Greybull Standard

Arrests made in burglary investigation

by karla pomeroy

Two Basin residents, formerly of Greybull, were arrested last week in connection to area burglaries.

Basin Chief of Police Chris Kampbell said John Henry Owen, 52, and Anna Marie Davies, 46, were arrested Tuesday, Jan. 24, following the execution of several search warrants at several locations in Basin and Greybull. Owen, who has previous drug and a burglary conviction in Washington state, has been charged with two counts of felony possession of marijuana for third or subsequent offense and one count of buying or receiving stolen property. The two drug charges carry a penalty of not more than five years imprisonment or $5,000 fine or both. The possession of stolen property felony carries a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment and/or a $10,000 fine.

Davis has been charged with two misdemeanor possession of marijuana charges and a felony count of possession of stolen property.

Kampbell said the investigation is ongoing with additional charges pending. He said other persons may be involved as well.

The investigation began with the Basin Police Department investigating the theft of the Stockman’s Bar that occurred between Dec. 26-27. He said the initial search warrant was to search for evidence from that burglary, along with evidence from the Hi Way Bar & Café that occurred the same time.

Drug paraphernalia was discovered during the first search at the home in the 500 block of North Sixth and a subsequent search warrant was issued for the home to seize the drug paraphernalia.

Possible evidence from a burglary at the Silver Spur in Greybull was also discovered and the Greybull Police Department obtained their own search warrant for the home in Basin.

Additional searches were conducted at other locations, Kampbell said, including locations in Greybull.

Owens is being held on a $100,000 cash bond with a preliminary hearing tentatively set for 1:30 p.m., Feb. 6. Davies is being held on a $10,000 cash bond with a preliminary hearing set for Feb. 27.

“These arrests are the efforts of combined work between the Basin Police Department, Greybull Police Department and Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office all working together. Teamwork and communication between all our officers in the Basin Police Department and all the agencies brought us to this point in this case,” Kampbell said.

by nathan oster

A 41-year-old Shell man has been charged with attempted second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly stabbed another Shell man during a bar fight Friday night at the Antler Inn.

Raymond Ryan Tatom was arrested on Saturday and made his initial court appearance on Wednesday morning.

During that hearing, bond was set at $1 million and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8.

The other combatant in the bar fight, Tim Mills, 60, was transported from the scene to South Big Horn Hospital, then on to Washakie Medical Center in Worland where he remained hospitalized on Wednesday.

Tim’s wife Anita said he was moved out of the intensive care unit on Sunday, but that he is by no means “out of the woods,” citing his other health issues and the severity of the stab wounds, the worst of which were to his abdominal area.

“He was already a sick man (with several different health conditions) … and this is not going to help him,” she said.

Police were called to the Antler Inn, which sits in the middle of Shell on U.S. Highway 14, at 9:22 p.m. on Friday following a report of a fight in which a man had been stabbed with a knife, according to Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn.

Blackburn said police do not know for certain who threw the first punch or what the fight was about, just that at some point in the altercation, Mills ended up on top of Tatom.

It was that point, Blackburn said, that Tatom allegedly pulled his knife and stabbed Mills.

Other patrons in the bar — owner Al Martin said there were about eight or nine people in there at the time — were able to break up the fight, and in the aftermath of the stabbing, they provided critical care for Mills until ambulance personnel arrived on scene.

Blackburn described the weapon as a “folding, lock-blade knife.”

One patron, in particular, was credited for his fast thinking. A former EMT, he took possession of the knife  until authorities arrived, and using rubber gloves retrieved from his vehicle, re-inserted Mills’ inner organs and continued to apply pressure until emergency personnel arrived on scene.

Blackburn said Tatom left the bar immediately after the stabbing, returning to his home.

Not long after that, dispatch received a call from the home where Tatom was living, requesting medical attention for him as well.

Blackburn said sheriff’s deputies responded, and that like Mills, he too was transported initially to South Big Horn Hospital, where he was treated and released that same night.

Blackburn said that after Mills, Tatom’s medical care was “first and foremost” in the minds of his deputies, and that there was initially some concern about an injury to his neck.

Tatom was arrested the next day after law enforcement officials interviewed eyewitnesses who reported that they had heard Tatom threatening to kill Mills.

Blackburn said his department is continuing its investigation.

One eyewitness told authorities that Tatom had made derogatory comments about Mills’ family. At one point, Mills left the bar. When he went back inside, the dispute reignited and eventually led to the start of the fistfight, Blackburn said.

Martin, who owns the Antler Inn, supported the eyewitness’s account of the fight and said he never felt like Tatom’s life was in jeopardy.

Martin called the experience “very traumatic” for him and the patrons in his bar, but that he was thankful for the way everyone on scene responded, from breaking up the fight to assisting Mills.

Blackburn credited the Greybull Police Department for the response of one of its officers, Shannon Armstrong, to the scene, and the Basin Police Department for keeping watch over Greybull while the Greybull officer was in Shell.

Martin, too, credited all of the emergency responders for their quick arrival on scene.

Anita Mills said Tuesday that when she arrived at the bar after the fight she found her husband lying on the floor “with his large intestines hanging out.” The aforementioned EMT was by his side, rendering aid.

Tim lost a lot of blood — more than a pint, said Anita.

“He has an infection, which they say is normal in a situation like this, so they are giving him antibiotics,” she said. “When the knife went in, it broke the inner lining of his abdomen. It also ripped away a piece of his liver, so they needed to repair that too.”

Tim also suffered a bruised pancreas during the altercation, Anita said.

Stewart Anderson straightens the memory bricks that have already been sold at the Greybull chamber office.

by nathan oster

With the reconstruction of Greybull’s downtown intersection scheduled for late spring, the Greybull Area Chamber of Commerce is making one final push to sell more of the “memory bricks” that serve as tributes to the men and women who made the town what it is today.

Now stacked neatly up against a wall in the chamber office, the bricks will be installed as part of the “bump outs” that will be going in at Greybull Avenue’s intersections with Fifth and Sixth Streets.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation has yet to award the contract for the work, but a spokesman said at the end of 2011 that the street project is definitely going to happen this year, most like in the late summer and early spring.

The “memory brick” project was launched in the late 1990s as a way of raising money for the chamber of commerce.  To date, 237 bricks have been sold.  There is going to be room for about 100 more at the two intersections, according to Sue Anderson, the executive director of the Greybull Area Chamber of Commerce.

IF you would like to purchase a “memory brick” in honor of a loved one, the cost is $100. Just contact Anderson at the chamber office. To those considering it, Anderson says keep in mind, “The fewer the words, the larger the type.”

by nathan oster

When Wyoming lawmakers convene in Cheyenne next month for the start of their budget session, they will find waiting for them several pieces of legislation that have the potential to greatly impact school districts around the state.

Rep. Elaine Harvey, who represents House District 26, told a group of school officials from Greybull and Basin last week that there is great uncertainty over a Joint Education Committee proposal to change the cost adjustment formula for calculating the wages of school employees.

Currently, districts are able to use either the Wyoming Cost of Living Index (WCLI) or the Hedonic Index to calculate funding for employee salaries, which allows them to choose the one that most benefits their district.

The proposal will require administrators to use only the Hedonic model, which favors bigger cities and is unfavorable to rural communities.  Under the proposal, 31 of the state’s 48 districts, including all four in Big Horn County, would see substantial cuts in what they can afford to pay teachers and other staff.

The four districts in Big Horn County would take a hit of about $1 million in total, with District 1 (Rocky Mountain/Burlington) in line to lose $322,492, District 2 (Lovell) $274,574, District 3 (Greybull) $122,174 and District 4 (Basin) $103,802.

Harvey said she opposes the change and is “shocked the education committee is even entertaining the idea.

“I believe if we continue down that road, we will end up in court,” she said. “I can’t support using the Hedonic index.  The Wyoming Cost of Living Index is a much better index for us to be using.”

Gary Meredith, superintendent of the Greybull school district, asked whether support for the change may be waning among legislators, pointing out that he has heard “very little in the press about it” since news of the plan broke.

Harvey cautioned Meredith and others about believing that.

“There is a group (in the Legislature) that feels like our schools are getting too much money,” she said, adding that members of that group, most of whom are relatively new to Cheyenne, may eventually find it tough to get re-elected this November.

“There are too many of us with a memory of the court case, which happened right before I took office,” she said. “We remember the buzzwords — and Hedonic was one of them.  I think it will take some of us standing at the microphone to remind (others) about the sanctions and where that took us.”

Officials from both districts asked Harvey what could be done to ensure that lawmakers keep the status quo and not switch to the Hedonic index.

She said she believes the Hedonic index is “a fight worth fighting,” but emphasized that school officials should tread lightly. “Twist the arm, don’t break it,” is how she put it, adding that consolidation of school districts still lies close beneath the surface.

“We had a group of bullies one year who wanted to push consolidation, and for (24) districts in the state, it would have been the end. The message was, ‘We’re going to consolidate, we’re going to save money.’”

Harvey said some of the “old guard” in Cheyenne still feels that way.  “This may end up stimulating the discussion about whether there needs to be consolidation,” she said. “I’m willing to vote how my constituents tell me to vote.  When you tell me you want to consolidate, I will push for it. So far, that’s not what I’ve heard. That’s not what people want.”

Other issues

The session is scheduled to begin on Feb. 13.  Harvey said she expects redistricting to dominate the session.

She said she hopes the Big Horn Basin will retain its nine total representatives. “When we stand together on an issue, we can compete with Casper, Cheyenne, and Gillette,” she said. “Very similar to how the Sheridan and Johnson county contingency, also with nine, is able to speak for their interests.”

Harvey said redistricting discussion will start in the House of Representatives.  That’s because each Senate district is comprised of two House districts.  So once House district lines are tweaked and drawn, the Senate districts will fall into place.

“It’s been ugly so far,” she said. “I don’t see a happy situation.”

Harvey said the agricultural industry is going to be “under-represented” because most of the population growth has occurred in areas of the state where the minerals industry is exploding.

School districts are also closely monitoring proposed legislation that would hold teachers and administrators more accountable for how well students perform in school, including on the Proficiency Assessment for Wyoming Students (PAWS).

Harvey said many legislators “don’t feel like we’re getting enough bang for the buck,” but that she herself is “not ready to buy into all of the accountability pieces.

“I get concerned when money is tied so strongly to that,” she said. “Teaching is one of the hardest professions to link performance with outcomes.  Teachers aren’t the only component.”

Harvey also fielded questions about the changing of the guard within the School Facilities Commission and also about the high amount of staffing turnover in the Department of Education.  Among the people who have left office since Cindy Hill took over the post is Roger Clark, who formerly served as Greybull’s superintendent of schools. Harvey said she too is concerned about the turnover in the Department of Education.

In Greybull, school and town officials have been working together to build a new swimming pool — or at the very least, to put the issue of whether to proceed on the general election ballot this fall.

Harvey said some obstacles would first need to be overcome.

The Greybull district is allowed to use only 10 percent of its major maintenance dollars from the state on “enhancements” like the swimming pool. And in Greybull’s case, she said, “You’ won’t have the full 10 percent because you have excess square footage elsewhere.”

Another challenge deals with funding for the operation and maintenance of pools moving forward.

“If you are going to use a pool as part of the school inventory, they are now requiring that you put to paper what the life of the pool is expected to be, 20 years, and how you are going to fund that maintenance for 20 years,” Harvey said. “You need to have a slush fund already set up, or have a funding stream of some kind, with agreements and signatures in place.

“If you want to use county consensus money, for example, you would need the signatures of county commissioners. Whatever the funding stream is, it will have to be for the life of the pool.”

Owner Marie Gemmel works in her flower shop on Tuesday, Jan. 24.

by nathan oster

It was with appreciation for her customers and a hint of sadness earlier this week that Marie Gemmel announced her intent to close Western Floral, one of only two florist shops in the community and a mainstay in downtown Greybull for more than a half century.

The store has priced everything to sell — 50 percent off or more — in the hopes of moving the merchandise quickly.  Gemmel doesn’t know when the business’s final day will be, just that it’ll be soon.

“Tell everyone I appreciate their business, and I’ll miss them,” Gemmel said Tuesday afternoon as she and one of her employees, Pat Shepard, sat in the shop’s back room where they had spent so much of their time preparing floral arrangements over the year.

Gemmel took over the store exactly four years ago, reopening it in January of 2008 after it had been closed for several months while her daughter-in-law and the previous manager, Lyna Smith, was transitioning to a new job at Davies Machine Shop.

At the time, Gemmel acknowledged that she was rolling the dice, but believed that there was support for two florist shops in the community.  And for a time, there was. Gemmel said the Christmas of 2010 was “very good” for Western Floral and that the business continued to plug along until last summer.

That’s when the slowdown began.  Gemmel had no explanation for it.  She said the decline in sales continued into the fall and through this past Christmas, which she described as a “terrible” one for the shop.

Last week, after considerable soul search and consulting with her accountant, the decision was made to close.

Despite having to close, Gemmel said it was a good experience and that her favorite memory was “all the people I got to meet.”  She doesn’t know what she will do next in her life — just that she intends to continue in the work force.

She has spent most of her lifetime working with flowers.  More than 50 years, in fact.  She worked for a time with Oscar Shoemaker in 1969, as well as for Jim and Mary Raffl, Billie Hamilton and Smith during their respective runs guiding the business.

Geraline Bachman owns the building, which also houses a fitness center.

If no one steps forward to revive Western Floral this time, it will bring to a close one of the most successful businesses in the town’s history. According to “Glimpses of Greybull’s Past,” Western Floral opened shop in its present location in the early 1950s.

It came about because of a swap.  Prior to that, Western Floral had been in the “Engle building” at the corner of Greybull Avenue and Sixth Street.  But when Larry Probst purchased the building, he swapped spaces with Shoemaker, who moved into Western Floral’s current location (and where Probst had been operating).