Hey, Answer Girl

How come the citizens of Casper voted AGAINST building a new courthouse, and yet the city is doing just that? Do we just vote for fun and they do what they like? Is this going to happen with the library?

- Preston P.

Actually, the citizens of Casper (and the rest of Natrona County) voted against using an additional one-cent tax or more sales tax for the purpose of building the courthouse. They didn't specifically vote against a new courthouse, but they basically told the county commissioners that they had to find a way other than additional taxes to build it.

The commissioners didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. The current building doesn't comply with the state law mandating that counties provide one 12-juror courtroom for each state district judge. The current courthouse only has one large courtroom and one small courtroom. Security in the current courthouse is also lacking as compared to those of similar size elsewhere - something that will be improved with the new courthouse.

They received more than $11 million from the State Loan Investment Board to help pay for the courthouse, and allocated other annual funds to the project.

As far as the library, I haven't heard anything about the library asking the county for all the money it would need for a new building. Technically, though, if the county commissioners approved it as part of the annual budget, yes, the same thing could happen with a library building, or any other county building for that matter.

Answer Addition

Not exactly a question, but reader Joe H. asked that I list some of the many other important occurrences in 1969 that led to or coincided with the first man on the moon. Here are just a few:

- January: Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th U.S. president.

- February: The Boeing 747 makes its first commercial flight.

- March: Slaughterhouse Five, a groundbreaking novel by Kurt Vonnegut, is published.

- April: Harvard students take over the campus and demand the R.O.T.C. program end.

- May: John Lennon and Yoko Ono bed-in for peace in a hotel in Montreal.

- June: The Stonewall Riots in New York begin the gay rights movement.

- July: The Chappaquidick Island incident; a woman dies in a vehicle driven off a bridge by Edward Kennedy. (The moon walk would occur two days later, on July 20.)

- August: Woodstock festival begins in Bethel, N.Y.

- September: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is released.

- October: The New York Miracle Mets win the World Series.

- November: Sesame Street debuts on PBS.

- December: The first draft lottery since World War II begins.

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Answer Girl tackles questions about Casper, the universe and everything else. Submit your questions by e-mail to megan.lee@trib.com, or call Megan Lee at (307) 266-0616. Write to Answer Girl, Box 80, Casper, 82602. Visit the AnswerLabs Blog Place at tribtown.trib.com.