Ice Cream and candidates

On Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Hanna, candidates running for State Senate, Carbon County Sheriff and Carbon County Assessor joined candidates for Hanna mayor and town council for a meet and greet ice cream social.

Candidates met potential voters upstairs of the church over cookies, slices of pie, ice cream, taco soup and hot chocolate.

When the candidates moved downstairs to speak and answer questions, all of them commented on the excellent food provided and thanked the church for having them.

Lindsey West, candidate for Carbon County Assessor, spoke first to the audience.

West is certified as a property tax appraiser and served as the deputy assessor for Carbon County.

"I am running for the office because I care about Carbon County residents and think that they deserve an assessor who is willing to put them first."

Lee Ann Stephenson, State Senate District 11 candidate, was the next to address the audience.

"District 11, for you that don't know, is the most rural district in the lower 48 states," Stephenson explained. "Most know me as the co-owner of Lazy Acres Campground in Riverside for the last 12 years, but for 27 years, I was an employee of the state, working with the Department of Family Services, the Attorney General's Office and the Division of Victim Services."

She said the district had many different municipalities with different needs and that is why she made it her goal to attend a town council meeting in each of the municipalities. "I believe what works in Hanna or Encampment does not necessarily translate in Cheyenne. I want to get a feel of the different issues facing each community so that is why I have been visiting them all."

Stephenson hopes to bring several issues to the state legislature including keeping public lands in public hands, keeping government out of women's health decisions and supporting local school districts.

"I am also believe in strongly supporting seniors," Stephenson said. "We are a unique county with all the municipalities having senior centers and they are extremely important to keep up."

Stephenson said she was a strong proponent for tourism and supporting it throughout the district.

Lois Buchanan, candidate for Hanna mayor spoke next. She gave her background first.

"I came to Hanna as a certified police officer and EMT in 1986 and it gave me real exposure to public service," Buchanan said. "Later, I was owner of a business for 22 years called Dingy Dan's Bar and Grill and I saw a lot of changes happen in the town."

Buchanan said she had love for the community, having served on South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Services board. Currently she serves on the Wee Folks Day Training School board. She is also a school bus driver for Carbon County District No. 2.

"My main goal is to kind of cement and glue our town back together," Buchanan said. "I don't want to go in and make all these changes, changes, changes, but I want to work with what we have and improve what we have got and get residents involved. We have ordinances that are on the books and they need to be enforced."

She said another important goal was to build stronger relationships with communities around Hanna.

The impact funds coming to Hanna, Buchanan, said should be spent on infrastructure such as sewer, water and roads. She would also want to see funds go to the Hanna Recreation Center because she believes it will be strongly impacted with users.

Jon Ostling, candidate for Hanna mayor, spoke after Buchanan. Ostling said he grew up in a small town, worked in one for four years so, although he worked for large companies a total of 32 years, he understood the needs of small towns.

He said his experience of renovating a property in Hanna that had not been resided in for 25 years gave him exposure to how the permitting and ordinances worked in town. He said the permitting process was challenging. Ostling said the town council meetings felt like they were not trying to help with the process for rezoning the property.

He agreed with Buchanan the ordinances needed to be enforced. Ostling said he has been in talks with other communities to get an idea on how they improved their environment. On a local level, he had talked to town residents that wanted to turn the land owned by Carbon County District No. 2 into a park.

"I have been walking around and have probably talked to several hundred people and I have got over 20 pages of suggestions and ways that people would like to connect with the school and maybe have for that park an FFA (Future Farmers America) greenhouse that then could grow things that we could use and we could purchase from them," Ostling said. "When I was growing up everyone was connected by how they assisted work with other people."

He said he would like to see the impact funds be used on the recreation center by improving the parking lot, putting solar panels on the roof to help with utility bills and to help bring community residents from Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain to the center along with the influx of construction workers.

Michael Zedicker, candidate for town council spoke next. He said the water meter and billing system was all over the place.

"I don't know if there is an accurate understanding of how it all works together," Zedicker said. "Being an IT geek, because I am one, I would like to figure it out and solve this problem, because it is solvable."

He said the community had challenges internally and he looked forward to fixing them. Zedicker wanted to use his experiences to help the town.

He said he would attend town board meetings and also the Carbon County boards.

On the abandoned vehicles and housing, Zedicker said property owners needed to be responsible. He also said he wanted help the town with IT problems where possible.

There were audience members that said the water bills were hard to understand and Zedicker said he would work to make this not a problem.

Archie Roybal, Carbon County Sheriff candidate was the last to speak.

"I am running for Carbon County Sheriff because I truly believe in the office and the responsibilities that accompany this position," Roybal said. "I enjoy the challenges this position presents and helping the citizens of Carbon County."

Roybal said he has 28 years of experience and training. He is the current sheriff and is running for re-election.

"I know every facet of the Sheriff's Office from detention, to patrol, to being your current Sheriff of Carbon County," Roybal said. "I have current knowledge of this position plus experience in budgeting and the ability to lead others."

Roybal got the job of Carbon County Sheriff when Jerry Colson retired in January.

Roybal said. "I have four statutory requirements; preserve the peace; maintain the jail; perform civil process and attend the courts along with upholding the law for all citizens."Roybal said he will provide staff with technology, training and remain fiscally diverse. He said he will continue to collaborate with other law enforcement agencies, establish creative scheduling for coverage and provide assistance for public school safety education for all of Carbon County.

He said a problem for law enforcement was getting qualified and certified persons that would move and stay in Carbon County. Roybal said, although it is difficult, he is having success. He said if the county spent money on training on these candidates, contracts were an option. If someone left after getting trained, he felt the person should reimburse the county.

Roybal said he was glad to come to these types of forums to connect with the voters and listen to their concerns.

The audience thanked all the candidates for coming.