Commissioners discuss spending of CARES funds

The Hot Springs County Commissioners found out last week there have been revisions to the federal CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) funding, allowing them to spend the funds in additional ways.

Public Health Director Tricia McPhie brought an addendum for the commissioners to sign, giving her permission to find different outlets for the funds.

Originally, these funds could be spent on personal protective equipment, disbursal of COVID information, testing and so forth, but now it could even be used for broadband expansion so people can access telehealth, distance learning and remote or work from home situations. Governor Mark Gordon has already determined some of the state’s funding will be used for those improvements.

On a county basis, the funds may be spent on outbreak response activities, health officer pay for outbreak response activities and public health personnel salaries and expenses to support contact tracing, isolation and quarantine, vaccination campaign planning and implementation as well as testing and other outbreak response activities.

County maintenance supervisor Les Culliton and acting county road and bridge supervisor Shane Rankin told the commissioners the asbestos inspection of the property the county recently purchased to the south of the county annex building has been completed, however, four items have been found that will need retesting. The items came back “hot” for asbestos, but a second test is needed to confirm the original finding.

The pair estimates the asbestos abatement will cost about $7,000. There is a company out of Casper putting together a proposal for the removal as well as a company from Billings. They hope there will be a lower price from one of the two proposals.

CARES Act funding from the previous discussion was considered to lower costs as well since the area will be a parking area for Public Health and could be used for drive through COVID vaccinations or testing in the future.

The only caveat is the funding must be used by the end of the year so it would be a push to get the house torn down and the pavement laid before December 31.

They are currently checking on a track hoe that can be rented to get the building torn down. Road and bridge trucks will be used to haul everything to the dump. Permit fees and dump fees have both been waived from the town for the project as well.

A survey needs done as soon as possible on the property so they can determine where the water, gas and sewer lines run into the Captel building. One of the items they plan to install is a frost-free hydrant in order to have water available on-site rather than having to dig up the street to pull all the lines out.