Hadley Harmon - State Champion Wrestler

Hadley Harmon took home top honors in the State Wrestling Tournament. Congratulations Hadley!

Homecoming 2009

Cokeville Town Council Results

Results taken from www.lcwy.org for:
Town of Cokeville Councilpersons
Vote for not more than 2
Shelly Gailey...101 21.31%
Wayne Harmon...160 33.76%
Joseph Wilson...156 32.91%
Write-in 0
over votes 0
under votes 0 12.03%
Total...474

These are unofficial results from the County Website. It is obvious that there is at least one mistake as the website lists John Barrasso (REP) with 319 votes in Cokeville and Nick Carter (DEM) 336 votes in Cokeville for a total of 668 Cokeville votes, which is 300 votes higher than the actual number of votes cast.

Shelly Gailey - Definitely in the Race

Recently I had a conversation with Shelly Gailey. She has heard some comments that people think she is not running for Cokeville Town Council. She would like everyone to know that is definitely not the case. SHELLY IS IN AND RUNNING! Shelly has opened a website so people can see that even if they can't put her name and face together yet, she has definitely been involved in the taking care of Cokeville in the time she's been here. Check out her website by clicking here.

Also in the running for town council is JOE WILSON. He is excited to serve the town and has some great suggestions that's he is willing to help implement.

Incumbent is Wayne Harmon, also running to retain his seat from his first term.

Cokeville's own Stan Thompson, the current Mayor, is running for Lincoln County Commissioner. He has been involved in the county level planning and zoning for many years. Stan would add a lot of knowledge to the County Commission. I also think he would be more of a team player than Kent Connelley, who is the incumbent hoping to retain his seat from his first term. When you only have three members of a team, you need all three working together, even when they disagree. I don't hear of that happening right now.

County Commissioners are People, too

I visited briefly with our Lincoln County Commissioner's after a budget planning meeting in Cokeville recently and they looked exhausted! They had met with many people that day. They had family lives and other obligations to get to that evening. And, they had started out the day trying to finalize the SLIB Consensus Grant along with the municipalities of Lincoln County!

I've had the opportunity to get to know all three of our commissioners, each who are passionate about what they do and their reasons for serving others. Some emails and other correspondence have been aimed at them recently regarding property tax.

Hey, let's all remember that county commissioner's are people too. They are mortals, just like us. They do not control the universe, not even the Lincoln County Universe. There is no "agenda" other than to do public service in the way they see best. Honestly, I was pretty shocked at how worn out they appeared and then I heard all that they had been up to lately and the shock turned into awe.

I want to say thank you to Tammie Archibald, Kent Connelly, and Jerry Harmon for their service to Lincoln County, Wyoming.

Wyoming Open Meetings

Last week I stopped in to the town hall to say hi to Carol Reed. She had been sick a while and I wanted to see how she was doing. When I entered the building, there was Carol walking down the hall. I walked up to her and we started visiting. Then, out into the hall came various people. I didn't pay much attention but Wayne Harmon walked by me and I saw Mayor Stan Thompson and Doug Prows. All three of them are on council and three makes a quorum. There were others exiting a room and it appeared a work meeting was ending but Carol and I were headed downstairs and I didn't ask.

When I left the building, I checked the doors to see if I had missed some notice of a meeting when I walked into the town hall. Nope

I typed "Wyoming Open Meetings" in a search engine on the internet, and I am providing an easy link here to the Wyoming State Statute that require notice of all meetings with a quorum present. Here is a brief passage: "Meeting" means an assembly of at least a quorum of the governing body of an agency which has been called by proper authority of the agency for the purpose of discussion, deliberation, presentation of information or taking action regarding public business;

How can a meeting be open when there is no notice given to the public? Notice is required by state statute...I'm not a lawyer so I'm not offering any interpretation here...

16-4-404. Types of meetings; notice; recess.

(a) In the absence of a statutory requirement, the governing body of an agency shall provide by ordinance, resolution, bylaws or rule for holding regular meetings unless the agency's normal business does not require regular meetings in which case the agency shall provide notice of its next meeting to any person who requests notice. A request for notice may be made for all future meetings...




Elected officials might not want to have the public at their retreats and work meetings but the public has the right to know and listen if they choose. Public sometimes aren't allowed to comment at a work meeting and that's ok. It is, after all, a work meeting. No decisions will be made. However all members of the public are still allowed to know about and sit in on most meetings. The only exceptions are clearly outlined in the state statutes. (No, I didn't copy and paste exceptions, you need to find them yourself)

April Council Meeting

Highlights from the April 2008 Council Meeting. Thanks to Rep. Kathy Davison and Sen. Stan Cooper for coming to our town and for the budget update from the end of this legislative session!

Stewart Petersen, on behalf of the Cokeville Economic Development Steering Committee (CEDSC), presented the idea of renewing the pursuit of a bank to come to town. He said it was ranked high in the town assessment done a few years back, was pursued heavily for a while and was seeming successful in attracting the then "First National Bank" until a 2nd bank pulled, (this is my words not Stewart's) "A dirty rotten one" on the town of Cokeville. That in turn led to a failed courtship of First National Bank. Stewart made a good well-thought out presentation.

Mayor Thompson said, but no motion was made, that a delegation would re-approach the bank idea and Councilman Harmon said he knew one of the bank men we talked of and he would visit with him. As far as the council committing to go after a "Business Ready Grant" (towns plan and build for what they want then attract a business to come) or "Business Committed Grant" (A guarantee a business will come if their building needs are met), no further discussion or commitment was made.

The second issue Stewart presented, was that of the idea of a Town Administrator. He gave compelling reasons why this would be a good position to budget in for. No discussion occurred among the council.


THE FIRST BUDGET READING was held during the middle of the council meeting. There was no public comment time which would have been nice. The figure was mentioned, which I didn't write down. The sewer lagoon was mentioned as the big project - which of course will also be very expensive.

The council's progress on the Town Smoking Ban council was inquired about. Mayor Thompson said he hadn't had time to get into as much fact-finding as he had hoped. He then stated that the council wanted more citizen input maybe in the form of a petition or something, but they were definitely going to look into it a little more.


Being on council is a tough job and I want to thank the mayor and council for the time they do put into their elected positions.