One More For The Road

[{"type":"text","text":"Always a surprise when these things don't work out...."}]

One more for 4 27 24

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>One More For The Road: Saturday, April 27, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Always a surprise when these things don't work out....

One More For The Road: Saturday, April 27, 2024

 Always a surprise when these things don't work out....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Law Enforcement

Editor's note: Cowboy State Daily managing editor Greg Johnson is in Baggs and will update the story when new information is available.

— It was a busier-than-usual Monday at the Cowboy Inn Restaurant, Bar and Motel along Wyoming Highway 789 near the southern edge of town, which in this hamlet of 411 people near the Colorado border is about a two-minute drive from the northern end.

Across the highway, more than a dozen law enforcement vehicles were parked on the shoulder of the southbound lane. They represented nearly as many agencies from across central and southern Wyoming and northern Colorado.

They’ve all responded to a small, faded yellow, two-story apartment building that’s cordoned off with crime scene tape, along with a couple of nearby houses.

They’d been there since about noon, responding to reports of an 

 and a brief search for the suspect, according to a “shelter in place” order sent to area residents that said authorities were looking for an “active assailant.”

Before the Carbon County emergency services scanner went dark Monday, law enforcement personnel described the active shooter incident and manhunt, where at least one law enforcement officer was injured and a trooper’s car was “shot up.”

For Baggs Mayor Matthew Howell, that was the beginning of a long waiting game. He told Cowboy State Daily at about 7:15 p.m. Monday that his home is near the apartment building and that he wasn’t yet allowed back.

Earlier in the day, he described the situation to Cowboy State Daily simply as “it’s not good,” and declined to comment further, saying he wanted to wait until the initial investigation was over to know just what went down before possibly talking out of turn.

He reiterated that response later in the day and deferred further questions to investigators.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Hanging Out"}]

Howell was one of dozens hanging out near and in the Cowboy Inn parking lot throughout Monday afternoon and evening.

There was only one topic of conversation: whatever happened in that apartment and how unusual it is for a law enforcement response this heavy in their quiet, small town.

“Oh yeah, this is for sure the most exciting thing that’s happened in … I can’t remember,” said one longtime resident eating a burger and fries from the tailgate of a pickup.

Like most people Cowboy State Daily spoke with, she declined to give and name, but was friendly and upbeat while gazing across the highway with concern.

At about 7 p.m., the parade of law enforcement vehicles cordoning off the apartment property from the highway parted to make way for a large trailer with “Sweetwater County Bomb Squad” printed on it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Initial Response"}]

By 9 p.m., there still hadn’t been any official reports about what happened or confirmation of the earlier emergency scanner traffic that reported an injured law officer.

That scanner traffic erupted at about 12:55 p.m. when a female dispatcher informed units that a “lady” had called to report a man emerged from a home near or about 49 West Cedar Street.

“He came out of the house with a long gun, fired a shot, and now he’s walking around trying to get into an apartment,” the female dispatcher related from the caller’s report. “RP (reporting party) says he has tactical equipment on.”

The male had red hair, a mustache, no shirt, and green camo pants, the dispatcher related. She’d later add from a secondhand description that he had a fanny pack containing ammunition.

A Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper who called himself “132” said he was on his way.

“He’s gone into apartment No. 1, and now he came out and he’s heading back upstairs,” the dispatcher narrated.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The man still had a gun, she added."}]

The reports continued, relating that the man fled north in a pickup and at one point was “now shooting at the patrol vehicle.”

In the meantime, the bar at the Cowboy Inn was lively with chatter about the “active assailant” incident, mostly starting with, “I heard …” as officers and personnel from various sheriff’s and police departments filtered in and out.

By closing time — which in Baggs comes at 8:30 — the scene across the road hadn’t changed much.

Baggs Sweetwater County Bomb Squad arrives 6 8 26

<title>‘Active Assailant’ And Officer Shot Reports Has Baggs On Edge | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It was a busier-than-usual Monday at the Cowboy Inn along Wyoming Highway 789 near the southern edge of Baggs. Across the road is an apartment building where an “active assailant” incident began that included reports of an officer being shot.

‘Active Assailant’ And Officer Shot Reports Has Baggs On Edge

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

Clair McFarland

Before the Carbon County emergency services scanner went dark at around 3:30 p.m. Monday, the dispatchers, officers, deputies and troopers on it described an 

 and manhunt in which at least one law enforcement officer was injured and a Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper’s car was “shot up.”

The saga ended with scanner reports saying the fleeing truck had come to a stop, and one person was dead inside it. 

Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken announced via press release late Monday evening that the shooter died on scene. 

"The subject opened fire on the initial responding deputy, striking him several times," the statement reads.

"The suspect fled the scene in a small truck.  Additional responding deputies and troopers with the Wyoming Highway Patrol engaged in a pursuit with the suspect vehicle on Highway 789 north of Baggs. 

"The suspect opened fire on law enforcement again before driving off the highway and coming to a stop. The suspect was declared deceased at the scene. 

"The wounded deputy was transported to a medical facility in Colorado by Intermountain Air Ambulance."

[{"type":"text","text":"How It Unfolded"}]

The public learned of the incident when Carbon County emergency services called for a shelter in place due to an active shooter situation around 1 p.m. 

Scanner traffic erupted at about that time, when a female dispatcher informed units that a “lady” had called to report a man emerged from a home near or about 49 West Cedar Street, Baggs. That's across the road from the mayor's home. 

The man "came out of the house with a long gun, fired a shot, and now he’s walking around trying to get into an apartment,” the female dispatcher related from the caller’s report. “RP (reporting party) says he has tactical equipment on.”

A Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper who called himself “132” said he was on his way.

“He’s gone into apartment number one, and now he came out and he’s heading back upstairs,” the dispatcher narrated.

[{"type":"text","text":"The man still had a gun, she added."}]

“He’s getting into a small black truck at this time,” said the dispatcher. Male officers, troopers or deputies pressed the dispatcher for a better description of the truck, and after several minutes personnel said it was reportedly a Toyota Tacoma.

The man headed north through Baggs. The caller didn’t know his name or who he was, the dispatcher said.

One male law enforcement officer said one of the officers was stopping the vehicle.

“Subject is now shooting at the patrol vehicle,” said a male voice on the scanner.

Personnel called in night shift deputies or troopers. They asked for help from Moffat County Colorado, which reportedly later sent two drones along with other help. They asked for a special response team from the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.

“It appears one of the apartments is on fire,” said the dispatcher at about 1:18 p.m. Eyewitnesses in Baggs said the fire was related to the shooting and chase. 

Traffic indicated at some point the fleeing black truck turned back south. 

The town clerk told personnel, reportedly, that shooting sounds resounded “up on the hill south of Baggs,” said a male officer.

One man asked if law enforcement personnel had heard from a deputy called “66.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“That is negative,” answered the dispatcher."}]

Later someone on the scanner said that residents of the area were “applying aid to 66” and that “66 is down,” while the suspect had fled northward in the black Tacoma.

The sheriff’s evening statement says the suspect opened fire and struck the deputy several times. The deputy was flown to care in Colorado. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Multiple parties on the scanner coordinated medical personnel responses."}]

At 1:29 p.m. a male trooper or other officer shouted, “Shots fired! Shots fired! He’s shooting at – “

[{"type":"text","text":"“He’s right there,” an agent added after a brief silence. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"What Trooper 132 Saw"}]

Around this time the scene was unfolding around mile marker 40 on Highway 789.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Shots fired!” said a male voice again."}]

“He hit my windshield,” said a male voice that sounded like the trooper called 132. “Getting water, he hit my tire.”

But 132 wasn’t done with the incident. He asked a deputy called “64” to pick him up and take him to the next part of the incident so he could keep helping.

A deputy called “68” reported, while catching his breath audibly, that personnel had a “barricaded suspect” just off a two-track or county road, headed west, but that by then, “we have no movement.”

The dispatcher said a special response team had been “activated.” That was about 1:40 p.m.

[{"type":"text","text":"Agents coordinated shutting the highway down."}]

“Sounds like he’s barricaded in the vehicle,” said a male. “I know he shot at 132.”

One agent asked if he should bring an “OIS Bag,” or officer-involved shooting kit.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I don’t know if 132 fired a round or not,” answered the male."}]

The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation confirmed via email to Cowboy State Daily that it was asked Monday afternoon to respond to an officer-involved shooting south of Baggs.

At least one agent requested a “Bear Cat” armored vehicle. It’s unclear where that vehicle was coming from: agents mentioned both Sweetwater County and Casper.

Meanwhile, a “potential structure fire and chemical situation” reportedly progressed on Cedar Street.

[{"type":"text","text":"A propane leak “appears to be there on purpose,” said a dispatcher."}]

The suspect’s vehicle was stationary. Agents weren’t sure if the suspect was still in the vehicle. The final shot was fired at about 1:08, an officer said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Someone called for a bomb squad. "}]

Cowboy State Daily asked the Carbon County Fire District to confirm whether, as scanner traffic indicated, propane tanks had exploded, and the department said it could not confirm.

The trooper known as 132 asked someone to shoot several photographs of his vehicle for the investigation.

“You can’t miss it, it’s a highway patrol car on the side of the road that’s shot up,” said 132.  

Officers wondered aloud if the suspect had fled on foot or was still in the vehicle. Multiple drones were on the way to confirm.

“One occupant deceased,” said an officer, adding a directive to notify the coroner. 

Bakken confirmed late in the evening that the shooter was dead on scene. It’s unclear how he died.

The Sweetwater County bomb squad responded to the apartment complex around 6:45 p.m. 

The Carbon County Sheriff's Office lifted its shelter in place notification for the town of Baggs at 7:48 p.m. - nearly seven hours after implementing it. 

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I Passed 17 Emergency Vehicles\""}]

Cory Overton, a Baggs resident, said he was headed home from his work in the Craig area when a Steamboat Springs, Colorado-based SWAT team passed him on the highway, also headed toward Baggs.

[{"type":"text","text":"He also saw a medical helicopter leaving the town, Overton said."}]

“I passed 17 emergency vehicles before I hit Craig,” he added. Overton said he and his son jumped into the car and headed north, then he took photographs of the aftermath of the incident.

One of the photographs Overton took shows a Carbon County Sheriff’s deputy vehicle with the window seemingly open.

It appeared to be shot by bullets, Overton said, adding that the deputy is a “local guy” known to the community.

Overton said he doesn’t know the shooter. Many people who work in Craig live in Baggs due to cheaper housing costs, he added.

Overton said he’s not sure if the apartment fire is related to the shooting incident. But when law enforcement personnel refer to “the apartment complex,” he said, only one comes to mind.

“That’s really the only apartments we have,” said Overton. That is, except for an old motel used for rent just north of town, he added.

Baggs standoff 6 8 26

<title>Deadly Shooting In Baggs, Wyoming: Deputy Injured, Shooter Dead | Cowboy State Daily</title>

An active shooter manhunt unfolded Monday in Baggs where one deputy was injured and the shooter died on scene, Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken confirmed late Monday. The sheriff said the suspect opened fire on law enforcement before driving off a highway.

Deadly Shooting In Baggs, Wyoming: Deputy Injured, Shooter Dead

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

Renée Jean

Energy

Microsoft, Black Hills Energy, and other local officials said data centers, handled the “Wyoming way,” are already helping hold down power bills and could unlock new land for affordable housing. 

The additional water sales, they added during a panel Saturday, are something Cheyenne’s Board of Public Utilities said it actually needs to keep rates stable. 

Cheyenne rate payers, panelists further suggested, might one day pay less for electricity than they do now, even as the city chips away at a housing shortfall that’s been estimated at roughly 5,000 units.

The claims came as Cheyenne finds itself on the front lines of a national race to build out digital infrastructure — a race the Trump administration has framed as critical to national security. 

Cheyenne has 10 data centers already operating, five under construction, and nine more announced or in planning stages, according to Cheyenne LEADS Executive Director Betsey Hale. 

Another 36 data center companies or site selectors have expressed some level of interest in Cheyenne or Laramie County, and about 30 more “tire kickers” have made at least one exploratory call, she said.

The sheer volume — about 90 potential data centers in all — has unnerved many Cheyenne and Laramie County citizens, prompting a petition drive calling for a moratorium on new data centers. 

At recent public meetings, citizens have raised alarms about scarce water, spiking energy demand, and whether the boom will price ordinary people out of housing and other services like plumbers or electricians. 

On Saturday, city and industrial officials didn’t just push back on those narratives. They argued the opposite. So far, they said Cheyenne’s data center buildout has kept electric rates lower than they otherwise would be and could eventually push them down.

At the same time, they said the projects are helping open new ground for housing and plugging financing gaps in affordable-housing deals — all while giving the Board of Public Utilities more water customers to spread fixed costs around and keep rates low.

[{"type":"text","text":"How Server Farms Underwrite Grid"}]

Black Hills Energy Data Center Development Director Austin Allen said Cheyenne residents are already seeing benefits when it comes to electricity.

“In the last decade, Cheyenne Light has had one rate case,” he said. “What we see is that data centers actually stabilize rates. They provide far more benefits into the system from a cost perspective than they take out, and they actually work to lower rates.”

The key to that, Allen added, is the large-load tariff that Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power (now Black Hills Energy) developed back when Microsoft first came knocking on Cheyenne’s door in 2012. 

“Our tariff requires that any cost that data centers cause, they must pay for,” he said. “And they must pay for it correctly. That tariff is actually codified in state statute as well. So it is a requirement. The tariff that we perform this way as a utility is also a requirement under the service mechanisms that we use to serve large data centers. That’s written into state law as well.”

Because of those rules, Allen said, Cheyenne's wave of data center projects has not only held rates steady, it’s also helped make Cheyenne’s grid one of the most reliable in the country.

“Cheyenne for the last several, several years, is consistently rated as one of the most reliable utilities in the country,” he said. “By and large, that’s significantly due to the partnerships that we have with data centers, because as we’re adding these loads of the system, data centers are paying for significant investments themselves, which therefore also benefit the reliability, the grid reliability of our local system here in Cheyenne.”

Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, said Cheyenne’s experience matches what he’s seen in other markets. 

“What we see throughout the country is that large loads like data centers put downward pressure on the rates for others,” he said. “Indiana Michigan Power is a really strong, growing market. We’re going to lower our rates for residential ratepayers because we have data center revenue coming in.”    

already implemented a 3.6% rate reduction

, which is roughly $6 per month for average users.

Georgia Power, meanwhile, is lowering rates after a three-year rate freeze, due to large loads coming in, the most significant of which are data centers. 

The company has projected annual savings of about $102 for typical residential customers, once the rate freeze ends in 2028.

“DTE Energy, Detroit, Michigan, we don’t need a rate increase because we have two data center projects coming in,” Diorio said. “And that’s our commitment to you is that these projects come in, they’re not raising your rates.”

[{"type":"text","text":"PG & E is another unlikely example, Diorio said. "}]

"PG & E (is) not a place known for cheap energy or commitment to anything,” he said. “We’ve kept rates as much as 11% lower because of data centers.”

Done right, Diorio said, data centers can mean a step-change in affordability for future rates, instead of the out-sized rate hikes so many fear. 

“We have a tremendous opportunity here to help address those affordability questions and keep rates low,” he said. “Data centers are playing a key part of that, and you have the right type of system set up to ensure that data centers pay their own way and pay their full cost of service and no other rate payers are affected. You are affected in one possible way that means your rates go down, because data centers are bearing the burden of this cost.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Turning Server Farms Into Housing Cost Relief"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Housing is another question Hale said she’s heard constantly."}]

“Boyd Wiggam (Planning and Zoning Commissioner) is always worried about affordable housing,” she said. “He’s always asking me, ‘Where are we going to build houses?’”

[{"type":"text","text":"Data center development, she argued, is helping to answer that question. "}]

When Meta agreed to help pay for and complete the High Plains Road from Highway 85, it did more than just build a driveway for its own “Project Cosmo” campus, Hale said. 

“That’s the biggest structure for a traffic signal in the state of Wyoming,” she said. “But they were able to help us pay for that. That has now opened up 2,100 acres.”

The property owner isn’t interested in more data centers, fireworks stands, wind turbines, or solar panels. Instead, Hale said, LEADS is working with them on a mixed-use development that will eventually include future housing, retail stores, restaurants and hotels. 

“That road isn’t open yet,” Hale said. “But it will eventually be open once the Cosmo Meta project is complete.”

Mayor Collins added that the same buildout is bringing 3 miles of water and sewer lines into play — infrastructure that would have cost a million dollars to do, which would not have been feasible but for that project.

Each time a project like that pushes utilities into previously uneconomic areas, it’s creating a new jumping-off point that can make more housing projects pencil out in areas where they never have before.

Housing has benefitted in more direct ways as well, Collins added, pointing to a $3.5 million gift from Related Digital. That was the last piece of funding needed for a 184-unit affordable housing complex that’s expected to break ground in June or July.

Taken together, panelists argued that server farms are not just paying their own freight when it comes to water and power, but they’re creating generational infrastructure that’s making new developments, including affordable housing, feasible again.

[{"type":"text","text":"Cheyenne Needs To Sell More Water"}]

Water use in Cheyenne, meanwhile, has been falling, even as the city grows — a trend that is putting the Board of Public Utilities into a financial squeeze.

When Collins was elected to the city council in November 2000, Cheyenne was using about 14,500 acre-feet of water.

“Today, we use around 12,000,” he said. “That’s 650 million gallons of water that we use less today than we did back then.”

From a conservation standpoint, that’s a success. But economically, it’s tougher. The cost of maintaining hundreds of miles of aging water and sewer lines keeps rising, even as BOPU’s sales base has shrunk. 

“The truth is, the Board of Public Utilities needs to sell more water,” Collins said. “But they’re saying no to people who don’t want to use closed-loop systems because that’s the right thing to do.

Collins estimated Cheyenne needs to sell another 1,000 to 2,000 acre-feet of water to stay on solid footing without a rate hike. 

“Otherwise, they’re going to end up like, and I don’t want to pick on a community like Rawlins, but they had a major disaster where their water system completely failed,” Collins said. “And years later, they’re still struggling to get that thing back on track.”

The key, Collins said, is selling enough water to keep up with system maintenance. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The “Yes, But” From Skeptics"}]

Not everyone is convinced that data centers will underwrite cheaper power and abundant housing, at least not at the scale city officials suggested.

Ward 1 Councilman Larry Wolfe, who attended the forum, told Cowboy State Daily afterward he is skeptical that data centers will meaningfully subsidize residential energy rates any time soon.

“That would require them to start contributing generation to the grid,” he said. “The only facility talking about that is Tallgrass.”

He can see some transmission improvements from data center projects, which might trim some costs at the margin, but he thinks those effects will be limited.

“As to opening land for housing of any type, that could happen to parcels that could get water and sewer access as a result of data centers paying for service expansion,” he said. But, he added, the effect will likely be “dwarfed by the amount of land that the centers are going to consume.”

Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, meanwhile, agreed that some of that upside is real, but said the long-term energy and tax picture is still a bit fuzzy.

Case has spent years scrutinizing Wyoming’s utility law, and agrees that Cheyenne’s large-load tariff does force data centers to shoulder their own capital costs up front, adding that the Public Service Commission has to sign off on those contracts and wouldn’t do that if there were going to be negative impacts to rates from line extensions.

But he’s less certain about the long-run energy side of the ledger once regional capacity tightens to the point they’re “soaking up any electricity they can find.”

“If it comes down to where the entire market gets a little shorter, then utilities have to pay extra to get in the queue,” he said. “That part to me is not clear.”

Case, meanwhile, believes there could be many impacts that data centers have so far skirted. 

“Are they paying for the roads or the sewers? How is that being held?” Case asked. “We’ve had the foresight to talk about large loads with that large load legislation, but we haven’t necessarily had the same foresight with everything else. I know Cheyenne LEADS says they pay a lot of taxes, but they don’t pay as much as everybody else.”

Wyoming, with no income tax, has to make sure the juice coming from data centers is worth the squeeze, Case said, and it’s something that lawmakers will discuss this summer during the interim session.

“We give them that manufacturing sales tax exemption and our overall property taxes are pretty low,” he said. “So I still maintain that they don’t really pay their impacts in terms of infrastructure, in terms of schools in terms of everything.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“Do No Harm” Standard"}]

On the economic development side, Hale said companies looking to locate in Cheyenne go through a thorough vetting process before any shovels hit dirt. 

First, LEADS asks a basic, but crucial question. Is this a real business, and is it durable?

That’s easier to answer for publicly traded companies, with lots of financials on file. For privately held corporations, Hale said LEADS hires a a third-party CPA firm to look behind the curtain and verify that they’re bonafide.

Beyond that, LEADS also runs a detailed cost-benefit analysis on every project, weighing negative financial impacts against positive ones using a tool called the Site Stats Tool. 

County, city and state budgets are loaded into the model annually, along with assumptions about where employees will live.

“We understand what the cost of government service delivery is,” Hale said. “When the company moves to your community they need services. We measure 50% of their employees living in the city, so that we can understand the cost of service delivery to those employees.”

The tool tallies impacts on city and county governments, school districts, and special districts.

“So when we look at a project, we’ll look to see is it a negative financial impact to the city county and the state versus a positive financial impact,” she said. “And our board takes that very seriously and Mayor Collins has participated in those presentations.”

Data centers are required to meet an explicit “do no harm” standard. That means paying 100% of their off-site impacts, including new roads and turn lanes, pump stations and trunk sewer lines, and substation and transmission upgrades for power. 

They must also agree to noise and light mitigation, as well as closed-loop cooling systems. They’re also expected to contribute directly to community needs, which includes everything from tree-planting and stormwater projects to affordable housing projects.

Every two years, Cheyenne LEADS commissions a study with the University of Iowa to ensure that the forecasted positive benefits were in fact realized.

Actual taxes paid by data centers since 2012 is published on Cheyenne LEADS website, Hale added. 

“Once Meta is up and running, those tax revenues will go up exponentially,” she said. 

Collins microsoft 6 8 26

<title>Cheyenne Leaders, Industry Officials: Data Centers Could Lower Electricity Costs | Cowboy State Daily</title>

At a panel discussion on Saturday, Cheyenne leaders and industry officials said data centers are already helping stabilize electric rates and are opening new land for housing. But skeptics still aren’t buying it.

Cheyenne Leaders, Industry Officials: Data Centers Could Lower Electricity Costs

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

Oklahoma resident Les Vandever said he is still stunned after seeing a man charging into a herd of bison in Yellowstone. "It was a moment of unbelievable stupidity," he said. “We were sitting in our car, just dumbfounded."

One More For The Road: Saturday, April 27, 2024

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