County agencies under hiring freeze

The Hot Springs County Commissioners made a decision on Tuesday morning that many were afraid was coming.

Due to upcoming funding constraints for this budget session, the commissioners informed all county agencies there will be a hiring freeze in place at least until all budgets are finalized.

As a whole, the commissioners felt it was unfair to prospective employees to be hired at this time when they may have to be terminated in the next couple of months when budgets are completed.

Commission chair John Lumley said funding is down everywhere, on the state level and the local level. In addition, we will not be receiving anything extra such as consensus funds.

Last year the commissioners had to make deep cuts to various agencies they funded in the past, and this year, the cuts are going to have to come from all divisions in the county.

On a lighter note, county planner Bo Bowman informed the commissioners the old airport has been accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency for a Brownfields Study.

The program provides grants and technical assistance to communities to assess, clean up and sustainably reuse potentially contaminated properties to bring them back to a productive use.

The EPA has already chosen a consultant for the project who should arrive in Thermopolis near the end of the month to begin Phase I of the study.

In addition, the EPA asked Bowman if the county would be interested in going ahead with Phase II of the study. Phase II would include items like soil sampling in the area of the old airport to check for possible contamination due to the use of aero fuels.

Before agreeing to go on to Phase II, the commissioners requested Bowman thoroughly go through everything with the EPA to ensure there were no strings attached to the second step.