Commissioners rescind Incident Command Team formed in response to COVID

At the April 20 Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting, the commissioners held a discussion with County Health Nurse Tricia McPhie to discuss rescinding the Incident Command Team they created in March 2020, which was a response to the COVID situation and other aspects to the emergency situation.

McPhie said, “I think we’ve learned a lot of stuff over the last year. We are not meeting like we did before. Efforts have obviously changed, too. Testing and vaccinating with a detailed plan, more than we were last year.”

Commissioner Jack Baird made a motion to rescind and said, “Back to normal life.” The commissioners voted to rescind the Incident Command Team.

Cody Stewart gave her monthly GIS update. Their team met with the county commissioners, road and bridge and the sheriff’s department to show progress on web services. They also provided updates to online dashboards based upon feedback from the meeting with the commissioners and others.

There was a development of a public reporting application with automatic notifications by emails. They also organized historic online documents to be consistent across all roads and to link documents without specific spatial locations. 

Dan Webber presented a tax rebate for Merit Energy for oil production at Hamilton Dome Field in the amount of $174.70. Merit Energy Company filed the amended return in response to a letter from the Mineral Tax Division of the DOR informing Merit of discrepancies discovered in an examination of WOGCC form 2 reporting Annual Gross Products reporting for the tax year 2019 on group #002269 resulting in an overassessment of $2,576. The commissioners voted to pass a motion to write the check. 

The commissioners passed an agreement for the Black Mountain Road CRIP where they will choose their consultant to do the design, bidding and construction administration.

Sheriff Jerimie Kraushaar spoke to the commissioners about doing some remodeling in the detention center.

At the center there is a visitation room that is quite small, six feet by eight feet wide, and can only fit three people. They no longer do in person visitation, they are now done with video kiosks. However, the space is currently being used by court, by church, AA meetings. The other side of the glass is where the pastor sits, and they all have to speak loudly to hear.

Kraushaar proposed to remove the glass barrier and the bricks below it, which they already have the money in the budget to do. This will allow them to have more space to do court.

Kraushaar said they are not losing any security to the detention center by doing this. Kraushaar requested several bids and work could start soon. He added that he is seeking the commissioner’s permission since it is the county’s building. The commissioners approved of the remodeling.

The commissioners passed an RFR for some CARES Act Federal Stimulus Funds for utility bills.