On December 18th I was invited to help judge and critique student presentations in Mrs. Lisa Moss’s government class at LVHS. This is the second year I have been asked to participate. It is fun and impressive to participate in this activity.

On December 24th I meet with Kelsey Beck, the director of the Popo Aggie Conservation District along with board members Tim Wilson and Arlen Lancaster to visit about issues prior to the legislative session. They expressed concerns on the requirements to address public information requests, wanting clarification to make sure they are complying with the request and yet protecting private information of those receiving grants. The second concern was the response time requirements. Later in the week when meeting with Dubois Conservation District and the Lower Wind River Conservation District I heard similar concerns. I reached out to Wyoming’s new Attorney General, Bridgett Hill to see if her office could provide any guidance. Attorney General responded that there is training available to conservation districts and with new laws on the table on providing public information she has a staff member in place to help educate conservation districts on the issues.

While meeting with citizens from around Fremont County on the 27th of December, 3 students from Pathfinder High School in Lander met with us to answer questions regarding the bill they have coming before the legislature this year. Alyssa Woody, Acaisha LeBeau, and Madison Slinkard who are in Mr. Chip Woolwine’s science class are proposing the state name the Tiger Salamander as the official State Anphibian. They were very convincing in their arguments, to the point that now in addition to Senator Case being the prime sponsor of the bill, myself and Representative Salazar have signed on as co-sponsors. I look forward to seeing them in Cheyenne and the bill works it way through the process.

On December 28th, I met with Kathleen Laidlaw the director of Fremont County Health and her staff to discuss the implementation of prevention responsabilities now taken on by the county and funded by the Department of Health. The new plan takes some coordination and planning to make sure the prevention dollars are directed most appropriately such as suicide prevention, alcohol, drug, and tobacco prevention and education. The effort is well underway in Fremont County.