Meet Worland City Councilmember Rebecca George

WORLAND - “I just wanted to be a public servant,” said Rebecca George, who was sworn into her first term on Worland’s City Council on Jan 3, 2023. “I had the opportunity and willingness to serve, so I did.”

George was born in Canada. Growing up, her father was an ag teacher in Wyoming until 1999, when her family moved to Idaho, where George graduated high school. She earned her bachelor’s degree in ag education and started teaching in Lovell right out of college. George also taught for two years in Meeteetse. She and her husband, Richard George, managed his family farm, George Dairy Farm, between Cody and Powell, for about six months before striking out on their own and farming for ten years.

After selling their farm, the Georges moved around for a bit before settling in Worland in November of 2021, where Richard found work with Natural Gas Processing Co. and Rebecca began substitute teaching. Five of the Georges’ six children attend school in Worland. “Worland is a wonderful place so far,” Rebecca George said. She was able to make the one-year residency requirement to join City Council, and was happy to do so.

“I could now do City Council because I now lived in a city, and I wanted to just be part of it,” George explained. “Nobody had filed. I guess it’s not difficult winning an uncontested race, but it’s sad that it was uncontested, or it would have remained vacant. The seat I had had remained vacant for almost a year while they waited for the elections to come through.”

Previously, George served as precinct councilwoman for the Park County Republican Party and as a member of the Cody school board. Of her time on the council, George said, “I’m enjoying it, it’s baptism by fire, it’s quick, there’s so many things I don’t know but I’ll learn along the way, and it’s just being principled enough that you’re going to work through whatever comes in front of you.”

George is a member of the recently formed Airport Committee, overseeing projects at Worland Municipal Airport. “We are trying to figure out how to clean up the airport and make it more business-friendly, user-friendly,” George said.

She noted that another upcoming issue will be the potential dissolution of the Joint Powers Board overseeing Worland Aquatic Center. “That’s a hard one, because you follow the finances, and that’s what we’re all trying to do on the Council right now, and even Commissioners as well, trying to figure out how to make those work,” she said, in favor of making sure the pool stays public.

“I love working with our department heads, they seem to know what they’re doing, and that’s what the government does. We’re just overseers, we don’t need to micromanage. Our department heads are doing really well,” George added.

“In the name of progress, I’m not all in favor of all of it. I moved to Worland because it’s nice and simple and quiet. I’m OK with that. I know we want to see some more storefront properties, and if we can that would be great, but we’re kind of in a technology era where [storefronts are] not common anymore so it’s kind of hard bringing businesses in to do that,” George said.

Learning and serving the public are George’s main goals as a councilmember. She asked for feedback from constituents on what they would like to see in their city. “My phone is always open, email too,” she said, with contact information available at cityofworland.org.