Commissioners approve HS County abstract

The Hot Springs County Commissioners met briefly as the County Board of Equalization in order to sign the 2020 abstract of Hot Springs County.

County Assessor, Dan Weber, put the abstract together, which includes everything his department assesses by categories, including private property, industrial and agricultural. It will now be sent to the state for their approval.

Emergency Management Coordinator, Bill Gordon, and Public Health Director, Tricia McPhie, informed the commissioners, as of last week there were three active cases of COVID-19 in the county, bringing our count to four confirmed cases, one recovered and two which are symptomatic.

They are just finishing up the contacts list from the active cases, so they want to let the public know, if you have not been contacted by them by now, you do not need to isolate.

One of the issues with the coronavirus, Gordon said, is there is a 14 day incubation period before showing symptoms, so you could actually test negative on Monday and turn around and be symptomatic on Tuesday.

The pair did warn we could see an uptick in cases after this Memorial Day weekend.

Gordon said things are working well at the courthouse and everything is functioning in spite of the pandemic. The public is dealing well with the situation and the offices are able to take care of everything.

He added that so far the procedures put into place have worked well and they were looking at a limited opening until these new cases turned up.

Looking toward summer recreation, Gordon said we will be lucky if we can fill the lake this year as the snowtells are way down. They are what is used to determine how many inches of snow was received over the winter months.

On the bright side, however, Gordon said that also means we probably will not get any flooding this year as all the percentages are below 100-percent for this time of year.

The Hot Springs County Fair Board has purchased a new concessions trailer for the fairgrounds using their portion of SLIB funding.

Unfortunately, the company they have purchased from will not begin building the trailer until they have a downpayment, and the board would like the commissioners to cut a check for that payment, otherwise, the trailer might not be completed in time for fair.

Commission chair, Phil Scheel, suggested the fair board write the check out of their own account and the commissioners will reimburse them from the SLIB funds. The commissioners approved the reimbursement.