Clearmont Fire District Receives Donation from Ramaco Carbon Foundation

On Friday, March 2, Aurelia Giacometto, one of the independent directors of Ramaco Resources, parent company to Ramaco Carbon based in Sheridan, presented the Clearmont Volunteer Fire District with a $5,000 donation at the Clearmont Fire Hall. Also attending the presentation was Rachelle Woody, office manager of Ramaco Carbon.

Ramaco Carbon been in the community for several years, and Giacometto explains who they are and what they do.

She said Ramaco has agreements with the department of energy and they have about 50 pending patents on that technology. She said they have found there are rare earth elements out there as well, and they are doing a project to figure out the extent of them. “A lot of interesting things are happening out at Ramaco Carbon,” she added.

Giacometto said that about 6 months ago Ramaco Research recently started a foundation to give back to the communities they work in West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and now Wyoming.

They have given money to local softball teams and have a scholarship program for coal miners who have kids going to college. They have given money to a food bank and other funds for educational purposes.

Fire chief Artie Thomas talked about the fire district. He said there are four fire halls, Clearmont, Wyarno, Arvada and Ucross. Thomas added that Ucross is a ‘dry hall’ during the winter, which means there are no trucks inside. But they do have several places where they keep trucks ready to go.

He said that most of the volunteers are ranchers who want to protect their pastures from fire.

Although Thomas has only been fire chief for four or five years, he was assistant chief to Fritz Bates for 30 years before that and has been a volunteer firefighter for 20 years before that.

He had this to say about the donation.

Also in attendance to receive the check, as well as Fire Chief Artie Thomas and his son, Jeremy, who is president of the fire district, Jeremy said the donation was much appreciated and will be used as needed for gear and radios; Josh Mckinley, assistant fire chief for the Clearmont district who lives in Wyarno and takes care of the fire hall there, felt the donation was fantastic, and greatly appreciated, saying it always good when the community can get together. Connor McKey, Wyarno, is a volunteer and one for the mechanics for the department, and Tell Mack, Leiter, volunteer and foreman of Sheridan ranch, were also on hand for the presentation.

The Clearmont Fire District would like to thank Ramaco Foundation again for the generous donation to them.