Town council approves overage split

Tuesday evening, Thermopolis Town Council approved a motion to split overages, with the one percent sales tax budget, with Hot Springs County in regard to a recent update to the Law Enforcement Center communications area.

The project was initially bid at $3,324. Police Chief Steve Shay explained a big part of the update involved some electrical work. Part of that was moving an analog box that operated doors within the center.

The work was done in a professional manner, Shay said, but Brad Basse noted the project had gone over the initial bid. The final cost came in at $11,776.60, though a “break even” amount excluding overhead and other costs would be $8,921.67.

Council approved to pay half of the overages incurred by the final cost, or $4,226.30, with the county paying the other half. There was some discussion as to whether SLIB grant fund money would be available to cover some of the payment, as it was originally allocated for the dispatch center but was later diverted to a project at the airport.

During the meeting, Basse apologized for the overage, stressing it is not the way he does business and it was an unfortunate incident. Basse explained he looked at the project and made some assumptions about the work previously done at the dispatch center. Though the assumptions turned out to be false, he said they were so far into the project he committed to finishing it.

Basse further explained, with a series of pictures provided to council, the various issues he ran into with the project, including exposed wiring, older user interfaces and wiring that followed no set color scheme among the various doors.

Also during the meeting, council conducted a public hearing, during which there was no comment, with regard to several liquor licenses. Following the hearing, licenses were approved for Mac’s, Thermopolis Café, Reese and Ray’s, Loonie’s Bin, Grand Cru Enterprises, Maverik, Safari Club Lounge, Thermopolis Liquors, Pizza Hut, Las Fuentes, Rossa Bistro, One Eyed Buffalo and VFW Post No. 2281. A microbrewery liquor license was also approved for OEB, LLC.

Meri Ann Rush with Main Street Thermopolis reported the 2017 Oktobrewfest is scheduled for Sept. 16. Her request for a street closure of Broadway for the event was approved. The closure is from Broadway to Fourth Street, with nothing on Fifth so Oktobrewfest does not interfere with the Farmers Market or any other events. The open container ban will be lifted for the closed off area.

Vicki Powell presented information regarding AFLAC. She requested council look it over and present it to town employees, for them to determine if it would be beneficial. A motion was approved to allow presentation of the information to town employees.