Airport work approved

The Hot Springs County Commissioners spent much of their meeting on Tuesday discussing various items in regards to the airport as well as a new liquor license and ongoing issues with the insulation and roof at the fairground’s multi-purpose building.

GDA Engineers developed a bid packet for the commissioners to dispose of the job trailer used out at the new airport site during construction.

Bids are due back to the county clerk’s office today (Nov. 3), and will now be given to GDA to review. The engineering company will give their recommendation on who should be granted the bid at the commissioners’ Nov. 15 meeting.

Lengthy discussion was held as to what to do about getting hangar number eight at the airport up to code.

Seven of the hangars would be placed next to each other in a straight line, however, due to fire code restrictions, the eighth hangar would have to be set an additional 15 feet back from the remaining hangars.

The commissioners discussed attempting to get a variance from the State Fire Marshall’s office that would allow them to keep the hangar in line with the others.

Unfortunately, after speaking with the fire marshall, GDA indicated it could take more than three months to get a ruling from the Council on Fire Prevention and Electrical Safety, and even then, the county could lose the challenge.

Moving the hangar back the additional 15 feet would necessitate lengthening the apron at its entrance, something that would cost between $2,000 and $3,000 to do. GDA pointed out challenging the code, with trips back and forth to Cheyenne and the delay it would cause, would end up costing the county more than lengthening the apron, without a guaranteed outcome.

The commissioners voted to move the hangar back and bear the cost of the concrete needed to lengthen the apron. GDA will submit the plan for review by the state.

There have been a lot of questions about what is going to be done about the old airport.

Currently, it is not officially closed, but at their next meeting the commissioners plan to make that decision, which would make the official closing of the airport Jan. 1, 2017.

Rather than make any rash decisions on what to do with the land the old airport sits on, the commissioners will be appointing a steering committee to toss around potential ideas. GDA will be compiling a comprehensive study of the airport grounds for the steering committee to work with.

A public hearing was held to discuss a liquor license application made by the LLL Company for a 24’ x 14’ dispensing room at the Quality Inn. The small lounge area would be allowed to sell alcohol and malt beverages.

The commissioners approved the license.

Two years later, there is still no resolution to the sagging insulation and water issues in the multi-purpose building at the Hot Springs County Fairgrounds.

A meeting was held last March between the contractor, fair board members and commissioner Tom Ryan in an attempt to get the situation taken care of.

At the time, the contractor agreed to make the necessary repairs under warranty, however, neither the commissioners nor fair board have heard back from the contractor and the repair work has not been done.

The concern now is we are headed back into winter once again, which means more moisture and more leaks are bound to appear, making the situation even worse.

While the commissioners took no action, they asked County Attorney Jerry Williams to review the warranty and make a recommendation on how to proceed.