County Commissioners discuss building codes

As the dust of major construction settles at the new Hot Springs County Airport, the county board of commissioners continued to tackle unforeseen issues that have arisen out of the construction of the $22 million facility.

In the board’s first order of business, GDA engineer Ford Roes informed the board that the 2012 International Building Codes, which note that hangars within 30 feet of their lot line must have a fire resistant rating of two hours. The current T-hangars at the airport are not permanent structures and some in attendance noted that if they were forced to add two layers of sheet rock to the inside of their hangars, there would not be enough room to store their plane inside. The hangars are currently about four feet apart.

Hangars at the old airport were built long before the last round of updates to the International Building Codes. Roes stated that it was unclear when the fire-resistant hangar codes were implemented. Roes also noted that GDA is a civil engineering firm, not a structural one, and while the firm was happy to provide contacts and information, the questions relating to building codes were outside Roes’ area of specialization.

After a lengthy discussion involving Roes, the commissioners, and those in attendance, Chairman Brad Basse said the best way to find answers would be to contact the state fire marshal directly. Basse planned to make that phone call Wednesday afternoon.

Ford Roes also asked the commissioners to sign a letter of support for GDA’s application for a Wyoming Engineering Society award for their work on the county airport. The commissioners noted that the project is more than appropriate for the award and agreed to sign the letter.

Lindsey Woodward of Weed and Pest informed the board of their county road spraying efforts, which according to Woodward would be limited to spraying only for noxious weeds in the coming year due to budget constraints. Chairman Basse asked her to make note of this when Weed and Pest turns in their funding requests in July.