Wyoming News Briefs

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Xanterra Parks & Resorts will continue to provide a wide range of visitor services in Yellowstone National Park for the next 20 years. The National Park Service recently awarded its concession contract to Xanterra, which has held the contract since 2005. The contract covers lodging, retail sales, restaurants and other services provided to visitors to Yellowstone.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Officials with Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails are asking the public for help in developing a statewide concessions master plan. The Associated Press reports the public will have the opportunity to comment on what they would like to see improved, added or removed from state parks and historic sites. Comments can be made online or at a series of public meetings to be held across the state during March.

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. (AP) — A Sweetwater County seventh-grader has won the Wyoming State Spelling Bee. Victoria Allen defeated 56 spellers from 16 counties Saturday by correctly spelling the word brilliantine, which refers to a light, lustrous fabric or a preparation for making hair glossy. She will represent Wyoming in the Scripps National Spelling Bee beginning May 26 in Washington, D.C.

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — A group is working to remember a late University of Wyoming employee who tended to the gardens on campus. The "Friends of Tommy" committee, formed shortly after Tommy Thompson died in 2010 at the age of 72, hopes to place a bronze sculpture of him in the flower gardens. The Laramie Boomerang reports they have raised about 75 percent of the $40,000 cost.