Chamber looks to fill board vacancies

During their regular meeting on Aug. 10, the Thermopolis-Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce addressed vacancies on the board. There was no slate of nominees available to vote on to fill the vacant positions, and a motion was approved to give the nomination committee until Aug. 24 to submit a slate of names for nomination.

Chamber Executive Director Meri Ann Rush said she will email the list of names out, and the board has until Aug. 29 to reply as to whether they approve of the slate or not. Rush noted if she doesn’t hear from a board member, that member’s vote will be “yes” for the slate.

The board did approve of two volunteer members to fill the slate, Kerri Manig and Amanda Kraushaar.

Also during the meeting, County Commissioners Liaison Philip Scheel reported the commissioners recently approved the budget, and they are working on items such as insulation issues in the fairgrounds multipurpose building.

Scheel further added the commissioners are planning to travel to Washington, DC, to visit the Wyoming delegation and explain the importance of Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) when it comes to funding. He explained the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has a lot of property here. If it were privately owned, money could be collected via property tax. Since it’s government owned, PILT money is provided instead.

Scheel said the money is a big deal, as the county has received about $800,000 for its portion of the PILT money. But, since only a handful of states receive the PILT money it’s always on the Congressional “chopping block.” The commissioners and other organization will be working to educate those in DC as to how important PILT money is.

Town Council Liaison Bill Malloy said the town crews are busy preparing for the eclipse. Board member Barb Heinze questioned whether there were ordinances with regard to business owners cleaning up their property. Her concern is that weeds or other nuisances on a business property would reflect badly on other businesses and the town. Malloy said there are such ordinances, but in his experience nothing really gets done unless someone complains.

Rush spoke briefly about the chamber website. She noted Dennis Nierzwicki has provided some valuable input as to how the site can be updated to be more user friendly and visually appealing.

Rush also provided an update on the demolition derby coming up this weekend, noting that everything is coming along fairly well. As for ticket sales, Rush said it’s hard to judge ahead of time.

Rush also asked for board members to think of nominees for the Governor Arts Award. The Hot Springs County Greater Learning Foundation won the award a couple years ago. She said individuals and organizations can be nominated, and among the requirements are inclusion of the nominees’ contributions to the arts. However, those who have won before cannot be nominated again.

Rush also spoke of the public meetings regarding the eclipse, pointing out that only a few came to the first meetings, but the most recent saw 45 to 50 people. The information provided at the meetings has been a real eye-opener as to what we can expect around here during Monday’s eclipse, she said.