Commissions hear monthly reports

At the March 1 Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting held at the Annex Building, Chairman Tom Ryan was absent, but commissioners Jack Baird and Phil Scheel held the meeting with Scheel stating, “in the absence of Chairman Ryan, we will suspend the normal operations of Robert’s rules and carry on.”

Via phone, Brian Clarkson of T-O Engineers gave the GIS report. Clarkson and his team have been progressing in adding more easements and right aways to their maps. They are also working closely with county planner Bo Bowman on developing a plan for adding his land use classification data into the GIS as well. They have been scanning documents and incorporating them into the system. They are also working with Shane Rankin of Road and Bridge and incorporating new data there too. 

Clarkson also presented an action item to the commissioners. In the desktop licenses of GIS there are 500 credits for data storage. The county has been increasing in the amount of needed storage, as they have been scanning and or inputting more data into GIS. Clarkson recommended that the county purchase an additional 1,000 credits for $100. Commissioner Scheel told Clarkson to spend the $100 out of their existing budget.

Tricia McPhie of Public Health and Prevention gave an update and introduced the new PHRC Sadie Mounts to the commissioners.  

For prevention matters, McPhie said they are working on messaging out to the community. There was a lot of discussion in their last meeting about how to do that. One suggestion was to possibly use stickers that address underage drinking. McPhie added that they are working on other resources in the community as well. They have been working on a 12-month marketing plan to do this.  

Nate Messenger gave the FBO report and said they had 114 recorded operations, of those three were air ambulances and five aircraft overnight. Messeger said that “February was a slow month for traffic.” The sale of jet fuel was 1,870.92 gallons, but Avgas was down selling 430.35 gallons. Commissioner Baird discussed with Messenger a need for a hangar to help melt the ice. 

Les Culliton gave the maintenance report discussing the fair building re-roof project and a courthouse pre-construction meeting set for the week of March 20. The WARM line item breakdown will be discussed.  

In other business, the commissioners voted and passed the approval of the Carver, Florek, and James Audit Engagement Letter with an option of two other years. 

Shane Rankin provided the Road and Bridge report and said they were busy for a couple of days due to recent moisture but they are continuing with equipment maintenance to get ready for summer. They are also continuing shoulder work in Hamilton Dome and are wrapping it up.  

The commissioners had a discussion with Rankin about equipment, vehicle purchases, leases and trade-in values of the machines. They noted that some of the value of certain vehicles has gone up. Rankin said he will do more number-crunching on the matter and see where they are at.

Bill Gordon gave the emergency management report saying that the Region 6 Hazard Mitigation Plan from 2016 has been updated and revised. Public comments were accepted through the county’s website for a couple of weeks. Wyoming Homeland Security has approved it and it is now in the final process for the resolutions of adopting in the various jurisdictions.

Gordon noted, “It includes all of the jurisdictions in the region 6, which is actually four counties, Park, Bighorn, Washakie and Hot Springs.” This also includes the Hot Springs County Board of Commissioners, the Town of Thermopolis, Kirby, and East Thermopolis.

The commissioners voted to approve and passed to accept the Region 6 Hazard Mitigation Plan. The document is 546 pages and includes an annex for Hot Springs County that is about 30 pages long. 

Sheriff Jerimie Kraushaar and Deputy Shayna Cox gave an update on their K-9 grant and said the money has been frozen for now because they have enough applications to fill the dollar amounts they haven’t been awarded yet. Kraushaar said, “It’s kind of dead in the water.”

Kraushaar told the commissioners he has not had a person fill the captain position, and that there is a surplus of money because of it. He asked if the commissioners would approve using that money to be used for the K-9 unit, its training and other related needs. The commissioners replied that they did not have an issue with that because the money is already there. 

Bo Bowman gave the planning report and said the NRPC met on February 23 and that they were getting the rewriting of their plan done. They will provide a formal plan to the commissioners for review soon, which will also include a 30-day period of public review for comments and then a public hearing. 

Bowman also presented a proposed request from the NRPC to have a commissioner be present at their meetings. However, commissioners Scheel replied that it might be “bad optics” and that the purpose of the NRPC is to do pre-work before submitting recommendations or items to the county commissioners. Scheel added that they should wait until chairman Ryan returns to have a wider discussion. 

Bowman reported that the LUPC will have a March 16 workshop and they will have an informal discussion of a subdivision application of 88 units, with a formal meeting scheduled for April 20.

Bowman also reported on some previous applicants and their progress and also possible enforcement issues. 

Bowman continued and said that he is working with T-O Engineers on getting his data imputed into the GIS database. Bowman has been reformatting his files to be done chronologically by the year instead of alphabetically to help ease the process of inputting the data. This work is also being done to help the new county planner, as Bowman will be retiring sometime this year.

Barb Rice gave the youth alternative report and said that she has 15 juveniles enrolled, which include 10 males and five females, also they have six new citations pending. Rice said that she is working with a great team of people from various entities in the county. Rice is also having prevention meetings at Common Ground and is working with the Self Help Center. Rice added more work is being done with the Alive at 25 program and certifications with first aid. 

In other business, the commissioners voted to appoint Larry Kolsen as a member of the Land Use Planning Board.

They also held a discussion on their new liquor license still being available. They have received no interest as of yet. Therefore, the commissioners will keep the info on their website to let the public know it is still available.