Frontier Refining lays off 28

CHEYENNE -- Frontier Refining announced layoffs of 28 employees at its Cheyenne refinery on Thursday.

The company cited the current difficult refining environment and an effort to ensure the future economic viability of the facility as reasons for the move.

In a media release, Gerald B. Faudel, vice president for government relations and environmental affairs for Frontier Oil Corporation, said the staff reduction affects 14 salaried employees in various support departments and 14 hourly employees who work in the refinery labor pool.

"These efforts are necessary due to poor product demand and substantially worse heavy crude opportunities resulting from the weak economy," Faudel wrote.

The company also is making major investments in equipment and energy conservation, along with other cost reduction efforts.

The reductions will not impact the plant's efforts to continue to improve its safety and environmental performance, Faudel wrote.

"Frontier's management regrets that the economic environment requires us to make this decision, and will provide all affected employees with severance benefits including outplacement assistance," the release said.

County leaves energy program

CODY -- The Park County Commission has backed out of a state-run energy conservation program.

In June 2008, the commission voted to sign on with the Wyoming Business Council's Wyoming Energy Conservation Improvement Program.

The program essentially is a type of long-term financing deal for making public buildings more energy efficient.

But the Park County Commission says it will now make such improvements on its own after hearing concern about hiring someone to do an energy audit that county staff said they could do.

Commissioners also were concerned about signing long-term contracts with what they said contained ambiguous wording.

Guard camp runway complete

GUERNSEY -- Wyoming National Guard's Camp Guernsey Joint Training Center is unveiling a new runway that can accommodate larger military aircraft.

The landing of a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft weighing about 300,000 pounds will highlight the camp's annual Superday event on Saturday.

The camp recently completed a $9.6 million, state-funded project to strengthen the 5,500-foot runway. The project included constructing turnaround points at the runway ends and widening the runway from 75 feet to 90 feet.

Camp Guernsey is a training site for military units and law enforcement agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency, FBI and local police departments.

The Wyoming Military Department operates the runway, but it is shared with the local airport and private users.