EVANSTON — Local officials and community members gathered in Bear River earlier this month to celebrate the town’s new town hall and community center. The $780,000 project is nearly complete, as crews are putting the finishing touches around the building — paving, fencing and landscaping.

The town held an open house on Wednesday, June 14, where people toured the new building and enjoyed dinner together. Pete Moesser, the town’s first mayor (and its honorary mayor for life) was at the event, along with current mayor Troy Nolan and members of the council. Evanston and Uinta County officials also visited Bear River to congratulate Nolan and the town on the new building.

Making use of a hand-me-down double-wide trailer from the sheriff’s office for the past several years, the old town hall left much to be desired. Moesser, who now lives in Utah, said the new town hall is more than he’d ever imagined.

“When I moved there (Bear River), it was an improvement district,” he said. “We didn’t have any water, they put a restriction … we couldn’t water outside. You couldn’t grow anything outside at all. The roads were crappy. Everything was in a basically poor situation.”

In 2000, Moesser went to Cheyenne as a state delegate. Someone there told him the only way to improve the area now known as Bear River was to incorporate it into a municipality.

He said the county wouldn’t help with the process at the time.

“I went to the county commissioners and I begged.” Moesser said. “I used $3,800 of my own money to have a survey of the area. I had more than 50 percent of the people sign to bring it to a special election to decide whether to incorporate it or not.”

He said the measure passed with support from 77 percent of residents.

After great effort, Moesser said the people wanted him to be the mayor, so he reluctantly ran, receiving 80 percent of the votes. He was the mayor from 2001-2002 (Robin Rhodes was mayor from 2003-2012 and Nolan has been mayor since 2013). Moesser said incorporating the town has allowed great things for Bear River, and he’s happy to see Nolan continue efforts to improve the area.

“On my last day in office, I got $654,000 of 100-percent grant money for our 500,000-gallon storage tank on top of the hill,” Moesser said.

The new town hall was also paid for with grant money. Last year, the State Loan and Investment Board approved a $380,000 grant from the Wyoming Business Council. That, along with $400,000 in consensus funds from the county, paid for the project at no cost to the town.

“I think it’s a great accomplishment for Bear River, for one, and for the county,” Mayor Nolan said. “It makes us look good with all the tourism coming through to Yellowstone … to have a nice building like that instead of a double-wide.”

Nolan said the project involved great community support including from nearby municipalities and Uinta County. He said the contractors, many of them local, were great to work with, too.

Nolan made note that the town hall is also a community center.

“The people of Bear River can rent it out, too. It’s a community center, so people don’t always have to go into town (Evanston) if they have a birthday or want to have a family party or a graduation party,” he said.

Nolan spearheaded the project, and the 5,400 square foot building was built just off Wyoming Highway 89, in front of the old double-wide, which is currently for sale.