BELFRY (AP)
Highway 72 will be closed from here to the Wyoming state line for two months due to large boulders falling from an unstable hillside at a road construction site, officials said Wednesday. The closure will mean less traffic for Belfry businesses that cater to highway customers, and a longer trip for truckers and commercial traffic. Commercial traffic was being diverted at Cody, Wyo., using U. S. 14A, and at Bridger using U. S. 310. Passenger vehicles were being directed through the halfmile slide zone Wednesday by flaggers using a single lane of traffic. By Friday, a detour is expected to be established routing passenger traffic along Park County Road 8VE in Wyoming and Chance Road in Montana. That route is flat and well-maintained, but includes a long gravel section and a one-lane bridge. Riverside Contracting is working to widen and straighten Highway 72. In Belfry, a town of about 200 people, business owners said the detour will hit hard. Bob Cichosz, owner of the Belfry Country Store, said his store sells as much as $3,000 worth of lottery tickets each week, about 90 percent of them to Wyoming customers who typically buy snacks when they stop. “It will decrease our traffic quite a bit,” he said. “We get a lot of business from Cody and Powell.” Many truckers stop to eat at the Silvertip Casino, and the majority of customers who gamble on the casino’s 15 electronic machines are from Wyoming, particularly Cody and Powell, bartender Brandi Webb said.
