County, town discuss landfill agreement

by Cindy Glasson

The Hot Springs County Commissioners had a discussion with the Town of Thermopolis regarding the landfill at their meeting Tuesday afternoon.

The agreement between the Town and County for the landfill expired some time ago, but the two entities have been adding addendums periodically to keep it active. Everything is split between the town and county.

According to the commissioners, the Town has violated a major part of the agreement and they are far from happy about it.

The Town collected some $40,000 in fees at the landfill last year that the county had not agreed to.

Fred Crosby, assistant to the Mayor, said they are still $30,000 in the red, even with those collected fees.

The county pays 30 percent of the cost of the landfill, or $130,000 per year and the commissioners feel those collected fees should be taken off the payment each of the entities involved in the contract.

The landfill is an enterprise fund as Commission Chair Tom Ryan pointed out, and should be budgeted properly, including income (collected fees) and have the income subtracted from the budget amount. The county should then pay the 30 percent on that final number.

“Its a matter of semantics,” Town Clerk/Treasurer Tracy VanHeule said.

“Its $30,000 worth of semantics,” Ryan replied. “We should be getting 30 percent of that back in a credit and the county should only be paying 30 percent of the net costs.”

Heath Overfield the Town Engineer reported to the commissioners that we are currently number six on the state’s list for additional funding in order to purchase trucks and other equipment in order to ship our garbage out when that time comes.

They also discussed the cost of a transfer station, which should come in at around $1 million for building it with employee wages on top of that once its up and running.

County Assessor Dan Webber brought in a list of supplemental tax notices that he will be mailing out to Wyo-Ben due to under assessment. The total, before interest, for the supplemental taxes will be nearly $53,000.

Barb Rice the Youth Alternatives coordinator gave a report to the commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting as well, letting them know they have not received reimbursement for the program from Volunteers of America (VOA) since 2016-2017.

The county has been covering the costs of the program while waiting for the reimbursements.

Rice reported she’s been going through with all the necessary paperwork required by VOA, but they’re not coming through with the reimbursements as promised. In fact, what started out as a $30,000 commitment from the organization has dropped drastically, to $8,000 a year.

The commissioners agreed with Rice to stop using the program at all, but the Youth Alternatives Program will continue without the promised funds.

Deena Anderson with “It’s My Party 307” approached the commissioners for permission to use the runway at the old airport for a wedding ceremony in August. The bride fell in love with the view from the airport and would like to have her ceremony there but not the reception.

Anderson said destination weddings are on the rise and she actually plans three or four a year in the area.

The commissioners agreed to allow the ceremony to take place on the condition that Anderson have her own insurance (which she has) and that the party pay a $500 deposit, $400 of which will be returned as long as things are cleaned up to the satisfaction of the commissioners.

In the future, groups will be able to use the runway under the same regulations of insurance and deposit. For now, you may contact the county clerk and will be placed on the agenda for a commissioner’s meeting for final approval.