County Geographic Information System update provided to commissioners

At the July 5 Hot Springs County Commissioners board meeting, Maddie Ross of Ardurra gave the Geographic Information System (GIS) report and said regarding work completed that they are nearly finished attributing septic permit information in the online GIS database. They worked on verifying address locations and legal descriptions of septic permits from 2011 to 1978. They also began distance to the nearest intersection analysis for road features in the Road Maintenance field application. They provided the contract for the fiscal year 2024: GIS Mapping and Management Services to the Board of County Commissioners and they made edits to the Planner’s Application Home Page.

Regarding anticipated work for the next period, they will finalize the septic database for 2022-1978 and finish verifying address locations and legal descriptions of the septic permits from 2011 to 1978. Also, they will make minor edits to the Planner’s Septic Permit Lookup application. They will complete the distance to the nearest intersection analysis for road feature pop-ups in the Road Maintenance field application.

They will begin scheduling meetings with the HSC department heads for GIS services discussions. They will work with Communications Supervisor Monte McClain at the Park County Sheriff’s Office to obtain their emergency response point layer. This will be used as a data design template for the Hot Springs County emergency response point layer.

Also, they will continue providing support for online applications and mapping land-use changes for the Planner’s Land-Use Change application. Additionally, they will obtain county road easement/ROW documents from Cody Stewart, begin mapping descriptions, and add to the Road & Bridge Department application.

Nate Messenger gave the FBO report and said they had 246 total recording operations at the airport. Of those aircraft, there were five air ambulances. They had 15 aircraft overnight with seven requests for hangar space. The hangar requests were four single-engine piston aircraft, one citation jet, and two turbine helicopters.

Regarding fuel sales, they sold 1,184.44 gallons of Avgas and 2,540.19 gallons of jet fuel.

Messenger added, “The month of June was really busy out at the airport. Traffic was up almost double from the previous month. The fishing traffic had slowed some due to the condition of the river. I know that two cancellations were due to that.”

Messenger continued and said, “Colorado Pilots Associates had a fly-in up here. They showed up with six single-engine piston aircraft and 11 people. They hit the tourist spots around town, all staying the night with about half staying two nights. We had two student pilots solo this month. They were Carson Williams and Seth Weyer. They will both keep training to get their pilot certificates.” 

Their next Fly-In event will be on September 16 from 7-11 a.m.

Shane Rankin gave the Road & Bridge report and said the previous month’s work had been steady and they have been monitoring the flood waters. Rankin added that the water runoff in Owl Creek had been high, where they had to clear out some trees and debris. Regarding blading, they are almost done blading the roads in all the county. Rankin said, “The moisture made it great for blading.” Also, they will work on more mowing. 

Rankin also reported they had to fix 11 broken road signs on the East River that were run over. He notified the Sheriff’s Office which will monitor the situation. Also, Rankin said that he is working with the BLM on the Kirby No. 2 gravel pit for the Black Mountain Road project. The BLM now wants the county to share in the maintenance of that road. Rankin said, “It’s always been the oil fields’ responsibility because it is primarily used by them, we never use it. I basically told Bo Bowman on my end, if they want us to blade the road once or twice a year and that’s not a problem, no big deal. It’ll take an hour and a half. If they’re wanting us to supply gravel and everything else, then we’re not. That’s above and beyond what we should need to do. We don’t use that pit enough above and beyond what the BLM does, anyway.”

John Dorman gave the Maintenance report and said there are some trees that have died and needed to come down. He presented to the commissioners two local bids for the work. One was for $12,000 and the other was for $11,000. Chairman Tom Ryan and the commissioners said for Dorman to make the selection. They also had a brief discussion about a generator and an air conditioning unit.

Bill Gordon gave the Emergency Management report and presented to the commissioners his final draft of the Debris Management Plan and the Emergency Operations Plan. The physical copies of the two plans are available at the County Clerk’s Office and the Emergency Manager’s Office for the public to view. The commissioners voted and passed the approval to have Chairman Ryan’s signature to be written on them. 

Gordon also held a discussion about a recent Weather Service Emergency Alert notification about a tornado warning on June 20 that was actually located in Fremont County, not in Hot Springs County. This notification went viral in HSC and Gordon said that this was a learning opportunity and this alert frightened some people. To help remedy this matter, Gordon presented the CodeRED Weather Warning subscription that would notify HSC residents based specifically on their exact location. The cost was $229.17. The commissioners said this subscription is a “no brainer” and they told Gordon to subscribe to it. Gordon also said that Hot Springs County residents, as users, can enter into their contacts “HSC CodeRED 866-419-5000” and “HSC CodeRED Weather 800-566-9780.” Also, Gordon said that the Riverton Weather Service updated their report in the different counties by changing the edge of the polygon to better represent the location of the weather event.

 Bo Bowman gave the Planner’s report and said that there had been some heated discussions during their Natural Resources Planning Committee meetings regarding federal and state overreach. The next Land Use Planning Commission will be on July 19. At that meeting, they will address a small subdivision application. 

Bowman and the commissioners discussed the Kirby Gravel Pit No. 2, and that he was working with Shane Rankin of Road & Bridge on the matter. The commissioners said they previously discussed it with Rankin. Bowman reported that road construction on Red Rim Ranch is underway and that more lots have closed. Regarding septics, Bowman had five applications completed.

County Treasurer Julie Mortimore presented herself to the commissioners about two pallets of license plates that will arrive soon and she needed to find a secure location for their storage. Every eight years new plates arrive. The two pallets will contain about 20,000 plates. There was some discussion about using the old commissioners’ meeting room to store them. Mortimore said that she essentially wanted to inform the commissioners on the matter.

County Clerk Becky Kersten presented a request for the approval of the Arcasearch Proposal for $3,894. This is for the completion of digitizing old physical records and with completion done possibly in July. The commissioners voted and passed the approval of the proposal. 

Also, Kersten and the commissioners discussed the fee schedule for those who would access the digital documents online. The fees would be $5 for daily, $30 for a week, $100 for a month, $1,000 for an annual. For in-person usage at the Clerk’s office, there is no fee, but users will have to pay for copies. The commissioners voted and passed the approval of the fee schedule. 

Doug Lindamood of SonRise Ranch presented a request for a Letter of Support for a USDA Processing Facility. Lindamood explained that he was nearing the completion of a USDA grant application that could be for approximately $3 million or more. As part of the grant application, Lindamood said that he showed that his processing facility is part of an “At Risk” community and would give local ranchers and farmers a voice. The commissioners voted and passed the approval to sign the Letter of Support.

In other business, the commissioners read into the minutes of the 2023-2024 Proposed Budget Summary. Additionally, they voted and passed approval of the following: the WYDOT TAP Grant Application and Supporting Documents and Adoption of Resolution No. 2023-07; the USDA Forest Service Modification of Grant or Agreement for $8,000; the Black Mountain Road RFR #12 for $22,343.19; the Airport Seal Coat and Mark Pavement RFR #1 for $15,952.50; the BHB Nature Discovery Center RFR #11 for $592.09; the Airport CRSSA RFR #1 for $9,000; the Federal Financial Report and Grant Closeout Report for the CRSSA Grant; the Agreement and Notice to Proceed with American Road Maintenance Inc.