Jacquie Anderson Announces Candidacy for Natrona County Commission

Businesswoman and former Casper City Council member Jacquie Anderson will seek the Republican Party's nomination for Natrona County Commission, she said Thursday.

Anderson, 45, has owned several restaurants including her current Jacquie's Bistro on East Second Street downtown.

The Natrona County High School graduate also served on the city council from 2001 to 2004.

However, Anderson has lived in the Vista West IV subdivision near the Natrona County International Airport and is familiar with the concerns of rural residents.

"We were always dealing with water issues, definitely growth issues, road issues, infrastructure," she said.

The commission often has not listened to the residents or appears to not know where it's going, Anderson said.

"It feels like they're just 'making up the rules as they go along' mentality," she said. "We need to control that."

Anderson also wants to see more accountability with county agencies, such as the county's ownership of the hospital assets leased by the nonprofit Wyoming Medical Center Inc., and the Road and Bridge Department in light of the lawsuit by the former superintendent of Alcova reservoir who alleges it defrauded the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Rural residents have told Anderson that private property rights remain their biggest concern, she said.

Some are still sore about the long-running and recently concluded dispute with the county over the legality of large numbers of collector cars, she said. "They feel like they haven't been heard."

But she was heartened by the county's planning and zoning commission's decision Tuesday to block Thomas Petroleum's proposed development of a large tank farm for hazardous liquids, she said. "I went to a commissioners meeting the other night, and the people prevailed and said 'no,' and the commissioners listened, and that's what I want to see all the time."