Fremont County is no longer in the running as a potential location for a planned state shooting complex in Wyoming.
Shoshoni Mayor Joel Highsmith shared the news with County 10 last weekend.
“Fremont County did not make the cut,” he said. “We were not selected.”
The decision was made during a closed meeting that the Wyoming State Shooting Complex Oversight Task Force held last week to review and screen site proposals.
The task force selected four applicants to move forward in the process during that meeting: the City of Cheyenne, Natrona County, Campbell County, and Park County.
Representatives from those communities will give oral presentations to the task force during a meeting June 24-25 in Casper.
“I’ll be listening in on that,” Highsmith said, congratulating the communities that are moving forward in the process. “None of the sites will be as good as Fremont County, (but) this will be a great facility wherever they put it.”
‘Not a surprise’
Highsmith said it “was not a surprise” that Fremont County’s proposal wasn’t chosen to move forward, given the “sentiment of the majority of the task force” against involving federal land in the shooting complex process.
“The bulk of our land was going to be federal,” Highsmith said. “We just could not overcome (that). It’s disappointing, but … we anticipated that this was probably going to happen.”
That’s why the Fremont County Association of Governments decided not to spend “more money” on the final proposal they submitted to the task force, he explained, thanking the local volunteers who participated in the process throughout.
Several of those volunteers are still willing to “help out” as the state develops its plan for the future shooting complex, Highsmith said, expressing support for the project and its potential to bolster Wyoming’s economy.
“This could be used to attract some of (the) larger businesses in the industry,” Highsmith said. “It’s just another draw. … Wherever they put it, I think it’s a great idea. (This) would really be an economic driver to the state. That’s why they’re willing to invest that kind of money – because it’ll bring profit in the long run. It’ll be great for the state.”