News Briefs

Winter coat giveaway is Nov. 10
The Big Horn County Child Protection Team and New Life Church of Powell will hold a winter coat giveaway through the Greybull Foster Closet on Friday, Nov. 10 at 1-5 p.m.
The Greybull closet is located at 1017 N. Seventh Street in Greybull. Free new and gently-used winter clothing will be available for children and adults.
To donate, call 307-202-1166.

NHS holds winter clothing drive
Greybull High School National Honor Society members are collecting new or gently-used winter wear for a winter clothing drive.
Coats, gloves, hats and additional clothing can be brought to the GHS office until Thursday, Nov. 9. For questions or further information, contact (307) 765-2537.

Yellowstone visitation soars
JACKSON (WNE) — Yellowstone National Park hosted 838,458 recreational visits in September, a 48% increase from a year earlier and a 21% increase over September 2019.
“We compare 2023 visitation to 2019 visitation since 2019 was pre-COVID and the subsequent years until 2023 included unusual visitation trends due to COVID (2020, 2021) and the historic flood event in 2022 that closed the park for about two weeks in June,” the park said in a news release.
So far in 2023, the park has hosted more than 4.16 million recreational visits, up 38% from 2022 and up 9% from 2019.

Quality high in beet crop; harvest now 70% done
POWELL (WNE) — Continuing favorable fall weather is moving the sugar beet harvest in the Lovell factory district nearly three-quarters of the way to the finish line. If anything, it’s been a little too warm.
This has slowed the harvest some, said Ric Rodriguez, Heart Mountain grower and a member of the Western Sugar Cooperative board.
“As of today (Wednesday), Lovell is close to 70% complete,” Rodriguez said. “Depending on the weather, most growers will be finishing up by next week.”
Sugar beet yields are reported close to the projected 27.8 tons per acre, he added.
Sugar content of delivered beets is running in the 18% range, “so it’s close to an average crop for the Lovell district.”
Quality across the board is a bright spot.
“We are having excellent quality this year in Lovell, which translates to more bags of sugar produced,” said Rodriguez.
Factory performance at Lovell and over the Western Cooperative four-state region has been strong.
“All of the factories are running very well this year,” he said.

Secretary of state pursuing initiative to limit property tax
CHEYENNE (WNE) — Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray has provided petitions to the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner’s Exemption,” which was submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Pursuant to Wyoming law, the people may propose and enact laws by initiative upon completion of the requirements set forth in W.S. 22-24-301. Once the first set of petition forms are provided to the sponsors by the Secretary of State, they have 18 months to gather the requisite number of signatures from qualified registered voters, as required by the Wyoming Constitution, and submit to the Secretary of State’s Office for review and verification.
“The people’s right to propose and enact laws by initiative to address fundamental issues, such as property tax limits, is pivotal to our state,” Gray said in a statement. “At the Secretary of State’s Office, we take our role in the initiative process very seriously, and will work diligently to ensure the ‘People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner’s Exemption’ is processed efficiently and in accordance with Wyoming law.”