One More For The Road

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<title>One More For The Road: Thursday, February 8, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One More For The Road: Thursday, February 8, 2024

 Now let's all watch the impact of a tank driving over a car at full speed....

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, June 2nd,  I’m Mac Watson

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A Torrington family is in shock after finding their mutilated dogs partially submerged in the North Platte River. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that Angelica Garcia said two people made the grisly discovery of her dogs in the river. 

“The Garcia family says that they let their dogs out Friday morning, and they escaped, which was a common occurrence. They were known to get loose and wander about town. Angelica Garcia says that most of the time people would just bring the dogs back, and it kind of became a running joke in the community. The dogs went missing in the afternoon, and were discovered in the early evening by a woman walking with her young son. She found the dogs half submerged in the North Platte River. There were two Rottweilers, and it looked like they'd been blasted by a shotgun, one was missing its head, the other was missing its neck and its chest.”

Goshen County Sheriff Kory Fleenor confirmed Monday that his office has an open investigation into the incident, but declined to comment on whether investigators have determined a cause of death or whether any suspects or persons of interest have been identified.

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The poll U.S. House candidate Chuck Gray touted Monday leveled disparaging claims about opponents Reid Rasner and Steve Friess. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the poll, conducted by Fabrizio, Lee, and Associates, claims Friess “never had a real job” and Rasner acted like a “Hollywood celebrity” during a marriage to “his gay husband.”  

“They concluded that Gray was leading with 21% of the vote if the election were held mid May, but there was also a push poll phase, and I received screenshots shortly after reporting the favorable poll with very charged, very loaded attacks on Reid Rasner and Steve Freese. The commentary about Rasner was dredging up things from his 2020 to 2022 divorce proceedings, including a subjective comment saying he had hyphenated his name like a celebrity.  The prompts about Steve Friess were calling him an elitist and calling him out of touch with Wyomingites.”

The survey was a poll of 400 Wyoming Republican voters from May 13-16th and reveals Secretary of State Chuck Gray leads a crowded GOP U.S. House race with 21% support. Casper businessman Reid Rasner is second at 14%, and Teton County's Steve Friess is third at 10%. 

The family of a woman killed by a distracted driver in downtown Sheridan a year ago said they feel slighted by the 60-day sentence he got Friday. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that the woman’s daughter says the sentence brings “deeper grief,” not closure.

“Kate Gladden, her daughter does not feel like justice was served, and they were quite disappointed because they had been hoping that the judge might take into consideration their victim statements and charge him with the full penalty under the law, which would be up to a year and $2,000 fine, but that did not happen. She stuck with the plea agreement for 60 days.”

65-year-old Julie Fitzsimmons was visiting her daughter Kate Gladden and her husband Nate, in Sheridan. Julie died of blunt force trauma to the head after being struck and thrown more than 7 feet by the vehicle. 

A 27-year-old man accused of shooting another man and leaving him bleeding in a Cheyenne street after a blowup over a former girlfriend pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted second-degree murder. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that Adrian Maggos allegedly asked police how “the guy I shot” was doing.

“He sat quietly along with 11 other inmates from the jail, they all were wearing the bright orange jumpsuits, the orange proxy, he had his legs were shackled together, and when it was his turn, he got up and didn't say much to the judge, just answered his questions, ‘yes sir,’ ‘no sir,’ and when he, when the judge asked him for  how he pleaded to the charge of attempted secondary murder, he said, ‘not guilty.’”

The judge then set an Oct. 6 trial date for Maggos, while his attorney informed Judge Hibben that a motion to reduce his $250,000 cash-only bond would be filed in writing.

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I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

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A Wyoming barrel racer was stunned to learn that the teen girl accused of stabbing three horses in Las Vegas over the weekend tried to borrow one of her horses last month. Cowboy State Daily’s Julie Mankin reports that Laura Nichols says “It makes my skin crawl to realize she was stalking my horses, too.”

“She said we need to back up about a month ago at a big show in Utah. After that show, I got a message from a random girl out of the blue that wanted to know if I'd let her run one of my horses, and I wanted to help. I didn't really have one, and she just kept asking about these specific horses of mine, and, and so this weekend I looked to see if that was the same person, and it was the accused from Las Vegas, so it's just chilling.”

Nichols, who has earned more than $400,000 competing on the half-brother of one of the stabbed horses, said she’s especially horrified by the attack.

A Cody-based search and rescue team helped coordinate the search for the body of “Alaskan Bush People” star Matt Brown. Cowboy State Daily’s Jen Kocher reports that Brown’s body was found Sunday after he went missing four days earlier after allegedly shooting himself along a Washington state river.

“Bill Dohse, who founded Find 911 and OSAR, which is a national search and rescue group with many different partners from around the country. And so what Dohse did in this particular instance was work with his partner agencies to deploy assets to the scene in Washington, which was extremely remote and near the Canadian border, and the sheriff's department and family were very grateful to have those assets on the ground. Dosey was able to work from his incident command center on the side of the road because he was en route to Washington to get there when Brown was found.”

Dohse, a former Fremont County Deputy Sheriff and Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper, founded the Cody-based search and rescue group founded in 2015 that specializes in finding missing people and pets.

This year's election climate could make the perfect storm for Libertarian Shawn Johnson to win Wyoming's U.S. House seat, politicos say. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that experts say if Johnson can court conservatives, and the winner of the GOP primary is hugely unpopular, he could have a shot. 

“Sean Johnson gave a speech at his Sunday nomination at the Libertarian Party convention, that was, I mean, it was visibly electrifying to the attendees, and I got to thinking about it later. It very much resembled the Declaration of Independence, where there was this list of grievances, grievance after grievance of tyrannies that the people have endured, and it ended with this, this call for revival, and this pledge of one's own honor to the cause. And I asked him Monday, did you mean to structure that like the Declaration of Independence? He's like, no, he was just speaking from the heart.”

Johnson will face the lone survivor of a hotly contested 10-person GOP primary contest, and the winner of a two-way Democratic primary election. Both major party primary elections are set for Aug. 18.

Fifty years ago, the cameras rolled on “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” at Devils Tower after a handshake between a then-unknown Steven Spielberg and rancher Jesse Thomas Driskill. Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that a high school student named Ogden Driskell (who would later grow up to be a current state senator) remembers Spielberg was adamant about not telling anyone about the movie before it debuted.

“It was a funny story that Ogden told Spielberg swore them to secrecy about the movie because he didn't want the public to see that tower before the movie came out. He was just sure, you know, that nationwide people had not seen, did not know about this tower, and he knew the kind of impression it was going to make. His dad's the one who made the deal with Steven Spielberg, and Spielberg's like, ‘I don't want anybody to know about that tower. Nobody knows about that tower. You have to keep it secret. Don't let anybody know what's going on.’ But you know, so August, like, well, they thought he was kind of crazy.”

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a blockbuster science fiction movie that was released in 1977. Written and directed by Steven Spielberg, it  would go on to completely reshape tourism in northeast Wyoming.

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 6 2 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, June 2, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tuesday's headlines include:
* Rottweilers Mutilated Near Torrington
* Chuck Gray Leads House Candidates In Poll
* Rodeo Community Stunned By Horse Stabbings

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Politics

Government & Politics

U.S. House candidate Chuck Gray’s recent campaign poll contained subjective attacks, 

images of the poll questions provided to Cowboy State Daily, coupled with an interview,

 that Gray sent a poll by high-profile pollster Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, which worked with President Donald Trump’s campaigns.

The poll showed Gray leading at 21% support, with nine other candidates trailing at 14% and less. There also were 33% who registered as “strong undecided."

The poll also contained a push phase, where recipients received “information” about Gray and two of his opponents, Casper-businessman Reid Rasner and Teton County philanthropist Steve Friess, according to a methodology breakdown included in the poll memo Gray sent Cowboy State Daily.

After the “information” dump, Gray’s percentage points doubled, while Rasner’s and Friess’s sunk.

The “information” comprised bizarre and subjective campaign attacks, a survey recipient told Cowboy State Daily soon after the 

Former state Rep. Ember Oakley, a Republican and former legislator who now lives in Kemmerer, was one of those who took the poll. She sent Cowboy State Daily screenshots she said she took while answering the May 13 survey.

[{"type":"text","text":"'His Family's Wealth'"}]

“Steve Friess is a Jackson Hole elitist who has never held a real job and has lived his entire life off his family’s wealth,” one screenshot says. “The same out-of-touch privilege that leaves him completely disconnected from the struggles of working families in Wyoming.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Friess told Cowboy State Daily prior that he’s worked in finance."}]

He has been active as a philanthropist, and helped form executive order drafts to offer to Trump upon the president’s first inauguration in 2017.

Friess and his wife also founded a Christian school, Jackson Hole Classical Academy, in 2014.

[{"type":"text","text":"Oakley said she found the push poll’s information laughable."}]

“That was straight irony,” she said. “Chuck Gray, as far as I know, and I’ve asked, hasn’t had a career or a real, legitimate job before he got into Wyoming politics."

Gray, who is 36, told Cowboy State Daily prior that he worked in his father’s radio business. He has been in Wyoming politics since at least 2017, when he joined the Wyoming House of Representatives.

“His campaign money and everything, his finances, have been 

,” said Oakley. “To write that Friess is out of touch because he’s lived off his family’s wealth and hasn’t had a real job is, like, describing Chuck.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"Oakley then laughed. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Friess’s campaign manager declined to comment Monday."}]

The “information” the poll reportedly dispatched about Rasner contained more objective information, but at least one subjective theory and some loaded framing.

“Reid Rasner married his gay husband in New York, hyphenated his name like a Hollywood celebrity, then divorced him in Wyoming and hit him with a strict gag order — banning his ex-husband from using his name mentioning his job, or even referring to details of their marriage on podcasts or social media,” says one of the screenshots.

While many of those facts are correct, nothing in the court documents that underpin them accuses Rasner of behaving “like a Hollywood celebrity.”

Rasner had married a man in New York, New York in 2012, and the pair divorced in 2020, Wyoming court documents show.

 the pair not to make derogatory comments about one another. After the ex-husband took to his podcast and the Internet to talk about Rasner, the judge ordered the 

 man to show cause, then issued a stipulated order in 2022 containing numerous specific bans.

“Defendant shall never insinuate any facts about plaintiff that would negatively impact his type of employment as a financial planner” or say other, certain salacious things about him, the judge ordered.

Rasner’s campaign spokesman did not respond by publication to a text message request for comment.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Propaganda’"}]

Gray told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the “information” in the poll included “different points on our records.”

Later when confronted with the screenshots, Gray didn’t outright confirm the content, but he said that the initial ballot test — from which he scored 21% 

 from the 400-person hypothetical election the poll posits — was given “before any prompts.”

“The initial ballot test is the key,” he said. “This is the standard in all polling.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Oakley called it propaganda.  "}]

“I think the technical term is called push polling,” she said. “It’s just done for propaganda and for campaign reasons.”

In the prompts, said Oakley, “they clearly were just writing things that were inflammatory.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Too Early Anyway"}]

Rob Wallace, a longtime Wyoming politico, cast skepticism on a poll conducted so early in the race even before the screenshots with the bizarre prompts surfaced.

Wallace served as assistant secretary to the U.S. Department of the Interior during the first Trump administration and years prior worked multiple political campaigns as an advisor for the late U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop. 

He also ran for Congress in 1994 and finished second in a crowded primary to Rep. Barbara Cubin.

“Polling this early in the campaign is like endorsements,” he said. “It’s good to have favorable information, but the real part of the race isn’t going to get going until probably after the Fourth of July.”

The filing period for candidates ended Friday, and the primary election is Aug. 18.

Wallace also hesitated to attach significance to the poll since the “information" the Fabrizio team gave voters was unknown.

“Without really understanding all the pieces of the poll, it’s hard to give a complete assessment of what it means,” he said.

Now that the filing period has ended, the other nine candidates in the Republican U.S. House primary race are going to burst into public view as much as they can, Wallace said.

Between the poll and the filing deadline, two more candidates registered: Keith Goodenough and Richard Dodson.

[{"type":"text","text":"That puts the primary race at 10 contenders."}]

Whoever wins that race will have to face the Democratic candidate, plus the Libertarian nominee Shawn Johnson, who 

“There are a couple reasons for putting a favorable poll out” at this phase, said Wallace. One reason could be to dissuade others from running; and another could be to reassure one’s base and supporters.

“It’s like a good-news story for the people you want to attract,” he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"The big unknown, said Wallace, is what Trump will do."}]

The president has endorsed Megan Degenfelder for governor over her GOP opponents.

[{"type":"text","text":"He has not endorsed anyone in the crowded U.S. House primary race."}]

Friess, Rasner, Gray, Balow, and Biteman all have dispatched messaging indicating alignment with Trump.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rasner and Gray tout themselves as MAGA-style candidates."}]

Biteman has for years had a collaborative relationship with the president, he’s told Cowboy State Daily prior.

Christensen is a strong outlier there: he condemned the president’s April social media post of an AI-generated image depicting Trump as a Jesus-like figure, healing an ailing man while others circle him in gestures of prayer.

A Trump endorsement, said Wallace, “could be a game-changer if he decides to do it. And maybe he won’t — maybe he won’t endorse anybody.”

Chuck gray 6 1 26

<title>Chuck Gray’s U.S. House Poll Leveled Disparaging Remarks Against Rasner, Friess | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The poll U.S. House candidate Chuck Gray touted Monday leveled disparaging claims about opponents Reid Rasner and Steve Friess. It claimed Friess "never had a real job" and Rasner acted like a "Hollywood celebrity" during a marriage to "his gay husband."
 

Chuck Gray’s U.S. House Poll Leveled Disparaging Remarks Against Rasner, Friess

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Mostly sunny to sunny in much of Wyoming on Tuesday with a chance of rain mainly in the east. Highs mainly in the 70s and low 80s. Lows from the low 30s to low 50s.

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Sunny today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

Sunny today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

 Slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise sunny today with a high near 82 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 48.

 Sunny today with a high near 72 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 37.

  Sunny today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 43.

Sunny today with a high near 71 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 34.

Sunny and breezy today with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 32 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

 Sunny today with a high near 75 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 38.

  Sunny and breezy today with a high near 72 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 31 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

 Sunny and breezy today with a high near 69 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 36 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 73 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 36 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Sunny today with a high near 62 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 32.

Sunny today with a high near 83 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 46.

:  Mostly sunny today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.

  Mostly sunny today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph.

  Sunny today with a high near 77 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m., a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

  Gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 76 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 42.

:  Gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 75 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 43.

Mostly sunny today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight, a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

  Chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 51 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

:  Slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 78 and wind gusts as high as 17 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 47 and wind gusts as high as 17 mph.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 83 and partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain and a low near 54.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 82 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 47.

  Sunny today with a high near 81 and partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.

  Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 75 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight and a low near 49.

  Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 74 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 44.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 77 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight and a low near 50.

  Slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., otherwise sunny today with a high near 78 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 45.

  Sunny today with a high near 78 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 43.

  Becoming mostly cloudy in the afternoon today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 41.

Daycap small 6 2 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Tuesday, June 2, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Cheyenne’s Public Service Committee has advanced a measure that could put two multimillion-dollar Derby Club locations out of compliance with city rules. 

Two committee members, meanwhile, signaled unease with the idea and said they want to revisit the matter latter.

At issue is a proposed regulation that would prohibit gaming centers like historic horse racing from locating within a 500-foot radius of schools, churches, parks, and licensed child care centers. 

The measure follows in the wake of legislation approved earlier this year that gave cities and towns more authority over where historic horse racing terminals are located. 

Senate File 45 gave cities and towns local authority to deny simulcasting permits. 

Prior to that, municipalities had little say over where facilities could be as their locations were permitted through the relevant county commission. 

Cheyenne has 10 historic horse racing facilities that have been permitted under that old procedure. Two of those 10 are located within 500 feet of a licensed child care facility.

Drawing A New Map For Historic Horse Racing

Planning staff had originally crafted the 500-foot buffer to apply only to standalone child care centers operating in their own buildings. 

That provision was broadened during a May 18 Planning Commission meeting to include any licensed child care center, even if tucked inside a larger, multi-tenant commercial building.

Cheyenne Planning and Development Director Charles Bloom told the Public Service Committee on Monday afternoon that the change, if allowed to stand, would have a dramatic impact for two Derby Club facilities, making them ineligible to come back for reapprovals under a new special-use process. 

One is the flagship Derby Club on Pershing Boulevard, which is within 500 feet of a child care facility located in Gold’s Gym. 

The other is the Derby Club at Ridge Road and Pershing, where there’s a child care center in a storefront near the Albertsons shopping center.

Under the city’s proposed ordinance, existing facilities that don’t meet the city’s new standards must come back to the city for special use approval by Dec. 31, 2027. 

The intent of that is to “mirror” sunset provisions in the state statute for existing county-approved licenses for historic horse racing facilities, Bloom said, and “require all of those uses essentially to come back to the city for approval this time in front of the governing body instead of the Board of Adjustment.” 

The only exceptions to that would be those who are in an overlay district that the city is also creating. 

Called a regional entertainment overlay district, these would include the 15th Street Railcar Experience between Capitol and Reed avenues, as well as the West Lincoln Corridor, the Hitching Post area on the south side of Lincolnway, and areas out west toward Little America and the High Plains Road Interchange.

Every existing facility could reapply for their permits, Bloom said, except those falling within the 500-feet buffer.

“The way this is set up is it requires any use that would not be allowed to reapply,” Bloom said. “Then we would have to review them, subject to the development standards, including that buffer. That would not give two of the facilities … the ability to reapply.”

Traci Lacock, general counsel for Wyoming Downs and 307 Horse Racing, told the Public Service Committee that her clients support the zoning overhaul, but asked the committee to consider reverting back to how the ordinance was presented prior to the May 18 Planning Commission changes, which make two Derby Club locations non-compliant.

“Both our facilities went through the conditional use process that’s currently in place, and was approved,” she said. “The city has already considered the location of these existing businesses and approved them to operate.”

The investment in the two facilities has not been insignificant, she added.

“Pershing facility, we invested about $20 million to make that facility what it is,” she said. “It’s pretty impressive. And the Ridge Road location, we just spent a little over $4 million to date.”

The Pershing facility renovated the old Montgomery Ward facility, which was empty, adding to it a bowling alley, an arcade, a children’s play area, laser tag, and escape rooms. 

The activities are meant for all ages, Lacock added, but without the off-track betting (OTB) facility, those amenities would not be possible. 

“Our OTB in our simulcasting facility is completely separated, and only 21 and older is allowed in that,” she said. “And we do monitor it very closely. We’ve had no issues with that.”

Lacock said the facility has worked hard to maintain a good working relationship with the Cheyenne Police Department and said that, so far, any issues at either facility have been “fairly insignificant.”

“I think it’s important to note the Ridge location operated as a bar for many, many years, and then we took it over,” she said. “And the Office Bar and Grill, which has a smoking and cigar lounge in the back, operates even closer to that child care center that’s at issue in Gold’s Gym.”

Wyoming Downs and 307 Horse Racing President Kyle Ridgeway told Cowboy State Daily that the company was required by the city to put more than $2 million into parking, landscaping, and access improvements to obtain its conditional use permits with the city. 

Blocking the businesses from renewing their approvals under the city’s new framework would raise questions about grandfathering, he suggested, even as he reaffirmed the company’s overall support for Cheyenne’s efforts to clarify where historic horse racing facilities can operate.

Sponsor Would Prefer To Lose Broader Language

Councilman Mark Moody, who sponsored the measure imposing a 500-foot buffer between gaming parlors and schools or day cares, also spoke during the hearing, telling the Public Service Committee he would prefer it reverted to its original form. 

Councilman Larry Wolfe suggested that the measure might best be tackled in a work session.

“Just sitting here listening to this — and I’m not a sponsor of this — I haven’t heard really anything about this,” he said. “It strikes me that this is a very important and complicated issue. 

"You’re going to have to educate some other people on the council about it, me included.”

A work session would offer both councilmen and the public to have a chance to provide their input into “these really significant decisions,” he added.

“I guess my point is, we’re going to need to hear a lot about this,” he said. “These designations of these restricted areas alone have obvious consequences for these companies, and maybe other companies. We’ve heard no discussion about that at all.”

Public Service Committee members signaled that they do see problems with the buffer as it stands in the ordinance, saying it's still a work in progress.

Councilman Mark Rinnie talked about the rationale for the buffer zone before it was put to a vote. 

“At the time, there were seven historic horse racing venues in Cheyenne, nine in the county, and of those seven only six were zoned properly,” he said. “The other six had gone through our processes and received a conditional use permit from the Board of Adjustments, which is an appointed board. They’re not elected like we are.”

Rinnie said he and other council members received a significant number of emails asking why Cheyenne was allowing “all these” gaming facilities.

“At the time, state statute did not give us control over where these went,” he said. “Senate File 45, which was approved during the budget session, does allow municipalities to have some input into the decision.”

The other problem with how it was done in the past, Rinnie added, is that the matter never came before the City Council at all. 

“A couple other parts to this is that these are going to be handled just like liquor permits,” Rinnie said. “They will be reviewed periodically. That review is based on the state Gaming Commission, which allows their approvals to last up to three years. 

"So our ordinance kind of mirrors that as well. So that’s the rationale behind the ordinance. It does bring the control a little more to the city.”

With the overlay area for selected entertainment districts, it’s also encouraging the development to locate in particular areas where the facilities are more encouraged than in others. 

A Cheyenne City Council committee on Monday advanced a measure that could put two multimillion-dollar gaming establishments out of compliance with city rules. It would prohibit gaming centers from being within 500 feet of day care centers and schools.

One More For The Road: Thursday, February 8, 2024

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