You Still Here

[{"type":"text","text":"Kid's pronunciation is 100%....."}]

Linguistics 4 9 25

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

<title>Today In Linguistics: Wednesday, April 9, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Kid's pronunciation is 100%.....

Today In Linguistics: Wednesday, April 9, 2025

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

Clair McFarland

Crime & Courts

Courts

Wyoming’s governor is asking a court to undo the 

 under his purview, saying the board exceeded its law-given authority 

by not accepting a limit on how much property taxes can increase each year.

Gov. Mark Gordon filed a motion Tuesday for the Laramie County District Court to deem Wyoming’s 4% cap on yearly increases in residential property tax assessed values constitutional. 

 asked the court to block the actions of the State Board of Equalization.

The board had issued a report Thursday calling the 4% cap —‚ which has been 

in some form since 2024 — unconstitutional. The board warned county assessors that if the cap is included in their property tax calculations for this year, the board won’t certify those residential property tax values.

That decision came from the two board members who participated in the tax value examination last year: Chair E. Jayne Mockler and Vice-Chair Marty Hardscog.

The third board member, Karl Anderson, did not participate in that evaluation and so didn’t sign the Thursday report.

[{"type":"text","text":"Expects To Move"}]

The board hasn’t yet issued an order requiring Wyoming’s county assessors to rework their pending tax bills without the cap.

But it expects to do so in the coming weeks after working with counties, Mockler told Cowboy State Daily in a Thursday phone interview.

Also, the board has undertaken its work with counties, 

o certify residential property tax values for Campbell, Hot Springs, and Sublette counties on the basis that it believes the exemptions the counties calculated under state law are unconstitutional, says the governor's complaint.

Gordon’s Tuesday legal filing calls the board's actions “ultra vires,” or exceeding the board’s property authority. It asks the court to void the board’s actions.

The Wyoming Constitution requires the governor to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” the governor’s court filing says.

[{"type":"text","text":"The State Board of Equalization falls under the executive branch."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"This maneuver is unprecedented, the governor’s court challenge says."}]

“In the past twenty years, the Board has only delayed certification of values on one occasion,” says the filing. That was in 2006 when the board required one county to equalize its property valuations.

“In that time, it has never declined to certify values,” says the filing.

Besides urging the court to keep the tax board under its limited executive-branch authority, Gordon’s complaint also asserts that a clause of the Wyoming Constitution justifies the 4% tax cap.

Wyoming Constitution Article 15, Section 12, says the Legislature may by law provide for exemptions on “such other property” beyond churches, cemeteries and libraries.

The board’s Thursday report had addressed that section, but said it wasn’t enough to overcome another sections’ call for all taxation within property tax classes to be “equal and uniform.”

Wyoming Attorney General Senior Assistant James Peters signed Gordon’s Tuesday court filing.

The filing also lists as counsel Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, and Deputy AG Mackenzie Williams.

[{"type":"text","text":"Counties Like This"}]

Because Gordon's filing is, in part, a request for the court to lend clarity to this issue, the Wyoming County Commissioners Association voiced approval of the action Tuesday. 

"It is important that counties, assessors and taxpayers have clear direction as they move through the annual assessment and certification process," said WCCA Executive Director Jerimiah Rieman in a statement. "The Legislature adopted the 4% cap, and counties have worked in good faith to implement that law. We support efforts to obtain timely clarification from the courts so local governments can continue administering Wyoming's property tax system with consistency and confidence."

Uncertainty in applying the cap could create significant administrative challenges for counties, including recalculating assessments, revising assessment schedules, processing appeals and updating tax notices, the statement says. It adds, "Counties also face potential increases in staffing, technology and mailing costs if significant changes occur after assessments have already been completed."

Mark Gordon 20260205 slib 0616 6 16 26

<title>Gordon Sues His Tax Board For Blocking Property Tax Cap | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Gov. Mark Gordon on Tuesday sued his tax board for refusing to recognize a 4% limit on property tax increases. He said the board exceeded its law-given authority, and the executive branch's job is just to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

Gordon Sues His Tax Board For Blocking Property Tax Cap

In response to a Cheyenne-based attorney’s claims that the Wyoming attorney general must appoint special prosecutors to decide whether Secretary of State Chuck Gray violated any laws, the AG countered Tuesday that he has already appointed two special prosecutors, and neither wanted to charge Gray with a crime.

Upon a request by President Donald Trump’s administration, Gray sent sensitive voter data to the federal U.S. Department of Justice last year, public records show.

George Powers, a semi-retired attorney based in Cheyenne, who won a past public records case, started filing requests to learn about Gray’s actions.

 complaint with the AG’s office accusing Gray of violating a state election law that makes data like the kind Gray reportedly released – voters’ partial Social Security numbers or driver’s license numbers – confidential.

Wyoming also has an umbrella statute that allows prosecutors to charge election officials who violate election law with a felony, if merited.

But Gray told the public that the AG’s office approved the release of voter data to the federal government.

So Powers, in his complaint, urged Attorney General Keith Kautz to offload the investigation onto a special prosecutor, because the AG’s office reportedly counseled Gray in this controversy. Powers suggested having a judge appoint the special prosecutor.

Kautz answered in a May 4 letter that Powers’ complaint would be handled in accordance with the AG’s office rules and state professional conduct rules for attorneys.

[{"type":"text","text":"Four weeks passed."}]

Powers filed a petition June 2 with the Wyoming Supreme Court, accusing Kautz of neglecting a clear duty and asking the court to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Gray.

Kautz parried with a Tuesday filing, which says Powers doesn’t have standing to wage that battle, and it’s irrelevant anyway, 

 the AG’s office has arranged two different, independent evaluations. And neither special prosecutor wanted to charge Gray with a crime, says the filing.

“One of those independent evaluations was conducted by a division of the Attorney General’s office – separate from the civil division – by the construction of a ‘Chinese wall',” says the AG’s Tuesday answer. “The other independent evaluation was conducted by a private Wyoming law firm in conjunction with a Wyoming county and prosecuting attorney.”

A Chinese wall is an informational barrier with an entity designed to prevent ethical conflicts.

The independent attorneys submitted reports – one before Powers asked the high court to intervene and one after – and “each independent counsel declined to bring criminal charges,” says the AG’s response.

“Mr. Powers filed his petition in this matter before the Attorney General could announce that no prosecution would be forthcoming,” says the filing.

As to the AG’s reticence toward Powers, the filing says the person reporting a crime doesn’t have a right to hear the prosecutor’s decision on it, and that Powers hasn’t shown he’s a “victim” of a crime to enjoy some rights under the state Victims’ Bill of Rights.

The AG’s filing emphasizes that Kautz didn’t involve Powers in the investigation, “but told him that investigations and charging decisions were not conducted in the public square.”

n Wyoming, prosecutors generally do not discuss their thinking publicly while they’re deciding whether to charge a crime. Often, especially in matters of high public interest, a prosecutor who decides not to charge a crime will issue a decision letter on why he made that choice.

Kautz’s office defended the reticence he displayed while the special prosecutors’ investigations were reportedly ongoing as standard practice, pointing to DOJ guidelines for keeping ongoing investigations quiet to avoid infringing the rights of the accused.

“Mr. Powers assumes the Attorney General’s lack of comment means that he is doing nothing, at best, and violating the Rules of Professional Responsibility, at worst,” says the AG’s filing. “Mr. Powers invites this Court to make the same assumptions, what is sometimes referred to as an appeal to ignorance.”

Prosecutors are required to address complaints in a “timely” manner, the AG’s filing acknowledges. But there’s no concrete deadline associated with that adjective, it adds.

As to announcing his decision to the public at the end of an investigation, the AG’s filing calls that a discretionary decision, not a requirement.

“It is obvious that Mr. Powers wants to be informed of how the Attorney General has addressed his complaint, (yet) a prosecutor has no duty to communicate with a complainant,” the filing says. “Instead, a prosecutor has discretion in deciding on whether to communicate about an investigation with the complainant or the public.”

That decision hinges on ethical considerations, such as if talking about a case publicly or with the person who reported it would botch some “eventual prosecution, should the prosecutor decide to proceed.”

In a Tuesday text message, Gray said Powers' claims and filings have been "nothing more than lawfare and weaponization of the legal system by leftists and the insider media."

Gray claimed the media have ignored the states that have complied with the DOJ's request. 

Multiple courts have ruled that the DOJ's requests for sensitive voter data unsupported by federal law. 

"Powers (sic) false claims are an effort to undermine our work on election integrity," wrote Gray. "I have and will continue to stand for the truth, and I will continue to comply with the law and advance election integrity and voter list maintenance, which is pivotal to our elections." 

Kautz gray 6 16 26

<title>AG Says Prosecutors Declined To Charge Chuck Gray With A Crime   | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming's attorney general on Tuesday said he appointed two prosecutors to investigate whether Secretary of State Chuck Gray violated any laws by releasing sensitive voter data to the federal government, but neither decided to charge Gray with a crime.

AG Says Prosecutors Declined To Charge Chuck Gray With A Crime  

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

MILLS — Don’t underestimate the power of the paw or wet nose when it is attached to a friendly face with a tongue hanging out. 

Casper’s Carol Salveson knows that truth well, as does Vietnam veteran Larry Seems, who has experienced the power of a support dog to help with post-traumatic stress in his own life. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"He also helps trains dogs."}]

Both volunteer their efforts at Project Kenny, a nonprofit started by a West Coast entrepreneur who wanted to see service dogs trained to support military veterans and prevent veteran suicides.

Since 2017, Salveson, a former career U.S. Air Force weather forecaster — and after retirement a teacher — has poured herself into her new mission with special motivation.

“At the time I lost my son I was a teacher in Natrona County,” she said. “So I retired from teaching so I could do this.”

Her son, Robert “Bobby” Doolan, served as a Green Beret in the U.S. Army and seemed to be doing well after his service career. 

He was about to graduate from college when he took his own life in March 2017.

Salveson, who has always been a dog person, said her son also loved dogs and even when deployed to Afghanistan would find a feral dog to adopt. Bobby Doolan even had one that he wanted to try and bring home.

“When I lost him, I knew I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how,” she said. “I’m not a counselor, and so it just led to service dogs as my way of helping and honoring him.”

Salveson went back to school and became an accredited dog trainer. She obtained a couple of dogs and was beginning her efforts when she learned of and connected with Project Kenny.

The West Coast-centered nonprofit kept its headquarters on the coast while the actual work of training dogs and connecting them with veterans transferred to Casper when Salveson joined. 

She began by training dogs in her home, but the nonprofit now has a facility in Mills where nine dogs are kept and training goes on year round.

Salveson volunteers all her time as do the majority who serve at the nonprofit.

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

Project Kenny is named after a black Labrador retriever that Washington-based founder Matt Sauri, owned and wanted to honor after its passing. The nonprofit takes hand-picked dogs and dogs that veterans bring them and trains them to be a kind of suppressor for post traumatic stress.

“A dog can make a difference,” Salveson said. “It doesn’t cure the PTSD but it helps them get through it.”

Project Kenny’s programs involve training dogs to be given to a veteran — a process that takes about 18 months from start to finish. They also help veterans who bring their dogs to Mills to train their own animals to be service dogs.

Dogs chosen for the program have to be confident, trainable, non-aggressive and not a barker. Salveson personally likes the Labrador retrievers and golden doodle breeds, but there are veterans who bring her their own dogs and she has worked with many different breeds.

In addition to basic obedience training, the service dogs have to be comfortable in the public, and able to recognize when their master gets triggered into a traumatic stress moment.

“We train our dogs to recognize the signs of anxiety in our veterans, and so our dogs interrupt the anxiety,” Salveson said. “They interrupt nightmares, they do things like provide deep-pressure therapy. 

"We do a little mobility, but our primary focus is on post-traumatic stress, anxiety, traumatic brain injury as well as military sexual trauma.”

Dogs are trained to recognize when their veteran starts bouncing a leg or wringing hands or another anxious sign. 

Once the animal sees the sign, they jump on the veteran, put their nose on them and otherwise help the veteran recognize they are in that stress state and can use the dog to help calm them down.

Salveson said veterans call it “grounding.”

The use of service dogs as an antidote for post traumatic stress and other issues has been proven through evidence-based research, she said.

Dogs are trained specifically for the veteran they will serve. Typically, that means veterans who live in another part of the country will come to Mills and spend at least three days with the dog. 

There have been times with Salveson has gone across the country with a dog to deliver it to a veteran.

“One veteran was in multiple helicopter crashes and was afraid to fly,” she said. “So, I went to him.”

The nonprofit delivers about six dogs a year and since 2017 has trained about 45, Salveson said. She keeps about nine dogs on hand at all times and replaces a dog as it gets gifted to a veteran.

For Seems, 80, a Vietnam Air Force veteran whose role was to provide base security from Vietnamese attacks in the Mekong Delta, he learned late life the value of his service dog. He said he came back from the war with issues. 

He has had cancer from Agent Orange and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress.

He met Salveson at an event at Casper College a few years ago and said he brought a kennel-rescued dog, “Aurora,” to Project Kenny to train. He describes her as a mix of Labrador retriever, pit bull, boxer, and other breeds.

He never realized he needed his own service dog until after getting involved.

“Getting my service dog has changed my whole life, really, my personality,” he said. “I don’t have the anger issues anymore; the dog will just sit and look at you. 

"You just have to melt and start loving on her and it will change your whole attitude.”

Seems now goes to the Project Kenny building on Saturdays to help Salveson and other veterans train their dogs.He said since volunteering at the nonprofit he sees the difference that it makes in veterans’ lives.

“You can always sit and talk to your dog,” Seems said. “They don’t judge no matter what you do. You can spill your heart out to them, and you feel better because of it. They are there to help.”

Project Kenney Vet With Dog 6 16 26

<title>Wyoming Group Trains Dogs To Interrupt Veterans’ PTSD Attacks | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A nonprofit in Mills, Wyoming, is training dogs to interrupt military veterans’ PTSD attacks, led by a woman who lost her Green Beret son to suicide. “When I lost him, I knew I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how,” she said.

Wyoming Group Trains Dogs To Interrupt Veterans’ PTSD Attacks

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

Renée Jean

Government & Politics

Executive

Ward 1 Cheyenne City Councilman Larry Wolfe is calling for a dramatic reset in the city’s negotiations with Microsoft when it comes to a proposed 3,459-acre annexation that is roughly one-fifth the current size of Cheyenne.

During a Public Services Committee meeting Monday, Wolfe urged the committee to recommend postponing or denying annexation of the property, along with accompanying measures that change the city’s land-use map and change the property’s zoning from agriculture to business park. 

That would give Cheyenne time to negotiate a community benefits agreement with Microsoft that Wolfe proposed should be worth at least $50 million. 

Despite Wolfe’s push, the PSC voted 2-1 to recommend annexation of the 3,500-acre property to the full council, along with zoning changes and future land-use map changes. Councilman Pete Laybourn cast the lone “no” vote on these measures, which will be before the Cheyenne City Council at its next meeting June 22.

According to Wolfe’s proposal, which was sent to PSC members ahead of the meeting, the $50 million would be payable over the next five years in annual installments of $10 million, commencing July 1, 2027, and continuing through July 1, 2031. 

The funds would be for permanent improvements to the city. While the city would consult with Microsoft on the use of the funds, final decisions would be entirely up to the city.

The money could be accumulated for investment on larger, more expensive projects, but would have to be spent by July 1, 2036.

The community benefits agreement would also obligate Microsoft to use state-of-the-art technology to minimize water use and minimize or eliminate emissions, as well as set contractual guardrails on about 40 different items, including traffic, noise, wildlife, social and economic impacts, including affordable housing.

Wolfe, who is not a PSC member, said he opposed the annexation because the company’s development timeline is so far into the future it amounts to today’s city council trying to obligate a future city council, even though the same people might not be on it.

“Things change,” he said. “We don’t know, and we shouldn’t be arrogant enough to think that we know what this is going to look like 10 years from now. And we ought to defer to the city council that’s … sitting in your chairs 10 years from now, to make the annexation decision.”

Wolfe also pushed back on the idea that annexation should be considered separate from the land’s future use.

“Annexation is the battle,” he said. “It’s all one and the same, because, as the chairwoman acknowledged, it’s the commitment of resources of the city. It’s the commitment of water and sewer resources. So this is where … the battle should be fought.”

Ward 3 Councilman Mark Moody, who is not a member of the PSC either, also spoke during the 4.5-hour session. He focused on property rights, saying council members should also be mindful of the rights of surrounding property owners as far as what gets developed.

“When constituents talk to me, they really have said we need to slow down,” Moody said. “That’s from — a lot of them are not here, a lot of them are working. We have to look at that aspect there.”

Moody also suggested the gold mine opening west of town escaped protest because it went through the state’s industrial siting process. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Analysis Needed"}]

Meanwhile, Councilman Pete Laybourn, who cast the lone dissenting vote, acknowledged that data centers have helped Cheyenne’s business parks and have helped the city thrive for the past 25 years.

The property owners, too, are “incredibly distinguished members of our community who have done an awful lot for us,” he added.

Cheyenne has only had one other annexation of comparable size: the Sweetgrass annexation. That annexation, Laybourn noted, came with an extensive analysis of all the issues involved in bringing a major area into the city. 

“It’s very interesting,” he said. “Same property owner, same city of Cheyenne agreement, but (this time) we’re not hearing anything like that. Where are the roads going to go? What are the arrangements that are going to be made? And it’s been pointed out a few minutes ago here that we’re making a decision that’s going to be way off in the future.”

The development arc being far into the future would be OK, Laybourn suggested, if more detail was available about the property’s future.

“Where are the conditions that we need to put onto an annexation agreement, so that it’s well understood going into the future?” he said. “I know we’re going to get to the questions of the planning commission that I attended here not too long ago for five hours, and when we get to that we can take a look at why the planning commission felt so strongly that there are questions here they didn’t get answers to and that they wanted to.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Too Many Missing Details"}]

The area in question has unique considerations, Laybourn added, because it’s part residential, part agricultural, part in the county, and part in the city.

“We have all seen, if you’re driving out South Greeley Highway, a lot of activity going on in the county that isn’t directly involved in this annexation,” he said. “But it is nearby, so I want to caution us that we don’t have to hurry with this. We need to really think about this.”

The conditions of an annexation, spelled out in state law, include a requirement that the action is beneficial for the health, safety and welfare of people residing in the area. 

“Other people might interpret it one way,” he said. “I interpret that as being a broad call to us to really think about what we’re doing and the effect that it’s going to have on our city.”

Laybourn also signaled that he’s receptive to Wolfe’s idea, saying, “I just heard some very sensible language proposed by my fellow councilman from Ward One in regard to the economics of this situation, because what we’re dealing with is unprecedented and almost unimaginable corporate wealth.”

Laybourn added that an evaluation of whether the annexation is good for Cheyenne has to include a broader look at all of the factors involved.

“Our governor suggests in his recent executive order, ‘whereas Wyoming’s local towns and city councils and county commissioners have the power to protect community interests and further mitigate siting and nuisance issues that may arise from large industrial development',” Laybourn said. “These are the reasons that I’m going to be voting ‘no’ today. It’s a choice that I think we have to carefully consider.”

A forceful defense of property-owner rights came from Cindy Delancey, a large landowner in Laramie County who said she’s one of the owners involved in the 3,500-acre land deal with Microsoft.

Delancey said she hadn’t planned to speak, but felt compelled after hearing people argue that agricultural land should be preserved at all costs. The framing ignores the economic realities she and her family face.

“My family, we have our ranch for sale,” she said. “Agriculture is hard. We can’t get fertilizer. Cattle prices are high, but so is everything else … everything is expensive.”

Landowners need flexibility to partner with projects or sell if it makes sense for their operations, she said.

“Private property rights used to matter to us in this state,” she said. “We’re not serfs. We’re not bound to the land like it’s the 14th century. If we feel as large landowners that we need to make decisions for our operations, we should be able to do that.”

Many of the same objections to data centers that have been raised in previous meetings surrounding the Microsoft land deal were made again.

Residents and speakers such as Jana Tolman and Donna Presto warned that Cheyenne is “always in a drought” and questioned whether the city truly understands long-term water impacts. 

One speaker cited a neighbor whose rural well had to be deepened from 600 to 900 feet — at a cost of $120,000 — due to declining groundwater. They suggested draining local aquifers to serve industrial growth would be irresponsible.

Microsoft officials pushed back on that narrative, saying all of their new data centers will use recirculating cooling systems, which operate a little like a car’s radiator system, recirculating a mixture of water and propylene glycol, a food-grade, non-toxic coolant.

Harmony Meadows resident Heather Madrid, meanwhile, asked how it could be possible to find that annexing the land is beneficial to the city when Microsoft has no plan laid out for the parcel.

“Microsoft cannot tell this community or the council how many buildings there will be and therefore they cannot predict water usage,” she said. “They cannot predict how the grid will be impacted, and how wildlife in the ecosystem will be protected without having a plan. It is impossible to prove that this annexation is protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the community, which is not a simple suggestion. It’s one of the criteria required by law when considering annexation.”

Annexing the property now amounts to a blank check with zero guarantees, she said. 

“It’s been stated that Microsoft has been a good community partner, but corporate philanthropy does not excuse them from following the same rules and regulations as other companies,” she said. “It does not replace proper planning. If the developer cannot provide concrete numbers or even a good guess on infrastructure strain, they are not ready to be annexed. Please recommend a ‘no’ vote, or at the very least, a postponement until a complete plan is presented.”

While critics warned of water shortages, spiking electricity rates, and noise problems, a steady stream of supporters talked about how data center projects have changed their lives and the lives of their families.

One electrician said work on the west-side campus allowed him to move back to Cheyenne after years of chasing construction jobs around the region, while others described friends who went from low-end retail and food-service jobs into six-figure careers. 

“The thing I value the most about this opportunity is that it allows me to stay local,” Cheyenne resident Micah Snyder said. “I’m happy to be home every night. My wife really appreciates that. And, as a single-income household, she’s still able to stay home and raise our kids on the income from this opportunity.”

David Zook, meanwhile, came to Cheyenne from the East Coast in 2013 to help build the city’s first data center.

“I’ll be honest. Before accepting the job, I couldn’t have pointed to Cheyenne on a map,” he said. "But I took a chance, drove West, and it changed the entire trajectory of my life.”

Every new data center has a human side, he added.

“Behind every new building, every expansion, every project, there are people like me, whose lives and families are shaped by the opportunities created here,” he said. “When I moved to Cheyenne, I was a single guy starting a new chapter. In 2015, I met my wife and a year ago yesterday, we welcomed our daughter into the world.”

The family bought a home in Cheyenne in 2018. Now, this July, they’ll move into a bigger home, with more space for their growing family. 

“Cheyenne isn’t just where I work, it’s where I’ve chosen to put down roots,” he said. “I really love it here. I’ve watched Microsoft grow in this region, and I’m proud of the work we do.”

While there have been many claims that data centers don’t employ many people, they have ripple effects throughout the economy that support hundreds of jobs, Amanda August told the PSC.

“Every week, our campuses host over 267 full-time Microsoft employees,” she said. “We have 245 security and vendor-critical environment employees who show up every day and are dedicated to our sites alone. Then we have 430 to 750-plus vendors every week who show up to our data centers across Cheyenne alone. These are long-term. They’re not construction. These are jobs that bring steady economic activity into the city.”

Cheyenne city council 3 6 15 26

<title>Cheyenne Committee Backs Microsoft Annexation While Councilman Pushes $50M Deal | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Despite calls to delay or deny a 3,500-acre annexation for Microsoft data centers, Cheyenne’s Public Services Committee narrowly recommended approval Monday. A councilman urged them to postpone to give the city time to negotiate a $50 million agreement.

Cheyenne Committee Backs Microsoft Annexation While Councilman Pushes $50M Deal

Kerry Drake

Cheyenne’s new vehicle noise ordinance was unanimously passed by the City Council to stop obnoxious motorists who drive their loud cars, trucks and motorcycles late at night, disrupting people’s sleep.

 soon after it went on the books in late September was auto mechanic Geno Stecks, who was driving a fairly unassuming 2006 Subaru with a modified muffler. 

It also wasn’t in the middle of the night or in a residential section of the capital city. Stecks said it was on a main thoroughfare at the intersection of East Lincolnway and Hugur Avenue at 2:45 in the afternoon.

“Communists. Control freaks!” is how Stecks responded when asked what he thought about the City Council members who approved the ordinance after many people opposed it during public testimony at three council meetings.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"He Wasn’t Speeding"}]

Stecks was on the job when he got busted, transporting auto parts for FM Automotive when he heard the police siren.

He told the officer that he didn’t think he’d been speeding, but was informed the stop was made because of excessive noise.

This how the encounter went, according to Stecks:

“I couldn’t hear my radio for your exhaust,” the officer told him.

“I said, ‘Turn your volume knob up,’” Stecks said he replied. "I couldn’t hear my exhaust because of my radio, because I’ve got a kick-ass stereo in it.”

In hindsight, Stecks said he’s since thought of some other creative responses.

“I wish I had told him, ‘What are you going to tell the Hells Angels if they come roaring through town? Are you going to pull them over and cite them for having too loud exhaust? You probably wouldn’t live through it,’” said the bearded Stecks, wearing a T-shirt that depicted a full mug with the word “Beer – It’s What’s for Dinner.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Too Few Tickets"}]

A spokesperson for the Cheyenne Police Department said that after Stecks broke the ice as the first to be ticketed for driving too loudly, 43 other motorists were given noise violation citations in 2025, and 33 more so far this year.

Even those are way too few, said a council member who supported the noise ordinance.

Mechanic Geno Stecks got the first ticket under Cheyenne’s new noise ordinance while delivering a car part in the middle of the day. When the officer told him he couldn't hear his radio because of the exhaust, Stecks said, "Turn your volume knob up."

Today In Linguistics: Wednesday, April 9, 2025

In case you missed it

More in You Still Here

Bonus Video 1: Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Today In Fire Hydrants: Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Steve Inman: Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Bonus Video 2: Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Most read