The Chandelle coffee group isn’t messing around.
It meets weekly at the Chandelle Events Center, a stone’s throw from Riverton’s airport, and usually consists of men in their 50s to 80s.
This iteration of the group formed in about 2020.
They might not always solve the world's problems, but they've become a main stop for local politicians on the campaign trail.
They hosted Cheyenne attorney Darin Smith and a film crew during Smith’s 2022 run for the U.S. House of Representatives; and they let opposing state legislative candidates bend their ear each election season.
They've even welcomed women, like state Rep. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, and Fremont County Republican Party Vice-Chair Ginger Bennett.
But on Wednesday, the group was quieter. Its regulars ate buttermilk doughnuts, slowly, and drank black coffee.
Though the Chandelle Events Center is vast and echoey, the men huddled around a solitary table 10 feet from the kitchen, where two coffee pots sat ready.
The host, former Riverton Mayor Ron Warpness, stood to wedge a chair into the nucleus each time a new attendee arrived. The regulars also include farmers, ranchers, veterans, businessmen, a former longtime paramedic and a former puppeteer, to list a few.
They’re all on the conservative side, so they turn to the fine print of the U.S. Constitution and the drama of local government to fuel their disagreements.
“A lot of people like to put restrictions on the Second Amendment,” said Richard Turek, who sat with his arms crossed, revealing forearm tattoos that read “virtus junxit” and “mors non separabit” — Latin for, “What virtue has joined, let death not separate.”
“If you took those same restrictions and put them on, say, the First Amendment,” Turek continued, “reporters would need to pass background checks and have government permission to be reporters.”
This he said with a nod to the reporter in the room.
Directly to Turek’s right, 80-year-old Chuck VanBrunt said it’s the Second Amendment’s different wording that sparks the debate about gun regulations.
“They used the words ‘well-regulated,’” said VanBrunt. “What definition do you want to put to ‘well-regulated’ on firearms? It goes to verbiage.”
The men then pondered whether the Second Amendment mandates militias.
It’s Really Hard To Sue The Government
Wayne Dick, an outspoken conservative in the community, informed his friends that his lawsuit against the Fremont County Commissioners over the Commission’s restrictions on public comment was dismissed because of a technical error in how he served his complaint on the officials.
It is so difficult for an average Joe representing himself to challenge the government, Dick lamented.
“All I wanted was clarification on whether their rules and regulations are, or are not, a violation of the Wyoming Constitution,” said Dick, who has theorized that in passing public comment restrictions, commissioners may have violated their oaths of office.
The public comment restrictions came after attendees read aloud at a Commission meeting, from sexually-graphic books that are in the youth section at the public library, Dick said. The attendees did so as a protest against the books being made available to kids.
Ask The Mayor
VanBrunt said everyone should hear Warpness’ input, since he’s the politically experienced person in the bunch.
All of society is calcifying around legal formulas, came Warpness’ answer.
“We’ve become so litigious in so many areas,” said the former mayor. “You’re familiar with the term ossification? You become bonelike. That’s what our whole legal system has become – bonelike.”
There’s no government conspiracy to shut out well-meaning lawsuits, it’s just the way the system is designed, Warpness said, with a wry look at Turek, whom Warpness said likes to float theories about the government waging conspiracies.
Pat Mossbrucker rose, fetched a coffee pot and shuffled around the table, topping off everyone’s mugs.
With startling swiftness, Dick snatched his ballcap and smacked an autumn fly on the table.
He missed.
Despite the boom, no one at the table jumped.
Warpness handed Dick a fly swatter, and Dick settled his hat back onto his head. The cap read, “Protect the 2nd Amendment.” Not everyone wore hats, but all the hats in attendance had something to say. Two read “High Plains Power.” One read “Trump” and another read, “I miss the America I grew up in.”
Despite their outspoken hats, some men didn’t speak at all, like Richard Haun, who back in his farming days grew corn crops that turned the other farmers green with envy.
‘Sound Like A Retirement Community’
The men launched into the dangers of “snake oil salesmen” selling vegetable-based dietary supplements that aren’t all they claim to be.
Jason Lewis, a spring chicken at 55, countered, saying he swears by a vegetable supplement to treat his gout. The gout is his dad’s fault, said Jason, smiling at his dad Jack Lewis, who sat to his right.
The table resounded with approval when someone brought up the health effects of beets.
But no one should discuss the prostate, because there was a lady in the room, said VanBrunt, in reference to the reporter.
The men were skeptical of chiropractors and concerned about the big pharmaceutical industry.
Turek, who is also 55, frowned.
“Someone got something new?” he demanded. “Something we haven’t talked about, so we don’t sound like a retirement community?”
Oh That Tax
They could always talk about the half-percent tax for economic development, up for reapproval on the Nov. 5 general election ballot, said Ernie Schierwagen, who makes delicious sauerkraut.
“Oh, our favorite subject,” quipped Turek.
Scheirwagen lamented that the tax benefits higher-class people, like many business owners who have received grants worth tens of thousands of dollars – but it taxes everyone, even the poor.
He’ll probably vote for it, but he still struggles with it, said Schierwagen.
That’s because the tax is a mixed bag: 20% of its proceeds go to the local air service and 10% to ground transportation. The other 70% gets doled out to private businesses, entities, and other groups including the local college, which is a public entity.
Lonnie Woodard, who runs a propane business, said the community is “evolving” its approach to the tax and learning to do better with it. He supports it, he said.
Indeed, the town and county governments are slated to give a portion of the tax proceeds to the county’s private ambulance provider, if the voters approve the tax this year. The ambulance workers have bemoaned poor terms in the past and last year, they unionized.
VanBrunt, a former paramedic of three decades, discussed the need for quality, passionate paramedics in the county.
“Can I toot your horn a little bit, Chuck?” asked Ken Watts in a reminiscent outburst. “I remember back in the ‘70s when you were an EMT, a lot of the doctors said, ‘If I’m involved in an accident, this is the guy I want picking me up… he gift wraps them.’”
VanBrunt thanked Watts for the compliment.
Watts told Cowboy State Daily he does support the tax, noting that his son, an artist, benefitted from it.
Turek, who doesn’t support the tax, said he nevertheless approves of the grant Watts’ son received, because Watts’ son Shannon isn’t in close competition with other businesses in the county; he represents the county in a positive way on his many work travels, and he’s the type of business many banks would overlook.
“This is the kind of business they should support,” said Turek, adding the hypothetical, “Not picking from one gas station over another.”
At the end they took a vote. Woodard and Watts were the only two truly in support, not counting Russell Lewis, who said he’d vote for it if he could, but his ballot comes out of Hot Springs, not Fremont County.
Warpness, who opined publicly in favor of the tax in the past, said he’s now “undecided,” because the campaign signs advertising it don’t accurately reflect its ballot language, and that strikes him as unsavory.
Some of the men said they favor its provisions for ground and air transportation but hate the local governments’ grants to private entities. Most of them gave a “no” vote, with that caveat.
“Based on this survey,” said Woodard, “It’s not gonna pass.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
