Commissioners deal with packed agenda at meeting

At the August 3 Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting held at the Annex Building, the commissioners decided to table the Mike Stevens land use change request because they feel they do not have enough information to make a decision. They are waiting to see any potential changes in the next few weeks that may affect how they decide.

The commissioners also tabled the approval of the Black Mountain Road Agreement until September 1, as they said things are not in place yet.

Shane Rankin gave his Road and Bridge report and said they finished their project on Buffalo Creek and they used some new gravel. Rankin said, “It’s probably the best gravel we’ve had yet.” Rankin also said they faced a series of breakdowns of their equipment on different projects. Regarding blading, Rankin is going to have a water truck following along to prevent any sparks that might light a grass fire. 

Rankin continued his report and said there was a major guardrail hit out on the East River. There was a police report done on it, but they don’t know who hit it. The report will be turned in to potentially make an insurance claim. The damage was four lengths long, including nine posts. All the debris from the vehicle was already picked up, allegedly by the driver. The cost will be over $5,000. 

Tricia McPhie gave her Public Health and Prevention update and said they had Deb Gerhart’s retirement party the previous day. For Covid numbers, Hot Springs County is eighth in the state for vaccinations. McPhie added there are still Covid cases in the county and they have confirmed there is a Delta variant in the county. The Public Health office is still offering walk in vaccinations for both Moderna and Pfizer. 

Additionally, McPhie reported they will soon be the only location certified to help install child car seats for those who need it.

Bo Bowman gave his Planner report and said, “The planning commission will meet again this month on the 18th. They have two items on their agenda. I will give you a heads up that both of them appear to be controversial. So I’ll just keep you advised of how that evolves.” Bowman added they still lack a fifth member and are still working on filling that position. The NRPC will meet on August 11. Bowman said they “will be delving deeper into the assessment of the natural resource plan. Concerning septic systems, I have 14 applications that have been sent out this year, and everything screeched to a halt for a while at the cost of lumber. Not the use of  lumber and a septic system, but it requires a house. And it looks like things are getting back to expectations. Nine of those 14 have been reviewed and approved.”

Bowman informed the commissioners that he has been receiving many phone calls from realtors and others regarding property owners who want to use their property or building so they can rent them out. Bowman said this is a nationwide trend of counties across the country having this discussion. He plans on having the planning commission looking into the matter. 

Bowman also mentioned he received a phone call about a property south of town for a spiritual center and those people were going to have 3-D constructed houses. 

Commissioner Phil Scheel brought up the issues of the construction notice and that he is unhappy about it and is “still taking a lot of heat as county commissioner” over it. He wants to have a discussion later about the possibility of removing the use of the construction notice. 

The commissioners appointed Karen Slocum as Interim County Clerk because Rose DeSeyn recently resigned from her position. 

The commissioners unsealed a series of envelopes containing bids for a 1995 Ford Ranger Pickup. The highest bid and winner was Fred Crosby, who will pay $2,502 for the vehicle.

The commissioners voted and appointed Brett Belden to the Predatory Board as a member. Belden was on the board previously because he owned cattle but later resigned because he sold his cattle. Board member Mark Phipps recently passed away and Belden returns to the board as a sportsman. The replacement term ends in January. 

Attorney Jerry Williams came later, representing Mike Stevens for a land use change for his tipi retreat. Chairman Tom Ryan informed him they were tabling the matter and said, “I don’t feel like we have all the information you need for me to make a comfortable decision.”

William asked for the commissioners to provide any information they would need. Ryan said the road issue needs to be resolved. There was some discussion between Ryan and Williams about the easement restriction and what kind of access there is. Ryan said they will wait for a month and then address it to see if there are any changes in the situation.

Nate Messenger gave his FBO report and said there were 262 total recorded operations. Of those were four air ambulances and they had 16 aircraft overnight. There were two requests for hangar space. For fuel sales, they sold 1475.11 gallons of Avgas and for jet fuel they sold 4379.39 gallons. Messenger said, “We finally got a load of jet fuel on the 27th. I think we can conservatively estimate we could have sold another 2,500 to 3,000 gallons of jet fuel had we had it to sell.” There was discussion on the nationwide shortage of jet fuel. Cody’s airport ran out for jet fuel and redirected aircraft to Hot Springs County to fuel up.

Messenger also said, “Greg Hampshire from WYDOT Aeronautics will be here this week for a 5010 inspection. He will look at all the pavement, lights and check the based aircraft county. This inspection happens every three years and becomes the FAA published data for the airport.”

Messenger said they are tentatively thinking the Fly In event will be September 18. Barb Rice is going to help out and they might serve biscuits and gravy with fruit bowls.

Bill Gordon gave his Emergency Management report and said, “I don’t know if we’re going to get any moisture out of this monsoonal flow that’s up here or not.” However, regarding fires, Gordon said the fire crews have been busy, but there hasn’t been anything big at the moment. Gordon added, “The last time I looked, I don’t think that there are any big fires anywhere in Wyoming right now. There’s a few in places where they could get that way. I think they’ve got a couple of new starts over in Sublette County that bear watching. But we need rain desperately. We’ve got about 1,100 CFS coming down the river right now. And last time I looked, Boysen was, what, 94 percent, I think, full. So it’s in pretty good shape, pretty nicely they did it by grabbing what they could get and hanging on to it.”

Daniel Webber came to the commissioners to present his calculations and request approval of the mill levy requests. For the county, there are a total of 12 mills with $1,337,213 in tax. The total county wide special district mills are 7.790 and amount to $868,073 in taxes. This makes the total county mill levy to be 19.790 and amounts to $2,205,288. Local school levy is 33.4 mills and amounts to $3,721,910. The total special purpose districts have 15 mills and amount to $333,116. Owl Creek Water District has zero mills as their funding comes from user fees. The commissioner voted and passed to accept the mill levy requests. 

The commissioners held a public hearing for the O’Rourke subdivision. Reid O’Rourke has requested approval of a preliminary plat for a one-lot subdivision, a variance to allow a 2.3 acre lot where a minimum lot area of 3.0 acres is required and a land use change to the residential category. The Hot Springs County Land Use Planning Commission considered this request at a duly advertised public hearing on July 21 and voted unanimously (4-0) to recommend approval of the request. At the commissioner’s public hearing, there were no members of the public present. After Chairman Ryan requested three times for any public comment, the commissioners voted and approved the request. 

Les Culliton gave his maintenance report and said for the courthouse he wants to review a document for the roof repair before sending out for bids to make sure everyone is all on the same page. For the heat pumps in the courthouse, Culliton said they had a lot of problems with the condensation drains clogging up.

There are no leaks to report at the Annex/Public Health building. They continue to work on the irrigation at the County Library. For the Extension/4-H, they are working on a replacement A/C unit with one on order for the 2nd floor. Culliton estimates the install will be the week of Aug 22.

At the Detention Center, air handling unit #1 kept freezing up. They are ordering a new compressor. Chairman Ryan said they could use money from the capital improvement funds. The estimated cost is about $6,900. 

At the County Museum Culliton is still addressing problems with their sump pumps. The museum’s drinking fountain is leaking and there are no more replacement parts available due to its age. The commissioners decided to remove the fountain and close its hole up. Also, there are some basement doors they are repairing.

At the Search and Rescue building, there was a bird who was inside an exhaust fan. Culliton addressed the issue. Additionally, Culliton has removed the old emergency system. 

Hot Springs County Sheriff Jerimie Kraushaar and IT specialist Dean Peranteaux presented the need for additional security cameras in the detention center. Kraushaar and Peranteaux did a walk through the jail and found some blind spots. There are also issues of the existing security cameras’ footage lagging for up to three minutes and not showing a real-time picture. They are proposing to spend $16,000 to replace all the cameras. Peranteaux added that there was work being done with cameras in the courthouse. Sheriff Kraushaar and Peranteaux went into detail describing the issues with the blind spots and how dispatch would be a separate system from covering these gaps. The question posed was, do the commissioners want to prioritize the courthouse or the jail for this security camera issue? However, which avenue would they use to fund the purchase came into question? There was no motion needed and Peranteaux’s plan to add cameras will go forward.