Commissioners updated on courthouse

All of the maps of Hot Springs County are kept in what are known as plat cabinets in the county clerk’s office for safekeeping.

Karen Slocum approached the commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday to let them know the clerk’s office needs a new plat cabinet as all of the others are now full. In addition, the sleeves the current maps are being kept in are starting to create an oily film inside that is degrading the ink on the documents.

A new cabinet will cost $4,270 and the sleeves will be $2,175 from Plainsman Printing and Supply in Sheridan.

The commissioners approved the purchase of the cabinet and sleeves and the maintenance crew will help move things around in the office as well as install the new cabinet.

Maintenance supervisor Anthony Fruciano informed the commissioners they are nearly finished getting the old commissioner’s room back in shape after all the plumbing problems in the courthouse required them to dig up the floor.

An update on Public Health and Prevention was given to the commissioners by Public Health Director Tricia McPhie.

The Prevention grant is up and running and McPhie said they will be hosting an APHIS training on Friday in the council chambers, have two people signed up for suicide training and are working on a senior health fair in June. There are two more spots open for the suicide training if anyone in the community would be interested in taking it.

McPhie said their office has been receiving a lot of calls regarding a measles vaccine. She made a deal with the Worland clinic to actually split an order of the vaccine so both places have it on hand.

She said Public Health has done 50 percent more immunizations in the last few months than they did in the same period last year. The commissioners told her to move ahead with ordering in vaccines and they will amend her budget to cover the expense in July when they put the new budget together.

McPhie believes part of the jump in immunizations is because Public Health can now bill a patient’s insurance company for coverage whereas in the past they could not.

Nate Messenger, FBO for the Hot Springs County Airport says the crack sealing has been completed at the airport. A crew of about 15 workers came in and got the job done in a single day, which Messenger said was amazing, considering there was about 10,000 more feet of cracks than originally thought.

In the beginning the cracks were estimated to consume about 23,000 feet. That number was then amended by the FAA to 28,000 feet. The final count was 33,000 feet, but Messenger assured the commissioners the price was still going to be within the $6,000 budget for the project.

A seal coat will be put on a little later, after everything has settled. Fortunately, the seal coating only has to be done about every four years.

Messenger also told the commissioners he had been approached by one of the landowners in the area of the airport about the possibility of leasing some of the land on the airport for grazing.

Commission chair Tom Ryan said he has also been approached about that same possibility.

The commissioners agreed it would be a safety issue due to a lack of fencing in the area and they are concerned a plane may hit an animal on the runway or a car hit one on the road to the airport in the dark.

The commissioners approved a re-plat of a parcel of land north of Thermopolis for Tom Ream.

The land had originally been split into seven parcels and Ream would like to cut that split down to just two parcels and have the land use changed from residential to commercial.

While the commissioners approved the re-platting into just two parcels, they did not approve the land use change to commercial because there is no definite plan for what he intends to build there.

The commissioners pointed out that when they do a land use change the person asking for the change has a plan in place already and it is up to the commissioners to ensure everyone in the surrounding area is contacted to get their input on what is being built on the land.

For instance, if someone asked for a land use change and wanted to put some nuisance-type operation on the land, the surrounding landowners would be given time to voice their opinions before the change did or did not happen.

Ream will have to return to the Land Use Planning Commission with a plan and go through the entire process before the commissioners can grant his request.

Former commissioner Mike Baker spoke with the commissioners on behalf of the local Republican Committee who have discovered the need for a boundary change for the county voting precincts.

Apparently, there are several homeowners in precinct three that have been voting in precinct four. Baker and the committee would like to see the boundary changed to bring those nine households officially into the fourth precinct.

The votes cast in the wrong precinct do not affect the outcome of elections except on the committee person level.

The change cannot be made until next year, and election year, as that is the only time, by law that precinct changes can be made. Baker wanted to bring the issue to the attention of the commissioners well before that time so it could be looked into thoroughly.

The Thermopolis Fire Department got approval from the commissioners to do some burning up at the old airport.

Firefighter Dale Andreen told the commissioners he was approached by the golf course, wanting some training from the department on how to burn their fence lines at the course. Rather than just teaching them how to do it, Andreen said the department would like to use the opportunity to use it as a Wildland Firefighting refresher course that they have to take anyway, effectively killing two birds with one stone.

The commissioners agreed the fire department could go ahead with the burning as soon as weather permits.

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