DAILY NEWS photo by Lee Lockhart
Co-valedictorian in Ten Sleep, Kaitlyn Jones delivered part of her message to the class and audience during Sunday’s Commencement exercises, in song with teacher Justin Waterworth helping out on the guitar.

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State begins anti-drunk
driving campaign

By Trevor Brown
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
CHEYENNE – Billboards, posters in restrooms and radio spots will soon be warning motorists of the deadly consequences of drunken driving.
Gov. Matt Mead announced a new statewide multimedia campaign Monday that seeks to reduce the number of drunken-driving injuries and deaths in the state.
The Governor’s Council on Impaired Driving is using $600,000 in federal grants to pay for the print and radio media buy.
Mead said the state has made improvements in recent years to better target drunken drivers.
But he said Wyoming’s DUI fatality rate continues to outpace the national average. And he said the 41 people who died in alcohol-related crashes last year in the state is an unacceptable number.
“The purpose of this media campaign is to save lives by stopping people from making the decision to drive when they are illegally impaired by alcohol,” he said. “Because the cost of that decision can be innocent Wyoming lives.”
Mead said the campaign is designed to be “hard hitting” to show the consequences of drunken driving.
One of the planned billboards, for instance, shows a visibly upset woman getting her mug shot taken for a police booking photograph.
“Think this is bad?” reads the placard she is holding. “Wait until you learn you killed someone.”
Another part of the campaign will focus on the eight University of Wyoming cross-country athletes who were killed in 2011 when their vehicle was hit by a drunken driver.
The billboards are expected to be up within the next week in “high-risk counties,” including Laramie County.
The radio spots will begin May 27 and run until February. They will run on multiple stations throughout the state and will be played 984 times in Cheyenne alone.
First lady Carol Mead will also lead a related outreach effort to educate teenagers about the dangers of abusing alcohol.
That campaign will be rolled out later this year.
Mike Reed, the coordinator for the Governor’s Council on Impaired Driving, said there is no “silver bullet” to stop people from driving while impaired.
But he said educational outreach campaigns have been successful in other states.
“You have to try to create a social norm or top-of-mind awareness that drinking while driving is going to cost you in the end,” he said.
Mead agreed that changing the culture and perceptions of drinking in the state are key to long-term changes.
He said he remembers when seat belts were not frequently used and when people use to describe distances between the state as a “six-pack or 12-pack” trips – a reference to the number of beers a driver would consume during the trip.

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Work session focuses on extra $240K

By Jeanette Johnson
Staff Writer

WORLAND – During Monday night’s Worland City Council work session, Mayor Dave Duffy told the council members the supplemental budget will receive an additional $240,000 to work with this year, boosting the total figures from the state to $740,000. The money was allocated by the legislature, he said.
While it’s nice to have the extra money, it comes with strings attached, he said. They can only be used for one-time needs, not for salaries, personnel or payment of expenses like utilities, he said.
The evening meeting gave the members an opportunity to talk about upcoming needs, but any decisions will have to be made in a city council meeting.
Councilman Keith Gentzler brought up the issue with street lights that aren’t working around town. Duffy said Rocky Mountain Power will fix them, but the company relies on city employees, especially the police officers who work the night shifts, to let them know where lights are needed.
All of the night shift workers are aware of the necessity and are doing that, Chief of Police Gabe Elliott said.
Other areas of discussion were questions about street repairs and valley gutter replacement.
“We did reduce the work on the streets because of the loss of the one-cent tax,” Clerk/Treasurer Tracy Glanz said.
Conversation about membership in the Worland/Ten Sleep Chamber of Commerce and Washakie Development Association went on for a time. The cost would be $800 and $1,500 respectively to join, Duffy said, asking the members how they felt.
Councilwoman Mandy Horath, who participated in the meeting via phone due to an out-of-town meeting she had to attend, said participation would give the city voting privileges in what goes on in the two organizations.
Addressing the other requests for funding in the budget, Duffy said the position of the Worland Community Center Complex is they have enough to get through the year and didn’t make a specific request. In the past they have relied on the one-cent tax.
It will be up to the council, during a regular meeting, to determine how much money to grant to the various entities that made the requests, he said.

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