Letters to the editor, March 7, 2024

The sculpture has always been very depressing to me. The sculpture is supposed to be part of a rotating piece of art, but it has been with us now for five years? During the COVID-19 pandemic, I thought about dropping a fire cracker in its’ mouth. But then I thought that some folks may like the open, gaping mouth.

Was Willow Man designed to look like it was trying to talk? The gaping mouth must have been designed to catch all the blowing snow that it seems to be choking on.

I think I’m relegated to look at “it” about 120 times a month. I thought that a buffalo might be nice there, made out of all the scrap steel laying around here. Or maybe a giant cowboy hat made out of cowboy hats? What a concept. I think a big owl would be nice.

I can’t be the only person in town who feels the same way, and I think the gaping mouth is saying, “Enough!”

Susan Green

Laramie

Tax break discriminates against renters

Do you rent your home? If so, the Wyoming Legislature may be a few days away from passing a bill that discriminates against you, providing tax breaks to homeowners but not to renters.

Many Wyoming residents have complained that inflation has left them with escalating, sometimes unaffordable property tax bills, and have asked the Legislature to grant them tax relief. Some of the bills cap tax increases from year to year; others completely exempt a portion of the property’s value from taxation. However, all the legislation now under consideration would ease property taxes only for homeowners, providing no relief — direct or indirectly through their landlords — to tenants whose rents continue to escalate by similar amounts.

If not ruled unconstitutional (the Wyoming Constitution requires that taxation be “equal and uniform”), this could have a devastating effect on Wyoming’s workforce and economy. Companies that are considering moving to our state, or opening branches here, would find it difficult to recruit or relocate entry level employees.

Graduating UW students would have a strong incentive to leave the state as they start their careers, only considering returning if they are ready to buy (and perhaps not doing so even then). And worthy long-term Wyoming residents who happen to rent — including the elderly, who may have sold the family home and relocated to a rental — would be hit hard by this discriminatory taxation.

Renters concerned about this — and all should be — must contact their legislators this week if they wish to be heard on this issue. This can be done by going online to wyoleg.gov/legislators and finding your legislators’ contact e-mail addresses and phone numbers. Only by speaking up in the next few days will it be likely to receive any consideration by legislators, few if any of whom are renters.

Brett Glass

Laramie

UW Lab School also needs attention for its facilities

As the Wyoming Legislature debates the building of new schools and the upgrading of others, the University of Wyoming Lab School never appears on the Wyoming School Facilities Select Committee’s list.

The UW Lab School has to be second only to Arp Elementary School in terms of infrastructure needs. My grandchildren attend the UW Lab School and the whole structure is falling down around their ears.

The kids tell me there are parts of the school they’re not allowed to enter because of the exposed asbestos. Cracked tiles and deteriorating stairs, damage in the gym that’s never been repaired, broken wall panels, ancient bathrooms, years of deferred maintenance. The school is so old it’s impossible to keep clean, despite maintenance staff’s best efforts.

We pepper the school district and the school facilities committee steadily as to why the UW Lab School is not on this list. We get a number of different answers, including a lack of agreement about who is responsible between the department of education and the University of Wyoming or the cost of remodeling is too high.

My grandson plays basketball for the school and we travel all around the region to various schools for his games. The contrast is shocking how well-appointed, modern, updated and conducive to a good education Laramie Middle School, Carey, Johnson, McCormick junior high schools in Cheyenne, and Rock River are. Parents of visiting teams to UW Lab School invariably comment on the poor condition of the school.

While the UW Lab School is an excellent institution of learning with innovative approaches to education, it is far below par in terms of a physical learning environment. Don’t UW Lab School students deserve to have the same adequate, safe, clean and modern learning environment as other Wyoming students?

As I sit in during Albany County School District 1 board meetings, it’s apparent the UW Lab School isn’t on its radar, either. Maybe a lawsuit is needed? Certainly a new school building is required even if it must be located well off campus.

Patricia McDaniel

Laramie