October 2015 Interchange

Interchange October 2015, Vol. 43, Issue 10

Presidential patina polished

Summit Rest Area monument refurbished

From the Director To the WYDOT Family: Gov. Matt Mead announced that he is making changes to three state agencies as follows, effective October 12: • School Facilities Department: ​​ Delbert McOmie as Director

Cox

• Department of Workforce Services: ​​ John Cox as Director • WYDOT: ​​ Bill Panos as Interim Director (currently Director of School Facilities Department) Gov. Mead has been discussing and developing this change with his closest staff, Mr. Panos, Del​​and I over recent weeks. ​​ His reasons are clearly stated in the release; to give it a short description, it will place all three of us in positions where our skills are well applied to the environments that we are being asked to lead, while allowing each agency to assess positive opportunities.

I am grateful for my long, and certainly blessed career,​and​my long association

Letters

Kudos to District 2 staffer Director John Cox, Just dropping a sincere at-a-boy for Justin Clark of your District 2 office.

On Sept. 3 we were having a safety issue with one of your subcontractors, Hedquist Construction, at the intersection of Salt Creek Highway and Midwest Avenue. I drove northbound in a marked company vehicle to the side of state property to advise Hedquist of the situation.

To my surprise, I was met by an outof-control person who identified himself as the person in charge. He approached my vehicle flinging his arms and yelling that he was going to arrest me for being on his property. He clearly did not want to be civil and accept our safety issue.

He advised sternly he was going to have me arrested over and over. At that point, I told him where to get off. He stormed away, yelling his intent to call the police.

I advised him that I would wait for the

with you​; this will be the toughest walk out the door of any place in my experience, while being grateful for the opportunity to serve with another great group of people at DWS. ​​ I have long attempted to live according to my own advice of, “Don’t take yourself too seriously, but take your role very seriously,” and, “Keep your commitments.”​ But, i​t has been the solid and long​-​term commitment of the career leaders and members of WYDOT that have carried this great department over these past 10plus years​that​I have been privileged to serve as director. ​​ Even though the actual change is a few weeks away, thank you for your past, present and future commitments to serving our state’s citizens!

So, as we commence on the next month of transition, my encouragement and request to you:​​Take your role seriously, look forward with anticipation to good things for this department in the future, and keep up the good work of the Wyoming Department of Transportation. ​ Each and every one of you are potential difference-makers to the benefit of our great state and our department.

Interchange Interchange is published for employees of the Wyoming Department of Transportation by its Public Affairs Office and a number of field correspondents.

Interchange invites submissions from all employees. Please send them to either your district correspondents or to: Carlie Van Winkle, Interchange editor, 5300 Bishop Blvd., Cheyenne, WY, 82009-3340. The Public Affairs Office may also be contacted by phoning (307) 777-4165, faxing (307) 777-4289, or sending email to carlie.vanwinkle@wyo.gov

Staff WYDOT Director: John F. Cox

Respectfully, John

police. After a few moments he returned to my vehicle and asked why I was still on his property and I advised him, “Waiting for the police.” At that point he told me to go talk to WYDOT. I left the scene and found a WYDOT official on a different job site on U.S. 20-26. I was greeted by one of your staff members; he listened to our concerns and told me he would have his supervisor call or stop by my office the following day.

The following morning, Justin Clark stopped by my office. He was extremely professional, listened to our concerns and above all, took action. By the following day, the safety issues were all handled.

Please give our thanks to Mr. Clark. He is a great representative for your organization.

Thank you, sir.

Bobby Martin, Project Manager A.R.S. Fire & Flood Cleanup Retired L.E.O.

Public Affairs Manager: Doug McGee Editor/Art Director: Carlie Van Winkle Contributors: Bruce Burrows Public Affairs Dave Kingham Public Affairs Carlie Van Winkle Public Affairs Ross Doman District 1 Jeff Goetz District 2 Stephanie Harsha District 3 Ronda Holwell District 4 Cody Beers District 5 Sgt. David Wagener Patrol Photography: Rick Carpenter Public Affairs

a

DOT publication

summer hire

Also in this issue:

1979

Contents Laramie Design Squad

1980

1980

Converse County Sheriff Deputy

1981

Douglas Police

1982

Douglas Police Supervisor

8

Letters.....................................2 District briefs.........................4 Engineer, Cody

1982

Noteworthy......................... 20

10

Training................................ 22 1987

Wyoming Highway Patrol Administrator

Powell Police Chief

Appointed director of WYDOT by Gov. Dave Freudenthal

1998

TechNotes........................... 23 Resident Engineer, Worland

District news...................... 24

1987 Maintenance 1989 Staff, Cheyenne

District Construction Engineer, Rock Springs

1991

District 1995 Engineer, Rock Springs

Chief Engineer, Cheyenne

2000

12

By the Numbers................ 25 Extra Mile Awards............. 27

18

Passings............................... 28 WTDEA................................. 28 Break Time...........................31

8 Honest Abe cleans up

Lincoln Highway memorial refurbished

10 Leadership changes at WYDOT

Cox, McOmie depart; Panos made interim director

12 Telecommunications Program

Be sure to check out the online version of Interchange at http://issuu.com/wydot.pao, or click on the link found on the employee’s internal website home page.

Providing a growing range of communications

18 Sponsor a highway program

Contractor to help keep roadsides clean On the cover:

The refurbished bust of our 16th president before reinstallation on it’s Summit Rest Area pedestal along I-80 between Cheyenne and Laramie.

Photo: Dave Kingham

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2005

District Briefs Governor Mead Makes Three Cabinet Appointments

Cheyenne – Gov. Matt Mead recently announced that John Cox will be the director of the Department of Workforce Services (DWS), Bill Panos will be the interim director of the Department of Transportation (WYDOT), and Del McOmie will be the director of the School Facilities Department (SFD). The DWS and SFD appointments are subject to Senate confirmation. The appointment of a permanent director for WYDOT will be made out of a slate of candidates provided by the Transportation Commission and subsequent Senate approval.

“When the director’s job at the Department of Workforce Services came open this summer, I reassessed the leadership we already had in-house and determined we could fill the vacancy from within,” Mead said. “I believe we can optimally use existing talent and experience by making several Cabinet changes and today I announce them.”

Cox has managed a large department with statewide reach for over a decade as DOT head and will bring his considerable administrative skills to DWS. McOmie, who stepped in this summer to serve as interim head of DWS, will move to SFD, where his engineering background and management experience as WYDOT’s chief engineer will be great assets. Panos brought fresh perspective and new ideas with success to SFD since joining the Cabinet in fall 2013. He will be an able interim director of WYDOT until a permanent director is named.

“I appreciate the opportunity the vacancy at Workforce Services has given me to take another look at the Cabinet.

The agencies, state and citizens we serve all benefit from our efforts to make the executive branch even better and more effective,” Gov. Mead said.

HQ

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Contracts totaling $21.7 million for nine projects awarded by the Wyoming Transportation Commission Cheyenne – Riverside Contracting of Missoula, Mont., won the largest of the contracts with the low bid of nearly $9 million for improvements to 12 miles of the eastbound lanes of I-80 between Wamsutter and Creston Junction. Deteriorating pavement will be milled off the highway and replaced with a new layer of asphalt.

The westbound section of the highway was milled and repaved this year. The contract completion date is Oct. 31, 2016.

CC&G Inc. of Lander was the low bidder at nearly $4.3 million for a contract to replace the WYO 351 bridge over the Green River about 7 miles east of Big Piney by Oct. 31, 2017. The existing bridge is narrow and in poor condition.

The new, wider bridge will be built on the existing bridge alignment, so a detour and temporary bridge will be used during the construction.

Cheyenne’s Reiman Corp. and Subsidiary won a $2.8 million contract for bridge rehabilitation work on three Interstate 90 bridges between Moorcroft and Sundance.

The decks will be replaced on the eastbound bridge over Houston Creek, and the east- and westbound bridges over Inyan Kara Creek. The contract includes an Oct. 31, 2016 completion date.

Reiman also submitted the low bid of $2.3 million for deck rehabilitation work on three bridges on WYO 376 (South Belt Loop) in Rock Springs. The bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks at the west end of the highway will be closed for a complete deck replacement. Once the bridge is closed, the contractor will have 60 days to complete that work. The overall contract completion date is Oct. 31, 2016.

Two contracts were awarded for providing the stockpiles of sand and salt WYDOT uses to improve traction on snowy and icy highways during winter.

Kilroy LLC of Afton was the low bidder at $1.5 to provide the materials for the southwestern portion of the state by March

31, 2016. Evans Construction of Jackson won a $1.1 million contract to provide the stockpiles for the highways in the northwestern part of the state by April 30, 2016.

Also awarded by the commission were contracts for: n $289,000 to Hedquist Construction of Casper for concrete repairs to the Interstate 25 bridge at the Poplar Street Interchange in Casper by June 30, 2016; n $229,000 to Advanced Electrical Con-

tracting of Casper for electrical and sidewalk upgrades at the intersection of US 20-26 and Six Mile Road north of Casper by July 31, 2016; and

n $122,000 to S&S Builders of Gillette for

erosion repairs along WYO 213 north of Burns by June 30, 2016.

Work complete on I-80 Happy Jack Interchange bridge Laramie – Bridge deck repair work was completed in September at the Happy Jack Interchange. Work began Sept. 8, and there was no access to the Summit Rest Area for those traveling eastbound for nine days.

Westbound traffic was not affected by the work on the bridge.

The interchange reopened Sept. 17.

Airplane D1 crash on I-80 east of Laramie Laramie – Multiple agencies responded to an airplane crash on I-80 east of Laramie the morning of Sept. 11. The crash occurred near milepost 321.

The single-engine California-registered plane went down in the section of I-80 commonly known as Telephone Canyon.

The plane hit the center jersey barrier and then skidded to a stop on the westbound I-80 shoulder.

The pilot, 67-year old Steven Stam from Holland, Mich., was transported to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie.

WHP Troopers and the Federal Aviation Administration investigated at the scene. I-80 remained open in both

directions. WHP, Albany County sheriff ’s office, Laramie Fire Department and WYDOT all responded to assist with the crash.

ming highways, WYDOT is asking drivers to follow three simple guidelines.

Manage your speed:

• Slow down when approaching all work zones. You will be in the work zone quicker than you think.

Photo: WHP

• Follow posted speed limits, especially within construction zones, and try to maintain a consistent speed with the traffic flow. Adjust your speed for weather conditions.

An early morning emergency crash-landing on I-80 in Telephone Canyon.

Bridge deck repairs over Walterscheid Blvd in Cheyenne Cheyenne – WYDOT closed the westbound on-ramp from South Greeley Highway to I-80 westbound for repairs Sept. 8-13.

Detour signs were in place for traffic to travel east on I-80 to the College Drive exit at mile marker 364 and access I-80 westbound.

Downtown Cheyenne road improvements completed Cheyenne – On Sept. 13, a stretch of Lincolnway Avenue was closed to all traffic from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next morning to allow for a mill and overlay between House and Capitol Avenues.

Necessary overnight closures will also include Central and Warren Avenues over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

The nighttime closures occurred regularly for nearly five days.

Pay attention and drive carefully in work zones Jackson – Recently a construction flagger was struck by a vehicle in a construction zone south of Jackson.

In order to help motorists navigate work zones on Wyo-

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• Don’t resume normal speed until you see roadway signs indicating it’s safe to do so.

Manage your space:

• Leave adequate braking room between your vehicle and the one ahead of you.

Also, keep a safe distance between your vehicle and traffic barriers, trucks, construction equipment and workers.

• Don’t pass on the shoulder. This creates a very dangerous situation for you, construction workers and other motorists – not to mention a steep fine.

• Leave yourself some space. When stopped in traffic, leave a safety zone between you and the vehicle in front of you. A good rule of thumb is that when stopped in traffic you should be able to see the bottom of the tires of the vehicle in front of you.

• Watch out for tailgaters. Do not force tailgaters to back off by slamming on your brakes or reducing your speed significantly. This practice can lead to road rage and increases the chances of a collision. When possible, pull over and let them pass. If this is not possible, turn your headlights on and off several times during daylight hours to illuminate your tail lights and warn tailgaters they are too close. If at night, lightly tap your brake pedal to illuminate your brake lights.

mation Web site, www.wyoroad.info or call 511 to keep yourself informed about construction on your route.

Leave a bit earlier, if necessary, to arrive at your destination on time.

Part of WYDOT’s mission is to provide a safe transportation system, for both motorists and those crews working alongside the highway.

Slide mitigation work continues on U.S. 89-191 Jackson – The North Slide Mitigation project south of Jackson continues to move forward lane closures accompanying the roadside work north of the Hoback Junction on U.S. 89-191 south of Jackson.

The closures, which started Aug. 21, continue to take place as needed on weekdays at anytime between the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

“It’s the only way for us to accomplish the work safely. We only used the lane closure as needed. At all other times the lane was open,” WYDOT Engineer Nick Shidner said.

The work began this earlier this season and continues through mid-October with a contract completion date set for next year. The project was awarded to Malcolm Drilling in 2014 for slightly more than $10 million.

Industrial Site Road closed for maintenance Pinedale – Maintenance activities along Industrial Site Road caused a closure Sept. 3 and 4. The work included repairs and replacements of roadside cattle guards.

County Road 23-190, also known as Industrial Site Road, north of Pinedale was closed during the duration of the work.

Traffic had access to local businesses while crews minimized closures and reduced local traffic disruption.

Manage your stress:

• Keep your cool. Calm down and don’t rush. Remember, the temporary inconvenience of a construction zone will result in improved road conditions.

• Pay attention. Avoid cell phone or radio distractions, as well as those of other stopped cars or construction.

• Expect delays. Use WYDOT’s inforBriefs continued on page 6 October 2015

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Rumble strip project on WYO 59 from Gillette to Douglas Gillette – A center line rumble strip and striping project is underway on WYO 59 south of Gillette.

The contractor, Surface Preparation Technology from Aurora, Colo., began the project on Sept. 22 in Gillette at milepost 107 and is heading south to Douglas, ending at milepost 0.

Flagging and alternating one-lane traffic control will span the work zone. The anticipated work zone for this project will be less than a mile in length at any one time.

The rumble strip portion of the project was completed by the end of September.

The contractor will apply fog seal and re-striped the centerline the first part of October.

Centerline rumble strips are grooves within the double yellow centerline that produce noise and vibration when the tires of the vehicle come into contact with them. The noise and vibration alerts the driver that they have departed from their lane, and gives drivers an opportunity to recover.

Centerline rumble strips are an effective countermeasure to reduce head-on collisions and opposite-direction sideswipes (often referred to as cross-over or cross-center line crashes).

Centerline rumble strips have an additional benefit of helping drivers navigate during poor weather conditions such as fog, snow and rain.

Oversize load strikes I-90 bridge in Gillette

scheduled for completion the summer of 2016.

Phase 3 consists of renovations to the existing Sundance building. When finished, this building will be home to WYDOT Construction, Highway Patrol and Driver Services. Highway Patrol and Driver Services currently rent non-state owned facilities.

Gillette – The I-90 bridge that traverses Wyoming Highway 59 in Gillette was damaged after being struck by an oversize load. The bridge near mile post 126 on I-90 was struck from underneath as the oversize load was going under the bridge on WYO 59 northbound on Sept. 2.

Tony Hayworth, 43, from Gillette, was operating the self-permitted oversize load and transporting a John Deere excavator track hoe. The boom of the excavator had not been properly loaded and secured.

The extended boom exceeded the 16-foot, 8-inch height clearance of the underpass of I-90 on WYO 59 causing the boom to strike the bridge.

Traffic on I-90 eastbound on the bridge was diverted to the left passing lane with a reduced speed of 45 mph as WYDOT assesses the damage. No oversize traffic is being permitted over the bridge at this time.

Photos: Ronda Holwell

Briefs continued from page 5

Top: The new Sundance Port of Entry and truck parking area. Bottom: The soon-to-be new WYDOT Maintenance and Mechanics shop.

Railroad crossings in Sheridan closed briefly for maintenance Sheridan – Burlington Northern Santa Fe closed the railroad crossing behind the Trails End Concert park for rail work. The crossing is located between Higby Road and Allen Avenue.

Traffic was detoured using Skeels Street. The road was closed Sept. 22-25.

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Photo: WHP

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I-90 bridge which spans WYO 59 was struck by an oversize load on Sept. 2.

Sundance complex project continues Sundance – Phases one and two of the WYDOT Sundance complex construction and renovations project continue toward completion. The project was divided into three phases.

Phase 1 consisted of building a new Port of Entry building, scale and improved truck parking area and traffic pattern. The area now has its own entry and exit area for trucks, improving traffic flow. This new Port of Entry will allow easy access for trucks and improve overall traffic flow.

Phase 2 is currently under construction and includes a new building to house WYDOT maintenance, equipment and mechanics service bays. This phase is

Thermoplastic pavement marking in Cody area Cody – Eight intersections in Cody received new markings for pedestrian and school crossings.

Replacement of pavement markings began Sept. 14 at the intersections of 11th and Sheridan Avenue, 12th and Sheridan, 13th and Sheridan, 14th and Sheridan, 16th and Sheridan, 17th and Beck Avenue, 17th and Stampede Avenue, and U.S. 1416-20 and the intersection with Walmart.

The work involves placing of thermoplastic pavement markings at various pedestrian crossings, school crossings, and vehicle-turning movement locations. The work was scheduled to take 10 days.

Grinding to remove the old thermoplastic pavement markings and some additional concrete was removed during the process. While downtown, the contractor worked on two intersections at once – grinding at one intersection while finishing pavement markings at the other.

Paving south of Riverton; delays may impact commuters

Wind River Reservation takes over 11.57 miles of WYO 137

Riverton – Asphalt paving activities began after the Labor Day weekend south of Riverton, and commuters were urged to allow for extra driving time during an increase in activity on WYO 789.

“Please allow for extra time in reaching your destination,” said WYDOT Resident Engineer Robert Scheidemantel of Riverton. “This includes those driving to Lander, those driving from Lander to Riverton, and people driving on and off the Wind River Reservation.”

Highway and bridge improvements continue on the 3.32-mile highway and bridge improvement project directly south of Riverton on WYO 789.

Prime contractor of the $11.04 million project is LeGrand Johnson Construction Co, of Logan, Utah.

Construction of the five-lane highway and widening of the Little Wind Bridge carries an Oct. 31 contract deadline, with the chip sealing and seeding contract deadline being June 30, 2016.

When the Riverton South project is complete, a new five-lane road will stretch from the Big Wind River bridge on Riverton’s south edge to south of Wind River Casino on WYO 789.

The scope of work for the Riverton South project includes grading, draining, bridge widening, milling of asphalt pavement, removal and replacement of the existing temporary traffic signal at the WYO 137/WYO 789 intersection, placement of crushed gravel and new asphalt pavement, chip sealing, electrical work, guardrail removal and replacement, fencing and other work on 3.32 miles of WYO 789 beginning at milepost 100.86 between Hudson and Riverton.

Riverton – The first 11.57 miles of WYO 137 (17 Mile Road) beginning at the WYO 137/WYO 789 intersection, south of Riverton, are officially under the jurisdiction of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes on the Wind River Reservation.

State highway signs have been removed from WYO 137.

“WYO 137 is officially in tribal hands, and we will not be actively patrolling that roadway in the future,” said WHP Capt.

Tom Pritchard. “If there is a problem or an emergency, we will respond. We will not take routine enforcement actions in the future, such as speed enforcement.”

Under terms of the agreement between WYDOT and the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes, the tribes have assumed maintenance and enforcement responsibilities of the rebuilt highway.

The west end of 17 Mile Road, also known as Fremont County Road 334, remains under Fremont County jurisdiction.

WYDOT completed highway improvements on 8.58 miles of WYO 137 in 2008.

Rice-Kilroy Construction, Inc, was the prime contractor on the $13.1 million project to rebuild the 8.58 miles of road west of St. Stephens Mission.

A $1.3 million pavement improvement project from 17 Mile Road’s intersection with WYO 789, beginning at the traffic signal south of Riverton, was completed in 2013. Mountain Construction Co, of Lovell was the prime contractor on the 2.99-mile project from the WYO 137/ WYO 789 intersection to St. Stephens Mission.

The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes funded completion of the 17 Mile Road Partnership Project with a federal TIGER 3 grant in November 2011.

The $8.2 million grant funded the roadway improvements from the Little Wind River bridge at the east end of the project to Coolidge Canal at the west end of the project, which were completed in 2013.

Funding for the final project also came from Fremont County, Wyoming Tourism, and federal funding through WYDOT and the Indian Reservation Roads program.

The final 17 Mile Road project was built nearly entirely by tribal workers, who

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were paid more than $3.7 million in wages for their successful efforts at improving what’s called the most important road on the Wind River Reservation.

Prior to being rebuilt, 17 Mile Road was historically dubbed one of the most dangerous roads in Wyoming. The road’s average fatality rate was twice the national average, and in the 10 years prior to completion, Tribal Transportation Director John Smith said 17 Mile Road had “numerous rollovers, car crashes and encounters with pedestrians and bicycles.

This was due to the various safety issues of the road, including its narrow width and the absence of shoulders and safety zones, and limited sight distance. As part of this project, a hazardous irrigation ditch in the right-of-way was also piped.”

Since reconstruction efforts were completed two years ago, 17 Mile Road is a modern highway, the busiest road on the Wind River Reservation and one of the safest highways in Wyoming. n

Classic? Hot rod?

Late model?

Two wheeler?

Get those photos in!

Rides deadline:

11/13/15 carlie.vanwinkle@wyo.gov

October 2015

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Presidential patina polished – Honest Abe cleans up

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Photo: Rick Carpenter Photo: Jason Bogstie

Photos clockwise from top left: Restored to it’s original hue; Lincoln being hoisted atop pedestal; Prior to refurbishing, Lincoln overlooks Russin’s sons – Joe Russin (right) and Robin Russin; and a close up of Robert Russin’s carved name on Abe’s right shoulder.

Photo: Dave Kingham

by Carlie Van Winkle

The impressive, 12-foot tall, 3.5-ton bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln was removed from the Summit Rest Area along I-80 between Cheyenne and Laramie for cleaning on Sept. 9. The bust was carefully removed from the pedestal and placed on a flatbed truck to make the journey to the Eagle Bronze Foundry in Lander for restoration.

The harsh Wyoming climate at the Summit of I-80 takes a toll on the bronze sculpture causing discoloration known as a patina. The excessive patina buildup causes bronze to look nearly black in comparison to the bright, medium gold tone it was intended to have.

Eagle Bronze Foundry inspected the internal structure of the sculpture for corrosion and sandblasted the bust using a glass bead media to remove the surface oxides and other contaminants exposing the original cast bronze surface. The exposed bronze was then sealed with two coats of lacquer for UV protection and then two coats of hardener to enhance the protective layer. The combined layers of protection promise to be very resistant to the environmental factors of wind, precipitation and unpredictable temperature swings. The restorative process from start to finish took about 10 days.

The sculpture was transported back to the Summit Rest Area site and re-installed on its pedestal via crane and man lifts on Sept. 25.

This restoration marks the fourth time Abe has been lifted into position atop the pedestal. The first was the initial installation in 1959; the second was re-installation at the Summit Rest Area along I-80; the third was when the bust was cleaned in 1991-92 while the rest area was being refurbished; and now, the cleaning in 2015.

The sculpture, along with the 30-foot pedestal, was started in 1958 by long-time University of Wyoming art professor and Centennial artist Robert Russin (1914-2007). The Lincoln bust took Russin 11 months from commissioning by Dr. C.W. Jeffrey of Rawlins to final placement on Sherman Hill, the highest point of U.S. 30, in October 1959. The 1959 dedication ceremony commemorated the 150-year anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth.

In October 1969, the monument was moved north .4 mile from Sherman Hill on U.S. 30 to it’s new home at the Summit Rest Area just north of the newly built Interstate 80.

The cost to remove the sculpture from its pedestal at the Summit Rest Area east of Laramie, transport it to Lander, restore the sculpture surface and return it to its pedestal is $29,480. It is paid for with state funds. n

Lincoln Monument Trivia • The sculpture and 30-foot granite pedestal were formed and cast in Mexico City over a period of 11 months in 1958 and 1959 then transported via railroad to Wyoming.

• Russin described the original bronze color on the bust as a “bright medium gold, top to bottom.”

• This is only the second time the 12-and a half-foot tall, three-and a half-ton bust of The Great Emancipator has been taken down for cleaning. The first cleaning and resealing was in 1992.

• At seven-thousand pounds, the sculpture is one of the largest cast bronze heads in the USA. • At his request, Russin’s ashes, along with his wife’s, are interned at the site of the monument.

Photo: Jason Bogstie

• The hollow pedestal at the base of the sculpture contains a ladder and lightning rod.

After

Photo courtesy Eagle Bronze Foundry

Photo: Dave Kingham

Before

During restoration October 2015

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A CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP

Del McOmie

by Bruce Burrows

John Cox

1978

WHP rookie patrolman

A big shift in the WYDOT executive staff takes place this month, with Director John Cox

WHD summer hire

Laramie Design Squad

Engineer, Cody

1979

1980

1982

1980

Converse County Sheriff Deputy

1981

Douglas Police

1982

Douglas Police Supervisor

1987

Resident Engineer, Worland

Wyoming Highway Patrol Administrator

Powell Police Chief

1987 Maintenance 1989 Staff, Cheyenne

and Chief Engineer Del McOmie leaving to take on new leadership roles elsewhere in Wyoming state government, and William T. “Bill” Panos, director of the Wyoming School Facilities Department (SFD) moving to WYDOT as interim director.

Cox becomes director of the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services (DWS) and McOmie will Cox be SFD director, effective Oct. 12.

“When the director’s job at the Department of Workforce Services came open this summer, I reassessed the leadership we already had in-house and determined we could fill the vacancy from within,” Gov. Mead said in announcing the management moves. “I believe we can optimally use existing talent and experience by making several McOmie cabinet changes.”

Mead pointed to Cox’s proven administrative skills and lengthy experience in running WYDOT, a large department with statewide reach, and he cited McOmie’s (who stepped in last summer as interim head of DWS) engineering

District Construction Engineer, Rock Springs

background and management experience as WYDOT’s chief engineer. Mead also said Panos had brought fresh perspective and new ideas with success to SFD since joining the Cabinet in fall 2013.

“I appreciate the opportunity the vacancy at Workforce Services has given me to take another look at the Cabinet.

The agencies, state and citizens we serve all benefit from our efforts to make the executive branch even better and more effective,” Mead said.

The appointment of Cox as DWS Director and McOmie as SFD director are subject to Senate confirmation. The appointment of a permanent director for WYDOT will be made out of a slate of candidates provided by the Wyoming Transportation Commission and with subsequent Senate approval.

A sendoff gathering for Cox and McOmie is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m., Friday, Oct. 9 in the cafeteria in the main building at WYDOT headquarters in Cheyenne.

John Cox’s departure as WYDOT director caps his nearly 11 years of tenure in that position. He was initially appointed to lead WYDOT by Gov. Dave Freudenthal in January 2005, and he was reappointed as WYDOT Director by Mead in February 2011.

Prior to 2005, Cox served as commanding officer of the Wyoming Highway

1991

District 1995 Engineer, Rock Springs

1998

Chief Engineer, Cheyenne

WYDOT’s interim director

Bill Panos steps into his new position as interim WYDOT director with impressive credentials, drawing from the diverse experience he’s gained working in both the private and public sectors over the past 30-years plus.

Panos is a native of Palos Verdes, Calif., and a graduate of nearby California State University-Long Beach, where he studied criminal justice and forensic science. His past employment has included (but is not limited to) being a group manager for TRW Automotive Group, state toxics director for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a city manager in Eureka, Calif., port and public works director in West Sacramento, Calif., and construction executive for Washington state. The past two years, he has been director of Wyoming’s School Facilities Department.

During his career, his work has intersected with numerous transportation-related functions and issues, including safety, law enforcement, construction and infrastructure development, regulation, contractor management, and emergency response “To support the WYDOT leadership team, I will bring a passionate commitment for our mission and tested problem-solving abilities.” Panos told the members of the Wyoming Transportation Commission during their September monthly meeting. “My Patrol for nearly seven years.

Cox recently completed a one-year term as president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and he previously served as president of the Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (WASHTO).

He has lived in Wyoming for 37 years, beginning with his commissioning in 1978 as a state trooper based in Rock Springs with the Highway Patrol. His 28-year policing career also included 11 years as chief of police in Powell, and seven years as an officer and supervisor in the Douglas Police Department. His public service career started in 1976 with the Chadron, Neb., Police Department.

Cox was only the third official (and first WYDOT director) from Wyoming to be elected AASHTO president. The others were Ross Stapp, superintendent and chief

Appointed director of WYDOT by Gov. Dave Freudenthal

2000

2005

by Bruce Burrows

primary focus will be on ensuring the men and women of WYDOT are as successful as possible.”

For initial goals as interim WYDOT director, he listed optimizing employee success, enhancing legislative relations, advancing a “digital” WYDOT, and improving revenue stability.

“I am excited about the incredible opportunity . . . to improve travel so essential to our economy and the personal lives of everyone in Wyoming. I want us to conPanos tinue to be the best state transportation agency in the nation,” he wrote Sept. 18, in an email to WYDOT employees. In that message, he addressed his intent to focus on employees, while promoting teamwork and innovation. n

engineer of the old Wyoming Highway Department (WHD), WYDOT’s predecessor agency, from 1965-71, and Leno Menghini, who headed WHD from 1977-90.

McOmie leaves with more than 36 years’ WHD/WYDOT experience. He first worked for the agency during the summer of 1979 as an engineering technician in Laramie, when he was still a University of Wyoming civil engineering student. He continued to work part-time from 1980-82 as a member of the Laramie Design Squad.

After graduation in 1982, McOmie went full time as an engineer in Cody. In 1987, he was promoted to resident engineer in Worland, and two years later, was promoted again to Maintenance Staff at Cheyenne headquarters. In 1991, he moved to Rock Springs as district construction engineer and in 1995 became District 3 engineer. He returned to Cheyenne as chief engineer in early 2000.

McOmie, a past WASHTO secretarytreasurer, served on ASHTO’s Standing Committee of Highways and chaired the Subcommittee on Traffic Engineering and the work zones task force of the Subcommittee for Operations and Management.

McOmie is on the board of directors for the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, and served on the AASHTO Technology Implementation Group.

He is also is a 2004 graduate of Leadership Wyoming program.

His move to School Facilities marks the first time in nearly six decades there will be no “Del McOmie” on the agency personnel roster. His father, Del McOmie Sr., started with WHD in 1956 in Lander and worked for 39 years on the construction crew before retiring in 1995. His grandfather and two great-uncles also worked for WHD. n

Re-appointed director Appointed director of WYDOT by of DWS by Gov. Matt Mead 2011 Gov. Matt Mead

Appointed director of SFD by Gov. Matt Mead

2015

2015

Telecommunications Program provides growing range of communications

Photo: Rick Carpenter

Communication is required to get information to the electronic message and variable speed limit signs that help keep motorists safe on the highways, and get information from snowplows and weather sensors to the Transportation Management Center (TMC) in Cheyenne.

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WYDOT’s Telecommunications Program gets that information through, along with the radio transmissions between Highway Patrol vehicles and dispatch, and telephone calls to department offices around the state.

Telecommunications Manager Robert Wilson oversees the program that includes Field, Microwave, Project Development, Telephone and WyoLink sections.

In addition to the statewide telephone and radio Wilson networks, the program provides communications to 368 Priority 1 devices, including dynamic message and variable speed limit signs, and 143 Priority 2 devices, which create roadside Wi-Fi (wireless networking) hotspots.

The Field Section under Larry Sheridan includes five district offices and 11 field shops around the state, and those technicians maintain and support all aspects of the department’s varied communication systems. They serve as the point of contact for most WYDOT employees with communications problems, questions or needs.

“We have expert telecommunications technicians deployed across the state for quick response to provide for public safety and transportation efficiency,” Wilson said. “The field guys really need to be proficient in a lot of areas. They are a lot more than radio techs, they are telecommunications techs.”

The Wi-Fi communications the program provides is for public safety and

by Dave Kingham transportation operations around the state. Wi-Fi for office computer use is provided by the Information Technology Program.

Telecom’s level of response to problems is determined by the importance of the devices affected.

“Some are more important than others, and of course it varies somewhat between winter and summer, because obviously during winter you really need to know what the road conditions are and communicate that to the traveling public,” Wilson said. “An overhead digital message sign that the TMC wants to read that there is an accident ahead, road closed, that becomes very mission critical and is a Priority 1 device.”

The Priority 1 devices are monitored around the clock and any problems are reported to an on-call technician in Cheyenne who coordinates the response to repair the equipment.

“Within half an hour our guys are rolling on any mission critical outage,” Wilson said. “It used to be you responded at that level just for radio, and for the mountaintop radio systems that most of the law enforcement, fire, EMS and WYDOT agencies in the state count on.”

At least three technicians are on call at any given time, and all the field technicians are subject to call, which means they could be required to respond within a couple hours.

Most of the microwave radio tower sites are on mountaintops, and in some cases the roads to those sites are closed in the winter.

“We use snow cats to access them and we run snow cat and winter survival skills training for all of our field people,” Wilson said. “We offer training on how to effectively operate that equipment and tow it, because you’ll be driving it in the worst possible weather. It’s a tribute to the dedication of the technicians in the field that they are willing to go out in those

Photos: WYDOT

Some radio towers are only accessible by snow cat in the winter.

Telecom techs are trained to use the snow cat in deep snow conditions.

conditions if needed.”

To minimize the chances such a trip will be required, all the tower sites are inspected in the spring to see if there was any damage over the winter, and again in the fall to make sure fuel tanks are full, the generator is serviced and everything is prepared for winter.

While a service call to a mountaintop site can be difficult in winter, when the weather is favorable it can provide a perk few other jobs provide.

“The field technicians going to the mountains in the summertime get to see some of the most beautiful landscape in Wyoming,” Sheridan said. “They get to places that the general public wouldn’t even know how to get to.”

The broad range of skills needed for the technician positions can make it difficult to fill vacancies, but when fully staffed, the program has the personnel it needs to keep all of WYDOT’s communications systems operating smoothly.

“We ramped up a few years ago and added additional staff to the districts, because we knew the roadside devices were coming,” Sheridan said. “The initial roadside devices layout was done between here and the Summit in the spring of 2003, and the rollout of the WyoLink system came at about the same time. We saw the handwriting on the wall, executive staff agreed, and they did staff up.”

Field Section

The Field Section’s district offices and 11 field shops around the state are each manned by one to three telecommunications technicians.

Scott Prettyman is the District 1 supervisor in Cheyenne, where technicians Jon Miles, Chris Salmon and David Shepard also work. Murray Hill in Laramie and Brian Wyza in Rawlins round out the District 1 technicians.

Ken Link is the District 2 supervisor, and is joined by Joe Compston in Casper and Nick Palmer in Douglas. The District 3 team is led by Tony Richno, and includes Dylan Jensen in Rock Springs and Jack Herman in Jackson.

Nate Smolinski is the District 4 supervisor, and his technicians are Ken Kraft in Sheridan and Bill Torrance in Gillette. The District 5 team includes supervisor Curtis Clark and technicians Randy Savage in Sheridan and Travis Gallo in Gillette.

The technicians do much of the installation, maintenance and troubleshooting of the mobile radios in department vehicles, the microwave radio sites that transmit messages from those radios

Telecom techs atop Dome Peak in Sheridan County.

around the state, and the Wi-Fi devices that provide communications to the dynamic message and variable speed limit signs along the highways. They also are responsible for 26 permanent and 10 portable highway advisory radios around the state.

A big part of the Cheyenne technicians’ job is making sure all the communications equipment in the Highway Patrol’s 240 vehicles works together.

“Anytime a new car comes in or a trooper gets a new car, it is done through the Cheyenne shop,” Prettyman said. “Troopers have certain equipment issued to them, so we take that out of the old car and put it into the new car, and make sure everything works.”

Electronic equipment in Patrol vehicles includes the two-way radio, front- and rear-reading radar, tablets and printers connected to an electronic ticketing system by cellular modems, dashboard video recorders and light bars.

“All of the electronics in the vehicle have to work together,” Wilson said. “If they interfere with each other, nobody’s happy.

The same thing applies to the snowplows. Making all the electronics work together in a vehicle is a WYDOT Telecom specialty.”

Once a Patrol vehicle is out on the road, the local telecommunications technicians address any communications problems that arise.

Work on radios in vehicles and at the mountaintop sites is the technicians’ primary focus. They have a fixed schedule of routine maintenance in the spring, summer and fall to make sure everything is working well before winter.

The radios in the vehicles require regular maintenance to make sure they are on frequency, have the correct power output, and the brackets and connections are tight.

“We use a communication analyzer to make sure the internals on the radio are correct so it’s working at its best on the WyoLink system,” Prettyman said. “We do the same thing for the radios at the mountaintop sites. We try our best to find problems before our customers do.”

The Cheyenne technicians also work on radio equipment at the TMC and Patrol Dispatch Center, where there are a combined 19 radio positions.

Maintaining communications to roadside devices is a growing part of the their jobs.

“The communications we’re using to the roadside locations now are wireless broadband,” Shepard said. “Wireless Internet Telecom continued on page 14 October 2015

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Microwave Section

WYDOT’s microwave system is the backbone for department communications, carrying the circuits for WyoLink and conventional radio services, some telephone switches and communications for message signs, web cameras and weather sensors.

Microwave System and Radio Site Manager Chuck Kakalecik, and Kevin Gerlitz, telecommunications technician 2, work closely with the field technicians around the state to monitor the system and keep it operating smoothly.

Joe Compston is the newest member of the team, adding parttime microwave technician trainee to his normal duties at the District 2 radio shop in Casper.

“We do a little bit of everything,” Kakalecik said. “Generally,

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if we’re fully staffed, there are three people in our department: me and two techs over at the microwave shop, and we’re responsible for the whole statewide system. We rotate being on call, and address the issues as they come up.

Plus, we perform preventive maintenance on every radio every summer, do a lot of new construction, and any repairs needed in the process.”

An alarm computer in A mountain-top tower being checked on by Cheyenne Telecom staff. alerts personnel to problems in the system, and a network manager allows Kakalecik to build circuits, route and configure the network from his office.

“Generally I can drill down here and usually see what’s going on,” he said. “But if it’s lost a link and I can’t see it, I’ll try to get the guys in the field out to give me some boots on the ground and eyes to see what’s going on.”

The Microwave Section personnel make repairs and changes to the microwave system, multiplex, power supplies and the antennae systems. The field technicians are being trained to do some of the preventive maintenance work.

“We build and maintain the entire site, and technicians have to be kind of a jack-of-all-trades,” Kakalecik said. “There’s a lot of civil work, and you have to know microwave radio, two-way radio, telemetry, multiplex, datacomms, network and user interfaces, emergency generators, AC power systems and transfer equipment, building systems and some HVAC. There’s a lot that goes on at these remote sites.”

During summer construction season the team spends at least 50 percent of the time on the road, sometimes 75 percent, depending on work planned and service calls.

“It helps to like the outdoors and working outside, and not be afraid of the winter,” said Kakelcik, who has been with WYDOT 35 years, 25 of them in his current position. “We work pretty hard year-round, regardless of weather or closed roads.”

The team’s biggest problem is Wyoming’s harsh weather, with lightning, ice and wind causing damage above the normal wear and tear.

“A mountaintop during wintertime isn’t the best place to be, Photo: WYDOT

providers often use these to supply Internet to residential homes.

We use them to supply communications to DMS signs, variable speed limit signs and various devices out on the side of the road.”

Wi-Fi connectivity is now available at sand piles along the highway, so snowplow operators can to use tablets to report road conditions and view weather maps.

Hill, who came to WYDOT in 2008 after 20 years as an avionics technician in the Navy, said he works closely with the GIS/ITS Program and others to make sure the department’s communications devices are working smoothly.

“We have a really good working relationship with ITS,” he said. “They own the roadside cabinets and the stuff in there.

Our primary function is to make sure that there is a signal that they can use to transmit that information back to Cheyenne. But sometimes they’re doing something else and not available, so we step in to help out.”

The installation of 11 new dynamic message signs on I-80 between Cheyenne and Rawlins this summer will increase area technicians’ workloads only slightly, Hill said. Working on mobile radios remains the mainstay of his job, whether installing them in new vehicles or tuning 187 radios a year.

“I have to work with the plow drivers, engineers, mechanics, the guys in the head shed and figure out their schedules so I can take their radios out and tune them up,” Hill said. “I connect them to an IFR, which is a spectrum analyzer, a signal generator, a receiver, and it runs through a series of test patterns to test certain applications within the radio. You make sure the radio is within an acceptable range.”

He also does preventive maintenance on 13 radio sites in the area, inspecting the towers, buildings and equipment inside them. Those inspections reduce the chances of being called out at night or during a storm to address outages.

“We have a great group of guys and they’re very conscientious and hardworking folks, so we don’t have a lot of those, ‘Oh my goodness, we’ve got to go fix this moments,’” Hill said. “We’re doing a lot more preventive maintenance than just-in-time stuff.”

Working with the other technicians, keeping up with technological advances and providing a valuable service are the aspects of the job he enjoys most.

“My customers make it really worthwhile when they say, ‘Thank you for doing such a good job,’” Hill said. “The fact that technology never stops is another key. If you enjoy the thought behind technology, then this is the place for you. Technology moves at such a pace that, if you get bored with your job, you’re not really doing your job well.”

Photo: Rick Carpenter

and lightning during the summer can take you off the air pretty quick,” Kakalecik said. “We’ll get tower and power line strikes a lot, and it’ll wipe out a lot of equipment. There are just so many different things that you get with a direct hit, regardless of how aggressively we ground and bond the system. We’ve got sacrificial electrostatic discharge protection on everything, and it works pretty well most of the time, but we believe Murphy was an optimist and we stay ready to respond” Mountaintops are where the microwave towers have to be in order to provide a statewide communication system, because microwaves transmit gigahertz radio frequency in narrow beams limited to line-of-sight transmission.

“If the microwave paths are engineered right, it’s a good solution for building a statewide interconnected system,” Kakalecik said. “That’s the easiest and best way to do it. We suffer less backhoe fade with microwave.”

Because of the line-of-sight limitation, the best way to assure that a problem at one of the towers doesn’t prevent transmissions to a particular area is to configure the towers in rings, so if an outage blocks communications on the most direct line, it’s still possible to communicate by routing the transmission around the ring in the other direction.

“With so many mountains, wilderness areas and Yellowstone, it would be hard to get a full ring around the state, so we’re trying to go with four smaller rings for alternate routes,” Kakalecik said.

“We’re looking at two years to complete each ring, but that’s with a full crew. I’ve been so short staffed that’ll be hard to do.”

The section likes to install new equipment itself, so the technicians who will be monitoring, maintaining and repairing the equipment know how the system was put together and works.

The current system is operating well and is in good condition, Kakalecik said.

“Our core is built out pretty good, and since the new digital system was installed we’ve never gone under 99.99 percent availability, which is not bad,” he said. “But, tech-

nology is always migrating forward, and we’re working toward the future.”

Project Development

Telecommunications Project Development Supervisor Mark Kelly’s job is to figure out the best way to get communication to any location where WYDOT needs it.

“When a project comes along and they want another dynamic message sign or whatever, we get the input from the districts where they want the device, and then I figure out how to get the communications from there,” Kelly said. “If I can’t get it through the backhaul, then I work with Mike Kurz in Telephone to get fiber, a DSL circuit or cellular modem.”

Backhaul is the term used to describe WYDOT’s own communications infrastructure built over the years to provide links to areas not served by commercial systems.

It uses Internet Protocol (IP) wireless communications to serve roadside locations and field shops, and then piggybacks on the department’s microwave radio towers and dishes to get the signal to its destination.

Often WYDOT needs communication to sites where nobody else needs it, so there is no commercially available service, or the service is not cost effective or as reliable as the department needs to meet its transportation efficiency and public safety responsibilities.

“So we’re utilizing our own sites that we already have and not adding more infrastructure to accomplish this,” Kelly said. “We just keep following the microwave path out and once we get to a site, then we can break it out and go to the roadside with another radio from the tower site to the roadside site.”

Path analysis is needed to make sure it will all work, and, although terrain analysis software helps with the job, Kelly and field technicians still have to go to the sites themselves to make sure trees or buildings won’t block the transmissions.

In addition to being able to customize the system to WYDOT’s needs, other advantages of WYDOT’s backhaul are there are no recurring monthly fees for the service and when problems arise the department’s technicians can restore service quickly.

“We buy the equipment, install it and maintain it, and we can normally restore communication faster than a commercial provider, because we have techs throughout the state, and they’re fairly close and they have spares in hand,” Kelly said. “If something goes down, they can analyze the problem, and replace or fix what’s needed.”

The department’s public safety communications needs are expected to continue to grow, with more Wi-Fi hotspots needed along the highways to support the tablets going into Patrol and Maintenance vehicles.

One of the most exciting new technologies on the horizon is the use of dedicated short-range communications to connect vehicles on the road to each other and to WYDOT’s communications infrastructure.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced last month that Wyoming is one of three locations nationwide that will get grant money to explore the use of the technology to improve traffic flow and safety.

“We would provide communications to the connected vehicle Telecom continued on page 16 October 2015

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equipment at the roadside so the TMC could put a message on that unit that would broadcast it in a loop,” Kelly said. “When a vehicle connected, it would get a message on their connected vehicle display saying something like, “Crash 20 miles ahead, slow down and be prepared to stop,” or “I-80 closed, exit at Laramie.”

Connected vehicles also could communicate with each other, so, if a vehicle started slowing down, a vehicle behind could get a message such as, “Vehicle slowing ahead, be prepared to slow down,” or “Snowplow ahead traveling at 30 mph.”

“So, if you think about the Summit pileups in fog or the number of times we’ve had vehicles hit the back of our snowplows, it would seem like this technology could prevent that,” Wilson said. “This technology is coming, and it depends on the special wireless communication that is our forte. Mark is our point man on that.”

The connected vehicle devices are already available as an option on some vehicle models, and the National Transportation Safety Board is urging Congress to require them as standard equipment in the future.

One Kelly’s jobs is to stay abreast of new developments for providing communication to roadsides.

“It can be a challenge,” he said. “I’m subscribed to several different forums and magazines and I get weekly updates about what’s going on in the world. It’s always changing, but people share the information easily. They want the world to know.”

He’s worked in the telecommunications industry for 21 years, eight of them with WYDOT, and he enjoys the challenge of learning new technologies and helping the department use them to make travel safer.

“It excites me to think, ‘What am I going to learn today?’”

Kelly said. “I’m always letting the guys in the field know, this is coming. Keeping the guys informed in the field has made my job a whole lot easier. They’ve taken on that challenge, and it’s been a great working relationship.”

Telephone Section

WYDOT’s telephone network includes more than 20 systems around the state and all the data circuits needed for the Information Technology Program’s computer network, and it’s all overseen from Cheyenne by Mike Kurz and Mike Pukash.

“Basically all the telephone circuits and the whole IT network come downstairs to our telephone room where all the main circuits go, so everybody gets the telephone and Internet service they need,” Kurz said.

Small offices around the state, such as a leased space for Driver Services or Highway Patrol, are not directly connected to WYDOT’s network, so the Telephone Section contracts with local telephone companies to provide the needed service.

The section also oversees the department’s cellular program, which includes not only cell phones, but approximately 500 modems used for data connectivity.

Every Highway Patrol vehicle now has a cellular modem to provide Wi-Fi connectivity for troopers’ tablets. Cellular modems also provide connectivity for many of the electronic message signs along the highways, along with remote weather information sensors and some of the department’s traffic counters.

Remote shops, including Granger, Pole Creek and Medicine Bow, rely on cellular modems to provide Internet connectivity for their computers.

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When Kurz came to WYDOT 10 years ago, he estimates about 60 department personnel had cell phones and there were no cellular modems. Now WYDOT has about 1,300 cellular devices, about 600 of them being smart phones and the remainder being modems and other devices.

WYDOT’s telephone system also has undergone upgrades in recent years, going from independent systems throughout the state to a gateway network controlled by a computer in Cheyenne.

“Everyone of the telephone systems out there in Sheridan and Basin, Casper and Rock Springs are all connected via some kind of a data line, DSL or maybe the IT network or the microwave network,” Kurz said. “We bring them all back to Cheyenne and they connect to the main computer.”

The advantage of that system is it allows WYDOT personnel to call many of the department offices around the state by dialing only their seven-digit numbers, and others by dialing nine and then the seven-digit number. That saves the department money, and when it’s time to upgrade a local system, that also is less expensive.

“By having the main brain here, I was able to upgrade Casper for something like $35,000 instead of $200,000,” Kurz said. “It also allows us to program it, so if someone in Sheridan needs a new phone installed, we actually program it from here, we don’t have to go there to do it.”

Because WYDOT’s has public safety responsibilities, the telephone system is considered mission critical, so if anything goes wrong with the network, it is set up to allow calls to be made on the local system by dialing 1-307.

The department spends millions of dollars a year for telecommunications, but has seen a steady drop in the costs over the past four years, due to reduced long distance costs, and negotiating better deals for leased lines and equipment.

“Just for WyoLink alone, it used to cost about $1.3 million a year for their leased circuits,” Kurz said. “We’ve gotten it down over the last four or five years to about $600,000 by renegotiating contracts and using metro Ethernet instead of T1s.”

Kurz works closely with the state’s Department of Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) and WYDOT IT. “If a customer wants something but is not quite sure what it is they want, I figure out a solution,” Kurz said. “ETS verifies that it is a good solution. Right now IT is upgrading around the state.

When the bids come through, I look at them for WYDOT and for IT to make sure they are good bids.”

The Wyoming Unified Network (WUN) that ETS is working to build will make it possible for WYDOT to cut telephone costs further through the use of voice over IP technology known as VOIP. “As we are upgrading, we know that the future technology to make things even less expensive is VOIP,” Kurz said. “You have VOIP that actually goes out to the provider, like Vonage, and we are moving that direction. All of the phones at the new complex in Sundance will be VOIP.” WYDOT personnel using the phone system won’t notice any difference in their service, but in addition to the cost reductions, the VOIP system offers advantages for department technicians.

“You could take your phone and move to another office or go to another city and it will still work and it will be the same phone number you had,” he said. “Nothing changes, and that’s going to

Photo: Rick Carpenter

save a lot of money on maintenance − on me sending a technician out to do the installation and move things around.”

VOIP and the WUN also have the potential to allow the department to combine its voice and IT networks. Currently, if the two were combined, it would mean an outage would knock out both telephone and Internet communications. But the WUN is designed to provide the reliability, redundancy and alternative routing capabilities needed to avoid that.

“That’s one of the biggest things that’s going to be changing in the future,” Kurz said. The phones will work the same, it’s just that the way we route it will be different so it’ll save money.”

WyoLink Support Manager Marty McCoy pointing out WyoLink features on a state-of-the-art electronic readout.

WyoLink Section

WyoLink is the state’s digital trunked public safety communications system, which is operated by WYDOT, but used by 264 state, county, local and federal agencies.

WYDOT is the biggest single user of the system, but accounts for only about 17 percent of the total use, WyoLink Section Support Manager Marty McCoy said.

His section monitors the system, troubleshoots any problems that arise and handles administration and planning.

“Troy Berg and Scott Harris prepare all the radio program files to go in each radio on the system,” McCoy said. “We retain the sole ability to do that, with the exception of two certified commercial shops, because the parameters and programming is very complex and interrelated.”

It’s a big job because there are more than 16,000 radios capable of using the system. So far this year they have completed programming for 2,044 radios.

“We do not actually touch the radios,” McCoy said. “Users and shops in the field send the radio program file to us, we add WyoLink or make the WyoLink changes they want, send it back to them and they program it in the radio.”

Through the end of August, the system had handled 13.7 million calls this year, with the system being available 99.99 percent of the time that users have attempted to make a call. During 2014 WyoLink handled more than 20.8 million calls.

“The system is very reliable,” McCoy said. “We track every outage, when it starts, how many towers it affects, what the cause was and when it ended. We report that and graph it every year in our balanced scorecard, and we use that to look for what we can do to reduce the frequency and the time of outages.”

The section has two radio consoles in its office, so when agen-

cies report issues with their consoles, WyoLink technicians can try to duplicate the problem and find a solution before working on the agency’s console. They also have mobile equipment they use to test the system’s coverage around the state.

In most areas WyoLink provides the same or better coverage than the analog system it replaced, but offers the advantage of allowing all the agencies on the system to talk to each other when needed.

Interoperable talk groups are built into the system for communications between agencies in a particular county, and multiple agency talk groups allow communication between any agencies on the system.

“How it’s set up, the technical part of it, is insanely complicated,” McCoy said. “We try to move the line between insanely complicated and easy to use as close to the easy to use side as we can, and keep the user on the easy side of it.”

Because the system is vital to public safety and used by so many agencies around the state, reliability and security are top priorities for the WyoLink Section.

“All of our sites have battery backup, and they all have emergency propane-fired generators,” McCoy said. “If the battery chargers fail, we get an alarm. If the power goes off, we get an alarm. If the generator doesn’t start we get an alarm. Generators exercise every Monday morning at 6 a.m.”

The equipment room in Cheyenne that operates the system has an 80,000-watt uninterruptable power supply that can power all the equipment during the 10 seconds needed for the emergency generator to take over.

The system also has redundant servers and controllers, so if there is an equipment failure, often the users never know it.

“You have to have passed a fingerprint-based background check through the Department of Criminal Investigation before you are allowed unaccompanied access to the equipment room,” McCoy said. “We also have a firewall that locks this thing down 42 ways to Sunday, and it is not connected to the Web.” If one of the radios on the system is stolen, the technicians in Cheyenne can disable it.

The section’s monitoring software provides extensive real-time and archived data on the system’s operation. At any given time it can tell how many radios are connected to the system, who is talking at the time, how many busy signals have been given and the history of the system over the past 24 hours.

“It can produce graphs and reports on system trends, what sites and talk groups are being used, how much a certain agency uses the radios and what time of day sees more use on the system,” McCoy said. “It really helps us drill down into the system and get an idea on what is going on both now and in the past.”

The system also shows whether a door is open at any of the equipment buildings at the remote sites, and whether an auxiliary cooler is operating. The door alarms were installed after some of the buildings were broken into, and the cooler alarm indicates the temperature in the building has exceeded 80 degrees and the air conditioner is not working, meaning a tech visit is needed.

“Everything that happens on this system, we get an alarm,” McCoy said. ““It’s about public safety and first responders across the state, which is one of the reasons that we have been accused of being rabid about responding, about upkeep, about maintenance and security.” n

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Sponsor A Highway program will help keep roadsides clean

by Dave Kingham

Businesses now have the opportunity to sponsor cleanups of highway sections in Wyoming under the Sponsor A Highway program launched in September by Adopt A Highway Maintenance Corp.

WYDOT contracted with AHMC to operate the program following a review of the two responses received to its request for proposals.

The company’s crews will clean highway sections to supplement the efforts of WYDOT’s maintenance personnel and the state’s Adopt-A-Highway volunteers. AHMC has begun offering sponsorships in the Cheyenne, Laramie and Casper areas, and hopes to expand the program statewide over time.

“It’s a resource that was available, and it shouldn’t cost the state anything,” State Maintenance Engineer Kent Ketterling said.

“It will take some of the pressure off our guys, and allow them to work on more pressing things that benefit the public more.

It’s really a way to outsource this work without any cost to the

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department.”

Once a sponsoring business is found, AHMC crews will clean the sponsored 1-mile sections six times a year in urban areas and four times a year in rural areas.

WYDOT and AHMC also are looking into expanding the program to include truck-parking areas and rest areas. AHMC has agreed to clean two truck-parking areas itself, without any sponsors.

In addition to providing more cleanups, the AHMC crews will have more safety training than the average volunteer groups.

“When we’re looking at some of our highways that carry a lot of traffic, like the interstates, it can be a hazardous place to work,” said Maintenance Staff Engineer Jeff Frazier, who oversaw the RFP process for WYDOT. “If we can get trained crews providing those services out there, it’s going to be a little safer.”

WYDOT will provide administrative oversight for the program, leaving the day-to-day operations to AHMC. Laura Schei

UProsper Insurance Services partners with local credit union

will serve as WYDOT’s primary liaison with the company.

“This is going to be a great opportunity for WYDOT,” Schei said. “I’m looking forward to working with them, and I think they have potential sponsors on the table, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we have our first couple sponsors this year and have some action out on the road.”

AHMC has been in business for more than 20 years and already is providing cleanup services in 20 other states, so the company brings considerable expertise to the program.

“It’s worked pretty well for other states,” Frazier said “Wyoming is a smaller state, with not as many big businesses and urban areas to help fund it, but we’ll see where it goes. I’ve talked to states from Colorado all the way to New Jersey and New York, and everyone of them started out small with a pilot program and it went from there. But it is growing and more states are getting involved.”

AHMC’s contract is for a three-year project, with a possibility of a two-year extension. The company has contracted with a Wyoming subcontractor to fabricate and install its signs, and once the program is up and running, it plans to hire Wyoming people for its crews.

“It’s going to bring more jobs to Wyoming,” Frazier said. “They get it started and then they hire people locally to actually run their program for them. And for the companies that sponsor highway sections, it’s an opportunity to gain recognition for supporting their communities.” n

Cheyenne – UProsper Insurance Services reached an operating agreement with First Line Insurance Services Inc. to offer insurance services to members of the Cheyenne and Casper communities, as well as the members of WyHy and Western Vista credit unions.

When asked why UProsper is partnering with First Line, President and CEO of WyHy Federal Credit Union Bill Willingham said, “It is important for us to have a partner that believes in our service philosophy, one that can help our members in their time of need. As an independent insurance agent, First Line writes with only “A” rated companies. These companies compete to provide our members the best protection for auto, home and business insurance.”

First Line Insurance Services is based in Englewood, Colo., and started working with credit unions in 2008 to provide quality and affordable insurance solutions. First Line is excited to work with the newly formed UProsper Insurance Services, and the members of WyHy and Western Vista credit unions.

“This is one more way for us to provide complete financial protection to our membership. We understand that protecting our members is what we have always done. Most insurance companies are now competing merely on price,” said John Balser, CEO of Western Vista. “Our responsibility is to help them understand that a lower price doesn’t always mean they are fully protected.”

In the coming months, UProsper will implement additional CUSO initiatives by making more formal announcements regarding the joint ventures that are intended to strengthen both credit unions’ member relationships and increase their viability and success within the communities they serve.

Both credit unions have branch locations in Cheyenne and Casper. n

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Noteworthy

made very clear why Schlimm was such a strong candidate.

“Tracey thoroughly explains and discusses procedures with her trainees so that they not only know what to do, but why. She encourages and mentors them, helping to build their confidence and mold them into productive and contributing dispatchers.

In 2014, she trained new employees for five months.”

Wyoming Highway Patrol Dispatcher The letter continued with “I have never Tracey Schlimm has been serving the public received a complaint from a trooper, the and answering calls for service with Patrol general public, or another law enforcement for nearly 17 years. The Wyoming Peace Ofagency about Tracey. Tracey is patient and ficers Association (WPOA) has recognized polite, and she verifies information to ensure her as WPOA’s 2015 Dispatcher of the Year. that what she’s heard is correct. She takes the Schlimm started with the Wyoming time to explain things, educating callers or Highway Patrol on Nov. 2, 1998, and is letting them know what we are doing to help currently a senior communications training them. Tracey truly knows her stuff and is officer in WHP Dispatch.

Tracey Schlimm (left) accepting her Dispatcher willing to share her experience with others.”

In a letter of nomination for the award of the Year award at the WPOA Awards Banfrom her supervisor, Cara Moore, it was quet.

Photo: WHP

WPOA Dispatcher of the Year award given to WHP dispatcher

Powell citizen Joel Johnson: Seat-belt survivor

Johnson’s work truck after the crash the morning of June 8. The intersection of the crash.

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October 2015

Photo: WYDOT

Photo: WYDOT

Photo: WYDOT

He had seven facial fractures around his left eye. He suffered a basal skull fracture and required a craniotomy (brain surgery).

He also has lost 40 percent loss of hearing due to nerve damage.

Joel Johnson of Powell is a seat-belt Three months have passed since Johnsurvivor. son’s crash, and he’s resumed driving on a Johnson climbed in his work pickup on limited basis. His amazing rehabilitation June 8 to drive to work. It was a normal continues, and he’s back at work. late-spring morning in Powell with plenty of “I am certainly more careful coming up sun and blue sky. He buckled his seat belt. to intersections these days,” Johnson said.

He was two miles from his home driving “I have been able to get past most anxieties 65 mph north of Powell on Wyoming 295, related to the wreck.” when another driver was distracted and Johnson, 37, is married to Michele drove through a stop sign at a high rate of Johnson, and they have four children. He Joel and Michele Johnson are both grateful speed and struck Johnson’s work pickup. works for Vanguard Natural Resources as a that a seat belt made a difference.

Johnson is alive today because of his SCADA (IT) administrator. decision to wear his seat belt.

“Please buckle up and pay attention. Buckling your seat belt “My mom was an emergency medical technician when I was gives you the best chance to make it out alive in the case of a young, and we were always taught to wear a seat belt,” says Johncrash,” Johnson said. son. “It becomes part of driving, and I never gave it up, thankNorthwest Wyoming’s seat-belt survivor recognition profully.” gram is sponsored by Injury Prevention Resources, WHP and His fastened seat belt kept him inside his smashed pickup, but WYDOT. Other seat belt survivor stories are welcomed by emailhis injuries were life-threatening and left him in a coma in a Billing or calling Tom Cunningham at Injury Prevention Resources ings, Mont., hospital for eight days. He suffered 16 broken bones, at tcunningham@wyoming.com or (307) 856-2821. including seven broken ribs. His arm was broken in two places.

Avery named to Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame

Photo: Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame

Morris Avery, one of Wyoming’s first helicopter pilots and a pioneer in aerial spraying, firefighting, search and rescue and mountain flying, is the 2015 inductee into the Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame.

A ceremony to honor his accomplishments and induction was conducted Sept. 18 at the Greybull Airport.

Born in Greeley, Colo., in 1913, Avery completed his schooling in Cody and moved to Greybull in the late 1930s. There he began taking flying lessons from Mel Christler, the 1999 Hall of Fame inductee, and earned his pilot’s license in 1946.

In 1949 they formed Christler and Avery Aviation in Greybull, purchasing a surplus Douglas B-18 bomber and converting it into an agricultural sprayer. It also was retrofitted to haul ore from a uranium mine in the Big Horn Mountains.

In 1958, the company expanded its capabilities with the purchase of a Bell 47 helicopter. As testament to his natural flying abilities, Avery completed his flight training at the Bell facility in Texas in an astonishing five days. He flew the helicopter to Greybull, marking the beginning of the commercial use of helicopters in Wyoming.

He used the helicopter in numerous challenging applications, such as mountain construction and the setting of power poles in rough terrain.

Late in 1958, the company purchased four World War II-era Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateers from the U.S. Coast Guard. A variant of the B-24 Liberator, the large four-engine bombers were retrofitted for aerial firefighting, making Christler and Avery Aviation among the early companies to contract with the U.S. Forest Service to use large aircraft to fight forest fires.

Avery purchased Christler’s share of the company in 1960 and changed the name to Avery Aviation. Aerial firefighting continued to be a major part of the company’s business, but it also provided nonstandard aerial services, including setting the steel for the tram towers at the Jackson Hole Ski Area in Teton Village in 1964, cloud seeding, mosquito and sagebrush spraying, and dropping dynamite on the Big Horn River to break up a massive ice jam.

Avery was committed to the residents of his community and found great joy in delivering Santa Claus from the North Pole to the children of Greybull each Christmas season for many years.

In 1961, Avery ventured into commercial aviation, founding Sage Airlines to provide passenger service to Casper from numerous northern Wyoming towns.

He died in 1965 due to complications following leg surgery.

At the time of his death, Avery Aviation was considered to be the largest private flying service in the nation, with a fleet of historic aircraft dating back to the 1930s.

His wife, Reba, continued to operate the company with the assistance of employees Gene Powers and Dan Hawkins. She sold the company to them in 1969, and it continued to operate for decades as Hawkins & Powers. The flight operation site now serves as a museum where numerous aircraft remain on display.

The Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame was established in 1994 through the efforts of the late Red Kelso of Cheyenne. Acting under the auspices of the Wyoming Aeronautics Commission, the Hall of Fame is dedicated to honoring Wyoming residents who have made outstanding contributions to the establishment, development, and/or advancement of aviation.

The Hall of Fame inductees’ plaques are displayed at the Cheyenne Regional Airport terminal. For more information about the Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame, or to nominate an individual, contact John Waggener at 307-766-2563. n

Morris Avery standing near two of his Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateers at the Greybull Airport in 1960.

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Training

Beneficial changes on the horizon

will cover specific WYDOT policies and procedures as well as general leadership principles. It will focus on employees applying the learning at WYDOT. These tiers will be open to employees looking to enhance their supervisory skills or existing supervisors looking for opportunities to fine tune their knowledge and skills.

by Jim Boyd, Training Services 4. More classroom training is coming to the districts. Classroombased training will come to each district next year. Kurt Borgaard Changes are most definitely happening in Training Services. If you will bring Myers Briggs training to Districts 2 and 3 while Todd haven’t been following our Interchange articles, let me catch you up on DePorter will introduce the Speed of Trust Foundations workshop some initiatives we’ve been working on. to Districts 1, 4 and 5. These workshops will only be offered to 1. March’s launch of WYDOT’s e-Learning Library, better known as district employees so we hope you’ll take advantage and sign up. the WeLL, started the year off on the right foot. The WeLL contains Courses will still be held at WYDOT-U and TLN so if you miss books, videos, courses and even a learning portal for Microsoft a district offering, you will be able to catch one in Cheyenne. To 2007. Any WYDOT employee can use it for their professional see the full schedule, check out the FY16 calendar on the Training development. The WeLL has been really ‘well’ received (pun inServices Intranet page. tended). Since its launch, we’ve had employees complete nearly 400 5. We’re moving! Training Services hopes to be settled into the new courses totaling more than 500 hours of online training.

WYDOT University and Conference Center building (the old 2. Last month, we introduced employees to the Chad Hymas “DevelDriver Services building on the Headquarters campus) by midoping the Leader Within You!” course series. This series is being October. This newly renovated facility will house all of our classoffered to our front-line supervisors. The training is unique to rooms as well as a computer lab. The computer lab is for employees WYDOT in that the nine courses in the series will build on each looking for a quiet space to use the WeLL or other e-Learning other and will be offered throughout the year instead of at one resources. The building will also serve as a conference center or time. Courses will also be offered at various locations around the meeting place for other programs. We will be actively promoting state. Hymas is an excellent speaker, and the series promises to be professional development during October and plan on announcing influential, impactful and inspiring. an open house date for the new building so be on the lookout!

3. In the upcoming year, Training Services will pilot a new trainPlease feel free to reach out to any of us in Training Services if you ing initiative called Tiered Learning. The program will be similar have any questions about these changes. We’d love to hear from you! n to the “Developing the Leader Within You!” series in that it will contain learning opportunities (classroom, online, self-paced, etc.) and will require some commitment of your time. Tiered Learning Check out these upcoming training opportunities from WYDOT-U, the Transportation Learning Network (TLN) and WeLL.

Coming in October: Date PMI Competency Course Title 10/6/15 Leadership The Professional Edge: Building a Reputation for Dependability and Accountability 10/8/15 Customer Service Leaders Building and Maintaining Effective Relations 10/14/15 Developing Others MBTI & Teams (D3 Roadshow - Rock Springs) 10/28/15 Vocational John Maxwell: Sometimes You Win Sometimes You Learn 10/29/15 Team Player Creativity: Inspiring the “Aha!” Experience 10/29/15 Vocational Preventing Rollovers and Backovers Learning at the WeLL in October: Type Length Course Title Course Series 6 hrs total Managing Your Career Course 1 hr Creating a Plan Course 1 hr Getting on the Right Track Course 1 hr Professional Networking Essentials Course 1 hr You and Your Boss Course 1 hr Leveraging the Performance Appraisal Business Impact 6 min Conquering Career Stagnation Challenge 15 min Developing Your Career Challenge 15 min Building and Managing Upward Relationships Challenge 15 min Planning Your Career Challenge 15 min Exploring Self-development

Location WYDOT-U WYDOT-U Roadshow TLN WYDOT-U TLN PMI Competency Personal Effectiveness

To register, or to find out more details, call the Training Program and talk to Jim Boyd (777-4791), Kurt Borgaard (777-4792) or Todd DePorter (777-4790).

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October 2015

TechNotes

Stop. Think. Connect.™ during National Cyber Security Awareness Month

by Carlie Van Winkle October has been designated National Cyber Security Awareness Month by President Obama. A national public awareness campaign titled Stop. Think. Connect.™ is designed to educate computer users and challenge them to be more vigilant while practicing safer online habits.

The Stop. Think. Connect.™ cybersecurity awareness campaign was created by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the request of President Obama in 2009 to help Americans understand the risks associated with using the Internet as well as practice safe online behaviors.

Since the Internet touches each of our lives on a daily basis in one way or another, we need to recognize the importance of cybersecurity in our workplace and homes. The DHS cybersecurity awareness month challenges users through weekly themes to increase Internet security close to home, increasing our strength and quick recovery in the event of a cyber incident.

Cyber threats affect you, your family, your workplace colleagues and your business. Threats can include identity theft, fraud and phishing, cyber bullying and ethics, and cyber predators.

Identity theft is the illegal use of someone’s personal information to obtain money or credit. Precautions against online identity theft can be made by locking and password protecting your computer and cell phone; not sharing your personal information online (full name, birthdate, etc.); and setting proper and strong privacy settings on social networking sites.

Fraud is the use of intentional lying in order to get another to surrender a legal right, or part with something of value, while phishing is a scam in which an email user is deceived into revealing personal information that the scammer can then use fraudulently. Both fraud and phishing have been known to take the form of authentic-looking websites and emails. To protect yourself from fraud and phishing attacks, be sure to turn off the automatic download option in your email app; scan any attachments with a security application prior to opening them; and if the email seems fraudulent, check with source (i.e. bank, credit card issuer, or loan department) to verify if they did send the email.

Cyber bullying is a threat that many teens and young adults face on a daily basis from their own peers, rather than strangers.

Cyber bullying is the electronic posting of malicious messages, usually done anonymously to shame the teen or young adult.

Cyber bullying can result in a hurtful viral message, which can wreak havoc on a person’s reputation and personal well-being.

Learning about cyber ethics may help users understand what is acceptable and unacceptable in online behavior. Cyber bullying is easily stopped if all users follow the Golden Rule of being nice to one another online, just as they are in real life. Owning up and taking responsibility for actions online are just as important as taking responsibility in a daily routine. Avoid saying or doing anything online you wouldn’t do face-to-face.

Cyber predators take advantage of other people, usually targeting teens or young adults – both male and female – on a regular basis, to coerce or harm them in some manner. Take steps to protect yourself and your loved ones from cyber predators by ensuring your social networking sites are secure and avoid sharing great amounts of personal information with anyone. Be protective of your personal information and only “friend” people you truly know.

During the month of October, make an effort to check the security settings on email accounts and social networking sites, and make a priority to strengthen the passwords to frequently visited websites.

Keep yourself, your assets and personal information safe online with these year-round tips and resources: o Set strong passwords – don’t share them with anyone. o Maintain your operating system, browser, and other critical

software optimized by installing updates.

o Limit the amount of personal information you post online

and use available privacy settings to avoid sharing information widely.

o Be cautious about what you receive or read online – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. n

Stop.Think.Connect.™ is a national public awareness campaign aimed at increasing the understanding of cyber threats and empowering the American public to be safer and more secure online.

STOP. Before you use the Internet, take time to understand the risks and learn how to spot potential problems.

THINK. Take a moment to be certain the path ahead is clear.

Watch for warning signs and consider how your actions online could impact your safety, or your family’s.

CONNECT. Enjoy the Internet with greater confidence, knowing you’ve taken the right steps to safeguard yourself and your computer.

STOP.THINK.CONNECT. Securing one citizen, one family, one Nation against cyber threats.

Visit www.dhs.gov/stopthinkconnect for more information on how to get involved with the Stop.Think.Connect. Campaign.

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District News Headquarters

Welcome Michael Farrar, Materials-Design and Roadway; Chrystal Fauver, Cheyenne I-80 Port of Entry; Tammera Gutierrez, Cheyenne I-25 Port of Entry; Elizabeth Helm, Financial Services-Disbursements; Greg Smith, Facilities ManagementSecurity; Jennifer Goodrich, Highway Safety-MSEP; and Mardy Wagner, Telecommunications Administration.

J. Farrar

Burgess

Pivik

Service Awards

Photo: Rick Carpenter

Ronald Chavez, Employee Safety – 30 years; Larry Crosby, Highway DevelopmentProject Development – 30 years;

Col. Kebin Haller’s pinning ceremony was held Sept. 17 in the main lobby of the Headquarters Building. Honored guest and speaker, Gov. Matt Mead, is seen here congratulating Haller after the pinning of his badge.

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Schwaiger

Mark Falk, Geology-Administration – 30 years; Janet Farrar, Strategic Performance – 25 years; Camelia Kidd, Driver Services-Policy and Records – 25 years; AJ Myers, IT-Enginering Apps – 20 years; Duane Ellis, Patrol-Safety and Training – 15 years; Christopher Pivik, Traffic – 15 years; Kevin Schwaiger, Highway Development-Project Development – 15 years; Ronald Ellis, Facilities ManagementGrounds – 10 years; Peter Gosar, Aeronautics-Flight Operations – 10 years; Kenneth Ledet, Highway Safety – 10 years; David Luegering, IT-Enginering Apps – 10 years; Julianne Monahan, Highway Development-Engineering Services – 10 years; Kelli Vosler, IT-Development – 10 years;

Shoden

October 2015

Luegering

Herrera

Van Winkle

Ellis

Promotions and Transfers Bob Bonds, Environmental Services; Reginald Boyd, Bridge-Engineering Design; Jesse Burgess, Equipment-Mechanics; Ryan Higgins, Materials-Bituminous; and Erik Shoden, Patrol-Capitol Services Protection.

Boyd

Ledet

Candace Herrera, Office ServicesFiles – 5 years; James Miller, Facilities ManagementSecurity – 5 years; Jessica Stevens, GIS/ITS – 5 years; and Carlie Van Winkle, Public Affairs – 5 years.

Retirements Kevin B. Powell with Environmental Services retires with 29 years of service; and John Puente with Cheyenne Facilities Management-Security is retiring with more than 41 years of service to the state.

Oops!

Last month’s Interchange had a misprint.

The photo librarian made an incorrect image selection and the image of Corey Vine was incorrect.

We apologize for any inconvenience we have caused Mr. Vine.

Vine

SAVE THE DATE! The Annual WYDOT Retiree Christmas Party will be held December 10, 2015

More information coming in next month’s Interchange.

District 1

Total number of employees: as of Sept. 8, 2015

1,984

One month ago

2,015

Promotions and Transfers

Service Awards

Richard Demoney, Cheyenne Mechanics; Scott Forest, Laramie Maintenance; Warren Moeller, Cheyenne Maintenance; and Johnathan Sharp, Traffic-Signing.

Margaret Biggs, Laramie Construction – 30 years; Corey Kimzey, Traffic-Electrical – 15 years; and Michael Kurz, TelecommunicationsTelephone – 10 years.

District 2

Welcome Ryan Byers, Casper Maintenance; Joseph Haas, Torrington Traffic-Striping; Stacy Jassman, Lusk Port of Entry; and Jeremy King, Torrington Traffic-Striping.

Promotions and Transfers Katherine Bradfield, Douglas Construction; Brian Caudill, Casper Main-

tenance; Michael Kyte Jr, Casper Patrol; and James Mathis III, District 2 Maintenance Staff.

Service Awards Lance Green, Torrington Maintenance – 15 years; and Ronald Patrick, Torrington Maintenance – 15 years.

One year ago

1,980

WHP Total number of highway fatalities: as of Sept. 23, 2015

109

one year ago

109

Bradfield

Kyte

Mathis

Green

District 3

Welcome

Congratulations

Max Horner, Farson Maintenance; and Donald Tucker, Rock Springs Mechanics.

Pinedale area Trooper Matthew Brackin was promoted to the rank of lieutenant as the Division K supervisor who covers Teton County and northern Lincoln County in northwest Wyoming.

Interim WHP Brackin Administrator Lt. Col. Shannon Ratliff made the promotion official. Brackin took the helm in Jackson on Sept. 1.

Brackin has served with Patrol since April 2002 with duty stations in Wamsutter, Rock Springs and Pinedale. Brackin replaces Lt. Tom Kelly who retired at the end of June of this year. n

Promotions and Transfers Matthew Brackin, Jackson Patrol; Shaneal Miller, District 3 Maintenance Staff; and James O’Connor, Pinedale Maintenance.

Retirements Rodney Paul, Traffic-Signing.

Miller

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District 4

Welcome

Jorgensen’s promotion is effective Sept.

12. He will be replaces Lt. Casey Goodman who concludes his 30 year career with the WHP this October.

Dustin Bumbaca, Sheridan Port of Entry; and Renee Tracy, Gillette Construction.

Cradle Call Knudsvig

Kuhl

Taggart

Photo: WHP

Goodman

Promotions and Transfers Dean Darling, Sheridan Maintenance; Devin Glantz, Sheridan Traffic-Striping; and Erik Jorgensen, Sheridan Patrol.

Darling

Glantz

Service Awards Casey Goodman, Sheridan Patrol – 30 years;

Bruce Knudsvig, Sheridan Port of Entry – 25 years; Michael Kuhl, Sundance Maintenance – 20 years; and Richard Taggart, Sundance Maintenance – 20 years.

Congratulations Rock Springs area Trooper Erik Jorgensen was promoted to Division C lieutenant in Sheridan. Division C is responsible for both Sheridan and Johnson counties.

Jorgensen is an eight-year veteran with Patrol and has served Jorgensen in the Rock Springs area throughout his career.

District 5

Promotions and Transfers Erin Devries, Worland Patrol.

Service Awards Shawn Coggins, Meeteetse Maintenance – 20 years; and

Photo courtesy John Leahy

Dustin Bumbaca, port of entry specialist, Sheridan/Dietz Port of Entry Supervisor Kim Huestis and Montana Port of Entry Capt. Doug Park. Bumbaca was sworn in by Park in order to write citations for Montana.

John and Susie Leahy recently welcomed a second child into their home.

Kaylee Jan Leahy was born July 23, weighing in at 7 pounds and 6 ounces, 19.5 inches long.

John is a project engineer in the Newcastle Construction office. n

Dad, John Leahy, relaxing at home with his two cuddly girls.

Over the Limit?

Under Arrest.

Jimmy Hallam, Lander Traffic-Striping – 15 years.

Retirements David Hockett, Lander Patrol.

Always use a designated driver.

HIGHWAY SAFETY PROGRAM

Devries

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Coggins n

October 2015

Hallam

Hockett

OMING WY HWAY PATRO HIG

L

Gone Hunting?

Beach vacation?

Service Award Recipients

Get those photos in!

Dec 11 carlie.vanwinkle@ wyo.gov

Photo: Rick Carpenter

Outdoors deadline: Service award luncheons are held by the Transportation Commission for employees celebrating milestones of 25 years of service or greater.

Service award recipients at this month’s luncheon: (Front row from left) Ron Chavez, Kim Jorgensen and Casey Goodman. (Back row from left) Chris McGuire, Larry Crosby and Janet Farrar.

Extra Mile

AWARDS Congratulations to our August recipients!

WYDOT salutes the following Director’s Extra Mile Award recipients.

The award is presented to individuals who have traveled the “extra mile” in service to WYDOT.

Carl Clements

James Adamson

James Evensen

Scott Hamilton

For more information about the Extra Mile Award or to nominate someone, contact Janet Farrar at janet.farrar@wyo.gov or Mel Anderson at mel.anderson@wyo.gov.

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WTDEA

Cafeteria operations to resume shortly under new management The WTDEA Cafeteria Committee is excited to announce that new operators have been chosen for the Headquarters cafeteria. Manuel and Nallely Martinez currently own and operate Taqueria Mexicana Mi Tierra at the Cenex station on Del Range Boulevard in Cheyenne.

The Martinezes will be bringing their delicious food and personalities to the WYDOT campus. The entire menu will be offered all day – including the breakfast items. The new operators will also be taking phone-ahead orders for convenience.

Taqueria Mexicana Mi Tierra will be open Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and will accept cash and credit/ debit cards.

The grand reopening of the cafeteria is still to be determined as the WTDEA Cafeteria Committee works on final preparations. n

Annual Chili Cook-Off – The heat is on!

The heat is on for the 4th Annual WTDEA Employee Relief Fund Chili Cook-Off, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 8.

This year’s event is scheduled to be held in the car barn. The cook-off coincides with a WTDEA State Board meeting at HQ and State Board members will be attending the fundraiser.

If you think you have what it takes and like to have bragging rights (along with the Annual Chili Cook-Off traveling trophy), please sign up to bring your favorite red, green or white chili recipes. You can do this by emailing Justin Mordahl or Holly Daniels by Oct. 5.

The cost is a cool $5 to taste all of the recipes and receive one voting ticket. Cast the ticket for your favorite and you will get another small bowl to enjoy.

There will also be a 50/50 raffle with the cost of $5 for six tickets or $1 per ticket. The winner will get half the pot and the other half goes to the fundraiser.

All proceeds from the cook-off benefit the WTDEA Employee Relief Fund.

Employee Relief Fund-Automatic Deposit Forms will be at the cook-off and everyone is encouraged to sign up for the program. Even if you only donate $1 a month, you take part in helping co-workers face financial burdens during times of need.

Members of the Payroll Office will be at the event to accept completed forms.

If you submit a completed form giving at least $1 or increasing your current donation by $1, you will receive a camouflageprint bandanna to show that you support the Relief Fund, courtesy of the WTDEA State Board. There will be different prints to choose from but will be limited in number. The sooner you attend and submit your form, the better the selection will be.

Don’t forget to mark the date on your calendars. We hope to see you there for some great chili for a great cause. n

Passings Donald F. Denzin

Retiree Donald F. Denzin, 86, of Sundance, died Sept. 4.

Denzin, a native of Belle Fourche, S.D., started with the old Wyoming Highway Department, WYDOT’s predecessor agency, in March 1967 and retired in Denzin July 1992 from the Sundance engineering crew.

He graduated from high school in Belle Fourche and subsequently served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

In addition to his 25-year career with the department, he and his wife Marilyn had owned and operated Don’s Cleaners, and he also served 11 years as the Crook County Justice of the Peace.

Memorial services for Denzin were held Sept. 7 in Sundance. n

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October 2015

Tickets for Chili Tasting, Voting, and Small Bowl of Chili $5

50/50 Raffle Tickets $5 for 6 Tickets or $1 Per Ticket

To Sign Up for the Contest, E-Mail Justin Mordahl or Holly Daniels by Monday, October 5, 2015

A great horned ow

Photo: Calvin Will iam

s

Photo: Dana Wood

Outdoors

l spotted by Calvi

n Williams just ou

tside Jackson.

ublic Affairs), rlie Van Winkle (P es (from left) Ca (Bridge) particier ey tm gs WYDOT employe Rin ic) and Randy aff (Tr ler onsored by the ind sp , Sp oli a nn Christin event, Run for Ca 5k al ur ug ch runner was ina pated in the Maria Chapter. Ea Sons of Italy, Mia r the race. de of Or d ne en en the ey Ch ilian cannoli at Sic c nti the au an treated to

Photo courtesy Dani Galluzzo

kle Photo: Carlie Van Win

Dana Wood, who works in the engineering section of Right of Way, snapped this photo of a ferruginous rough leg hawk. The hawk was enjoying a mid-morning snack of a small animal at the WYDOT Headquarters building.

Dani Galluzzo with the Driver Serv ices office in Cheyenne went snor keling off Grand Cayman this past July.

She had never snorkeled before and attests it wasn’t as easy as she thought it looked. She and her snor keling party of 11 saw large Tarp on fish in the crystal clear water.

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October 2015

Break Time

Intermediate Mazes by KrazyDad, Book 1

Maze #18

KRAZYDAD.COM/PUZZLES

Need the answer? http://krazydad.com/mazes/answers

Š 2010 KrazyDad.com

Interchange subscription issue? Update your address:

1) Complete and return this slip to WYDOT Public Affairs Office, 5300 Bishop Blvd., Cheyenne, WY 82009, or 2) E-mail Carlie Van Winkle at carlie.vanwinkle@wyo.gov.

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Interchange

Wyoming Department of Transportation 5300 Bishop Blvd.

Cheyenne, Wyoming 82009-3340 Address Service Requested

Pre-sorted Standard U.S. Postage Paid Cheyenne, WY 82009 Permit No. 24