Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 9

star Wyoming Bl Thursday, April 21,1 988 Star-Tribune, Casper, Wyo Rawlins city officials appear willing to back EI coal project Additional tax revenues unlikely I Ratliff will seek fifth House term CASPER Four-term Rep. Scott Ratliff, D- Fremont, says he will seek a fifth term in the Wyoming House. Ratliff had been considered a potential state Senate candidate as Sen. Frank Dusl, R-Fremont, is expected to retire. Ratliff said he did not want to give up his seats on the Appropriations Committee and on the Legislature's Management Council.

"As a representative, those are good committees if you're going to do your county some good," he said. Ratliff also said he does not like the "attitude" he believes pervades the Senate. "They tend to come with a preconceived (approach to issues). bother me with dialogue, don't bother me with he said. "Members in the House are more open, they're more willing to look at both sides," he said.

The only advantage of the Senate, he said, is that its members don't have to campaign for election as often as House members, standing for election every four years, rather than every two years. "But you have to put up with people like Dan Sullivan and Charlie Scott (both Natrona County Republican senators) on a daily basis." Ratliff said he hopes that either Rep. Mary Odde, R- Fremont, or Rep. Eli Bebout, a Fremont County Democrat, will try to win Dusl's Senate seat. tion of a major project, Moore said.

A portion of the state's share of taxes collected which exceed the base amount is relumed to local governments from the time a project begins until it is 90 percent complete. Impact assistance taxes are now being paid to Carbon County for Amoco's C02 project near Bairoil using a 1985 base amount, reflecting the 12-month period before Amoco began construction. However, that project won't be 90 percent complete when the proposed coal gasification project begins, Moore said, and so the base amount won't change. That means any impact assistance lax payments from the state back to the county on the proposed project will be made using the 1985 base amount with an allowance for inflation that increases the amount collected by the slate before any is returned to the county. The reason it is unlikely the county will receive any tax assistance is because the general economy of the area is depressed and tax collections have fallen as a result, so that the taxes don't exceed the base amount, Moore said.

Even so Moore urged local government officials to plan for division of ihe impact taxes if they are received. Rawlins Products wants to begin construction by the end of May so it can be producing and selline gas by December of 1989. That deadline must be met for the company to qualify for a non-conventional tax credit a credit which makes the project economically feasible, El Project Engineer Mary Bloomstran said. Bloomstran would not say whether del iv of cons. ruction would stop ti project, but Moore said meeting that 1989 deadline is the "driving factor" for the ISC in speeding the "fast track" process for obtaining a construction permit even quicker than the law calls for.

Moore said the companies applied for the waiver allowing them to avoid compliance with the full siting proccsss under new "fast track" rules adopted this year. The procedure allows the ISC to issue conduction permits without requiring companies to do exhaustive, costly studies of project effects on loicla public services and other impacts. A hearing to gather public comment before the ISC makes its decision about the permit is tentatively scheduled for May 19, Moore said. By CANDY MOULTON Star-Tribune correspondent RAWLINS City officials appear willing to support an underground coal gasification project near here even though additional tax revenues to help deal with impact thai could occur as a result of the project are unlikely. Tuesday the city council tentatively agreed to sell water to Energy International, acting for Rawlins Products, and Rawlins UCG Co.

Rawlins Products is proposing an ammonia plant and Rawlins UCG is proposing the underground coal gasification project in the Knobs Hill area eight miles west of the city. The project will cost about $100 million including $52 million for materials, Wyoming Industrial Siting Council Director Rick Moore said. It is being financed by El with Department of Energy and private funds. The Rawlins City Council hedged on giving final approval to a request to sell the company 1,000 gallons of water per minute from the Miller Hill well fields because town representatives only received the proposal on Tuesday and had not had time to evaluate it, Councilman Lyle Anderson said. The water is needed for oxygen and steam used in the coal gasification process, Rawlins City Attorney Dave Clark said.

City councilmen appeared to support selling the water, but must now work out specific details, he' said. The water would come from the Miller Hill wells developed in 1986. Those wells produce about 1,200 gallons per minute, so El's request would involve most of that city water source, Clark said. However, Rawlins has other water development projects now underway which will be "more than sufficient" to supply the city with municipal water, Clark added. Moore said in a separate public meeting Tuesday the ISC is speeding up the "fast track" industrial siting process for the two companies so project owners can qualify for a federal tax credit.

The tax credit is necessary to make the project economically viable, a company official said. However, Moore told representatives of local and county governments, it is not clear whether they will receive impact assistance tax revenues as a result of the project. The impact assistance funds are figured on average sales and use taxes collected for an area during the 12 months prior to construc Star-Tribune file photo A former task foree member says Wyoming's wildlife is now a 'crown jewel' Buchanan says to have to find ways to distribute management costs RvI17RRIMMFR the nnimnlc hut nrrKivillv rtnn't In ihp nnsitinn it in fndnv By LIZ BRIMMER the animals, but presently don't to the position it is in today, 1 fM i i pay for the goods they receive, he noted. Meanwhile, people who kill the wildlife "consumptive users" spend about a quarter billion dollars annually. Buchanan did not offer a plan for getting money from people who use the wildlife but don't currently pay.

But, he said, due to the integral position of wildlife in the economy and recreational demands of the public, wildlife managment policy will come under increasing focus from the variety of interest groups involved. Furthermore, Buchanan said, in the debate between private landowners and the state there is "a definite lack of systematic up-to-date information about non-biological aspects of wildlife management. Buchanan said if "we are to make informed decisions in the best long-term interest of the people of the state of Wyoming," better information should be compiled on such facts as the level of non-consumptive use in the state or the number of ranchers who are pleased or displeased with manangement. Buchanan stressed that the tremendous interest in Wyoming's wildlife is a credit to the state, the commissioners and the department which have turned it into a "crown jewel." "Let's face it, if all of you had not elevated wildlife management "It was more of a scare-type bomb than one for injury, but it is possible that someone could have been injured even with just a noise-maker." "It was not a hoax, it was a regular bomb," he said. The drivers reportedly tripped the wire early March 1 when they left their Trail's End Motel rooms for work around 6 a.m.

The device was rigged in a passageway through which the men walked to the nearby Peter Kiewit Sons offices located across the street from the hotel. It did not explode when the drivers tripped the wire. But the bus drivers did not report the bomb to authorities until after they returned from work, no one would be interested in it," he said. "The perception of a public so dissatisfied with current game management and administration as to make continued managment under the existing system impossible is an illusion," Buchanan said. That illusion, he said, was created "out of confusion about the role of economic efficiency measures in publicly owned natural resource decisions." The state's resource managment systems "are strained but not broken," he said.

A "sustained and serious effort to improve the system," he said, is what the slate should undertake now. Private landowners and the "find themselves in an uneasy symbiotic relationship. The current economic conditions are straining that relationship and it is incumbent upon you to take the initiative to improve relationships," Buchanan said. Buchanan said because wildlife management is "an integral part of most farm and ranch is logical and reasonable that wildife managment should come under close scrutiny." The concern of agriculture and ranching interests "represents a challenge rather than a threat" to the "I believe that most interest groups are not looking for trouble, they are looking for help," Buchanan said. 'noise-maker' transporting working miners to the mine 25 miles away in Montana and back again.

The drivers delayed in reporting and returned almost three hours later because they did not know what the device was when they tripped the wire, the sheriff said. It was dark outside when the men walked through the passageway in which the device was rigged, he noted. The drivers did not see it until they returned, he said, when they had daylight and realized it was an explosive device. Johnson said he could not release whether or not there are suspects in the incident. There have not been any arrests, yet, he said.

Northeastern Wyoming bureau SHERIDAN Wyoming wildlife is now a "crown jewel" and the state Game and Fish Department must "resist attempts by those who would trade our heritage for short-term private economic gains," according to the former chair of the Governor's Blue-Ribbon Task Force on Wildlife. Tom Buchanan also said Game and Fish must continue to manage wildlife in the "best, long-term interest" of the people of Wyoming. And the state must resolve present inequities between sportsmen who pay for permits to use the wildlife and those people who also use the game by casual observing or photography, for example, but do not pay for it, he added. Buchanan, speaking to the joint division meeting Wednesday, said he was giving his personal opinions on issues and impending challenges facing wildlife management in Wyoming. Because of the "serious inequity" in Wyoming between who pays and who benefits from the state's wildlife the in the future will face the challenge of examining ways to distribute the costs of wildlife managment "more equitably between all of the different interests that benefit from wildlife." People who enjoy the wildlife without killing it-coined "non-consumptive from Men: The cause of game management controversy? BY LIZ BRIMMER Northeastern Wyoming bureau SHERIDAN The undeniable common denominator in the game management controversy is that the vast majority of players, between the Game and Fish ranks, hunters, landowners and politicians, are men, according to a Sheridan County legislator.

128 Amax workers accept layoff offer GILLETTE (AP) Some 128 employees of two Amax Coal Co. mines in Campbell County have accepted a voluntary layoff offer, a move a company official calls positive for all concerned. Larry Pile, manager of communications at Amax headquarters in Indianapolis, said Tuesday that 108 hourly and 20 salaried workers had accepted the voluntary layoffs and will receive severance benefit packages. Company officials originally had announced permanent layoffs of 90 hourly and 20 salaried workers. Among the hourly workers, 63 were from the company's Belle Ayr mine, while the remaining 45 work at the Eagle Butte mine.

The salaried workers, including supervisors, are divided between the two sites, according to Pile. Jackson man nabbed after car chase JACKSON A Jackson man was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly stole a Teton County 'Sheriff's Department vehicle and led authorities on a high-speed chase through Hoback Canyon. Daniel Lewis Randall, 31, a transient living at the Orville's Mission for the homeless in Jackson, was charged with grand theft auto and resisting arrest, Teton County Sheriff Roger Millward said. Randall allegedly stole the sheriff's vehicle, which was parked behind the Teton County Jail, about 11:30 a.m. and fled south on Highway 189, Milward said.

Randall will appear in Jackson Justice Court this afternoon. Laramie County OKs Ladbroke contract CHEYENNE (AP) The Lar--amie County commissioners have approved a provisional contract with Ladbroke Racing for off-track pari-mutuel betting in Cheyenne. The unanimous vote came Tuesday night after 2'2 hours of discussion, but commissioners said they were not entirely happy with the decision. "I think it should be noted that I 'do have some reservations concerning pretty much the whole simulcast as it is now. I think there are many questions that have to be answered," said Commissioner Shirley Francis.

Ladbroke officials agreed to two restrictions imposed by the commissioners on their license One subjects the contract to an acceptable report from the State Division of Criminal Investigation. The division this week began a background investigation of Ladbroke officials. The second restriction is a "revocability" clause that gives the commissioners final authority to continue or discontinue the license. And, Democrat Lynn Dickey told an amused audience at the Game and Fish Department's joint division meeting "1 just can't help but wonder if that isn't part of the was just a thought." In an admittedly generalized view of what's going on in Wyoming wildlife management, Dickey told the joint division meeting Sheridan sheriff says bomb that the great majority ot people directly involved in the management of wildlife and the DICKEY politics that surround it are not only men, but strong-headed men, that don't like to be told how to manage themselves or their business. Game and Fish employees, for example, are as a general rule guys that "kinda prefer dealing with critters rather than dealing with people," Dickey said.

And, when employees are convinced they're right, are a little intolerant of others that don't agree, she's observed. "As a result, some people have a hard time getting along with you," Dickey said. The ranks of the could benefit from more women working in the department she said. "You do have a machismo that gets out of hand and needs to be softened up a little bit," Dickey said. Meanwhile, landowners don't like to hang around people too much either, and need their own space, that's why they live far away from town.

And as a rule, landowners don't like other people to tell them how to ranch, she said. Hunters, Dickey said, are more difficult to generalize as a group. But when hunters get together with their guns and go out on their trip, they generally don't want to be interfered with, she noted. And the politicians are generally short-sided, although that style of dealing with immediate problems "doesn't fit very well with wildlife managment." "Politics and management of state wildlife should probably be kept as far apart as possible," Dickey said. But another problem is that the majority of the politicians are men.

By LIZ BRIMMER Northeastern Wyoming bureau SHERIDAN A trip-wire bomb rigged outside a hotel where Decker Coal Co. bus drivers were staying in March was, in fact, live, but it was more of "noise-maker" intended to frighten the men than seriously injure them, according to Sheridan County Sheriff Bill Johnson. Still, he stressed, the bomb, which was sent to the Wyoming State Crime Lab, was real and could have injured someone had it exploded. "It's a live bomb alright" that was rigged to go off, but it was more of a "noise- maker," Johnson said, intended to scare.