Local company wins gravel bid

The Hot Springs County Commissioners met Feb. 16 for their second monthly meeting in February.

Bids were opened for the contract to supply 25,000 tons of crushed gravel to the HSC Road and Bridge Department. Big Horn Redi-Mix, Inc. out of Thermopolis was awarded the contract with a low bid of $122,250. The highest bidder was out of Buffalo at $283,750. A total of seven bids were received from around the state and Idaho. The bids were checked by the engineer and Road and Bridge supervisor Dave Schlager. Contracts were signed on Feb. 24 between the commission and Big Horn Redi-Mix, Inc. for the work to begin March 1 and be completed by March 31.

National Association of County Officials (NACO) and Western Interstate Region (WIR) is holding their 2016 conference in Jackson. Commission chairman John Lumley plans to attend. This is the spring meeting for the County Commissioners Association. “There is going to be a lot of public land discussions at that meeting by those committees, which makes it really interesting. Here in the west WIR was formed because we have a number of things unique to us the rest of the country does not deal with,” said Lumley. “If you go down from Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico everything east of those states per the U.S. Constitution, they were all given the land to manage by the states. Here, and all the states to the west coast, Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service do the management,” he added.

The Hot Springs County Economic Development Company has paid back a $42,000 loan to the county from 2008 they used to build the Red Rock Commercial Center south of Thermopolis. With the sale of the commercial center to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, the loan has been paid in full and the money went into the county's general fund.

“That location will benefit WDC so well with the visibility,” said Lumley.

When asked about the county budget outlook, Lumley said he has set a special meeting for elected officials to hear from the county assessor and treasurer regarding where the county is sitting financially. According to Lumley, the county valuation is currently at $230 million. County Assessor Shelly Deromedi said the 2016 valuation, which is based on 2015 production values, is expected to be around $142 million. That number is based on severance tax reports from the Department of Revenue with the first three quarters of 2015 reporting.

“The majority of our county valuation is from mineral revenue. Of the 2015 valuation of $230 million, $166 million was mineral revenue,” said Deromedi.