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<title>Bonus Video 1: Friday, July 26, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Bonus Video 1: Friday, July 26, 2024

 Call me old-fashioned, but the traditional mail service was working just fine....

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

Renée Jean

Government & Politics

Most of the Cheyenne Planning Commission members backed parts of Microsoft’s sweeping 3,200-acre southside expansion plans Monday night during a marathon five-hour hearing. 

But only one part of the plan — assigning agricultural zoning to the 3,050-acre Highlands area if it is annexed — will reach the June 8 City Council meeting with a recommendation to approve.

The remaining items — future land-use and zoning map amendments for two parcels in the vicinity of Laramie Community College — failed to get the four “yes” votes required by state law to give the land-use changes a formal thumbs up from the planners.

With two of seven commissioners absent, and the chair voting only in case of a tie, a single “no” was enough to flip majority support for the Highlands-related measures into a recommendation to deny. 

A majority, meanwhile, voted to outright deny changes for the nearby Read Property, which is already inside city limits.

That meant the future land-use map amendment and zoning map amendment for the largest parcel failed — even though three of the five commissioners present voted in favor of them. 

They will thus both head to the council with formal recommendations to deny. 

Plan Fits Long-Range Vision, Utilities Can Keep Up

During deliberation of the measures, city staff framed the changes as consistent with long-range planning for Cheyenne’s economic development. 

The staff emphasized that these areas could be served by city water and sewer and folded into the urban service boundary with appropriate infrastructure, including possible lift stations and extensions.

“The subject property is suitable for industrial development, noting the impacts of the industrial development will be minimal on the large vacant surrounding properties and the proposed amendment is consistent with the goals and policies within Plan Cheyenne,” Cheyenne Planner Connor White said.

 “The transportation network because this wasn’t part of the Urban Service Boundary, there really isn’t a transportation network for this area,” White added. "That would be developed over time.”

The property would eventually connect into Bison Business Park as it develops over time, which would involve subsequent applications that would go before the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Water and sewer lines would have to be extended to the location, which is up for annexation consideration at the June 8 council meeting.

The area’s county zoning already allows some light industrial uses, and there’s already a gravel pit and oil wells in the area, White added.

Commissioner Questions Scale, Impact Of Project

Commissioner Meghan Connor was first to question the project.

“This is about 18% of the city’s current size, nearly one-fifth,” she said. “How in the world can you even begin to understand the impact it’s going to have … when you can’t even fathom the size of this compared to the city? It overtakes the city.”

She wondered how it was concluded that the site is beneficial to the community.

“I’m really failing to understand that,” she said. “How do we know long-term impacts if we don’t even have one going? How can you determine that something one-fifth the size of the current city is going to be an appropriate fit for our community?”

Planning and Zoning Development Director Charles Bloom told Connor that from a long-range planning standpoint a majority of the area in question is already occupied by railroad lines.

“So it may seem artificially inflated,” he said. “There really are only small pieces that are available, excluding a couple of existing industrial parks like Swan Ranch.”

The additions Microsoft has requested, meanwhile, are what the company perceives as a need at this time, Bloom said. 

“Really, anything regarding how or why they’re looking at this large area, what their intent would be, I would just refer that to the applicant,” Bloom said. 

Connor also asked questions about how the city would know if a data center is polluting an aquifer or the air, or making too much noise.

“That’s a great question,” Bloom said. “One of the safeguards here is that this would be a development that will be located within the city limits. So it will be required to connect to city water and sewer.”

Cheyenne has is able to monitor data centers connected to its systems electronically. 

The city is also requiring that the data center not directly connect its closed-loop cooling system to the city’s wastewater treatment system, which means there’s no direct access.

Actual water use by data centers was another topic of discussion. Connor said she’s heard several times the “five households” figure bandied about. 

But she and Commissioner Amy Hernandez, both, said they’d like to know the figure in gallons, as well as how much water, overall, Microsoft is proposing to use on that 3,050-acre or so parcel.

Frank Strong, with the Board of Public Utilities, said it’s difficult to say how much overall water will be used, given that Microsoft itself has not yet developed any detailed plans for the parcel. Microsoft is billing the Highlands parcel as part of a long-range, 10-year-plus commitment to doing business in Cheyenne.

An individual household typically uses 80,000 gallons a year, he said. If one guessed that the 3,200 parcel would one day have 40 data centers — a round number Strong selected for ease of calculation — the overall gallons would be 16 million. 

“Where we are right now, we have a surplus of 2.7 trillion gallons,” Strong said. “So it’s a very small drop in the bucket of what we have.”

The amount of water all of Cheyenne’s existing data centers are now using, meanwhile, doesn’t equal out to the 2 million gallons of water HollyFrontier used to use for refining petroleum products. 

That’s put BOPU actively looking to sell more water, so that the economics continue to support the water system without requiring increased user fees.

“All the data centers that are online right now used about 93 million gallons last year, which is around a little over 2% of our water sales,” Strong said.

Connor also wondered about water use for power generation, questions Strong said he could not answer.

While some power generation methods use significant amounts of water, there are also newer approaches, with closed-loop cooling, that use much less water than power generation of old.

Resident Decries Outdated Maps, Misrepresentation

Residents also pushed back against the developments.

Heather Madrid, who has been circulating a petition that calls for a moratorium on data centers, chastised the city for relying on outdated plans and maps to make sweeping changes, and urged them to “consider the people who live here and have lived here for years over people and developers who do not live here.”

Madrid also questioned bringing the Highlands property into the city with an agricultural zoning, when clearly the intended purpose for the land is not agriculture.

“That seems like a very intentional misrepresentation of the intent,” she said. “And it’s kind of in line with — and worsening — this idea that there is not transparency. And it’s led to panic, quite frankly, and extreme hypervigilance within the public to even be willing to argue for almost two hours over landscaping. 

"This is very concerning to me. This isn’t a little bit of land, and the final intended use is actually not even remotely aligned with the future land-use map, which to my understanding is, again, grossly outdated,” Madrid added. 

“I don’t know why we continue to rely on that map for these massive annexations and projects,” she continued. “Which are, as someone stated earlier, locking the city in and preventing future growth in a diverse way.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What About Infrasound?"}]

Charles Miller, meanwhile, agreed with Madrid’s criticism of outdated maps and called the overall approach to the project a massive “deception.”

“We are debating a 3,000-acre industrial expansion, about 18% of the current size of the city of Cheyenne,” he said. “Yet staff is attempting to characterize this as a minor incremental increase in utility demand. 

"However, the Board of Public Utilities just admitted that this parcel was never on their master plan and requires significant new infrastructure, including a dedicated lift station to even function,” Miller said. "You cannot reconcile the reality of a 3,000-acre industrial footprint with the claim that it will have a minimal impact on Cheyenne’s utility or water future."

The lack of a detailed design for the campus, meanwhile, means the city would be authorizing a zoning change for something that doesn’t yet exist on paper.

“You have no site plan, no traffic mitigation, no finalized utility plan,” Miller said. “To recommend approval of a ghost project of this magnitude is a total abdication of this commission’s fiduciary duty to Plan Cheyenne.”

Miller also questioned whether the annexation was an attempt to escape review of the project by the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council.

“That state-level process is the only mechanism designed to force developers to fund and mitigate impacts on schools housing, and roads,” he said. “By rezoning to Business park, you are knowingly creating a void that strips this community of its right to state-mandated impact mitigation for infrasound liability.”

Infrasound refers to low-frequency sound waves below 20 hz. While that can’t be heard by human ears, Miller said studies are showing it can still have negative impacts for both humans and wildlife.

“Director Bloom admitted on record that the city currently lacks forensic data to evaluate or regulate low frequency infrasound from these facilities,” he said. 

“You’re being asked to recommend a massive industrial expansion for a project known to generate these impacts, while the city openly admits it is still investigating the hazard.”

City, LEADS Have Already Wrestled With Many Of The Questions

Betsey Hale with Cheyenne LEADS told commissioners many of the concerns being raised are things Cheyenne officials have already wrestled with over the last decade or so. 

“You have planning commissioners who have been thoughtful about this for 14 years,” she said. “And that’s why these projects are in business parks, because we have conditions, covenants, and restrictions.”

Putting them in business parks and connecting them to the city’s water and sewer system gives the city more enforcement capability, Hale suggested. 

As far as providing power, that’s accomplished through Black Hills Energy, which conducted a three-year study of transmission and their ability to provide power through a large-load tariff.

“For 14 years, we have done everything we can to protect the citizens of Cheyenne, the residents of Cheyenne, the ratepayers of Cheyenne, the water resources, the sewer capabilities,” Hale said. “I think we should actually celebrate the fact that in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Laramie County, we’ve kind of done it right.”

Hale added that she appreciates Madrid and other commenters helping the city better understand their concerns so that they can ensure more of the community’s needs are really being met.

Part Of Microsoft’s Long-Range Plan In Cheyenne 

Microsoft’s representative, Rachel Irwing, told the Commission the rezoning is a “critical step in advancing a strategically planned data center campus and are intended to work together to ensure consistency between land use, zoning and long-term planning.”

The property is in the process of being acquired, she added, with a timeframe sometime this summer.

“Given the early stage of this effort, Microsoft has not yet advanced detailed designs for the campus,” Irwing said. “While we may not have all the answers today, regarding a specific design element or timing, we remain committed to being open and transparent with community, as we have been with our other local projects.”

Irwing said the company intends to ensure its projects continue to be consistent with Cheyenne’s “long-term growth vision and land-use planning objectives.”

“This will allow us to move forward in a coordinated way with infrastructure,  utilities, and development standards under city jurisdiction,” she said. “Together, the proposed business park zoning, the future land-use amendment, and the eventual annexation into the city provide a cohesive framework to guide development of the site in a way that aligns with the city’s planning goals.”

The planned infrastructure investments Microsoft will make, meanwhile, will support long-term economic development goals for the region.

“We recognize this is just the first step in a broader, multi-phase process that will include detailed engineering and additional opportunities for public review and input,” Irwing said. “We want to emphasize that Microsoft approaches projects like this with a long-term commitment to the communities where we operate.”

Ultimately, however, all the reassurance didn’t lead to approving recommendations for any of the measures, outside of the recommended agricultural zoning for the large, 3,050-acre Highlands parcel if it’s annexed into the city.

Still, it is the City Council who will make the decision on whether to annex the property and whether to approve the land and zoning use changes. That body has already rejected a moratorium on new data centers, amid rising questions and opposition in the community. 

Councilman Larry Wolfe, who was among councilmen who listened in on the entire session, said that for him, his vote will come down to Microsoft providing better answers for why it wants to annex such a large parcel of land into the city right now, if they don’t have development plans for it looking out 10 years or more.

Without that, “they can’t answer any of the important issues: water, energy, even the number of buildings because everything will have changed from a technology standpoint,” Wolfe told Cowboy State Daily. 

“What is the benefit to the city if we annex now, unless they are going to do some substantial things for the residents?” he asked. “Making (Sen. Cynthia) Lummis a lot richer is not a compelling reason. They failed to persuade the Planning Commission on the zoning changes.” 

Lummis’ family owns the 3,050-acre Highlands parcel that’s part of Microsoft’s future data center expansion plans.

Microsoft meeting 20260601 185712 6 2 26

<title>Cheyenne Planners Recommend Denial For Most Of Microsoft’s Data Center Expansion | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Cheyenne planners are recommending denial of most of the provisions in a huge 3,200-acre Microsoft data center expansion. “This is about 18% of the city’s current size. It overtakes the city,” said one resident during a marathon five-hour hearing Monday.

Cheyenne Planners Recommend Denial For Most Of Microsoft’s Data Center Expansion

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Wildlife

A young grizzly called Storm wasn’t prepared for an aggressive sandhill crane when she got too close to the crane’s nesting site.

Drawing itself up to its full height, the crane towered over Storm with its wings spread wide in a display of aggression during their close encounter on Saturday in Yellowstone National Park.

Storm made a couple of pensive moves toward the crane, but the gangly bird was having none of it. Eventually, the baffled grizzly had enough and scrambled away.

Wildlife watcher and photographer Linda Ghent captured video of an encounter that typically would end very badly for the crane.

“What cracked me up was the crane’s little hop at the end. That little victory dance,” she told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Upcoming Famous Grizzly"}]

Storm belongs to a famous Yellowstone grizzly lineage. She’s the daughter of Snow, one of the park’s most visible bears.

And Snow in turn is the daughter of Raspberry, likely Yellowstone’s most famous grizzly.

 for about a year and is feared by many of her fans to have died.

At age 2 last year, Storm split from Snow, who is now 3 and newly out on her own.

Ghent said that the bear’s youth and inexperience probably played in the crane’s favor during the encounter.

Ghent said she spotted Storm coming down off a slope on Saturday and settled in from a safe distance for what she assumed was going to be a typical grizzly-watching session.

However, the bear apparently got just too close for comfort to the crane’s nesting site, and the bird was all business as it came at Storm.

“They did their little ‘Sugarplum Fairy’ dance," Ghent said, referencing the familiar passage from Tchaikovsky’s holiday classic “The Nutcracker Suite.”

Ghent added that she didn’t see any crane hatchlings, which are called colts.

They’re so named because they have the ability to stand up and run almost immediately after hatching.

Some bird experts told Cowboy State Daily that they weren’t particularly surprised that a sandhill crane stood up to a grizzly.

Nesting cranes are nothing to trifle with, said Chris Helzer, the director of science and stewardship for The Nature Conservancy of Nebraska.

“Based on size, it looks like this was a fairly young bear (in the video), but sandhill cranes are well known for being strong and courageous defenders of their nests against predators of many sizes,” he said.

“The wing spreading and aggressiveness seems in line with other footage I’ve seen,” he added.

While they’ll fiercely defend their nests, cranes and other birds aren’t suicidal about it, Helzer said.

“There are plenty of other birds who show similar fearlessness against predators — small songbirds that mob crows or hawks, for example,” he said. "The size disparity in those cases is much bigger than the crane/bear example.

“The instinct to protect their progeny is strong, though they’ll rarely die in the defense of the nest. If they can’t drive the threat off, they’ll usually abandon the nest and try again,” Helzer added.

Courtney Rudd, a migratory bird and wetland biologist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said large birds like cranes are nothing to trifle with.

“The video is exactly how I would expect a sandhill crane to react to a threat at the nest,” she said. "Cranes and trumpeter swans are especially invested in their clutches/broods, and I'd put my money on the crane."

Birdwatcher and crane aficionado Gayle Irwin of Casper said she’s seen cranes stand up to animals many times their size.

“I watched a pair of sandhill cranes attempt to scare off a cow moose outside of West Yellowstone back in the early 1990s,” she said. “It was quite a spectacular thing to see.”

Crane faces down bear 6 2 26

<title>Sandhill Crane Gets Aggressive To Scare Young Yellowstone Grizzly Away From Nest | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A young grizzly called Storm got too close to a sandhill crane’s nest in Yellowstone, but the crane was having none of that and drove Storm off. "I'd put my money on the crane,” said a bird biologist about how protective sandhill cranes can be.

Sandhill Crane Gets Aggressive To Scare Young Yellowstone Grizzly Away From Nest

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Crime & Courts

Courts

CASPER — A 31-year-old man who tried to burn down his ex-boyfriend's house after they argued last summer — while saving his own pet snake from the fire — was sentenced Monday to serve six to eight years in prison.

David Lee Wilkinson appeared in Natrona County District Court with his attorney Dylan Rosalez before Judge Daniel Forgey and listened as the ex-boyfriend tell the judge how Wilkinson “destroyed everything in my life.”

Wilkinson entered a plea deal with the Natrona County District Attorney’s office on Feb. 19 where both a first-degree arson charge for the July 16 fire and a domestic battery charge for an Oct. 11 incident were admitted via an Alford plea. 

The prosecution agreed to cap the prison sentence request at eight years.

The Alford plea mean Wilkinson did not plead guilty but admits there is enough evidence that would convict him of the charges if taken to trial.

A third-degree arson charge and domestic battery charge from July 16 were dropped.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"‘Great’ And ‘Terrible’ "}]

Wilkinson’s ex told the court that his relationship with Wilkinson was “great” and “terrible” at the same time and that Wilkinson during their relationship had threatened violence against both him and his family.

“I tend to look for the best in people,” he said. “The abuse he inflicted on me was generally after the influence of alcohol.”

After Wilkinson’s arrest for the arson of his home, the ex-boyfriend said they remained in relationship while he was out on bond until Wilkinson was arrested in October on suspicion of domestic battery.

“I was addicted to my relationship with David and feared for my family,” he said. 

The ex-boyfriend said his house and garage suffered more than $200,000 worth of damage and is still not “habitable” due to conflicts between his contractor and insurance company.

He asked the judge to impose a sentence that would help Wilkinson become rehabilitated and overcome his addictions, as well as help him deal with past trauma that occurred in his life.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Terrible Crime'"}]

Natrona County Assistant District Attorney Patrick LeBrun told the court that arson is a “terrible crime” because it it takes away “our own space” and “castle” that people look forward to retreating to after a day at work.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Fire also puts others in danger, he said."}]

“When you set fire to someone’s home you destroy it,” he said. “It’s extremely dangerous … (firefighters) are going to go in there and risk their lives. Firefighters die doing their job.”

LeBrun said that a prison term was appropriate and asked the judge to impose a sentence of 6.5 to eight years. 

He also asked the court for $1,100 restitution for the home insurance deductible that his ex-boyfriend had to pay.

Rosalez told the court that his client is “remorseful about what happened” and the conduct that led to the fire.

“Alcohol played a significant role to his actions,” he said. “He wants a chance to make this right, a chance to show that he is law abiding.”

Rosalez asked the court for a suspended sentence of four to six years in prison, as well as well as three years of supervised probation that would include time in an addiction treatment center.

Wilkinson told the court that he wanted to “apologize” for his actions.

“I have taken steps to ensure this will not happen again,” he said. “I can’t fix what happened.”

Forgey said that after reviewing the case and the pre-sentence report, probation was not appropriate.

“Incarceration is appropriate due to the circumstances in this case,” he said. 

Forgey then sentenced Wilkinson on the first-degree arson charge and gave him credit for 234 days served in jail as an appropriate sentence for the domestic battery charge.

Forgey ordered Wilkinson to pay the $1,100 restitution.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Background"}]

The arson charge against Wilkinson stems from a 911 call at 3:42 a.m. reporting the house fire fire in the 2200 block of Sagewood Avenue on July 16, 2025. 

A responding Casper Police Department officer found Wilkinson at the home with his pet snake.

“David stated he smoked a cigarette in the garage earlier and then went inside,” a police affidavit states. “David was in the living room when he noticed the residence getting cloudy. 

"David grabbed his snake and tried to look for his two cats. David then called his mother … and exited the residence.”

When his parents arrived at the house, he told his mother, “I promise, I didn’t do anything,” the officer says in the affidavit.

Wilkinson initially told police he lived at the home with a 31-year-old male who was supposed to get off work at 2 a.m. and speculated the other man might be with an ex-boyfriend.

The affidavit states Mills Fire Chief Wil Gay investigated the blaze and reported the fire started in the garage and moved into the kitchen area. 

Wilkinson told the fire chief that the owner was his boyfriend and was at work. He admitted to smoking in the garage and was unsure where he put his cigarette out. 

Wilkinson told the chief that the fire was burning where there was a bunch of clothes in the garage, the affidavit states.

During an interview with the 31-year-old homeowner on the afternoon of July 16, the chief reported that the he said he and Wilkinson had an argument when he arrived home at 2 a.m. and attempted to kick Wilkinson out of his house and put all of Wilkinson’s clothes in the garage.

He told the fire chief that Wilkinson went to the garage to smoke, came back and then made a comment along the lines of, “Well, have fun with that, your garage is on fire,” the affidavit states.

The homeowner found a fire burning in a metal clothes basket, put it out with a fire extinguisher and told Wilkinson to leave. 

When Wilkinson continued to argue, the homeowner left the residence about 3:15 a.m. and went to his parents’ home. He then got the text from Wilkinson at 3:24 a.m. saying that his house was on fire but did not see the text until the next morning, the affidavit states.

After Wilkinson’s arrest on the arson and a battery charge for his actions on July 16, he was released on bond.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Then A Fight"}]

Then on Oct. 11, officers were called at 7:39 a.m. to the 200 block of South Kenwood Street for the report of a suspicious person. 

A woman reported a man in a ripped black shirt and shorts came onto her porch and rang her doorbell. 

He then opened her door, and she told him to sit on the porch as she called police, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states the man walked back to the house across the street. 

As officers arrived at the scene, they heard a “bang” from inside and the 31-year-old who owned the Sagewood Avenue home, and who Wilkinson identified as his “ex-fiancé” in the arson case, was seen by police walking out the door of a residence across the street with a bruised eye.

Another officer found Wilkinson in the home. 

The boyfriend told police they had agreed it would be their last night in a romantic relationship, and that if their relationship continued, “Wilkinson would kill (the boyfriend) due to domestic violence,” the affidavit states.

The boyfriend said they drank alcohol and smoked marijuana until he blacked out. At 7 a.m., he felt pain on his face. He then armed himself with a kitchen knife to get away from Wilkinson.

“Wilkinson stated that (the boyfriend) became ‘scary’ so Wilkinson beat him up,” the affidavit states.

Wilkinson told police that the boyfriend grabbed the knife after he beat him, and had threatened him with it.

Police also found a leafy green substance in the home and multiple glass pipes with residue, the affidavit states.

David Wilkinson and burned house 6 2 26

<title>Casper Man Who Tried To Burn Down Ex’s House — But Saved Snake — Gets 6-8 Years | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Casper man who tried to burn down his ex-boyfriend’s house last summer — but made sure to save his own pet snake — was sentenced Monday to six to eight years in prison. The man “destroyed everything in my life,” the ex told the judge.

Casper Man Who Tried To Burn Down Ex’s House — But Saved Snake — Gets 6-8 Years

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Law Enforcement

A Gillette man bought a handgun and a box of ammunition at a sporting goods store there, then drove 11 hours and hundreds of miles across Colorado and, less than 24 hours later, allegedly opened fire on strangers in the Western Slope city of Montrose before taking his own life, the Montrose Police Department reports.

Authorities have identified the man as Eduardo Garcia Barrera, 42, a part-time resident of Gillette, and say they have no motive for why he opened fire on random motorists and a pedestrian, or why he did so in Montrose.

In an incident that unfolded over roughly 35 minutes Saturday morning, Montrose police say Barrera fired at moving vehicles as he entered the western Colorado city.

He then shot a 22-year-old pedestrian before crashing his vehicle at a local burger joint and dying from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Montrose police report.

According to the Montrose Police Department, officers were first dispatched around 10:16 a.m. after reports that a man driving a green Honda sedan with Wyoming license plates was shooting at vehicles while driving westbound on U.S. Highway 50 into Montrose.

Police say Barrera was driving erratically and approached vehicles from behind before firing shots.

The occupants of the first vehicle reported to police that they were not hit, and investigators found no damage to their vehicle.

Police in Montrose, Colorado, say a Gillette resident bought a gun in Wyoming, drove hundreds of miles and unleashed a shooting spree before taking his own life. “The risk to public safety was high,” police say, adding they don't know why he did it.

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