Town discusses concerns about antelope at the golf course

On October 15, the Thermopolis Town Council held a brief meeting at Town Hall. The council voted and passed the approval of the 24 hour alcohol beverage sales catering permit for Double D LLC for use at the Hags & Bags Purse auction.

During citizen participation, Kim Bartlett presented some of concerns about the pending transfer station. She said, “I apologize. I did miss the transfer station meeting a couple of weeks ago, but as an impacted or potentially impacted property owner, I did want to come and just speak some of my concerns just to have them in the record at this point. I know there are a lot of decisions yet to be made, but just the concerns that I have, and I’ve had the privilege of speaking with, Britt Taylor, who’s my neighbor closer to town yet than I am who will be most impacted. She would love me to speak on her behalf as well. They live in Alabama, which is why.” 

Bartlett continued and said, “We’re concerned about the potential devaluation of our properties. Both ourselves and our neighbor are considering potential business ventures on the properties that we have purchased. They have talked, I think, already with the county about a potential RV park going in on their land. We are working on a plan for some kind of agribusiness agritourism on our property. We’re very concerned about the impact of the transfer station on those potential business ventures and just our properties in general. I know I have had many discussions with Mr. Jeunehomme, who’s been very gracious with his time and has shared with me the presentation and recording from the meeting a couple of weeks ago.” 

Bartlett added, “But I have been involved in some of these public projects in other places before, and one of my concerns is the beautification and landscaping are usually the first things to go when there are cost overruns on a project, and those things are going to be critical to this project. We also are considering the potential impact on tourism and people coming to those businesses if they’re driving through town and the thing that they see on the way to our properties is a transfer station. While I hope it will be well maintained and beautified and landscaped, we are concerned about how that could impact us. We also want to make sure people are using the facility correctly, and we would like to have some kind of understanding of how any issues associated with people misusing that facility would be addressed, and who would address those. We’re also interested in who’s going to be responsible for overseeing the design and build process. I think ultimately our concern is, is there a way for impacted property owners to be part of the discussions and decision making going forward on this facility?”

Mayor Adam Estenson replied, “Excellent. We’ll make sure that those comments get added as we move forward with the DEQ permitting process. Once we close on the property and become the owners, then we are able to submit the permit and the DEQ will start to have community engagement meetings here as well. So, we’ll be able to start answering a lot of those questions. Beautification, landscaping really is the crux of the matter. We definitely are mindful of that and that is a goal of ours as well.”

During the mayor and council section, they discussed with Police Chief Pat Cornwell concerns about antelope destroying the grounds at the golf course and wild turkeys destroying roofs of residents. Mayor Estenson and Cornwell plan on applying for a permit from the Game & Fish Department to cull the antelope in the golf course. Cornwell said he has observed about 50 and sometimes up to 100 antelope on the golf course grounds.

According to town code, it is illegal to kill the turkeys in town. However, Mayor Estenson plans on distributing large fireworks crackers that residents can use to scare off the turkeys. The mayor also reminded the residents that it is also illegal to feed the turkeys as this action causes more turkeys to stay in town.

Council member Dusty Lewis also briefly discussed with the council concerns about the coming colder temperatures and the pending concrete pour at the basketball court in the Family Park. Town Engineer Anthony Barnett and Director of Public Works Basil Sorensen said that the temperatures won’t be low enough to cause problems.