County GIS document storage update

At the September 6 Hot Springs County Commissioners meeting, Brian Clarkson and Maddie Ross of T-O Engineers gave the Geographic Information System (GIS) update via speakerphone to the commissioners and said that they finished scanning land use change files and began processing documents for upload to cloud storage.

They also returned land use change and septic permit files to county planner Bo Bowman and received a new batch of septic permit files to scan. Additionally, they finished scanning and processing septic permit documents from 1998 and 2000 to 2021 and uploaded septic permit documents to cloud storage.

Clarkson added that they began linking online documents to septic permit GIS points and began identifying and adding unmapped permits to GIS. They continued mapping county road easements and right-of-way descriptions for Road and Bridge. They also linked historical documents to easement features and added new features to the Road and Bridge application. Regarding anticipated work for the next period, all the activities mentioned above will continue as well as continued editing of the Geospatial Hub dashboard. 

Clarkson and the commissioners also scheduled a meeting for October 18 where T-O Engineers will do a demonstration of their work. Chairman Tom Ryan and the commissioners discussed with Clarkson about making certain the GIS data is public and including information such as about the county airport to the public. 

Nate Messenger gave the FBO report and said that there were 244 total recorded operations, which included three air ambulances and 13 aircraft overnight. There were also three hangar requests. Regarding fuel sales, they sold 2,123.12 gallons of Avgas and 4,466.9 gallons of jet fuel.

Messenger also said, “The annual inspection of the fire extinguishers was completed this month. We had to hydro-test one of the big wheeled units, and the other one will be done next year. We are all set to host the Fly-In.”

The commissioners voted and passed the approval of the DBT Transportation Aviation & Maintenance Services Contract for the annual fee of $6,943. 

Shane Rankin of Road and Bridge said they have been busy and have been hauling into Grass Creek for a section of the road. Rankin also said that Ray Shaffer of the Youth Camp requested some help as they are putting in another cabin. Rankin said that the request shouldn’t be a problem.

Rankin also reported that he submitted the grant for fixing the guardrail on Missouri Flat and that WYDOT’s representative said everything looked great.

Rankin then held a discussion with the commissioners about changing their work schedule from five eight-hour days to four days with 10 hours. He also said that they have $5,000 in the budget for overtime to use when needed, such as if there is snow plowing needed to be done on a Friday or the weekend. 

Regarding staffing and Road and Bridge’s open position, Rankin said that he received some calls but no applications. There was a discussion about the difficulties they are facing in filling the position. Rankin said that during the winter months, their current staff can do the job but in the summer season he needs additional help. 

Rankin also provided the commissioners with a written project status update on Black Mountain Road with information from T-O Engineers. For the work completed, they performed onsite hydraulics and environmental visits. They finalized the site topo survey and worked with environment stakeholder respondents and environmental agency coordination. They also addressed existing conditions modeling. 

Regarding anticipated work, they will do on-site visits for a geotechnical investigation. They will also do a preliminary design that includes hydraulic modeling, and work with existing conditions and roadway design. They need to determine existing conditions from a geotechnical report and determine the proposed pavement section design, as well as a preliminary structure review. Also, they will perform agency coordination and permitting. 

Tricia McPhie gave the Public Health/Prevention report and presented the TANF/CPI Grant for the next fiscal year for $20,000. The grant is to operate the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Community Partnership Initiative for Hot Springs County. The commissioners voted and passed the approval of the grant.

McPhie also discussed with the commissioners that on October 12 they will close the Public Health Office so that they can operate the drive-thru flu clinic at the Fair building from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Barb Rice gave the Youth Alternatives report and said they have 15 total juveniles, nine females and six males. Ten youths are in the high set program and three subjects are going through adult basic education. Rice also said they finished the backpack program for the summer where they were at a church operating and next year they will move to the school. Additionally, Rice said they will have another prevention meeting to cover tobacco issues and suicide prevention. 

Les Culliton gave the maintenance report and said for the courthouse they have a punch list inspection that day. Culliton also said the landscape project has started. 

Regarding the flooding at the Hot Springs County Museum, Culliton reported that it “actually came out pretty good.” They cleaned up the water with shop vacuums and there is no drywall that needs to be replaced. 

For the fairgrounds, Culliton said the fair building re-roof project slowed down due to the contractor being in a car accident a few weeks ago. The contractor returned to work on August 30 and they are working on completing the proposal. 

The commissioners and Culliton discussed that the High Country Health counseling center wanted to take ownership over the building and decided they will do a work session at some point to explore this.

Bo Bowman gave the County Planner report and said the Land Use Planning Committee (LUPC) and the Natural Resources Planning Committee (NRPC) did not meet in August. There are two applicants requesting a land use change and will meet on October 21. Bowman also said he had a conference meeting on August 25 concerning the old airport and they talked about the future funding for testing. Chairman Ryan said that they want to grind up the asphalt material and take it away for use on other projects. 

Bowman said that for their gravel pit he learned that their stormwater pollution prevention plan was in violation and therefore he will draft new language for it within the next 30 days. 

Bowman also discussed his work with T-O Engineers about scanning all the land use documents and that the experience is “great.” However, Bowman said not having physical files to work with is, “as a planner is absolutely terrifying” because the data is stored on a digital cloud server.

Bowman added, “it’s coming along.” When Bowman started his job as county planner, the land use change files were organized alphabetically. But, after 20 years of filing, it was changed to be reorganized by date. The commissioners also said they are pleased with T-O Engineers Maddie Ross’ work. 

Regarding the Red Rim Ranch application, Bowman said he had a conversation with one of the LUPC board members who expressed concern about the soils and the septic use there. Bowman told the LUPC board member he is “perfectly comfortable with the septic situation” and he explained to the board member the discussion the commissioners had on the subject. 

The commissioners also commented that they had heard radio advertisements for the Red Rim Ranch on Sirius and Fox News Radio, broadcasting nationwide mentioning “Thermopolis.” Bowman added regarding the Red Rim Ranch subdivision that “We may release that bond as early as next year.”

Regarding septic applications, Bowman said he received a lot of them but many he never heard back from them again. 

Regarding the county’s building on Arapahoe street between 5th and 6th streets, Bowman and the commissioners discussed there were problems with tearing it down because it shares a wall with another business. Also, the ownership of the wall is undetermined. The commissioners have no plan yet on what to do. Bowman mentioned that it is unknown if asbestos is in the materials. However, if so, they may use some funding from the Brownfield project at the old airport to help with the clean-up. The Brownfield project has been done to find the remainder of the jet fumes in the soil at the old airport.

The commissioners voted and passed the approval of RFR#1 for the Children’s Outdoor Discovery Area for $6,847.14 and RFR#20 for the HSG Master Plan.