By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.

The increased cost of the proposed Alkali Dam near Hyattville has rendered the project “close to not making sense,” the speaker of the Wyoming House told state water developers earlier this year.

Rep. Albert Sommers (R-Pinedale) made that assessment May 8 after hearing that the estimate to build the 100-foot high, half-mile long earthen structure is now $113 million. That’s more than three times the $35 million cost estimated in 2017.

The Alkali Dam would impound 6,000 acre feet of water that would be used by 33 irrigators for late-season irrigation of 13,000 acres. Wyoming would lend the benefitted landowners a total of $2.1 million and pay for the rest.

The Wyoming Water Development Office, which is designing the project for a private irrigation district, is having difficulty justifying the expense.

“I think it’s important to try to understand the price of what we’re doing, because, ultimately, that comes back to the cost-benefit ratio,” Sommers said at the meeting.

Cost-benefit rules govern how much the state can pay.

“I’m all for doing water projects,” Sommers said. “But it’s got to make sense in the end, too. And this is getting dangerously close to not making sense.”

$127 million above estimates

Alkali Creek is one of two proposed Big Horn County dams whose original cost estimates are now collectively about $127 million off-base. The Upper Leavitt Reservoir expansion is estimated to cost $89 million, up from the original $39.8 million.

The state outlines what “makes sense,” as Sommers put it, in its criteria for funding reservoirs. The Wyoming Water Development Commission can give grants “for the full cost of the storage capacity [of any given reservoir] but not to exceed public benefits as computed by the commission.”

As computed in May “the public benefits [amount to] only $104 [million]-$105 million,” for the now-$113 million Alkali Creek project, Water Development Office Director Jason Mead told lawmakers and water commission members.

The cost-benefit ratio could be improved if some of the project’s costs are attributed to elements other than the irrigation supply itself, according to discussions at the meeting.

A principal example is the $30 million cost of converting a ditch that would fill the reservoir into a buried pipeline. “Should [$30 million] be attributed to the project — raising the cost and putting the public-benefit ratio at risk — or counted as mitigation?” Mead asked as he outlined potential accounting options.

Another way of improving the cost-benefit ratio would be to attribute more value to benefits, irrigators said. The Water Development Commission should be liberal in its assessment of public benefits, including birdwatching, irrigators said.

That could be tricky.

“I understand there’s things we can’t necessarily quantify — birdwatching and things like that,” Mead said. “We can always get creative on those things. We’re just trying to be consistent with how we’ve looked at other projects.”

To reduce state costs, Wyoming sought but failed to get a federal grant to fund part of the development. The Bureau of Reclamation rejected the request “because of concerns with economics,” among other things, Derrick Thompson, an engineer with consultant Trihydro, told the panel.

Undeterred, Wyoming is seeking another federal grant from funds earmarked for a “watershed protection and flood prevention program,” he said. It’s uncertain whether an irrigation project would qualify for the program, let alone prevail in a competitive application process, Thompson said.

Cecil Mullins’ vision

For years, Worland native and irrigator Cecil Richard Mullins watched the nearby Nowood River, fed by runoff from the Bridger and Bighorn mountains, swell in the spring and dry up in the fall. In 2007, he “wanted to figure out a way where we could capture that early spring runoff and actually put it to use when the river went dry,” Mead told the panel.

Mead met Mullins and his fellow irrigators and told them it would cost $1,000 to apply for a state-funded watershed study, a necessary beginning for any reservoir construction.

“Everybody was pulling out $20 bills by the time we got done to come up with $1,000,” Mead said of the meeting.

Mullins died in 2019, but his $20 investment has grown. “We’ve spent probably $5 million over the last however many years it’s been — since 2010 — to get to this point,” Mead told the panel.

“We’re about 50% into the design,” he said, “and needing to acquire easements.”

But landowners on whose property various ditches, canals, pipelines or the reservoir itself would lie have asked for design changes — like the $30 million ditch-to-pipeline conversion.

Landowners at the upper end of the reservoir are also worried about public use of the reservoir near their property. Therefore developers would build an embankment to impound a small pool at that end of the reservoir.

The pool would provide “some additional benefits to those landowners to offset some of the impacts,” Trihydro’s Thompson said. Yet “we’re still struggling to come to agreements with many of the landowners,” his Trihydro colleague, Mark Donner, said.

Irrigators’ share

Inflation, geologic surprises, lighter-than-expected embankment material and the design changes add to costs. But irrigators have not pledged to pay more than their $2.1 million loan.

“That’s what everybody voted on,” said John Joyce, an irrigation district member. “The operating costs are starting to mount here,” he said, ticking off maintenance, annual rent for federal property and other things.

“I’m not saying it can’t be higher,” he said of irrigators’ contributions, increasing the debt would require a vote among district irrigators that hasn’t been proposed.

Water Development Commission Vice Chair Lee Craig told irrigators the state will do “everything we can to try to help you.

“But there’s certain things we can’t do or certain things that you guys will have to do,” Craig said. “And hopefully, working together, we can get through this.”

This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

A trio of depraved armed robbers posing as deliverymen barged into a Colorado family’s home and attacked two children in what could be an alarming new trend, an expert and police say. 

The kids’ anguished parents – who were not home at the time of the June 12 home invasion – witnessed the fake delivery men enter their house on a Ring doorbell.

The men allegedly attacked the babysitter and assaulted two children – a 14-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy, according to a release from the Aurora Police Department.

“It’s an old crime with a new twist,” said retired NYPD Sgt. Joseph Giacalone, who is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “These guys are always looking for a new way to get into your house, and I’m sure police are very worried about whether this is a growing pattern.”

BEWARE OF THESE DOORBELL CAMERAS THAT COULD BE COMPROMISED BY CYBERCRIMINALS

A tactic criminals once used was trying to gain access to a home by posing as utility workers, Giacalone said. However, this approach is no longer effective with workers wearing distinct uniforms and carrying identification cards, he added. 

The terrifying Colorado home invasion that took place about 10 miles from downtown Denver is the latest in a string of robberies involving fake delivery workers. 

The ordeal unfolded a little after 8:30 p.m., when one of the suspects approached the door wearing a bright orange vest and carrying a box, according to footage obtained by KDVR.

“They were dressed in construction vests and claimed they were there to drop a package off. The suspects were holding a package and waited for the residents of the home to open the door,” the Aurora Police Department said. “When they did, the suspects forced their way in and robbed the family.”

WATCH VIDEO OF ARMED ROBBERS BURST INTO COLORADO HOME:

One of the people inside the home opened the door slightly, and the man wearing the vest immediately pushed his way in.

He then began yelling at two accomplices in Spanish that he had gained access.

Ring camera footage showed one of the men holding what appeared to be a gun in his hand as he barged into the home and another suspect exiting a car that was idling outside to join them.

The teen girl was touched inappropriately during the roughly one-minute ransacking, which netted the thieves jewelry and cash, her mother told KDVR.

COLORADO POLICE PLAN TO USE DRONES AS FIRST RESPONDERS, CALLING THE TECHNOLOGY ‘FUTURE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT’

Colorado parents of two children who were assaulted after a terrifying home invasion on June 12. The boy is shown sobbing and crying for his mother. (KDVR)

The babysitter and young boy were also shoved to the ground during the break-in. 

The homeowners called police after being alerted to the intruders by their Ring camera.

The kids’ mother said her son – who can be seen crying after police arrive – is badly traumatized by the incident.

Their mother said she was deeply frightened by the attack and that she fears long-term damage to her kids.

CALIFORNIA BURGLARIES COMMITTED BY SOUTH AMERICAN THEFT RING INVOLVE HIDDEN CAMERAS IN SHRUBBERY: AUTHORITIES

The Colorado home was targeted by armed burglars posing as deliverymen. (KDVR)

Police departments across the country have warned homeowners to be careful about opening their doors to strangers after a spate of home invasions.

A burglar posing as a DoorDash driver was killed last year in Indiana when the homeowner pulled out a gun and shot the intruder, FOX59 reported.

In November, a pair of armed robbers posed as deliverymen and forced their way into a New York City home to steal $70,000 in valuables. The victims were bound in duct tape, according to the NYPD.

A fake deliveryman donning an orange fluorescent vest and clutching a manila envelope tried to storm into a Connecticut home with a gun last year, but the owner shoved him and slammed the door.

FAMILY FINDS HIDDEN CAMERA IN CARNIVAL CRUISE STATEROOM

Ring camera shows an armed man posing as a delivery worker in Connecticut after the homeowner thwarted the attempted burglary by shoving him from his porch and slamming the door. (East Haven Police Department / LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)

Giacalone said that the most important precaution to “prevent something terrible from happening to your family” is to verify the identity of the delivery person. 

“If someone knocks on the door saying you need to sign for a package request to see their ID, whether through a window, a peephole or a door camera,” he suggested.

Homeowners, he added, should also peer out their windows to ensure there is a UPS or Amazon truck parked nearby.

Fox News Digital’s Emmett Jones contributed to this report.

The 2024 All Star reserves were announced on Sunday and the San Francisco Giants had two players named to the National League team. The ace of the staff, Logan Webb, and young star outfielder, Heliot Ramos, both earned their first career All Star selections.

Webb would have made the team last season, but he pitched the Sunday before the game, meaning he had to sit out the festivities. Still, it’s surprising this is his first time making the team, but it is well deserved.

After finishing second in the NL Cy Young voting in 2023, Webb has kept his dominance and reliability going in 2024. In his runner up Cy Young campaign, the right hander lead the league with 216 innings. One of just five pitchers to throw 200 or more innings in 2023, Webb posted a 3.25 ERA and an 8.1 K/9.

He’s on track to have an extremely similar season in 2024. As it stands, he leads the league once again with 119.1 innings and has gone at least six innings in every start since May 5. His 3.09 ERA is an imporvement on last season, but his strikeout numbers are down to 7.8 K/9.

Still, there is no doubt that he was going to be one of the All Stars for the Giants and finally gets his shot at the Midsummer Classic.

Heliot Ramos was the team’s second selection, another well deserved one at that. His story this season has been different than other All Stars, so it makes for a fun story. The 24-year-old didn’t make his season debut until May 8, but has been the Giants best hitter since.

In just 53 games, the outfielder has posted 2.3 bWAR, third on the team behind Webb and Matt Chapman. With his .300/.372/.522 slashline and .894 OPS, Ramos is second on the team behind LaMonte Wade Jr. with a 158 OPS+, a mark that would be top ten in baseball if he were qualified. He’s also tied for the team lead with 12 home runs and second with 40 RBI.

It was a bit of a long road for Ramos to get starting time over the last couple of seasons, but when he finally did, he showed that he is an All Star. In fact, Ramos becomes the first homegrown Giants outfielder to make an All Star team since Chili Davis all the way back in 1986.

In a season riddled with injuries, Ramos and Webb are two players to celebrate for the team.