NIOBRARA COUNTY – The Joint Corporations Committee held a short public meeting on Tuesday to update the statewide redistricting map with more regional feedback. 

12 of the 14 members in the committee were present as eight attended via Zoom. The other four present members convened at the state capital in Cheyenne. 

Although the committee plans to have two to three more meetings before the budget session in February, most of the regions have their lines set. 

One of the most conflicted areas left to decide is Region 6 (Campbell, Crook, Weston) which has a major impact on Region 7 (Goshen, Niobrara, Converse, Platte) as well. 

The biggest issue in the region is the possibility of keeping Weston County whole. The current map has the county split between House Districts 1 and 2. The Weston County Commissioners have spoken at several public meetings including Tuesdays of the need to stay whole to ensure they can have a representative from their county. 

House District 2 was represented by Hans Hunt from Weston County for the past decade before taking a new job in the office of Senator Cynthia Lummis, and now the two current representatives (Chip Neiman and JD Williams) reside outside of the county. 

While keeping the county whole is ideal for the citizens of Weston, it would isolate the voting power of the people in Niobrara County who already have the disadvantage of being the smallest county in the state.

Chairman of the Niobrara County Commissioners Patrick Wade said combine the two counties as a whole would give Weston around 69% of the population. 

“We certainly don’t have an issue working with Weston County,” Wade Said. “We got a long history of doing that, but this does leave us at quite a disadvantage.” 

Wade also added it seemed like Niobrara was being used as a pawn to help other areas reach the target population as opposed to having fair representation in their district. 

“I know our county clerks in Region 7 have done a huge amount of work and so as a commissioner I think we need to respect what they say,” Wade said. 

Chairman Dan Zwonitzer from Laramie County asked Wade what his preferred map would be to which he stated the status quo-like map presented by the clerks with similar lines to the current map and a diagonal line and a diagonal line through Goshen County right above Fort Laramie, Lingle and Torrington. 

Niobrara County Clerk Becky Freeman asked why the committee was considering keeping Weston whole since it will cause problems to neighboring areas. 

“We have all invested so many hours, we have come up with maps that work and our focuses on one county being whole and that creates a trickle-down effect on everybody else,” Freeman said. “I just don’t understand the reasoning behind it.” 

The “trickle-down” would continue into Goshen County as well since the plan submitted by the Weston County would split it three ways. Torrington and Lingle would remain with the southern Goshen County while District 4 in Platte would take Fort Laramie and would go almost entirely around Lingle. House District 2 would come all the way down to the outskirts of Torrington.

Goshen County Clerk Cindy Kenyon said they need to do the diagonal plan instead to shed the proper amount of people and stay within deviation in Region 7. 

“With what’s being proposed, I’m not sure that we can create a map like that and stay within our region,” Kenyon said. 

An original motion by District 16 Representative Mike Yin was supposed to allow for representatives from Campbell County who also had issues with the plan to make it work in order for Weston to be whole. 

The motion was met by opposition from District 5 Representative Shelly Duncan and District 6 Representative Aaron Clausen along with District 2 Senator Brain Boner. 

“We’ve run these numbers over and over and over again so if there’s some magic solution that’s out there, we need to hear it right now. We need to be specific,” Boner said. “We’re past the point of kicking the can down the road.”  

The motion failed on a 6-6 tie and a new motion was quickly proposed by Duncan for the diagonal map and allow for Campbell and Crook County to make changes. 

This is a good starting point it’s pretty much a status quo of where we’re at now,” Duncan said. “This is a huge improvement for Goshen County and then this way we just heard from [Niobrara]. The only question now is Crook and Weston and Campbell. So, they can work it out and hopefully have a quick discussion or rework whatever lines we need to and go from there.” 

Boner also added Weston would still have the majority of the population in the district. 

The committee passed the motion on a vote of 7-5. 

The next public meeting will be Tuesday, Dec. 29 at 8:30 a.m. in Cheyenne.