County commissioners updated on several issues at meeting

At the September 7, Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting Chairman Tom Ryan and the commissioners welcomed the new County Clerk Becky Kersten.

Nate Messenger gave the FBO report and said that there were 182 total recorded operations. This included six air ambulances and 12 aircraft that were stored overnight. For fuel sales, they sold 1,481.27 gallons of Avgas and 4,238.27 gallons of jet fuel. 

Messenger also reported that Greg Hampshire of WYDOT did the 5010 inspection, which is done every three years and submitted to the FFA for data purposes.

There was some discussion with Messenger and the commissioner about the coming Fly-In event. Because Messenger is the sole person at the new county airport working day to day and having a gathering with the Covid surge going on, they decided to cancel the Fly-In.

Shane Rankin gave the Road and Bridge report and said they continue to do productive work that has been done on Missouri Flat. Rankin also said that some equipment breakdowns have hindered some of their progress at work. They have a mower that is stuck in third gear. Road and Bridge will continue to blade as necessary. 

The commissioners also voted and passed to approve both the Ryan and Miller Approach Agreements. 

Les Culliton gave his maintenance report and said they are still waiting for some engineering data from Nelson Architectural for the courthouse work. They need to make some corrections before they send out bids on the roof. The commissioners voted and passed to approve that once Nelson Architectural and Culliton have their documents ready, they should then send out for bids. The commissioners voted at this time due to a meeting time change later in the month and they did not want to unnecessarily delay progress with the roof replacement.

Culliton also reported the courthouse had a vacuum failure and they replaced it. At the Annex/Public Health building, they replaced four parking lot lights and a ballast. The Annex’s generator has a bad fuel pressure switch, a replacement has been ordered. For the county library, they fixed an irrigation line. At the Extension/4-H building, an A/C unit arrived but was significantly damaged during freight. A replacement has been ordered but there is no estimated time of arrival on it. 

At the Law Enforcement Detention Center, they have an air handling unit with a failed compressor. A new pair is back-ordered and there is no ETA available. Also, the “J” for the “Court of Justice” sign near the entrance for the circuit court blew off. After inspection Culliton saw that it would be easier to replace all the lettering with new pieces versus replacing the “J”. The cost for parts and labor will be about $400. The generator at the center has been serviced with the cooling and heater replaced. 

The Center’s fire panel has had four alarms the past few weeks. The panel has been failing and there are no parts available for it. In order to change the panel, the whole system there would have to be upgraded. An engineering firm and an electrician and Western States Fire would need to be involved. Culliton recommends starting the process now with an engineer because it would take one to two years to put together their documents. Culliton does not know that estimated cost because that would be determined by the engineer’s study. Also, the work may extend beyond the Center and go into the courthouse, which would add to the cost. The commissioners discussed finding some grant money to pay for the work. 

The County Museum’s sump pump is on order and work will start there once it arrives. The EOC Search and Rescue backup generator is getting serviced. The truck scale shed at Weed and Pest had some boards fall off. They plan to put on some panel siding to fix it. 

Tricia McPhie gave the Public Health and Prevention report and said that regarding Covid, Hot Springs County is now up in the dark red zone. The county is also the second-worst in the nation, with cases per population at 3,059. McPhie said the next highest county is Uinta, with 1,473. The calculator she used for the number of Hot Springs County’s cases per 100,000 population. McPhie said, “It’s hard to explain.” The county’s test percent positivity is 17.2% with data from August 19 through September 1.

The Red Rock clinic is testing symptomatic or exposed people. McPhie said, “The Department of Health Quarantine guidelines say that if you were exposed, don’t have symptoms, you have to wait until day five at least to test so that you can resume normal activities on day eight.”

Public Health has helped facilitate testing for Red Rock and the schools. McPhie added, “I did look at the testing turnaround time for the Department of Health over the last week. Now, over the holiday weekend, I mean, don’t factor in that, but those results were 36 to 48 hours for turnaround time. So they are getting their results.”

McPhie continued and said, “While we’re in the dark red zone, Public Health is doing virtual home visits….With our focus being vaccinations as well.”

From August 30, the county is 37% vaccinated. Ages 12 to 17-year-old are 12%, ages 18+ are 45% and ages 65 and up are 61%. Since August 30, they also have vaccinated over 100 more people.

McPhie said, “We’ve been providing a lot of education and resources to people calling us for what to do now that they’re positive, what to do, that they’re sick. How do I help contact people? What does my quarantine look like? So a lot of phone calls regarding those services again.”

“We continue to see our offer every day for vaccinations for Moderna and Pfizer. We hope to get more Johnson and Johnson for Vicklund’s Pharmacy. So they’re really doing a great job of helping us provide that service to you. And then in the meantime, we’re starting to plan for flu clinics.”

McPhie answered a question about what is the theory on booster shots? She answered, “Right now, our guidance is the boosters are considered additional doses for people that were immunocompromised that may not have built up an immunity for the vaccinations that they received at first. So they get an additional dose. We don’t have any guidance for booster doses, per se, for everybody.”

“The FDA and the CDC are doing independent studies into what that looks like and evaluating what Biden said for September 20 for everybody getting the boosters. We just don’t have any guidance.”

Bill Gordon gave the Emergency Management report with two items to present. First, September is National Preparedness Month and information should be appearing to the public on that topic. Second, he informed the commissioners about a Wyoming Office of Homeland Security app for your smartphone called ‘Wyoming Ready’. Gordon said, “It’s a great product” that aids in planning for events, communication plans and response plans. He strongly advises people to check it out as it is a “great tool.” 

Chairman Tom Ryan informed Gordon that Les Culliton just came in and talked about the fire alarm system issues at the Law Enforcement Center. Ryan asked if Gordon could look into it and see if there is any grant money from Homeland Security that could help fund its replacement or repairs. Gordon replied that he would investigate it and let them know in the next meeting.

Bo Bowman gave his planning report and said the Planning Commission met on August 18 and that it was a good meeting with a little bit of redirection. Bowman added that they were having a public hearing and that it was continued until next week on September 15.

Bowman said, “We repackaged it. It was a good conversation to have with the planning commission as we really clarified the distinctions between a bed-and-breakfast and a need for a commercial activity.”

Bowman expressed concern as some years ago the same property was dealt with by the commissioners. Chairman Ryan added that “the situation is the same. The issues they have are still there.” Bowman said, “The distinction between the two seems to be disappearing or something like that is shrinking. But we had a good conversation on the 18th. I’m expecting a good dialog and we’ll take it from there.”

Bowman continued and said, “The planning commission had a good discussion about lodging and how we need to be more specific or attempt to be more specific, and how we deal with lodging in the future. They are open to the idea of workshops to look at some recommended changes to the land use plan, which is almost guaranteed eight or nine months after adopting a new plan. We realized that maybe we should look at a little differently.”

Chairman Ryan said, “I know that the market has changed considerably in the last few years.”

Bowman replied, “Yes, we’re adapting. That is also an opportunity. The planning commission is going to discuss the construction notice and have a dialog and quite possibly make recommendations to you concerning that if necessary. Well, here’s the deal. If they’re looking at changes in the land use plan, that is, then once they have something, they are going to take it through a public hearing process. I’ll just keep you advised on how that is proceeding. If there’s anything else in that document, that’s giving you heartburn, let me know and we’ll put it on the shopping list.”

Bowman also reported that “Lodging is a big thing right now. I’ve got an application for a campground west of town at a pretty good size that will be on next month’s agenda. I’ve returned several other applications because they’re just a little too imprecise. But I don’t want to taint a particular applicant. So there’s some education involved in this before I have a complete application that enters the process. But I’ve got two large campgrounds. Several deals that I wouldn’t call campgrounds…. Once people started making these skid sheds that look like a cabin. We were in trouble, at that point because they would pop up like mushrooms after a rain. So anyhow, there are some interesting projects coming down the pike between now and winter. So I’ll keep you posted on those.”

Concerning the NRPC, Bowman said that they need to make more effort in getting new members. Bowman said, “We’re going to have an aggressive conversation about how to get a little more proactive about going through the phone book or whatever and getting a few more people on that committee.”

Regarding their septic program, Bowman said. “Everything came to a halt when we had a lot of approved permits, a lot of packets went out to others. And when lumber went up, all construction stopped for a while. I wrote all of the outstanding permit holders saying, ‘OK, I need to know your status and I need to know if we’re going to pick this up again. I need to know who’s moving forward and who’s still treading water. And I’ve heard back from almost all of them. So that’s been good. And it looks like we’ll have something like 15 or 16 permits this year, which is a pretty good turnout.”

Chairman Ryan then asked Bowman about septic permits and compared one for a commercial purpose versus a residential purpose, would a commercial need additional engineering assistance? Bowman replied, “Commercial, yes. And we’re not delegated to handle commercial permits. We’re delegated to handle residential up to 2000 gallons a day.”

Bowman explained that for a commercial operation, the DEQ will be involved and they will do the math for a commercial application. If the DEQ approves, then they would tell Bowman to issue a permit. 

For the coming land use meeting, Bowman said they prepared packets for the board members and noted that he included a condition in it stating that an engineer will have to look at the numbers, look at the old print and determine adequacy if it’s approved.

Regarding the old airport, Bowman said he checked with his contact on the environmental study and found that “they are basically out of time and out of money to do anything further. However, these guys just love to spend money. They would love to find some other funds, other federal funds to be able to finish their plowing up of our grass up there in order to find toxins. If they find some funds to continue that work, it will happen next year. And I’ll let you know. However, they are going to be sending us a summary report soon. And as soon as that happens, I will forward it on to you.”

Barb Rice gave her Youth Alternatives report and said she has 13 juveniles in her program, 10 males and three females.

Lately, she has released five and will add another three to release. Rice added that since May 1, they have done 90 hours of study table tutoring for seven students. There is a high school senior who is tutoring the juveniles and that is going well. 

They are doing educational support for two kids who are out of school. They have two former students, one 19 years old and another who is 17 years old. They are currently working on some housing support for one of our former students. Rice said, “Two of our former kids who live in a terrible housing situation. So we’re going to work on that.”

They requested law enforcement support once and did two transports, one for a medical appointment and one to assist DFS on a transport to a group home. They also did community service projects.

Rice said she is making some program changes. She normally would do a five-month term of probation, but now she is changing it to a three-tier process.

Rice said if a juvenile comes into the program with one citation, they will do a 90-day period of probation, three months of probation. If during that time frame the juvenile receives a second type citation, they go to level two-tier. Then they will give the juvenile an additional 30 days to complete. With a third citation, they will be at level three.

At that point, they will recommend counseling and depending on the gravity of that third offense, they will determine the counseling support and maybe drug and alcohol assessments. Rice also emphasized the juveniles getting community service obligations done and the course work done.

The commissioners held separate public hearings for liquor license renewals for LLL Company, Legion Town & Country, Inc. and SonRise Grass Creek Guest Ranch, LLC. There were no public comments given for any of the entities. The commissioners voted and passed approvals for all. 

The commissioners voted and approved the CRIP Agreement for the Black Mountain Road and Grass Creek Road.

In other business, the commissioners voted to approve Merrill Ready as a new board member to the Planning Board.

They also voted to approve the HSG Master Plans RFR #12 and #13. Additionally, they voted and approved to remove the fire ban. The commissioners voted and approved the Board of Control Consent for the Becker/Winchester Ditch.

Also, in other business, the commissioners voted and approved to have the Wyoming Retirement Contribution be given to the volunteers of the Search and Rescue team in the amount of $37.50 per month with the starting date of September 7. 

The commissioners held a discussion and moved the next meeting on September 21 to 9 a.m. so that they could travel and attend a meeting in Gillette that afternoon.