Riverton High School is one of the only high schools in the state without an auditorium, the school was built at the time when construction was funded locally and the planned auditorium was deleted from the project in a cost saving decison. Fremont county legislators have been trying for three years to set aside enough funds in the budget or capital constructions bill to build an auditorium at the school, these attempts were unsuccessful when we didn’t pass a capital construction bill a couple of years ago and last year when we thought American Recue Plan Act (ARAP) funds could be used to fund the auditorium’s construction only to receive US Treasury guidance prohibiting the use of those funds for that purpose. This year when the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC), where I serve as one of the committee members, started the budget hearings I worked with the Select Committee on School Facilities to make sure they had again included the auditorium as part of their budget request. As the budget bill moved through the legislative process, we were able to keep the auditorium in place and I am please to report that Fremont County School District #25 will now have the funding to add an auditorium to the High School.

I also worked with Superintendent Flanagan to ensure the funds previously withheld in the capital construction bill for the remediation of the Tonken property was put back in and allows the district to move forward with the demolition efforts on that property, which would reduced the major maintenance burden on the district for those buildings.

There is also good news for the longtime efforts at Central Wyoming College to get funding to build on their property in Jackson. This funding effort has also encounter numerous detours over the past several years, but with the help of the Jackson legislators Senator Mike Gierau, and Representative Andy Schwartz who serve with me on the JAC we kept the funding in place this year and look forward to the enhanced presence of the college in Teton County.