Lincoln County Commissioner Mel Shumway stepped into the SVI Radio studio for his monthly report. Commissioner Shumway discussed the commission’s vote to deny the proposed Lincoln Star Improvement District, the latest on Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed Gateway West Transmission Line that would run through Lincoln County south of Cokeville and an update on IDAWY Solid Waste District and the Thayne and Kemmerer transfer stations.

(0:00) Weekday wake up on SVI radio and the monthly report from the (0:03) Lincoln County Commission and Commissioner Mel Shumway in (0:06) studio today. Commissioner appreciate your time. How are (0:09) you this morning? (0:10) Doing good this morning.

It’s good to be here. (0:11) Thank you and appreciate you stopping by as always and (0:14) chatting about what’s happening in Lincoln County. Commissioner (0:17) wanted to start with just a few things from the commission (0:20) meeting that happened just recently.

And let’s start right (0:23) out of the gate with gateway gateway West understand Rocky (0:27) Mountain power was there for presentation on this gateway (0:29) West project. Remind our listeners because this goes (0:31) back a handful of years. What is the gateway West project? (0:35) Okay, yeah, let’s let’s dive into that.

Yeah, Rocky Mountain (0:38) power came and gave us an update on gateway West gateway (0:41) West is a transmission line that is going to be built. And it’s (0:45) in it starts out in more central Wyoming. And I actually forget I (0:50) apologize, I forget the starting point, but it does come through (0:54) Lincoln County.

And it terminates out in Idaho. And (0:58) it’s a big line. It’s a few stats on it, the right away (1:04) width will be 250 feet.

They are self supporting steel lattice (1:10) structures, which are the the four legged ones that stand up (1:13) rather than the single post with the guy wires. So they’re big (1:17) units. They are a 500 kilovolt single circuit transmission (1:25) line.

So there’s approximately 61 miles it’s going to be built (1:29) to that 38 miles of that excuse me 6861 miles in Lincoln County. (1:35) And of those 61 miles 38 miles is on BLM land. Four miles is on (1:42) state lands managed by the state of Wyoming and 19 miles is on (1:46) private land comprised of about 50 private landowners.

So (1:51) permitting has been an issue with them. This has started way (1:57) back in 22. I believe they did submit an application to the BLM (2:03) in 2024 to amend the route near Cokeville.

If you’re familiar (2:08) with that big KV line moving through Cokeville, this will be (2:11) to the south of it. And kind of parallel along there. The BLM (2:17) has placed the application on hold given the need to amend the (2:20) BLM resource management plan.

This goes back to a lot of the (2:24) BLM resource management plan work that’s been done in the (2:29) previous administration and the current administration. So (2:32) things are kind of in a flux there. Rocky Mountain Power (2:36) will continue to work with the BLM to pursue the reroute.

And (2:40) they anticipate if if they can get these permits moved (2:44) through, they would like to start construction in 2033. And (2:50) completion in 2035. So it’s still a few years out.

But (2:53) Gateway West is vitally needed for transmission of the power (2:58) through the West. They did complete Gateway South, which (3:02) goes over through Carbon County. And then down into I think into (3:06) the Arizona area.

So these are vitally needed. And as much (3:13) power as we can generate in Wyoming, that’s that we need to (3:16) get it out of Wyoming to serve the people. So it’s part of an (3:20) ongoing project with Rocky Mountain Power.

But it’s been a (3:23) few years. So an update is needed. And we asked them to (3:26) come in from time to time to see where we’re at, where (3:29) they’re at on it.

And we appreciate the partnership with (3:32) Rocky Mountain Power. As a note, thank you, Rocky Mountain (3:36) Power for the recent Cokeville outage. They worked pretty hard (3:39) all night long.

And I don’t know. I’m sure they’ve got it (3:43) stabilized by now, hopefully, but as of 9pm last night, they (3:46) are still having a hard time getting that one substation (3:49) stabilized. And so Rocky Mountain Power was reached out (3:54) to Homeland Security with Jay Hokanson.

And Jay helped (3:59) coordinate with Cokeville Fire Department to kind of go door to (4:04) door and ask who needs help here. Rocky Mountain Power (4:07) brought in generators if people needed medical devices running (4:11) through the night or such. So thanks to Rocky Mountain Power.

(4:14) Thanks to Jay. Thanks to Cokeville, town of Cokeville. (4:17) It’s we we get pretty comfortable in our lives.

And (4:21) when we don’t have the power that can be concerning. So (4:24) well, it was Yeah, you go without it for just 20 minutes. (4:28) And you’re like, what is going on? But the whole day it was it (4:30) was out.

So it was it was an issue. But it really just does (4:34) highlight kind of the need to have that emergency management (4:37) plan and everything in place. And so with with Gateway West, (4:39) it sounds like this is still a process moving forward.

And (4:43) there was a big concern amongst Cokeville residents with how (4:46) close the original line would go to town. But it sounds like (4:49) that still the push is to have this is a reroute, they’ve (4:52) submitted this reroute, and it would move the line south of the (4:58) existing lines from the camera reservoir to the west of (5:01) Cokeville. That’s the official communication I had yesterday (5:05) from Rocky Mountain Power.

So (5:08) Lincoln County Commissioner Mel Shumley in studio this morning. (5:11) Commissioner, I’ve noticed that the Ida why which is something (5:14) that you do on the commission, you you keep a close tabs on (5:17) and it sounds like construction on the new transfer facilities (5:20) are are moving right along. It looks like they are.

Yes. (5:24) Work continued to progress for the solid waste management (5:27) district locally, our thing transfer station is next in (5:31) line for the transfer building to be erected. It is on site.

(5:35) Concrete work is done. We anticipate that steel should be (5:39) swinging this week in thing. So if you’re down there, so (5:43) currently all of the thing waste is going over to caribou and (5:46) Soda Springs.

It was going to camera, but camera has a little (5:52) more, more than anticipated increase in waste in camera. So (5:57) we don’t want to overwhelm the camera landfill because we have (6:01) to do these closures in sequence. Once the Georgetown (6:04) pit is open, and actually caribou needs a little more fill to (6:09) close their pit on time.

So it’s worked out rather than going to (6:13) camera from thing. They’re going over to Soda Springs from thing. (6:17) The Georgetown pit is on schedule and the liner award has (6:21) been awarded and the liner should be going down probably (6:24) next month.

And if all goes well, fingers crossed and we (6:29) could have some refuse going to the Georgetown pit this summer. (6:35) Okay, so that’s a project years in the making that could be (6:37) coming to fruition. So what does that mean for the average (6:41) resident of Lincoln County that goes to the landfill? What (6:45) would change for them on their end? Anything much at all? (6:47) No, nothing really changes at all.

It’s, it’s, it’s much like (6:52) you go up now with with stuff, there’s still the metal (6:54) recycling. They tried to help out in the spring with some (6:58) spring cleanups. The commercial haulers are taking the trash (7:05) there.

And that has been bailed and put on a truck to camera. (7:11) Now it’s going to just go over to Georgetown pit. And they (7:14) won’t be bailing it will just go into the transfer station and (7:17) those trucks will just be loaded.

So we’ll save the (7:19) expense of that bailing and compacting. They do enough (7:22) compacting with the big equipment in the pits anyway. (7:25) So it’s just going to expedite things.

And we just have so (7:30) much capacity over there. That’s what’s exciting, that (7:33) we’re going to have so much capacity and it’s it’s really (7:36) well engineered. I’m excited to get to get this on the in the (7:41) ground and going.

(7:42) Commissioner Mel Shumway this morning on the weekday wake up. (7:45) Commissioner just wanted to bring up the Lincoln Star (7:47) Improvement Service District. The official vote from the (7:49) commission happened at the last meeting ended up being a split (7:52) one one vote and which made the the ISD proposal fail.

And so (7:57) give us your your thoughts on that vote and what happened? (8:00) Yeah, the Improvement Service District came back up for (8:02) approval for the South Lincoln County area. And it was a tie (8:06) vote one for one opposed and one abstaining. So with that it was (8:12) a failed motion and so it was it failed.

We do see the need and (8:19) the value of bringing mid level companies to Lincoln County, we (8:23) want to help bolster the tax base with industry. We want to (8:28) make sure we can offer employment. So we’ll continue to (8:31) explore options.

And we’ll work with companies in industry. As (8:36) a note, Lincoln County, we’re part of the South Lincoln (8:39) Economic Coalition, which is comprised of city and civic and (8:43) industry partners to serve the needs of just that industry and (8:48) bringing industry in. So we’re partnering up with them and (8:50) we’ll continue to part with partner with them to help find (8:55) some economic and some small to mid cap industries to come in (9:01) and help help us out.

(9:04) Perfect. Commissioner Mel Shumway, Lincoln County (9:06) Commission on the weekday wake up Commissioner, I did want to (9:08) end on maybe some things that are good that are happening in (9:11) Lincoln County. I mean, America 250 right around the corner.

And (9:14) all the municipalities have some great activities and everything (9:17) going on for America 250. The county’s treasure hunt with (9:21) Robert King has been very well received, very well. And there’s (9:25) a lot of great things.

And so the the coins and everything that (9:28) the county municipalities are doing, I think it’s all (9:30) fantastic. Yeah, um, the Lincoln scavenger hunt, my wife and I (9:35) jumped out Saturday, we spent a day went down through South (9:38) Lincoln County and drove up to Big Spring and around the Pine (9:41) Creek. And then Sunday, we run around the valley and you just (9:45) reacquaint with some really fantastic history in the county.

(9:48) I’ve saw things that I really didn’t know was out there in the (9:52) county. I got to share some things that I knew about in the (9:55) county. It’s been fantastic.

And it was fun to run into people at (9:59) these sites. And I am pleasantly surprised at the turnout. So (10:04) thanks to that scavenger hunt.

That was a lot of fun. The 250 (10:08) year semi sesquicentennial coming up, there’s going to be a (10:14) lot of celebrations pitch into your communities, jump in, have (10:17) fun, but be safe. Keep in mind that we are on a low water (10:21) year, we are kind of dry, we’re going to get a little warmer.

(10:25) Keep in mind, be cognizant of the fireworks, the bonfires, the (10:29) camping fires. Let’s make sure we get through the summer (10:32) without any incidences. And we don’t want to damper some of our (10:38) celebrations with the emergency.

So but other than that, let’s (10:42) have a fun summer and I sure appreciate the people’s support. (10:45) Thank you. (10:45) It’s Commissioner Mel Shumway this morning, all part of the (10:47) weekday wake up on SBI radio.