Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 12

SiaKFribune YOMING Obituaries B3 Advisers B4 Calendar B6 SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2005 Slate editor Chad Baldwin can be reached at (iu) IbbUbSi, (800) bb9-0b8j or statwcasperstartnbune net SEQION It 1 Fourlaiie highway bill gets boost Panel increases funding from $10 million to $20 million By the Star-Tribune staff 1 1 1 The one-time funding will allow the department to build more new roadway, but WyDOT hopes it is just a start. Agency spokesman Dave Kingham said officials estimate that it takes about $2 million to build a mile of four-lane highway, which means the bill would allow for roughly 10 miles of new roads. Meanwhile, the department has identified nearly 400 miles of rural highways it wants to widen for safety. Next, SF 127 will go to the House Appropriations Committee, which will review the amount of money in the bill. The measure originally called for $36 million a year to be spent on designing, building and maintaining four-lane highways in the state.

But the funding was stripped from the bill by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The road most often cited this year for urgent need of widening has been Wyoming Highway 59 south of Gillette, which sees heavy traffic from coal mine and gas field workers, including large pieces of equipment. CHEYENNE A proposal to expand some rural two-lane roads into four-lane divided highways got a boost by a legislative committee Friday when the panel doubled the amount of funding in the bill. The House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee increased the appropriation in Senate File 127 from $10 million to $20 million for the Wyoming De- Eartment of Transportation to engineer and uild multi-lane highways. HoiiiIii! Role model for leadership Great Divide Resource Area rr TT I i I i Casper IN BRIEF M'DM Governor taps Cheyenne attorney CHEYENNE Gov.

Dave Freudenthal has named Cheyenne attorney Peter Arnold district judge to replace James Burke, who recently joined the Supreme Court. Arnold, 59, is a founding partner with Riske and Arnold, a position he has held since 1991. His specialties include domestic relations, real estate, small business and estate planning, according to the governor's office. Arnold graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1970 and UW College of Law in 1973. He was a captain in the U.S.

Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, where over five years he participated in more than 200 criminal cases. He worked with the Cheyenne firm of Andrews, Andrews and Riske before working in his own firm from 1982-1991. Burke filled the Supreme Court seat of Justice Larry Lehman, who died in December. Crank's son pleads guilty to pot charge CHEYENNE Zachary Crank, the 16-year-old son of Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank, was ordered to perform community service after pleading guilty to possession of marijuana. The younger Crank pleaded guilty Thursday in Laramie County Circuit Court, where he was sentenced as an adult.

Crank was ordered to pay court costs and submit to random drug testing on top of his community service. If he completes those tasks and stays out of trouble for the next year, his record will be expunged. Attorney General Crank said he turned his son in after learning about the marijuana. No arrest was made; a citation was issued for the younger Crank to appear in court, where he pleaded guilty. "We love our kid, and kids make mistakes," the attorney general said.

"He has done what's right, and we support him in doing what's right. We believe this will ultimately do some good." Retired chief pleads guilty to battery Stephen CheslikStar-Tribune Speakers rip BLM proposal Laramie meeting concludes series on Great Divide plan By JEFFREY JACQUET Star-Tribune correspondent LARAMIE A diverse group of speakers expressed stern disapproval of the Bureau of Land Management's Great Divide resource Still time to comment Thursday's hearing in Laramie was the last of the BLM's open houses on the Great Divide resource management plan. However, the BLM is still accepting written comments on the plan until March 18. Comments can be submitted by mail to John Spehar, Project Manager, BLM Rawlins Field Office, P.O. Box 2407, Rawlins, WY 82301, Comments can also be e-mailed to commentsrawlinsrmp.com.

management plan during the agency's fourth and final public hearing on the issue here this week. The vast majority of speakers ranging from Wyoming ranchers and northern Colorado farmers to University of Wyoming students told the BLM to focus on wildlife conservation while limiting oil and gas development. BILL LUCKETTStar-Tnbune Former Wyoming Gov. and U.S. Sen.

Cliff Hansen, right, chats with Wyoming's current senior U.S. senator, Craig Thomas, in the State Capitol rotunda before a ceremony Friday afternoon honoring Hansen. Thomas was among several dignitaries who praised Hansen as a role model and for his leadership. The ceremony culminated with the unveiling of a plaque in Hansen's honor stating that he was responsible for increasing Wyoming's share of federal mineral royalties from 37.5 percent to 50 percent. Hansen was governor from 1964 to 1966 and U.S.

senator from 1967 to 1978. Oil field expert urges: Use water-reduction technology "Across our state, we are witnessing an explosion of oil and gas development that is lining the pockets of some, but causing widespread habitat fragmentation," Hanna Griscon, a resident of Laramie, told BLM officials Thursday night. "This is not progress, and not the purpose of our public lands." BLM is revising its management plan that will determine development and conservation polices for the next 20 years within an 11.2 million-acre swath of land stretching from the western Great Divide Basin to the Nebraska border. The agency is considering four proposals that offer varying levels of environmental protection and developmental access. As was the case with three previous public hearings hosted by the BLM, a majority of speakers in Laramie supported an additional, non-BLM plan called the "Western Heritage alternative" that would offer the most rigid cultural and environmental protection.

"If I look at the alternatives that are presented by the BLM they all look much the same to me," Laramie resident and wilderness guide Erik Molvar said. "It's no wonder Dru Bower of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming stated in Rock Springs that (all the Please see Dl IDF. B2 Sydansk Consulting Services in Centennial, said at the conclusion of a two-day workshop sponsored by the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute at the University of Wyoming. James Steidtmann, director of the institute, said the Wyoming Geological Survey told a task force appointed by Gov. Dave Freudenthal that application of enhanced By W.

DALE NELSON Star-Tribune correspondent LARAMIE Wyoming oil field operators were urged this week to take an active role in technology to reduce the amount of water pumped from their wells and thus increase oil production, operator profits and revenue to the state. "The operator is the one who really knows his field the best," Robert D. Sydansk of BUFFALO The retired Johnson County fire chief pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery for breaking the jaw of a fire captain at the annual fire district banquet. Mark Haines, who pleaded guilty on Feb. 4, was scheduled for sentencing April 1.

Circuit Judge John Sampson said he scheduled the sentencing late because the victim's medical bills had not yet been determined. Haines, who retired Feb. 1 and was still the fire chief when the incident occurred, said he and fire Capt. Peter Korsch had an argument at the Jan. 22 banquet when he struck Korsch.

"I didn't think I hit him that hard, but apparently it was hard enough to break his jaw," Haines said in court. County Attorney Chris Wages read a statement from Korsch, who couldn't speak in court because of his broken jaw. The statement said that he considered Haines a friend, and requested that Haines be ordered to attend anger management. Haines could get up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $750. Sacagawea officially becomes state coin CHEYENNE The Sacagawea golden dollar was formally designated Wyoming's official state coin before a large crowd in the Capitol rotunda Friday.

Sen. Mike Enzi, nominated Sacagawea for the dollar coin as a member of the Senate Banking Committee in 2000. He said depicting Sacagawea with her infant son, Jean Baptisie, emphasized a family looking toward the future together. Gov. Dave Freudenthal also addressed the crowd.

"There was a great deal of skepticism whether a 16-year-old girl could contribute to the opening of the West," he said. "And she stepped up in a way typical of Wyoming women." Rep. Barbara Cubin, said Wyoming women have played important roles in the development of the West and Wyoming. She mentioned that Wyoming had the first woman to legally vote and the first female justice of the peace. Lawmakers approved the Sacagawea dollar as the official state coin last year.

Please see OIL, B3 UW, space station partner Project will build on research concerning anti-missile defense systems Prosecutor argues charge should stand Failure to buckle up child only one factor, county attorney says By CANDY MOULTON Star-Tribune correspondent RAWLINS A March hearing has been scheduled regarding a misdemeanor charge of endangering a child against Hart Jordan, the Saratoga father whose toddler son was run over by a pickup and killed at the family home in November. Jordan's attorney, Jason Tangeman of Laramie, filed a motion to dismiss the charge against his client last week. On Friday, Carbon County Attorney Dave Clark filed his own response urging that the motion to Please set CH ARGKS. B2 gineers through the Wyoming Space Grant Consortium, and Mclnroy said they will use the money to analyze the problems facing the space station. "We're going to go down to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to get a bunch of data from them and then see what we can do," Mclnroy said.

He said that while the grant itself is relatively small, the notoriety could generate more money in the future. "There seems like there is good potential (for future grants)," he said. "And that's the main idea that was our main objective. It's a big enough grant that hopefully we'll see more." UW has been working on its own stabilization platform for more than eight years, using various defense industry grants to pioneer ways to steady aircraft-based anti-missile lasers. The platform, called a "hexapod," Please see I W.

B5 By JEFFREY JACQUET Star-Tribune correspondent LARAMIE NASA has asked University of Wyoming engineers to help find ways to make experiments on the International Space Station less prone to on-board vibrations. UW engineers already have been pioneering similar research to reduce vibrations on sensitive laser-based anti-missile defense systems, and NASA hopes the research can be applied to space. "Basically, we try to build a platform, and then hold it really, really steady, so if you try to shoot a missile down, you won't miss," said John Mclnroy, a UW professor of electrical and computer engineering and a principal designer of the project. "NASA's project is really similar: They have to hold a platform really steady for experiments, and it's pretty much the astronauts moving around up there that keeps it (unsteady)." NASA awarded a $15,000 grant to UW en.