Town council approves water rate increase

At the December 19 Thermopolis Town Council meeting, town attorney Marshall Keller presented three ordinances for their third and final reading. First was a water rate increase from $19.80 to $25.00 per month. Second was to increase the number of bar and grill liquor licenses from two to four. The third was to amend ordinance 864 to correct a typo, but doesn’t change the language meaning. The council voted and passed the approval of all three ordinances separately. The ordinances will take effect when they are published in the Independent Record. However, for the ordinance for the water rates increase, that will take effect on February 1 pending the town of East Thermopolis passing their related ordinance as well. To read the full ordinances, see page 9 of this paper.

Town Clerk/Treasurer Tracey Van Heule presented a request from the Department of Revenue to reimburse Merit Energy for sales tax previously paid in 2017-2020 in the amount of $277,416.41. The Town of Thermopolis has $143.463.50 in reserves and will pay that amount to the Department of Revenue. The remaining balance was paid from town sales tax from November 2023. Mayor Adam Estenson acknowledged that the town didn’t have a choice in paying the refund of the sales tax. The Wyoming Board of Equalization ordered the town to pay. The council voted and passed the approval to pay the refund.

During citizen participation, the council voted and passed the approval of two 24-hour alcohol beverage sales permits, catering permits for OEB for the PRCA Rodeo New Year’s Eve event on December 31 and the Hot Springs Health Party, on January 20, 2024.

Kim Bartlett, representing the Farmer’s Market, presented a request to the council about having an ordinance drafted to allow enforceable street closure for the market. In their past season, they had some recurring issues with people parking their vehicles in the farmer’s market location and would not move them. Mayor Estenson and Bartlett also discussed having the beginning time of the street closure be Friday night, which is before Saturday’s market event. Mayor Estenson directed town attorney Marshall Keller to begin drafting an ordinance, which would take three readings and must pass the council’s vote those times before becoming official town code.

The council held a public hearing for Cassandra Norskog’s request for a home occupation permit for the purpose of child care. There were no public comments given. The council voted and passed the approval for the permit. Norskog will need to request a license from the State of Wyoming to be certified. 

Mayor Estenson, on behalf of Chief Pat Cornwell, informed the public that dispatch will install an “Easy Button” that will allow life flight to be alerted sooner than prior times in the case of an emergency. There is no additional cost to the town or county for this. 

Also, Mayor Estenson said that they will be in discussion with Verizon Wireless as there have been 911 calls that have dropped from dispatch and they will try to solve this technology issue.

In administration, Assistant to the Mayor Jim Jeunehomme presented some bids for renewing their property insurance and that he wanted to make sure that both bidders presented their information as “apples to apples” so that they are fairly comparable. Their current bidder HUB quoted $58,766, whereas the new competitor bid $51,917. The council voted and passed the approval to accept the competitor bidder, which was Tegeler.

Mayor Estenson presented a Certificate of Commendation to Officer Devin “Dood’’ Jaussaud in recognition of his duties on November 21, where he arrested two individuals who possessed felony status amounts of drugs, which included two thousand fentanyl pills and a variety of other drugs.

Mayor Estenson also requested the council to give town employees a Christmas bonus and to make a budget adjustment for the request. The council voted and passed the approval of the request.