Commissioners updated on several issues during meeting

The Hot Springs County Commissioners had a full agenda to get through at their June 1 meeting.

Nate Messenger gave his FBO report on the new county airport and said that “May was a good month,” they had decent fuel sales and traffic. There were 130 total recorded operations with three air ambulances and 11 aircraft that were overnight. They sold 934.23 gallons of Avgas and 1,190 gallons of jet fuel. Messenger added that he has seen an increase in fishing traffic, specifically luxury fishermen with men coming in with large jet airplanes. He hopes they will have a busy summer.

The commissioners voted and passed to accept the HSG FAA CRRSAA Grant of $9,000 for operations. They plan to look it over with T-O Engineering to determine how to spend it. The grant is part of Covid funding for use at the airport for costs related to operations, personnel, cleaning, sanitization, janitorial services, combating the spread of pathogens at the airport and debt service payments.

Shane Rankin gave his Road and Bridge report and said he had a busy month where his team has been blading roads as needed. Rainstorms have set them back a little. They have done work on cattle guards and hauled manure at the fairgrounds.

Regarding a previous issue with a Wyoming Gas Right of Way Permit Application, the commissioners did an investigation and found that the request is considered standard practice. The commissioners voted and passed to approve the application on Lane 12. Commissioner Phil Scheel recused himself from the vote and discussion.

Tricia McPhie of Public Health and Prevention gave her update and introduced to the commissioners Stephanie Hoffman. Hoffman is the maternal child health nurse and she will also perform basic nurse duties, Covid vaccinations, teaching new mothers breastfeeding and doing home visits.

Hot Springs County rankings for vaccinations are still third for highest vaccination per population of the counties in Wyoming. The county is 32.92% of the entire population who have been vaccinated. The county has administered 2,785 total doses. 

The commissioners received a Public Health Nurse contract amendment for Covid funds in the amount of $100,000 to be extended to June 30, 2024. The money would be spent on things such as a trailer, websites, ads, masks and face shields, among other things. The commissioners voted and passed the amendment.

For the maintenance report, Les Culliton said they are working on the drawing and specifications for the courthouse roof. A mechanical contractor is supposed to be coming to look at the louvers on the Law Enforcement Center and a work proposal is being sent out for bids.

Culliton added that the Annex/Public Health building did not during rain on May 21-23 but they will keep an eye on it.

Culliton reported that Trane was here on May 11 and performed maintenance training on heat pumps. The repairs other than maintenance will need to be performed by an HVAC company that has the equipment unless the county would want to invest in equipment and air conditioning training.

The maintenance department is working with Kone to schedule repairs to the Sally-Port elevator. They also addressed the Law Enforcement Center generator and security doors, installed tires for Road and Bridge, addressed generator issues at the Annex and replaced a water meter at the library. 

Lindsey Woodward of Weed and Pest asked for permission from the commissioners to use the old airport for training her crew using off-road wheel vehicles. She needed a single morning and a large, flat area. The commissioners granted her permission.

Carl and Karen Leyba requested the commissioner’s permission to use the old airport for a wedding ceremony on June 25, 2022. The commissioners granted permission with the Leyba’s providing a $100 deposit.

County Planner Bo Bowman reported about a new Airbnb located on a property at the end of Coyote Run where a gentleman has put up some large tipis for rent. However, the neighbors are concerned about it because of the increase of traffic on the road to the said property. The road is partially county and partially private.

Bowman said that the Airbnb needs to have a permit for this particular use and that he isn’t sure how to handle this. Bowman sent a letter to the owner asking that he not make any more additions or expansions to Airbnb until they work out the permit issues. However, it was found that the owner went ahead anyway and added more tipis.

There will be a meeting on July 21 with the planning committee to hear the matter. All neighbors are asked to attend. If they cannot attend the committee asks for a letter to be sent so that they can say their piece. 

Bowman discussed the Floodplain Program where they are trying to measure the flood plane but do not have maps. Chairman Tom Ryan mentioned T-O Engineers’ Brian Clarkson about research and scans done with LIDAR data. FEMA flew over Hot Springs County and scanned the terrain with details of two-feet square per pixel, which provide details not normally acquired. Ryan said that Bowman can talk to Clarkson to see if the LIDAR scans would be the best or right data already in existence to help their program. Ryan added that this data can be part of the GIS system and be an added layer to the county.

The commissioners held a discussion about the American Rescue Plan funds which are essentially the next round of Federal covid money. The commissioners potentially could receive $850,000 and would need to apply for the funds soon. Part of the discussion was that several counties could work together and have a single person write the applications for them and oversee the fund at the same time. The federal government’s US Treasury is sending out $61.5 billion to the states and then individual states are dispersing it to towns and counties. They would have four years to spend it. However, the rules and regulations on how to spend the money have not yet been defined.

County Clerk Rose DeSeyn was not present but her deputy Karen Slocum was and presented a health insurance amendment where the commissioners could change the current policy to have health coverage stop at the end of the month instead of the day of termination or resignation. The current policy has it written as the latter. The commissioners are the policyholders for county employees and their health insurance was not in favor of extending coverage to the end of the month. They said they would simply return the percentage of that unused premium back to the employee at a prorated amount. They added it would be a tremendous liability on their end if they extended the coverage. 

Slocum also brought up a department vehicle insurance issue regarding potentially leaving WARM and their $5,000 deductible. Chairman Ryan said that this matter should be discussed in the budget meeting. 

In other business, a request for a special malt beverage permit for Son Rise Grass Creek Ranch came up. They want to be able to sell beer year-round while operating as a dude ranch. Chairman Ryan requested to table this issue after asking the County Attorney to do some research on it.

The commissioners voted and passed to update their domain registration for their .gov website. 

Regarding the Chamber of Commerce Board Member Ballot, the commissioners decided to not vote on it with the exception of commissioner Phil Scheel who voted for himself.

The commissioners voted and passed to appoint Jerry Langbehn to the Land Use Planning Board and Carol Dockery to the Nature Resources Planning Committee. They also passed to accept the RFR#10 - HSG Master Plan Grant in the amount of $9,249.95.

Due to the absence of County Clerk Rose DeSeyn, the commissioners decided to table the Arcasearch Proposal Review because DeSeyn is especially involved and knowledgeable about the matter. Arcasearch helps convert physical records of maps and microfilm, etc into digital assets.

Chris Paris, Wade Lippincott and Dusty Lewis of non-profit Hot City Outdoor Alliance presented a request for funds to support their effort in building a trail on Round Top.

Paris said, “Our purpose is to increase outdoor recreational activities and opportunities. We’ve been influential in many projects going on and have our scopes set for other projects.”

They recently received a grant through the Musser Foundation but it fell through and their application through the Conservation District was pulled because those were going to be matching funds. 

However, shortly thereafter funding came in from the Walton Foundation and the need to get a match came back as the deadline of the Conservation District already passed. The Walton’s are giving $20,000.

Paris and his colleagues now approached both the County and the Town to see if they would be willing to contribute to the match.

Chairman Ryan asked the group if they had looked into other opportunities for funding, which they said they had. Ryan said that there might be Covid money available since this is an outdoor activity it might fall into the Covid category. Ryan added that he doesn’t know if the county is in a position to give money out at this time and they are waiting for the American Rescue Plan, its funds and rules and regulations before they can consider helping out. Hot City Alliance’s goal is to raise a total of $33,000 for the trail and they are facing a deadline to raise the money.