Representatives of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation met this week with Wyoming’s senators to help expedite the transfer of the property where the site’s historic hospital buildings are located to the foundation from the federal government.
Executive Director Aura Sunada Newlin, Board Chair Shirley Ann Higuchi, and Ray Locker, director of communications and strategy, met Tuesday with Senator Cynthia Lummis and Wednesday with Senator John Barrasso. The meeting with Barrasso was in his office in the U.S. Capitol.
The senators, both Republicans, said they and their staff were working with the Interior Department to speed the release of the land to HMWF.
The 73-acre tract is controlled by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, a division of Interior. Since 2007, HMWF has cared for the land under a memorandum of understanding with BOR. HMWF board and staff have been working with BOR and the Bureau of Land Management, another Interior division, to facilitate the transfer.
Transfer of the property has gained extra urgency in recent months after four acts of vandalism in the hospital buildings. HMWF wants ownership of the property to renovate the 83-year-old buildings, remove any hazardous materials they may contain, add security measures and eventually turn the buildings into permanent exhibit spaces.
The hospital grounds are where most of the 556 babies born at Heart Mountain were delivered, including HMWF board member Kathleen Saito Yuille.
Photo: Ray Locker, Sen. John Barrrasso, Shirley Ann Higuchi, and Aura Sunada Newlin in the senator’s Capitol office.