with “intent to destroy or damage” the school, said Deputy County Attorney Nathan Henkes.

Public Defender Andrew Johnson, representing Paul, said it was “a small fire in the bathroom,” and that there was no testimony showing that Paul intended to threaten the school in any way.

The incident “reads like a poorly planned prank,” Johnson said.

Henkes pointed out that the reason the fire didn’t cause more damage to the school was because of the efforts of the Campbell County Fire Department. He added that many lives were put in danger that day, with 300 to 400 students, teachers and other school staff having to evacuate the building because of the fire.