Wyoming
Wyoming lawmakers earmark $15 million for I-80 Green River Tunnel repairs – WyoFile
CHEYENNE–The Wyoming Legislature agreed to set aside $15 million to inspect and repair I-80 tunnels near Green River after a 26-vehicle crash earlier this month killed three people and left 18 others injured.
The Feb. 14 wreck also caused extensive damage to the westbound tunnel, including charred concrete lining and destroyed lighting and other equipment. Since then, the westbound tunnel has remained closed, forcing the eastbound tunnel to accommodate two-way traffic on part of Wyoming’s busiest interstate highway.
While the speed limit has been reduced to 35 miles per hour, Rock Springs Republican Sen. Stacy Jones said “it’s a bad situation.”
“It’s just a matter of time before we have another accident in there,” Jones said on the Senate floor as the body debated the appropriation.
“It’s created a bottleneck and we need to get this money to [Wyoming Department of Transportation,] so they can expedite the inspection and repairing of the other tunnel,” she said.
Jones alongside Sens. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, and Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, successfully brought the earmarking amendment Wednesday to
House Bill 33, “Vehicles sales and use tax distribution-highway fund.”
The $15 million is expected to be reverted to the state’s rainy day savings account, since the appropriations can only be spent if WYDOT is unable to access federal dollars. Appropriating state dollars was intended to speed up the repair and inspection process.
“So it’s really not an increase in expenditure or anything because we’re using the money that was already going to be moved over,” Rep. J.T. Larson, R-Rock Springs, said on the House floor. “It was a creative way to address the situation.”
Jones’ amendment also largely reverted the bill to its original version, which will divert a portion of vehicles sales and use taxes to the state’s highway fund on an annual basis. Those dollars are to be used for the operation, maintenance, construction and reconstruction of state highways.
For several years, lawmakers have struggled to work out a funding model for WYDOT, leaving the agency in “preservation mode” with a $400 million revenue shortfall.
While HB 33 will start to lessen the squeeze on the department, Senate Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee Chairman Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne, said there’s still work to do.
“We will need to work out long-term funding,” Pappas said on the floor.
Driskill echoed him.
“We’re going to be coming back and looking at ways we can find a way to long-term fund our highways, but this is going to get us on the right track,” he said.
After voting for the amendment, but against the bill, Casper Republican Sen. Charles Scott said he supported the prompt funding for the tunnels but has larger concerns about diverting tax revenue that would otherwise go into the general fund to the highway fund.
More specifically, Scott said the Legislature has long resisted taxing “the operations,” such as semitrucks, “that are really tearing up the roads,” and that’s been a “mistake.”
“We need to get a more fair way of funding our highways and allocate the burden of supporting those highways a little more in accordance with groups that are benefiting from it, which I think are largely not even Wyoming citizens,” Scott said.
When the bill went back to the House for concurrence, the lower chamber voted 52-2 with three excused to send it to the governor’s desk.
The Joint Transportation Committee met Thursday to discuss potential topics for the interim, or the off-season months when lawmakers meet to craft committee bills. With the approval of the Legislature’s Management Council, highway funding will be a top priority for the committee.
In both chambers, “it was very clear that funding our roads and infrastructure was a very important topic,” WYDOT Director Darin Westby told the committee. “I’m not 100% sure the Senate was in alignment but felt that the need to keep it moving forward.”
As for the Green River tunnel inspection and repair, cleanup operations have not yet started. WYDOT previously told WyoFile a safety evaluation of the tunnel needed to be completed first.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
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Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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