GILLETTE, Wyo.— Two ballot proposals that will be decided in the upcoming election in November got the spotlight in a town hall meeting at the Open Door Church in Gillette on Monday evening.
Hosted by the group John Patriot of Northeast Wyoming, the meeting had one speaker dedicated to two of three measures on November ballots. One measure, concerning infrastructure and housing development construction in Wright, was not discussed.
The measures would both be funded by an additional 1% tax, and were approved for the ballot by county commissioners earlier this year.
The first speaker of the evening, Campbell County Land Board member Jerry Means, gave attendees a presentation on the proposal to expand facilities at CAM-PLEX. In his presentation, Means emphasized that he wasn’t trying to influence people to vote one way or the other on the initiative, but sought to explain the plan in detail in order to educate voters ahead of the election.
The project does come with a hefty price tag, though, and Means said he had personal reservations about spending and additional taxes in the current economic climate.
“In our community right now, 80 to 90 percent of our community is struggling because of inflation. it wasn’t something we brought on, it was something that our country brought on, and we’re having to deal with it,” Means said.
Inflation also has the potential to balloon final costs for the project were it to pass as a ballot measure. The initial project proposals from the architect firm Populous include a laundry list of new upgrades like new jockey and paddock arenas for the racetrack and a hockey rink with an NHL-sized ice sheet and seating for over 1,000.
As he spoke, Means shared detailed mock-up images and concepts from the project on a projector. The meeting was also videotaped, and will be posted online in the coming days. Even with the impressive detail on the design, Means said it was up to voters to decide on the project themselves.
Many add-ons, such as new tunnels between parts of the race track and stall areas, have been cut from the project in an effort to keep the sticker price from rising even more. In total, the project would cost just shy of $208 million, which would take an estimated 10 years to generate from the 1% tax. Taking a loan from the state would also be part of the funding structure, Means said.
A big part of the project proposal would be to create large indoor arenas for events such as the National High School Finals Rodeo, along with adding over 800 horse stalls to the property. Creating a lucrative new facility had the potential to draw in new vendors, but Means said in previous dealings that CAM-PLEX has left money on the table by not charging rodeo vendors for stall use, calling it a “nonstop failure.”
By the end of Means’s presentation, which took up a majority of the meeting time, those in the audience seemed firmly set against the proposal altogether. The sentiment carried over into the presentation by Jack Clary, member of the Campbell County Planning Commission.
Clary and audience members alike questioned the necessity of the proposal to replace the Gurley Overpass with a new bridge, even though previous studies have recommended replacement as a cheaper alternative to repairing the aging bridge in the long term. The latest studies estimate the bridge could last as long as 2028.
Clary admitted that he had not had time to overview the information packet he had obtained earlier on Monday in full, but shared the study findings — which were dated from Oct. 30 of last year — on the projector for the audience.
He also said that regardless of the study details or costs, safety was paramount when it came to decisions about the bridge. “From a safety standpoint, if I could find it in this document that this bridge is going to cave in in two years, I’ll be putting more money in my taxes to fund it, I guarantee you,” Clary said, “because I don’t want anybody getting hurt, I don’t want anybody killed.”
Meeting documents from the meeting were not published online by the John Patriot group, but will be attached to this story if they become available.
