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Town Council adopts 2017-18 budget

Following a public hearing Tuesday evening, during which there were no comments, the Thermopolis Town Council officially adopted the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

According to the budget, the General Fund includes: $105,250 for Legislative/Executive, $184,550 for Clerk/Treasurer, $14,400 for Judge, $58,200 for Law, $80,900 for Town Hall, $682,550 for Police, $298,925 for Dispatch Department, $65,500 for Corrections, $32,750 for Codes Administration, $89,800 for Fire Department, $642,000 for One Percent Sales Tax Projects, $610,150 for Streets and Alleys, $37,950 for Parks, $28,925 for Animal Control and $208, 700 for Other General Accounts.

Several catering permits were approved, including those for Mac’s Bar from 2 p.m. July 8 until 2 a.m. July 9 for Matt and Theresa Brown’s 40th wedding anniversary celebration, and from 4:30 p.m. July 29 until 2 a.m. July 30 for the Myers/Jensen wedding at the fairgrounds. Permits were also approved for Shorty’s, for 5-10 p.m. July 10 in the state park for a Bands in the Park event, 4-10 p.m. Aug. 1 at the fairgrounds for the pig wrestling, and 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. for Oktobrewfest downtown.

The council voted to have a special meeting at 5 p.m. June 29, to get bills and accounting in order for the end of the current fiscal year, June 30. The special meeting will take the place of the Tuesday, July 4 meeting.

Mayor Mike Mortimore was approved to sign a letter authorizing Clarke Environmental Mosquito Management or their subcontractor, Dynamic Aviation, Inc., to apply insecticides approved and labeled for mosquito control use, over congested areas of Hot Springs County by low-flying aircraft, for the contracted period of June 1-Sept. 15.

Jim Andreen noted if the mosquito population should increase as the high level of the river recedes, there is also the availability of ground-fogging areas if necessary. Later in the meeting Andreen noted there is progress on the weed spraying, and it might take about eight to 10 days to finish up.

A request from Derek Burrows was approved, to allow the setting off of fireworks near the skate park on July 4, from 6-10 p.m. Fire Chief Mark Collins noted the area should be set up like it was last year, with traffic blocked from driving through the area and people monitoring the area.

Collins said the department would burn off any grasses that might catch this next week, and the evening of July 4 they would provide a couple trucks to monitor. He also pointed out having a designated area seemed to help reduce the number of fireworks being set off in town.

During the time allotted for public comment, the council voted 3-2 to allow a picture of President Donald Trump to remain on the meeting room wall, for at least the next couple weeks. Matthew Hughes asked about the picture, which Mortimore put up in response to Jackson Mayor Pete Muldoon choosing not to hang a picture of Trump, whereas he had hung pictures of former presidents. Though Mortimore planned to take the picture down, as discussion continued it led to a motion to leave it up, though that decision could be reversed at a later meeting.

Also at the meeting, Rick and Deb Tudor with Main Street Thermopolis spoke about a recent national Main Street conference they attended in Pittsburgh. Rick noted Main Street is a nationally funded program, and the conference provided ideas about how to improve the main street area.

In Hot Springs County in 2016, tourism generated $24.5 million, and supported over 200 jobs. It also generated $500,000 in local taxes and $800,000 in state taxes. Rick said tourism is an industry that has been here, and is something they can rely on to be here for years to come.

Deb said during the conference they visited four towns similar in size to Thermopolis, and each had gone through a financial crisis but was able to revitalize over 20-30 years. She pointed out it is not something that happened overnight, and they learned a great deal about how to revitalize a community.

Rick said something they stressed at the conference is people are seeking an experience in the downtown area, such as looking at the older architecture, and suggested making our downtown more conducive to the walking experience, possibly with the addition of some benches.

Rick also noted one of the things pointed out was much of people’s shopping is done after 5 p.m., and businesses had shifted their hours to accommodate that, being open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. rather than the regular 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours. He later noted he’s heard people come to Thermopolis because their own communities have nothing going on and there’s always something happening here. As for how promotion happens, he said they try to put out what they can, but much of it is done by word of mouth.

Moving forward, Rick said the next step is to inform people about what they learned in Pittsburgh. Councilman John Dorman, Sr. said the downtown is the “heartbeat” of the community, though they should consider share their information to all businesses in town.

 

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