Commissioners hear reports

On October 18, the Hot Springs County Commissioners held a brief meeting at the Annex building. Chairman Tom Ryan was absent, therefore Vice-chair Phil Scheel presided over the meeting suspending Robert’s Rules protocol. 

Barb Rice gave the Youth Alternative report and said that they have 16 juveniles, which include nine males and seven females. In September they had seven 16-17-year-old waivers for high school equivalency and now they signed up five new kids. Rice said that the students go at their own different paces and it takes about six months to complete. Rice added the students have to have 12 hours of paperwork time in the basic testing, and then they have to have an additional 40 hours of classroom time before they begin actually testing. 

Rice said that for almost all of her students, “the kids do not have good home stability.” According to Rice, the students do not have “really good oversight” and they use social media a lot and “never disengage.” Rice said that the students have challenges getting to school at 8:00 a.m. or completing a full day of learning. Some students miss days of school.

Rice said they recently did the tobacco prevention roundtable and also the suicide prevention walk. Food trucks will arrive for the backpack program and the students will help with the loading of the items. They are also preparing for the community Christmas baskets. Rice added that students will have their Alive! at 25 class soon. The students will help out with the Hags n Bags event.

Dawn Peil of the UW Extension office presented a 2021-22 Hot Springs County 4-H Recap. The report said there were four county clubs, they have 129 enrolled members, and 43 project areas. The largest projects include archery, shotgun, market beef, and market swine. 

Regarding enrolled volunteers, there were 49. Peil said that volunteers wear multiple hats, including parents, project leaders, committed members, chaperones, and coaches. 

Regarding finances, Peil reported that the HSC 4-H County Budget was $7,800. The dessert auction and shooting sports gun raffle fundraisers raised $3,550.77 and $3,397.98 respectively. They also received three grants: the HSC Recreation District, $3,000; the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, $3,500; and the HSC Education Endowment, $800. 

For their Achievement night, they had 51 record books completed last year. They also had many other events the students participated in. 

The present commissioners, Jack Baird and Phil Scheel, expressed their gratitude for Peil’s hard work. They voted and passed the approval of the fiscal year 2023 annual compensation agreement for $26,652. 

Cody Stewart of the County Assessor’s office presented a rebate from Valkyrie Operating for the tax year 2021 for the amount of $2,094.45. The commissioners voted and passed the approval to accept the rebate. 

In other business, the commissioners voted and passed the approval to accept the WARM Insurance claim for $123,071.15 and to accept the pricing of a Bobcat UW56 Toolcat for an increase to its order by $4,177.79. The Bobcat was originally budgeted for $74,200.